Can I ask you, when you hear the word “fear” what is the first thing that comes to mind? I’m guessing its anything from spiders to death. The things you’re fearing now, is it something you’ve never had to worry about before? I’m sure your response would’ve been different 6 months ago. To me, fear is the first thing the enemy goes to get mind distracted from the goodness of God. It is so interesting how the human mind works when something is to be feared. For instance, when COVID-19 first became a common headline on the news, for some reason the whole world freaked out and bought a lifetime supply of toilet paper. I know at my house, we bought it just because we feared there wouldn’t be any left in stores! I think especially in the church body, we are seeing Christians fear like never before. I believe that has been the most discouraging thing to come out of this pandemic. Two posts ago I wrote about how to be encouraged in this time and to come out of this even stronger. Well, that was then, and this is now! I think I can speak for you too when I say I am over this! August 3rd began my last year of high school. Currently, my school made the choice to do a hybrid-type schedule to divide up the students. I am very grateful I was given the choice to attend school or do online. I applaud every teacher and every staff member in general right now! Honestly, I’m not that concerned about being able to attend school. I am just mainly concerned about soaking in the privilege it is to be able to attend church. In the past year, the Lord has shown me the importance of having a church family and being in fellowship with other saints.
Pastor John MacArthur is a pastor I deeply admire and
grow so much from his ministry in the Lord. I’m not sure if you’ve heard or
not, but he is facing a multitude of criticism from not just unbelievers, but
believers as well. His church is held in California where Governor Gavin Newsom
has called churches to close. Pastor John has had his church, Grace Community
open this whole time and whoever felt comfortable enough to attend, were more
than welcome to. A few weeks ago, his church was packed full, no social
distancing, no masks from what I could see. Just people hungry for the Word of
God and to be in His house. That is amazing. For the believer, death is a
reason to rejoice, not fear. As Apostle Paul proclaims in Philippians 1:21, “To
live is Christ, to die is gain”. That verse has repeated over and over in my
head, resting in the fact that death is the end goal for every believer. How
wonderful to reach the end of the race and arrive in glory and praise our
eternal King forevermore. I just have to say it, if you are a Christian, why
are you living your life day to day in fear of dying from a virus? Not just a
virus, but anything that can cause death. That’s not to say you can’t take
precaution or love your neighbor by distancing yourself from them, but what is
truly more loving? I think telling them about the one Person who can save their
life from eternal punishment triumphs anything else. That’s what pastors do. Church
is not meant to be virtual. God calls his people to come together (See Hebrews
10:24-25). The church doesn’t save us, Christ does. However, church is and will
always be essential to every Christian. John Calvin once implied that it is the
task of the church to make the invisible Kingdom visible. The world must hear
the gospel. Souls depend on it.
I think another contributing factor to the intense
fear believers have right now is because of the lack of prayer in our lives.
Prayer is communion with God. It is how we talk to Him. We know that God
appointed His Son to tear the veil between man and God to have a personal
relationship on the cross. (See Matthew 27:51) We also know that “we do not
know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words… [and] the Spirit intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27). What is so beautiful about
prayer is that it is a time where we commune with all three members of the
Trinity. Personally, I struggle with repeating a lot of the same things in my
prayers and I am so thankful that God doesn’t get tired of that! I think the
reason for that is because I want to make sure I cover every prayer request to
the best of my ability that I remember. This past week I revamped my room. My
walls were freshly painted white and I decided I would make this Bohemian
design on my accent wall that I’ve seen trending around. It basically looks
like arrows. I had a stencil that I used to draw a mark on the wall with pencil
then paint over it. It was looking great and I began to clean up. Then I had
the thought of just going over a couple of lines to make them look cleaner.
Thirty minutes later, I was still trying to perfect the wall! My heart was even
racing because I was anxious that I was going to mess the wall up. When I tell
you the Holy Spirit was speaking… I just laughed and said, I hear you, Lord!
