Join Me in My Struggle by Prayer

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Romans 15:30

When we offer fervent prayers on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ during their time of trial, in a very real sense, we enter into their struggle and strive alongside them for the victory. Through prayer, we muster spiritual weapons on their behalf, we step onto the battlefield, and we climb down into the foxhole with them to fight alongside them. In other words, in prayer we take up the burdens of others and we make their struggle our own (Galatians 6:2). This is why prayer really matters. 

As of late, it has come into fashion to mock the idea of sending "thoughts and prayers" someone's way after a tragedy. I understand why many have attacked this phrase. They are convinced that more practical help or even solutions to the problem at hand are being withheld by people who insincerely hide behind this phrase. But Christians especially would do well to consider more carefully the implications of how they make this argument. Regardless of where one stands on the issues, prayer is a powerful and meaningful way for us to struggle on behalf of others. 

When I struggle in prayer on someone else's behalf I accomplish far more than I could on my own. Through prayer I bring more than my own human strength could offer to the situation. I marshal divine strength, wisdom and resources to their aid. No doubt this is no reason to withhold the practical help that it is at my ability to dispense. But no one, least of all Christians, should impugn the power of prayer in an attempt to urge people to do what is in their power to do. Let us never forget that Jesus Himself is always interceding on our behalf at the Father's side (Romans 8:34). Would we dare to criticize His 'thoughts and prayers'?

So, take action! Pray! And as you pray may God's Spirit increase your eagerness to do all that is within your power. Through prayer, you can encourage believers in North Korea. Through prayer, you can help lead people to salvation. Through prayer, you can help comfort the grieving. And through prayer you can follow the example of Christ who is always interceding on our behalf. So, pray for someone today!

A Living Command

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah 1:1-2

The first thing we notice in Jonah's story is that God's Word is personified. It takes action. It tracks Jonah down and comes to him with a command. "The Word of God is alive and active," Hebrews 4:12 tells us, and in this Old Testament story Jonah gets himself into serious trouble for thinking he can ignore it.

The Word commands Jonah to "go." This is the first and perhaps the most important word in Jonah's command. Jonah is sent to Nineveh to preach. But if you attended Sunday School at all as a child you know that Jonah did not obey. He went, but he went in the opposite direction from Nineveh and with no intention to preach. For this reason, Jonah is the much-maligned prophet of God. As we read his story, we shake our heads disapprovingly and say "You can't run from God, Jonah. God will chase you down. You have to obey." And when the great fish vomits Jonah up on dry land and he preaches half-heartedly to the Ninevites, we shake our heads again and say "Jonah, haven't you learned anything?! You have to obey God with your whole heart."  

Yet, just like Jonah, you and I have been commanded to "go." "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Again, the word "go" is the first and perhaps most important word in God's command. But are you going? Are you making disciples? Or are you running from God's command? I wonder if Jonah might stand and shake his head and testify against us on the day of judgment. "You should have learned your lesson from me," he might say. "You can't run from God's command!"

Remember, it's the Word of God that has commanded you. It is alive! These aren't just words on a page that will lie there while you ignore them. If you and I refuse to obey God's command, then we can expect to be pursued by God like Jonah was. So, go and talk to someone about Jesus. Have that conversation with your coworker. Call that family member. Walk across the street and meet your neighbor. Sign-up for that short term mission trip at church. Maybe you even need to answer God's call to be a full-time missionary. Whatever it is for you, go and do it and do it with your whole heart.

In Your Right Mind

Do not conform 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.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

Romans 12:2-6a

God has a plan and a purpose for your life (Ephesians 2:10). He created you and outfitted you with life experiences and spiritual gifts specifically for this purpose. You have a part to play, a role to fill in the great unfolding drama of God's plan for His church. But how do you know what part is yours? How do you know what God's will for your life is? It can seem very difficult to know. But as always, God's Word is here to help.

To know God's will for your life you must first be in your right mind. The Scriptures tell us that Satan is the "Father of Lies" (John 8:44) and that he gleefully blinds the minds of all unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). As a Christian, you must think differently than those who are under this delusion. You are called to have a transformed and renewed mind, one that has been set free from deception by the truths of the gospel.

Once your mind has been transformed by the gospel, you must exercise discipline to "not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment." Oh, how many believers fail at this point! How much better our lives would be if we could only think of ourselves as we ought to instead of wasting time trying to convince ourselves and the world that we are something bigger or better than what we actually are. It is exhausting work to try to deny reality in this way. So, look at yourself honestly. What gifts has God given you? What makes you different from everyone else?

Once you see yourself as you really are, as God made you to be, then you can find how you fit into His plan for the church. It is exhausting work trying to become something you aren't. So, quit it! Instead, spend your time sharpening the gifts God has given you and looking for ways to serve His church through them. Then you can serve the church in your own unique way, as only you can do. Surely, this is God's will for your life. 

Raging Against the Lord (W.o.W. Rewind)

A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, 

yet their heart rages against the LORD.

(Proverbs 19:3)

Oh, how many times I have been guilty of this. How many times has my heart cried out in anger, "Why did you let this happen to me Lord!? Why didn't you warn me!? Why didn't you remind me!? Why didn't you help me!? How could you do this to me!?" In reality, I know it was my own fault. I know I made a bad choice. I know I failed to remember some important detail, yet I want to blame God. So, my heart rages.

Chances are you do the same, because this is nothing less than the scene from the Garden of Eden played out again and again in our lives. Like Adam and Eve, we want to shift blame from ourselves to someone else, and when no one else is there to take the blame, we shift it onto God. The truth is...God is not to blame. We are. We are the ones that chose to lie, or to betray, or to put off our responsibilities. We are the ones who allowed our arrogance to drive our friends away. We chose laziness over hard work and yet don't understand why God hasn't given us the success that others have. We have run after the world's way of living instead of God's way.

Galatians 6 tells us that there are consequences for our decisions. We reap what we sow. When we sow to the flesh, we reap a harvest of destruction. In essence, this proverb says that when the harvest comes in rotten we shouldn't blame God, but rather should blame the bad seeds of our own behavior that we chose to plant in our life. Even for believers, this rings true. Though our eternal punishment has been covered at the cross, God still disciplines us in Fatherly love here on earth. All of us must live with the consequences for our sin in this life. We dare not blame God for what we brought on ourselves.

Sometimes the most innocent among us suffer at the hands of someone else's sin though. There are those who have been molested or abused, or even the child who is born with deformities. There are some things in this world that happen to us that are not our fault. They do not happen because of our sin but as a result of the sins of others or even of sin in general. Yet, even in these circumstances we have no right to "rage against the Lord." As Job said, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" (Job 2:10) God is God. He cannot now, nor has He ever sinned. These atrocities that happen to us are the result of man's sin, not God's. It isn't fair, and it isn't right. It causes us to long for Heaven where all things will be right. But in the meantime, God gives us reason to rejoice even in these circumstances for the Bible says that God "works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose."

So, let me ask you... What have you been holding against God that you have no right to blame Him for? What have you been blaming on God that you really need take responsibility for yourself? What angry thoughts, words, or actions towards God do you need to repent of today? May the Lord grant both of us more strength and grace to accept the consequences for our faults without blaming Him.


For further reading...

• Genesis 3 (especially verses 8-13)- Check out how Adam and Eve tried to push blame off themselves and onto someone else.
• Galatians 6:1-7 & Romans 6:23- The Bible clearly teaches that there are consequences for our sin.
• Job 1-2:10- There is no doubt that God could have stopped the trouble that came upon Job, yet Job chooses not to "rage against" Him.