faith

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Can’t win the battle?

“God helps those who cannot help themselves.” – Charles Spurgeon

Do you feel like you’re trapped in a situation you can’t find your way out of? Or that everything’s going wrong and you can’t seem to stop it? Sometimes we just feel helpless!

The people of Judah felt that way, too, when scouts returned with the terrifying message that a huge army was heading their way and they were about to be attacked. King Jehoshaphat called all the people together and began to pray. He reminded God of their powerlessness against such a great army and then said this: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:12b).

A prophet was then inspired to tell them to go to the watchtower the next morning and wait. Here’s what they saw: Another army came in and ambushed the army that was about to attack Judah. Instead of moving toward Jerusalem, they fought each other. Many were killed. Others fled. God intervened and the threat was gone. Just like that!

When we’re struggling and getting nowhere, we need to acknowledge our helplessness. Then we redirect our eyes away from the struggle where all we see is darkness and all we feel is fear. If we can turn our eyes to God, hope will replace fear and light will come. God’s strength is always there, but usually we don’t see it in action until we realize we have no hope without him.

So, let’s not sit around worrying. Let’s admit our helplessness to make any lasting change and then plead with him to fight for us and to lead us to the light. Now let’s step back and see what he will do.

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:10

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No control!

“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.” – Corrie Ten Boom

At times, we have all found ourselves in impossible situations, and life seemed out of control. I hate those times, but they do teach us something about trusting God.

Have you ever thought about the kind of faith Noah and his family must have had while they were in the ark? They were locked in – God himself shut the door. Might that not feel a little claustrophobic? Some of us understand that feeling!

They didn’t know how long they’d be there. Have you ever asked God, “how long?” When will you take care of this problem for me? How long do I have to suffer or wait?

They probably didn’t have a picture window on the world around them – they could see very little and actually had to send out birds to find out if the land had dried up yet. We want to see, to understand, to know,so we pray for God to reveal his plan and what he is doing in the world. But he doesn’t seem to answer.

Worst of all, they couldn’t steer the ark. They just had to float along wherever the floods took them. If they had known what would eventually happen with the Titanic, they might have been afraid of crashing into an underwater mountain peak.

We sometimes feel like we have very little control over what is happening to us. We have no steering wheel, no way to see clearly, no understanding about how God will see us through. In these situations we can do one of two things: We can fight against our situation with worry, anxiety, and useless activity, or we can consciously, intentionally give it to God, and trust he has a plan for our ark.

” . . . to you the helpless commits himself.” – from Psalm 10:14

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Giving Back Better

 “We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.” – Philip Yancey

When we’re good at something, we like doing it. So, we lead the team, build the cabinet, make the meal, give the speech, or fund the project. We like to feel useful, and we announce that we’re “giving back”.

But, there’s the thing: To be able to give back on a spiritual level, we must first receive, and for many of us that’s harder than giving.

When we’re on the receiving end, it means we have a need we can’t meet on our own. It’s much more comfortable to be the giver! We treat God that way, too. We think that when we give gifts or do good deeds, we earn his favor, but it doesn’t work that way.

Instead, we have to understand how spiritually desperate we are and to gratefully receive his undeserved grace. It’s hard and it’s humbling, but when we ask him, he’ll give us new life and the ability to serve him and others on new level. Our motive to give then changes from seeking approval to showing love. And when we do what we are spiritually gifted to do, the results are life-changing for us and for those to whom we give.

But, first, we receive God’s grace. He’s ready when you are.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:8-10

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But, I don’t understand.

“You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we think.” – Brother Lawrence

Meet our cat, Abi. She likes everything to always be the same. She likes her Amazon box. She loves to be brushed.

She does not love being put in her carrier to ride in the car. Scary. Might end up at the vet. And her cries are like prayers asking us to set her free.

If you have a pet, you can relate, right? Have you ever thought that our relationship to our pets might be somewhat parallel God’s relationship to us? He knows what we like, but there are times he put us through something equivalent to getting in the carrier to go to the vet. We don’t understand how what he’s doing is for our good. For us it’s just scary and uncomfortable, so we cry out to him in prayer.

