Prayer

Tis the Season

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:4

Even at his most desperate King David found time to pray, honoring God and acknowledging his prominent place in David's life. The enemy was at his door. He prayed. He made unwise choices. He asked forgiveness. He turned his back on the teachings of God to get his own way. In the end, when it all went to pieces, he prayed. Pray any time and for any reason. God is the all-powerful, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He does indeed know what's going on. But do we? Through prayer we gain strength and understanding. Prayer isn't incidental to our lives; it is essential. God in His heaven; Christ in our hearts; the Holy Spirit an infusing force. Pray any time and for any reason. Prayer is always in season.

Faith

In His Hands

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

The times we need faith most are the times we have our greatest fears. Will God take care of this? Does he fully comprehend how bad… worrisome… unmanageable… sorrowful… depressing… distressing… my life is? Why would He care enough to do anything? Maybe He wants ME to take care of it. And then you start thinking of all the ways you will “fix” your problems without Him, often making things worse, much worse. Faith doesn’t mean sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing. It does mean prayerfully including God in every decision and trusting Him to give you wisdom and discernment. How life turns out from day to day is in His hands. Faith is the most powerful tool of the believer. Faith is the means by which you will get through it all.

Faith: Take wing and fly

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:2

In “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis writes, “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Mother Theresa wrote, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

The message from both these inspirational writers is about faith. Remaining faithful; being courageous in faith; willing to step outside your comfort zone in faith; faithfully resisting that which takes you away from the Light; and standing on faith when the world is falling apart around you.

Lewis returned to his Christian imperative in his thirties. With his new-found faith he wrote compelling narratives calling attention to how the world can shape who we are when we lose faith, not necessarily all at once, but rather by dribs and drabs, an undone thing here, an unkind or thoughtless word there.

Mother Theresa dedicated her entire life to serving the helpless and the hopeless, stepping out in faith, not that all would be well, but that she had a job to do and that job was right in front of her to be done now. Not later, not tomorrow, not when she had time, but now, in this moment. Today.

Faith in the God of all takes us out of our self-imposed prison of ennui and gives us wings.

Believe

Look to the Light 

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Compassion and mercy sound good in theory, until someone you love disappoints you time and again, and you feel guilt and remorse because your parenting skills were woefully lacking. The adult son who struggles with addiction or anger issues seems flawed beyond redemption. The adult daughter, whose poor choices lead her into one abusive relationship after another, from which you cannot – despite your best effort – extricate her. Where does this behavior come from? You did the best job you could, and yet these disappointing examples of your bad parenting are like a shadow on your life.   

Perhaps that’s where the problem begins and ends. The lives of these people you love are based on their personal choices, made outside of your influence, and not necessarily because of it. Perhaps your focus on the shadow obscures the Light. That’s where compassion and mercy abide, in the Light. Compassion means to have sympathy and concern for someone and to show kindness toward them. Mercy extends forgiveness and understanding. Nowhere in there does either of these exact guilt. Nor do they require you to “fix” the other person. Nowhere does it say you need not have compassion and mercy for yourself. God is at work. Know it. Believe it. Live it. Grace abounds, not because of who we are, but because of who God is.

Faith

Learn from the Lord and Lean on Him   

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:27-29

It’s easy to carry around a load of discontent. Life doesn’t go you’re way so you blame God, or your husband, or your irritating neighbor, or your kids, or the most recent thing that didn’t go your way. You strap the anger and frustration on your back and head out into the day. They weigh you down taking the joy out of the good things that do happen and making the bad things even worse. You feel justified in your self-righteous choice to carry the load and add to it. You’ve been mistreated by gum and you have every right to be prickly and uncooperative, snappish and sad. Really? And you’re the only one who’s had a bad day, a bad week, a bad year? We carry our load. We make that choice. We can make a different choice, one that rids us of our burden and takes the weight of discontent off our backs. That choice is Jesus. Find rest in him.

Prayer

God's unknowable plan 

Luke 22:42 – “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Do you pray believing? The strength of prayer is less about the words we choose and much more about the depth of our belief. Impossible outcomes do happen, because they are only impossible in our sight, not God’s. Having written those lines I will  insert the common questions about how, when and why, or in some cases “if” God will indeed answer your prayer, or mine for that matter. Horrific and devastating events do happen, and often after we have prayed our hearts out for a particular outcome. The words I come back to as reassurance and instruction are found in Luke 22:42 – “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus, knowing what was ahead, gave himself into God’s hands – “not my will, your will.” Pray believing, trusting in God’s unknowable plan, His will, not yours, not mine, His.

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Faith

A second Wind

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

How strong are you? How important is it for you to be strong? In what ways would your life be better if you could battle every foe, overcome every obstacle, win every race, endure every heartache, beat all the odds and always be a winner? You already have within your grasp the wherewithal to be that person, not out of pride or a desire to win, but out of faith and a desire to trust. God with us is our saving grace, the one who lifts us when fall, embraces us when we are lonely and chilled by the winters of life. He keeps us above the fray. He gives us our second wind when we are breathless with fear and uncertainty and helps us finish the race, a winner not because of our efforts or because we finished first, but because we finished at all, with His help.