Stress and the Christian
I hope though that everyone is beginning to see that the transformation that was begun at salvation is continued daily as we interact with Him, and study and reflect on His Word. As we are transformed, we begin to feel our sins more deeply. It begins to hurt us more when we sin and because of that we are quick to confess them and repent. Pleasing Him becomes more and more important to us and the world in general becomes less important. Each day as the Lord teaches us, we realize that we are absorbing more in a single session with Him then we did in years of sermons or Sunday School! Another part of the transformation is the transformation of our emotions. We discover that we are now having strong reactions to things that never bothered us before, or that we never really thought about before. One day when we are confronted with circumstances that would have worried us in the past, or stressed us out, we discover to our amazement that we aren’t worried about it! Instead when we analyze our feelings we discover that the reason we’re not worried or stressed is because we know it’s going to be ok, because the Lord is in control. It’s no longer “just words” to us, it’s reality! This doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. It comes from knowing God personally, and knowing His Word and understanding it. Of course the only way we can really know and understand God and His Word are to spend time with Him and to really study His Word with His help every day. Jesus talks about this in the parable of the sower too, so let’s look at that today.
Matthew 13:18-23 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.But since he has no root, (foundation) he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Did you notice right away that the seed that fell on the rocky places failed because it had no foundation? Jesus is giving us a huge clue right there on how to be spiritually healthy. He says that when trials came these people floundered because their faith had no foundation. They hadn’t dug deep, and they therefore didn’t understand why these bad things were happening to them or what God expected of them. They fall away because as far as they’re concerned, God didn’t give them what they wanted and it wasn’t worth any effort on their part to look any further.
His next clue comes with the seed that falls among the thorns. He says it is the worries of this life that make it fail. He isn’t saying that worry, in and of itself, causes us to fail, it’s when that worry stops us from making Him our priority, or when that worry causes us to doubt, that it makes us fail. When we allow “the worries of this life” to take precedence and then say we’re too busy to take time to study His Word with Him every day, then again the foundation can’t be built, the transformation isn’t complete and we fail.
The seed that falls on the good ground however is the seed that produces much fruit because that is the person who hears and understands God’s Word! That is the person that spends time daily studying His Word with Him and stays in constant contact with Him throughout the day. It is only through His Spirit that we can understand His Word. Therefore, those who spend time with Him daily studying His Word, are the ones that “hear His word and understand it”. Not only that though, God loves to give us more then we ask for even so to those who respond to Him in this way, He gives even more understanding! That is what He is saying here:
Matthew 13:11-12 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
God is promising us that if we will make Him a priority in our lives and spend time with Him in His Word that He will give us an abundance of understanding. The opposite also holds true however and that is another reason why so many fall prey to false teachers today. Those who don’t spend time with Him this way, will have even their initial understanding taken from them. Our Lord has never been one to tolerate apathy or being lukewarm, but He always gives us more then we deserve, ask for or earn. This abundance of understanding is what will build that strong deep foundation for us and what will make us stand firm and strong during trials. This is what will keep us from being worried or stressed out, and will make our faith become stronger every day.
Please feel free to ask questions and we'll talk more about it tomorrow.
Bible Studies, Friends and Fellowship
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Stress and the Christian
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Stress and the Christian
Stress and the Christian
Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
As we study and reflect on God’s Word, we are changed, we are transformed. The transformation that began with our salvation is continued as we study His Word. The study alone isn’t what does it though, it’s the study of His Word along with spending time with Him.
Now, I’m not talking about carving out 15-30 mins a day to pray when I say “spending time with Him”. That’s often what others will tell new Christians but unfortunately it becomes a “duty” or a ritual way to often and there’s little feeling or companionship in it. It becomes a dry recital of a list of wants way to often. When I speak of spending time with the Lord, I mean for us to interact with Him all the time throughout the day just as though He actually was with us. The reason for this is because He really IS with us, and most of the time He’s pretty much ignored or treated like an unwelcome guest at best.
So when we’re studying His Word, we should be talking to Him as well, at the same time. Who better to get understanding of the Bible from then the one who wrote it? Then as we continue our day, we should continue to converse with Him throughout the day about what’s going on with us—again, just as though He was really with us—because He really is!
It’s this combination of interaction with Him and the study of His Word that brings about our transformation to be more and more like Jesus. Our lives do not belong to us any longer as we were bought with a price. So our lives now are our sacrifice to Him, which He purifies and transform daily so that we become more and more like Him, making us holy, sacred and acceptable to Him.
1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Each day as we interact and study His Word with Him, deepens and solidifies the foundations of our faith so that when the storms come, we can stand firm, and we won’t collapse under the stress. It’s as though He makes His Word a part of us as He transforms us.
