If Only...

A battle that I constantly fight with myself is this attitude of “If I only....”  I believe that most people at one time or another has experienced this.  “If I only had musical ability I would do a special on Sunday.” or “If I only made $100,000, then I would tithe.”  Hopefully you see my point.  Too often we focus on what we don’t have rather than doing the best with what we do have.  We write up our failures and our lack of effort to the fact that we don’t have this or that.

Many times as we look around the Church and our local church families we see all sorts of things that could be done.  What keeps us from making changes is this idea: “If we only...”  Sure it would be nice if money wasn’t an issue, if we had the time and the personnel to do all these great and wonderful things, or if tradition wouldn't tie our hands, but wishing doesn’t make it happen.

There is a lesson from the Bible that we can apply here.  Jesus told a parable about a rich man who went off on a long journey.  Before going on that journey the man called three of his servants together.  To each of these men he gives a sum of money.  The first he gives five talents, to the second two talents, and to the third one talent.  You know the story, the man is gone for a long time, but the servants do different things with their money.  The first two invest it and double the money they had been given and the third one buries his for safe keeping.  When the man comes back he is pleased with the first two but is furious with the last one.

One lesson that we can take from this parable, found in Matthew 25:14-30, is a simple one.  We recognize that God has blessed each one of us differently, and therefore He doesn’t expect us to be alike.  What God does expect is that we use the talents and the blessings He has given us to build His kingdom.  We don’t need to be worrying about what we don’t have, because God has provided us with the things we need to impact the people we know and make a difference in the place we live.

Don’t start playing the, “If I only..” game.  Instead think about what God has given you, and use that to the best of your ability.  Pursue excellence, and when we do, we will discover that we can do so much with what we already have.

Sunday Quote: Fuel for the Future

"While God instructs his people over and over again to remember all his great deeds, he dosen't call us to live in the past.  Memories are intended to be fuel for the future of faith.  They aren't intended to become an alternative reality in which we choose to hide from the present challenges.  God's promise is that he's doing something worth living for right now.  And it's happening in front of our very eyes.  The tragedy is that we may not even see it." ~ Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, p. 92

Remember What God Has Done

I am amazed how quickly I can forget things. I know that my memory is not the most reliable thing in the world. I forget to take out the trash, I forget where a certain passage of Scripture is located, I forget to pick up a gallon of milk, I forget the date of my mom’s birthday, I forget the date of my baptism, and I forget my social security number.

Is it safe to assume that you have had a similar experience? Experience has taught us that we are forgetful creatures. Time and distance have a way of making our memories fade, changing our perspective, and causing us to forget important moments and lessons of our lives. This forgetfulness has a negative impact on our relationship with God.

The story of Israel is a great illustration of this reality. The nation of Israel continually forgot how God had worked in their lives and the promises that He had made to them. The result was that they ignored God’s Law and lived life following the example of the nations around them.

It is so very very easy for us to judge Ancient Israel for their forgetfulness. We find it surprising that they would so quickly forget the thing that God had done for them. God had sent ten plagues on Egypt to force the Egyptians to free Israel from slavery. God parted the Red Sea to secure the nation’s escape from the pursuing Egyptians. God turned the bitter waters into sweet waters at Marah and sent manna and quail to feed the nation.

In spite of the miraculous intervention Israel constantly complained and grumbled. They, as a people, were never satisfied, and could never quite trust God to provide for what they needed. At the banks of the Jordan River, at the very cusp of possessing the Promised Land they people decided not to move. The occupying people were too numerous, too strong, and too fortified. The Israelites looked at the situation before them and decided it was impossible, and thus they demonstrated a lack of trust in God’s power. They forgot, not only what God was capable of doing, but also His promise to go before them to ensure victory. They forgot God and lived in fear. The result was that that generation of Israelites died in the wilderness as the nation wandered for forty years, learning to trust God.

