No Greater Joy…

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth”
the apostle John said.(3John 4)  He could have continued but didn’t: ‘and no greater anguish than when they stray from the truth.’ 

Being a person who sees the cup as half empty more often than half full, I gravitate to seeing the anguish end of the spectrum more often than the joy end.  So it was very sweet this week to have my own daughter poke her thoughts into my sphere via a text message pointing me to a couple of passages that I needed to be reminded of. 

Mine was a week without a lot of down time; we were visiting the grandkids. My Bible reading and quiet times suffered consequently and I was fast heading to the default of feeling fearful and helpless about ones I love but cannot shield from their own choices and from the big bad world we all live in.  The kids were tucked in bed and I took a few minutes to reflect on where this tension I was feeling was coming from.  As is my habit, I was journaling about it.  I got to the end of the page with no answers, just questions, and a prayer: “Lord, change my heart. Show me how You live with kids in process—and still at peace.”

For me journaling helps to unearth what’s bothering me so that it doesn’t just simmer below the surface building up pressure.  But its best product is in helping me bring what is troubling me to the Lord and the Word.  This night was no exception.  Earlier in the day, Rachel had texted me pointing to a couple passages she’d been reading and was very excited about.  I was in the middle of playing “Grandmom” and hadn’t had a chance to look the verses up.  Now they came back to mind.  And turning to the familiar  Isaiah 53 I found the answer to my question.  How does God live with kids in process?  How does He have peace in the midst of a sinful world?  “…he poured out his soul to death…he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”  (Is.53:12)  It was as if God had been waiting all day to answer my question, and He had sent the answer via my own daughter.

I asked her to write down her thoughts for me after we had talked on the phone and I’ve invited her to share them with you here:

“ It's like one person wrote the Bible,” my Bible professor used to say, "and had one thing to say.” --Kelly Doherty, Torchbearers school.

Isaiah 53 is a passage we all know is talking about how Jesus went to the cross and died for us. We can almost quote it from memory. Crazy thing is, it was written years and years before it actually happened. Imagine someone reading that before. We can clearly see it happened; we understand it was talking about the crucifixion. I was reading through Isaiah and you know how you peek ahead in your Bible to see what's coming? Well I did, and I thought I knew; I already had read that passage. Nothing new here, I thought. But I was wrong. It’s kinda cool how new things pop out of the page when you read the passage again. Go ahead read it for yourself.

Verse 11 and 12 really stood out to me.  Ready for it?
"As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied.
By his knowledge the Righteous one, My Servant, will justify the many,
As he will bear their iniquities.” (Is.53:11 NASB)

Than, holding your finger in Isaiah 53, hop over to the New Testament to Romans 5:18:
"So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." (NASB)

Than, go back to reading Isaiah 53:12--
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors. (Is.53:12NASB)

This is where it gets really exciting…

If you flip over to Hebrews 12:2 and read it you could say your jaw pops open. It's like that verse wraps up Isaiah 53’s passage:
"... fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb.12:2NASB)

Wow.  And because He intercedes for us, we can draw near to Him at the throne of grace. (Heb.4:16) Know what that means? We can bring any care, any worry, any problem to Jesus because he intercedes for us. He cares for us so much he even died for us. When is the last time you did that for your friend? 

And what I find really cool with the Bible--it's like one person wrote the Bible. It’s like the Bible fits together perfectly with verses that match so well you shake your head in disbelief. It's like you don’t even need a commentary to read the Bible. The Bible is the best commentary on the Bible. It is really like one person wrote the Bible. But…you say, a lot of people wrote the Bible, not just one. But God inspired it. He just used men to write what he wanted them to write. 

I went to Bible school last year at a Torchbearer school. There are many teachers that I remember; I can almost hear their voices now. There was one outstanding voice I hear even to this day, in his British accent, a guest speaker. “ There is a man in heaven!” he’d shout, giving you a heart attack if you weren’t listening already,  “Who intercedes for us.”

Amen!

--Rachel

Well, that’s my Rachel.  Actually, that’s God’s Rachel.  And not only am I encouraged at the reminder that the most important intercession of all has already been done for me and for mine, but I am encouraged to see my own progeny following hard after truth and coupling it with faith in the One who ever lives to intercede for us.

When my gaze falls short of Him I begin to think it’s up to me to do something to control outcomes.  I begin to feel desperate, panicky, fearful and faithless, as though if something is to be, it’s up to me to bring it about.  I may indeed have a calling.  For instance, I too am called to intercede.  But this must flow from a God-confidence borne of the reality that it is God, not I, that is accomplishing the work of redemption.  He is in the process of bringing many sons to glory.  He will complete that work. Meanwhile He calls me to believe and so to walk, trusting and obeying, faithful to His calling and leaving the rest with Him.

I needed the reminder this week. Thank-you, Rachel, and thanks be to God.  He is indeed faithful to those He has called to be His own. 

--LS

BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.  But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Heb.10:38,39 NASB

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;  He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. Heb.2:17,18; 3:1-2 NASB

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.  Brethren, pray for us. I Thess.5:23-25 NASB]

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Rachel Love is my youngest child. I’ve written about her here before.  She’s cut from a different mold than I. She’s adventurous and positive, not easily discouraged or held back by ‘what if’s. She’s continually coming up with ideas that bounce right past my more practical objections.  She lives with confidence that God will direct her steps as she takes them.  And so she is currently spending the summer with her Grandma in the boonies of Alaska which has opened up for her the opportunity to do office work (something she’s always wanted to do!) at a local campground while she waits to see what doors God will open next for her. Her faith inspires me.

What do YOU do with the Disconnect?

More ideas for keeping a soft heart....
with notes from A Praying Life

What do you do with the disconnect between the way you've dreamed that life would be,  and the hard, cold, (often lonely) realities of life as it is?

Whether you're a young adult moving into the unknown of 'what next?' after years of working toward the goal of finishing school...

Or an empty-nester looking back at family life, career and all that's gone under the bridge and wondering what’s the meaning of the rest of your life...

Or a busy parent still in the thick of making your dreams a reality--in the daily-ness of family life, of kids that aren't always sweet, of unexpected bumps and detours on the way to one big happy family.

At any stage of life inevitably the days will come when our game plan isn't working, when even what we perceived to be God's game plan is malfunctioning. Didn't He promise...Didn't He say that if we trusted him everything would be ok?

We may have started out with clear-cut formulas and child-like confidence that God would open doors, lead the way and protect us from every ill. Pictures of perfection. Idyllic dreams. They seem to be in tatters. Have we been duped? Nobody wants to be duped. So what do you do with the temptation to 'throw in the towel' of your faith and take up a guarded cynicism in its place?

So much of faith feels theoretical.

I am ‘seated in the heavenlies’ and yet I feel this cracked hard Adirondack chair beneath my bones.

I believe in a God who superintends in all the affairs of man and yet...nations spiral out of control...the church is sick...families are self-destructing inside and outside its walls...and me, some days I don't even believe praying will make any difference.

With good reason Scripture is full of admonitions to pray for one another, to encourage one another, to love and care and tend to one another's needs... We are vulnerable to a creeping unbelief that seems a safe place to lick our wounds and protect our scars and allow some calluses to grow between our souls and a hostile world. Even the church can be an unsafe place to bare our hearts and find encouragement. What then do we do?

