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Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
This may be more a ‘guy’ thing than a trait of the human race, but have you ever noticed how hard it is to ask for help on some project? If something is too heavy for you but you can ‘manage to move it’ you risk hurting your back before asking for help. You make due with the wrong tool before going to the neighbor to borrow his when you know he has just what you need and will be happy to loan it to you. You struggle with some problem at home or at work for hours before asking for advice on how to get it done. Come on now, admit it. You’ve done it. We all have.
Why is that? What is it within our human psyche that makes us risk our very lives before asking for help? It could be that we think the job is too small to ask for help. Even though it’s more than we can handle we don’t want to bother someone else with our problems. Perhaps it’s a question of image. We feel like we’ll look bad, inadequate or stupid for seeking out assistance, or that we aren’t worthy of anyone’s help.
What’s true in our physical lives is true in the spiritual realm as well. When a severe crisis happens like cancer or job loss or relational destruction, we ask for prayer. We even pray ourselves. Usually people pray more often in crisis than any other time.
We read verses like Hebrews 4:16 and may be misled into thinking that the verse is telling us that we can (or should) only approach God in our time of need. However, we may insert ‘great need’ in there without thinking.
We look at our lives and think we shouldn’t bother God with trivial things in life, only the big things. We remember our failings and hesitate to come to him because there is sin in our lives. We look at people who don’t believe in prayer and take the attitude that ‘if they don’t need help, I don’t need help.’
Here’s a tidbit of advice for all of us as we go about our day; as we encounter the little annoyances of our life. Don’t believe the lie that God is only interested in hearing from you in crisis. He wants to hear about everything going on.
Have a problem with a co-worker talking too much at work? Tell your Father in heaven about it. Can’t quite figure out how to finish that project at home? Tell him that too. As Christ-follower we need to constantly remind ourselves that God isn’t in heaven. He’s here! We pray the Lord’s Prayer and ask his Kingdom to be here on earth but live as though he’s far away.
Your Heavenly Father is with you 24/7. No problem is too large or too small for him to handle. Nothing you can do or say to him will be considered unimportant or uninteresting. After all. YOU are HIS child! What loving father doesn’t look forward to hearing about his child’s day? He cherishes the time he can have with you.
PRAYER: Father I confess that this verse is one I think of often when I’m in crisis. There are so many times I avoid asking for help because of my own feelings of inadequacy, guilt or because I don’t think it’s important enough to bother you. Forgive me for thinking you aren’t interested or willing to help me in the mundane things of life. Empower me to see you as a constant, present and interested friend. In Jesus name, Amen.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:13-15
In his novel, Roots, Alex Haley traces the story of his family through several generations to find where he came from. Although the book’s validity was later questioned, it began a huge movement by people to search their ancestry to gain a picture of where they came from and, in a sense, what some of the things were that made them what and who they were ‘today’.
While revisiting our ancestors can be interesting and help us to gain insight into what went into making us what we are today, it’s far more important to realize who we were in the spiritual realm.
Read Colossians 2:13-15 on more time carefully and thoughtfully. “You were dead.” There isn’t a lot of good about dead people. Dead people don’t accomplish much. They don’t hold much value. Dead people are…well…dead. Dead athletes and dead politicians and dead homeless people are all pretty much the same…dead. The playing field is pretty level among dead people.
Read on. “God made you alive.” Mull that over in your mind. You were dead. God made you alive. Notice there are no qualifiers here. Nothing that says “Some of you helped God make you alive.” No hints that God made some of us ‘more alive’ than others. You were dead and God made you alive. Period.
What would your world be like if you treated everyone around you with the attitude that says “You were dead. I was dead. God made us alive. Therefore we are completely equal.” How would you respond to the person with a different political agenda or a different family background or different worship preferences or different sexual orientations?
Would people be more likely to listen to you if they knew that you accepted them as equals? Would you be more patient, more forgiving, more accepting of others if you kept in mind that they are no better or no worse than you are in God’s eyes?
