Praying or Fantasizing

Mark 11:24 NIV

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

How Confident Are About Praying?

A number of years ago we went to Disneyland and our daughter was only three.  She loved to dress up in princess outfits and she had a number that she brought for our trip there.  One day she could dress as Cinderella, another as Snow White and the next she was prepared to be Belle.  In fact she could change in the middle of the day and be a different princess at lunch and dinner.  Her face would light up when she spotted Arial or Belle or Pocahontas mingling in the crowd.  We had to wait for Rachel to stand in line and greet each of the princesses she came across. There was even a lunch meet and greet that Rachel attended.  Rachel was mesmerized by the parades when the princesses all came together in one place and she stared at them all wide-eyed.  Reality and fantasy came together in a mystical union.  That is until reality rose up and trampled fantasy one cloudy afternoon when Rachel spotted one of the Disneyland princesses standing out behind a building smoking a cigarette.  She was stunned and she never forgot the disappointment she felt at the unexpected sight.

Many have given up on Christianity because they believe it is like the Disney princesses; it is all a dress up that in the end is a sham.  Perhaps you have struggled with believing the Bible.  There is much about it that is interesting and helpful but some of the stories in it appear to be too good to be true.  The promises about prayer in particular hang you up as it does not seem like God holds up His end of the bargain.  You pray but the outcome is not what you had hoped.  Or worse, your praying seems to have been a waste of time and left you discouraged and feeling snookered by empty promises of God’s help.

Two case studies found in the Bible shed a bit of light on our discussion.  When Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus, became deathly ill, his sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." (John 11: 3 NIV)  When Jesus did not do anything about Lazarus’s condition and he died, both sisters were dumbfounded by His lack of help.  When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:32 NIV)  How closely this mirrors the experience of many who have prayed and been disappointed by the results!

Prior to the birth of Christ, an elderly widow lived at the Temple and spent her days praying.  There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. (Luke 2:36-37 NIV)  We have no idea what sorts of matters were on her prayer list but we must say she had to wait an awfully long time before meeting the Messiah.  Not only that, should we just ignore the fact that this woman of prayer lost her husband after only seven years of marriage?  How much disappointment with prayer was locked up within the heart of this elderly widow for all those years!

Our problem, when it comes to praying, is not just the seeming slowness or even lack of responses to prayer.  We face a much more daunting task when it comes to believing in God.  We lack a physical connection to Him that can make trusting in Him more reasonable and sustainable.  We can’t see Him, hear Him or touch Him and that is not normal when it comes to relationships.  It can be argued that we don’t, hear, see or touch those we meet online and yet believe they are who they say they are but experience with fraud makes many such “encounters” impossible to trust completely.  When it comes to God, we don’t even have a picture profile to consider!  Yet, is it insane to believe in a God we cannot see, touch or hear?

Author Philip Yancey suggests we should consider the case of the woman who has been blind since birth who has never seen light and cannot see it.  How would you prove the existence of light to her?  You could present her with products of light such as heat or plant life but that does not prove light to her.  Light is real and not at all imaginary but to the one who has no sensitivity to it, light is just hearsay, only taken on trust.  If everyone in the world is blind from birth, men, women and children, light as described in books is to the entire crowd “religious” or “unscientific”.  It might be considered “mythological” and yet it is as real as the birds chirping in the trees.  The doubt in the minds of those who cannot see that light exists would not mitigate the reality of light.

We certainly lack the Spiritual sense needed to scientifically “prove” the presence of demons and angels, God and Satan but that is what we must accept when we speak of God and prayer.  Jesus did not try to pretend something else was the case.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24 NIV)  Rarely does God make Himself available to our physical senses.  Yet He has done so and many of the blind in our world just won’t believe the accounts given of His presence being seen, heard, touched or smelled. There is something else we must consider when it comes to knowing about the existence of God and believing in prayer.

The American Journal of Psychiatry reported a study of Harvard students who had experienced a “religious conversion.  They discovered that these students showed a dramatic change in their lifestyles.  Their use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes went down spectacularly.  What is more, they did much better academically than they did before their conversion and were less likely to suffer from depression and despair when compared to the rest of the student body.  What does it mean when an internal transformation which is attributed to God results in an externally proven outcome?  Religious Americans are proven to be more likely to give money to someone homeless, spend time with someone depressed, return excess change to a clerk, help someone find a job and donate blood.  At what point do those who do not have the sensory equipment to see or touch God begin to consider the facts regarding the accomplishments of the God they cannot see?

Faith is the operating system of our relationship with God and that is not going to change!  We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV)  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)  Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6: 29 NIV) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)  This is the way God works with us.  We must have faith in Him that He exists if we are to have a relationship with Him that transforms our lives.  It will not be altered; this plan of God.  No amount of complaining that God does not let us see, hear or touch Him will change His mind.  The Lord will do in us and through us what our faith in Him permits.  It has been shown that with God operating in people’s lives, crime, drug use, violence and gang activities go down.  What proof do you need to recognize that you pray to a God who changes people’s lives and literally is a part of what they do?