We hold on to what God says is true and we pray: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. And sometimes we get criticized for not facing up to 'the real world'. God's standards of morality seem hopelessly out of date. We look naively simplistic if we expect the Word of God to be an adequate guide for life in our times. And if we haven't lived and breathed the work-a-day world at its worst, it is questioned whether we have the competence to preach the truth?

I'm a home-maker in a practically empty nest now. Before that I was a home-schooler with a very busy nest of five. Before that, I was trained as a linguist/Bible translator and worked hard to learn an unwritten language. Once-upon-a-time I thought I might be a single woman missionary or perhaps a librarian would be about my speed... And way back when I actually had a job for a few summer months, binding Jews for Jesus tracts and working for a non-profit printer. Apart from a few months of candy-striping and a short job at a fabric store, I have theoretically never lived or worked in 'the real world', as it's called. But even I battle its agenda. I still fight for faith to keep believing when the things I see don’t budge at my praying.

I grew up in the faith, went to Christian schools, met a Christian man going the same direction, and committed to being his support from the home. I’ve been protected from many things that might be considered essential initiations to life in the twenty-first century. I vowed not to drink before I was wise enough to question making vows. I was indoctrinated about smoking by "Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue" and a very gruesome photograph of its effects (And I never got offered a cigarette anyway). I married young enough to forego giving into sex beforehand. I've had very little trauma in life, really.  Well, none that God wasn’t there for. Yes, I suppose I've missed out on a lot of the 'real world'... a lot of pain, and hurt and addictive hooks. Does that make the truth I stand on less real? Have I missed out on the really real world?

I was thinking this week as we drove along, what would it be like if everything that was not owned outright just dissolved into thin air--the cars, the boats, the houses, the contents of those houses...everything not paid for in full, everything bought on credit. In a sense, this 'real world' we live in is itself an illusion. We pretend to own things that are not ours. We assume we'll have the wherewithal to pay for them in time... But we have no guarantee of time, or ability to pay.

And consider the things you do own. They are yours, paid for in full. But how long will they last? Planned obsolescence  is for real. It once meant merely "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary." But manufacturers now actually design things to break in a designated time or to go out of style. It's good for the economy. It forces innovation. So nothing's even close to permanent. How is this the 'real world'.

Even 'real estate' and precious metal are hardly a secure place to sink your investments. Markets are fickle. And ultimately it's all going to burn (II Pet.2:7). It's all going to be shaken--houses and lands, possessions and position. It's temporary, as are these fragile bodies we inhabit. Everything that can be seen is temporary except the Word of God. Even the human soul is unseen.

Just because we live in this world and we can feel it and taste it and touch it, does that make it the 'real world'? We are shaped by it and subject to its impositions, for now. But not forever. We will outlast it with this part of us that is real--this part that has nothing to do with our beauty or brains, our abilities or authority. We will live on. This part of us is for real. How are we nurturing it, growing it strong to withstand the pressures of a very tangible world that would bombard our faith into oblivion?

John says that "Faith is the victory that overcomes the world."
I Jn.5:4,5

Believing that Jesus is the Son of the living God is its essence. If I'm going to live in a way that goes beyond mere mortal existence, I must believe and keep on believing that this living Son of God is my Savior in all the messy, disappointing, perplexing 'now's of life. Whatever I can do to strengthen that faith, (in myself and in others), to know God's heart and make it known, and to live by His eternal words and teach them to others—these things are investments in the real world that lasts beyond the grave.

The 'real world' we see has a pretense of being all that matters, but it fails to deliver anything truly lasting.  It’s not a worthy setting for our greatest dreams.

Faith holds promise for this life and the next. By faith we engage a culture gone awry. By faith we look at things not seen and we ask God to intervene in the things that are seen. By faith we follow God's directives and make a difference in the world. But hanging on to faith in the face of 'the real world' is a fight.

The Word of God is our sword, and prayer our means of combat. (Consider Ephesians 6)

I'm looking again at a book I read a few years back, called A Praying Life.
It is the most refreshing book on prayer I've ever seen. It spoke to me where I was at then, and it speaks to me now where I find myself heading again. It addresses the cynical heart.

See if it doesn't speak to you too: "Few of us have...courage to articulate the quiet cynicism or spiritual weariness that develops in us when heartfelt prayer goes unanswered. We keep our doubts hidden even from ourselves because we don't want to sound like bad Christians. No reason to add shame to our cynicism. So our hearts shut down.

The glib way people talk about prayer often reinforces our cynicism. We end our conversations with "I'll keep you in my prayers." We have a vocabulary of "prayer speak," including "I'll lift you up in prayer" and "I'll remember you in prayer." Many who use these phrases, including us, never get around to praying. Why? Because we don't think prayer makes much difference."14

The author goes on to elaborate on the actual frustrations faced in praying--the distractions, the wandering mind, the worrying it dredges up...and the confusion about what makes for a 'good prayer'. Shouldn't we spend some time worshiping first? When that feels contrived guilt sets in...Then we make a prayer list...this gets dull and cumbersome...

He concludes, "Praying exposes how self-preoccupied we are and uncovers our doubts. It was easier on our faith not to pray. After only a few minutes, our prayer is in shambles. Barely out of the starting gate, we collapse on the sidelines--cynical, guilty, and hopeless."15

I can relate. That's why I've picked this book back up again to set my feeble knees straight.

Last week I talked about the cynicism that portends to steel our hearts from hurt but then robs us of hope too. It paralyzes us from making any difference in a world at odds with our faith. This author gets it, he's obviously been where I am.

Can I offer you a run-through of the 'cures for cynicism' he has drawn from Jesus' life?

Be warm but wary

Be innocent as a dove but wise as a serpent. Christians aren't called to wear rose-colored glasses that obscure the ugliness of evil. But we are called to trust that God not only sees what we see, but He sees beyond it. As Christ hung obediently on the Cross He was mocked for his childlike trust in His Father..."He trusts in God; let God deliver him." Mt.27:43 His confidence seemed naive, foolish, useless. But like a dove he held His peace and was obedient to death. And evil did not have the last word. God delivered Him on Easter morning buying us a great redemption!

Learn to Hope Again

God is a God of hope. Jesus always brought hope to those whose lives He touched. Happy endings aren't just for the movies. But you’ve got to wait till the ending! Cynicism kills hope; God invites it. He will make all things new. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Rom.15:13

Cultivate a Childlike Spirit

"The cure for cynicism is to become like a little child again." (86) Begin by simply asking for the help you need. Cry out for grace like a hungry child. When you cannot pray, cling to the Good Shepherd. Pray through Psalm 23 and look for the Shepherd in the midst of the darkness. Don't focus on the evil that surrounds you.

Cultivate a Thankful Spirit

Cynicism's stepchild is bitterness. Nothing undermines its power like thankfulness. "Cynicism looks reality in the face, calls it phony, and prides itself on its insight as it pulls back. Thanksgiving looks reality in the face and rejoices at God's care. It replaces a bitter spirit with a generous one." 90

Cultivate Repentance

"A significant source of cynicism is the fracture between my heart and my behavior. While purporting to "see through" others' facades, cynics lack purity of heart." 91  Repentance is the solution. Addressing my own heart issues, my own sin, with a humble heart will save me from the critical, negative stance of the cynic. Cultivating a lifestyle of repentance is my salvation.

