Category Archives: Daily Struggles of Life

Daily Struggles of Life, Divorce, Healing, Marriage, Prayer, Reconciliation, Repentance, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, Struggles

Holding the Ropes

Posted by admin on August 21, 2010 at 10:34 am.

And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ (Eph 1:9).

 

                Some friends of mine are struggling in their marriage, and there is a possibility of divorce. It is a stain upon the God that we believe in and Who revealed Himself in Christ that Christian people get divorced. Just like the four men that lowered their paralytic friend to Jesus in Mark 2, I am going to “hold the ropes” for my friends and call upon God to bring real healing and reconciliation. After all, the whole purpose that He came was to reconcile men to God and each other (Eph 2:14-18). To that end, I am praying through the book of Ephesians for them, confident that since the Scriptures are His revealed Truth, He is more likely to answer prayers based upon them than those that are based just simply on my own ideas.

 

                The verse above guides my prayer today. First, I want God to reveal “the mystery of His will” to them. While He has made it known in some ways, my friends haven’t fully grasped that His will is reconciled relationships. The reconciliation that we enjoy with God through Christ is to be extended to human relationships as well. Just as we necessarily must be humble in our dealings with God the Father, so we must exhibit humility in our human relationships as well. When there is the threat of divorce, someone, at least, is allowing pride and self to govern their lives.

 

                The second aspect of my prayer is that they would realize the purpose God has for their lives. He brought them together; they recognized that it was His will that they marry; and they vowed before Him to stay together through all of life’s troubles. Now they think they want to renege on that vow. Is God’s purpose for our lives something that changes with every whim of emotion? Certainly not, but their children might think so if Satan wins this and they divorce.

 

                Now, divorce is not the ultimate or unforgivable sin. But it is a concession to our weakness and not His perfect plan. And since it is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His Church, Satan delights to step in and suggest that our Lord is not Who He claims to be when He can’t keep His own children together in a covenant of marriage.

 

                I have no guarantee that these friends won’t divorce, but I can’t let Satan win without a fight. Perhaps a key to their reconciliation will be when they realize His larger plan and purpose for their lives. Tomorrow, I’ll read further in Ephesians and pray about the ideas that are included in the next few verses of the text. Perhaps you would join me…  

Bewilderment, Daily Struggles of Life, Doubt, God's care, God's goodness, Humility, Perseverance, Prayer, Psalms, Scripture, Struggles, Suffering, hardship

The Trust Fund

Posted by admin on August 18, 2010 at 4:06 pm.

 

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you (Ps 31:19).

 

                Unanswered prayer is the grief of many Christians today. There are usually no answers to the questions of “Why does He delay to answer me? Doesn’t He see how much I am suffering?”

 

                As one who has wrestled with these questions many times, I have taken great comfort in Psalm 31:19. It seems that the Lord has a “savings account” of His goodness toward me that I will one day be able to cash in. Perhaps a better illustration would be a “trust fund,” because it is an account that cannot be drawn from whenever I would like. Someone else determines when I will receive it.

 

                To access this “trust fund” of God’s goodness to me I must exercise the same kind of faith that a child with a financial trust fund would exercise. It is only a matter of time before I will receive my store of God’s blessing. I must trust that the Word of the One that is managing this fund is true. The only difference is that the time for me is uncertain while the child will know when his inheritance will be given to him.

 

                While I am waiting for the display of His goodness the verse tells me the two things I must continue to do: fear Him and take refuge in Him. These are not passive, but active verbs. “Fear” carries the idea of seeking Him wholeheartedly, rather than in just a perfunctory way. “Taking refuge in Him” is an admission of our own weakness and inadequacy.

 

                Some believe that this verse suggests that the display of God’s goodness to us will be apparent to all at the Judgment, but my opinion is that the phrase, “in the sight of men,” is that it will be here on earth, just at a later time. David had earlier stated, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Ps 27:13).

 

                The Lord has His goodness in store for those who trust Him. We don’t always understand why He tells us that we must wait, and it sometimes distresses us when people around us are looking for external evidence of His reality, but He has His purposes, and those purposes are perfect.

 

                Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;

                Stoop to my weakness mighty as Thou art, And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

 

                Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh; Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear:

                To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh, Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

(George Croly, 1780-1860)

Daily Struggles of Life, Discipleship, Faith, Maturity, Power, Prayer, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, fasting

Spiritual Warfare

Posted by admin on June 23, 2010 at 2:53 pm.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12).

