A Glass Half-Full?

Yesterday I spoke with my uncle who is 82. He badly fractured his pelvis several years ago. The injury healed but the drugs he took for pain left him with severe vertigo. But, Glenn was having none of the ‘too bad, so sorry’ stuff!  “When I get this dizziness under control, I will be doing what I did when I was forty years old,” he said.  Who doesn't love an optimist?  Given our present circumstances here in this US of A, we need a few who can see the silver lining on every cloud!  Optimism is a blessing, but it can only go so far in changing our situation. Sometimes reality rolls in like a tsunami to bury even the most hopeful.

Do not confuse optimism with faith. The person with the sunny outlook may weather the storms a little better than others, they may find more friends to travel life's roads with them, but they still must deal with falling Dow averages, job loss, disease, and death. Optimism believes that greater effort will produce a positive outcome. It rests heavily on the potential of human will. Faith rests squarely on the Person and Promise of God. Faith looks much like optimism from the outside. Faith infuses the disciple with hope that grows out of the conviction that the Lord works in all things to accomplish good for those who love Him! (Romans 8:28)

We may think we are expressing faith when we make bold assertions about what we think God will do. "God will heal me, I am sure of it," a person claims. Is that an optimistic statement or a declaration of faith? One cannot tell just from the words. If it just an expression of general hope, it is mere optimism. If it an expression of what that person believes the Spirit has whispered into his soul, it is a statement of faith!  Some godly people are sure that if they say positive things and force themselves to 'believe' with conviction, God will be obligated to do what they ask. This, they claim, is faith. They are sadly mistaken, headed for a collision with reality.

Both my understanding of the Bible and my personal experience give me reason to pray with hope and faith. But, faith-filled prayers are not those that demand that God act in a specific way. We are urged in the Scripture to pray boldly, to pray about anything and everything, to ask our Father for His favor - but always with humility, always remembering He is God and we are not!

In terms of staying power and enjoying the true peace of God mere optimism can never take the place of great faith!

So, how do we move beyond optimism to faith?

Get to know God - in prayer, through meditation, from the pages of the Scripture, in worship. Go beyond having a god (small 'g' intended!) that you keep around like a good luck charm, a deity you bring out to ward off 'bad luck.' That's the stuff of religion, the empty tradition of human based 'worship.' Give your life over to Him. Tell Him that you are delighted simply to belong to Him, to be used by Him, to serve His sovereign purpose. Does that sound frightening? It should, for He is an awesome (in the sense of 'fear and trembling') God! But He is also good. Faith allows us to go from good to great in His service. Faith lets us abandon our plans and demands to discover the adventure of being part of what God is doing.

Our word from the Word is a POWERFUL inspiration to world-class faith. Pray that the Spirit will allow you to receive it as soul-food today.

"I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21, NLT)

__________

My faith has found a resting place,

Not in device nor creed.

I trust the Ever-living One,

His wounds for me will plead.

I need no other argument,

I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,

And that He died for me.

Battered faith, Big God

My faith is battered, bruised, and bloodied today. I openly confess that there is part of me that wonders if God went on vacation, decided He didn’t want to be around me, or just enjoys playing with me.  Suffering that I live with each day, that is personal and often breath-takingly intense, (my mother is gravely ill and lives with us) the disappointment in plans that have not returned the expected results, and prayers that seem only to echo in the room have brought on spiritual fatigue. Over the last day, I often find myself singing a verse from the hymn, O Worship the King, as my prayer.  “Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail; in Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail. Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end. Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.”  That is my confession.

Maturity helps to avoid the pit of self-pity and the temptation to seek temporary relief in self-indulgence. And, too, I know that I am not the first, nor the only, to know this kind of testing. There are several Psalms where we godly people speak from a place in the dark night of their soul! "O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day?" (Psalm 13:1-2, NLT) In another psalm of lament, we read: "O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble?" (Psalm 10:1, NLT)  Those passages comfort me, helping me to know that my Abba understands and that my fatigue is no sin in His eyes.