Develop an Eye for Jesus

"Cynicism looks in the wrong direction. It looks for the cracks in Christianity instead of looking for the presence of Jesus. It is an orientation of the heart...A principal source of cynicism comes from looking up at Christian leaders who have gotten Jesus' kingdom mixed up with their own." 97

Instead, look lower. Humility makes people disappear. Look for these ones who quietly reflect the presence of Jesus in the small things.

"Instead of focusing on other people's lack of integrity, on their split personalities, we need to focus on how Jesus is reshaping the church to be more like himself. We need to view the body of Christ with grace."99

"Christians aren't superior [to unbelievers], but our Savior is. He makes the difference. He is alive and well in his church."99

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I can see I need to get into this book again. It's easy to let my faith be overcome in the disconnect between reality and the things I'd hoped for. Then praying falters and doubt grows. I've been there lately.

I'd love for you to join me in reading A Praying Life. Do drop me a note and we'll compare notes as we go!  [For a more complete description, see my original book review at: A Few Good Books http://thestackofdawn.blogspot.com/2011/08/praying-lifemiller.html]

But whether you get to read this book or not, don't neglect to read the One that matters most--the eternal classic you can live by for eternity!

And as you read, by faith turn those words into prayer…

And keep believing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGMrU-rT5L0

I believe He is the Christ, Son of the Living God!

--LS

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, with is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel...

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A Praying Life--Connecting with God in a Distracting World is by Paul E. Miller, published in 2009 by NavPress.

Safely Home

The best part of a bad dream is when you open your eyes, and you're home--safe and snug in your bed, untouched by the perils you dreamt of. Whew! I had a particularly harrowing ride in the wee hours the other morning. I hung on to the side of a monstrously big truck, squeezing by, scraping through, narrowly missing…on my way to some unknown drop-off point where I needed still to find my car (and my keys) and get myself home…And then I opened my eyes. Ah—I'm home already! Whew!

I'm often lost in my dreams--on convoluted highways trying to choose the right exits to get me safely home. Or down long hallways of doors, none of which opens to my room. Or on elevators which go not only up and down but also sideways—very confusing. [I think this nightmare harks from my short and troubled career as a candy-striper in a big hospital—charged with collecting blood and urine samples from every possible department and getting them to the lab in a timely fashion… and then sorting and delivering the internal mail. I would gladly have stayed in the mailroom forever sorting and popping mail in slots. How I disliked those meandering halls and elevators.]

I am a homebody at heart, never so at rest as when I'm home with familiar walls around me and mundane predictable tasks to accomplish. Even an empty nest is a cozy place to be.

Likely that's why so often my dreams, and my prayers, are about someone finding the way home—safely.

I pray this for my Dad who is lost in the ever worsening confusion of Alzheimer's still. How long Lord, before you rescue him from this dysfunctional body and bear him safely home?

I remember the day my Grandma (his mom) died—and the comforting relief that came with the thought that now she was safely home beyond the reach of harm, beyond the confines of an aging body. She was the classic farm Grandma--the indispensable family hub we wished could stay forever. She collected eggs, kept the cookie tins full, hosted family picnics and well, she worried about all of us. This was her besetting weakness. But it seemed legitimate, the grandmotherly thing to do. She loved us, right? So whenever our family was away she would sit up late in her rocker, watching the road that ran by down at the foot of the farmhouse lawn. She would wait for us to pass. Then she'd know we'd made it safely home from our travels and she could go to bed…

Are such traits inheritable? Or is this just part of the human condition? Was my relief at her death for her benefit, or for mine in no longer needing to worry what might befall her?

I pray too for black sheep, or if you prefer, lost sheep, wishing them safely home—family and friends who have somehow lost their way and distrusted the wooing voice of the Good Shepherd. In shunning hypocrisy they have missed the reality of life in Christ altogether.

An uncle lives on the streets of a cold city this winter without even a birth certificate to call his own, or a homeless shelter's welcome. Somehow he was derailed from the Kingdom in his youth despite his God-fearing parents' devotion. We long for him to be brought safely Home.

Question: When are we safe this side of eternity?

When our children are young we hover and protect, thinking we can keep them safe. As they grow we train and warn, hoping they will play it safe with life. When they are 'all grown up' we watch and hold our breaths. But when do we get to breathe again? When is there nothing to worry about? When are we safe this side of eternity? Is there a magic age or stage that we reach and then it's smooth coasting, no worries?

What a nonsense phrase 'No worries' is! Who are we trying to kid? There is always something that can be worried about. And who better to do it than a mother?!

"I wouldn't worry about it", the husband says.

The wife's retort: "That's why I have to!"

But it occurs to me that in my longing for all I love to be 'safely home' I am left with a dilemma not resolvable till death! Ridiculous. My refusal to rest from anxiety till each is 'safely home' is little more than a death wish. For as long as there is life there will be uncertainty of circumstance. Risk. Danger. And even bad dreams that won't go away. In this lifetime there is ample reason to fear for their well-being, if I'm dependent on worry and faithless prayers to see them through!

What is the value of a faith that doesn't dispel such fears and live at peace?

Home is our destination, but it's the walk of faith that takes us there. And in this life we will always be sojourners, never having quite arrived. Thus the need for faith—that assures us of things hoped for but not yet seen (Heb.11:1).

This week's Sunday sermon challenged us to consider how our lives give evidence of such faith. The proverbial chair that we say we believe will hold us up, is sitting there. Will we sit down in it? Or do we stand idly by boasting of the faith we possess but unwilling to put it to the test? James wrote: "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." He demonstrated that 'faith apart from works is useless' (James 2:20) by citing the life of Abraham.

I went back again this week to Abraham's story noting the things he did by faith.

He left with God the responsibilities that were God's. But he paid close attention to each thing God required of him in the process of fulfilling His purposes for Abraham.

So, what did Abraham actually do to be commended for his faith?

First and last, he listened to God's voice, with a heart willing to do whatever He said. In the middle, he obeyed and waited.

Contrary to some popular teaching, listening to God isn't a matter of just tuning in to a voice that's always speaking and immediately responsive to our every inquiry. But God does speak in ways we can hear. After all, He designed us to commune with Him. And in Christ that fellowship is restored so that by His Spirit living in the believer, He speaks.

The question is, how am I at listening? Am I 'slow of heart' (Lk.24:25) to believe what He says? I know I can be hard-hearted, resistant to trusting God's direction, preferring my 'tried and true' solutions sometimes. Ideally we will have soft hearts that purr with 'Yes, God, anything You say I will do. I trust You completely. All your ways are good.' Abraham had this kind of heart. He believed God. And God spoke to Him.

God said out of the blue: "Go, to a land I'll show you." (Gen.12) Abraham could have responded with: 'Who are You, anyway?' or 'Why?' or "No, I'm happy here." But he didn't. He got up and went, leaving his comfortable life and home behind to spend the rest of his life living in tents. [Question: Was he living in tents before this time? I don't know.] He went, listening all the while for where to go and when to stop! He trusted God.

Little by little God's plan for him unfolded. Little by little he obeyed. There were questions: How will I have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky if I have no children? Will my servant be my heir? But when God answered, Abraham believed Him and set his heart to wait for the fulfillment of God's purposes. That's the second thing I noticed that Abraham DID to give evidence of His faith. He waited.

He only got into trouble when he gave in to fear ('She's my sister'—Gen.12) or when he listened to Sarah's voice rather than God's (Gen.16). She had such an innovative plan for accomplishing God's will! (We women can be good at coming up with these!) Wrong plan. Wrong heir.