Can you imagine how infinitely more God loves us than we love our pets? He faithfully walks with us as we suffer, but his love is too great to give us the relief we pray for. Relief won’t come until he has accomplished his purposes for us and maybe for those around us.

We cannot understand that kind of love from a human perspective. We can only find glimpses as we ourselves cause necessary pain to someone we love even though they can’t understand why.

Know this: God loves us infinitely. He’s always working for our good. And he walks with us through the struggles.

Sense his presence. Trust his love. Something good is happening even when we can’t see it.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” – 1 Peter 5:10

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Patient and Kind

“There is no termination date on my commitment to you. You can’t get rid of my grace to you. You can’t outrun my mercy. You can’t evade my goodness.” – Dane Ortland

A friend once told me about her adult son who was always getting into trouble, mostly related to his penchant for alcohol. One time he came to her with yet another problem and said, “I bet you wish I’d never been born.” She told me that story with tears in her eyes, not because of the problems he caused, but because he could even think she would ever stop loving him.

God’s like that. No matter how much trouble we are, we are his, and he wants us to be close.

A friend once likened God’s relationship to us as that of a human trying to housetrain a puppy. When the puppy doesn’t make it to the papers, does a good master kick him for missing the mark? No, he picks him up and moves him to the papers. After awhile, the pup, wanting to please his master, begins to understand and do the right thing.

Once we’re adopted into God’s family, we are his – forever. If we keep falling into the same sin, he still loves us. If we fail to keep our promises to him, he still keeps his promises to us. He helps us get back up when we fall. Even if we run from him, he chases us to bring us back – just like a master would do with a runaway puppy!

And that kind of love makes us want to return to him. The thing we must never think is that he no longer wants us back. Our Master will never turn away one who wants to please him.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” – Exodus 34:6b

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Easter changes everything.

“If Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be, . . . then, for all history past and all history future it is relevant because that is the very focal point for forgiveness and redemption.” – Josh McDowell

Leviticus teaches about unintentional sins – things people do that hurt or damage someone else or offend God, and they don’t even know they’d done it. When they realize their sin, they’re held responsible for making it right (Leviticus 5:17). And that meant actually taking an animal to the priest to be sacrificed to pay for the sin committed. Cumbersome. Messy. Expensive. Time-consuming. Embarrassing. Sin, even if unintentional, has terrible consequences!

Why don’t we handle guilt that way anymore? Because we don’t have to! Jesus came as the one-time-only sacrifice for the sins of the world (Hebrews 10:10b). We still hurt people or wrong them in many ways. We still offend God. But since Jesus came to die for us, we no longer have to bear our own sin. He took it all on himself on the cross. Since his resurrection that very first Easter Sunday, we simply believe that Jesus gave his life for us and confess our sinfulness to him. He forgives, cleanses, and makes us into new creatures able and willing to follow him.

What then? We worship him by giving ourselves and our bodies back to him in complete surrender to his will. “ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). He gave his body for us. We give ours to his service.

That’s why we’re thankful, why we worship, why we can live without guilt or regret. Jesus makes all things new!

” . . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9b

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There is a safe place.

“We can see hope in the midst of hopelessness. We can see peace in the midst of chaos.” – Priscilla Shirer

Are you in a safe place? A place where you know you will be treated fairly? Or are you living in fear and dread of each new day? God wants justice. He wants his children to live without anxiety.

So much so, that in ancient Israel, he established several places as cities of refuge. A person accused of taking a life accidentally could run to one of those cities where he would await a trial. The purpose of the place of refuge was to protect him from death at the hands of relatives of the deceased person. God wanted him to be treated with justice, not vengeance.

The cities of refuge were located in places accessible by roads, and the elders in the surrounding towns were required to walk the route once a year to make sure there were no obstacles on the path and to place directional signs at any crossroads that read “To the City of Refuge” so the person fleeing wouldn’t get lost. God’s desire was to make it easy to get to a safe place. Nothing in the way. No detours.

