Praying “if it is Your will”

Funny… the enemy always seems to get us just enough off the mark to make us ineffective.

He takes the example of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42) and twist it to make us think that we cannot have an understanding of the Lord’s will in any situation.

He puts the focus on the “if thou be willing”, instead of on…

I thought you were a…

There was this guy I once knew.  He went to the bible study my wife and I attended.  He was always talking about things that he and his partner went through on the job.  For some reason I thought he was a police officer.  I pictured him like Starsky and Hutch. 

But I was wrong.  He was an insurance agent. 

The thing was… I knew his name, he knew mine… we understood each other and had good conversation.  I just had a wrong view of who he really was.

And so it is with so many who confess to be Christians…

The first person perspective

I have been working so hard…

I did a great job and no one appreciated it…

I deserve more…

I am so good at what I do…

I am so close to God…

I am better than…

I want to…

I need…

I am…

I…

I…

I…

The above list represents a few of my first person perspective statements.  A little self focused wouldn’t you say?  But we often find ourselves in this spot… thinking too much of ourselves.

And when I found myself ranting before the Lord with my list of “I” statements this is what He said to me…

“You have so many ‘I’s’ and yet you can’t see a thing.”

Ouch!  But I needed to hear it.  It is one of my biggest problems.  The first person perspective.  The feeling of entitlement.  PRIDE.

And we all know where that goes. 

But how do we get rid of it?  How do we stop saying “I” and focusing solely on ourselves and turn that outward?  Could it be that we need to see through His eyes?

Eyes can’t find a thing about that person that Christ didn’t die for.

Eyes can’t fathom the depth of His love and grace.

Eyes need more of Him.

Eyes see me when no one else would even look for me.

Eyes have not seen…

This may not be speaking to you.  Maybe you have it under control.  Maybe your first thought is always for others, and you never consider yourself.  Maybe.  But maybe there are times when you were like I am more often than I would like to admit…

… so many “I’s” and you can’t see a thing.

But don’t ever forget… He gives sight to the blind.

SDG

The color of the voice of God...

The color of sound…

“To our knowledge the intrinsic blueness of water is the only example from nature in which color originates from vibrational transitions.”  

"Why is water blue?". Journal Chemical Education. 1994. p. 612. 

The above quote speaks volumes to the Christian who understands that God spoke all things into existence.

How often does God think of you?

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! [If] I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” Psalm 139:17-18 bold mine

This is an amazingly comforting thing to consider… that God’s thoughts for us… thoughts that we know from Jeremiah 29:11 are thoughts of peace and not to harm us… are more in number that the sand.

When I was thinking on this in prayer the Lord impressed something amazing on my heart.

I was considering all of the sand on all of the beaches in the world and thinking to myself, “Wow!  He thinks of me more than all of this sand!”  And this is what the Lord said to me in a very gentle, still small voice…

“That’s just the sand you see… the ocean floor is covered with it.”

Praise God that His thoughts toward us are so great in number!  (About 70% of the earth is covered by ocean.)

So when you wonder how much God thinks about you… consider that over 70% of the earth is covered with sand, and that each grain represents a thought of God for you… and that if you were able to count them…

you would still come up short…

He thinks about you more.

SDG

Ignorance is bliss?

Okay, we need to get something straight here… 

Ignorance is a choice.  It is not an excuse.  It has a level of personal accountability within it. 

Why… because ignorance is choosing to ignore.  It is not “not knowing” something.  We can not be held accountable for what we do not know…

but there are real consequences to knowing something and choosing to ignore it…

Love “rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6)

When we think of all of the things that love does and that love is we too often forget that sometimes love is hard to live out.

At the end of the day when we ask ourselves, “What would love do?” we have to realize that love rejoiceth in the truth.  It doesn’t just joy once, but it joys again… in double measure.

How can love rejoice?... Because God is Love.

Think on that for a moment.  When we look at the famous “love” passage we are not just talking about ways that we can demonstrate love…

Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord in vain...

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7

I grew up thinking that this meant I couldn’t swear using the Lord’s name.  And while it is definitely disrespectful and dishonoring (therefore a sin, since sin is dishonoring God) I don’t believe that this is the heart of the verse. 

