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Wednesday in the Word

Our God Answers Prayers

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Daniel 2:20-23

Daniel answered and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. 23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

Daniel praises God in this poetic form for giving him the answer to King Nebuchadnezzar’s troubled dream, which he and his friends had prayed about before going to sleep.

Earlier in chapter 2, the king had been so frustrated by his dream, and the inability of his wise men to know what it was and what it meant without him telling it to them, that he had ordered their deaths, as well as the deaths of Daniel and his friends. Nobody knew what to do, and everybody was saying “No man on earth can do what he asks!” But Daniel knew the “God in heaven” he served could do anything.

Thus, Daniel goes home and asks for God’s wisdom and mercy, so that “he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (v. 18). They go to sleep, and in a dream, Daniel receives the answer he’s been waiting for. Then he wakes and praises God for this. (The dream works in totality, by the way, completely telling and interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream for him and pleasing the king.)

Prayer Works, and Not Just in Bible Stories

Now, when we pray to God, we should not do so only as a last resort, but because we know God can handle and solve anything. Daniel knew he could trust God to bring him through this dire situation; we have to know it, too. God is there for us in every tough situation that life brings us, medically, personally, financially, and every other way. Some examples from my personal experience follow:

God = Great Physician, Literally!

A little girl in my boyfriend’s extended family is living her 4th year of life, when even before her birth doctors were saying her heart would never function correctly enough to help her live 3 months. And even through risky procedures the doctors did not believe would solve the problem, she has pulled through, showing healing and inexplicable recovery in more than 50% of her heart. Our church got together and prayed for this little girl several times, and each prayer time was followed up swiftly with good news. We know that the doctors’ hands were guided by God, but when doctors had given up, it seemed Someone else hadn’t.

God = Best Counselor and Comforter Ever Known

Recovering from severe, suicidal depression has taken me the better part of 3 years, since February of 2009. But prayer has been a continual lifeline for me in that. Not only was I praying for my own recovery, but my family and my boyfriend’s family was, too, as well as members of my church. And I could feel that love and support, and an inexplicable sense of well-being, even at 2:00 in the morning when I felt very alone and unable to talk to anyone. In those moments, I talked to God, and could feel burdens lifting and mindset shifting. And after a while, I knew I was going to get better, someday. 🙂

God = Job Creator Extraordinaire

I had become desperate for a job, for money coming in, and my current physical injuries keep me from working. I have very little work experience because of the economy and my physical condition. One night a couple of weeks ago, I prayed, “God, I’m doing a great job of blogging, but I’m not making any money off this, and I probably never will. Help me to know what to do next; send me something that helps me choose a direction for my career.” Not 24 hours later, I opened an email from a woman who wanted to know if I’d be interested in writing sponsored posts and doing ads for her client’s company. I cried happy tears: God had listened, and answered! It was a starting place, somewhere to begin making a bit of money here and there, which just landed in my lap (well, more literally, in my inbox).

Like Daniel, we have to be willing to pray, and also be ready for the answer. We know that our God is an awesome God, as the song says, but are we really believing His power? After all that I’ve seen and experienced, I can say definitively that I believe.

Wednesday in the Word

We Don’t Need to Judge Each Other

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Colossians 2:16

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

In the Book of Colossians, Paul refuted a good number of false teachings regarding how to get closer to God and how to get saved. Many Colossian false preachers were telling their congregations stuff about “having secret knowledge of Jesus” to be saved, or “denying the body enough” to be saved, etc. They were also negatively judging those who did not have this “secret knowledge” of Jesus and did not deny themselves nourishment or come to every festival they held.

While these practices sound kinda Christian on the surface (denying the body’s fleshly desires, knowing all you can about Jesus, etc.), the key word there is “kinda”–it’s not really Christianity. You don’t have to possess secret knowledge to be saved, nor can you make yourself good enough through denying the flesh to be saved. All that it takes to be saved is accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for you, asking Jesus to come into your heart. Any other requirements are human-imposed only.