Are you wondering what all this has to do with overcoming worry and stress? Think of it this way; have you ever noticed God being worried or stressed out over things? Of course not! In fact, He’s the one that tells us not to worry! So you see, the more we are transformed by Him to become more like Him, the less we will worry and the less we will be stressed out. Things like worry, depression, stress, and fear won’t be an issue for us anymore because we will have built such a strong solid foundation on the Truth that the lies of the enemy won’t be able to take hold of us like they do unbelievers.
We’ll discuss this a little more tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Stress and the Christian
Yesterday we discussed that the secret is that the foundation has to start with Jesus, and must be dug deep. We learned that digging a deep foundation requires time and commitment from us which is why Jesus told us to “count the cost” before beginning. Digging a deep foundation isn’t something that can be done easily or quickly, it’s something that takes time, and a lot of it. Let’s take a closer look at some of those other verses we had yesterday to see what else we can learn about the foundation. I’ll post them again for you:
Ephesians 2:19-22 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
From the passage above we learn that although Jesus is the cornerstone of our foundation, it’s also built on the apostles and prophets. This lets us know that we need to turn to both the old and new Testament to gain the materials we need for our foundation.
Isaiah 33:6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
This next verse is talking about Jesus and it says that He is a rich store of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. It also indicates that this treasure of salvation, wisdom and knowledge can be ours if we have a way to open it. It sounds like it would be the perfect material for our foundation, but how do we get it? We’re told the way to get that treasure is to have the fear of the Lord. We’ve discussed this in other studies so we won’t go into it at length in this one. However I do want to say a little about it as it pertains to this study. Let’s look at a few other verses that speak of this.
Proverbs “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Here we see that knowledge of God can help us understand things.
Proverbs 2:3-6 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Ahh! Now here is what we’re looking for! How to get the fear of the Lord! We need to seek it as hard as we can and we know that the place to look is somwhere we can attain knowledge of God and then He Himself will give us the wisdom and knowledge we need to build our foundation. It reminds me a lot of the verse that says that when we seek for the Lord with all our heart, then we will find Him and He will answer us. So this is beginning to sound to me that the material we need for our foundation is only going to be found if we put all our hearts into the search and look in the right places. This leads us right back to one of the other passages from yesterday:
Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
Here we have another good hint at what we need for our foundation. This is telling us that the foundation needs to include the basic principals of our faith. In other words, we need to know what we believe and why we believe these things. We already know that God has called us into a relationship with Him and isn’t interested in us just having “book learning” and head knowledge. So this in turn brings us full circle right back to Jesus:
Matthew 11:27-28 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
The long and short of it is that our foundation is our relationship with the Lord and our knowledge of Him and His Word. Both these areas of the relationship take time and energy. We are told over and over in the bible that we are to study to show ourselves approved, study to become mature in Christ; that we are to pray continually, and give thinks in everything. This then is our foundation. It’s more then just “reading the bible every day”. It’s reading, studying, and reflecting on the bible every day and spending time talking to the Lord (prayer) every day. It’s talking to Him when you’re studying His Word, talking to Him when you’re at work, when you’re at home, when you’re at a ball game, etc. It’s knowing that He really IS with you all the time and it’s not polite to just ignore Him. It’s wanting to know Him better so you read and study all about Him. That my friends is our foundation.
It’s not easy. It take a lot of time and commitment from us. The cost is high the way the world sees it, but is it really so much to give to the one who died to give you eternal life in a perfect body with no sin nature? I don’t think so! Now tomorrow I’ll try to explain more of how and why this foundation is so necessary and how when we have this foundation and build on it, things like stress and worry become less and less of a problem for us.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Stress and the Christian
Stress and the Christian
Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:13-16 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
I’d like to start this study looking at the above scriptures and discussing what they mean to us. Once we are saved, we are told that we are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood for God. Often we are told to “be holy” just as God is holy. Usually we brush over those verses though because we know that’s impossible for us. Unfortunately when we do that, we often wind up not even trying, and when someone calls us on it, we get indignant and tell them they’re being legalistic, and that we’re not under the law anymore. Of course that’s true, we’re not under the law anymore, we’re under grace, what we fail to realize is that God can and will give us the grace we need to do what He has called us to do. In this case, the calling is high—to be holy. It’s much easier to deal with though when we realize that being holy is the outcome of many little steps. It’s the goal, it’s what we are to strive for each day, one little step at a time, one decision at a time.
