When Your Faith is Weak

When I was a young Christian a friend of mine named Pat was brutally beaten in a gang fight. He ended up in a coma and was not expected to live. Pat's family knew I was a Christian and they asked me to pray.

It was overwhelming that people were counting on my prayers to help my friend. My faith, what there was of it, seemed so small and weak. 

When I Come to Die - The Story of Two Women with Terminal Cancer

Brittany Maynard is a 29-year-old wife with terminal cancer. Her story has been all over the internet, including her own first-person account on the CNN website here. Brittany has a form of brain cancer that is particularly aggressive, and those who have it usually die within 6 months.

She and her husband moved from California to Oregon, a so-called “right to die” state, because she wants to end her life on her own terms. She plans to do so on November 1, and is spending her last days as an advocate for the right of all people to commit suicide when and how they wish.

Here’s one quote from the CNN article: "When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, 'I love you; come be by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever's next.'"

What Makes God Laugh?

Does God have a sense of humor? Well, sure! He made us, right?

Lots of people say the Lord likes a good joke, and maybe He does. But there’s only one place in the entire Bible where God laughs. Psalm 2:4: He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

But this isn’t a pleasant, affectionate, indulgent laugh, like the chuckle you get watching children play. This is a mocking, ridiculing, scoffing kind of laugh. The NET Bible translates Psalm 2:4 this way: The one enthroned in heaven laughs in disgust; the Lord taunts them.

How to Get What You Want from God

The only way you can get what you want from God is to want what He wants instead of what you want.

That’s it. That’s the whole deal.

Submit your will to His. Seek His kingdom first, desire His glory first, and let the rest of it go. And you’ll get what you seek and desire. Guaranteed.

He is committed to exalting His Son. So that’s what’s going to happen. Jesus will be lifted up. You and I better be in the “lifting up Jesus” business. Because any other business is going to crash and burn.

I hope you don’t think I’m playing word games with you. But the truth is, you and I, puny human beings, will not manipulate the Almighty God of the universe. There is no secret formula of faith and optimism that will make the Lord of glory do anything. Everyone and everything will bow to Him.

The secret of answered prayer is to figure out what God wants, and then pray for that. Not to bamboozle Him into giving you whatever your outrageous little heart desires. That’s not going to happen.

He’s God, Creator, King, Sovereign, Lord, Absolute Ruler, the Beginning and the End. Not a genie in a bottle.

Our selfish hearts will always think that God should do what we want. That’s called magic. It’s called paganism. That’s part of what’s wrong with us, and anybody who tries to layer it with spirituality is a false teacher. Our pride is ugly to God. It’s another way of saying, God, you should worship me. And who does that sound like? It’s what got our adversary kicked out of heaven, and it will do us no good.

Jesus promised, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)

Exactly. If we live our lives in Him, if His words take root in us to shape our minds and transform our hearts and conquer our wills, then whatever we ask will flow out of our adoration of Christ and our desire to see Him lifted up. You better believe God will always answer prayers like that.

Don’t waste your time on people who purport to tell you how to get what you want from God. Concentrate on submitting to Him, lifting up His Son, and all will be well with your soul.

And now, a few verses of Scripture...

• For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.  (Psalms 18:27)
• He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.  (Psalms 25:9)
• The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.  (Psalms 147:6)
• For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.  (Psalms 149:4)
• Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.  (Proverbs 3:34)
• When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.  (Proverbs 11:2)
• All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)
• But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (James 4:6, 7) 
• Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  (1 Peter 5:5b, 6)
• And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14, 15)

How to Control Your Own Destiny

This morning I read a story in the paper about a Navy commander who has written a book on leadership. The article included a picture of the author with this quote in big letters: “It’s all about controlling your own destiny.”

 So I thought to myself, I would really be doing a great service to the readers of my blog if I told them how they, too, could control their own destiny. Even without reading the commander’s book.

So here’s how to control your own destiny:

The white space is a little bit of sarcasm. Because there is no “how to” that will enable you or me to control our destiny. The idea of literally “controlling your own destiny” is a joke. Like an ant looking at a mountain, and declaring, “One day this will all be mine!”  Words like delusional, grandiose, and inflated self-importance come to mind. Only God can control destiny. You and I can barely control a sneeze, let alone a destiny.

Now of course people probably don’t mean it literally. Maybe it only means, “Stop playing the victim and blaming other people for your lousy life. Make choices that will move you toward your goals.” That’s good advice. But it's a long way from the lofty claim that you control your destiny.

Our Christ is the One who truly controls the destiny of all things. Hebrews says of Him, he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3b). Submitting to Him may seem like the opposite of control. But placing your destiny in the hands of Someone who is infinitely wise and powerful, and who is absolutely committed to the blessing of His own, is the best way to take responsibility for your life.

Fellowship of the Towel

I admire Christ’s humility. And the more you see of His greatness and glory, the more astounding it is that He was humble.

Humility seems to be about giving up control, especially if you have a legitimate right to it. Humble people are willing not to be in charge. They are willing to submit.

Humility is about taking a low position when you have a claim on a high one. It’s about the willingness to do a menial task to serve others, when your skills and experience qualify you for a much higher job. Humility is admirable only when the one displaying it comes from a legitimately high position and voluntarily takes a low one.

We don’t think it’s particularly laudable when a death-row prisoner behaves humbly toward his guards. A first-year biology student isn’t applauded if she is humble toward her PhD. professor. A man convicted of embezzling is required to speak to school children about why stealing is wrong. But we don’t think much of his humility in doing so. 

And humility is praiseworthy when it actually involves giving up control. A wealthy entrepreneur (picture Donald Trump) might act kindly and generously, maybe even sacrificially, toward others. But he probably maintains complete control of all of it. Humility means submission.

Praying in the Dark

One of the things I admire most about Jesus is His prayer life. His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane has long been a comfort to me.

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36).

How do you pray when what you’re facing seems too hard to bear? When a terrible trial overburdens you? When you’re facing heartache or disappointment? When the night is so dark you think morning will never come?

Christ felt all these things when He knelt in the Garden, His closest friends asleep and His immediate future unimaginably sorrowful. How He prayed shows us how we should pray.

1. Pray like a little child, coming to his father. “Abba, Father.” Abba is a little child’s word for his daddy. All of us in Christ can come to the Father this way (cf. Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
2. Pray in faith. “All things are possible for you.” Jesus knew, and so should we, that nothing can stand in the way of our Father’s limitless power (cf. Mt. 19:26).
3. Pray with boldness. “Remove this cup from me.” We’re invited to come to the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), to ask boldly for what we want. (God is too wise and too good to say “yes” to everything we ask. He said no to His own Son.)
4. Pray in submission. “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” ...we do not stop after bringing God our request. Instead...we balance our aspirations and our desires with submission to God's assignment. We leave the outcome to God.  (Robert Bugh, When the Bottom Drops Out, p. 41. Thanks to my friend Bob, for recommending this book.)
   

No wonder Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”