I believe there is more, and I believe that it is personal.  As Christians we need to fully understand this commandment… not because we will be damned if we don’t follow the law but because…

A daily Prayer

I thought I would share a prayer with you that has helped me in my walk.  I pray that it would be an encouragement to all who read it.

Lord,

That I would trust in You with all my heart, and lean not unto my own understanding.
That I would acknowledge You in all my ways, so that You will direct my path.
That I would delight myself in You...

The difference a letter makes...

It is better to prAy than to be prEy. 

Prayer is an ongoing conversation with the Lord... that the Lord Himself starts.  Whenever you get a desire to pray, know that it comes from God... it is His way of saying, "There is something I would like to talk to you about."  Or, "I just want to hear your voice."

Hard to move...

I am quite possibly the most stubborn human alive.  When I have made my mind up... changing it is extremely difficult to say the least.  It is a fault I have.  I'll admit.  Or should I say, "I confess."  (Doesn't matter what you say because I am going to do it my way anyway.)

So I wonder if the Lord can speak to such a stubborn fool like me.  I know that there are many in the Bible, like Jonah, and Peter, who were stubborn... strong-willed if you will... that the Lord did speak too in spite of their disposition.  But I am not sure that I can even think myself able to be counted among those men of God.

But there is one character in the Word that sounds alot like me...

After we have seen...

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" (Romans 8:24)

Do we ever realize that when the Lord shows us a healing... we don't need faith to see it again?  It moves from the realm of faith into the security fortress of confidence.  Faith is evidence of things not seen.  So when we see it, just as with hope...

March 27th, 2010 vision

On March 27^th, 2010 I had a visions. In the vision I saw as it were, a river flowing from east to west.  I was on the south bank of the river standing beside a bridge on my right that crossed over to the northern bank.  On the northern bank I saw a great forest of barren trees.  They had no branches below 30 feet and then all of the branches pointed straight upward.  The northern bank between the beginning of the trees and where it met the water was sloped.  The ground beneath the trees was completely covered with the leaves that had fallen from the trees so that I could not see the grass.  To the north beyond the trees was a large mountain that stretched to a completely blue sky.  To the left of the mountain as I looked, which was the right side of the mountain, a second mountain appeared.  It was slightly smaller than the first mountain.  Then I saw all the trees sliding towards the river as though the ground was moving.  As the trees began to enter the river I noticed that beyond the forest from the side of the mountain opposite the second mountain can running a large black bear with its mouth open.  I was running at the forest and I perceived that it was from the bear that the trees were running.

Arise, shine

Arise, shine; for thy light is come

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee

Stand fast and be firm; for His love will give power

And He'll be raised up for all men to see

We were once walking in darkness

Stumbling on the stones of our sins

But He has come in His light to redeem us

If only we place our trust in Him

SDG

Too much salt?

I never thought of God as a Baker before.  But I am realizing now, that in one of His roles… that is exactly what He does.

I used to think of Him just as a Potter.  Well… not just as a Potter… but when I consider that He is the Potter and we are the clay… the idea did of Him “working together all things for our good” fit well into that paradigm.

Then the Lord touched my heart and asked me, “What do you do when you add too much salt?”

Amazing sorrow...

Today is 3/16.  So I thought it appropriate to just remember the following truth:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16

It is probably to most well known verse in the Bible.  We see it at sporting events, on bumper stickers, hats, and T-shirts. 

But maybe, just maybe… we have become too familiar with it. 

We can recite it on command.  But does it still break our heart?

Two of the most painful moments in my life were when I had to stand by and watch my son and my daughter endure physical pain. 

Checking your baggage

Last week we discussed the seven possessions of an effective follower: Humility, Obedience, Patience, Honesty, Integrity, Curiosity, and Openness.

On this journey down the road called life we want to make sure we are prepared.

It should not surprise us that when preparing for a long journey or trip, we need to take inventory.  But taking inventory serves two purposes: to see if we need to get anything to bring and, to see what we have that we shouldn’t bring.