Paul wrote this letter many centuries ago, but it still applies to today’s situations, too. We all know Christians who judge other believers for not being in church every time the doors open, not “dressing up in Sunday best,” not listening to just Christian music, etc. Unfortunately, this kind of judgmental attitude is what the church has become best-known for in recent years.

With this letter to the Colossians, Paul also warns us not to judge each other by this kind of worthless worldly yardstick. We can’t know the state of someone else’s salvation, nor are we supposed to comment on it like we know better. Instead, we are to bolster each other up in faith, and focus more on the state of our own salvation rather than looking always at others. We don’t need to judge each other–in fact, we’re not fit to do so. God’s perfectly capable of doing that when the time comes.

Wednesday in the Word

God’s Promise and Our Promise

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Isaiah 1:18-19

18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.”

In this, one of the first verses in the Book of Isaiah (otherwise full of hard-hitting, prophetic verses that the Israelites needed to hear), Isaiah quotes God promising forgiveness. Though our sins might be as plain and as staining as scarlet blood on our hands, that stain can yet be cleansed by forgiveness.

But that promise is not automatically given to all. It is given pending our personal willingness to follow God’s will. The “if you are willing and obedient” part is the key line here; in order to accept God’s promise of forgiveness, we must promise similarly to God that we are ready for forgiveness and the obedience to His will that it entails.

God does not force Himself in where He is not wanted; we have free will. We can choose to accept God or not–it’s a personal decision, and cannot be forced by another person or an institution. But if we want salvation, if we want to be cleansed from the sins that we’ve committed, God stands ready to forgive us. We just have to make that promise of obedience.

Obedience to God Is Not Burdensome

Now, living obedient to God’s will is not easy, but it’s not a total drag, either. I can say that I’m living a much happier and more fulfilling life these days, because I FEEL the forgiveness in my heart and I FEEL my relationship with God growing stronger. It is like having the very best, closest friend in the world, multiplied ten times over.

And yet, it is also like having an awesome Parent who has a few “house rules.” Following those “house rules” yields harmony; breaking one or more of those rules leads to distress. It may be difficult to follow these rules at times, but I know the reward if I do.

God wants to forgive each of us, wants to reconnect with us–that’s why Isaiah writes of God saying “Come now, let us reason together.” That’s the beauty of His promise: He’s done the hard work for us, with the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, as the atonement for our sins. All that remains now is to accept that gift, and fulfill that promise.

Wednesday in the Word

Slightly Set Apart from the World

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Numbers 15:37-41
37 The LORD said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.’”

God commands Moses, in this excerpt from Numbers, to have the Israelites wear special tassels on their garments, which would move when they moved and be a visual reminder of their covenant with God.

As the rest of the Old Testament bears out, Israel has a hard time sticking to its promises, especially when the rest of the ancient world around it is worshipping other gods and doing things that God said He didn’t like, without any visible punishment. Especially in the book of Judges, Israel waffles back and forth between God and Ba’al (or between God and pretty much any other regional deity with purported powers).

God’s command, then, is not just a fashion statement but a way of setting apart the Israelites from the others. They would look slightly different from the Canaanites, and they would also (ideally) behave differently from neighboring nations as well because they would be daily reminded by the tassels on their clothes. Their tassels, much like their commandments, would mark them as God’s chosen people.

Our ‘Tassels’: Crosses and WWJD, Among Others

Today, Christians wear a variety of things that (supposedly) show their faith: crosses dangling from necklaces; WWJD bracelets; shirts with Bible verse references printed in grungy fonts; even Bible verse brooches and pins. We mark ourselves as different with fashion, and we’re not alone in that–across the world, different religions and different cultures have been using fashion as a symbol of their uniqueness for millennia.

But are we Christians using these symbols, these modern-day tassels, as visual reminders of our faith?

I would venture to say that much of Christian fashion symbolism is mainly worn for pretending or for boasting, and not much for reminding. We’re more concerned with what other people will think of us wearing these symbols (i.e., we’re “better people”) than really believing what they stand for. But other Christians and non-Christians who observe us will notice our behavior, whether good or bad, and compare it to that symbol we are wearing. When we sin, and someone else notices not only the sin but the religious symbols, they are more apt to think that Christianity is bogus.