In some seasons of life, when circumstances obscure the plans or purposes of the Father, we can only wait and trust. The saint with a battered faith of whom we read in Psalm 73 said that he looked around at those who did not fear God and found himself full of envy, doubting God, wondering at the unfairness of it all until "I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood …  Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever." (Psalm 73:17, 25-26, NLT)

When we are hurting, when our emotions scream for relief,  when our vision narrows down to "right here, right now" --  we must simply trust, wait, and hope for the embrace of grace. To try to force it to make sense, to try to find the reason why, will make us hurt worse.

Do you know someone who is in crisis, with a broken heart or a world turned upside down by some storm?  Hold the criticism!  Please do not engage in superficial god-talk!  Give him your ear and your shoulder! Breath a silent prayer for his courage and renewal. One of my favorite phrases is- "Be Jesus with skin on."  Jesus was not remote. He wept! A touch, a hug, a prayer for comfort, and saying "I'll have faith for you right now while you're hurting so badly," will bless that one much more than a sermon about the unchanging faithfulness of God.

Giving that person a safe and loving place to vent to anger, to express fear or doubt often has a spiritual benefit. When the inner tension breaks the Holy Spirit can flood into their heart and mind with renewed peace. In time, their tumbling thoughts will find order and be shaped, once more, by the truth of the Scripture.  Yes, it is true that a person in a faith crisis because of his own willful disobedience to the Lord needs a wisely worded, courageous rebuke, but ‘speaking the truth in love’ is a gift that a thoughtful friend offers only at the Spirit’s impulse.

Here's a word from the Word from the 73^rd Psalm to which I alluded a moment ago. Know it. Sooner or later, you will need it, too.
"Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. . . .
When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds." (Psalm 73, NIV)
____________________________

O worship the King,

All glorious above,

And gratefully sing

His power and His love:

Our Shield and Defender,

The Ancient of Days,

Pavilioned in splendor,

And girded with praise.

Frail children of dust,

And feeble as frail,

In Thee do we trust,

Nor find Thee to fail.

Thy mercies how tender!

How firm to the end!

Our Maker, Defender,

Redeemer, and Friend!

O Worship The King

Kethe, William / Haydn, Johann Michael / Grant, Robert / Gardiner, William

© Public Domain

The vanity of ‘god-talk’

Eugene Peterson, in his newest book, The Pastor, a Memoir, tells the story of little 5 year old Charity who went to visit her grandmother. The morning after she arrived, she crawled into bed, cuddled up, and said, “Grandmother, let’s not have any god-talk while you are here, OK? Let’s just keep it real.” Wow! Wisdom from the mouths of babes! Peterson observes, “She was onto the fact that life leaks out of what we say… teach and pray- especially when we are using the sterile life-less language that objectifies words like God, Jesus, prayer, believe – we are left with nothing but god-talk.”

God-talk keeps real life at arm’s length. Those engage in it wrap themselves in endless Bible quotations and stories they hear preachers tell. It is conversation about truth, but without personal engagement. Let’s talk about Jesus, in real terms, as we find His love and life in our daily journey. Do you know that He is just as much Lord of our broken, doubtful, insecure, neurotic, temptation filled days as He is of the days when we feel great, living on the “hallelujah side” of life? When I hear somebody desperately trying to out-talk their circumstances with blustery words of faith – “I just know God has a real purpose in this and I’m so excited to see how it all works out” - while I know they are deeply depressed and wishing to run away; it breaks my heart. They might find the support they need and certainly will connect with the Holy Spirit’s comfort if they will confess the truth about life as they know it, their emotions, and Who God is.

Job, a man of amazing faith who knew God deeply, came to the point that he cursed the day he was born. His struggle and pain became so intense, he gave up trying to argue with his self-righteous ‘comforters’ who were great at god-talk that explained it all. "Curse that day for failing to shut my mother’s womb, for letting me be born to see all this trouble. “Why wasn’t I born dead? Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?" (Job 3:10-11, NLT)  Can you imagine hearing your Christian friend pray that way?  Would such honesty open your heart with love or cause you to recoil in disgust?  

Then, there is Jeremiah who had a tough ministry.  God told him to go and proclaim the impending judgment of God on Judah. His message was not subtle. “Death, murder, rape are going to befall you who ignore the living God,” he cried in loud voice! His sermons rubbed sores onto the national conscience. Did he love his ministry?  You be the judge after reading nthis lament. "When I speak, the words burst out. “Violence and destruction!” I shout. So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke." (Jeremiah 20:8, NLT)

Those passage do not find much time in the pulpit, do they? On the surface, they are shocking, seemingly faithless statements of despair. Really, they are amazing indications of the intimacy these men enjoyed with God. They engaged with Him in authentic conversation, their prayers so much more than mere god-talk. And both of them found His Presence in the middle of their desperation.