We have looked at our list of possessions, and they for certain are on the list to be checked.  If we don’t possess them, then we need to change that.  However, we must also get rid of things that would slow us down; things that are contrary to our intended result; things that weigh us down.

We will first look at some possessions many of us carry with us always that not only need to be removed from the list for this journey, but also need to be altogether destroyed.  We will look at two quick checklists of what we need to drop.  The first hits us hard from scripture in the Epistle to the Colossians; the second in reality is a list of the conflicting possessions to those that we have identified as necessary.  If you own any of these, you will be double-minded, and we know that “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Getting in the gates…

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name.” Psalm 100:4

What an amazing God we have!  When we have need, we can go directly to Him.  We can go through the gate.  We can enter the courts of the Most High and ask for whatever it is that we need.

By thanking Him and praising Him.

Seems backward doesn’t it.  If order to get something from God (I speak roughly here…) we need only to thank Him for it.  We need to praise Him.

Praise is a response to what God does.  (Worship is a response to Who God is.)

While in the world it would seem that we have to first get an audience with the one who has the means to provide, and then we need to make our case in the court in order to see if we will be granted our request…

In the Kingdom everything is upside down from what we know…

Hot Buttons

As Christians we hurt each other more than the world could ever hurt us.  Like siblings in a big family we jockey for position, we put each other “in our places,” we accuse one another of having spirits contrary to Christ. 

Which may be…

…but we joy too much in bringing that truth to light… not to build up… but to put down. 

And what a difference that line makes.

We are never more hurt than when it comes from our brethren.  But we shouldn’t be surprised.  They know our strengths… they know our weaknesses… they know their own.

Those closest to us are the ones who can hurt us the most. 

We need to take responsibility for who we are to others.  Regardless of where we came from…
we need to let God take us to a new place.  No matter what others call us… we need to let Him dictate who we are.  Like Jabez…

Dinner for one?

“this do in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

I found it amazing that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spent His whole ministry pointing people to the Father.  He beckoned people to come to Him to see the Father, to know the Father, to desire the Father.

He was obedient and faithful unto death.  And He did all things to glorify the Father. 

Even when His disciples asked Him how they should pray… He told them to begin by saying, “Our Father.”

Anything we ask the Father in Jesus name we are given.

But He did give us one thing that we can do for Him… just for Jesus…

When we are ready

“Do you want to do something, or do you want to be a part of what I’m doing?”

That was the question the Lord asked me when I was getting frustrated with the timing of one of His promises.  I began trying to do my own thing… to take the skills and the talents the Lord had given me and bring it to pass in my own strength.

When the Lord asks you a question like this… the answer is pretty obvious.

So I tucked my tail between my legs and dropped down on the floor in humility, hoping He would scratch my belly.

It is a tough place to be in… a place of readiness.  When we are ready (or so we think) to move forward with Him… or FOR Him… and things just don’t seem to be happening.

We know that the Lord requires a sacrifice of the heart: a broken and contrite spirit.  We know that He desires a sacrifice of praise.

So we get out to building an altar.  And we try to make it look as good as we can.  But what does He have to say about that?

Peter’s nick-names

Pete often gets a bad wrap.  We saw in the “Get thee behind me” post that sometimes people put too much on him that they shouldn’t.

Well, it wasn’t just that time.

There is another time where we see one of the Lord’s nick-names, a term of endearment if you will, for Peter.  It is in Matthew 14:28-31 Jesus comes walking on the water.  Let’s take a look.

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit: The unpardonable sin

“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy [against] the [Holy] Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the [world] to come. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by [his] fruit.” Matt 12:31-33

What is it to blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, commonly called “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” and how do we know if we have committed it?

Moreover, if Christ died for our sins in fulfillment of the scriptures, and John 3:16 rings through the heavens, and the “whosoever” that come to believe in Him have everlasting life…

How is it, then, that there is a sin that Jesus says cannot be forgiven? 

To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to deny that the Holy Spirit is God. 

Get to work…

Don’t you love it when the Lord just opens things up?!

He touched my heart one day and showed me that the difference between work and worship was who you were doing it for.