Case in point: I knew plenty of “Christians” growing up who wore all the trappings of Christianity, all the shirts and bracelets, all the cross necklaces you could ever want…but they never really ACTED like Christians. Instead, they acted selfish, boorish, judgmental, self-righteous, childish, and/or reckless. This reflected badly not only on them, but on the faith their fashion professed. Their fashion choices claimed they were set apart from the world, but they acted like perfectly happy members of the world.

If we’re going to wear the fashions of Christianity, we should let those symbols remind us of our faith, and remind us to practice it every day, not just Wednesday night and Sunday morning. Wearing the cross doesn’t mean you’re saved, necessarily, but bending before the proverbial cross and accepting Jesus does. Wearing a WWJD bracelet doesn’t mean you’re trying to live as Jesus taught, but reading Jesus’ teachings and doing your best to follow them does. We just can’t fake being slightly set apart from the world.

Wednesday in the Word

Letting God Drive

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James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

This is much harder than James makes it sound. We humans don’t want to submit to anyone telling them what to do. But James makes no bones about anything in his short book, and this is no exception. In order to be Christian, we have to let go of our lives and trust that God is in control of it all.

Letting Go = Not Worrying, Raging, or Fighting, but Praying

But what does “letting go of our lives” mean? I think it encompasses all of the following and a lot more besides:

  • Not being mad at yourself or others for being late
  • Accepting your body’s small flaws
  • Not confronting others who anger you, but praying for them
  • Praying about the worry and guilt that torments you
  • Not raging about how someone else slighted you
  • Accepting a downgrade at work with grace

In each of these circumstances and countless others, God is still in control. Even in the bad times, God is there and God has you in His hands. Worrying, raging, and fruitlessly rumbling about in your life doesn’t do any good and indeed saps your energy.

Instead, being still and knowing that God is in control, letting God drive instead of trying to snatch the wheel away from Him, is submitting to His will. It’s about knowing that there is a purpose behind your temporary suffering, knowing that the horrible situation you’re in will be resolved in time (maybe not in the time you’d like it to be, but it will).

Letting God drive is not just about being passive, though–it’s about taking prayerful action when needed. If the situation at work is not resolving, for instance, and you’re concerned, pray about what to do–the calm and strength given to me through prayer is incomparable to anything else I’ve ever experienced. If you’re suffering pain, prayerfully considering and then asking about possible medical attention is key. But through all your prayerful action, there should be in the background a knowledge that whatever comes, God has the steering wheel and there is no need to worry.

Resisting the Devil by Living for God Rather than Self

Being willing to submit to God is part of being able to resist the Devil. When we are living for God’s glory rather than our own pleasures, we are suddenly accountable for every action. “Is what I’m about to do/tempted to do glorifying to God, or is this just for me?” It serves as a check for our behavior.

This is difficult, and it’s not an instant transformation. After four years of being in organized faith practice, I’m still dealing with guilt and worry over the anger and frustration I show on a daily basis–that isn’t glorifying to God. It may even make some people doubt my Christianity when I explode like that.

But I pray about it, really try to let go of the frustration instead of letting it pop out like a horrible jack-in-the-box of emotions. And the prayer, whether in the moment or afterward, has helped reduce the instances of explosion. Knowing God is still in control, no matter who has frustrated me or insulted me, is a comfort. Even though somebody else made the free-will decision to be a rear end to me, they’ll be accountable to God for that, just as I’ll be accountable for my anger.

Rely on God

He knows where He’s going, even if the road in some places is not paved yet, even if the car seems like it’s going to jostle completely apart, and even if the Devil runs alongside the car yelling and screaming at us. We just have to stop asking “Are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet?!”