No, a big part of Abraham's obedience was waiting God's timing. He was 75 when he packed his bags to live the rest of his life in tents in a strange land. Eleven years  passed before Ishmael was born! Now he was 86. Then there was silence for another THIRTEEN years while he and Sarah just got older and older…increasing the impossibility of fertility even further! Sometimes waiting on God is the very best way to show that we believe.

Then came another opportunity to act. God said: Circumcise all the males in your household. And Abraham did it 'that very day' (Gen.17). He was NINETY-NINE by then. But no dawdling. He was a 'doer of the Word' (James 1:22) if ever there was one.

Shortly thereafter came the big announcement, and another opportunity for Abraham to take action. God said: This time next year your wife will have a son. (Gen.18:14) Here was a part for Abraham to play—making love to his ninety year old wife—yet another step of obedience in the fulfillment of God's purposes.

You get the idea, there were actions Abraham took because he had faith. He moved. He waited. He circumcised the males in his household. And he had sex with his wife. But the fulfillment of the seemingly impossible promises was entirely up to God.

"Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Gen.18:14)

Andrew Murray puts it this way, in his reflections on Psalm 37:
"Do what God asks you to do; God will do more than you can ask Him to do." (Waiting on God, p.65)

God doesn't ask us to do the impossible, only to believe that He can and will in His good time. We show we believe by doing the things He asks of us on the way to fulfilling His purposes.

As I studied this story again this week I prayed, "Lord, let me not be a Sarah, figuring out ways to make things happen that you have promised." I can be like that, chafing that I'm not 'doing anything' to make things change or to bring about what I perceive to be God's will.

If it's up to me to make things happen, when am I ever 'doing enough'?

I can even use prayer in this way—like a juggling feat—as if the success or failure of those I pray for is contingent on my keeping the oranges up in the air…If I don't pray enough, they're doomed. Yes, intercession is important, but it must be Spirit-driven and empowered by the faith that He supplies! A false sense of my indispensability, even in prayer, is a case of misguided significance at best, arrogance at worst! Faith trusts God to direct even my prayers. It leaves with Him the means by which He will accomplish all that is in His heart.

Meanwhile faith waits with a ready posture, humbly willing to obey. It neither rushes ahead to do things my way, nor lags behind overcome with disabling doubt.

"I am God ALMIGHTY—walk before me and be blameless"

This was God's call to Abraham (Gen.17:1). Isn't this what He has called all believers too? We too are sojourners in a world not made to be our home. We walk through it by faith in our God to guide our going and our staying, our acting and our waiting, and ultimately to grant us our last breath and take us safely home. For all this we can trust Him.

The ultimate test Abraham is known for was his willingness to give up his only son, his promised heir, as an offering to God. He trusted God could raise him from the dead if necessary. Perhaps in a lesser way, this is the test of every parent—to yield our offspring up to God's purposes, for Him to care for, discipline, and direct through their life's journey. Their destinies are in His hands, not ours.

But richer still is the true symbolism shown in Abraham's offering up of Isaac, that is, God sacrificing His own Son for the life of us all. And yes, He did raise Him from the dead as Abraham supposed he could! He was "delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Rom.4:25) Think on that. What more is there?

And just as Abraham was declared righteous because he was 'fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised' (Rom.4:21) so are we who believe that God raised Jesus from the dead on our behalf. It's all pre-figured in the life of Abraham and precious to consider again. In light of such a testimony of faith, my anxieties for those I wish to see 'safely home' are laid to rest, again. The God of Abraham is my God. My destiny and that of those I care most about is with Him. He's not asking that I accomplish their rescue but that I trust Him to do it while I listen for His directives…

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Rom. 8:32-34 ESV

But getting back to an answer to the sermon's question: How does my life give evidence of saving faith?

--By my willingness to sit down in the chair of God's provision, and to rest there without fear or nightmare of how we all shall get 'safely home'. I will trust Him to do it while I listen for His bidding, ready to obey.

--LS

"You were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." I Pet.2:25

[May] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thess. 5:23

Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Ps.107:30,31

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
II Tim. 4:18 ESV

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24,25 ESV

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…to bring about the obedience of faith-- to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Rom. 16:25-27 ESV

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P.S. May I urge you to sit and enjoy Abraham's story for yourself? Watch for the voice of God and the response of Abraham—Gen.12-25; Rom.4; Heb.11).

--And if you have a prodigal, consider Abraham Piper’s own story and suggestions here.

Humbled Prayer

I had not seen it before—this business of pride being the antithesis of casting care.  It’s right there prefacing a passage I’ve loved since I was a kid learning to cope with my propensity to worry…

You know the passage: “Casting all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.” (I Pet.5:7)  Ahh… such comfort for the the perennially anxious soul.  This is followed by a warning about the devil’s wiles and a call to remain steadfast in faith.  It’s an encouraging passage roughly equivalent to another favorite: Phil.4:6,7-- “Be anxious for nothing but in everything, by prayer and supplication…”  I have long lived with these verses and tried to walk them out with varying degrees of success. 

But somehow I have always had a conscientious bent to worry, as if it were the only responsible thing to do. It’s become a joke at our house.  Jim’s predictable response to some petty trouble I present is: “I wouldn’t worry about it”.  And my predictable rejoinder is:  “That’s why I have to; somebody’s got to do it!” It’s just logical right?  If noone bears the weight of this care how will it be taken care of?!  The first time that interaction was actually voiced it dawned on me:  No wonder I am anxious; I think it’s the responsible thing to do.

But this week’s sermon covered all of I Peter 5.  And just preceding this imperative to cast my cares on God is the imperative to: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (I Pet. 5:6 NIV) Could there be a connection between casting our cares and humbling ourselves?  The New English Translation says it this way: “And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand ⁷ by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.” 

I had not thought of my determination to cover all potential troubles with a good dose of worry as actually being prideful, and an affront to God’s loving and mighty ability to care for me.  He is opposed to the proud.  It is the humble who truly know His grace.

I think I have mentioned before that I have been asking God to teach me to pray.  First it seems He must disassemble my faulty understanding of what prayer entails. It is not a spiritualized form of worry where I air my concerns and then tuck them back away for safekeeping.  He asks me to give them up to Him, to yield them to His Mighty hand.  Why is that so hard?

I think it’s because I really would like certain sorts of outcomes.  I would like to think prayer is a guaranteed means of avoiding accidents, pain, tragedy, and all manner of disasters.  If I pray, about everything, God will be the genie that makes life smooth sailing. Of course that belief also makes prayer a joyless burden and an impossible necessity.  Who can ever pray enough?  Where is the place of rest in God’s assured care? 

Under this erroneous belief prayer morphs into a superstitious religious exercise aimed at getting God’s attention, approval and blessing. It has all the earmarks of religion—of us gaining favor with a disinterested God in order to bring about our own ‘salvation’ through our own works (and words!) And it ignores the reality of relationship known only in Christianity-- that God indeed cares and loves and grants us His favor apart from any work on our part.  Our part is to repent of our independence and rest our case with this all-knowing, all-powerful and loving God who cares for us! 

Of course, this doesn’t guarantee a trouble-free existence.  Suffering is sure to come. (It is the context of I Peter). The older I get the more I see of it both in and out of the Church.  God does call us to pray (“Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you”-- I Sam.12:23) but He does not guarantee our every heart’s desire.  Sin runs rampant on the planet and in our natures.  We will not necessarily be protected from the sins of others.  Abuse happens.  Drunk driving kills. Marriages fail.  People disappoint. Prodigals land in pig pens. No, prayer does not put life under our control.  We cannot even guarantee our own children’s safe passage through its perils.  God controls destinies. 