Now let’s look at what Jesus said in the passage in Luke. He asks His disciples why are they calling Him Lord when they’re not obeying Him. He then proceeds to explain to them and to us, why we need to pay attention to Him and obey Him. Notice that He gives two examples in this passage; and example of the person who obeys Him and an example of the person who doesn’t obey Him. In both examples however the newly built house is hit by a flood and torrent! So obedience doesn’t mean that we won’t have problems, that’s for sure! The obedient one’s house was hit just as hard as the other one! So what was the difference? Keep in mind now that we are the house. The house of the person who is disobedient collapses and is totally destroyed while the house of the one who obeys wasn’t even shaken!
So now we have to ask ourselves, which ones are we? Are we collapsing? Are we shaken? Or do we stand firm when the flood of hard times or calamity hits us? I’m afraid that I had to admit that I was someone who pretty much collapsed. I still believed, but I was always worried and stressed out. This told me that I had some work to do and so I began to pray. The first thing I wanted to know and that we all need to know is what do we do if we realize that we’re not able to stand firm during the storms of life? That same passage gives us that information too. Read it one more time.
Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
Here we see that the secret is the foundation has to be right, the foundation must be built on Jesus and must dug deep. I don’t think it’s a surprise to any of us that Jesus is the foundation and that it must be Him or it won’t work, but what does it mean to “dig deep”? To answer that, let’s look at the opposite first, which would be shallow. Something done shallowly is something that has been done in such a way that it lacks depth of intellect, knowledge or intelligence. So to dig deeply we need to supply knowledge and intelligence.
Let’s look at what a couple of other verses say about this first before we get into it so we have a little more to go on:
Ephesians 2:19-22 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Isaiah 33:6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
Isaiah 28:16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
Digging a deep foundation on Jesus requires time and commitment from us. It’s not something done quickly or with little thought. That really does make sense though since the ultimate outcome is quite important. In fact, it’s so important that Jesus tells us to count the cost of it before we begin.
Luke 14:28-30 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
Since this is already getting quite long, I’d like to stop here and let you reflect on all of the verses we discussed today and all that’s been said so far before we continue tomorrow.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
RE: The Study on Stress and the Christian:
I don't want anyone to get the idea though that I myself have totally overcome this because I haven't. The Lord has shown me and taught me long enough that I have been able to do away with a large amount of stress, to the point of it being something that is rare for me instead of being a daily thing like it used to be. However, He is still teaching me and I'm still learning; plus at times I still sin and fall off the bandwagon in this area and then the Lord has to pick me up, dust me off and set my feet back on His path once again. So much of what I'll be sharing with you all is from my own personal experiences with the Lord, but all totally based on His Word and nothing else.
Stress and the Christian
Most of the time we tend to think of God not wanting us to be stressed the same way we think of our parents or another loved one telling us that they don't want us to be stressed. That's all very well and good, and we're glad to know they don't want us to be stressed but it doesn't do anything at all to prevent it! Thankfully though, unlike other humans, God can and does give us a way both to prevent it and to stop it cold if it's already happening. This is what I hope to share with everyone.
I'm not ready to actually start this today, but I will tell you that God's way is both as easy as breathing (assuming you have healthy lungs lol) and as difficult as algebra is for those of us who don't like math. It's something that small children do naturally when they are born to loving parents, but as adults our hearts have been hardened by the world and we've been taught by the world things that are the opposite of what God says which undermine our ability to not be stressed.
So I will be studying His Word and praying that He will give me His Words to share with you all that we might all learn to give up our stress and live the way He intended for us too. I would ask that you too would pray for me that I will be able to do this, as I really, really want to be able to help. Pray too that the Lord will help me to keep my posts short LOL! (I'm serious LOL)
I realize I have other studies already on going, and I will attempt to keep up with those as well. Perhaps I can alternate on them or something...but one way or another, I really want to do this one!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Speaking in Tongues
1 Corinthians 12:29-31 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
The obvious answer to each of his rhetorical questions is “no”, everyone doesn’t. Plus we’re told to eagerly desire the gifts and you can’t desire something that way if you’re already doing it.
I discovered something as I was preparing for this study that surprised me and I wanted to share it with you. We all know that Satan loves to mimic whatever the Lord does. I’ve always assumed that fake tongues was something that Satan had started doing after Pentecost, but apparently that’s not true. Let me quote from one of the commentaries concerning this: (this is verified in a number of commentaries but I’m only going to post the one)
1 Cor 14:21–25 Tongues or ecstatic utterance was a common religious practice in pagan religion for centuries prior to this. A portion of the confusion about “tongues” may result from two different cases being discussed in the N.T. In effect, Corinthian ecstatic utterance was a poor imitation of the gift of tongues given by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Verse 21 quotes Is. 28:11, 12, which clearly has reference to the speaking of a diversity of known human languages. There follows an apparent contradiction between vv. 22 and 23. In v. 22, tongues are a sign “to unbelievers.” But in v. 23, “the uninformed” or unbelievers are likely to conclude that insanity exists in one who thus speaks in tongues. But there is no contradiction. Verse 22 has reference to the actual gift of tongues as in Acts 2. There, the unbelievers heard the gospel in their own dialects and were both amazed and convinced by the sign. However, v. 23 warns that the exercise of the Corinthian imitation, which was only the frenzied concoction of sounds, would have an effect of repugnance on unbelievers.