If you are doing it for anyone but God… it is work… no matter what it is you do.  It will take energy and produce only as much as you put into it.  It’s like the law of conservation of energy.  What comes out can not exceed what goes in.

But when you are doing it for God… no matter what it is… it is worship.  And then what comes from that doesn’t come out as much as it comes down from the throne room of grace and we are astounded by it.

So then, when it says in John 14:12 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” what is it talking about?

The road called life

A man walked down the road called life

He schooled himself well, got a job, and a wife

To them three children soon did come

Two lovely daughters and a handsome son

It seemed to all who were able to see

This wealthy man was happy as could be

To the eye ‘twas true what the people did find

But what they could not see was inside his mind

He longed for something no money could buy

Something precious and larger than sky

He couldn't quite place his finger on it

So on a bar stool this fellow did sit

And while he wondered what it could be

The bartender gave him a drink for free

Possession 7: Openness

Openness allows me to give.

Characterized by general accessibility and having a generous attitude.

In order to be effective followers of Jesus we must possess openness to Him.

When Jesus called Zaccheus from the tree and said, “I will dine with you today,” openness took on a wonderful meaning.  Zaccheus was a selfish, crooked tax collector.  He charged more that was right and got rich off the interest.  What he lacked in physical stature he more than made up for in material possession.  And everything he had he held on to, with a death grip.  But when Jesus saw Zaccheus in the tree, trying so hard to just catch a glimpse of Him, he rewarded that effort and went to his home.

Zaccheus opened the doors of his house and as a result, he himself became open.  He gave back to those he stole from and generously distributed part of his wealth to the poor.  He let go.  He was holding so tightly to what he had managed to acquire that he had become incapable of accepting anything that was being offered to him.  After Zaccheus gives his declaration of release of the control of his possessions, after he opens more than his doors, but his wallet as well, with his arms now open and empty, he is ready to receive.

“Salvation has come to this house today!”  Did Christ say this to tell us that if we give money to others we can gain salvation?  Did He want us to think that we could purchase a mansion on the streets of heaven the same way we could a house in the Hamptons?  No.  He wanted us to see that if we have any reluctance to release what we have, then we will not be able to accept His offer of forgiveness. “What is it to a man if he gains the whole world and looses his soul?” 

Lord,

That we would understand openness to You.  That we would learn to release that which is preventing us from holding on to You.  That we would be accessible to You and generous to You and those You love with our time and the blessings you have given us.  Help us to guard our hearts, our minds, and our souls from those things that would contradict Your will for us, but to let Your Spirit fill us to overflowing.

Amen.

SDG

Possession 6: Curiosity

Curiosity allows me to learn.

Curiosity: express an interest in, desire to know, inquisitiveness

Curiosity creates closeness.

Solomon is considered the wisest man to ever live.  Taking Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon together paints an amazing picture of this wisdom.  Other parts of scripture describe the wisdom in action, most memorably his judgment between the two mothers over the one child.   Solomon did not always have this wisdom.

As the story goes, The Lord God asked Solomon what he would desire.  Solomon asked for a wise and understanding heart.  This request pleased the Father so much that He not only honored the request, but also gave him riches and honor as well.  I always read the story as God having given Solomon wisdom.  I read it wrong.  Wisdom is the result, the expected end if you will, of what God gave Solomon: namely a wise and understanding heart. 

            It is what Solomon did with this gift that produced the wisdom he is so famous for.  What did he have that leveraged the gift; what did he do that we can pay close attention to?  He was curious.  Don’t believe me?  Solomon was always seeking to understand.  He was perpetually curious.  “Look to the ant,” he says at one point.  “I gave my heart to seek and search out,” at another point.  And consider the entire book of Proverbs.  Many of the sayings are from others that he determined to listen to.  His wise and understanding heart discerned the good from the bad, but he knew how to find those from whom he could learn.  He attributes his instruction to his father, his mother, other kings, ants and spiders, conies in the rocks and snakes on the ground.  His insatiable desire to understand, his constant curiosity, his childlike questioning: Why? Why? Why? 