Did Joseph’s father not pray enough?  Did he think his prayers had failed when his favorite son was sold into slavery by jealous brothers? No, God had a bigger plan than even conniving Jacob could not foresee.  What was intended for evil God used to save the entire nation from starvation.

Did Moses’ mother not pray hard enough?  He was snatched from her as a toddler to be raised in a pagan palace.  This was his destiny under God’s mighty hand.

And what of Daniel and his handsome friends—young men in the prime of life, the cream of the crop in Judah—all seized by the enemy and conscripted to be trained in pagan-ness and serve a foreign power.  Was this part of their parents’ prayers for them?

This is the unsettling thing about prayer.  We are called to cast all our cares on God along with the deepest desires of our hearts, and then to leave them there with no guarantees that things will turn out how we think we’d prefer.  We are only assured that God cares for us, that He loves us and is mighty enough to cause everything to work together for our ultimate good and His ultimate glory (Rom.8:28). 

But as long as we view prayer as our means of preventing disaster and assuring success, it will be driven by fear more than a genuine desire to spend time knowing and being known by our faithful Creator.  Prayer and petition will become synonymous and we will miss out on the fellowship that prayer is meant to be and the relief that comes of truly casting our cares on our faithful Creator.

Maybe I don’t need to pray ‘better’ or ‘more’ so much as I need to humble myself under God’s mighty hand and rest there.  I don’t need another book on prayer or another sermon to propel me to it.  I need to realize my helpless but secure position as a dependent in God’s loving hand.  I need to trade my petition-oriented view of prayer for one that knows what it is to delight in the Lord and wait for Him to make my desires like His own. 

I read an article lately* which likened prayer to Mary's pouring out costly perfume on Jesus' head and feet. He called prayer: "poured out soul", 'gloriously impractical' as seen by the world.  He acknowledged that prayer that seeks to worship and not to ‘get’ seems like a waste of time but to God it is precious.  This is the heart of prayer that I have missed in my haste to accomplish something and secure dividends with my prayers.

This is the fulfillment of the angel’s tidings at Jesus’ birth--“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Lk.2:14  We as believers are that people, forever in a favorable standing with God because of Jesus. It doesn’t get any better than that. And from this position we are invited to commune with God in prayer. How can worry or pride exist here? 

O come, let us adore Him and cast all our cares and our every heart’s desire at His feet!

--LS

Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps.37:4

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Rom 8:26-27 NIV

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb.7:25

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*”Rediscovering the value of prayer  in a high-tech world” by Robert Osborne, in Testimony Magazine, Nov/Dec 2013, p.9

Waiting on God

I bumped into a tired old paperback on a neglected couch-side shelf this week.  Its yellowing pages and faded cover picture a man kneeling at a stool, head in hands.  Its title is Waiting on God, by Andrew Murray.  Flipping it open I scanned a few lines and realized this was the book I needed though it wasn’t the one I had actually been looking for.

It is not merely a book on prayer but on its correlative: waiting.  I appreciate Murray’s distinguishing the two.  He says “there may be much praying with but very little waiting on God. In praying we are often occupied with ourselves, with our own needs, and our own efforts in the presentation of them.  [Yes! This is precisely my experience!; something’s missing] He goes on: In waiting upon God, the first thought is of the God upon whom we wait...” 

Have you ever noticed how God inexplicably supplies just what you need when you need it? It was no ‘fluke’ that I happened upon this old book I had yet to read.  I couldn’t even remember at first where I had come by it.  But  I have been frustrated with my ‘prayer life’ for a long time.  It has been an ongoing plea: ‘Lord, teach me to pray.’  I see the need; there’s no want of opportunity to intercede!  And since communication is a backbone of relationship, obviously prayer  is basic to a  believer’s life. Why then the disparity between what I know to be true and the way I pray?

Could it be I have not learned the value of waiting on God?  Seems everywhere I turn of late I find a lesson on waiting.  I read  King Saul’s story this week—you remember the incident where his impetuousness lost him the kingdom?  His enemies were gathering on his borders in formidable numbers—“like the sand on the seashore”.  His own troops numbered mere hundreds and had neither sword nor spear to face 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops! (I Sam.13) Desperately Saul waited for Samuel to come and officiate at the burnt offerings and peace offerings.  He needed God on his side!  Unfortunately he had the wrong idea about God.  He viewed the sacrificial system as a sort of good-luck charm—a means of gaining God’s favor and guaranteeing victory.  Do I sometimes view prayer this way?

And when Samuel didn’t show up punctually, Saul panicked and took charge of offering the sacrifice himself in clear violation of God’s standards. His desperation revealed a heart out of sync with God’s heart. 

Did he think all depended on him to do something? 

Did he not realize that ‘the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake’.  (I Sam.12:22)  His calling was to ‘fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all [his] heart’ (I Sam.12:24) but fear of his enemies outranked his fear of God. So he failed to wait to see how God would choose to act. His kingship was revoked.

When we face impossible situations and impending crises our hearts’ devotion becomes transparent.  Have you been there? I have.  Panic!   Unless we have learned to wait for God, and in these times to know His heart, we will be unprepared in crisis to trust Him and fear Him only…We will be tempted to run ahead and do something, anything! to save ourselves (or whoever needs saving!). 

In panic we will tend to use prayer like a magic bullet—devoid of faith, driven by fear, offering words, demands, desperate pleas, but not trust.  Meanwhile God’s spirit whispers: “In quietness and in trust shall be your strength…” Is.30:15  And He waits to be gracious to us…He waits for us to wait for Him. Is.30:18

I’ve been struck lately by Jesus’ words:  Without me you can do nothing.  Nothing.  What is the use of worry, of scurry, of meticulous ordering of my days—all belying my supposed dependence on Him.  Unless I’m actively depending on Christ, abiding in Him, waiting on His direction I accomplish NOTHING.  It may look like a something but He says it is nothing.

The stuff of waiting revolves around two deep convictions:

1) a deep sense of personal helplessness to accomplish anything of eternal value

2) a perfect confidence that God is willing and able to do beyond all that I could ask or even think! (Murray, p.20-21)

Without these I will be good at ‘busy’ but not so great at ‘wait’.  Busy implies significance, being needed, being ‘somebody’.  It’s a classic way of conforming to the world. 

Waiting implies dependence, being in need, and being ‘nothing without Him’.  It demonstrates I am not in control but He is.

I think that as we age this becomes more evident.  Our bodies no longer do our bidding as they once did.  We begin to need aids:  seeing aids, hearing aids, walking aids, sleeping aids… As the outer man fades the inner man is given opportunity to grow strong, to deepen its dependence on the God who has sustained us all along.  Before I lose all my faculties I would like to learn to wait on God.

As I began to read Andrew Murray’s book I came upon a card marking someone’s place.   It bore my Dad’s handwriting, as he struggled to untangle the spelling of a familiar word…he was likely in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s when he read this book.  (Yes, that’s where I’d gotten it. I’d tucked it in my suitcase on my last visit--a sampling from Dad’s bookcase.)  The card he used as a bookmark and ruler for underlining was an ad for woodworking patterns—for a tractor and a model T,  for a familiar looking loader and a dump truck.  Dad made these things.  Now he lives in a care home, incapacitated and unable to communicate, waiting on God to issue his call home. He can do little else.

