1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
This nineteenth step in learning to live by faith incorporates several things – all of which can be pretty tough to do. Like the first one… the same thing we talked about yesterday… Be joyful always. This is a tough one, isn’t it? Be joyful when you get a ticket? Be joyful when you bounce a check? Be joyful when you lose your mate? Be joyful when you are diagnosed with cancer? Be joyful when your child is in a car wreck and crippled for life?
Yes. Be joyful… always. In all areas of our lives, we must learn to be joyful.
And we must learn to pray continually. This doesn’t mean close your eyes on the freeway! This doesn’t mean walk around with your head bowed all day in prayer. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a movie or a good book or 18 holes of golf. This means that you must have a prayerful attitude all day every day. How do you do that? By talking to Him all day, every day. You’re at your doctor’s office for your regular checkup. Ask Him where you should sit in the waiting room. Silly? Nope. There might just be someone sitting next to you who needs a word of encouragement, and if you pick the wrong seat, you’ll miss talking to that person. You’re having trouble with a difficult co-worker, and need to take care of the situation. With no time for "formal" prayer, talk to Jesus on the way to the person’s office, asking for the right words to say - a whole lot better than rehearsing how you are going to chew the person out, isn’t it?
A prayerful attitude means that you are so close to Jesus that He continually influences everything you say and do and think. His Spirit is there with you, all day, every day, continually throughout your life. When you commit yourself to a continual prayerful attitude, you seek His wisdom… His guidance… His touch in everything you do. You will hear His voice… you will know He is influencing your thoughts and actions. By opening up to Him through a prayerful attitude, you allow Him to work in you. You stay in constant communion with Him.
And give thanks for everything – good, bad or indifferent – give thanks for everything in your life – because everything that happens in your life is God’s will for you – hard as it might be to understand… as much as you’d like a situation to just go away… as much pain as you’re in. God has a reason and a purpose for everything. So give thanks that He loves you enough to allow you to suffer with Him, to allow you to grow in faith, to allow you to become more like Him, to allow you to be His child.
James 1:2-4 NIV
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Consider it pure joy. That means everything that happens to you – no matter how difficult the trial… divorce, loss of a spouse or a parent or worse, a child… loss of your job, your home, your belongings… loss of your health… facing a crippling or fatal disease. And the little trials… messing up your checkbook and bouncing a check… having to deal with the IRS (Did I say "little"?!)… fighting traffic on the way to work… having a fender bender or getting a ticket. Every difficulty you can imagine is there for a very good purpose – to add one more divine quality to your nature – patience.
When we pray for patience, the Lord begins to teach it to us. He doesn’t take a giant celestial hypodermic needle and insert patience. He teaches us patience. And patience can only be learned through adversity. But the Lord wants us to learn to be patient, because He wants us to be perfect. Part of being perfect is being patient. Why? Because a patient spirit is a submissive spirit… a spirit willing to suffer whatever it takes to become pleasing to the Lord… a spirit willing to accept the Lord’s will – not only without argument or grumbling, but with joy!
Thinking about patience brings to mind when Paul and Silas were imprisoned at Philippi . After being severely beaten, they were locked in what we would call a dungeon. Prisons at that time were not what we would call hygienic. In fact, they were downright filthy. We won’t go into specifics of what was probably covering the floor, but Paul and Silas were put in there, forced to lie in that muck on their naked, cut and bloody backs, with their legs elevated in something like stocks, in the dark. Got the picture? Did they cry? Did they complain and say, "Why me?" Did they get angry at God for letting them get into this situation? No. They sang praises to God! And what happened? God sent an earthquake, shook loose their chains, and set them free!
So the eighteenth step in learning to live by faith is to be joyful in the midst of your trials. Sing praises to God no matter what is happening in your life. Remember, what comes out of your mouth reflects what is in your heart, so – no matter what is going on in your life - let your words be filled with joy.
2 Samuel 7:1-16 NIV
After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent."
Nathan replied to the king, "Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you."
That night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:
"Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel , "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" ‘
"Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel . I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel . I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
"’The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ "
David had good intentions. God had given Jerusalem into his hands, and he had a beautiful palace made of cedar to live in. But the ark of God was still in the same old tent (the Tabernacle) it had been in for years. David felt guilty. Here the Lord had brought him to this wonderful victory, given him the holy city of Jerusalem, had allowed him to have this beautiful palace, while the Lord’s dwelling place resided in a shabby old tent. No one could fault David’s noble intentions when he said he wanted to build a temple for the Lord. His heart was right, but his request was denied.
