Tag: faith

Where is Jesus When You Need Him?

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“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”  ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

We can’t live very long and avoid the disasters that await around the corners. Sometimes they hit us quick and leave before we can even get our breath. Some catastrophes seem to hang on and take up residence.

I think I can face almost anything when I have someone else right there beside me. It’s brutal when I have to walk that road all alone. I have read about the lives of others and experienced for myself times when I’ve felt like I’ve even been left alone by God. I think most people feel like this at times. This is when we get to push out on our faith and see how well it floats.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” – Hebrews 11:1

Sometimes my faith starts to sink because I’m too often looking at the world around me, the situations I’ve stumbled into, the tribulation that fell on my head and I’m seeing it all with the eyes of my heart and not the eyes of my soul. Then I read an encounter like this and I’m ready to pick up that shield again…

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”  But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  – Luke 22:31-34

We spend so much attention on the failure of Peter. Perhaps because it sounds so familiar. We have so much hope, yet our flesh is still so weak.

But look at what Jesus told his friend he had been doing for him. Pleading in prayer for him. Praying for his faith to withstand the bitter and heartbreaking experience of personal failure. Peter will soon commit an act of betrayl he can’t even imagine at this point in time. He will publicly turn his back on his dearest friend.

Where is Jesus when we need him, when we falter and fail? When everything we thought we could count on was ripped away? Even when we lose every drop of faith we ever had and walk away into the cold night? Where is he? He is pleading in prayer.

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.  – Hebrews 7:25

Faith and Fatalism

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Americans like explanations. It’s an important part of our pragmatic culture.

I often notice that when we don’t know the reason why we often spit out some sort of fatalistic explanation. It doesn’t hold much theological water, but it makes us feel better in the midst of those storms of uncertainty.

  • “This just must be what God meant to happen.”
  • “Somehow it’s all going to work out in the end.”
  • “I trust that all these things that are happening to me are God’s will”

There are lots of problems with this kind of thinking and believing. Let me just present you with a few examples from the Bible that challenge us to be actively engaged in our life of faith and might perhaps help us understand why things don’t always work out the way we hoped…

James 5:16 – Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.  Seeking forgiveness and praying for others produces results. It changes the way things are. Our spiritual activity can alter the course of our lives.

Mark 6:5-6 – And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.  Jesus is ministering in his own hometown and he can’t do what he wants to do – perform miracles, change people’s lives, show people how much God loves them. Why? Because they don’t believe. Our lack of faith can prevent God’s plans from happening.

Luke 18:1 – One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. This is the story about the persistent widow who badgered a mean and heathen judge day and night for justice. He finally gave in just because she was bothering him. Jesus says, So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! He concludes by warning that he fears he will return to earth and find that not many will have kept the faith. Justice comes as a result of our persistence. We are persistent because we have faith. We have faith because we put it to use by being persistent (??).

The Christian faith is not a fatalistic experience at all. Jesus taught that we are to be fully engaged in bringing about transformation in our own lives and in the lives of everyone around us. It happens because we have faith, faith that acts. And maybe it doesn’t happen, not because that’s the way it was meant to be…but because we didn’t have the faith.

If you’re praying for rain, then why aren’t you taking an umbrella with you each day?

 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? – James 2:14

The Angry Man

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And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. – Ephesians 4:26-27

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” – Matthew 5:21-23 (Jesus teaching from the Sermon on the Mount)

I’m in big trouble.

Seems like I’m mad all the time. From messed up bowl games to diseases that strike out of nowhere, and so very much in between, I seem to be walking around perpetually mad. Half the time I feel like I’m wearing a target on my back. I’m grumbling to myself, chewing people out in my imagination like a Walter Mitty off his rocker.

You’ve heard all the advice before, haven’t you?

Don’t let your situation define you.

Don’t give other people the power to control the way you feel.

Move forward and leave all the misery behind you.

Other people’s opinions shouldn’t matter so much.

 I’m trying to live by faith and not by sight but it sure seems hard most days.

  1. Suffering produces lots of good stuff. (Romans 5, James 1)
  2. I’m not supposed be so upset and worried but instead I ought to be praying. (Philippians 4)
  3. As long as I’m living here in this world, I’m going to experience tribulation (and have cause to be angry!), but I can have peace when I rest my soul in the truth of what Jesus has said, done and continues to do. (John 16)

I don’t honestly think I’m going to transform and become some docile nun who never raises his voice above a whisper when someone keeps throwing rocks at me. But what I do think is that the angry man that I have become can be saved. He can be transformed, one grumble at a time, maybe, but he’s not beyond belief. He’s still being tamed, still trying to fade away.

When all is working out for you and your ducks are all in their row, bills are paid, everyone is health, no one is mad at you, you’re not making any mistakes and all your relationships are healthy – there’s really no need for faith. Faith is what you have to pull out when the boat starts to sink, people start throwing stuff at you, you get locked in a dungeon and the grim reaper starts to peer in the window. Faith never really gets going until you’ve got nothing else to lean on. Sometimes the trials and tribulations of this terrible world are an opportunity waiting, a chance to put it all into practice, to see if it really works – this born again life of ours.