Tag: manitoulin church of christ

How to Ask for It

 “But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways.”

James 1:6-8

Suppose you had one wish–any wish for anything and it would be granted, but it can only be one thing. Do you feel the pressure yet? Here are the rules: 1) It must be something you really want from your heart of hearts, 2) It must be within the general will of God and 3) It must be of a spirit-changing, earth quaking nature meaning that it evokes spiritual growth in you and those around you. What does it mean to ask in faith no doubting? First, we must understand the nature of asking–we ask for what we want. This sounds great, but we must also realize that what we want is the source of many temptations. James explains, “You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions” (James 4:2-3). Satan does not tempt us stuff we do not want but with what we want. If we are not careful, dare I say wiseful¹, what we want will possess us rather than the other way around. Praying for ease does not develop character and faithfulness. As much as I like getting my way, it is not necessarily the best course for my spiritual development. Faith grows my soul and draws me closer to God while living on my terms and getting my way sends me in the opposite direction.

Life creates change–it is never stagnant but constantly in flux. Navigating life’s storms demands fortitude, wisdom and skill to cross life’s oceans. What we need may not be what we want since what we really need is wisdom to live really live in the present. Like you, I want my life to fit a certain pattern and for it to go a certain way, but life constantly throws curves at us. Stress fills our waking moments sometimes even our dreams. We are slaves to the urgent rather to the important. Time slips away from us, and before we know it, our lives have focused on life’s emergencies instead of what truly matters–God, family and personal and spiritual growth. How do we manage life on these terms? First, we must acknowledge that we are not in control. Second, we put our faith in God to see us through to the end. Finally, we hold on and seek him out as we pray constantly for wisdom, courage and endurance. If our faith is built on getting what we want, then our God and our faith are far too small. God calls us to live in this world. It is not a change of situation but a change of us–what we are and what we become as God works through our lives.

I wish God worked like the genie in the bottle who snaps to fulfilling my every wish, but it is his will not mine that must be done. Even if I receive my wish for a change in situation, do I have the wisdom to live in my new setting? We must hold to what truly matters–emphasizing the important rather than the urgent. We cannot allow the urgent to toss us around or else we will never find happiness that lasts even when our lives seem to be falling apart. We need a God who puts the pieces back together. What really matters in your life? Pray about it. Seek God’s will to be done (James 4:12-17). “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and not hypocritical. And the fruit that consists of righteousness is planted in peace among those who make peace” (James 3:17-18).

Steve Davis

Nothing but Joy

 

“My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.”

James 1:2-4, NET

            Joy does not come from hardships but their conquest. If we wait until everything is just as it should be before happiness finds a way into our lives, then we will never experience it. Life will not, dare I say cannot, be as it should. Trouble, strife, temptation and pure happenstance will deny us all but brief moments if we expect to be given our due. Since trials overwhelm us at nearly every turn, how ought we to respond? James tells us to choose joy—not joy that revels in hardship but joy that delights in being perfected by what we experience. It is not about the good times but the good character and person that I become because of what I have endured. I can either allow my pain to overwhelm me, immobilize me even embitter me or I can rise to become a better person because of what I experience. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). The Christian response to evil has always been goodness—to turn the other cheek, to go a second mile and to give when others take (Matthew 5:38-48). Christ calls us to a standard that differs in kind not just degree. “For God so loved the world that he gave what is most precious to him to save a hateful, vengeful and godless humanity…,” do we really fathom just how far this love goes? Paul puts it this way, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). What is God response to sin? It is nothing but love—real love not this modern dribble the world pawns off as the genuine article. It is Christ-nailed-to-the-cross kind of love. It is not about second chances but about revealing the true nature of our hearts.

            One of the more difficult statements to reconcile in Paul’s writings is this, “So then, God   has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden” Romans 9:18). Yet, examine the context. Two men did not wish to serve God—Moses did not wish to go but relented and Pharaoh hardened his heart until God could have broken him. One man chose faith and the other proclaimed himself a god. Both face adversity yet only one chooses faith. For James, this is our life in a nutshell. What will we do when hardship comes? The recent pictures from Moore, Oklahoma have been an awful reminder of what we faced in Homestead after Andrew. I cannot bear to look at them. Nevertheless, I have made a commitment to be a better man because of what I have experienced. I refuse to allow hardship to win for if it wins it will not simply prevail over me but over those I love, and that is simply unacceptable. Enduring produces a kind of fortitude which wells up from the inside. Faith produces endurance, and endurance perfects and completes me so I lack nothing.

            James chooses some colorful words in describing the work of endurance. Faith produces (works, makes a category of) endurance. Endurance is a word for kind of hyper staying put. The word perfect denotes an end—in this case an ending that is just as it should be. This ending is perfect, sound and whole where nothing is lacking or forsaken. For James joy is not in the journey but in the destination. Faith triumphs. In knowing this singular axiom, joy in the journey not only becomes possible but, as James argues, our response to all of the hurt in the world. Jesus did not delight in the cross but he delights in what his suffering did for his friends. Faith and endurance ends in a perfection whereby we become God-friends. I can think of nothing nobler than to become friends with the almighty. It brings nothing but joy.

Steve Davis