In his hands

 Sometimes we are too troubled even to pray.  What do we do then?

I believe we simply need to remember that we are in God's hands.  It may be all we need to do is - nothing.  Just imagine resting in Christ's arms, saying nothing and letting his love bring comfort to us.

One of the great examples in the Bible of spiritual depression or exhaustion is the story of the prophet Elijah running away from Queen Jezebel of Israel.

This comes just after Elijah has won a great victory - through the power of God - over the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.  God showed the people of Israel that he was God - not Baal - by bringing fire supernaturally on animal sacrifices.

In 1 Kings 19, we see Elijah running away to Mount Sinai in fear for his life even though God had displayed his power, a power far greater than Jezebel's.

He settled under a broom tree and asked God to take his life.

That is the pit of despair.

But God steps in and puts Elijah back on his feet - physically, spiritually and emotionally.  He tells him to listen for God's voice and God speaks to him in a whisper.

God tells Elijah to buck up and get on with the tasks that he has given the prophet.  And he promises a successor to carry on his work.

Sometimes a tragedy or an illness or a family dispute or a job loss can submerge us and we feel like Elijah, abandoned and hopeless.  But God made his presence felt in Elijah's case and he will do so with us too.

We may be able to say nothing more than "Help!" as we look to God.  But we can rest in God, wordless.

In the great passage in Matthew 11:28, Jesus says: "Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Ultimately, we must get beyond being preoccupied with self and start laying out our concerns to God.

In Philippians 4:6, the apostle Paul says: "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need and thank him for all that he has done."

That is excellent advice.  Take everything to God and thank him for what he has already done in the past.  A thankful heart starts to lift the veil of depression.

Yet when we can't even do that, we need to remember Jesus' words: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

Then, we need to lean upon him without words, confident he loves us.

Getting past sin

I find it hard to pray when I whip myself over my sins.

Satan, our accuser, loves to drop into our minds that we are worthless.  He wants us to wallow in our worthlessness.

But that is not how God wants us to see ourselves.  He wants us to come before him, knowing that we are much-loved children.

C.S. Lewis touched on this in his book The Screwtape Letters, a fictional account of letters between a senior devil and a junior devil.  Screwtape, the senior devil, tries to instruct his newphew Wormwood how to pull a young Christian away from "The Enemy" (God).

In this book, Screwtape writes: "Whenever they (Christians) are attending to the Enemy we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so.  The simplest is turn their gaze from him towards themselves."

People naturally run away from God when they sin. That is what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Why?  Because they feel God won't want anything to do with them.

So should we forget sin entirely and assume God doesn't care?

The apostle Paul makes a grand declaration about the victory of God's grace over sin in Romans 5.  And then he follows this up with these words in Romans 6:1:

"Well then should we continue on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?  Of course not!  Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?"

So, I am to acknowledge my sins and put them behind me.  The apostle John says in 1 John 1:9 that I am to confess my sins and God will forgive me and cleanse me from unrighteousness.

I need to remind myself of this because a great danger arises when I become preoccupied with my sin.  Then, I turn away from God the way Adam did because in my heart I think he is deeply unhappy with me. And I stop talking to the Lord in prayer.

I am finding that the key is my relationship with God.  Do I realize how much he loves me in spite of my weaknesses?

He knows what I am like and yet he takes "great delight" in me and he rejoices over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).  He wants me to come to him for his embrace - acknowledging my sin and knowing that I am forgiven.

The writer of Hebrews says it best.  In Hebrews 12, he tells me to strip off the things that hold me back - including sin - and run the race before me.

"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."

That's the idea.  I am to put behind what I have done and look forward to what God has before me.

I am to fix my eyes on Jesus - not on myself.

When I look to Jesus, prayer flows.  We talk.







 

Faith and prayer

Jesus placed a lot of emphasis on faith.  Faith in who or what?

I like Andy Stanley's definition of faith: "Faith is believing that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do."

That tells me that my faith is to be in God, not in myself or in someone else.

Faith is key to prayer.  We don't pray to God unless we believe he can answer our prayers.

But what about the times we don't get the answer we were looking for?

Over the years, some Christians have argued that people are not healed because they haven't enough faith.  The implication is that they don't have enough faith in God - or, they don't believe they can be healed.

Charles S. Price offers his own views in his book The Real Faith for Healing.

Price had a powerful healing ministry in Canada and the U.S. in the first half of the last century.

The outset of his book, he asks:

"Why have our prayers so often gone unanswered?  Why are our churches filled with the sick and dying who listen to sermons on divine healing that are true to the Word and promises of God, and yet are not healed when they're prayed for?"


In Price's view, we try to crank up our faith mentally when we should be seeking God's grace of faith.

Faith is a gift of God, he says.  He points to the apostle Paul's statement in Romans 12:3 that God has given each of us a "measure of faith". 

Price gives numerous examples of people who came to him for prayer, but he felt no faith for healing for them.  Then, when they went to Jesus in prayer - seeking him - they would return with calm assurance that they would be healed.  And they were.

In one case, a woman had been unable to walk and her legs had shriveled up.  She had to be carried around by her husband.

When Price looked at her, he realized he needed God's faith - not his faith, but God's - for her healing and she needed that faith, too.  He urged her to spend time before the Lord.  Over several nights, she arrived at personal surrender to God and Jesus "gave her a vision of himself".

That night, she was healed - able to walk again.

In summing up this story, Price says "our mission was to draw close to Jesus."  After that, it is God's work as he gives us faith.

I am sure that Price's views are controversial in evangelical circles.  There will always be a lot of arguments about faith for healing.

But Price's thoughts make sense to me.

God gives us the initial faith to believe in him and to give our lives to him.  Isn't it reasonable to expect he gives us faith for healing?

It is God we believe in - not our own merit.