Wednesday in the Word

Jesus Proves He Is Who He Says He Is

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Luke 24:25-27
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Once Jesus had risen, He appeared on the road leading to a village named Emmaus, on which the two people He addresses in this excerpt are also traveling. They don’t recognize Jesus, even though they witnessed His crucifixion, and they proceed to literally tell Jesus about the ordeal they saw Him endure, including the apparent fact that Jesus was missing from the tomb He was buried in.

Once they tell Jesus all of this, He speaks to them firmly, referencing all the prophecies that had been in Jewish tradition for so long. “These prophecies have been around for years–why don’t you believe that they could have at last come true?” He’s saying. “Didn’t all the prophets say the Messiah would have to suffer like that?”

Then, He does something that likely astounds them–He goes back to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), as well as back through all of the prophets’ writings contained in the Old Testament, and details each instance the Messiah was spoken of, often in great detail concerning what He would eventually endure. That’s a lot of Scriptural references, and I mean a LOT. But Jesus knows them all, and directly references them back to His own experiences.

In this instance, Jesus is proving to those two people, as well as to all readers of Luke (and the rest of the Bible), that He is who He says He is. He isn’t some random carpenter, an upstart preacher, or a lunatic–He’s the Messiah, Who was foretold many centuries before He came. He knows all the Scriptures because He helped inspire those Scriptures; He knows that what He endured matches Scripture because God the Father planned it that way.

Many people today doubt the Bible because Jesus is so strange a figure to believe in. Do we really believe, historically and scientifically, that this could happen, did happen? So much in the world urges us not to believe. But this one verse, tucked away in the back chapters of Luke, proves over again that Jesus was and is the Messiah–He simply knew too much and was too much not to be.

Wednesday in the Word

God Loves Us Despite Ourselves

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Job 26:1-4

1 Then Job replied: 2 “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble! 3 What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! And what great insight you have displayed! 4 Who has helped you utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?”

Without the context of the rest of the Book of Job, one might think that Job is talking about God here, helping the powerless, advising ones without wisdom…but actually, Job is addressing the last of three “friends” who have been trying (and failing) to advise him since God has apparently stricken him with many curses.

(In fact, Job is in the middle of an argument between God and Satan. Satan wants to see Job curse God, and God knows it can’t be done, but Satan’s trying everything he can anyway, tearing everything away from Job [family, livelihood, even health]. And though Job is suffering, he still clings to his faith, as God knew he would.)

But the three friends who are trying to advise Job keep on talking about how depraved and worthless humanity is, especially the last guy who just talked before Job in chapter 25. So Job responds to him in a tone of utter sarcasm: “Yeah, man, telling me how worthless I am is REALLY helping me. You’re doing a GREAT job. You oughta get a degree in this or something. *rolling eyes*”

What Job is getting at is that yes, humanity is weak, impure, and sinful, especially when compared to God. But GOD DOESN’T CARE. God loves us anyway, and He yearns to reconnect with each one of us. Even through all the junk Job has been through, he knows the character of God: loving, eternally. And, as Job mentions at the end, his would-be advisor is not exempt from being human, either. God is way bigger than anyone can imagine, and His love is bigger than we can imagine, too.

In these first few verses, Job is contrasting his all-too-human advisor with God. Where his advisor can only ridicule or lecture him, God can truly help him, save him, and give him insight. God is greater than our troubles, greater than sin, greater than everything, and Job still trusted in Him despite all of his current woes.

Where other humans can only try to help us and love us (and often fail), God can help us and heal us completely, because He is the only one who loves us unconditionally. God truly loves us despite our frailty, despite our sins, and that love, when we accept it, is what saves us.

Wednesday in the Word

This Is What All Believers Go Through

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Acts 9:3-6
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Saul, a well-known persecutor of Christians, becomes Paul, apostle of God, in this one moment. This is the moment that all believers go through at some point in their lives–when they ask God, “Who are you?” and He answers. What a watershed moment, what a powerful change! And yet, this story isn’t just Biblical–it happens to all of us who have come to love Jesus and worship God.

For some of us, our conversion moment (our Road to Damascus moment, if you will) comes in childhood, with a simple, toddling foray down to the front of the church to tell the minister what we have decided. Some of us, like Saul, spend years fighting before finally deciding to give this Jesus guy a shot.