Dare I?

--LS

“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a god besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” Is.64:4

[the verse by my kitchen sink]:
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly…but I, by your great love, can come into your house, in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple.” Ps.5:3,7

[my bookmark]:
“My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him.  He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved.  In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God.”  Ps.62:5-7

--------------------------------

If you have a few minutes more, consider this profound foreword to Andrew Murray’s book, Waiting on God:

Wait Thou Only Upon God

"Wait only upon God"; my soul, be still,
And let thy God unfold His perfect will,
Thou fain would'st follow Him throughout this year,
Thou fain with listening heart his voice would'st hear,
Thou fain would'st be a passive instrument
Possessed by God, and ever Spirit-sent
Upon His service sweet—then be thou still,
For only thus can He in thee fulfill
His heart's desire. Oh, hinder not His hand
From fashioning the vessel He hath planned.

"Be silent unto God," and thou shalt know
The quiet, holy calm He doth bestow
On those who wait on him; so shalt thou bear
His presence, and His life and light e'en where
The night is darkest, and thine earthly days
Shall show His love, and sound His glorious praise.
And He will work with hand unfettered, free,
His high and holy purposes through thee.
First on thee must that hand of power be turned,
Till in His love's strong fire thy dross is burned,
And thou come forth a vessel for thy Lord,
So frail and empty, yet, since He hath poured
Into thine emptiness His life, His love,
Henceforth through thee the power of God shall move
And He will work for thee. Stand still and see
The victories thy God will gain for thee;
So silent, yet so irresistible,
Thy God shall do the thing impossible.

Oh, question not henceforth what thou canst do;
Thou canst do nought. But He will carry through
The work where human energy had failed
Where all thy best endeavors had availed
Thee nothing. Then, my soul, wait and be still;
Thy God shall work for thee his perfect will.
Thou wilt take no less, His best shall be
Thy portion now and through eternity.

--Freda Hanbury

in Waiting on God by Andrew Murray

Are You Humble Enough to Be Care-Free?

I’m spending the week with the grandkids—doing a lot of Lego, swinging, reading, and a lot of being an appreciative audience… which leaves just a little time for reflecting, and most of those thoughts are on parenting.

It occurs to me that one profession bound to aid the disciple of Jesus along the path of humility is parenting!  Maybe not at first.  They are so cute, so clever, so perfect, so OURS… Then comes reality.  Of who we are, of who they are.  Yes, cute. Yes, clever. But no, not any more perfect than us.  And we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.  Deliver us from evil.” And HELP!!! we haven’t what it takes to do this job!  Rescue us from our messes! This starts in the toddler years but does it ever end?  this need for a  Saviour?   Not yet for me.  I only hope to learn to pray in the process.

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer these days, wanting to get back to the simplicity of it and shake off tradition and formality. Ironically that brings me back to the prayer Jesus gave as a model:

"Our Father in heaven, Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…" I haven’t really gotten past that yet.  Though this verse has been construed to mean strange unBiblical things, its essence is a request that God be glorified, that His will be done in every facet of our lives between birth and the grave…. It implies a relinquishment of my will in submission to His, not primarily for my benefit, but for His Kingdom’s sake.  I often find prayer stressful, coming as I do with my urgent desires (and sometimes my perceived solutions which I have no means of attaining on my own).  But though God welcomes our petitions, prayer is not a twisting of His arms or an asserting of my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for me and mine (or any other good thing).

My best counselor and friend (my husband!) reminds me again and again that prayer is about aligning our wills to God's, not about asking, begging or demanding anything. It's not about getting everything in order in my sphere but rather reorienting my will to be His will, submitting my will to His.

I've been noticing this thing about 'wills' lately. Parents of toddlers have fresh object lessons ever before them but sometimes I forget how much my own will hates to be thwarted. When I insist that someone do something, anything, the way I see best, it's ME that is made miserable (or at the very least irritated) when that someone doesn't align their will with mine. Their 'obstinence' (really the exercise of their free will) thwarts my will. The result: conflict, agitation, unrest, (and maybe a spanking?!).

When I do this in prayer, the results are similar. 

But the instant I let go my insistence that the other person do what I want, there is relief. With a toddler of course a parent must win these wars. Between adults, and grown children,  and ultimately God,  the outcome is less predictable. Will I surrender or insist? With surrender comes relief. The mounting stress is gone! I don't have to be in control. Maybe I do know what's best for the other person, and then again, maybe I don't. My perspective is so limited, so short term. Either way, letting go the need to control is such a relief.

I’m wanting to find this relief in the way that I pray. When my greatest desires seem thwarted, the outcomes not my ideals, can I just cast them in God’s lap and let Him determine what’s best? What might He want in this situation?  Am I willing to hand my messes over to Him and trust Him with the long term possibilities to work in all things for His Kingdom purposes and His own greatest glory? I gravitate to Cinderella stories—with their happily-ever-after endings. Life seldom dishes such out, at least not till seen through the lens of eternity. 

But we are told to pray, to cast cares, to trust and to seek God’s Kingdom above any agendas of our own, His Kingdom and His righteousness.

There may be a lot of humble floor-scrubbing before the prince comes to redeem His own. But it will have been worth the wait.  In the meantime we pray: Thy will be done on earth, in our lives, in our families, in our communities, in our world.  And we present ourselves, His subjects to do His bidding, and to leave the results to Him. 

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,  saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.” Rev.11:15-17

--LS

The title of this post comes from a  sermon transcript by John Piper that so ‘hit the spot’ for me—the concept that casting our cares on God is an act requiring and exhibiting humility, the prerequisite for being care-free.  Interesting premise drawn from I Peter 5.  Have a look and/or a listen here:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/are-you-humble-enough-to-be-care-free

Postponing Joy

Last week the question came up:

What unfulfilled wants hinder me from being fully satisfied with God and worshipping Him with a joyful heart? In other words: What excuses do I make for postponing joy?

I've been thinking about my strategy for getting what I want—prayer. And I'm asking myself just how long I am going to postpone joy…Until when?

Until my will is done, my kingdom come?...

Until the accuser is silenced and I no longer have to live with his taunts: "what if your God does not come through"?!...

Until faith is sight and what I long to see is in hand?

Just how long will I postpone joy? For as I do I declare that God's promises are not enough, His love is insufficient, and His present work is substandard… Who am I going to trust if not Him? In my own efforts to somehow do something that will work? Or am I operating on the premise that someday I will come up with the 'right' prayer, the magic bullet that will convince God to act posthaste? If only I could learn to pray more… fluently? more 'spiritually'? more strenuously? more persuasively?! More what?!

I read the Lord's Prayer, my model. It does not sound like a marshaling of all my bravado to storm heaven's gates or to vanquish the foe with powerful mantras. It's quite simple really… Our Father, let your name be made much of and your will done without exception and without objection in everything that concerns me…and give me what I need to live today, forgiveness most of all and grace to do it like You do…and come to my rescue when I'm tempted. Keep me out of the Evil One's net, because You are the all-powerful, all glorious King for now and always… In fact it doesn't even sound like it's about my 'power in prayer' at all, but about relinquishing my will to His, daily submitting my needs to Him for whatever provision He wishes to make and just keeping my sights set on who He is, my Father and the Almighty King!

