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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ How to Make Barriers Into Prayers

          There are so many brilliant creations of people reusing and repurposing various items into functional and useful tools and resources that it takes little work to come up with an example. I just discovered a way of braiding parachute-cord into wrist-bands and belts that are great for the outdoor enthusiast because they can easily be unbraided so the cord can be used for survival needs like setting up an emergency shelter.

          With this as an illustration, I would like to show how we can repurpose a typical stumbling-stone to prayer and turn it into a stepping-stone to prayer. In a sense, let us picture how we can take those barriers that tangle around our feet and trip us up from running the race of faith,[1] and turn those very things into the means of us becoming God-trusting, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled children of God who change the world through prayer.[2]

          I want to show an example of one of the most common barriers to prayer turning into one of the most liberating building-blocks of prayer. From that, I am sure we will see how we can do this same thing with many other problems and struggles we are facing.

          If you have been following my blog for any time you have likely picked up that I do not agree with the teaching that says we are to forgive people who are not repenting of their sins against us. Not only is there no teaching in the Bible that demonstrates that we should do that, but it contradicts things the Bible does teach regarding forgiveness.

          While I believe it is wrong to teach people to forgive unrepentant people, I absolutely believe in freedom from bitterness, holding grudges, hatred, and even the victim-mindset that has become a safe-haven for too many people. The primary means of gaining this freedom is to pray for the people who are hurting us, abusing us, or mistreating us in anyway.

          People mistakenly teach that when Jesus was enduring crucifixion, he forgave his abusers. However, Jesus neither taught us to forgive unrepentant people, nor did he ever show himself forgiving someone who was unrepentant.

          Instead, Jesus had already taught us a variety of ways of responding to people who were sinning against us. He told us to, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.[3] When he later spoke from the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,”[4] he was not forgiving them, but praying for those who were abusing him, just as he had taught us to do.

          From this, we can follow Jesus’ example, not thinking we need to forgive an abusive person in order to be free of bitterness, but that we can pray for them exactly the way Jesus did, entrusting any future experience of forgiveness to God.

          In practical terms, to turn the barrier of bitterness into an opportunity for prayer, we will find a great peace and joy when we can pray, “Father, forgive them.” The freedom does not come from forgiving, but from learning that trust in God as Father where we will ask him to do whatever it takes in order that that person could be forgiven.

          Let us throw out any idea that God would violate his own word in forgiving people who are still living in their sin. If his word says that we must confess our sins to him in order for him to forgive our sins and purify us from the unrighteousness of what we have done,[5] he will not forgive an abuser without leading them to such confession as we ourselves have expressed to God. If God’s word says that he blesses the poor in spirit who mourn their sin, who meekly accept their inability to fix themselves, and who then hunger and thirst after righteousness,[6] he is not going to answer our prayer of blessing those who curse us[7] without exposing their poverty in such a way that it brings them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

          In the simplest terms, the only thing we need to do to turn a barrier into a building-block of prayer is to pray about the barrier. That person you don’t pray for because you hate them and what they did to you, start praying about your wounds, asking God to heal you independent of anything that person has to do to fix what they have done wrong, and ask God to do something in that person’s life that would give him glory. By doing such a thing as this, you have turned a stumbling-block to prayer into a stepping-stone to prayer.

 
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)




[1] See Hebrews 11 as the record of testimonies of faith, and Hebrews 12:1-3 as the conclusion regarding putting aside anything that would hinder us from such faith, and running this race with perseverance.
[2] When our prayers start with ourselves, and our struggles to trust God God’s sovereign goodness in handling whatever we have gone through, and anyone who has wronged us, we become those branches that abide in the vine in such a healthy love-bond, that we end up bearing “much fruit” in the lives of others.
[3] Luke 6:27-28
[4] Luke 23:34
[5] I John 1:9
[6] Matthew 5:3-6
[7] Luke 6:38

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