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Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16
A young mom sits alone in the waiting room, waiting for the doctor’s report. Her husband is 1,000’s of miles away. She’s alone. She’s scared. She’s worried for her baby. She earnestly pleads to her Lord Jesus for healing. Moments later the doctor enters. The look on his face tells her the answer. She breaks down in tears as he gently explains the baby’s last moments of life on earth.
A dad tucks in his young children. He looks at the clock. “Where is she tonight? Why hasn’t she called? She promised this wouldn’t happen again. How can she do this to her kids, to me?” He goes to the living room and kneels by the couch and prays, once again, for her. Her unfaithfulness to him hurts, but her unfaithfulness to the kids and to Jesus hurts even more. Earnestly he prays for her safety and for her deliverance. Hours later she comes home drunk, and it’s obvious she’s been in another man’s arms, again.
Pastor Smith listens for the clock to chime. Late again. He wonders where she is. Doubt and worry lead to anger. “Why God? Why can I see you work so strongly in the lives of those in the church and not her? Why do the prayers of her mother and me for our own daughter go unanswered? What has caused her to make these choices that are so radically different from her brother and sisters?” His prayer is interrupted by a door bell. A squad car sits in the driveway. Not again.
It’s been a brutal fight. She’s come to realize why some parents steal their kids to protect them from an angry abusive spouse. All the signs have pointed to her request for her kids to spend less time with their dad have been positive. She has her church praying, her family praying. She’s prayed for his change of heart as well. Then the judge reads the verdict. Her heart melts as the tells the kids the verdict and holds them through terror filled sobs.
Although these stories are fictitious they happen every day. Good people praying earnestly for loved ones. Righteous, faith-filled, Jesus loving moms and dads, pastors, teachers and auto mechanics. Every walk of life. Every denomination. Every country in the world. Praying to a God they trust and believe in for answers that never happen. Where are the wonderful results? Where is their loving Father when they need him most?
Some, to be sure, look at these things as being the final straw. Some turn from him, or blame themselves, or act out in anger. But the person of faith accepts God at his word. Were their words prayers of faith? Yes. Were they asking selfishly? Not from a human perspective anyway. Faith isn’t about believing God answers prayer. Faith is about trusting and accepting God’s answer when it goes against every thing we’d hoped for.
PRAYER: Father God, my prayer today is for my brothers and sisters. For those of us who struggle with our faith from time to time because our prayers aren’t answered as we’d hoped. Help us to trust your answers as best when they seem to be the worst. We know you are a God of hope. We love you. We trust you. Help us grow in that trust. Amen.
“I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 (NCV)
My family is weird. Everyone hopes to have a family that sticks together through thick and thin. A family that understands each other, supports each other, looks out for each other. My family? Well, sometimes we do that but it’s not our nature.
I have sisters that prostitute themselves for a moment’s pleasure. I have brothers that visit porn sites, get involved in extra-marital affairs, and put their own desires above anyone else. Did I mention the ones that struggle with addictive behavior or the ones that completely ignore our family gatherings?
We are an interesting bunch, my family is. We’ll talk about you behind your back and then greet you with a hug or warm handshake. We’ll make your business our business and tell you exactly what you need to do to ‘get straightened out’. We jump from relationship to relationship. We do things we know we shouldn’t do, and then try to rationalize it away.
Yep. My family is weird. I’m not talking of my earthly family, although we are guilty of some of those things. I’m talking about my heavenly family. The heavenly family isn’t made up of people with halos on our heads. We don’t normally walk around in robes chanting spiritual words. There isn’t a one of us that deserves to be called saints.
We can’t really be blamed though. We come from a long line of people just like us. We have a heritage of failure, rebellion, deceit and anger. We murder with our words, wound with our attitudes, and attack from behind with no warning. Some of our most well-known ancestors came from backgrounds that would not be ‘blessed by the church’.
One more thing about my family. Each and every member of my heavenly family was hand-picked by our heavenly Father. He didn’t pick us because of our ability. He didn’t pick us because we could be trusted to follow his example. He didn’t pick us according to our strength or stature. He chose us because he loved us.
Your heavenly Father knows your faults, weaknesses and rebellion. He knows you can’t be trusted, but wants you to know you can trust him. By accepting his free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ you will not be made perfect, but you will join a whole family of imperfect brothers and sisters who will fail, but have a Father that is passionate about us.
My family is weird, but my Father? He is awesome!
