How Prayer and Trust relate

August 10, 2014

Maria 1 Peter, Anxiety, Belief, Doubt, Fear, Prayer, Promises, Psalm 50, Trust , , , , , 2 Comments

 

Call on me in the Day of Trouble

 

 

 

As Paul Miller says, we all think we stink at prayer!

I would imagine that this assessment is a plot of the devil and his evil pals.  If they can get us NOT to pray, then God won’t accomplish much.  At least this is what the Satan thinks, thus laboring steadily to dissuade us from spending the time and energy and getting our hopes up!

But God….(two powerful words that introduce HOPE)…is ALWAYS at work so we should keep on stumbling through prayer by faith and trust He’ll help us grow in this area.

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I’ve been reading an encouraging book on prayer.

Link to the book

Power of Prayer - Samuel Prime

 

 

 

 

 

If you purchase this account of the New York revival of 1858, chapters 16, 17 and the final one are worth the price of the book.  They made me WANT to pray.

Here is my take-away after spending a month in these pages. Picture thick ice that covers a lake in winter. ice on a lake

 

 

 

When you trust in the efficacy of the ice to sustain your weight, you venture out.  The degree of faith in that ice has NO effect on whether the ice is sufficient to bear your weight. Whether you timidly step out onto the ice (a little bit of faith) or you stride out boldly (strong faith), the ice’s ability to hold you up is not effected one whit.

The promises of God are like the ice.  When God says in HIS WORD that He will do this or that, we can be sure that He will!   Why? – because He is a perfect God who never changes.  His character, the sum-total of His attributes, is consistently above-reproach.  If He is ever or even one time good, He is ALWAYS good. If He is faithful once, He is ALWAYS faithful.  If He does what is right one time (act with righteousness and justice), then He will ALWAYS do what is righteous and just.  Why?  because His character  is on the line at all times. His primary motivation is for the glory or reputation of His name

Closely intertwined with His character are His promises.  What He says He will do is as good as done.  It’s money in the bank, as some would say.  His character is the foundation for His Word.

So, when you step out onto the solid ice-covered lake of His Word, it’s NOT

  • the strength or quality or purity of your faith
  • nor is it even your goodness, aka faithfulness
  • nor the quality of your past few quiet times
  • nor how committed you are THIS time to do…

It’s ALL Him.  And that is good news.

To sum up, here is my analogy –

Throwing up a prayer to God and then resting in the PERFECT assurance that He will hear that prayer and use it and take care of the situation/desire/need as HE best sees fit, is akin to stepping out on the ice-covered lake and having confidence that it will hold you up so you can play to your heart’s content.

Taking that worry back for yourself is like running in off the lake before you even crossed over to the other side or played a game.

Here’s what we have to remember:

Once we pray, and when our mind STILL returns to the need/concern/situation/desire, we must remind ourselves that the ice WILL hold.  God WILL take care of “it”.  His character and His word are our guarantee.  If we have to remind ourselves twelve times in 2 hours to leave the need in His hands, that’s okay.  No shame – we can do it!  It’s part of our learning curve in trust.

So I ask – what do you have to lose besides your old friend – the worry habit?

Question: Which worry or need are you willing to risk losing, by discharging it on Him? 

How do you know if you are ‘saved’?

March 23, 2014

Maria Belief, Faith, John, Peace, Uncategorized , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Assurance of Salvation

1 Cor 1:18 – For the message about the cross is nonsense to those who are being destroyed, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.

I understand that it is a very unsettling place to be, not to know for sure if you are going to spend eternity with God or away from Him.

I am writing this post to simplify the issue and to communicate that if you want to know whether you can count on heaven with the Biblical God, there is ample written evidence from God to settle that issue, once and for all.

It seems to me that there are several categories of people:

  • those who give no thought to life after the expected 70+ years (Psalm 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years….)
  • those who are adherents of false religions that teach and encourage practitioners to DO THIS or THAT to reach heaven
  • those who are true Biblical Christians but still live with uncertainty about their ultimate destination
  • those who are NOT Christians but think they are and might assume they are headed for heaven
  • those who are Christians and anticipate with growing desire and delight their future in God’s favorable presence in the renewed creation

Marraige Supper of the Lamb

In truth, there are only 2 categories of people: those God has elected and those He has not.  There are no degrees of election or a pathway TO election from non-election. You’re either ALL in or ALL out.

