According to His Will

     Following choir rehearsal the other night, I was asked to close in a word of prayer and lift up the requests voiced that evening.  It is always a blessing and a privilege to come before our Lord and lift up the needs of others because we know that He hears us.  How do we know that?  The Bible tells us so in James 5:16 says:  "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."  When we share our prayer concerns, confess our sins one to another and our need for healing,  God will hear us if we come with a humble heart before His throne.  There is one caveat in all this.  The Lord answers according to His sovereign will for us.

     Because Jesus Christ died for our sins and imputed to us His righteousness, we are now able to come before God the Father and make our requests known to Him.  In my prayer closet, I hold nothing back when I pray.  I tell the Lord exactly how I feel and what I would like to see happen in certain situations.  After all, God tells us to "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:16).  Jesus also told us that we are to come to Him when we are weary and He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28).  This is what prayer does for a heavy heart.  We can lay our burdens at the feet of God in prayer.  However, we have to keep in mind that we may ask the Lord to do things a certain way, and His answer may not be what we expected.  Nevertheless, because He loves us, He hears us and considers what is the best for us and all involved.  This is where trust comes in.  God knows our frame, our weakness, and the old sin nature that we still struggle with.  His ways are not our ways.  So when we pray, and God answers in a different manner, we need to know that He sees the bigger picture.  We also need to remember that He loves us.  Giving His Son as a ransom for us has proven that beyond all doubt.  

     When our grandson Branson was alive, my husband and I prayed daily for his seizures to stop.  His parents were doing all the right things to help him, but still his seizures persisted.  God did answer our prayer, yet not in the way we had expected.  The Lord saw fit to take Branson home to heaven.  Now he has no more seizures or limitations such as he experienced here.  I will not lie.  It was a shock.  Did we somehow lack faith that God could heal him?  Had we somehow not prayed in the right manner?  No, I do not believe that for a moment.  While we do not know why his life had to be so short, we know that we can trust God even in something like this.

     What our family has learned through this experience is that God loves us and comforts us.  He is sovereign and works all things together for good.  He has our back in all situations whether we feel like it or not.  Emotions come and go but God and His Word can be trusted.  We have learned that some mysteries of life are not for us to know  here and now.  God is our Father and He will always do for us what is necessary to conform us to His Son.  

     One thing which we always must remember about prayer is that God is not our butler ready to give us whatever our hearts desire.  We cannot name it and claim it as some teach and believe.  Rather, the Lord is looking for a humble heart ready to obey His commands and bow to His will for our lives.  James 4:3 says:  "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."  Heart motives make all the difference when we come before the Lord.  Remember our purpose here on earth is to glorify God and enjoy HIM forever...not glorify us and get what we want when we want it.  

     As we pray, let us remember that God knows what we need before we do.  He will answer us at just the right time according to His will for us.  Therefore, let us commune with Him daily laying our burdens down.  He will not fail us nor forsake us.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Should We Be Surprised

     Almost every day, news comes across the T.V. of some new injustice or atrocity that has been committed.  We ask ourselves the question,  "How could someone do something like that?"
Increasingly, our world is diving deeper into the garbage dump of human behavior.  According to 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul describes how people will behave in the time before our Lord Jesus Christ returns:  "But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.  Avoid such people."  This sums it up quite well.
     This letter was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Paul between 64 and 68 A.D.  So how did he know how people would behave in the 21st Century?  The answer to this is easy.  We are all afflicted with a sin nature which has been passed down to us from Adam.  Any one of us is capable of all the terrible descriptions given by Paul in the verses above.   Romans 3:23 tells us:  "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Only by the grace and blood of Jesus Christ are we able to have a new nature and heart when we give our lives to Him.  This is reason to praise and thank God that we have been delivered.  However, we do walk in this world and Paul's final words of this passage ring true today:  "Avoid such people."  To put it a different way, the Apostle is telling us to avoid keeping regular company with those who practice this kind of lifestyle.  Still, we are to be a witness to all around us by living a godly life pleasing to the Lord.  That is a difficult task isn't it?
     In fact, Paul goes on in verse 12 of chapter 3 to write this instruction:  "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."  Seems unfair to us that those who practice a life contrary to God's Word seem to have all the money, good luck, and power.  Still, we must think about our brief life here on earth's stage compared to eternity with our Lord.  The evil will not always prosper.  There will come a day when the Lord will judge the hearts of all men and the fulfillment of Psalm 37:9-11 will come to pass:  "For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.  In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;  though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.  But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace."  We might ask, until that day, what should we do?
     Our Lord called us to be salt and light in this world (Matthew 5:13-16).  Even though it may seem we are swimming upstream against the culture,  we must persevere in sharing the Good News and living it before all men.  We will not win all, but God has called us to be His ambassadors.  Persecution will come when we refuse to bow to the whims of the worldly culture, but our rewards in heaven far outweigh anything this world can offer.
     Instead of bemoaning the decline we see and asking how people could act like they do, we need to be willing to share the truth of Christ both in season and out of season as Paul instructs us to do (2 Timothy 4:2).  Our job is to serve Christ by serving others.  Being counter culture is not an easy job, but the benefits of living our faith will last for eternity.  Therefore we should not be surprised by the things we see or read about.  Instead, let us take up the Lord's banner and proclaim His death and resurrection until He returns.  This is the only thing that will bring real change into the hearts of men.  Selah!


