Fear constricts the flow of grace while Faith opens its hydrant

I think the tendency of many people, even Christians, is to view God as stingy and holding back the best from us as if God is like a man who is afraid he will run out so he is always thinking about the cost. There is a lot of stinginess to go around in our churches today but God is not the source of this stinginess. In fact, if we will trust Him and walk with Him in faith, he promises to open up heaven itself to us and pour out blessings beyond our wildest dreams. (Cf. Mal. 3:8-11 The Message)

In Mark 5, as Jairus’ faith sinks upon hearing the news of his daughter’s death, the heart of Jesus desires to pour out blessings beyond his wildest dreams so he seeks to impart courage with the words, “Don’t fear,  just believe.” For Jairus to receive the blessing Jesus wants to impart, he must trust in Jesus because fear constricts the flow of grace while faith opens its hydrant. So don’t fear, just believe or else by fear and distrust, we can shut out the grace that Christ desires to impart, a grace that is not hindered by death. Jesus says, “if you simply transfer your trust to Me, you will not lack power. But you must allow my power to flow and not constrict it with your fear.”

You see, our faith can never grow beyond the power of God which resists boundaries. It is never that we have too much confidence in God; it is ALWAYS that we have TOO LITTLE. Our fear ties a noose around His benefits while our faith is the instrument that connects us to His power. Calvin comments, “Our own scanty desires hinder Him from pouring out His gifts upon us in greater abundance….our faith, however large, will never embrace the 100th part (smallest fraction) of divine goodness.” Jesus regularly attributed his healings to the faith of individuals as He did with the two scenes in Mark 5. We shouldn’t attempt to nuance or water  down our role of believing because faith always derives its content and virtue from the object in which it rests. It does matter that we trust, it does matter that we have faith. And He may not do it, if you fail to Just Believe. Faith is not about believing certain propositions but instead is a certain kind of confidence, a Gift of Confidence and strength that the Lord imparts to us so that we can trust Him. When you trust the Person of Jesus Christ, your heart enlarges beyond limits and your courage and confidence in Him grows. Do you want this confidence for yourself? Pray: “Jesus give me the kind of confidence in You that Just Believes!”

Trusting God when Bad News comes

Have you ever had a friend or spouse approach you with the words, “I have some good news and some bad news, which would you like to hear first?” This is common phraseology in our culture which is sometimes simply employed to communicate an outlook that is mixed with positive and negative elements, but in my experience is most often used to cushion impact of Bad News. Why is there always SOME bad news? Well, our reaction to receiving Bad News says a lot about where our trust rests. Psalm 112:6-8 says: “For the righteous will never be moved…He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.” (ESV)

In Mark 5, while Jesus was still speaking to the woman with the chronic bleeding problem, the desperate dad/ruling church elder named Jairus, who has been waiting on Jesus to come to his home to heal his dying daughter, received some Bad News from the home: “Your daughter is dead.”  This Message produces an even greater level of despair in the Dad. It saps his courage, his faith sinks like a punctured tire and a pit grows in his stomach the size of a basketball. This is perhaps the worst news a parent can ever receive, he has lost his pride and joy! His little girl, whom he loves is gone. Seemingly death places the concern outside of Jesus’ ability to help. But with instant access to the dad’s thoughts, feelings and blood pressure readings, Jesus hears the desperation, gives the deepest empathy and says to him,  “Don’t fear,  just believe.”

Can you imagine Jesus, with His steely eyes looking right into yours then with absolute knowledge of you and your life circumstances, can you hear Him speaking those strong yet tender words to you “Don’t fear, Just Believe”?

“Let nothing trouble you, Let nothing frighten you, Everything passes, God never changes, Patience Obtains all, Whoever has God Wants for nothing, God alone is enough” –Teresa of Avila

Tomorrow: “Fear Constricts the Flow of Grace while Faith Opens its Hydrant”

When God doesn’t answer “on time”

Typically when we share our anxiety about a circumstance with a friend, we expect the friend to respond with a similar angst to our situation. After all that’s how we know they care, right? But when a friend responds with nonchalance, we feel that they don’t really love us. Well sometimes we project this same expectation to God in respect to our prayers. We expect God to mirror our anxiety and sense of urgency so that He will act in a hurry. The problem with that expectation comes when immediate relief to our plight doesn’t arrive, we are left with charging God with apathy towards us.