I see this same pattern at work in my life. Over and over again God has worked in my life, but I am reluctant to trust Him with the future, with my relationships, and with my ministry. Though God has answered my prayers, has spoken to me, has changed my life, and has forgiven my sins I still demand that He does more before I will take the next step of faith. When it comes to God it is never “What has He done?”, but it is “what has He done for me lately?” It is hard for me to be content with what God has already done, and so I expect Him to constantly prove Himself to me in order to have my trust.

Why do we react this way? Why do we forget what God has done and demand that He once again prove Himself? I believe that one of the reasons is because life has a way of dulling our memories. Life sweeps us along and we go with the flow, which leads to the excitement of the past being lost. Those difficulties that God helped us through last year now don’t seem to be all that difficult, especially compared to the challenges that are before us right now. Without constant reflection and worship we are bound to forget how God has worked in our lives. Life and time will fade our memories and quickly make God a foot note in the story of our lives.

Forgetfulness is a problem all people experience. It was a problem in the Galatian churches. The apostle Paul wrote to them because he was surprised how quickly they forgot the Gospel that he had taught them. This is what the Apostle wrote in Galatians 1:6, 7:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (ESV)

Paul’s astonishment leaps off the page, he can’t believe that the Galatians were turning their back on the Gospel and turning towards something that wasn’t the Gospel. These Christians in Galatia had allowed life and time to dull their memory about God’s truth and as a result they accepted a way of life that was appealing to them, but was not the way of Christ Jesus.

We face that same danger. If we are not intentional about taking time to remember how God has worked in our lives, the truth that we have been taught, or how our lives have been changed we can be deceived by a different gospel that is actually no gospel at all. It is for the purpose of remember that God gave us the Lord’s Supper, the Bible, and the Church. When we take advantage of these gifts God reminds us of who He is and what He has done.

Here is a little exercise I think will help you to remember what God is doing in your life. Find a quiet place away from the distractions of life: turn off the TV, get away from the computer, put away the phone, and set aside your work. Pull out your Bible and read Psalm 111 and think about specific times when God has shown up in your life. Write these thoughts down and journal about the experiences. Then pray and thank God for coming through for you in your time of need.

Life will make us forget God if we are not intentional about remembering all that He has done for us. Make sure you “count your blessings” and praise God as you live life so you don’t forget the great things He has done for you.

Living The Life God Has For Us

It is interesting how our feelings are so connected to circumstances. We can be feeling good about life, and then we receive a bit of news and our hearts drop to the pit of our stomachs. That is what happened to me tonight, and even though the news was good news (at least for the person involved) it tore me up because it was a reminder that the life I wanted was not going to happen.

What do we do when this happens to us? How should the follower of Christ react to the news that the life he/she wanted was no longer the life they could live?

There is only one option I can think of: commit ourselves to living the life that we already have. That requires us to seek God's will for our lives right now and move in that direction. It means that we focus on the responsibilities that we have right now and complete them.

It is good to have dreams and desires, but we have to be willing to give those dreams up when God calls us in another direction. We have to remember that it is through the circumstances of life that God is able to grow us into the people He desires us to be. No matter how painful it might be or how broken our heart becomes, God is able to use the worst circumstances in our lives to mature our faith.

The hard part is allowing these words to move from my head to my heart, to really trust God with my life rather than blaming Him for not making life turn out the way I want it to turn out. May God give me, and you, the courage to follow Him no matter what life throws our way.

Sent from my iPod

Let God Take Care of the Rest

Sin is a constant thorn in our side. The deeper we grow in our relationship with God the more obvious our sin becomes. We begin to understand why God hates sin and why it destroys our relationship with Him. Even with this knowledge sin remains a continual problem for us.

I say this, not to excuse the sin in our lives, but to remind us of what repentance really is. Repentance means to change our allegiance. We are to defect from the ways of this world and commit to the ways of Jesus. I believe this is where many of us go wrong. We feel sorry for the sin in our lives, but we don’t want to give up the things of this world. This results in continued bondage to sin.