Photograph courtesy of Aaron Thayer

The Power of a Good Word

     Several days ago when I was in need of a little encouragement, a friend of mine made such a sweet comment to me.  I knew she meant it and the good word she gave me brought a smile to my face.  We all need a reason to rejoice every day.  After all, this world is filled with many negative encounters, and we all know that life can hand us some difficult situations.  This is all the more reason why we need to share a good word with those around us.
     According to Proverbs 12:25, we read:  "Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad."  Is it any wonder many of us are filled with anxiety on a daily basis?  Consider the newspaper we see each day.  How many good news stories are printed there?  I venture to say it is a rare day when we read something like that.  However, when we do, we find ourselves more upbeat.
     For Christians, the ministry of encouragement is something that everyone can participate in no matter your age.  A simple kind word spoken to someone can make their day so much better.  Ephesians 4:29 reminds us:  "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  If we take time to build up others rather than tear them or others down, think how much of God's grace we are able to share.  Certainly my friend did not have to take time to write me a note when she did, but her words gave me a peace in my heart.  They were good words not corrupting words that only bring more anxiety.
     Not long ago, a salesman came into our office to see if we had made a decision on a product he offered.  He told us confidentially that he really did not need to stop by, but he was trying to break up his schedule since he had a really rough day.  As we talked with him, he alluded to the fact that some on his work team were undercutting his work and taking his customers.  He could hardly believe they would stoop to that.  We spoke a few words of encouragement to him and told him that we appreciated his honesty in dealing with us.  He told us upon departing that he always felt good about coming into our office because we were always so kind and upbeat.  I am sincerely happy that we were able to be a short respite in his otherwise unhappy day.  It doesn't take much to lift someone else up.  A kind word goes a long way.
     Other verses from Proverbs also tell us what a kind word can do.  Proverbs 12:18 says:  "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."  Then in Proverbs 16:24, we read

Kind words written in love make a heart glad!

:  "Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body."  I love the way that good words are likened to sweetness that brings a healing to the soul and heart of another.  Rash words cannot do that, but gracious words can.
     In order to speak a good word to others, we must be rooted and grounded in Christ.  The fruit of our lips come from a heart set right by the Lord.  This is why David prayed to the Lord these words in Psalm 19:14:  "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."  We need to ask God, as David did, to allow us to speak and think acceptable things so that we may produce good words that come from a right heart.
     We also need to look for right opportunities to speak those things which will lift up a brother or sister.  In other words, we need to be ready in season and out of season to speak those things which will edify others.  Colossians 4:6 reminds us:  "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person."  Oh, if only we could stop and think before we speak so that our words are always gracious.
     There are several things in life that we can give in abundance and it doesn't cost us a thing:  1) we can give away our smile to others and 2) we can speak a kind word of encouragement to make someone's day brighter and better.  Consider the many we can offer this too:  shut-ins, our pastors, our church leaders, our fellow employees, our spouses, our family members, and our friends.  The list is endless, but for those of us who are called to be ambassadors for Christ, we can and must make a difference in the lives of others.  Let us start by speaking a good word to another in sincerity.  It can relieve his anxiety, soothe a broken heart, and bring healing to a soul.  May we glorify God with our lips today by graciously speaking kind words to those around us.  Selah!