But God lives and works on another timetable, one that is not driven by my personal anxiety. This is wonderfully illustrated in Mark 5:21-43 as Jairus, the desperate dad/synagogue ruler who comes to Jesus looking for the healing of his dying daughter. As they begin to move toward his home they are interrupted by a poor woman with a chronic bleeding condition. Dick Lucas writes that one of the most striking things in this scene is that, “Jesus takes the time to comfort and teach an unclean woman with a chronic problem, causing a Male Church leader in urgent need to wait.” Jarius deserves quicker attention: he has the clout, the status, the cultural norms, along with a more urgent situation and a higher quality of faith than the woman. Jairus would likely resent the interruption as Jesus lingers with a sick woman (who is not going to die anytime soon) while his dying daughter waits.

The woman tugs at the back of Jesus’ robe and gets his attention. Moments later the Synagogue Ruler is tugging on the same robe saying in his heart, “Come on Jesus, we need to go. Perhaps you don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘URGENT.'” The bleeding woman comes with a superstitious faith, she believes poorly and lives while Jairus comes humbly with surprising confidence, he believes well and his daughter is going to die.

Without spoiling the ending for you, it would be good to pause at this moment of interruption and delay to make a point from God’s perspective. The point is that delay doesn’t negate his answer and delay doesn’t negate his love.  God’s delayed response doesn’t equate to a lack of love and concern as His love is compatible with even baffling delays. His is the Perfect Timetable; the Just Right Calendar. The Lord would say to Jairus and to us in the midst of interruption and delay, “Despite how things appear at the moment, I love you and care deeply about your circumstances.” But He will not Hurry. He will not be rushed. He’s too Holy, Wise, and Powerful to Hurry.

How to come to Jesus

Sometimes we’re faced with a situation where we know we need Jesus but we don’t know how to start, what to say or how to come. In Mark 5, we meet a desperate dad who is also a synagogue leader. He’s not over-thinking what he should say or how he should come. He just comes. The text reads:

Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him. (ESV)

Here are a few things we learn about coming to Jesus from Jairus, a dad of a twelve year old girl and Ruling Elder of the synagogue:

  • He comes Risking – Being highly respected both socially and morally as a Jewish church leader, he risks his reputation along with possible censure by the Religious establishment by coming to Jesus in broad daylight. The Jewish leaders did not care for Jesus and even treated him as the enemy so Jairus comes to Jesus risking everything that he’s earned: status, reputation, job security, friendships, etc.
  • He comes Humbly– Falling at Jesus’ feet daring not to come as an equal. He doesn’t come demanding, he doesn’t come looking for a favor based on the merit of his religious status or morality. He comes looking for something that he doesn’t deserve.
  • He comes with Surprising Confidence– Believing that Jesus has the power to actually heal his daughter from the disease which places her at death’s door, Jairus possesses a deep confidence in the Person of Jesus Christ. He comes saying in his heart, “Jesus, I’m not worthy, no one else can help, and You can do Everything!”

So here we learn how to come to Jesus. There are no magic words, there is no incantation, there is no attained status or moral integrity which is a prerequisite for coming to Him. We simply need to come risking, humbly, and with surprising confidence.

Emotions and Attitudes: Depression

Many of us are effective at ignoring the warning signs of our emotions and attitudes when we should be paying attention to these God-given alerts that something is amiss deep down. Often, if we will look with God’s help, we will see something connected to the emotion or attitude that needs to be confessed, repented of and healed. Today I want to write about the emotion and attitude of depression while not getting into a clinical diagnosis. If someone is clinically depressed he needs to seek an appointment with a healthcare professional. Some people experience post-traumatic depression after a military engagement, going through a traumatic event or after the death of a loved one. These feelings are completely understandable and the loss or trauma needs to be grieved by the individual and supported by loved ones. Personally, during my year in Sweden, I battled seasonal depression, when I endured a long, dark winter. But we all feel depressed sometimes and our depression is neither clinical, post-traumatic nor seasonal.

Often, we feel depressed because we had something that made us feel great and for some reason we don’t have it anymore so we sink into a despondency or discouragement over the loss. This depression is the result of the loss of something or someone whom we cognitively and emotionally inflated to divine levels in our hearts. When we are depressed like this, deep down our hearts are saying, “God, I had that thing and it was life to me but now it’s gone and nothing else can help me.” You know that you are involved in some worship-oriented depression when you have lost something that was too important to you and now you feel that your life is over and you can’t move on. We get depressed when we have elevated some finite value to the centerpiece of our lives, bestowed upon it an ultimate source of meaning and then we lose it. Augustine defined this heart attitude of depression revealed by loss as idolatry. He said, “Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshipped.” We know that our hearts have created an idol when we can’t imagine a happy or meaningful life without it. The idol, which is usually a good thing that our hearts have inflated inordinately, becomes so important to us that when circumstances threaten to rob us of it, we would consider turning our backs on God for He is negotiable but this thing is not.

