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“I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don’t let your hearts be troubled or afraid. John 14:27 NCV
It will happen all across the world today. Some places will have seen it by the time you read this. In a variety of ways, places and circumstances, ‘the ball will drop’. As people watch it drop they will celebrate the dawn of a new year.
Some will use this as a new beginning. Old habits will be left behind forever (or temporarily at least), diets will be started (or restarted), resolutions will be pledged, prayer vigils for world peace, eradication of hunger, and a variety of other causes will be staged.
But in all the hysteria, in all the celebration, lurking in the corner of people’s minds will be the monster called fear. Oh, he may lay low for awhile, a day or two, just to make you think that things really will get better. But he’ll be back. He may come in the way of a terrorist attack or natural disaster for a world-wide effect. He may come more subtly too. You could lose your job this year or a loved one or…the inevitable, this could be the year others lose you.
I don’t mean to be some Debbie-downer and spoil your celebration today. I do really hope that each of you will have a happy, blessed and safe New Year. There is one way we can all assure ourselves of a happy New Year regardless of what goes on around us and that is to claim the promise Jesus gives us.
Jesus was well aware of what lay ahead for his disciples when he made this promise. He is well aware of what is in store for you this year too. When Jesus promises peace his promise isn’t for external peace, but for a peace deep inside our soul. It’s a peace that comes to us regardless of the external events of our lives.
So, while I sincerely wish all of you a Happy New Year, my real prayer for you is that you will have a Peaceful New Year grounded in the fact that Jesus Christ loves you, gave his live for you, and promises that no matter how bad things get in 2012, he knows what lies ahead and promises to walk with us along the rugged, painful and sometimes terrifying journey. Jesus is the only real source of peace you will ever find and ever need.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus you’ve heard all the prognostications for 2012. Better yet, you’ve been there and back. My prayer for this world is that we will find the peace you have promised by putting our trust in you. May each of us live a life of peace grounded in you so others will find the way to peace with you as well. Amen.
He makes known secrets that are deep and hidden; he knows what is hidden in darkness, and light is all around him. Daniel 2:22 (NCV)
I love to camp. There is just something about the great outdoors and falling asleep to the soft noises of the night…most of the time. Several years ago I was camping alone in a favorite, nearby state park. At that time I had a small two man tent, just big enough to be cozy and warm in. The site next to me was occupied by a couple of young men. I watched them occasionally from my campfire as I read. In a word, they were strange.
They arrived shortly after I did on Friday night and set up camp. From the start it was obvious they didn’t camp much as they didn’t look prepared to camp at all. Shortly after their arrival they put up pieces of paper on the trees in their sight and then walked away. My curiosity overwhelmed me so I went to check on the paper. They were just a bunch of weird designs. Nothing made sense about these two the rest of the evening.
That night I was awakened by a strange noise. It sounded like someone fighting. No yelling, but the sound of punch after punch finding its mark. Then…silence. A few moments later I heard something that sounded like a body being drug through the woods. Had there been a murder? Was I fully awake or partially dreaming? I didn’t know. I knew one thing though. I was scared!
The sound came closer to my little tent and I froze. I didn’t dare look outside, and didn’t know if I was in danger or not! Then a new sound. The sound of a nearby tree cracking and slowly falling to the ground. I braced for impact. Then, nothing. Complete silence. As you can probably imagine, I didn’t sleep much the rest of the night.
The next morning my friends next door left. I noticed a small tree had fallen on the other side of my campsite, several yards from my tent. To this day I have no idea what I heard or what went on that night. As I thought through things the next morning I ascertained that most likely the thumping sounds were made by a passing bear and the tree could have fallen victim to that bear or just fallen from natural causes.
Physical darkness can be fearful for us, but physical darkness is nothing like the fear we in broad daylight. Those times when we wonder what is going on in secret before our eyes. Evil surrounds us. We question the motives of friends and foe, family members or co-workers.
Making it through the times of emotional or spiritual darkness involves trust and trust, on the human plane is risky at best. We trust our lover and then find we’ve been cheated on. We trust our employers until we hear our jobs are on the line. We trust our children until the police car pulls into the driveway.
Daniel was faced with a challenge. His life depended on the answer he would give. I don’t think Daniel was worried. He didn’t trust the King. He didn’t trust the men surrounding him. But he did trust his God.
You may be going through a period of time in your life when you are confused or scared by what you see around you. You may be nursing the wounds of being cheated on, lied about or deceived. You may have lost faith in all mankind and even started questioning God. During times of fear and confusion trust is the hardest thing to grasp ahold of and the most important thing to cling to.
We may not always know what is going on in the ‘darkness’ of our lives. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our loving, gracious and merciful Father knows. We may have to endure a few times when we don’t understand what is going on around us. But he is a God of light. He doesn’t give light. He IS light. In his perfect time all things will be exposed. You can trust him to see you through the darkness.
PRAYER: Father God, I know these words are true, but it doesn’t make it much easier right now to be honest. I’m scared. I’m worried. I’m hurt. Everyone I’ve trusted has failed me, but I ask that you would empower me to trust you in the darkness. Amen.
The ways of God are without fault. The Lord’s words are pure. He is a shield to those who trust him. Psalm 18:30 (NCV)
We all want to believe in a God of love. Even the atheist wishes there was a God. To them the God they wish they saw simply doesn’t exist based on the perception of how they want the world to operate. In order to ‘not believe in God’ they have a picture in their minds of the God they don’t believe in, a God they wish they had.
The agnostic doubts the existence of the God in their mind. They, like the atheist, evaluate the ‘evidence’ they have gathered in their minds. Their ‘God-picture’ is too fuzzy to know for sure if it exists. They may hope there is a God, but the God of their own definition.
When God doesn’t do what we want him to do it’s never easy to handle. It never has been. When that happens we can react by getting angry with God and give up on this thing we call faith. We can question his actions, his existence, his love for us, or the truth of his word. That doesn’t change who God is, it changes who we are.
We can get angry with ourselves or give up on us. We can tell ourselves God’s demands are too great. We convince ourselves that his ways are irrelevant, or rationalize our way through life by saying things like: “I’m better than they are; I can worship him on my own (which usually means not at all); If he really did love me he would….” But getting angry with ourselves only robs us of the joy we can have through Jesus.
We can blame others. Take God out of the picture completely. If they hadn’t done this, I’d be okay. I get no respect here, I can’t [do my job; get good grades; be the parent I should be; succeed] in this environment because of they way ‘they’ treat me.
But when God doesn’t act the way we want there is one more thing we can do. It’s the hardest of all to do because it can go against everything our finite, human minds tell us to do. When God doesn’t do things the way we want him to we may have to admit the maybe, just maybe, he knows more about this journey called life than we do.
He’s walked the road you’ve walked. He’s prepared the way for you. He never promised a care-free life here on earth, but he promised to walk with you through illness, divorce, financial collapse, natural disasters, and even your own failures and mistakes.
His ways are without fault, but sometimes they are also without understanding. That doesn’t change who he is, it only offers you an opportunity to grow in faith that he will do what he says he’ll do.
PRAYER: Father God, help me to grow in faith during those times I don’t understand your ways. Keep me from anger towards you, myself or others when things don’t go as I wish. Help me to lean on your words and trust you for my protection. In your name, Amen.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)
When the Russian Cosmonauts went into space in the 1950s they reported there was no sign of a creator God and no evidence of creation.
It seems ironic that the very sky these men saw as proof of God’s ‘non-existence’ is the same sky that reminds me of the awesomeness of his creation! New advances in technology have given new evidence of a vast, uncharted universe. Planet earth is a tiny speck in the grand scheme of the universe and mankind an even smaller speck.
Still, there are people who echo the words of the cosmonauts. They don’t, of course, make their prognostications from a spaceship. They do it from a classroom, an easy chair in front of the TV, and on the street corner. They wonder about God’s presence in the hospital room, the disaster relief office and the courtroom.