When you pray, the Lord will transform your character, create in you a hatred of your own sin and generate a growing desire to be close to Him.  He will guide you so that you will be able to make sense of what to do.  He will work in others and change them too.  God will alter your circumstances so that in the end all you face and encounter will turn out for your good.  To pray, you must have faith to pray.  To communicate with God who is real, you must believe that He is real.  You will never be certain that God exists or that He is part of your praying until you actually decide to believe He exists and then pray.  Once that transaction takes place, the Lord will move Heaven and Earth to keep you close to Him supernaturally and coherently.  You may not yet believe God loves you fully but that will come as you trust Him enough to pray.  Faith opens your mind to pray; miracles always follow faith…they don’t come before it.  A miracle is nothing more complex than this.  It is the discovery that God is in actuality a part of your life and giving you the very best He has to offer in response to your praying.  So pray.  Pray often.  Pray with your mind on God and your heart open to whatever He gives you.

Faith and Comfort

Psalm 23:4 NIV

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

How Do You Find Comfort?

When I was in graduate school, I received a phone call from my father that my mom had died.  I sat down on my bed in stunned disbelief and stared off into space.  A friend of mine walked into my room and after I told him what had happened, he invited me to go to the gym and play basketball with him.  He didn’t put his arm around me and hug me, he didn’t tell me how sad he was for my loss, he just got me on the court and gave me a chance to express my feelings in a game of three on three.  The irony is that I blew out my knee playing that day and as I hobbled back to the dorm with him, I began to weep.  Mike sat there with me and helped me talk about the loss of my mom after he got me ice for my knee.  I never would have seen Mike as someone who could bring comfort to a grieving friend; he was far too cocky and flip to be of help for anyone needing to be helped through a crisis but when I needed a friend to stand by me as I wept, Mike was there for me.

Comfort comes to us in a variety of ways and sometimes from surprising sources.  If I were to ask you what brings you comfort, how would you reply?  Would you say an encouraging word does it for you, the embrace of a friend, a compliment, or a warm smile?  Perhaps it would be a steak fresh off the grill, banana nut bread, ice cream or a backrub!  For some it would be a warm bath, a workout at the gym, your dog jumping into your lap or just holding hands with someone you love.  Comfort cannot be logically explained all the time but we know when we have experienced it.  You may not always need to be comforted but when you do, it is one of the greatest gifts you will ever receive.

The Bible says much about the comfort God gives us.  Isaiah 66: 13a promises, As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you… (NIV)  2 Corinthians 1: 3 insists, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort… (NIV)  My friend was laid up in a hospital bed for four days with a broken back waiting for his insurance company to approve the medical treatment he needed that would ease his pain and fix his back.  Where is the “God of all comfort” then?  Another friend recently was laid off from his job in Christian radio.  Can the “God of all comfort” really help him?  It is tough to believe God will provide you with comfort if you are struggling to believe God is not the one who brought you your troubles in the first place.

Our world has been wrecked by Sin.  It is broken and death touches every part of it.  Satan continues to bring pain and suffering and will persist in having the power to destroy lives while we live in this age before our resurrection.  Trouble and hardship will be with us until God brings an end to the world as it is and so we must accept life the way we find it.  Our Lord doesn’t promise us an end to our troubles; in fact He insists they will continue.  "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33 NIV)  There is however a most wonderful promise our Lord makes in this statement and that is what we shall give our focus today.  Christ has overcome the world.

There are two different ways of thinking about comfort.  The first has to do with what we might call “external comfort”.  The other is “internal comfort”.  External comfort is the taking away of whatever is causing distress.  You are unemployed and you get a job.  You are mad at someone who hurt your feelings and the person apologizes to you and makes up for what she did.  A medical examination indicates that you do not suffer from the terrible disease your doctor thought you might have.  Many times God brings us external comfort and this is often described in the Bible.  The blind man was given sight.  The ten lepers were healed.  The Assyrians didn’t attack Jerusalem because God sent a deadly plague that decimated the Assyrian army.  Saul was killed in battle and David is made king.  Perhaps you like Hezekiah have prayed for help with the cause of from your distress and God tells you He will take away your illness and it happens.  We all at one time or another have experienced external relief and we may or may not have given God credit for His help.