I get confused about this sometimes. Lots of times. Until I find I am doing little more than chewing the fingernails of my soul in restless unease. I become obsessed with 'my part' in dispatching duties that have spiraled beyond my know-how and can-do. There are too many loose ends, unmet ideals, broken pieces, looming disasters. And I can't handle it. I pray, but in distracted, distrustful, poorly composed little bursts that sound more like 'oh dear, oh dear, oh dear', than 'Father, you are great and you are good and I thank you for Your loving oversight of all that concerns me.'

Meanwhile, praise is non-existent, thanks is meager and joy is postponed. What then is left? Condemnation, guilt, temptation to distraction—be it a chocolate bar or a good book—and avoidance of further failure by withdrawing from present opportunity. And of course, anxiety, cloaked as 'godly concern', mind you; but recognizable by the unease that it generates—the opposite of rest.

My sister reminded this week of a winsome book on prayer called, A Praying Life. I actually discovered it last summer to my relief and refreshment. I had even written a review and tucked in some 'best of' quotes. And I had resolved that my prayer life would be different, better, more practical, more real… But something has slipped.

Here I am again. Obsessed by what I can't change. Driven to 'do something'. Desperate to 'make prayer work'… and repenting of my dogged determination to have what I want now, to see before I believe, to distrust the One who holds everything in absolute control and manages all my concerns with loving intention… I am loathe to take my eyes off the situations that alarm me but there is no effective prayer until this is done. As long as I focus on the problems I will hear the enemy's taunts instead of God's assurances and I will have wobbly knees and quailing heart.

I've been reading about Hezekiah, in novel form and in the Bible. The Assyrians were coming. They were utterly fierce and unfeeling enemies. They were powerful, unsurpassed in strength. They trashed every nation they assaulted. They never lost. And they were coming to destroy Hezekiah's nation, just as they had the northern Kingdom of Israel. He had done nothing 'deserving' this. In fact he was well along in reforming the Kingdom of Judah, ridding the land of idols and returning the people to Temple worship of the one true God. And then 'after these things and these acts of faithfulness' wicked Sennacherib of Assyria is invading. He taunts Hezekiah saying: "On what do you rest this trust of yours?" (Is.36:4) "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."Is.37:10

And when he can't unnerve the king he resorts to using propaganda to demoralize the people: "Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, 'The Lord will surely deliver us'…. Make your peace with me and come out to me." (Is.36:15,16) What's a king to do? What am I to do when my enemy taunts and tempts me to doubt God's care?

Hezekiah's was a terrifying prospect! (Read Austin's historical fiction: Song of Redemption if you need help imagining it!) Normally a king would call for reinforcements, allies, HELP from somewhere, but Hezekiah prayed very matter-of- factly and was instructed not to be afraid but to wait and see what God would do (Is.37) How easy is that? Not very.  It's kind of like: 'In the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world'. Good cheer? But, but…

But what's wonderful about this story is that Hezekiah actually listens to Isaiah's message from God and he in turn is able to strengthen the people to have courage: "With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles." (II Chr.32:8) And God goes to bat for them and the Assyrian army wakes up dead. Well, a whole pile of them do. The rest go home! (Is.37:36-38)

That's how I want to respond in the face of fear-- not terrorized beyond usefulness but confidently presenting my petitions to God, listening for His direction, and waiting with expectation for what He will do. Then the battle is his, not mine. And then joy need not be postponed.

"Behold, this is our God;
we have waited for Him, that He might save us.
This is the LORD, we have waited for Him;
Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Is.25:9

Paul Miller outlines in his book that if prayer is going to be a living connection with God we're going to have to be honest with Him about where we are in our thinking. No pretending. He gives a peek into his own prayer time on one occasion:

"I am not confident of your deliverance."

"Until you do save us, give me the faith to wait."

"My inability to wait on you comes from thinking salvation comes from me…"* (Miller,255)

And I see myself reflected in his words. But I also find that God knows what I need to hear. These are some of His words to my heart this week. How can I keep postponing joy?

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Jn.15:5

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. Jn.15:9

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Jn.15:11

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Jn.15:16

God calls me to joy. He invites me to abide in His love. He guarantees the flow of sap as long as I stay connected. He invites me to ask and see what He will do. He reminds me He is love, and this is enough.

My calling is to retain bold confidence that He is able to keep what I commit to Him. I can trust Him with everything that troubles me. I can count on His salvation whether I see it in its full glory yet or not. And best of all I can rejoice in the Lord.

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning…
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption. Ps.130:3-7

"Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." Deut.33:12

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him,…But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Ps.13:2-6

--LS

 

Can I whet your appetite for Paul Miller's book? Here are some quotes that speak to me…

“Anxiety wants to be God but lacks God’s wisdom, power, or knowledge. A godlike stance without godlike character and ability is pure tension.” (70)

“The great struggle of my life is not trying to discern God’s will,
it is trying to discern and then disown my own.” (157)
“Until you are convinced that you can’t change your child’s heart, you will not take prayer seriously.” (167)

“I often find that when God doesn’t answer a prayer, he wants to expose something in me. Our prayers don’t exist in a world of their own. We are in dialogue with a personal, divine Spirit who wants to shape us as much as he wants to hear us. For God to act unthinkingly with our prayers would be paganism, which says the gods do our will in response to our prayers.” (168)

For more, check out the full review with quotes here.

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*Miller, Paul E.  A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World.
NavPress, 2009, 279pp.

Dreaming Big

 I’m reviving an old habit this week, thanks to the faith-boosting writing of Paul Miller in A Praying Life. I’ve pulled out my old prayer-request notebook and have been browsing through the entries…It’s one of those old-fashioned, pocket-size, 6-ring binders. Mine’s got custom pages, mostly hand-cut, color-coded into three main divisions: Family, The Body, and The World. Just about everything I pray about fits under one of those. Then there’s another section for writing out prayers and prayer promises straight from Scripture. Who wouldn’t want Colossians 1:9-10 prayed for them consistently?!

“We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask Him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom…we also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need…May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God’s holy people, who live in the light…”

Some of praying requires dreaming big, asking for the sky! Seeing beyond the present to a future that is altogether different and praying that direction. That’s what praying from the Word spurs me on to do.
I’ve been reading in particular the Family requests. Lots of long-term things for all of us, character qualities to sharpen, bents of heart to bless, habits to shake. There’s a lot of watching and waiting involved in these things…

The catch is, the details--the events that happen on the way to the dream being fulfilled. They don’t always (often? ever?) look like I imagined they would/should. And sometimes that makes me think I’m on the wrong track, shooting for the wrong dream. But after all, every story has a plot and is built around some sort of conflict or suspense (or it wouldn’t be a story!). I just have to remember I’m not the Author of the story! So, I’m back on the written page, working on a fresh index card system, penning my suggestions for how the story line might go, submitting my requests for plot adjustments and waiting in the wings to see how it will all play out in the hands of the Master Playwright.

Habakkuk knew the feeling. His people were about to be taken captive by the meanest guys around, and God was allowing it, orchestrating it even…Sounded like crazy talk but he stood on the frontlines watching to see what would transpire, confident that his hopes were well placed in the God of his salvation and his strength. Here’s what he said, and how God answered:

Habakkuk: “I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me…”

The Lord: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets,…for still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay….but the righteous shall live by his faith.” (2:1-4)

And that’s why I’m putting pen to paper, so I will keep my vision clear and my faith unclouded to watch as the story of our lives unfolds.