Yes, we need to believe but get past happy, sappy, pious “everything is wonderful” platitudes. We need to believe deeply in a Person who loves us all of the time. Real faith hangs onto the fact that God is equally Lord when we are in the valley’s shadowy path or on the high bright peak of glorious triumph. Job recounted his sorrows and then declared: "Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life— and eventually he’ll take his stand on earth. And I’ll see him—even though I get skinned alive!  (Job 19:25-26, The Message) His declaration does not mask his pain and sorrow; it is wrung from him like sweet juice squeezed from a grape!

Can people have a conversation with you without having to endure god-talk that blocks real communication? When someone begins to share their pain are you just ready to listen and slide a shoulder under the burden to help carry it; or are you quick to distance yourself, protecting yourself with a cliché - ‘just trust the Lord’ - as you pray a quick, insincere prayer?

In the Decalogue, the Lord forbade using His Name in vain. It applies to god-talk that is only lip deep, without heart or mind. Immerse yourself in worship. Make laughter and tears the language of your prayers. Confess His Glory with groans and shouts of joy. Push past the vanity of god-talk and get to know, really know, the One who is life.

Here’s word from the Word! It’s real. It’s blessed. It’s pregnant with promise. Live it "because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children." (Romans 8:14-16, NIV)  "For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will." (Romans 8:24-27, NIV)

Hurricanes and tthe Spirit’s Power

When Irene blew through on Sunday at 4 am the house appliances suddenly went dead still.  As I awakened the  only sound was the wind whipping the trees and the rain lashing the windows. Power was gone. Who thinks of the joy of flipping a light switch? Who remembers the pleasure of running water?  Our power was restored in 8 hours. Some of my friends are told they will wait 8 days for their electricity to be restored. Our lives demand the continuity of those copper strands that carry the juice to our pumps, refrigerators, stoves, and computers.

A man in the Bible lost power, too. For twenty years, he walked in the power of the Spirit, leading the people of the Lord, doing mighty exploits. Over time, he started to take the power for granted, assuming it would always be there. Increasingly, he walked in selfishness, abusing the call of God and the vows taken for him. Samson laid his head in the lap of a gorgeous pagan woman; captivated by her shining black hair, her dark brown eyes. He knew he should be back in Israel, but the women there just did not seem to share the beauty of the Philistine women. Delilah’s hands caressed Samson’s long hair, the sign of his Nazarite vows that set him in a unique group of men belonging exclusively to the LORD. “Why won’t you tell me the source of your power?” she whined. Finally, he gave in, shared the story of his vows. As he slept she cut off his hair. The next few verses are arresting! "And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house." (Judges 16:20-21, KJV)

“And he wist not that the LORD was departed.”  He didn’t know that God had said enough, shut off the power of the Spirit, and withdrew His anointing.

Disciple, are you taking the Spirit’s Presence and power seriously?  Have you lived so long in the blessing of the Lord, with the assurance of life, with the ability to pray, that you have become completely unaware of the Spirit who empowers you?  Have you grown casual about obedience, lax in prayer, and lazy about the disciplines of the Spirit that allow renewal of your strength?  You could one day wake up to silence, alone, drifting beyond the fellowship of the Spirit. As evil approaches you will only then realize that God’s Presence is gone and feel the terror of the ‘fetters of brass’ slapped on your soul as the Devil puts you to work in his terrible prison.

The Scripture urges us to walk near to the Lord, not because we are in terror of being abandoned, but because we love His powerful Presence. "We must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. …  what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?" (Hebrews 2:1-4, NLT)

The one who trusts in the LORD, whose heart is renewed in faith everyday, never awakens to silence. He may awaken to the sound of a hurricane of testing and trial. He may walk in the dark of the storm, but he never suddenly feels alone for he loves and follows the One who promised to walk with us.

Here’s a word from the Word. May you find new reason to stay faithful, to walk in the power of the Spirit.  "So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. "For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away." (Hebrews 10:35-38, NLT)