Are you facing a crisis right now? Something that seems to threaten life as you know it? God invites you to himself as your refuge, your place of safety and strength, and he’s made it easy for you to get to him. There are no roadblocks. You can run to him through prayer, surrender, and faith. Rest in his presence, drink in his peace, and then trust he will show you the way forward. He really does care.

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him.” – Nahum 1:7

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Fears

“The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.” – Max Lucado

I prayed my fears would go away. Then I thought of those that were logical to keep. And a couple of others that I didn’t know who I’d be without. I realized that my fears had become my friends. They are terrible friends!

“They all have to go. Lord, deliver me from fear, from anxiety. I mean it this time. I want to live a life of faith – reflected by calm, peace, serene acceptance, trusting you for everything, with everything, always.”

Is that what you want, too? A heart at rest? A mind at ease? I think we all acknowledge there are things to be afraid of, but most of what plagues us are fears we have that are irrational, unnecessary. Those are the ones that have to go. How? By recognizing that they come from our own insecurities, not from God. By focusing on God and all the promises of his love, care, protection, and peace. Fear is a big motivation to pray without ceasing! (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

It takes practice to do that, and I’m not there yet, but as long as we engage in the struggle for faith big enough to overcome fear, we’re not defeated. We leave room for God to work and for his great love to overcome our human fears. Faith and fear are uneasy companions, and faith defeats fear every time. Let’s not give up our quest for internal peace! It can be ours.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – Jesus to his disciples in John 14:27

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Grace: Not Just a Little, but a Lot

“A man may have too much money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much grace . . . Thou needest much; seek much, and have much.” – C. H. Spurgeon

God is overflowingly generous. In fact, in The Message, John 1:16 reads this way, “We all live off his generous abundance, gift after gift after gift.” We cannot count the number of gifts God gives us – and they keep coming.

John tells us “He gives the Spirit without measure” (John 3:34). He doesn’t parcel out a little bit of the Spirit. He gives all of him to all of us who ask (Luke 11:13).

All of this is about grace. Grace is God showing his favor toward us – just because he wants to and can, not because we are worthy of it. In fact, he shows more grace when we are less worthy: Paul found God’s grace was perfected when he was weakest (2 Corinthians 12:9). James tells us God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). When we can’t do something, God can. When we recognize our need, he intervenes with grace.

And not just a little grace. We read about the early Christians meeting together daily, taking care of each other’s needs, and telling others about the resurrection. Then we read, ” . . . and great grace was upon them all.” Not just grace, but great grace.

Do we need it? Yes! Do we recognize it when it comes? Sometimes. Let’s be on the lookout for God’s generous grace in our lives today. He loves it when we notice.

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.” – 1 Peter 5:10

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Holy Bewilderment

“It is not that the Annunciation leads Mary out of doubt and into faith; it is that her encounter with the angel leads her out of certainty and into holy bewilderment. Out of familiar spiritual territory and into a lifetime of pondering, wondering, questioning, and wrestling.” —Debie Thomas

We like to think of faith is an assured confidence – and often it is. There are other times, though, when stepping out in faith leads to what Debie Thomas called “holy bewilderment”.

Mary was chosen to be part of the turning point of history – the time when God would enter this world as a baby and grow up to be the God-man who would sacrifice himself for the sins of the world. I’m sure Mary had expectations when she learned she would bear God’s son, but confusion set in as the story unfolded. She didn’t anticipate so much suffering, rejection, pain, and uncertainty. But all of that was part of the journey she set out on when she said “yes” to God.

In this Christmas season are you finding yourself “pondering, wondering, questioning, and wrestling”? Don’t despair. This is part of living a life of faith. If we could see how our story ends or could understand what to make of our quandaries, it wouldn’t be faith.

What did Mary do with her bewilderment? She went to see her older cousin Elizabeth. Maybe we, too, can find someone a little further down the road than we are in the life of faith and get some good counsel. We, too, can develop a life of prayer as Mary doubtless had already. We, too, can do the next right thing day-by-day until we begin to understand God’s plan. That’s what faith means – trusting God even when we’re full of questions.

“For we live by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7