Yet we live in a wrecked world that continues to have disease, poverty, broken relationships and death.  Not all troubles will be taken away from us  .I was told that a pastor declared that the area where he lived was officially cancer free; that God had declared this to him.  But then when cancer killed one of his parents, he had to backtrack on his prophetic word.  Not every disease is healed, not every brother is raised from the dead and not every person gets a better job than the one he lost.  We must face facts as they are and discover for ourselves what our Lord means when He says that “as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”

There are in the Bible two levels of internal comfort.  The first would more accurately be called “relief”.  This is the feeling you have when it looks like everything will turn out ok. The second level is when our relief is joined to faith and we experience comfort in its supernatural state.  Carefully examine Psalm 119:76 to see this expressed practically.   May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. (NIV)  The comfort described in this Psalm is not due to any change in the circumstances of the Psalmist.  He hasn’t been healed.  He wasn’t offered a promotion.  He didn’t get a check in the mail.  He simply had a promise from God and that promise he believed could be trusted.  God had unfailing love for him and this he decided would be his comfort.  We see this again in the fiftieth verse of the same chapter.  My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. (Psalm 119:50 NIV)  What we have is a strange sort of comfort, something decided before whatever God might do for the person.  It is the promise God provides that brings comfort, not the fulfillment of the promise.  Let us look at a couple of examples that illustrate this law of God’s comfort.

A few weeks ago we mentioned a Roman centurion who came to Jesus wanting help for his servant who was suffering paralysis.  When Jesus told the centurion that He would in fact heal the servant, the centurion believed Jesus, had faith in God’s promise.  He went away comforted; an internal change for him.  Later, when he got home, he discovered the servant was indeed well and he was relieved.  (See Matthew 8: 8ff)  A different outcome is described in Matthew 14.   There we have the famous account of Peter walking briefly on the water.  Jesus came to the disciples who were in their boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee during a horrific storm.  He was walking on the water and in faith Peter asked if he could join Jesus out on the waves.  For a moment Peter also walked on the water but then his faith faltered.  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:30-31 NIV)  Jesus’ encouragement to come and join Him on the water brought Peter comfort.  The wind was still raging, the waves continued to threaten everyone.  But when Peter lost his faith, he also lost his comfort.  Peter was relieved when Christ calmed the sea but he missed out on the supernatural comfort that would have been there for him if he just kept believing Jesus would fully take care of him.

One more example of comfort vs. relief as seen in the miraculous healing of Naaman the leper is found in 2 Kings 5.  Naaman, an Aramean came to Israel looking for the prophet Elisha, hoping Elisha could heal his leprosy.  We cannot say how much faith he had in the prophet but we do know Naaman was not at all pleased with Elisha’s instructions.  The prophet told Naaman to go dip in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed.  The Jordan was a muddy, cloudy river and Naaman could not see any good in going to it for healing and so he left Elisha in a great huff.  He was not at all comforted by God.  Some friends though convinced Naaman to just try it and so Naaman did and to his great joy, he was indeed healed by the Lord.  This was of course a tremendous relief to Naaman and he returned to Elisha to express his gratitude.  Now here we must look at the supernatural comfort that could have been experienced.  God wanted to comfort Naaman with his promise but Naaman wouldn’t believe the promise and so he remained in turmoil.  What a great thing it would have been for Naaman to ride to the Jordan River in supernatural comfort rather than turmoil.  He was healed and found relief but he did not experience comfort.  Comfort is when God’s peace is combined with our faith in God.

All too often we are like Naaman.  Rather than believe that God will provide for us, help us and carry us through whatever trial or hardship we face, we do not trust God and our minds are thrown into chaos by our difficulty.  We get mad at one another, lose sleep and scramble around looking frantically for a solution rather than believing that God will show us what to do and take care of us.   I want to provide a picture of God’s comfort working in a practical way.  Abraham was told to take his son Isaac to Mount Moriah and offer him there as a sacrifice to God.  The next morning Abraham got up, gathered the wood, a knife and a donkey along with the boy and together they started going up the hill.  There is no mention in the description of Abraham stewing with rage at God for making such a demand, no indication that he went up the mountain in great despair or abject fear of what was going to happen.  In a supernatural peace he climbed with his son and even when Isaac asked his father where was the lamb for the sacrifice, Abraham calmly replied, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. (Genesis 22:8 NIV)

Imagine having enough comfort to take your son and walk with him up a great hill knowing that at the top of it you would be killing him.  Abraham was not the sort of person who naturally could do such a thing, only God could give him that sort of peaceful calmness.  When Abraham and Isaac got to the top of Mount Moriah, placed Isaac on top of the wood and pulled out his knife to kill the boy, the Lord showed Abraham a ram caught in the thicket and told him that it was the ram that was to be killed as a sacrifice and not his son.  Now let’s go to the secret of Abraham’s comfort.  Hebrews 11 tells us, By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."  Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19 NIV)

We have supernatural comfort the same way Abraham did. Abraham took his son up the mountain with a certain amount of calmness because he believed that after he killed the boy, God would raise him from the dead.  The Lord, he knew, would take care of both of them.  You gain comfort the same way.  When you decide that God will take care of you, the comfort of God begins to come over you like a warm wave of peace.  His comfort relaxes you, lifts your spirits, calms you, and takes away your worry and your anger as you trust in Him.   You begin to discover that the Lord is quieting your desperation and in the storm you are at peace.  Memorize this short statement and repeat it again and again for it is the promise of God to you.  “My God will meet all my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”   If we make this our prayer of faith, God will comfort us in any and every situation.