Believer's Study Bible
Interesting isn’t it? Amazingly the description of the Corinthian imitation is exactly what is happening in many cases today! Let me post the scriptures themselves so we can read it and see what they’re talking about. (by the way, since chapter 14 is all about tongues, we’ll be discussing this chapter in much more detail later)
1 Corinthians 14:21-25 In the Law it is written: “Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me,”says the Lord.Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all,and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
The false teachers will tell people that have trouble speaking in tongues and haven’t been able to do it yet, that all they need to do is “pretend” and practice pretending. Now if that doesn’t send giant red flags up in a persons mind, they had better get out their bibles and start reading them as hard as they can because that is about as unbiblical as you can get! Think about it for just a moment—In either the Old or New Testament, do you ever recall reading where God told people who wanted to be prophets that all they needed to do was pretend for awhile and eventually He would speak through them??? Of course not! When Jesus warned us that we would be persecuted and even arrested for telling others about Him, did He tell us to just practice what we were going to say to defend ourselves and we’d be fine? No! Here is what he said:
Matthew 10:19-20 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Later when telling us about the end times He say:
Luke 21:15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
Again we don’t see any suggestion that we should “practice”! Nor do we ever see any instructions to “practice” any of the other gifts of the spirit until eventually the Lord causes them to “work right”.
Look even deeper now because if we need to practice these gifts in order to supposedly force ourselves to “let” the Holy Spirit speak through us in tongues or whatever, then who are we really relying on? We’re relying on ourselves, not God! Does that honestly sound biblical to you? No! Over and over and over from Genesis to Revelation, we are told NOT to rely on ourselves, but rather to rely on Him. God is more then capable of speaking words out of our mouths even if we didn’t want Him to! Oh I know they tell people that it’s themselves they don’t trust, not God, but that’s simply another lie we tell ourselves so we don’t have to face the truth.
Numbers 22:28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
Now, do you honestly believe that the Lord can put words in a donkey’s mouth and cause the donkey to speak in a known human language, but He can’t or won’t put the words in your mouth if He desires you to have that gift? To lay the final blow to that nonsense, let’s look at what actually happened the very first time God gave someone the gift of tongues:
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
I don’t see anything at all about any of these fishermen or peasants needing a practice session. Just ordinary every day kind of people and yet the Lord “enabled” them to speak in other tongues immediately without any special preparation.
I hope you can see from this that everyone does not speak in tongues and that it most certainly isn’t necessary for salvation. I hope you can also see that anyone who tells you to “practice saying nonsense syllables” is preaching a doctrine of Satan, and is not speaking the Truth. Don’t fall for it!
Speaking in Tongues
Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
It is the Holy Spirit within us that both prays for us (which we discussed yesterday) and also enables us to pray, and at times prays through us (tongues). When I say He enables us to pray, I don’t necessarily mean He causes us to pray in tongues. What I mean is that He guides us and leads us in how we should pray or what we should pray etc. if we listen to Him.
Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
We can see from the other verses that being told to “pray in the spirit” is another one of those verses that are often trotted out to “prove” that people should pray in tongues, and yet it really isn’t saying that at all. At the very most we could say that it doesn’t exclude praying in tongues. Mainly what it is saying is that it is the Holy Spirit that will guide us and help us pray in God’s Will.
Another verse that is also taken out of context for this purpose is this one:
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
This is the beginning of Paul’s famous speech about love. Some people want to take his line about the tongues of men and angels and turn it into another description of the gift of tongues. Yet this doesn’t make sense. Why would we take that particular portion and say he meant it literally and yet he wasn’t speaking literally in the other portions of this? He is quite obviously using metaphors (language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects.) to get his point across that love is of more importance then any of the “gifts”. Let me quote it in context so you can see what I mean:
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
So once again people are jumping to conclusions they shouldn’t be and putting words in God’s mouth. Don’t despair though, God actually does have quite a bit to say about this subject and we’ll discuss that tomorrow. I just wanted to get these verses out of the way first so we could then concentrate on what He DOES say about it.