If God doesn’t plant within us new, unnatural desires, we will never understand Him or see Him as beautiful and valuable.

Here’s the simplest way to know if you are a true Christian (and it has nothing to do with how ‘good’ you are or what you do):

Do you see the Biblical Jesus and how one is saved from God’s wrath as an amazing gift? as treasure beyond imagination?

Or do you see Jesus and His teachings as stupid and boring, even to the point of being non-sensical? 

The key, though, is to know and understand the REAL Jesus, as the Bible presents.  Be warned!  Many self-proclaimed Christians, as well as atheists, share a mythical, made-up idea of God.  They invent a Father God and a God-Man Jesus to their liking, for whatever reasons.  I suppose it follows that if you INVENT God, then you can CREATE the pathway to heaven.

John 8:31-32   He said to the Jews who believed, “If you keep and obey My Word, then you are My followers for sure. You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

Stay within the boundaries of God’s Word; understand the text, given its style (poetry, narrative, history, parables, advice for living)  and context.  The Bible is written so that even uneducated people can be taught Truth.

And if what the text says and means doesn’t make sense to you, then pray to God and ask for His help.  He promises to give light and understanding to all who seek Him earnestly, sincerely. Pray also for those around you, that God would kindly open their eyes to His nature, what is at stake and His offer of forgiveness.

ASK

If God is for me, what about all those other expectations?

March 2, 2014

Maria 1 Corinthians, Belief, Grace, Justification, Romans , , 3 Comments

I get the message of grace, I think.  

I don’t have to earn God’s love, His approval, salvation from His anger at my sin, future life with him…all those almost unimaginable good gifts.  When God woke me up to my true condition and offered me the way of salvation and created in me the mind and desire to WANT to repent and accept His offer, all that and more were mine….forever.

I know I have HIS stamp of ‘it’s finished’ on me…why do I crave the approval and satisfaction of other humans?

Seeking that approval translates into meeting the expectations of others.

Expectations

Most of these I invent myself – I project.  For instance:

  • a colleague showcases a very clever class project finale on You Tube.  It’s applauded by the administration and I translate that as an expectation that I will be as creative in my classes.
  • I read about other foreign language teachers whose students are so enthralled with what goes on in class, that they don’t even know they are acquiring language.
  • a Christian wife mentions her and her husband’s ministry in their neighborhood and how they invite people over for dinner regularly, to share the gospel and serve.
  • close friends host ‘grandparent camp’ each summer at their house and gather the cousins for a week of fun and life lessons.

All these expectations weigh me down.  There are  a host of others too.  They belong to that category of even more personal than I care to mention.  Things like…… what I imagine a ‘good wife, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, teacher, neighbor, colleague, did I say teacher?, Christian, friend’ should do.

So how do I orient my thinking, renew my mind PRACTICALLY so that I can truly say: It’s enough that God is for me, that I have HIS love and provision, that nothing will block His good and perfect future for me?

That for me is the struggle of applying God’s grace to my life.  How can I accept as enough and all-satisfying that HIS grace is sufficient when I seem to crave and think I should have the expressed approval of others?  Is it even reasonable to expect, to feel it’s worth striving for, that it is even POSSIBLE to win/earn the approval of those very important, somewhat important and tangentially important because I see them every day?

His grace is sufficient

How have you sorted this out?

Feeding on the Mere Gospel

December 15, 2013

Maria 2 Corinthians, Belief, Christ's work on the Cross, Contentment, Doctrine, Gospel, Judgment, Promises , , , 1 Comment

Three times and you’ve got my attention!

In the past month, I’ve heard 3 different people explain how the Gospel of Santa Claus is bad news.  It’s “works righteousness” – a merit system.

  • You have to be earn your presents
  • He’s watching you all the time to catch you being naughty or nice
  • You never know if you’ve been ‘good-enough’
  • Santa assumes that you actually have the power to be good, which is highly debatable
  • He only visits once a year and you don’t even get to see him, or be with him.
  • The gifts you receive aren’t long-lasting

But the Good News for Christians is different:

  • We can know why we exist – the Happy and GOOD God-head of Father, Son and Spirit chose to create man, to partake in the divine joy
  • God keeps reminding us that we can’t earn our standing with Him.  There’s nothing to do but receive
  • Despite our bent to being rebels and our desire to replace God with ourselves as # 1,  God put into place a plan to save us
  • God himself chose to be as one of us, to identify more closely with our humanity
  • Jesus absorbed God’s wrath directed at us, so we don’t have to go to Hell
  • Jesus’ every righteous obedient thought and deed go into our ledger and result in a perfect score

(the answer is Yes!  – but not our own – they aren’t good enough to save us!)

