Monthly Archives: March 2017

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Praying With Hope

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“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”  Matthew 7:7-11

Several years ago, a friend brought balloons to a study that we were co-leading.  As an object lesson, she had each of us write our prayer request on a balloon then we took them outside and released them together.  It was an excellent way to visualize how to present our needs to God then let go and trust Him to do what is necessary.  As a result, I’ve started to look at my prayer life differently.  More recently, I was praying about a fairly substantial concern.   As I began to pray, I was convicted of the need to pray with confidence.  I don’t know that I’ve ever done that quite this way before.  Rather than telling God what I needed, I started thanking Him in advance for His provision in response to my request.  As a result, I was filled with hope and praise.  It’s not that I wasn’t confident of God’s provision beforehand, but praying in this way took away the desire to “micromanage” God…that kind of prayer that is more like drafting a legal document rather than a making a request of my Lord.  Since then, my mind keeps returning to the topic of prayer and the attitude we should take when praying.

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Where is Your Focus?

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“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  Colossians 3:1-3

In high school, I was a member of the Speech Club.  After a few competitions, one realized that it was much easier to evoke fear, anger and sorrow than happiness.   Consequently, with a bit of skill and practice it was fairly easy to do well with darker prose and drama.  However, anyone choosing comedy had to really work to get the judges attention quickly and employ good timing to score well.  This is true in life also.  Because of our sinful nature, our tendency is toward fear, anger and sorrow rather than joy.  As a result, we tend to focus on our problems and losses rather than what God is accomplishing through them and looking to Him for sustaining grace.  Further, we often get so caught up in daily life that we neglect our relationship with God.  That’s why Paul encourages the Colossians, the Romans and the Philippians to focus on “the things above” rather than our earthly circumstances.

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The Winding Road of Faith

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“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the men of old gained approval.”  Hebrews 11:1-2

 

In my late twenties and early thirties, I had two friends with whom I went camping and hiking twice each year.  As we were trying to avoid insects and snakes, we would go late in the fall and early in the spring.  Sometimes we would experience wonderfully warm weather; sometimes it was cold and rainy; the rest were somewhere in between.  Together we enjoyed great vistas, got lost on poorly marked trails, endured wet sleeping bags and very cold showers (as it was off season in the parks), joking about each other’s quirks, met some nice folks and feared a few; but mostly we grew closer through the shared experiences and evenings by the campfire.  Two of the three of us are probably too infirmed to tolerate those trips now, but they will ever live in our memories and be a bond that draws us together.

The walk of faith is a lot like that.  Sometimes we feel great about our faith and our relationship with God.  Other times we have more questions than answers and feel a distance between ourselves and our Lord.   There are the seasons when the battles are raging around us or temptation seems to be impossible to withstand.  Some stretches of our journey seem so clearly marked and well defined while others just don’t make sense and we find ourselves doubting and lost.  In short the path of sanctification is usually a winding road.  While we may understand that God is moving us closer to Him and leading us to our Heavenly home, it’s often difficult for us to see or feel any sense of progress from our limited vantage point with incomplete information.  To that end, there are some situations and their related promises that we would do well to ponder carefully in order to maintain clarity.

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Avoiding the Darker Side of Kindness

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“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  Colossians 3:12

Some of the definitions or synonyms of kindness are:  benevolence, humanity, generosity, charity, sympathy, compassion, and tenderness.  As indicated above, scripture calls us to be kind and engage in charitable acts.  However, there are times when our best intentions may not be charitable at all.  For example, the Sunday after I was released from my last major hospitalization, very well intentioned people, who truly cared about my well-being, greeted me with a hug…many of which were quite firm.  The problem was that I had just had a PICC line inserted and every hug involving my left arm was painful…so much so that I had to start doing body checks to protect myself.  Another example was while I was caring for my father.  In the last months of his life, visits from people became difficult for him and anything more than about five minutes would cause stress to the extent that he would beg me to send them away.  Some people graciously accepted the request, but others insisted on staying which created an awkward situation leaving me no choice but to demand that they leave.  My point is that there is a darker side to charitable acts that can, in fact, harm rather than help or encourage.  As in all things concerning godliness, we must be intentional about in our compassion to avoid having a negative impact. 

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Pressing On

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  1 Peter 1:3-5

Do you ever have days when you just can’t function?  Today is one of those for me.  It’s cold and I feel it to the bone.  My body rebels against any movement and my mind is just as sluggish.  I know from experience that it will pass and that there will be better days, but today I don’t feel like I’m much use to anyone and wonder if there’s really and value in trying to do anything.  After all, doesn’t Ecclesiastes tell us that all is vanity?  At times like this, I have to keep plodding until the fog lifts and, in the meantime, remind myself that the truth of the situation is much different.  Today’s necessity is to focus on the fact that it’s worth the effort to endure and that’s what the passage above does for me.  It reminds me…us… that we are valued, have purpose and that there is a reward for our efforts.

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