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I’m keeping this post short so that I can tell you more about Paul Miller’s book: A Praying Life. Here’s an excerpt of my thoughts, taken from my own review at: thestackofdawn.blogspot.com.

“Here it is, a book for Christians “struggling with life, who pray badly yet long to connect with their heavenly Father.” I’ve collected lots of book on prayer over the course of my guilt-ridden life, driven to do something about my substandard ‘prayer life’. I’ve started in to read the classics by the ‘famous’ Christians who knew how to pray and could lay out the ‘doctrine’ of it thoroughly and without a loophole. And I’ve read some ‘loopier’ modern ones-- that imply that God is always talking to me and if I’ll just learn to tune in, I can ask anything I want and voila! I’ll have the answers I’m seeking. It’s just that easy. But buying books on prayer is kinda like buying art books—it’s easier to spend the money collecting the books than the time learning to draw. Prayer comes down to that, spending time talking, and listening, and being conscious of God’s responses as they’re woven into my days.

“What’s neat about this book is that it’s not only inviting to read because it’s built on the real life experience of the author (and his family), but it also makes you want to pray, to stop reading and start in, right now! Life-as-is becomes the starting point for coming like a dependent child to a Father who cares intimately about everything and desires to meet my needs. It’s not so much a matter of discipline once I recognize my utter need for God’s intervention in my days. Prayerlessness implies that I’m trusting in something else—my money, ability, spouse, fate?…to get me through without God. Anxiety is the tell-tale sign of my misplaced confidence. The circumstances of life are better seen as an invitation to talk to my Father about everything….”

To continue reading and sample some choice excerpts please see my book review blog: A Few Good Books, here. I hope you’ll be inspired to take a fresh look with me at the best habit ever, a praying life.

--LS

What can I do for you?

This was my Grandma’s cheery greeting at the farmhouse door when people stopped by for eggs. “What can I do for you?”  It was the question her very life exuded.  She was a servant, a reflection of Jesus’ own attitude...

It was His last week before the cross and Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem,  forewarning his disciples of the shameful treatment and death that were just around the corner for Him, when he came within earshot of an outspoken beggar on the roadside.  I’d have been pre-occupied with my own upcoming trauma.  Not so Jesus. He was forever the servant.  This blind beggar was crying out for mercy, so Jesus called him near and asked: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Lk.19:41)

That question first jumped off the page for me years ago when I heard it echoed, in an irritated tone, by a rheumatologist I’d been referred to for answers about an extremely painful and inflamed finger joint that defied explanation.  Exasperated by my naïve expectation of help he blurted out: What do you want me to do for you?!  He had no answers, no real help to offer.

By contrast, I thought of Jesus.  When we’ve exhausted other sources of help that seemed so surefire, he waits to hear our cry for mercy.  And He calls us to draw near and tell Him just what we perceive we need from Him.

What do I want Him to do for me anyway?

God welcomes his children to ask, to seek, to knock, and promises to supply all that’s needed. But there’s more to it than just asking for stuff.  John says. “…ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (15:7) Sounds like a rendering of service, a doing something I cannot do for myself.  And what’s the objective? It’s all about me bearing fruit--the evidence that I’m in fact sticking close to Jesus and hanging on His every word.  My fruitfulness makes the Father look good.

And the connectedness to Jesus does something else--it lets me share His JOY so that my own joy quotient is full.  “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”  This joy is my strength.  This is the joy that carried Jesus through “Passion Week”—as He looked ahead to the people He was purchasing for God’s own precious possession.  That would be me, and you. 

This asking and receiving is nothing like an absent-minded grandpa doting over his cute grandkids to their own eventual spoiling.  It’s not about my wishlists or my agenda at all, unless my heart is captured with what delights my Father.  Yes,  He promises to grant the desires of my heart but only when my heart is full of Him. “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps.37:4) That’s the only way such a promise is safe from doing me harm.  So what do I want Jesus to do for me?  What is it that I most need in order to carry out the business of the Kingdom that’s been entrusted to me?

The blind beggar had clearly in mind what he needed.  He was ready with the response: “Lord, let me recover my sight.” (Lk.18:41) And Jesus did for him precisely what he asked, and then some, for he said: “your faith has saved you”, this same ‘saved’ (sozo) is used of Jesus coming ‘to seek and to save the lost’.  Was it more than mere physical sight this blind beggar received?  Likely.  For he immediately set off trotting after Jesus and glorifying God.

That’s what I want to be the product of my prayer life.  I want to ask for that which I most need in order to glorify God.  Will it be a nicer house, a more beautiful  garden, a wiser parenting style? Could be. Or maybe, just maybe, a clearer vision—one that sees exactly as Jesus sees and then extends the offer: “What can I do for you?”


--LS


“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (Jn.16:23,24)


"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt.6:33 NASB)




P.S. Just wanting to commend to you Larry Crabb's book: The PAPA Prayer (Integrity,2006), a book I read  a few years back that has resurfaced this week in light of these Scriptures.  It encouraged me to alter my view of prayer as a sort of wishlist session with God and to begin to think more relationally about my prayer life.  This is a reminder I need often.  --LS

A Forgotten Prayer

“Don’t be afraid, your prayer has been heard.” Lk.1:12


Everyone was praying.  Zechariah too, on duty burning incense.  An angel appears bearing God’s reply.  Zechariah is dumb-founded.  Had he not expected a response?  Had he given up believing?  But the God who does more than we can even ask or think (and never forgets a prayer) had a surprise in store for him.  Not only would there be a baby in his old age, but this would be a son, a special son-- filled with the Holy Spirit before he was even born, a son who would be ‘great before the Lord’ (Lk.1:15)


Zechariah had wanted a son and had prayed.  How long had it been since he had stopped asking, stopped hoping, stopped planting the seed?  But God had not forgotten the faith He’d planted in Zechariah’s heart.

And I wonder, what prayer have I prayed long ago with high hopes and young eagerness that has now dwindled in the face of unfulfillment.  Or perhaps faded into cynical disillusionment.  Things don’t ‘seem’ to be turning out as I’d dreamed.  Time to check the dreams against the promises of God to my heart perhaps.  What has He promised?  Am I planting seeds of faith, praying with hope, looking eagerly for God’s intervention in my days?

Zechariah is left quite literally dumb-founded.  Skeptical of the angel’s good news he is left unable to voice his doubt. “You will be silent, unable to speak because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”Lk.1:20 In silence he will wait to see God perform His purpose.  He will have no say in the matter.  But he does have a role to play—when his days in the temple are complete he will go home and celebrate with his wife.  And in God’s time, God’s promise will be fulfilled.  Despite Zechariah’s lapse of faith, God remains faithful.  How reassuring.   But perhaps for me it is not yet too late to call to remembrance the promises given, the prayers prayed in eager faith, and to echo a different reply, Mary’s reply.

When this same angel, Gabriel, came to Mary she asked for some clarification of how his words would come true but was commended for believing.  She had the benefit of hearing Zechariah and Elizabeth’s miracle story of course and the reminder that with God ‘nothing will be impossible’.  Then she simply responded: “Let it be to me according to your word.”  That’s the kind of heart response I want to have. 
Let’s share our miracle stories and remind each other that nothing is impossible for our God… then let’s unearth those old God-given hopes and prayers and waft them to heaven like sweet incense while we wait and celebrate what is yet to be.  And we shall see what God will do, when the time is right.



“Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Lk.1:45