Writing to Christians in Ephesus the apostle Paul wrote:

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity (Ephesians 4:17-19; ESV).

I want us to pay attention to what Paul is writing to Christians. First, he tells them that they are not to walk (or to live) like the Gentiles (unbelievers) do. The Apostle expects followers of Christ to make an intentional decision to change their lives, which begins with their priorities. Second, Paul tells these Christians that the way that unbelievers live keeps them alienated from God and gives them a hard heart. What is the implication for Christians who continue to follow the ways of unbelievers? They too will be alienated from God and become hard hearted. If we are struggling with sin in our lives it could be that we have never truly repented and that we are still following the ways of the world.

Let’s continue with Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:


But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24; ESV).

Again we find ourselves at the point of having to make a decision. The first decision Paul tells us to make is the decision to reject the way of the world. The second decision to to allow our minds to be renewed. This is the second mistake many of us make. We think we have to be the ones to renew our minds, and so we establish all these little rules and disciplines to try to change our thinking. Yet it doesn’t seem to work. We keep telling ourselves that we need to try a little harder or that we need to add more structure to our lives and become more discipline. In the end many of us become exhausted because it as hard as we try we just can’t seem to renew our minds.

This is the bolt of truth that hit me this weekend: I am not the one who does the renewing! I can’t do it! I am living life in the flesh which has been corrupted by sin, and try as I might I can’t break free. My life has constantly felt like taking one step forward and two steps back, and it is trying and discouraging.

Here is what we need to do in order to have our minds renewed and to receive God’s righteousness: surrender. Offer our lives to God everyday through prayer. Admit that we don’t have what takes, pour out our hearts desire to Him, and commit to following wherever He leads.

This is how Paul describes it in Romans:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2; ESV).

In salvation there are things that God expects us to do (respond in faith, repent, surrender), but there are other things that only God can do. Perhaps it is time that we stop trying to do what only God can do and focus on what He expects from us.

A Place in God's Family

At one time or another most of us felt out of place inside the Church. We feel out of place because we don’t think we have anything to offer when it comes to the great task Christ gave the Church, the task of making disciples. The talents we have seem insignificant, and the fear that rises in our hearts keep us paralyzed. Another reason we feel out of place in the Church is because we see ourselves as hypocrites. The sin which still seems to control our lives makes us feel like posers. The guilt we feel makes us question if we are even saved and we wonder why we can’t haven’t more together like all the other people at Church. If we depend just on our mood there will be times when we feel out of place in God’s Family.

Why do we feel that way? I want to explore two reasons. The first reasons why we feel out of place in the Church is because we have allowed Satan to lie to us. Jesus told us the truth about Satan:

“For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murder from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he is a liar and the father of lies‚” (John 8:44; NLT).

Jesus told us that when Satan speaks he tells lies. They might be half-truths, but his intention is to deceive us. Satan will get us to believe that because we don’t have talents that are cherished in the Church today that we don’t have what it takes to do ministry. Satan will remind us of all the sin that has marred our lives, and make us feel guilty of sin that Jesus has already dealt with. If we want to know the truth about ourselves we have to go to the one who will not lie, and then we have to believe those truths.

When God tells us that we have a valuable place in the body (Romans 12:3-8 or 1 Peter 4:10-11) we need to believe that we have something to contribute by discovering ways to minister to others with the talents we do have. When God tells us that our sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9, 2:12; Ephesians 2:1-10) we need to believe that promise by engaging in prayer, praise, and fellowship. The difficulty in trusting God is that we have go against our feelings and act on what God has said, which is hard because our feelings seem more real than God’s truth. Our faith is thus demonstrated by not allowing our feelings to control us and choosing to believe and obey God.

The second reason we feel out of place is godly sorrow. In other words there are times we feel out of place because we are out of place. Instead of following we Jesus we have taken a detour into a life of sin. We allow ourselves to get caught up in the things of this world and forsake the call of God, and we have refused to repent from our lifestyle. The apostle Paul tells us:

For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death (2 Corinthians 7:10; NLT).