He was clearly showing me that I am too much of a perfectionist. I put much
weight on myself to make things just right, big or small. I think that is my
issue with praying, I try to say the right things way too much when God has
promised the Holy Spirit intercedes for me. Just the other day I began reading
R.C Sproul’s book, The Prayer of the Lord. Just within the first
chapter, the Lord revealed to me so much that I had taken for granted in the
gift of prayer. Sproul refers to a question he would get asked frequently:
“What good is prayer if we can’t change God’s mind?” Pause. I love Psalm
139:4-6 where David whispers out of the depths of his heart, “Even before a
word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether, you hem me in,
behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me; it is high; I cannot attain it”. Once you read that, it makes so much
sense that God knows everything, beginning to end, behind and before. Absolutely
nothing surprises Him. So then why is prayer significant in our lives? The
answer to that question and the one I mentioned before, Sproul says in this
way, “Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important
thing it changes is us. As we engage in this communion with God more
deeply and come to know the One with whom we are speaking more intimately, that
growing knowledge of God reveals to us all the more brilliantly who we are and
our need to change in conformity to Him. Prayer changes us profoundly”
(Page 14). Wow. My takeaway from that is that God doesn’t need to change His
mind because He knows what we ultimately need and wants to give us better than
what we ask, so nothing can change His Sovereign Will. On our part, as Sproul
says, prayer changes US! Through prayer, we must remind ourselves that we are
the creatures speaking to the Sovereign Creator. THAT knowledge
is too wonderful for me too, David.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 8:1 that “This
‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up”. The more we come to know and love
God, especially through prayer, we become more sanctified and humbler; using
that knowledge through love to build up one another. Not to boast and become
prideful. Another point that Sproul makes is that when the disciples came to
Jesus and asked him how to pray, Jesus responded first with how not to
pray. He warns them to not be like the hypocritical Pharisees who pray with
many fancy words but have no change in their hearts (Matthew 6:5-7). A word
that strikes me in that passage is this concept of a “secret place” or “secret
heart”. I feel like I have been seeing this word everywhere. From what I have
seen recently has been in the Psalms, such as Psalm 51:6, Psalm 139:15, Psalm
91:1, and now Matthew 6:6. I was so intrigued by this concept of a “secret” so
I went to gotquestions.org (which sounds silly but it is an actual great solid
website), and this immediately struck me. The website answers, “The idea of a
secret place originates with God. Because He is a Spirit and His glory is beyond
our ability to perceive, we must meet with Him in the secret places
of the heart in order to commune with Him”. Thank you Jesus for
communion. I believe we see the vital need of changed hearts all throughout the
Old Testament whether it be in Judges, 1 & 2nd Kings, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and many other books that show us if we are ever going to love and
obey God, we must conform to Him and let Him transform us from the inside
out to the praise of His glory.
-
Ephesians 2:13-22 (My italics): “But
now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both
one and has broken down the wall of hostility by abolishing the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new
man in the place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to
God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came
and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then
you are no longer strangers or aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in
whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in
the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit”.
We are made by God as a temple for His Holy Spirit.
And we who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, abiding in His shadows, are
there to stay (Psalm 91:1). Let’s not fall into the trap of forgetting who our
God is. As Paul says above in Ephesians 2:14, He himself is our peace - Jehovah
Shalom. He is our provider (Philippians 4:19) - Jehovah Jireh. He is our banner
and reigns in victory (Exodus 17:15) - Jehovah Nissi. I’ll close with this
graceful Puritan prayer if you’d like to read titled, “In Prayer” …
“O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal
world. And on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of
morality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments, never
appears so inconsiderate as then. In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my
heart going after thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to
thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the
New Jerusalem. In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems
important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others. In prayer, all my
worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as
a puff of wind. In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what
thou art doing for thy church, and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a
great name from sinners returning to Zion. In prayer I am lifted above the
frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the
eternal world I can give myself to thee with all my heart, to be thine for
ever. In prayer I can place all my concerns in thy hands, to be entirely at thy
disposal, having no will or interest of my own. In prayer I can intercede for
my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come, with greatest
freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved. Help
me to be all prayer and never to cease praying”.
Blessings!
“The Lord your
God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing”.
-
Zephaniah 3:17