                Apparently my life is too entrenched in the physical world that surrounds me, because this verse always strikes a chord with me. Reading this, along with Ephesians 3:9-10, I am reminded that there is an unseen spiritual presence that somehow impacts the affairs of men that I can see. What the connection is between the spiritual world of “principalities and powers” and our physical world of personal survival, caring and rearing our families, standing for Truth in the political world and promoting Christ is impossible to understand. Perhaps one day when this life is over, we will understand it.

                In the verses that follow Ephesians 6:12, Paul speaks about the spiritual armor that we are to don as believers in this battle, but there is another passage that speaks about the weapons that we are to use. That passage is II Cor. 10:4-5 which tells us that our weapons are spiritual and can pull down the strongholds (in the spiritual world) that are impossible if we only see this as a world of space and time. The weapons to which Paul refers are, of course, prayer and fasting. Some might include giving since Jesus included this in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6).

                These “means of grace” (to use the term employed by the Reformers) are mysteries to most of us. Why does God need us to pray when He already knows what He wants done and has the power to accomplish it? Why did the ancients consider fasting to be a way “to make your voice heard on high”? Isn’t that what prayer itself does? If our Lord owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” and “the wealth of every mine,” why does He command us to give?

                The answers to these are bound up in the reality that “our warfare is not against flesh and blood…” Somehow, what we do when we pray, fast and give impacts the spiritual world in ways that we will never completely understand while we are in this life. Certainly the practice of these disciplines creates a growth component for our lives here that will be satisfying while we remain on this side, but God’s purpose is much greater even than that. Somehow we make a difference in the unseen world, and the unseen world affects what happens around us. That’s why Psalm 149 can say that it is the glory of God’s people to pray and to impact the political world in far-away places (see vss. 6-9).

                These spiritual disciplines can become wearisome to us at times, but we must continually feed on the Scripture to keep the truth before us that even if we cannot see visible results from these disciplines, they are effective in the unseen world.

Daily Struggles of Life, Prayer, Purpose, Scripture, Struggles, hardship

Prayer’s Content

Posted by admin on June 3, 2010 at 10:18 am.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph 3:16-19).

                Prior to almost any group session of prayer, it is the usual custom to ask the group for specific requests that should be prayed for. Typically these requests include a relative’s minor physical ailment or an acquaintance or family member that has become involved with a vice of some sort. There is nothing wrong with praying for these things. God is concerned for every care that weighs down our hearts.

                But when we read the New Testament we see a completely different content to Paul’s prayers than ours. The prayer quoted above (and it is representative of many others) is not concerned with relieving the temporal physical needs of individuals. Paul seemed to know that if his Ephesian friends understood how great is the God we serve, the minor physical needs would take care of themselves. The goal of his prayer seems to be closer to the formation of the likeness of Christ in his friends than it is to the relief of some physical pain.

                Now we all understand that there are times when a physical malady inhibits our service to Christ, so it is appropriate to pray about that physical malady. But why not rather make the focus of our prayer to be the restoration to fruitful service or to the accomplishment of the internal qualities that God may be seeking to develop rather than simply the relief from physical suffering?  An outsider might properly get the impression that our first and foremost concern is freedom from pain and difficulty. This was not the kind of prayer that Paul modeled for us in the New Testament.

                Here’s a challenge: identify an individual for whom you regularly pray. Then find a passage of Scripture that describes what you think God wants to accomplish in that person’s life. For example, since I want my son to take the Truth he has been taught and apply it more fervently to his life, I pray “that the eyes of his heart be enlightened that he may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18-19).

Each day as you pray for him/her, remind God of His own Word. By the end of a week you will have accomplished two things: (1) you will have prayed for your friend about what God Himself says He wants accomplished, and (2) you will have memorized a passage of Scripture.

Daily Struggles of Life, Death, Discipleship, Humiliation, Perseverance, Struggles, Suffering, hardship

A Choice Group

Posted by admin on May 18, 2010 at 4:48 pm.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world (1 Cor 4:8-13).

                It’s no wonder that there is a high dropout rate among people in ministry, if this is what we can expect! The consolation, of course, is that the retirement is “out of this world!”

                The United States Marine Corps calls their people, “The few, the proud, the marines!” because they are an elite group. They don’t mind a high dropout rate because those that do stick are choice men and women. There is a character about them that nothing but hardship can create. It is what makes them elite; it is what gives them confidence in each other in tough times; it is what makes them valuable to our nation.