Speaking in Tongues
Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
This verse isn't talking about what we pray, it's talking about the Holy Spirit praying for us, not "through" us. Let me share what the commentaries say about it:
| This has nothing to do with praying in tongues, as some suggest. The groaning is done by the Holy Spirit, not believers, and is not stated in words. The help the Spirit gives (v. 26) is His interceding. “Intercedes” translates hyperentynchanei, which occurs only here in the New Testament; it means “approaches or appeals to someone.” The One who searches our hearts is God (1 Sam. 16:7; Heb. 4:13), and He knows (oiden, “knows perceptively or intuitively”) the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes (entynchanei; cf. Rom. 8:26) for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Even though the Spirit’s words are not expressed, the Father knows what the Spirit is thinking. This is an interesting statement about the Father’s omniscience and the intimacy within the Trinity. The Lord Jesus continually intercedes for believers in God’s presence (v. 34; Heb. 7:25) and the Holy Spirit also intercedes on their behalf! Though believers are ignorant of what to pray for and how to voice those requests, the Spirit voices their requests for them. The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures |
The reason I wanted to start the study this way is because too often people seem to get the idea that all believers MUST speak in tongues if they are saved, or if they are baptized with the Holy Spirit and that simply isn't true. That would be like saying that all believers must perform miraculous healings or they're not saved! No, tongues is a gift of the Spirit given to some believers, not all of them. We see that in this next passage:
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
So we see from the above passage that tongues are given for the common good to whoever God determines should have that particular gift.
Speaking in tongues, simply means to speak in another language that you haven't learned of your own effort. There's an example of this in Acts that is the perfect example of this gift in action for the common good:
Acts 2:4-12 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
This aspect of the gift is given to believers so that they can be witnesses for Christ regardless of the language barrier. There are many stories like the above one even today of this happening. It's really amazing when you experience something like this, because it is quite obviously the power of God and not the persons own language skills that is at work in the situation.
There is another aspect of this gift that deals with speaking in an unknown or "heavenly" language. It is this second aspect of the gift of tongues that confused many people. It's also often called using a private prayer language to speak to God. We'll talk about that part of it tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Trials and Tribulations
I realize that especially lately I seem to have been focusing a lot on "works" and on obedience to God. Obedience is important and i don't want to minimize that, especially since today's churches seem to tend to leave obedience totally out of their sermons. But we are not called to simply "obey God" when we are saved. That's what the old covenant was. In the new covenant, we are instead called into a personal love relationship with God. Now that doesn't mean that obedience gets thrown out the window, but it does mean that our focus is on our relationship with Him, not our works.
Jude 1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
Jude is speaking to us. We have each been called and we are each loved by God and we are each "kept" by Jesus. Did you catch that the first time you read that verse? I know I didn't! I didn't catch it the first 200 times I read the verse! It says that we are kept by Jesus! What does that mean exactly? It means that He keeps or preserves our salvation for us. Whether or not we "stay saved" is not up to us, it's up to Him--and He promises to keep us saved!
John 10:28-30 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
What an awesome promise from our Lord! Now we can "relax" and not worry about our "works" as we don't need to earn our salvation before we're saved or after we're saved! The Lord will take care of that part for us!
You may be wondering why I'm posting this in a thread about trials, but it's because as I said, we've talked a lot about how God tests us, and disciplines us when we don't obey Him. I want to assure us all that regardless of how we do on these tests, we cannot lose our salvation. When we took tests in school, we either passed or failed; if we failed enough, we repeated the grade, but ultimately we were educated whether we liked it or not. (at least we were if we went to a good school with good teachers) God is perfect so we know He isn't going to let us down. If we fail one of His tests, He will simply continue to educate us and test us until we pass. That's all. It's not going to affect our salvation. How we do on these tests does however affect our lives here since obviously if we fail we'll have to "repeat the class" and the test; and it does affect our future eternal lives in the matter of rewards and what we'll be doing throughout eternity, but not where we'll spend eternity as that has already been decided.
Let's look a little further into this new covenant love relationship we're in with God once we're saved. This will give us more information that we need to pass these tests or to determine why we're being disciplined.
Jude 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
This is where it gets a bit confusing. The world teaches us that love is a feeling, but God's Word teaches us that love is a decision and an action. Real love requires work, commitment, and sacrifice on both parties. It's not just some mushy, warm fuzzy feeling that comes over us at times. Since we're now in a love relationship with God, and we know that God is perfect, we don't have to worry about Him not doing His part. He always will. We however need help in this area, as we do in all other areas. Thankfully, He is more then willing to give us that help! So, how do we "keep ourselves in God's love"? The best place to look for that answer is of course the bible again!
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Ok, now let's take those verses and apply them to Jude 1:21--keeping ourselves in God's love.
