A few things have settled into my heart and mind this past
while. It seems like just yesterday I came to these conclusions, at least in a
more pronounced way than before. However, I know they’ve been ruminating in my
mind for longer than that and just arrived at a very personal, experiential,
reality for me. Kinda like something I’ve repeatedly learned about and finally
get it! At least I hope that’s the case!
Changing People Through Prayer
Any amount of complaining I do about how people have treated
me betrays a lack of faith in God about prayer. That old, childhood thinking
that it was up to me to fix things so I wouldn’t get hurt is still being
dismantled. Sometimes I am shocked at how strongly it comes out. God knows how
sin has broken me and is directing me to prayer.
In fact, while I’m all for telling God how I feel about
things,[1]
and I know he hears and cares about this,[2]
my new heart isn’t as interested in complaining as my sark is.[3]
My new heart wants to pray about what God could do with situations rather than
rehearse what people have done with things I have already gone through.
Practically speaking, this mainly means praying as often as
prayer is required. In fact, I think the “pray
without ceasing” admonition[4]
is like a fly-wheel that just keeps running, and then anything that comes up is
drawn into prayer with no room for complaining to slow the machinery down, if
you will.
Waiting For Answers
I think what happens inside us as we are waiting for answers
to prayer must be one of the biggest revelations of the true condition of our
relationship with God. Again, for one who learned at a young age how to try
fixing circumstances in order to minimize pain, waiting for God to do something
can feel very taxing, in a sarky way of course.
Waiting for answers seems to be a way God purges our souls of
sarky ideas and strategies. As he denies us the immediate gratification that would
harden us in some self-centered desire, our self-centered, complaining little
hearts are forced to deal with him. It may first look like the foot-stomping
impudence of a child demanding its own way. It no doubt will move along into
that whining, crying, lying-on-the-floor kind of temper-tantrum because we just
can’t believe Father wouldn’t do things the way we so brilliantly described.
But it will come to that place where our sarky resources are spent and we can
finally hear what our Father is saying and doing, and find that we treasure him
above our demands. I’m sure there is a Beatitudinal thing in there, but enough
said.[5]
Letting People Go to Let God Come
It is a serious stumbling block to relationship with God when
I tell him who I need in my life in order to be happy. Such a thing almost
sounds funny, in a horrifying kind of way. God wants to be in my life as a vine
giving life to a branch,[6]
as a cornerstone giving substance to a building,[7]
as life filling a corpse,[8]
as a Shepherd carrying his lambs in his arms,[9]
as a Savior longing to share his paradise with us forever,[10]
and I would dare to say, “thank you for all that, but I really need this person
in my life to be happy!” Sounds really embarrassing to say it like that!
Anyway, I will be happier welcoming the people God brings
into my life than bemoaning all the ones who have left. Yes, ALL the ones who
have left. It isn’t about those people, but whether I can be happy because God
fills me with his joy, not because I’m getting my own way.
This isn’t about thinking I can lose people without feeling
pain. Paul talked about the pain he would feel if brothers in ministry died of
illness.[11]
He spoke of heartache because people deserted him.[12]
He had unceasing sorrow because the majority of Israelites would not receive
their Messiah.[13]
But there was no doubt that he was running a race to receive the heavenly prize
of resting in the eternal knowingness of loving God forever.[14]
The pearl of great price consumed him,[15]
and so he would always choose what God was doing in him and others rather than
telling God he could not be happy unless God did things the precise way Paul
demanded.
Concluding with Faith!
As I considered these things, it was obvious that the common
denominator is faith.
Why should I pray instead of complain? Because my faith
knows that asking Father what he would like to do is far better than whining at
him about what I wish would happen.
Why should I wait for answers instead of scheme up
solutions? Because my faith knows that the full spectrum of God’s character can
factor in what is good, right, best, in every way imaginable, and I have now
lived long enough to know that is definitely not true about me!
Why should I let people go in order to let God come and do
what he prefers? Because my faith knows that he settled personal things with
people before the creation of the world, and telling him who I need in my life
is like a child begging for screen-time because his brain has become addicted
to the dopamine-effect of counterfeit reality. My faith knows that God’s choice
of people, at whatever time he chooses, is still the best way of helping me
become more like Jesus than having my own sarky way on the matter.
God clearly wants me to “Rejoice
in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” [16] However,
when he adds, “do not be anxious about
anything,” he gives us a very expressive substitution. It is, “but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and requests, gives us a comprehensive way
of expressing ourselves to our Father while seeing him as the central cause of
our rejoicing.[17]
God clearly wants me to pray, supplicate, give thanks, and lay my requests
before him, not as one who rejoices in the things requested, but as one who
rejoices in him. Suddenly that looks like a monstrous difference!
Now, here’s a promise attached to doing things God’s way
that could never happen doing things my own way. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Has my sark ever brought peace to my life about anything?
No, it has never done anything more than give a temporary pseudo-calm that has
let me take a short nap from my self-protection before returning to the
wearisome task of managing my life. God wants me to have the richest experience
of his peace even though it transcends and surpasses my ability to understand
it. Good thing; if God only gave me peace I could understand, I would be back
in the world of my sark, limiting everything to me instead of reveling in
God-sized experiences of Father’s sovereign activity.
Suddenly this Scripture pops into my head. I am sure it is
the Holy Spirit fulfilling his relational-work of teaching me all things and
reminding me of things I have already learned.[18] “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”[19]
Sounds like what Paul taught in Philippians 4 wasn’t a new thought after all.
© 2016 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]
There are 150 psalms, written by men, filled with every conceivable emotion
presented to God in heart-wrenching honesty.
[2]
I Peter 5:6-7
[3]
Remember, “sark” (English transliteration of Greek “sarx”, translated in the
New Testament as “flesh”) is just my preferred expression when referring to the
flesh.
[4]
I Thessalonians 5:17
[5]
I have shared many times how the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12 show the
characteristics of God’s work in the lives of his children, those who are truly
blessed.
[6]
John 15:1-11
[7]
Ephesians 2:19-22 (see Ephesians 2:11-22 as the immediate context)
[8]
Genesis 2:7; Ephesians 2:1-10
[9]
Isaiah 40:11 (cf Jesus taking the children in his arms, laying hands on them,
and blessing them ~ Mark 10:13-16)
[10]
Luke 23:43; Revelation 2:7
[11]
Philippians 2:25-30 (note Paul’s thanksgiving that God spared him from
experiencing “sorrow upon sorrow”)
[12]
II Timothy 4:9-18
[13]
Romans 9:1-3 (in context of Romans 9:1-33)
[14]
Philippians 3:1-11
[15]
Matthew 13:44-46
[16]
See Philippians 4:4-7 as the reference to all the Scriptures in this couple of
paragraphs.
[17]
Doing all this prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and requesting, while we are
rejoicing in idols, and really want God to do things our own way, is never
going to work.
[18]
John 14:26
[19]
Isaiah 26:3
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