                But as impressive as the military is, the character that has been tested by the hardships of ministry is even more so. The New Testament describes these as “men of whom the world is not worthy” (Heb 11:38). They are humble because they have been humbled; they endure because their eyes are fixed on the One who endured for them. They are not all impressive by the standards of this world; indeed, there were not many “wise…influential… [or] noble” (1 Cor 1: 26), but there is a quality about them that makes them precious to the Church and to her Lord. He can rely upon them to represent His interests before a watching world. And He will one day reward their faithfulness, whether or not it receives the applause of men.

                The famous words of Theodore Roosevelt apply to these people: “The credit belongs to the man in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

Daily Struggles of Life, Decisions, Repentance, Restoration, Struggles, Suffering

A Jewel for His Glory

Posted by admin on May 2, 2010 at 7:09 pm.

 

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will (Eph 1:11).

                A seminar speaker once made the observation that the foolish decisions that we make are not completely irreversible. We can always repent and turn from our wrong ways and be restored. Even when those decisions have consequences that cannot be reversed, God is always in the restoration business.

                He made his point by using the idea that we are like a diamond in the rough. God’s perfect design might be that we would be a large diamond for His glory and praise. His hands hold the hammer and chisel, but if in our sinfulness we make a decision at the wrong time (that is, we move while He is preparing to remove some impurity), He can still make a perfect diamond from our lives – just a bit smaller.

                We will never be able to re-visit the decisions in our lives to find out what might have happened. Those things are sealed in the mind of God, but His purpose and plan are never out of reach, never beyond His ability to restore. He is able to re-convene the circumstances of our lives to accomplish what He desires.

But restoration is a function of a tender, repentant spirit. He will be first in our lives and He will test His place there by the decisions that we make. If we persist in a spirit of stubborn willfulness – rebellion – He will “tighten the screws” to make us realize that rebellion, and the consequences will be increasingly severe until we repent. There are times – documented – when He removes people because they persist in their rebellion. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) and the sinful man of I Corinthians 5 (potentially) were such cases, but there are many more apart from the text of Scripture.

No one is beyond restoration; no one has so fully rebelled that God is unable to make a perfectly faceted jewel from his life. But the key to the “size” of that jewel is our repentant spirit.

Bewilderment, Daily Struggles of Life, Sovereignty

The God of the Small Details

Posted by admin on April 23, 2010 at 8:43 pm.

Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul.  They urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. Festus answered, “Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. Let some of your leaders come with me and press charges against the man there, if he has done anything wrong” (Acts 25:1-5)

                As I read this passage (actually, from a couple of different translations) I get the very distinct impression that Governor Festus had no clue that the Jewish leaders were planning to ambush and kill Paul, if he had come to Jerusalem. Luke, the historian who wrote the Book of Acts, somehow knew this, and our English translations make it to read like a parenthetical thought.

                Yet the Scripture in its totality is God’s Word and there are no extra ideas here, so the clear meaning is that God by His sovereign direction – even over pagan or secular rulers – preserved Paul’s life in this way. Certainly He could have protected Paul even if they had brought him to Jerusalem, but it is clear that the evil plans of those who opposed the Gospel were thwarted by His oversight of the small details.

                That principle is true in our lives as well. Life has a tendency to “throw us a curve” at times, to interrupt our carefully laid plans. These interruptions may or may not divert us from our plans ultimately, but we can be sure that if we are completely His, they are not accidents. That’s why the writer of the Proverbs says, “The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (16:9).

                In the passage above, Paul had no control over the decision of Festus to conduct his hearing in Caesarea instead of Jerusalem, but it is comforting to realize that the Lord still is watching out for us by orchestrating the small details. Sometimes when He steps into our plans we also have no decisions in the matter, but at other times, He is seeking to prompt us to seek Him for some sort of wisdom. Either way, there is nothing that happens to us that He doesn’t at least allow. What a comfort that truth is in times of trouble and bewilderment!

Church Today, Daily Struggles of Life, Pain, Struggles, Suffering, Training, hardship

Basic Training

Posted by admin on April 4, 2010 at 8:14 am.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9

                For the past few days I have not had the opportunity to write because I have been away from home at my son’s graduation from Basic Military Training (BMT). He is now an Airman in the USAF. We are very proud of him.