1. patient-- are we patient with God? Or do we get agitated and frustrated when He doesn't answer our prayers the way we want Him to, or when He seems distant and doesn't respond the way we think He should? Are we patient with how God guides us, trains us, and changes us, or do we get frustrated because we don't think He's changing us fast enough, or helping us enough, or working through us in the way we think He should be or that He could be?
2. kind -- are we kind to God? Are we considerate of His feelings and desires? Do we take into account what He may want to have us do that day when we get up and start making our plans? Do we stop to wonder or even ask Him what is on His heart?
3. does not envy -- do we ever envy God for His abilities, His power, or for the material things we think he can or should give us? Or maybe envy Him because He knows everything and we don't?
4. does not boast -- do we ever boast about ourselves, our accomplishments, our family, our knowledge, our memory, our abilities etc to God?
5. not proud -- Do we ever get prideful about our relationship with God? Do we forget that we love Him because He first loved us? Do we get prideful about our talents even though God gave them to us? Do we ever get prideful about our jobs or cars or other things, even though it was the Lord who gave them to us? Do we become self righteous or prideful because "we know how the book ends" and what's happening in the world now and why, and others don't? Even though the only reason we know these things and understand them is because God gave us that understanding and knowledge?
6. not rude --Do we ever forget to be thankful for what the Lord has done for us? Do we get in a hurry and demand that He pick up His pace instead of matching His pace? Rude also means to be ignorant, untrained and resentful. Do we study God's Word regularly so that we won't be ignorant of His Will? Do we get resentful of feeling that we "have to" study God's Word?
7. not self-seeking --(does not seek its own way) do we want things done our way in our time and at our convenience, or do we instead seek the Lord's way? Do we seek to please Him each day or are we instead seeking to please ourselves, make our lives easier or better? Are we always ready with a list of wants and supposed needs for Him, or are we instead searching His Word to see what His wants are?
8. not easily angered-- do we get angry at God when bad things happen to us or our loved ones? Or do we give Him the benefit of the doubt, knowing that He loves us?
9. keeps no record of wrongs -- Do we have a secret list of all the bad things that have happened to us or our loved ones because we think that God has let us down those times? (I'm not talking about an actual written list, I meant just in our minds...although I suppose you could have a written one too)
10. does not delight in evil --- Do we take delight or enjoy something that is sinful? (perhaps gossip, or adultery, or lust, looking at porn, etc?) Do we take delight in it when someone we consider "bad" or an enemy, or a criminal etc is punished or has some kind of crisis in their lives? (see Proverbs 24:17 )
11. but rejoices with the truth.-- Do we delight in doing or saying things to please the Lord? Do we delight in it when we hear others praising Him about something? Do we delight in Him?
12. protects --how can we "protect" God? He obviously doesn't need us to lol, but we can protect His Name and character. Do we show our dislike of it when someone uses His Name in vain? Do we tell others that are maligning Him that they're wrong and why? Do we allow others to mock our faith, or our Lord? Do we put up with people speaking lies about what God says, instead of rebuking them as He tells us to? Do we defend our faith?
13. trusts -- Do we really trust the Lord? even when things aren't going well for us? even when He seems distant? even in a tragedy? even when a prayer request isn't being answered the way we want? When we're in the middle of a trial that seems to have gone on forever without getting better, do we still trust that Lord is in control and that He really will work it out for our best interests? Do we trust that He cares enough to want to help us? Do we trust that He really IS helping us even if it doesn't "look like it" at the time?
14. hopes-- do we confidently expect and desire to be close to the Lord? Do we really truly want to be with Him--physically? Do we really care about "our blessed hope"- (Titus 2:13-14) the culmination of our salvation when we will get our new bodies and be with Him forever?
15. perseveres --do we give up on God when the going gets tough? do we remain constant even in the face of obstacles or discouragement? Do we stand firm in our faith, in our trust and in our beliefs even when what we see seems to indicate that we're wrong? Do we live by faith instead of by sight?
Overwhelmed a little? I know I was! However, if we can integrate these things into our relationship with the Lord, just think of how much closer and more intimate our relationship with Him will be!
Challenge:
There are 15 attributes of love listed in that verse so what might help us would be to choose one of them each day and try to apply that one thing to our relationship with God that day. I think it would be even more beneficial and interesting to share with each other what we got out of it every day while we're doing this? Anyone want to join me in this?
Friday, February 5, 2010
Trials and Tribulations
The Lord pointed something out to me as I was reading Exodus 14-16 It's the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert and they were always grumbling, complaining, quarreling about how things were going for them. They grumbled about the food or lack of it, about the water or lack of it, about Moses and about just about everything else too. Moses told them that when they did that, they were actually grumbling (complaining) against God Himself and putting Him to the test (which we're not supposed to do) and telling Him that they didn't trust Him.