But no matter how you come to Jesus, no matter what you’ve done, said, or thought, He still seeks reconciliation with you if you haven’t already. That’s the amazing thing about God; He knows us and loves us, despite all the railing and whining we might have done toward Him over the years (*raises a guilty hand*). And He does everything He can to extend love toward us. The only thing we have to do is accept it. Then, once we do that, He guides us and helps us know “what we must do,” as Jesus says to Paul. This is indeed what all believers go through…learning to hear and trust God.

Wednesday in the Word

Salvation Is Not a Competition

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Matthew 18:1-4
18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

The disciples argued fairly regularly over which one of them would be “the greatest” in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus answers them in Matthew by reminding them that humility is one of the qualities God wants to see in us.

The reason Jesus uses a child as an example is because all the adults He was seeing were wrapped up in false pride and pretensions. “Think like a kid,” Jesus is saying. “Just live humbly and don’t stand there crowing about all you’ve done, and you won’t fall off the path.” As soon as you start being proud of all the Christian things you’ve done, soon enough you’ll start thinking of yourself as “so saved you can’t sin anymore” (I’ve actually heard a ‘Christian’ say that). Then, you’re really in trouble.

If we’re so puffed up and proud about all our accomplishments in the church–if we’re so wrapped up in “all we’ve done for God” and we think “surely I’m saved now”–then we just missed the whole point of salvation. Jesus didn’t save anybody because they were good enough to save, or because they did a whole lot for the church, or because they gave to charity. Salvation is not a competition; it’s a gift, one none of us deserve, but all of us can accept.

Wednesday in the Word

Don’t See God Working? Where Are You Looking?

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Psalm 92:5-6
5 How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts! 6 The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand.

God is everywhere, at all times. God is with us even when we can’t feel Him near. So why do some people believe He doesn’t exist?

How can a Good God Let Bad Things Happen?

People often wonder, “if there’s a God, why does He cause bad things to happen?” They are not caused by God, because God does not do evil. But sometimes He allows things to happen to us because they are teachable moments.

Tragedy as well as gaiety shape us into the people we are supposed to become, over time. The car accident that shattered your leg may well have taken you out of a successful sports career, but if that had never happened, would you have met the lifelong friend you made in the hospital, who directed you to a new career which you found utterly more fulfilling? Being fired from that well-paying but high-stress job may leave you near poverty for several months, but if you hadn’t left it when you did, you might have died from the stress, and God still has a purpose for you elsewhere.

God Does Grand Works, Works We Can’t Even Fathom

As this verse says, God is always working, and His works are truly great in scale. He has aligned everything–and I mean EVERYTHING–in perfect sync. You might be a few minutes late to a party and be angry at the slow-moving traffic ahead of you, only to arrive on the scene of an accident, which, if you would have been on time, would have involved you. (This happened to me last winter; I’m shaking still thinking about it.) Your family members’ bickering may reach a fever pitch at your house for the holidays, only to reveal that there is some long-held bitterness and resentment, which has never been expressed…and it leads to full reconciliation within days.

No matter where we look, God is in control, in ways we don’t even imagine. The flows of traffic, just like the flows of rivers, are managed by His hand; even our own personal losses, inflicted by others, can be and are used by God to help us grow as people, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. My huge, overwhelming failure as a teacher shaped my life with its tragedy; I thought I would never recover from the severe depression that very nearly ate my whole personality. And yet, God used that to show me that there was a better place I fit in His plan–that He meant me to serve in another career.

If we choose not to see God working, how He places us in people’s lives just when they need our particular skills, and places others in our lives when we have lost our way, then we are truly “senseless,” and “fools,” as the verse says. Not to say we all aren’t fools sometimes; many is the time I have only felt God’s works after I realized how much worse off I could have been. We just have to be willing to look around and admit God’s presence–it’s not just “coincidence,” not “fate” or “destiny,” but GOD, bringing us to new positive experiences and using the trials we face to teach us how to depend on Him.