Tag: comfort

Categories
Christian Living

Defining The Word “Good”

All of us want to define the word “good” such that we get our way. But what happens when something that pleases me dictates that something unpleasant happens to you? Can we still call something good if it is not good for us both?

And how does that work with God? God says He is always working for the good of those who love Him. But we want comfort and peace and security and happiness – no pain, no struggle. God wants the advancement of His Kingdom. He wants His Name to be glorified.

“Men always view with suspicion people who are different. Conformity, not distinctiveness, is the way to a trouble-free life. So…simply by living according to the teachings of Jesus, the Christian is a constant unspoken condemnation of the secular lifestyle.” (Bruce Shelley, Church History In Plain Language)

If living to exalt Him might cause me to be condemned or criticized, then at times, my desire for comfort will be at odds with His desire for being exalted. So who gets to define the word “good”?

We find that exalting God can often cause difficulty in life – which is the opposite of my comfort and security. So how can these two goals that are at odds with each other – my comfort, security, and happiness vs. God’s glory – be determined that God is always working for my good?

Remember that God is not going to give us every one of our heart’s desires until every one of our hearts desires are exactly in line with His will.

If we truly can be like Paul and see that “to live is Christ and to die is gain” and “that God’s strength is perfected in our weakness,” then whatever God sends us we can say – God use this to advance Your goals and Your kingdom because I want the things that You want and I know that whatever You send me can be used to bring you more praise. Even physical illness or a handicap or a loss of material possessions or even loss of life – all of these can be used for the advancement of God’s kingdom and for bringing glory to Him. But will we trust Him that His plans are always the best plans? When His kingdom plans conflict with our plans for security and peace and happiness, will we continue to have faith in Him and be able to see that the increase of His kingdom, even if it causes suffering in us, is best for everyone and is therefore for our good as well?

“The man who really loves God can do as he chooses, for if he really loves God he will choose to do the will of God.” (Bruce Shelley, Church History In Plain Language)

Categories
Worship

Learning to Pray in God’s Will

Do you ever wonder if we have been taught to pray incorrectly?

Have we tried to use God as our genie? Or maybe we’ve thought of Him more like Santa Claus – hoping that if we are “good enough” that He will give us the things on our wishlist.

Our prayers often seem to lean in that direction. But God is not a genie we can manipulate when we feel like it, nor is He a jolly spy in a red suit who is “always watching” so as to put you on the gift-getting list when you meet his “good enough” standard. (Which is kinda creepy when you think about it!)

But God IS always at work and wants us to be working with Him. He wants us to talk to Him about things that He cares about. And what He most cares about is the spiritual condition of people. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. He didn’t go to the cross to fulfill my my desires of more stuff, and though He cares about my physical condition, that’s not why He went to the cross, either. No, He went for my spiritual situation to be changed from death… to life! So if God is most concerned with spiritual matters, then what should we focus our prayers on?

However, we do not spend time praying about spiritual things near as much as we do for physical things. In the Bible, we see prayers about confession of sins for individuals and the nations, we see prayers that go on and on about adoring and worshiping God’s characteristics and His laws, we see prayers about bringing glory to God, we see prayers about revival and turning people’s hearts back to Him, we see prayers about lost people coming into His kingdom.

In the Bible we see prayers that are focused on God’s will, and yet we often do not pray that way. We spend more time praying for the increased comfort of those who are already saved (us and our family and friends) than we do praying for the eternal destination of those who have no relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps we need a change. Perhaps we need to use the model of the Bible more than whatever model taught us to pray about the physical.

If we want to receive God’s blessings and have our prayers answered, I believe that we must ask, seek, and knock with prayers that are in-line with God’s will. He is not going to give us every one of our heart’s desires until every one of our heart’s desires are exactly in line with His will. But if we ask where He is at work and how we should pray, He will show us and we will be more blessed than ever before.

What do you think are some of the things He most cares about that we need to include in our prayers for today?

Categories
Christian Living

Wanting The Good Life

We all want a life of abundance. Jesus says He wants to provide it. But could we possibly have a wrong understanding of the promise? Have we looked at the promise through “American dream”–tinted glasses? Have we fallen prey to some trap of our own design?a mousetrap set with a piece of cheese, symbolizing the trap of equating the good life to the American dream

We often pray for safety and comfort. We pray for safe travels. We pray that everyone in our family would be healthy and whole. Our safety and comfort are issues that we feel we want & need. And when we read passages such as Romans 8:28 which states that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes, we interpret them to be saying: “God will be faithful in making my life good.”