When it says that their complaining was "putting the Lord to the test", it means that when they complained about their situation and how things were, at the root of their complaints was a distrust of God Himself. They didn't trust Him to provide for Him so by complaining they were "testing" Him to see if he would respond to their complaints. It would be like a kid daring an adult to do what they said they'd do. Such as: "oh yeah? you think you're so hot, then you just go ahead and let's see you fix this!"
The reason I feel this is applicable to our study about trials and tribulations is because I know for a fact that I complain about my circumstances when I'm going through a trial, and I suspect that I'm not alone in this.
We've already looked at the many reasons the Lord allows us to go through these trials so I thought it might be a good idea to address some of our sinful reactions to the trials. The first and most obvious sin is complaining about it.
When we do that we're really saying that we don't believe that God is in control of our situation, or that if He is then He must have fallen asleep on the job, because it sure doesn't look good from our end! We're saying that God isn't just. Further, we're saying that we don't trust Him to cause even this trial and all the various aspects of it to work out for our good. We're saying that either He can't, or won't do this for us, and that is a lie from Satan as are the other statements. Without realizing it, we are quite literally exchanging the Truth of God for a lie and that is not something to take lightly! When we do this we are walking in the darkness rather then the Light and the Truth is not in us.
When this happens, we need to see a huge red flag in our minds eye warning us that we are turning down the wrong path, we are sinning and need to confess that to the Lord and repent. Praise God because we know that when we confess our sins and repent, the Lord is faithful to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness!
This doesn't mean that we can't discuss what's going on with us with other believers so that we can be encouraged, held accountable, and comforted though. When we discuss it however, our attitude should be one of patient endurance and of expectation of deliverance--of coming out of it better then when it started. We can say it's hard, that's obviously true. We simply need to refrain from complaining about it--suggesting by our attitude that perhaps God is asleep on the job, or that He's forgotten us, or that He can't or won't help us for some reason, or that we're going through it for some unknown but unfair reason. We need to make sure we do not allow ourselves to become depressed about it either because depression due to the trial is basically complaining with our mouths closed 
It's pretty easy to see from scripture that the Lord really really doesn't like complaining or our mistrust in Him. I'm going to list a number of scriptures here although certainly not all of them that pertain to this, but enough to give us something to reflect on today and in the future:
Exodus 17:2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
Matthew 4:7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Numbers 14:29 In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.
1 Corinthians 10:10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
James 5:9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Ephesians 4:29-32 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
James 1:19-20 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Psalm 4:4 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
Psalm 37:8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.
Ecclesiastes 7:9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
I don't want to leave this post however without some encouragement for us. Although what I've said is true and we need to beware of it, God does not leave us defenseless against the temptations to complain, become depressed or stop trusting Him. Not at all! Many of you have probably heard me say this next part before on other posts, but the following is the way the Lord would have us guard our minds and emotions:
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Whenever a thought or feeling of complaining, anger, bitterness, revenge, depression, or anything at all that is not of God, comes into our minds, we are to "take it captive". That means stop it, right there in it's tracks. As soon as you realize that you are having that kind of thought, (or feeling) you stop yourself and replace the ungodly thought (and/or feeling) with the truth of God. You replace the thoughts with something from the next verses:
Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
See where it says to "think about such things"? In some translations it says instead, "dwell on these things" or "meditate on these things"--meditate meaning to reflect on them, not what the modern idea of meditation is! The point is that this is what SHOULD be in our minds. Whenever something that doesn't belong in our minds is there, it needs to be immediately replaced with the Truth of God, with something on this list.
Note in the above verse that when we do this, God who is the God of peace will be with us and He will give us peace! I'm posting these passages backward because I wanted to point this out to you about the peace of God. Here is the first part of God's directions to us about how to guard our hearts and minds:
Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So besides capturing our thoughts and making them obedient to Christ by replacing them with the Truth, we are to rejoice ALWAYS! Yes, even during the worst trials of our lives! And our biggest refuge is prayer which we should do constantly and with thanksgiving. We don't have to thank Him for the trial itself and you shouldn't unless you really are thankful for it. To do so would be to lie and that is a sin. You can however thank Him for helping you get through the day, you can thank Him that He has told you in His Word that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, even though we can't see it yet. You can thank Him that He is in control even in the current mess, etc.
The great thing about this is the promise that is hidden at the end of this:
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we do the above, replacing bad/wrong/sinful thoughts and feelings with God's Truth and with the things He has told us should be in our minds and hearts; when we stay in thankful prayer with Him, then His Peace will literally guard our hearts and minds! That's how we get that peace that surpasses all understanding! Isn't that awesome???