God didn’t reject David with His “no” to David’s request. Far from it. God had much greater plans for David, plans far beyond David’s vision. But God’s plan and purpose for David was not to build the temple. The job of building God’s temple would not rest in the hands of a warrior. That job would be given to Solomon, the peacemaker.
You and I can have intentions that are just as noble as David’s. We can want very badly to do something for the Lord… something that we, like David, have reasoned is His purpose for us. All our logic agrees with us. Our hearts are right. We’re living for the Lord and doing everything we can for him. We have this great idea, this wonderful thing we could do for the Lord. So we ask Him. And He says no.
If this happens to you, don’t be disheartened. Perhaps, like David, God has something much greater in mind for you than you can envision. Remember, He sees with eternal eyes. Only He holds the entire script. You and I can only see one page at a time.
Take the 17th step in learning to live by faith, and rejoice in His sovereign wisdom and mercy. Continue to seek His will. At the right time, He’ll reveal it to you. Then you will understand His “no”.
Mark 11:24 NIV
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
When you pray for something, do you believe you will receive it? Do you really, really believe it? If we’re truthful, most of the time when we pray, we don’t really believe God will do what we’re asking Him to do. Why? In most instances, it’s because we rarely receive what we ask for.
But wait a minute! Didn’t Jesus say in this verse to believe that we have received what we ask for, and it will be ours? Yes, He did. But the truth is that most of our prayers aren’t within His will. And the reason is, we haven’t engraved all the earlier steps in the process of living by faith in our hearts. More specifically, we haven’t opened ourselves up to the Holy Spirit and asked Him to change us – to change our wants to conform to His will.
Over the years, God has taught me again and again that if I’m asking for something that’s within His will, not only will He do what I ask, but He’ll do it specifically the way that I ask. He’s also taught me that when He responds specifically, it’s because what I asked for was what HE laid on my heart. So, in reality, my specific prayers are me repeating back to Him what HE told me to say! I’ve also found that the requests He’s laid on my heart are often quite creative, and His responses to those requests – the ones HE told me to pray for – are sometimes so outrageous that they have a great big sign on them that says, “God did it!”
I am NOT saying that God is a giant spiritual vending machine, which I can drop my prayer “coins” into and out will pop anything I want! Far from it! God is not a puppet. He is not controlled by anything, our prayers included. God does not HAVE to do anything He does not want to do. However, when HE lays a prayer on your heart, then He will grant your prayer.
Does this mean that we will receive His answer instantly? No, it doesn’t. Quite often, He says “Yes”, but He also says, “In my good time.” Remember, God has the entire “script”. He sees the past, present and future all at the same time. His timing is perfect, even though His timing can be quite frustrating for us! On Monday, we might pray for something that we need by 5:00 on Friday, and God says, “Okay, I’ll see you at 4:55 Friday afternoon!” So we must not only learn to believe that we have already received what we pray for, but also that we will receive it in God’s time, not ours.
Take the sixteenth step in learning to live by faith and believe… really believe in your heart… that you have already received what you’re praying for.
Joshua 7:2-9 NIV
Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel , and told them, "Go up and spy out the region." So the men went up and spied out Ai.
When they returned to Joshua, they said, "Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there." So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan ! O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?"
Remember how faithful the Israelites were to do everything precisely the way God commanded before they defeated Jericho ? They followed God’s commandments to the letter. They were facing the biggest challenge of their lives, and they wanted everything to go right. Forty years in the wilderness filled with one miracle after another had convinced them that doing things God’s way worked, while other ways didn’t.
Then Jericho was defeated, and Joshua and the Israelites went into brain skid. Not far from Jericho was a town called Ai, a small, insignificant dot on the map. Joshua sent in some spies, who reported back that this city would be a piece of cake. Joshua didn’t see any sense in sending the whole army for such a little city, so he sent 3,000 men to go take Ai for Israel . He didn’t consult God, thinking this was too small a matter with which to bother Him. And the result? You guessed it! Israel ’s army was routed and chased out by the army of Ai, and thirty-six of Israel ’s men were killed in the process.