PRAYER: Father, Thank you for choosing to allow me to be in your family. I confess I’m not worthy of this honor. I’m not worthy of your grace and forgiveness. Thank you for loving me anyway. Amen.
The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (NCV)
Think about this. No matter where you are on the journey of life, there are certain things that are true for all of us. We were all created by God to be his pride and joy. God’s desire, from the beginning of time is to have a passionate relationship with each of us. A relationship like he had with Adam and Even at the beginning. To walk side by side, arm in arm, hand in hand. To laugh. To talk about the days events. To impart his wisdom, strength and joy to each of us.
Another thing that is true of all of us is that we all want to have our own way. We all seek to fill this void inside of us with things that are contrary to God’s desire for us. David did it when he decided to sleep with another man’s wife. Abraham did it when he took matters into his own hands. Moses did it when he murdered the Egyptian and struck the rock. And the list goes on and on. Your name is on that list.
We’ve all done it, we take matters into our own hands. Tried to fill the void on our own power. Call it sin. Call it poor choices or bad decisions. Call it whatever you want. The result is the same. When you live apart from God there’s an emptiness that can’t be satisfied.
Sin is sin. You can rationalize and say your ‘sin’ isn’t as bad. Really? Worry is just as ‘bad’ a sin as adultery because it breaks your trust in God’s ability to provide. Buying what you can’t afford is stealing from your future because debt ties us down. Legalistic attitudes steal the freedom God intended to give to others.
You can run from him, but that won’t remove the pain. You can ignore him but that doesn’t take away the anger. You can claim he doesn’t exist, but the void won’t go away. You can bury yourself in all sorts of religious activity or social advocacy to hide your pain. That usually only leads to guilt and self-destruction. There is nothing that beats the pain. There is nothing that pays the price…nothing except for Jesus.
Jesus paid the price for your worry. Jesus paid the price for your anger and frustration. Jesus paid the price for the guilt you harbor because of your past. He paid it in full so you can live free. He asks nothing from you except for you to confess (admit) your need for him, and ask forgiveness for your weakness. Nothing else will fill the void in your soul.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I confess to you that there are still many things in my life that I’m trying to control on my own. Thank you for the free gift of forgiveness you have given. Nothing is really free. Thank you for paying the price for my sin when you knew I would fail. 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.
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8 (NLT)
We were camping at the resort owned by a family friend. Every night we’d go to the office store for ice cream. We’d order one scoop but the owner would always give us three with a wink and a smile. One night it was busy and an employee dished our ice cream. We ordered a scoop. She gave us a scoop. Fair enough, but we were a bit taken back. We’d become spoiled. We said nothing about it since we’d been given more than we deserved on other occasions. A short time later the owner came by and saw our dishes. She questioned why we had ‘such a small amount’. I explained what happened but emphasized that is was no big deal. She got up from the table and, a few minutes later, returned with new bowls of ice cream. Three scoops. The owner personally took care of the situation for us.
Perhaps a simple example, but it is always better to go to the owner when you want something done. The personal attention you get from the owner far supersedes the attention even the most dedicated employee can give you. Why? Because the owner isn’t answerable to anyone.
Joshua is about to take over the reins of leadership for the nation Israel. Moses is God. He is God’s man, God’s warrior. He was young. He was nervous. And, he already had a reputation among the people for being a renegade of sorts. You remember Joshua. He was one of the twelve spies that went in to investigate the Promised Land. When everyone else said the task was impossible, Joshua said, “Let’s go for it!”
A true leader has many fears. Perhaps the two biggest ones are:
- Will I lead in the right direction?
- Will the people follow me?
Your heavenly Father promises you that if you rely on him for direction he will not only be with you on the journey, he acts as a scout. He goes ahead of you. He makes sure the way is safe and that every possible danger is known and prepared for.
The second promise the Father makes is that he will never ever abandon you. Others may. Even those we consider trustworthy and loving may turn their backs on you. Not your heavenly Father. He’s prepared to go the distance. He’ll walk with you when no one else will. During those times when you feel inadequate for the task he is there to walk beside you, encourage you to press on, help you to believe in yourself (or his ability to work through you).
Regardless of where you are on the journey remember that you never walk alone and the path you walk has been walked before by a loving, gracious, merciful Father who is passionately in love with you.
PRAYER: Father, I don’t know the future. I feel alone, inadequate for the task and abandoned. Thank you that these are all lies. I’m not alone. I can rise to the occasion with your help. You will never leave me. Amen.