When your path crosses the life of a person who is struggling with life remember your roots. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in a nice, safe, respected ‘Christian family’ or if you were the victim of abuse and dysfunction. In God’s eyes we all have the same past. Dead. Dead but made alive by Him through Jesus Christ.
The best news of all is, that even though you were dead, not only are you alive now, but your spiritual enemies have be completely disarmed! They are helpless and powerless beings whose only hope is that you will forget that you have the power, through Jesus, to defeat them.
Remember where you came from. Live in the power you have now because of Jesus!
PRAYER: Father God. I thank you for your great love and forgiveness. I ask that as I rub shoulders with the people in my world I would remember that I am no better or no worse that they are. I have all I have and am all I am because of Jesus alone. Empower me to live with that in mind. In Jesus name. Amen.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
A storm moves through in the middle of the night. The windows shake from the wind. The yard is as light as mid-day from frequent lightning. On one particular crash of thunder small feet are heard running down the hall. As if with one motion she snuggles in securely between her mom and dad. ‘Safe from the storm’ she soon falls back asleep completely oblivious to the raging storm outside.
What was it that drove the little one to the arms of her father and mother? Were they able to save her from the storm? Should a tornado have wiped out the neighborhood would she have been spared because she was in their arms? The storm certainly didn’t let up. It wasn’t any quieter in their room.
What drove her to the arms of her parents was the calm assurance in her mind that safety rested there. In the arms of her father the lightning became a nothing more than a light show. The sounds of the wind, rain and thunder became music to lull her to sleep. The storm could be weathered just fine when she was in the arms of her father.
When we rest in the arms of our Heavenly Father there is calmness in the storm. He is God. He is holy. The word ‘Holy’ is a word that means set a part. One notch above the rest of the world. Unaffected by circumstances.
Because he is a holy God, the things that frighten me have no effect on him. The things that pull me down won’t contain him or change his focus or actions.
When I fail it affects how I view myself. It affects how I react to other people. It changes my outlook on life. Small problems seem bigger. Mole hills become mountains. But when I fail it doesn’t affect how God views me. Not with Jesus by my side.
When I struggle with sin I feel hopeless and defeated. But with God there is no such thing as hopeless. Defeat isn’t in his vocabulary. When life takes different turns for me and I don’t understand how I got in the situation I’m in, I get confused and discouraged. God never gets discouraged, never gets sidetracked, never gets distracted by simple, mortal earthly things. He is on a higher plain which is unaffected by humans.
I can’t control everything that comes my way. I can’t change decisions that I’ve made in the past that haunt me now. I can’t see the future so that my choices today will guarantee my comfort or safety. I can’t control everything that comes my way…but my God can.
PRAYER: Holy Father. As the storms of life swirl around me today there will be times when fear grips me like an iron fist. Times when confusion clouds my ability to choose wisely. Times when I want to lash out rather than listen. Empower me by your Spirit during these times to be still. Even though life may be loud around me, help me to be still in your arms of safety and love. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? John 14:2
Life has been described by some as a journey and in many ways it is. There is, however, an aspect of life which drives us to find a place to settle in, to find our niche’ in life, to find contentment, peace and fulfillment.
We look for this place in a variety of ways. For some it’s relationship. We have the need to love and be loved, and love looks different to different people. All too often relationships in and of themselves fail us. Love grows old. Our perspective on life changes. Things attack and seek to destroy relationship. When relationship dies, we find ourselves without a place in the journey.
Career is another avenue along the journey that people take to find their ‘place’ in life. Years of schooling, hours of hard work, sacrificing important things, including relationships, all for the goal of finding contentment and fulfillment in life. Times change. We grow old. But the luster of the almighty dollar becomes more of a burden than a blessing.
These are just two ways we seek to find our ‘place’ in this journey called life. You can add your own. It may be choosing friends over family, or family over friends; it may be religion and the hopes that your piety will win you some favor with your gods and man; it could be some addiction which allows you a few moments of escape from the potholes and rocks along the path; it could be community service and drowning your own pain by helping others out of theirs.