When we feel sorrow in our hearts for how we have lived God is calling us to examine our lives and and to repent of our sin. God makes us feel uncomfortable in church because He wants us to repent and surrender our entire lives to Him.

There are two reasons why we feel out of place in the Body of Christ, but they are from two very different sources. The lies of Satan will always be accusing and harsh. What Satan wants us to do is to become paralyzed because we believe we don’t have what it takes to make and impact for the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead of seeking a relationship with God, Satan will convince us to hide from Him. As a result we will cut ourselves from the very source of assurance we so desperately need.

When we experience godly sorrow it will be quite different. We will be upset because of what we have done, but there will be a desire to return to God’s presence. The sorrow we have is the result of God revealing to us that we need Him in our lives. Godly sorrow reminds us that life is not found by our own efforts, but is a result of being part of God’s Family. We can make an impact for the Kingdom of Heaven when we respond to the godly sorrow we feel in our hearts and live by faith.

Those times we feel like we don’t belong we need to examine whose voice is whispering in our ear. If it is the voice of Satan we need to tell him to back off and remember the truth God has told us. We are His children, saints, and priests. If it is the voice of the Holy Spirit we need to get own our knees and ask forgiveness. No matter where we have been or what we have done, God wants us to know that we have a place in His Family.

The Good Side of Pain #3

I have been talking about how pain can be a benefit to us. God uses our suffering to mold us into the people He desires us to be. Remember, one of the things God is doing in this world is creating a people fit for heaven, and so that means He isn’t concerned about our happiness right now as He is concerned about our holiness.

While we can understand that pain has a purpose in our lives and that God is able to redeem our suffering for good purposes many times the reason for our pain will be mysterious to us. There won’t be an answer to the question why. Though I think it is important for us to ask that question. In the book of Psalms we find 64 Psalms of lament. These psalms are poems in which the author begins by crying out to God for understanding. King David begins Psalm 13 with these words; O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?How long will you look the other way? (NLT). We will not always understand the reasons for the pain and suffering in our lives.

Take for example Job. As we read the book of Job it seems that he is a righteous man who gets used as a pawn in a game against Satan and God. Satan believes that Job only worships God because God blesses and protects Job. God says that Job is a man of character and would serve Him regardless of what happens to Job. God allows Satan to test Job. First, God allows Satan to test Job by taking away everything he has, including his sons and daughters. The second test God allows is for Satan to attack Job’s health by covering Job in boils and sores.

The pain that Job suffers does not seem to fit the two reasons why pain is valuable that I mentioned in the first two parts (God uses pain to make us holy and God uses pain to teach us to trust Him). Job’s friends try to explain Job’s suffering by insisting that Job had done something sinful. His suffering, Job’s friends tell him, is God’s punishment for some great secret sin. Through all their accusations Job maintains his innocence, he has done nothing wrong.

Job is as confused as anyone about what is happening. His friends tell him his pain is his fault. Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die. He doesn’t know what to make of the situation. Much of the book of Job deals with Job’s discussion with a few of his friends. It goes back an forth between the friends trying to get Job to confess some great sin and Job insisting that he is being treated unfairly

I think the young arrogant Elihu summarizes Job’s position nicely when he says, You have said it in my hearing. I have heard your very words. You said, “I am pure; I am innocent; I have not sinned. God is picking a quarrel with me, and he considers me to be his enemy” (Job 33:8-10, NLT). While Elihu gives us some insight into what Job was feeling it is interesting to note that it is after his arrogant rant that God reveals Himself.

Here is part of what God says Job:

“Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right? Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty” (Job 40:7-10, NLT).

The lesson we learn from Job is that we can never understand everything that happens. God has His reasons, and because He is God and we are not, we will never always understand all of the whys.