Pray: O Heavenly King, I confess that my depression comes from the fact that I have magnified some earthly thing to be more wonderful and powerful than it really is and now it’s gone. Thank you that your providential removal of this idol from my life is your loving attempt to console my heart with a deeper, richer satisfaction in you. Thank you that I am no longer under the influence of that false functional savior who controlled my emotions and often disappointed and even devastated me. Satisfy the deepest longings, hungers and thirsts of my soul through your tender compassion and extravagant generosity. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Emotions and Attitudes: Boredom

I’ve blogged this week about emotions and attitudes and how they are warning signs to us that there is something buried deep within us of which we need to repent. I wrote about Anger and Anxiety on Tuesday and yesterday’s blog on Pride received some interesting comments particularly on Facebook. Today I want to blog about boredom.

Kids and teenagers often complain of boredom to their parents who indignantly resist any responsibility to provide non-stop entertainment for their offspring. But don’t adults suffer from boredom too?  Boredom is a passive spiritual condition which consists of a sad, restless and ungrateful weariness in the midst of the goodness of God, His Work and His Creation. When I’m bored, deep down my heart is saying, “God, you’re nice but I need more of this other exciting thing too if you want me to engage with you and your world and be satisfied.”

In his book, “What is Sin? What is Virture? Robert McCracken wrote about slothfulness, which is clustered with boredom and indifference,

A slothful person believes in nothing, enjoys nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing and only remains alive because there is nothing he would die for. 

Bored people are joyless, loveless and hopeless. Boredom looks at any opportunity as not worth the effort, robs us of meaningful activity, and makes our rest unrestful.

Pray:  Passionate Father, help me to see your love for me as bold and your pursuit of me as unrelenting. Help me to see that you have designed me in Christ Jesus to do good works which you have prepared for me so that I might bring glory to You.  God of hope,  fill me with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of your Spirit I may abound in hope.  Amen.

Emotions and Attitudes: Pride

Pride is the excessive belief in one’s own abilities which interferes with our ability to see our need for and thus experience the grace of God. Our hearts creep into pride when we estimate a high or inordinate opinion of our own dignity, importance, merit or superiority. It comes with a self-imagined importance that in the heart says to God and others, “I don’t need you but you need me.” Prideful people are usually quite competent in some area of life or work that platforms them as the one who is NEEDED in a given situation, they become the solution to the problem and therefore rarely show their own needs while cloaking their self-importance in the pretended humility of service or the special vocabulary (lingo) of the community to which they belong.

In my pride, my heart rages against God’s unmerited favor (grace) and undeserved generosity (mercy). My heart becomes self-important when I believe that I have this ability that makes me Great and it lashes out in anger when others don’t play along and join me in appreciating my importance. My prideful heart says, “God, people need your grace, mercy and unconditional love but because of this need that I meet, role that I play or ability that I possess I don’t need you like others do.”

Pray: Tender, loving God, help bring me today to a place of genuine humility that is based on a realistic self-appraisal and healthy feeling of self-worth that doesn’t need to be continually reinforced by others. My deepest need is to be unconditionally loved and only you can do that in the way that will heal my prideful heart. Let me rejoice in the truth that “You are with me and You are mighty to save me. Thank You that You take great delight in me, now quiet my restless heart with your love and help me to hear your voice rejoicing over me with singing.” Through Christ my Lord. Amen.

Emotions and Attitudes: Anxiety & Anger

In the past I ignored the warning lights on the dashboard of my car when I should have been checking under the hood to see what was wrong. Sometimes we ignore our emotions and heart attitudes when we should treat them as warning lights that something deep down inside of us is wrong. So what do our emotions and attitudes tell us about what is going on inside of us?

When I am anxious or angry, in my heart I am saying, “God, I can handle this situation better that you.” In my anxiety and anger, my heart rages against God’s providence, His holy, wise and powerful governing of all of my life circumstances. My heart gets anxious or angry because I am not receiving the outcome that I must have. If that goal isn’t reached, I am finished, broken, dead or worthless. Our anxiety and anger says, “God, your Fatherly kindness and protection are nice, but I also need this other thing to feel safe and secure.”

Pray: Sovereign Lord, help me today to be content with what you have generously provided for me. Help me to remember your promise, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” I want to trust you as my Helper and knowing that you are on my side, I can face life courageously with an open heart to Your Will. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.