We do all this because we are now living in the light in the Lord, so we need to make our thought life consistent with God's Truth. That in turn brings our emotions under control too. I want to share two other verses here that also include things that we can use to replace the sinful thoughts and emotions with:
Ephesians 5:8-10 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
So you can also use the things listed, such as the fruit of the light or fruit of the spirit to guide your thought life and to replace the ungodly thoughts or feelings when they start.
Let me also share a few encouraging verses from God's Word to those of us who are going through trials right now:
Psalm 71:20-21 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.
Psalm 40:1-5 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.
Last I'd like to compare how the Jew's sinned with their complaining and how Job reacted to his trials:
Job 1:20-22 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job 2:9-10 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
I realize that this is long and I apologize, but it was just too important to shorten any more then I have. I hope it helps us all remember that our real trial during any hard times in our lives is to respond to it in a godly way and to live by faith instead of by sight.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Trials and Tribulations
Trials and Tribulations
Job 1:6-12 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
I’d like to look at Job today. I realize that we could study the entire book and spend months on it and still not get everything out of it, but for today I want to just focus on another reason we go through trials and tribulations as believers.
In the beginning of the book we see that we are in a courtroom type scene in heaven. God has called the Angels and Satan to come and give an accounting of themselves. Often people seem to think that Satan is already in hell, but he isn’t. Even now he roams the earth and comes before God regularly to accuse us. Jesus called Satan our accuser, and He Himself is our advocate. Satan isn’t thrown out of heaven and bound until after the Tribulation.
Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
This verse in Revelation shows us that rather then being unusual, it’s quite normal for Satan to be accusing us before God, and this is exactly what Satan was doing when he made the accusations against Job.
1 Peter 5:8-9 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Note in the above verse that we are told that Satan is always looking for someone, a believer, to accuse and harass. However, we can know for sure from the passage in Job that he cannot harass any of us without God’s express permission. Therefore it’s God’s Will being done, not Satan’s! Another thing the above verse points out is that when Satan is allowed to test us, it causes us trials and tribulations. It causes us to “suffer”.
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
This is a verse we often don’t think of when we are undergoing a trial, but I wanted to point out that even Jesus was tested by Satan! We certainly aren’t any better then He is so I don’t think we can exclude ourselves based on that. Jesus set an example for us to follow with His life. As we’ve discussed before, He warned us that we would have trials and that we needed to expect them.
Luke 9:23-24 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Luke 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
I’ve included the next verse just so you can see for sure that Jesus, who is God, is our advocate. And advocate is like a lawyer, he argues your case for you and declares your innocence. This is what God was doing for Job in the opening passages today and it’s what Jesus does for us every time Satan accuses us before Him. The main difference now is that Jesus has paid the price for our sins so even when we’re guilty of what Satan accuses us of, Jesus can declare that the price has already been paid for us.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
In the opening passage we are told that Job was blameless and upright. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t ever sin, but rather that Satan and sin didn’t dominate him like it did most people.
What we’ve seen so far from this is that God tests our faith to be sure it’s real. He already knows if it’s real or not of course, but He knows that this is something we need to know so we can continue to grow. When we are tested for this reason as Job was, we learn just how real our faith is, and how real our God is. We learn what is usually called “the fear of the Lord” from these tests. Notice one other thing about this kind of test though:
Job 1:12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
God never gives Satan a free hand-instead He limits Satan. Further along in this book we’ll see that God lifts this limit but imposes another limit, again not giving Satan a free hand. This shows us that it is God who is always in control of everything, even when Satan is being allowed to test us. Nor does God just sit idly by while we are being tested. Remember when Jesus told Peter that he would be tested?
Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Again in the above verse we see that Satan had to ask first. We also see that God’s purpose for allowing this was to strengthen Peter’s faith and that to help Peter, Jesus prayed for him. Jesus does this for each of us as well. He didn’t pray for Peter just because He happened to know him while He was on the earth, but because Peter was saved and a part of His body just as we are.
Romans 8:34….. Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
No, the Lord isn’t sitting idly by while we struggle and suffer. He is right there beside us lending us His strength, guiding us and praying for us. His purpose isn’t to hurt us, but to grow us up to be more like Him and to fortify us against future troubles. (very much like an immunization injection fortifies us against future diseases) This verse from Exodus shows us this:
Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
We’ve talked before about how important the “fear of the Lord” is and what that means, so I won’t address that here. Here is a link to that topic if you’d like to review it though:
The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning of Wisdom
As a last thought I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite verses that describes what having that kind of faith and fear of the Lord is like:
Daniel 3:17-18 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”