I know this isn’t intellectually satisfying at times, but it is at this time when faith becomes very important. Sooner or later your world is going to be rocked with pain, if it hasn’t been already. During the suffering and the struggle you will not understand why it is happening. It will seem unfair and unnecessary. You will want to cry out to God and question Him. Those feelings are normal. If we never faced a crisis, a trial, or a doubt then faith would not matter. It is during these critical times in our lives that is essential to know why we can trust God with our future.

We need to trust God, even when the world around us is crumbling. We need to believe in God, even when it would seem easier to believe in no God than a loving Creator who allows pain into the lives of His children. Faith helps us to make the right choices even when we don’t want to. It helps us to live holy lives, even when we want to do anything to numb the pain. It gives us light to push out the darkness. It gives us hope in the face of a bleak future. Faith gives us the reason to worship God when the world tells us to curse God and die.

Trusting God with the Future

Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; “We join Him so He can do His work through us. We don’t have to be able to accomplish the task within our limited ability or resources.”

Have you ever been given an assignment and then wondered how you would do it? That is how I feel right now. I haven’t talked much about the church I pastor, because that isn’t the focus of this blog, but things aren’t going well. When I accepted the position 2 and half years ago the church family had been in decline for a decade. Ten years ago the church was averaging 130 on Sunday morning, last year we averaged 33. How do you stop a pattern of decline once it has started? This is my heart’s cry to God: “What am I supposed to do?” I feel so incapable of making a difference in a church family and in a community that desperately needs help.

That is why things like this quote from Blackaby are so valuable to me right now, for they remind me that it isn’t just about my effort (I also realize that it doesn’t mean that I just sit back and wait for God to do all the work). An aspect of faith is being able to trust God when things are outside of your control.

I also have to remember that I am not the only person in this position. All of us, when we are given a job, want to be given instructions on how that job is to be accomplished. That is not how God works! Many times God will give us assignments that we cannot accomplish on our own, and He doesn’t reveal to us His entire plan at once. Instead His plan is revealed with each step of faith that we take. The Bible is full of examples of this truth. Noah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and Ruth all did things only God could do, and none of them and the entire picture ahead of time. Yet, God used them to accomplish His purposes.

Take for example what God told Moses; “I will be with you. And this will serve as proof that I have sent you: When you have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, you will return here to worship God at this very mountain” (Exodus 3:12; NLT).

I think that it is interesting that the proof God gave Moses was what would happen after Moses trusted God. God didn’t tell Moses about Pharaoh’s hard heart or the ten plagues. Moses has no idea how Israel was going to be freed from Egypt, but he trusted God and went. As Moses walked in faith, God revealed a little more of His plan to Moses. This means what is needed is not knowledge but faith. We cannot talk ourselves out of trusting God just because we don’t have all the answers. It is our faith that makes the difference.

God knows that we will have our doubts about the task He has set before us. He knows we will question our ability to complete the job, the way the people will respond to our efforts, and even if it is really God calling us to go. What God is interested in is not so much in our talents or knowledge, but our faithful character. The number one thing we need to carry out God’s calling on our lives is the resolve to trust God no matter what.

Confession time. That is where I miss the boat. I only want to go, to “risk” if I know how things are going to turn out in the end. I want God to give me a plan and assurance that He will use all my hard work. I want to take a step of faith where everything has been worked out in advance.

While I am uncertain about the next step that I am to take, I am absolutely certain that I am in the right place. God has placed me here for the purpose of enhancing my faith, and now I have to ask myself the question all of us have to ask, “Will I trust God with the future?” The choices we make will reveal our answer.

A Faith Lived Out

Faith is much more about how we live then it is about what we believe. The mark of great faith is not superior knowledge but superior trust. We can know the Bible from the front to the back, but if it is not applied to how we live our lives than it just a bunch of nice sayings. The person of faith applies God's Word to his/her life.

I struggle with this. It is so much easier to know things about the Bible, and thus know things about God, than it is to step into the unknown trusting solely on God. It is easier to read the Bible than it is to love your neighbor, and yet true faith demands that we love our neighbor and not merely agree that it is the second most important commandment.