So why do we choose the Santa Myth?

  • It’s easier, we think.  We get to be in control.
  • We really don’t want someone hanging around 24/7 reminding us of our deeds.
  • Legalism comes naturally.

What are the implications of these contradictory world views?

Two come to mind:

  • We have to drink in the Good News often.  That is – re-tell ourselves daily and even hourly, the Gospel truths.  Old Man thinking has us in a rut.  So as many counsel – Don’t listen to yourself; talk to yourself!  If you listen to your natural man’s running commentary, you’ll end up depressed and depressing to others.  You’ll be inclined to grumble and feel sorry for yourself.  And you’ll convince yourself that you’re just being realistic.
  • New thought for me (Thank you, John Piper)  – not only do we get forgiveness and reconciliation with God based on what Jesus has done, but something else.  His death on the cross purchased for us – ALL the promises in the Bible.   2 Cor 1:20 states –For as many as are the promises of God, in Him (Christ)  they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

So, next time you’re feeling worried, anxious, depressed, powerless, stuck, frazzled, frightened or bored, remind yourself that those states don’t have to be permanent.  Jesus died so that you COULD enjoy joy, peace, love, power and gratitude.

Question:  What Gospel Truth do you need to hear each day?  What’s your go-to Promise?

No need to rush

August 3, 2013

Maria 1 Peter, Belief, Impatience , , , Leave a comment

“In our rushing, bulls in china shops, we break our own lives.” Ann Voskamp

Isaiah 28:16 – Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a  precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation;  ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.”

I don’t have to rush? Simply because I BELIEVE in Jesus?  That sounds too good to be true!

Belief actually means much more than intellectual assent.  The Hebrew word a-mán (Strongs # 539) has to do with CLINGING to and being supported by a firm foundation.  Picture a baby gripping a nursemaid who is not going to let him go.  When we are settled in our heart and mind that Jesus is the ‘precious cornerstone’ or foundation of the universe, then we don’t have to rush/haste/speed/or run in frenzy-mode.  Now that is GOOD NEWS!!!

Why do we rush?  I don’t know about you, but I have led a life of grim haste in order to squeeze out MORE TIME for me.  As a member of the human race, my natural default is SELF; I try to maximize circumstances to suit me. And for most of my life I have lived with the false notion that I was in charge, in control of my life and that if only I were disciplined and intentional enough, then I could …… speed things up…… in order to…… bank extra minutes…… to spend on……. ME, MYSELF and I.

Welcome to the condition, so aptly described by Ann Voskamp in the first quote.  Thinking that we are helping ourselves, we cause harm by rushing. We add to the illusion that WE know what is best, that our decisions about time are wise.

As I grow day by day, a member of God’s forever family, having been ‘given new birth into a living hope’(1 Peter 1:3), I’m wanting to focus on God’s sovereign control over every molecule of my life.

Here’s how that God- quality brings me peace.

Yesterday, we drove for eight hours to arrive in Winchester, VA for a wedding.  En route we pulled off to find a SHEETZ gas station.  They usually have clean bathrooms and plentiful sodas.  But THIS service station proved difficult to spot once we exited the interstate. It was NOT well marked.  So first we drove in one direction, dodging the ‘Friday-afternoon-in-the –summer’ traffic.  Mike gripped the steering wheel in frustration at the minutes we were ‘losing’ and did a U-turn where he could to drive in the other direction which led out of town.  BACK again in the other direction, retracing our steps, slowed down by all that traffic ‘personally placed across our path to annoy us!’  No…to show us how ugly our impatience and desire to control LIFE looks like.  We eventually found the SHEETZ and refreshed ourselves.   

What I now tell myself once I repent of this self-centered response and attitude is that if I truly believe that God is sovereign over time and circumstances, then obstacles that ‘slow us down’ are part of His divine plan, meant for our good.

More than an impatience problem, I have a belief problem.  For that I repent.  Lord, thank You for the reminder that I can relax, slow down and go at Your pace because it’s YOU who are upholding the universe and in YOU, I have my being.  Thank you!

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