What ever it is we seek along this journey we come to the realization that Jesus was right after all. One day as he was talking with his disciples about the cost of following him he made the statement “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20.
In this is a truth we each must come to grips with. Even if we are Christ-followers and walk close to our Heavenly Father. Even if our relationships with God and man are strong and filled with love, grace and mercy, there’s emptiness in our soul that longs for a place of rest.
Dear pilgrim, let me remind you, as many New Testament writers have, that we are sojourners in a foreign land. This world is not our home. The more we seek a resting place, the more we realize that in spite of the comfort of our resting places, the rest is temporary.
One day, though we will rest! We will find a place where we will finally be able to fill the gaping space in our souls. A place where we will have and be and do all that we were created to do.
Jesus says, “I’m going to prepare a place…” Not just any place. Not a one-size-fits all place. Jesus left to go and prepare a place designed just for you! I like the idea of ‘rooms’. Special places in a large home where we can enjoy our time alone, yet always be close to those we love!
PRAYER; Father God, I often lose sight of what it really means to be on a journey. So many times I’ve tried to find ‘home’ in the things of the world and been disappointed in the result. Empower me with your Spirit to live in the realization that this world is not my home. With all the good things I’ve been blessed with, I look forward to coming home to you, to a place you have prepared just for me. Thank you for loving me so much! In Jesus name, Amen.
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. John 9:31
Imagine how you would feel if the person you loved more than anything else in the world would only say the same lines every day to you. The responses were predictable, rehearsed and said largely in a monotone. Some days there would be NO conversation at all. Some times there would be new words but only if there were some crisis or your cherished one wanted something from you. Would you look forward to spending time talking with that person?
Suppose you caught your child with his hand in the cookie jar. As you reprimand him/her for taking a cookie you get an apology. But as you listen to the apology your child continues to eat the cookie…and take another one! Would you consider his words as sincere?
What if you were sitting talking at a coffee shop with a dear friend who you hadn’t seen in years. You are trying to listen to what your friend has to say but the subject line seems to change without warning. Thoughts are left unfinished and on occasion your friend simply stops talking as though they have run out of things to say. Once or twice you were sure they had even dozed off! To make things worse, you aren’t allowed to even say a word and when you tried you know you weren’t heard!
I’m guessing, in the first instance you would question the reality of the person’s love for you. In the second instance the apology of the cookie-munching thief would be meaningless. The coffee shop talk? Frustrating to say the least.
Now think of those same three scenes and change characters. Imagine that it’s God that is listening to the words of his loved one. It’s you that rehearses your canned conversation on a daily basis. And while you are apologizing for your mistakes (cookie-snatching) you make no effort to change your actions.
Then there is the scene in the coffee shop. Do you think that if God were sitting across the table listening to your chatter he’d come to a point where he’d realize he didn’t need to be there? That you could carry on this conversation without him…or anyone else for that matter?
Take time to listen to your prayers. If God were visible would your pray differently? Would your words have more meaning? Would your worship be more and your requests be less? Would you listen for his response more and complain about your life less?
Meaningful, effective prayer comes when we look at it as conversation and not a one-way discourse. Your heavenly Father is passionate about you. Let that sink in for a moment. He’s a passionate lover who smiles every time he sees you. His heart skips a beat when he hears your voice. His attention hangs on every word from your mouth.
But often our prayers are rote and trite phrases. We forget that even though he wants to hear us, sin can hinder any prayer that isn’t bathed in heart-felt, sincere confession. We don’t give him the time to speak to us.
Spend some time learning to converse with God, not deluge him with dead words. Spend time learning about him, reading his word, listening for his voice. Time spend with your lover is time spent on the eternal. He longs to hear from you.
PRAYER: Father God. I’m convicted as I realize that I’m so often guilty of offering meaningless chatter rather than conversation with you. Help me to pray with the realization that you are in the room beside me, sitting across the table from me, earnestly wanting to hear from me. Forgive me for the sin that keeps us apart. Empower me with your Spirit to grow in relationship with you through conversational prayer. In Jesus name, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 