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| A photo I took while taking Honey on an evening walk |
Since 2013, I have been choosing a "word" for each new year.
The tradition started in the home of a mentor of mine. Every new year, she invited a houseful of women and girls to participate in painting a canvas in honor of their word--so that for the next 12 months, every time we looked at our canvas we would remember the word we chose, and be mindful of the ways God was working on that area of our lives.
My word for 2021 was "pine"; to both pine after Christ, and to be like a pine--evergreen and faithful.
This year, I decided that I would bend the rules a little bit and choose, not just one word, but six. Jeannie, please don't be disappointed in me.
"Wait in Faith, Pray in Faith"
Now, I am not a believer in the "name it and claim it" movement where if I pray something with enough faith, it will happen, or that all I have to do is sprinkle pixie dust over my head, shut my eyes, and believe real hard and God will do whatever I want. I don't own a single Joel Osteen book and I don't listen to the likes of Benny Hinn.
I also don't believe that we can manipulate God into doing our will by empty promises and flattery disguised as prayers. I believe that God is sovereign and his plans will unfold whether we want them to or not, however, I do believe that we are commanded to pray and that praying with faith and a heart full of belief is an inseparable element of that. I also believe that when we earnestly pray in faith and spirit, the Lord is faithful to hear and answer our prayers.
How can those things be true at the same time?
Beats me. Probably someone with a seminary degree and more facial hair than me could explain that to you.
This is a principal that I have struggled with for most of my Christian life. It's confusing and complicated at times to rectify the two truths that seem to be in direct opposition to one another. And while I don't have the biblical knowledge or training or degree status to fully and completely (and with nuanced flair) explain the perfect balance, here five simple truths that I do know:
1. We are commanded to pray in faith.
"Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God--who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly--and it will be given to him. But let him ask with faith without doubting. For the doubter is like a surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways" (James 1:5-8 CSB).
"Early in the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, 'May no fruit ever come from you again!' At once the fig tree withered. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said, 'How did the fig tree wither so quickly?' Jesus answered them, 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you tell this mountain, "Be lifted up and thrown into the sea," it will be done. And if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer'" (Matthew 21:18-22 CSB).
2. God is sovereign.
"A king's heart is like channeled water in the Lord's hand: he directs it wherever he chooses" (Proverbs 21:1 CSB).
"Many plans are in a person's heart, but the Lord's decree will prevail" (Proverbs 19:21 CSB).
"May the name of God be praised forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him. He changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals the deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him" (Daniel 2:20-22 CSB).
3. God will not always give us what we desire or pray for.
"What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from your passions that wage war inside you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don't recieve because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:1-3 CSB).
"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,' this is the Lord's declaration. 'For as heaven is higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9 CSB).
4. God always answers prayers, but not always how we imagined.
"But the Lord asked Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Can I really have a baby when I am old? Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son" (Genesis 18:13-14 CSB).
5. All responses from God, whether favorable to our requests or not, are for our good.
"Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be complete" (John 16:24 CSB).
"Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him" (Matthew 7:9-11 CSB).
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield. The LORD grants favor and honor; he does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity" (Psalm 84:11 CSB).
These truths, although simple, are easy to forget.
It's easy to forget that God is a good father who gives good gifts and doesn't withhold any good thing from us. It's easy to forget that our prayers actually make a difference when we consider the sovereignty of God. It's easy to forget that the motivations of our hearts and the faith with which we ask with makes a difference in WHAT we pray for and HOW those prayers will be answered by God.
I know they're easy to forget because I forget them often. And if I am being totally vulnerable (very uncharacteristic of me, I know) I struggle to pray for things because I trust that the Lord's decrees will come to pass with or without my prayers and so prayer sometimes feels pointless.
It sometimes feels like praying for personal desires or hopes is a direct prayer against the will of God, and that the only acceptable prayer is "Thy will be done."
But why then does God ask us to come to him for the trivialities of human existence? Why does he ask us to come to him with our hopes, our dreams, our sufferings, our desires and our longings? Why does he ask us to pray for those things however small and insignificant that they might seem or however overwhelming and impossible they might feel?
I think because prayer is an act of faith. It takes very little faith to sit on your hands and let life happen to you, and blame it all on God's will and sovereignty.
I also think because prayer is an act of dependence and trust in God. It is asking God to do something that you can't take credit for and that you can't chalk up to your own abilities, qualities or merit.
Hoping is difficult. Believing is difficult. Waiting is difficult. Waiting while believing and hoping feels like stretching a wound larger and larger, while only making yourself more vulnerable to be hurt in the end.
Longstanding prayers like the one of Abraham and Sarah that required 25 years of waiting, praying, hoping and believing that the Lord would deliver what he promised, bring about a great deal of pain, doubts, of wrestling with faith, and a greater knowledge of the Lord's heart when it's all said and done.
And I am still learning what it looks like to wait and pray with faith. I know he hears my prayers. I know he is powerful enough and able to answer any request I offer up. I know my pain is his pain and my joy is his joy. I know he doesn't withhold good gifts. I believe, Lord, help me believe.
You are loved and you are not alone,
S