One of my prayer is that I will have a relationship with God and not merely be content on knowing a few facts about Him. I want to live a life of faith and not just increase my knowledge on what the Bible says. How do I do this? The answer is obedience. When I obey what God has commanded me to do I experience God at work in the world around me and I develop a greater trust in Him and His Word. If I never seek to obey God beyond the Bible's teaching of morality, then I will miss out on experiencing God and never develop my trust in who God is.

Faith is an essential part of our lives. Without it we will never become the people God wants us to be and we will never experience the personal relationship with God that He has made possible. Faith is not just about what we know about God, but it is about our obedience to Him. In this Abraham is our great example: when God said go Abraham went. That is the type of faith I want.

A Good Father?

Do you believe God is a good father? It is easy to answer yes because I know that is supposed to be the “right” answer, but I am afraid my life tells another story. Too often I believe that God is opposed to my happiness.

John Eldredge wrote:

“You are the son of a kind, strong, and engaged Father, a Father wise enough to guide you in the Way, generous enough to provide for your journey, offering to walk with you every step.

“This is perhaps the hardest thing for us to believe—really believe, down deep in our hearts, so that it changes us forever, changes the way we approach each day.” (The Way of the Wild Heart, pp. 22-23)

I know that I struggle with believing that God wants what is best for my life. So often I don’t recognize God being engaged in my life, rather it seems that He is detached and uncaring about what happens to me. The result of this type of thinking has been that now I believe I have to create a happy life for myself, it is all up to me.

How do we trust God to do the right thing? How can we come to see God as our loving heavenly Father?

Let me share with you a couple of thoughts I have had as I pondered these questions:

1. Memorize Scripture that focuses on God as our Father. It is amazing how often Jesus referred to God as Father, or our Father. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is because Jesus knew how we struggled with the concept of God being our loving heavenly Father. One of the passages that keeps coming to mind for me is Luke 11:11-13:

11 “What father among you, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (NET)

We need constant reminders that God is our loving heavenly Father. Scripture is one of the best sources of those reminders.

2. Reflect on the blessing in our lives. I take so much of what God has done in my life for granted. He has blessed me in a number of different ways, but when He doesn’t do what I want Him to do then I immediately call into question His goodness and sometimes His existence. What is that about!? A good exercise for us, as Followers of Jesus Christ, is to take time and “Count our Blessings”. We need to reflect and remember how God has worked in our lives and how He continues to bless us. I think another important truth for us to remember is that the greatest blessing God has for us is not found in this life, but in the life to come. In this life He is preparing us for the great blessing He has in store for us in heaven. Some times this preparation will require God taking way my dreams for this life so I can be open to His desire for my life.

May we come to trust God as our heavenly Father. After all, if we can’t trust God who can we trust?

God Gives Us What We Need

Teach Us to Pray: Part 6

Jesus’ disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them to pray. In His teaching Jesus gave them a prayer pattern, a prayer parable, and a prayer promise (Luke 11:1-13). What we learn from these three parts of His lesson is that God is our Heavenly Father and He will give us what we need. While we might desire God to give us what we want, God, in His wisdom, gives to us exactly what we need. Consider this story:

When Jimmy was a little boy, he wanted to be a cowboy. He spent countless hours in front of the television, watching reruns of Gunsmoke and Bonanza. He just knew that someday he would live on a ranch, wear a big cowboy hat, and ride the range like all his cowboy heroes. When he was seven years old, Jimmy said, “Dad, I want to be a cowboy when I grow up. Will you help me be a cowboy?”

“Sure, son,” said his dad, smiling down on his little cowpoke.”

As the years went by, Jimmy grew into a fine young man. As you might expect, he outgrew his childhood fantasy of becoming a cowboy and turned instead to girls, sports, studying, and preparing himself for a career in the business world.

