40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 29

Jan. 31st-That God’s presence would INVADE my faith

 

(Hebrews 10:32-39)

 

I’ve heard that faith is like a muscle.  The more times I exercise my faith, the stronger my faith becomes.  As I have faith in small things, I am being prepared to have faith for larger things down the road.  That makes pretty good sense except that it doesn’t.

 

I’m of the mindset that faith is in fact NOT like a muscle.  If faith were like a muscle, we should have seen the salvation of the world by now.  We should be experiencing a steady flow of miracles that would render the miraculous to be commonplace.  We should have seen every need met, every blessing imparted, every ailment healed.  We should have already experienced heaven on earth.

I’m almost 43 years old and I think that I should understand faith by now.  I’ve read all the Scriptures and some books about faith.  I understand what faith IS, but I don’t understand HOW to have faith   My own experiences keep getting in my way of being able to have any kind of working formula for faith.  Do I lack some epiphany that will open the world of faith up to me?  I have treated faith like a muscle and I’ve believed really hard about some things (I flexed my faith muscle) but my muscle seems to have let me down a lot.

 

I really WANT to have faith that moves mountains but unless God puts it in me…I’m stuck.  That bothers me.  I have a real fear and dread about leading a church that doesn’t get to accomplish the whole of God’s will due lack of faith.  That is a lack of faith that I in no way want.  I don’t want that common problem that I see in churches…having faith in faith.  I want to be a man that has faith in the Giver of faith.

 

This writing is not meant to discourage nor is it an admission that I doubt God’s power to do anything…just the opposite.  In fact, I find myself starting to believe in a miracle for our church that I won’t share because the size of the miracle is bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced.  I just struggle with tapping into faith with any understanding of it.  Many years ago I resigned myself to one prayer that I pray more than any other prayer: “Lord, give me more faith.”  I think it’s being answered but don’t ask me what that looks like just yet…maybe another 43 years?
 

"Holy Spirit, I long for our faith to be much more than a set of rules and a building to go to on Sundays.  I pray that You would begin to rock my faith off the safe zone I've placed it in.  Set it on fire and cause me to have faith in things I've never considered."

40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 28

Jan. 30th-That God’s presence would INVADE my community

(Mark 12:28-34)

When Jesus spoke, it was often shrouded in mystery, with layers of meaning and sprinkled with a dash of confusion.  I think there were multiple purposes behind the way He taught.  One of the reasons was that He chose His words for a purpose and they were truth on many levels.  I believe another reason was so that people would be forced to consider His words and to have to process and chew on them for a while.  Only those serious about learning and knowing Him would find answers.

This style of shrouded teaching was the status quo for Jesus with very few exceptions.  Today’s passage was one of those exceptions.  That alone should get our attention.  What was so important to Jesus that He would abandon His normal approach to teaching?  Why did He want to make sure everybody knew exactly what He meant when it comes to what is most important?  Does the fact that He does this indicate a level of importance to Jesus? 

We get a good, hard look at what is most dear to the heart of God.  I take these verses to be teachings that are the closest reflection of what Jesus really desired for His hearers to understand.  He removes any doubt, any interpretation and any excuse.  My favorite thing about them is how He sums it up for them so that even a child could understand.  If He came to us today and said these words, I’m sure He would change them to more closely resonate with our culture.  Jesus would respond to the question of what is the greatest commandment by saying, “Love God like crazy and love people like crazy.”

The thought is so simple and yet so profound.  It’s a reminder to the church to keep the plain things the main things.  Mount Hood Christian Center, as well as every believer, exists for this simple yet transformative mandate: Love God.  Love People.

"Lord I pray today that You would enlarge my influence and favor in my community.  I believe that You have deposited Your Word in my heart for such a time as this in order that I be a beacon of light.  I ask for boldness and humility as You touch my community through me."

40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 27

Jan. 29th-That God’s presence would INVADE my children

(Matthew 19:1-15)

I am a product of divorce.  I have no way of knowing the overall impact that my parents’ divorce has had on my life.  Would my life look any different had my biological parents stayed together?  I’m 99.9% sure that it would have.  Would my life have turned out better?  I am 100% sure that it is an unknowable and pointless question…though I am pretty confident that in my case the answer is no.  I have very good reasons for believing that.

I had never really thought about today’s verses as one passage before.  We tend to separate verses 1 thru 12 from verses 13 thru 15 by a little subheading…makes for a nice sermon text or a devotional or something.  It could be argued that Jesus stating His position on marriage/divorce and praying for children happened in the same setting.

I understand that I am touching on a sensitive subject…the elephant in the room.  I pastor a church in which maybe 50% of adults are divorced and many of them re-remarried.  I will never talk someone into divorce nor will I ever talk someone into getting married (except for the time I had to convince Christa to marry me).  I don’t believe that divorce is ever good any more than I think that getting married without commitment is ever good.  (Please don’t respond with exceptional circumstances where it could be considered good, I’m not interested in arguing.)  The point of this broad thought is that in both cases, I believe that good CAN come from it.

If you take this as any sort of indictment as it relates to your own history, then you’ve missed my point.  For me, it all boils down to the kids.  I get pretty uptight when I hear someone try to make the argument that divorce (or remarriage) doesn’t have a significant effect on kids.  It’s an uphill battle to convince me, given my own experience and the experiences that I’ve observed during years of counseling friends and strangers.

In this passage, Jesus acknowledges divorce (and that He doesn’t like it) and then goes on to pray for the children and to encourage parents to let the children come to Him.  What is happening here?  He doesn’t just seem to be acknowledging that He likes children.  I take this as an indicator that a relationship with Jesus is exactly what needs to happen in light of divorce.  An early relationship with Jesus was the perfect divorce medicine.

For me, that is exactly what charted the course of my life.  I met Jesus at the age of 5 after my parent’s divorce.  I can only wonder what my life would look like now had I not met Jesus when I was a child.  I am confident that this relationship saw me through quite a few rough patches stemming from what amounted to abandonment by my father and the arrival of an angry step-father.

I am who I am.  I place no blame on my history for the mistakes I’ve made and the failures I’ve accomplished.  I’m responsible for my actions and my attitudes and will be held accountable by God for them.  I will not be one that blames everything else for his shortcomings.  I try to raise my own children with an identical mindset but it is their relationship with Jesus that will determine their future.

"Jesus, I come to You with children on my heart.  They are so innocent and uncorrupted by society.  Guard their hearts as they grow.  Let not religiosity or secularism entangle them as they are discovering who they are in You."