Lord,

I ask that You give me a wise and understanding heart.  Help me to seek and search out, to express an interest in all that You would have me to as I follow you.  Give me the discernment to know good from evil along the way and to ask “Why?” from a humble and honest heart, that you may teach me.

Amen.

 

SDG

Possession 5: Integrity

Integrity guides what I do

“The integrity of the upright shall guide them…” (Proverbs 11:3a)

I was once told that integrity was defined as “keeping your actions and intentions aligned.”  I like that definition and find it to be extremely applicable in many areas of life.  When we looked at the list of things to leave behind we saw that the opposite of integrity is corruption.  People who are corrupt often do not keep their actions and intentions aligned.  But there was a critical element missing from this definition, something deeper, something that, without it, you actually open up the door for the question, “If the intentions are evil, and the actions evil, hasn’t the evil one acted with integrity?”  It is a classic “if-then” Venn diagram.  And it is a valid question.  When Shakespeare said “to thine own self be true” he didn’t mention whether “thine own self” was a saint or a brigand.  So there must be more to integrity.  There must be a more certain meaning.

We find it in scripture.

“But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity.”  (Psalm 26:11a)

The word here in Greek is “tom.”  One definition of this word is given as “innocence.”  As followers we are to carry our innocence with us.  Innocence is a freedom from guilt or sin.  Because we have been made whole and forgiven through the atoning work on the cross, because we have been washed and covered by His blood, we are innocent going forward.  Even, we are counted innocent completely.  And the key point of that innocence is the freedom we experience.  “Who the Son sets free is free indeed.”    We are no longer slaves to sin and death, but rather have been bought, redeemed, by our Savior.  It is in this purchasing of our souls, and the gift of eternal life we receive, that the Father declares us innocent, not guilty, free from the shackles that would carry us to the grave.  We will need this freedom if we are to be effective in our pursuit of His glory.  If we are to follow Him with all of who we are.  Innocence is like a clear canvas, a clean slate, on to which Christ can paint as He will.  

Possession 4: Honesty

Honesty interprets what I see

Adherence to the facts. 

I never thought of honesty as that.  I thought of it as simply telling the truth.  Which is true itself, but then I remembered a show I saw where a conversation went like this:

Person 1:  “Well what did you tell her?”

Person 2:  “I told her the truth.”

Person 1:  (makes a face implying disbelief)

Person 2:  “… as I see it.”

While there are things that are true and indisputable, there are also ways to present a situation in a way that benefits the person saying it.  There is a bias that exists.  But honesty adheres to the facts.  Without honesty, without this adherence to the facts, judgment is clouded.  Honesty, true honesty, not only removes the clouds but it allows the actions or the situations to be evaluated and discerned separate from those who might be involved.  Think about it, “whatsoever things are honest,” we are to think on.  As troubling as these facts might be, without understanding them completely, without having a full adherence and true perspective of them, we cannot judge them correctly or act accordingly. 

Possession 3: Patience

Patience focuses my vision

“An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains.”  Dutch Proverb

“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”  (Psalm 37:7)

“They that wait upon the Lord…” (Isaiah 40:31)

My wife gave me a small coin engraved with the image of an eagle with its wings spread and the location of one of God’s promises to us, “Isaiah 40:31.”  On the back of the coin reads the following:

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings as eagles.  - Isaiah 40:31

I am looking at the coin right now.  I try to carry it with me always.  It gives me hope and confidence.  It encourages me to follow.

Possession 2: Obedience

Obedience opens my ears.

“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross.”  Philippians 2:8

         

          If we are to be followers of Christ; if we are to represent Him here; if we are to follow in His footsteps… then we must be obedient.  The above verse sums up the core of what allowed Him to accomplish what He was sent here to do.  It shows us the key to the ever-faithful phrase “Thy will be done.”  Obedience.   

            Obedience is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as “a sphere of jurisdiction.”  One of the definitions of jurisdiction is “the limits or territory within which authority may be exercised.”  But before we look more deeply into that aspect of the term let us also consider another facet of “obedience,” that of hypēkoos : the Greek that is used for “obedient” in Phil 2:8.  It can be translated as “Giving ear, obedient.”