But then sometimes our lives are not so “good” in our eyes. Tragedy comes, accidents happen, life takes a turn for the worse. And if we have banked on the “good life” as we have defined it, we get extremely rattled. We get angry with God. We might even seem to lose our faith for a season. But maybe we should remember that the end of that verse says “and are called according to His purposes.” If we understand that God will be faithful in making things good in relation to bringing glory to His name, then even our death (which seems to NOT be OUR GOOD) can be good when it is done in a way that glorifies His name (as martyrs have done).

Interestingly enough, Jesus didn’t pray for the safety & comfort of His disciples, but rather that His disciples would be kept from the evil one and would stand strong in the face of temptations. He knew that they would not have safety & comfort – in fact it is said that most of Jesus’ disciples died a martyr’s death. And so it wasn’t that he needed to pray for their safety and comfort, but rather to pray for them to be faithful to bring glory to God and advance His kingdom – not only through their lives but through their deaths. What if we began to change our prayers to ask for the things Jesus did for his disciples?

In the movie The End of the Spear, the missionaries were asked if they would use their guns if the tribe attacked them. The statement was – “Son, We can’t shoot them because they do not have Jesus, and we do. So it is OK if we die now, but not OK for them to die without Jesus.” That in no way is comfort or safety, but the deaths of these missionaries was definitely glorifying to God. The sacrifice that the men were willing to give (their lives) for the gospel paired with the love that was shown to the people by the spouses that were left behind – led the Waodani people to believe in Jesus.

If we fall into the trap of American thinking – life should always be pleasant with good things – we hinder ourselves from understanding how life that may be difficult can bring glory to God – and maybe that is the good that we need to understand that Romans 8:28 is discussing.

Paul spoke of his “thorn in the flesh” and asked that it would be removed, but when it wasn’t, Paul indicated that his comfort was less important than God gaining glory through Paul’s weaknesses which would make Paul rely more on God.

So the first thing we need to do is to start getting our minds around the glory of God and then to imitate Jesus’ prayer. We need to pray for God’s glory – even if that might mean the loss of our comfort & safety.

The second imitation we need to have is that we need to pray for one another to be kept from temptation. That is not a prayer we often pray, is it? We pray for each others’ comfort & safety, but very seldom do we pray for each other to be kept from the temptations of the evil one. What kind of difference would that make in our lives if we all began praying that for one another? We see the same statement in the model prayer – Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

In our lives, let’s look for the good that brings God glory more than brings us comfort!

Categories
Serving Others

Fiddlin’

Though I do not own a fiddle, there are times I enjoy just “fiddlin’ around.” In fact, I’m hoping that they introduce fiddlin’ as a new Olympic sport – I think I could compete in the heavy-weight division. But then I also wonder if my efforts to become an Olympic-class fiddlin’ champ are damaging my ability to present Christ as my greatest Treasure.

shiny wooden fiddle for fiddlin' onI loved the dialogue in a movie between a professor and student, where the professor is encouraging his brightest student to quit wasting his talents and creativity on just trying to please himself:

Student: “What is wrong with me wanting to live the good life, if I am smart enough to do so? What is wrong with me chasing the American dream of a tremendous salary, a beautiful mansion to live in, and the finest cars to drive?”

Professor: “Todd, what good is a $90,000 Mercedes-Benz if…the nation is falling apart? Rome is burning son – What good is a $90,000 Benz when [our faithful men & women of the military] are giving their lives for your freedom? How can you use your liberty and freedom to enjoy the good life when you are fully aware of what it is costing someone else to secure your liberty & freedom?  We are the problem – we are just fiddlin’, trying to maneuver around the edges of the flames.”

Wow! What an excellent discussion of what I often do with my freedom in Christ. I often present the argument of Todd to both God and to myself. Am I at all aware of what Jesus willingly gave up for me to have freedom from sin, death, & hell? What about what others are doing to continue to tell the message of Christ around the world – giving up their comfort, their safety, their finances, their security, their health, their very lives for the sake of the gospel. How can I put on blinders to chase the American Dream of comfort and safety and ease when I know of the darkness… the spiritual poverty, the spiritual hunger and thirst people are trying to quench, the persecution of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters around the world?

Rome is burning! And I am still practicing my “fiddlin’ around.” I have taken my liberty in Christ, and I have just been fiddling, staying on the edges of the flames of actual sacrificial commitment and radical obedience to Christ.

But there are people out there, day after day, all over the world – fighting to take the gospel to this world, to shine the light of Christ into dark places. When will I stop fiddling and join them in the battle? God, wake me up from the tragic dream that the Christian life should be safe and that you are okay with me fiddlin’.

“Time is too short; and the weather is too turbulent for business as usual in our Christian community.”

— brian rushing