One day Jimmy went to his father again and said, “Dad, I want to go to college and get a good education. Will you help me?”

His dad said, “College? Son, you can’t go to college. When you were seven, you said you wanted to be a cowboy. So I bought you a ranch in Texas with 50 head of cattle! There’s no money for you to college. Besides, you need to take care of the ranch. It’s all yours!”

“But Dad!” said Jimmy. “I was just a child when I said that! I didn’t know then what I know now! I don’t want a ranch! I want and education!” (Still More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks, pg. 95)

One of the reasons God doesn’t answer our prayers exactly the way we desire is, like Jimmy, we don’t know enough. All we know are the circumstances happening to us right now, but God has an eternal perspective. He knows what is best for us based on eternity rather than the fleeting desire of the moment. Remember what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 6? He said:

7 “When you are praying, don't say meaningless words like the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard because of their wordiness. 8 Don't be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8; ISV)

We can count on God to give us what we need, for He knows what is best for us. Our prayer life will reveal what we believe about God. Is He the cosmic Santa Claus seeking to fill our wish list or is He the loving Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us? By examining our prayer life we can get an idea of what we really believe about God.

Prayer is essential to our relationship with God. That is why Jesus didn’t leave our prayer life to chance. He took the time to teach His disciples how to pray. If we will follow His teachings then our prayer life will be transformed into a dynamic part of our lives. It is time that we boldly go to God in prayer, and discover the amazing provision He has for our lives.

• Point to Ponder: Our prayer life will reveal what we believe about God.
• Passage to Remember: Matthew 6:7-8
• Question to Consider: Why do we get frustrated when God doesn’t do what we want?

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Trust God's Power

I do not trust God's power the way I should. Sure, I talk about God creating the universe and doing all these other cool miracles, but when it comes to my life I don't trust Him. Rather than facing life with confidence, I often ignore what is happening and hide from reality.

If Christians truly lived lives of faith then the world we live in would be totally different. Too many of us are willing to talk about what we believe, and want everyone to believe the same we do, but we are unwilling to live a life which will make that happen. We do not sacrifice our comfortable lifestyles in order to support missionaries and charities helping people discover God's love. We don't give up time to help our neighbors or visit people in the hospital. While we might believe the right things about God we don't trust His power or promises.

The Gospel, the Good News of God's Love and Forgiveness, is spread by people of faith. That means more than people who believe certain things about God, but people who trust God. Faith is not simple believe. Faith is trust and action coming together.

Acts 3 and 4 tells a tremendous story of faith. Peter and John go to the Temple to preach Jesus. Here are two disciples of Jesus going into the very heart of Judaism to preach about the salvation found in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Certainly they were aware of that this was dangerous and that the Jewish Leaders wouldn't like to hear about Jesus, just as they didn't like Jesus. Still they went to preach.

They caused a commotion by healing a cripple of 40 years, and as a big crowd gathers, so do the guards. Peter and John are arrested and spend the night in prison. The next day they get their day and court, and this is what the council members noted of the pair after questioning them:

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13; NLT).

Here is the point I want to make: Faith is the product of being with Jesus, not through education. Peter and John spent three years learning from Jesus during the time He was on earth; we are unable to have that type of experience. Though we may not have the same experience Peter and John enjoyed we can still be with Jesus. Don't limit spending time with Jesus to just time spent in Bible Study and Prayer, for it is so much more than that. We are with Jesus when we begin to live the life He wants us to do. The little steps we take give us confidence to take bigger steps because we experience God at work in our lives.

You want your faith to grow? You want to be like Peter and John? I know I do. What that means is that we have to start experiencing Jesus in our lives by doing what He has asked us to do, and as we gain confidence from doing small things we begin to take on bigger and bigger challenges. Faith begins by hearing the Gospel, but it is grown through living the Gospel.

• Point to Ponder: Faith is the product of being with Jesus, not through education.
• Passage to Remember: Acts 4:13
• Question to Consider: How can we spend time with Jesus today?