When times are good our search for God isn’t usually a priority. But when the journey of life becomes full of potholes and boulders it’s different. During those times when we realize we can’t fix what we are facing, we look for someone who can.
Many have sought God, and frankly, have found him to be non-existent. Prayers have gone ‘unanswered’. The cancer has come back. The lost child has been found murdered. The divorce has become final. The accident victim dies. In all of this, the question screams out: “So, where is God now?”
I don’t mean to minimize the pain and agony life brings our way, nor do I intend to categorize all of our emotions into a one-size-fits-all approach. But in the midst of our crisis of faith we need to honestly ask ourselves a question.
Do we diligently seek God as he is or do we seek the God we want? Some view God as a Santa Clause type individual. The God they want sees them being good and brings toys to good girls and boys. Of course, this philosophy never allows for the naughty list. Santa loves everyone.
Others seek a vending machine God. This God is a little more pleasant to the senses. If you are good, he will reward. Save up your good acts. Be a moral person. Go to church. Follow the Ten Commandments. Help old ladies across the street. Be involved in your community. End result: Blessings of God.
A diligent seeking after the God who is requires our faith in a God that may not always be understood, but is always love. His actions are beyond comprehension, but his forgiveness is without requirement. He’s not about what you do, or have done. He’s about what Jesus has done and can do in your life. He’s not a tame God. He can’t be put in a box. But his thoughts, his actions, his desire is for you and you alone.
PRAYER: God, I’m having a hard time understanding how you work. So many times I’ve sought you without relief. I now realize I was looking for the God I want, not the God I need. Show yourself to me in a new and amazing way so that I can grow in a love relationship with you. Amen.
Yes, everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened. Matthew 7:8 (NCV)
Do you remember when you were a little child as Christmas approached? Maybe your parents brought you to the local mall to ‘meet Santa’. The beamed proudly as you sat on some strange man’s lap and told him all the things you wanted for Christmas. Do you remember the disappointment when there was no pony under the tree? When you didn’t get the ball glove you told Santa about? By the way (side trip!), did you ever wonder why, if Santa knew when you were sleeping, when you were awake, and how well you behaved, he had to ask what you wanted for Christmas?
There’s a tendency in our human nature to think of God in the same way we grew up thinking about Santa Claus. He gives good gift if we are nice and bad gifts, or no gifts, if we are bad. Two things for you to remember. Santa Claus isn’t real (sorry for the disappointment so close to Christmas) and, secondly, God isn’t Santa Claus.
When Jesus talks about our relationship with the Heavenly Father he talks about commitment and endurance. Your Heavenly Father is committed to you. Period. In our world that’s hard to really comprehend. Sadly, fathers in our society are portrayed as bumbling idiots more intent on watching football than building relationships. Many of us men have lived up to that image.
I’ll say it again. Your Heavenly Father is like no other father you have ever known. You are his one priority. You are his pride and joy. Nothing else matters. So, when you are struggling with life ask. Not just once. Your Father is committed to you. Be committed to him. Don’t just ask once and forget about it. Persistent prayer, committed conversation with your Father helps you to see his feelings as well as evaluate your own.
Secondly, seek. Not occasional glances. Not hurried requests. To seek means you look deeply at every possible solution to find what how God wants to bless you. It’s too easy to pray once and figure if we don’t get what we want, God doesn’t care. Fact of the matter is, you may be asking him for a stone when he really wants to give you bread. You may be longing for a snake without realizing it when all the while he wants to give you a fish.
Unanswered prayer is really God’s way of telling us he has something better in mind. Grace teaches us to realize he will never let us down. Faith says we’ll trust his wisdom over our desires. It takes time. It takes commitment. It takes trust. God has all the time in the world. He’s totally committed to your well-being. All he asks is for your persistent trust.
PRAYER: Father, when I pray it’s so easy to be lured into the trap of thinking you are a vending machine god that gives according to what I put into our relationship. Help me to have the wisdom to seek your direction and the courage to follow it. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 