                One of his buddies joined us for lunch one day just after a ceremony because his family had not yet arrived. As we talked about the BMT experience, he told us that there was one day, about 2-3 weeks into the training, that things got so bad that he had to duck into the latrine to keep from crying and giving up. The comment was made in our conversation that everyone reaches that place in any significant endeavor. I thought to myself, “How true…how many times I have ‘ducked into the latrine’ myself to keep people from seeing that I was ready to give up ministry.”

                The verse above is only representative of the thrust of much of the Scripture, encouraging us to press on despite adversity. Adversity tests our resolve; it helps us understand our true motives, some of which would not really be known without the trial.

We in the human race are very adept at deceiving ourselves. God, of course, sees our true motives, but often we sugar-coat our attitudes with noble thoughts of how good and pure we are. NOT! Trial helps us see ourselves for who we are. Jeremiah was right when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9).

The USAF (and the military as a whole) has always understood the necessity of BMT. My son understood going in that the purpose of these two months would be for the Training Instructor to “get into his head.” God wants to do the same.

Daily Struggles of Life, Maturity, Pain, Perseverance, Prayer, Purpose, Struggles, hardship

Never Give up

Posted by admin on March 8, 2010 at 9:08 am.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1

                One of the most famous speeches that Winston Churchill ever delivered was given, as I understand it, after WWII. Churchill was the Prime Minister of England who stood up to Adolf Hitler, instead of giving in to the “peace in our time” policy of his predecessor. In this famous speech, he came to the podium and simply said, “Never… Never… Never give up.” Then he sat down.

Whether my memory of this speech is exactly accurate or not, it is the same theme that Jesus had in His parable in Luke 18. I admit to you that I don’t understand why prayer often seems to go unanswered, but the reason is not the apathy of the God we serve. Neither is it that He is too busy or that He has forgotten us. As best I can understand, it has something to do with the work He is trying to accomplish in me.

Unlike parents whose job it is to give their children “roots and wings,” maturity in Christ involves an increasing dependence upon Him for every need we have. The more we are conscious of our need, the greater will be the glory He will receive when He answers our prayer. It was not a failure on God’s part that Abraham and Sarah were barren up to her 90th birthday; it was not an oversight that Moses found himself between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army; it wasn’t because God didn’t care that Jehoshaphat the king found himself threatened by a vast army; and it wasn’t because God had overlooked something that Hezekiah faced impending destruction at the hands of the Assyrian army. Each of these events – and many more – became an occasion for the Sovereign King to show the glory of His power before a watching world. Each of the human characters found himself in an acutely uncomfortable position, but they had surrendered themselves to His purposes and to live for His honor.

This is what Jesus tells us we need to do as well – never give up. We are to recognize that unless He delivers us, we are lost; unless He intervenes, we have no hope. Though this position is exceedingly uncomfortable, our comfort is not His primary concern, and should not be ours either. We are here to glorify God – to demonstrate the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His light. And if we die in the process – either figuratively or literally – our reward will be that much greater.

Christ's afflictions, Daily Struggles of Life, Pain, Struggles, Suffering

The Fellowship of His Sufferings

Posted by admin on February 17, 2010 at 4:54 pm.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings (Phil 3:10).

                C.S. Lewis wrote that “Pain is God’s megaphone.” In other words, it is often how He gets our attention. Sometimes pain is the natural consequence of our sin; sometimes it is the indirect result of the original sin that grips the whole human race; sometimes it is a test of the enemy of our souls; and sometimes it is the privilege of the believer to share in the sufferings of Jesus.

                The concept that we as Christians would experience pain and suffering willingly in order to know Him better is foreign to us in Western Christianity in this era. Even though we may reject the “health and prosperity” teaching that is popular in some corners of Christendom, most of us still believe deep down that if we please God He will make us happy and satisfied. We can’t understand why he doesn’t make us “successful” if we really are pleasing to Him.

                But this world stands opposed to God’s Truth, and if I am on His side, why should I expect to be popular and successful according to the world’s system? According to Jesus, God’s system says I am successful if men reject me because I follow Him (see Matt. 5:11). Shouldn’t I expect to be treated as He was and is treated by this world? Shouldn’t I be willing to endure the pain of rejection that He bore, if I am “in Christ”?

                The old hymnist, Isaac Watts, had it right:

               

                Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb

                And shall I fear to own His cause Or blush to speak His name?

 

                Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease

                While others fight to win the prize And sail through bloody seas?

 

                Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood?

                Is this vile world a friend to grace To help me on to God?

 

Since I must fight if I would reign, Increase my courage, Lord.

I’ll bear the cross, endure the pain, supported by Thy Word.