God had just spent forty years trying to teach these people to depend on Him for everything - no matter how small… no matter how insignificant… to consult Him for each and every move they made. But in their elation at having taken the mighty fortress of Jericho , the people forgot… and it brought them to destruction.
The Lord wants you and me to depend on Him for everything, to consult Him in each and every small and large thing in our lives. If the very hairs on our heads are numbered, if God is aware of the activities of even the sparrows, then can anything be too small for our God? (Matthew 10:29-30) Scripture says that we are to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). If we pray continually, what happens? We are in constant contact with God – constant contact - which means we will be consulting Him in everything… everything in our lives.
The next time you start to plunge ahead with something that seems insignificant, take the fifteenth step in learning to live by faith, and ask yourself, "Is anything too small for God?"
Matthew 4:5-7 NIV
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
"’He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’"
Jesus answered him, "It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’"
When Satan tempted Jesus to throw Himself from the top of the temple, he used Psalm 91:11-12 (NIV) that says, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus responded to the devil with Deuteronomy 6:16a (NIV), saying, “Do not test the LORD your God…”
Oh, how many of us need to read this again and again today! So often, we seem to think of God as a magician, someone who pulls a big neon rabbit out of a hat to let us know what direction to go, what He wants us to do, or merely whether He is real or not! We need to make a decision, so we ask God for a sign. And we sit back and wait for that big, miraculous fireworks display that flashes "God Did It!" in giant letters. We think if we pray the right way, using just the right words in just the right order, we can get God to show us beyond a shadow of a doubt through some Steven Spielberg-type display that we are on the right track.
Remember the story in Joshua 3 about the people of Israel crossing the Jordan ? The Jordan was at flood stage. It was a raging torrent. God told the priests to take up the Ark of the Covenant and step off into the water. From a human standpoint, they were being told to commit suicide. But from a spiritual standpoint, they were being told to have faith in God. The priests stepped into the water - and the raging waters stopped!
In Matthew 16:1-4, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were looking for a sign from heaven. Jesus answered them in verses 2-4, “He replied, ‘When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.’ Jesus then left them and went away.”
What was the “sign of Jonah”? Jesus told us in Matthew 12:39-40 (NIV), "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Although Jesus worked many miracles during His ministry, He never once performed a miracle just because someone asked him to. Instead, when someone asked for a sign, He would respond in a manner similar to what He said in both of the scriptures above.
God is not a magician. Nor is a He a puppet whose miraculous strings we can pull. He is God Almighty. He wants us to have faith in Him, not in signs and wonders. He guides us gently and quietly, showing us the raging water and waiting to see if we have enough faith to step in.
Don’t put God to the test. Instead, take the fourteenth step in learning to live by faith, and allow him to test your faith. Step into the water. Wade out a little bit deeper. Wet your feet in the water of His love. Allow Him to show you His power through your faith, not through some miraculous sign that you’ve dreamed up on your own.
"He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’" Luke 16:31 NIV
1 John 5:14-15 NIV
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.
When your son asks you if he can have a motorcycle, your instant response might be "No!". Visions of mangled bodies might flash through your head as you re-emphasize your negative response to his pleas. In this situation, he didn’t ask according to your will. And, lacking your greater knowledge of what is really good for him, he doesn’t understand your response.
But when he asks if he can mow the lawn (dream on!), you answer with a resounding "Yes!" Because what he asked was within your will. And, since he asked (I want to meet your son!), he also understands why this is in your will.
God responds to us in much the same way. He knows the big picture. He has a plan for each of our lives. His will for us is perfect. We may not understand His perfection, but we can know His will. We can know what He wants for us. We can know that we are precious to Him and that He wants the very best for us, just as we want the best for our own children.
We can understand what His will is by staying in His Word. The best way to get to know someone is to talk with him and find out what’s inside his head. The best way to get to know Jesus is through His Word, so He can talk to us, and by talking to Him through prayer, both of which help us to know, at least in part, what’s in His head. Read the Word and pray – a perfect two-way conversation!
When we know Him – really know Him – He begins to change us. When He changes us, our requests begin to conform to His will. When that happens, the third part of this thirteenth step of learning to live by faith is fulfilled – we can know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him.
Take the thirteenth step in learning to live by faith… Learn to determine His will for your life by maintaining an on-going two-way conversation – read your Bible and pray every day. When you know His will, you’ll know your requests are within His will, and you’ll also know that you have those things that you ask from Him.