Trusting God

Chevrolet Truck Blue Hot Rod Vehicle Old Retro

Would We Council God?

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Murals

When I was a young man, I had a good friend that was a naturally gifted artist. His specialty was painting murals. I never ceased to be amazed when he’d start sketching out a picture on a roll of butcher block paper that ran the length of a room.

Perhaps the fascinating aspect of his work on murals was that he didn’t start in one corner and work from right to left or left to right. He typically started somewhere entirely unexpected. Maybe he began with the nose of the central character, or he might start by sketching the fender of a car. It made perfect sense to him, but no sense to me.

Image if I’d watched him start a mural and then said, “Tim, I think you are drawing the nose too big.” Ignoring me, Tim continued to draw, and soon I discovered that he’d been drawing the rear fender of an old Chevy pickup!

Council God

Christ’s apostles did this kind of thing several times. Take, for example, when two of the three apostles of Christ’s inner circle suggested to Jesus that He kill some people.

When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?”

Luke 9:54

Perhaps, we should recall when His disciples designated themselves as crowd control and blocked parents from bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed.

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

Matthew 19:13

We mustn’t forget when the Apostle Peter decided to give Jesus some “sound council.”

Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Matthew 16:23

The Big Picture

We should consider ourselves before we rush to judge those that laid the foundation for the Church[1]. Do we ever tell God what He needs to do? Have we ever been deeply hurt because we felt that God failed us? Has fear ever won out in our actions?

Here’s the thing, we may look at our life and see what looks like a big nose, but that’s only because we don’t know the picture in which God has included us. Later, maybe only after we are in heaven, we will see God’s mural. That nose wasn’t a nose; it was the rear fender of a classic Chevy truck. Let’s not rush to judge God’s actions.

We can be confident that nothing God does to us, through us, or by us is done so without love, for “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4:16)

Image by dpexcel from Pixabay

You may like: The Problem With Our Understanding

  1. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. Ephesians 2:20  ↩
Table Dinner Dining Formal Elegant Luxury Setting

Finding Our Assigned Seats – Part 1

By / 3 minutes of reading / , , ,

I often think about Jesus’ parable about the king that gave a great wedding feast (Matthew 22:1–14). He had sent invitations to people he thought were his friends, but they all begged off; none even showed imagination in their excuses! In anger, the king had the false friends executed. Then the king had his servant go to roads and highways to flag down and invite everyone he saw, and they came!

Everyone that came knew it was a wedding feast, and they knew the “pedigree” of the people for whom the banquet had been prepared. So, these people dressed appropriately; that is, all except one. This one fellow showed up in his “street” clothes, and he ignored where he was at and who the other attendees might be. He simply strolled in, saw an open spot close to the front, and sat down there.

When the king saw this fellow, he knew the guy was disrespecting him, so the king had the guy bound head and foot and thrown out. Then Jesus taught this lesson to the people (I’m going to paraphrase this extensively).

Minding Our Appearance

Jesus told us to come to God clothed in righteousness, not in the street clothes of worldliness. And when we come, we must not appear before God and think more highly of ourselves than we should. We must allow our Lord to place us where He desires. And when we come before God, remember that the order and schedule are God’s, not ours. And when we come, we should “take notes” – listen for the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts and remember what we “heard.” The Spirit doesn’t speak of Himself, but He speaks for Jesus. And we should do all of these things at all times and in all places because we should be continually praying. Now consider this statement from Jesus:

 “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.”

Luke 14:10

We often see how God promotes when a young man begins teaching 5th and 6th grade Sunday School. Then, over time, he is asked to teach the college class and then the adult Sunday School class. During this time, he is taking online Christian college classes. Soon, he goes to seminary to learn theology and missions ministry. Then God calls him to be a full-time missionary to Moldova. His church has prayed, provided, and praised God’s promotions of this man. This is what Jesus taught in Luke 14:10.

Jesus, our Rock, is always mindful of us. We are never “uncovered.” God’s hand upon us and over us is always with us. He never doses off or gets distracted. Our God is reliable.

You may like: You’ve Gotta Serve Somebody

Hands Hand Folds Woman Finger Work Together Pray

Pray in Faith

By / 3 minutes of reading / , , , ,

As Christians, we have faith for salvation, and we often pray in faith for the needs of others and for our welfare. Our prayers are sincere and grounded in our faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Yet, it has been my observation that many use “according to God’s will” as an excuse for God not answering their prayers, instead of recognizing God’s will as a way of bolstering our faith in God for our request.

Jesus gave us His name to use when we bring our requests to the Father. “In that day you will ask nothing of me [Jesus]. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” John 16:23 This is not a “name it and claim it” promise. Jesus is giving His believers a new way to pray to deal with the new relationship believers now have with God and to deal with the new challenges that came with the birth and growth of the Church. Still, Jesus gave us a more intimate relationship with the Father.

God is Reliable

“God… calleth those things which be not as though they were. (Romans 4:17) When we pray, we should not confine our prayers within boxes of existing facts and conditions. No matter the size of our problem, God’s power to deal with it is greater. And God never forgets anything, including our prayers. We may forget that which we cried out to God, but He hasn’t.

Our God is reliable. Consider these two verses:

  • “…the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” Revelation 13:8
  • And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. Mark 15:24

The word “slain” means “kill (a person or animal) in a violent way.” No matter what you believe about how long creation has existed before that Jesus was already the Lamb of God that was violently killed. Since God calls things that are not before were, Jesus was called “slain” eons (the longest portions of geologic time) before the physical act of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Good News

Just as God had said, so God’s declaration was fulfilled. My hope is that in this brief Bible study, we see that we are to pray, trusting in the reliability of God’s relationship with us. That God is not constrained and what God declares will be accomplished. Our Savior deeply desires for us to use our faith. When Jesus spoke about His return from heaven back to earth, He said, “…Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:8

The good news that we see in these verses is that we need to pray in faith. God doesn’t need or want us to tell Him how to answer our request. We should not doubt when we use the name of Jesus in our requests to the Father. Jesus wants us to live by faith. And we shouldn’t use “God’s will” as an excuse for lack of faith. God answers in His time and in His way. We need not apologize for God or doubt God. We simply need to make our requests known to the Father, pray in faith by the Name of Jesus, and rest in God, who calls things that are not as though they were.

Image by Jenny Friedrichs from Pixabay

You may like: Sloppy Prayers

Scroll to Top
%d bloggers like this: