Help me, Lord

Where do you go when life hurts? Who do you turn to when your health falters, when relationships sour, when things happen which leave you feeling sad, angry, weary or frightened? As Christians we know the answer: "Take it to the Lord in prayer."

Unfortunately, despite the old song, many of us have learned that it's selfish to pray for ourselves. Ignoring the ache in our hearts, we methodically work through praise, thanksgiving and praying for others before we bring our own problems to God. It's as though, somehow, we must earn the right to talk to him about ourselves.

Imagine a child coming to her father and saying "Dad, you're the greatest. I'm really grateful for all the things you've given me. Please look after my sister Mary, who has a sore thumb. And Dad, I've broken my wrist and it hurts."

I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't regularly praise and thank God. Nor should we be selfish and demanding children who ignore the needs of others. Sometimes praying for others can lift us out of a mood of self-pity. 

But it's easy to fall into the subtle temptation to use praise, thanksgiving and intercession for others as a means of twisting God's arm. We may seem to be honouring God. Yet what we're really doing is showing a lack of trust in him and probably feeding our own pride as well. ("See how unselfish I am, praying for Mary before I pray for myself".)

The psalmists often poured out their hearts to God, before reminding themselves of his goodness to them in the past. Praise frequently followed their laments, but not always. Their prayers sometimes seem quite abrupt and self-focused. Yet it would be difficult to accuse the psalmists of not trusting God or not taking him seriously.

Jesus taught his disciples to begin their prayers with worship (Father, hallowed be your name) and a commitment to God's kingdom (Your will be done) before asking him to meet their own needs (Give us this day). This is how we should pray most of the time. 

Yet it's not the way that Jesus prayed in Gethsemane or on the cross. Nor did he ever turn anyone away because they failed to worship and thank him before they asked for healing. The very fact that they came to him for healing showed that they recognised who he was and put their trust in him. We can do the same.

Image by Steve Bidmead from Pixabay

Rescued

When I was a child, I went to church with my parents and attended Sunday school every week. By the time I turned fourteen, there were no other kids my age in the church. The Sunday school supervisor decided that, since he was short of teachers, I could take on a class. So I found myself teaching a class of ten and eleven-year-olds.

It was daunting, but I enjoyed finding ways to bring the old familiar Bible stories to life. Then Easter came along, and I became aware that I really had no idea how Jesus dying on a cross had anything to do with me or the children I was teaching. 'Jesus died to save sinners'. It said so in the prayer book. I'd heard it every week. But what did it mean?

I was in my early twenties before I found the answer. While reading a Christian book, I discovered that Jesus willingly took on himself the sins of the whole world. On the cross, he paid the penalty for our rebellion and indifference to God. My sins were included. And because my sin had already been judged and the penalty paid by God himself, in Jesus, I could be at peace with him. I didn't have to earn my way to heaven (a task which I had already learned was impossible). That discovery became a precious moment. Not only did I have an answer, I also had a Saviour, a Rescuer.

Since then I have learned that the Bible gives many different answers to my question, 'What does "Jesus died for sinners" mean?' Jesus was the ransom, paid to set us free from our slavery to sin. Jesus took our sins to the grave and left them there when he was raised to life. Jesus, being sinless, overcame the power which death held over sinners. Satan threw everything he had at Jesus, and lost, so that he no longer has any claim over us.

Jesus became the new representative of humankind, replacing the old representative, Adam. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, the true sacrifice which the Old Testament sacrifices had only mirrored. Jesus, by his supreme example of love for people and obedience to God, draws us to himself. Jesus conveys to us the lengths to which God would go to save us from the consequence of our rebellion towards him.

The Bible writers used these and other examples, drawn from human experience, to explain how Jesus' death could save sinners. They are all helpful and true. And yet in the end, salvation is still something which is beyond our full comprehension. It is too marvellous for words. All that we can do is accept it from God with wonder and gratitude.

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

Gratitude and thankfulness

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever! (Ps 107:1)

In a recent news clip about children’s art being displayed in a prestigious art gallery, one child was asked how she felt about seeing her picture hanging besides works by world-famous artists. Her unsmiling response was “It shows that I’ve worked hard and that if you really want to, you can achieve anything.”

In a world which emphasises achievement through hard work, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we must have earned what comes to us. We feel frustrated if our work is not rewarded and deprived if what we have is taken away.

Gratitude isn’t something hardwired into human beings. It requires a realisation that most of what we have is totally undeserved. We did nothing (good or bad) to deserve the talents we were born with, the family we belong to, the country we live in. We did nothing to deserve being born at all. Everything is a gift.

Psychologists have begun to emphasise the importance of gratitude to our mental well being. Taking time each day to notice the things we have to be grateful for helps to protect us against stress, improves our relationships with others and can be a potent antidote to depression.

Gratitude, looked at in this way, is primarily an inner experience. It may lead to outward expressions of thanks, but it focuses on the good that comes to us. It says “I am blessed”.

Thankfulness goes beyond that to recognising the goodness of the one from whom undeserved favour comes. It says “Thank you for blessing me.” This is more than just being polite. Whether it’s thanking our spouse for some small kindness or thanking God for the beauty of a sunrise, heartfelt thanks-giving requires humility. It takes the emphasis off ourselves as the receiver and places it on the giver.

Blinded by envy

Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.(John 11:57)

Mark’s gospel tells us that it was out of envy that the religious leaders sought to have Jesus arrested and executed. But what was the cause of their envy?

Perhaps it was that Jesus related freely to God and called him Father, while they were forever anxious about their own righteousness. Jesus spoke with authority, while they could only quote the authority of others. Jesus miraculously fed the hungry, healed the sick and cast out demons, while they, unable to deny that the miracles had taken place, could do no such miracles themselves.

So out of envy they accused him of blasphemy and demanded that he produce witnesses to testify to what he was saying.They accused him of breaking the Sabbath and of using the power of the devil to heal. Envious of his popularity with the crowds, they accused him of consorting with sinners.Their envy not only blinded them to who Jesus was, it blinded them to their own envious attitude towards him.

Envy is like that. It hides itself and blinds us to the bitter attitudes and destructive actions it produces in us.  Unlike coveting, which says simply “I want what you have”,  envy says “I want what you have, and I don’t want you to have it.” At heart envy says “I must have no rivals”. But only God truly has no rival. Envy sets us up against God as well as against other people.

If we frequently find ourselves being critical and judgmental, or find it difficult to rejoice when others succeed, or constantly feel that life isn’t fair, it may be that envy is the underlying cause. Once we recognise and admit that we have a problem with envy, God can start to heal us and teach us it’s antidote, contentment.

The Pharisees had something right

"Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

The Pharisees knew the scriptures well. They knew that in order to approach a good and holy God, you must live a life of scrupulous obedience to his law. Since no human being could hope to live a perfectly sinless life, a sacrifice was needed to atone for your sins. Then you must have a priest appointed by God to act as your intermediary. Only then was it safe to approach God. Those who encountered him unprepared, like Isaiah, cried out in terror at his presence (Isaiah 6:5).

When a young preacher from Galilee claimed that he was God in human form, it was easy enough to see that his claims were false. He ate and drank with blatant sinners. He let those made unlcean by diseases touch him. He didn't allow his disciples to stop anyone from coming to him. Even gentile sinners were welcome. And he talked to God with the familiarity of a child with his father.

In one sense the Pharisees were right. How could God appear among them and not consume those who approached him carelessly and in sin? Jesus was not even a priest, so how could he pretend to represent God? Were his claims not blasphemous?

What they didn't understand was that Jesus himself was living a sinless life, the only truly sinless life, on behalf of those who came to him. Jesus himself was the ultimate sacrifice for sin that would end all sacrifices. Jesus was the great high priest who would be the eternal intermediary between God and his people.

While the Pharisees’ problem was that they couldn’t imagine a holy God appearing among them, our problem is that we sometimes take it for granted. We “approach the throne of grace” with a confidence that is based on a diminished view of God’s holiness rather than an appreciation of Jesus’ role in making it possible. In an act of sheer grace, our holy and loving God has provided us with all that we need to come to him. Who could imagine that?

Looking back

When things become difficult, it's always tempting to look back to the "good old days".

Sometimes, like Lot's wife, we look back in regret. We compare the genuinely good things we've lost - the relationships, the comforts, the circumstances - with what we have now. It's easy then to become bitter, or to live mentally and emotionally in the past instead of the present. Unwilling to let go of what has gone, we resist moving forwards into the future. It's as if we become rigid and immobilised, a "pillar of salt".

At other times we become nostalgic for a past that looks far better in hindsight than it really was at the time. Out in the desert and feeling hungry, the people of Israel forgot the hardships they had endured as slaves in Egypt. They began to grumble and longed for the supposedly good things they had left behind - trivial things like leeks and onions.

Regret and nostalgia are seldom helpful. They prevent us from dealing with the reality in which we now live, and keep us from having hope for the future. Neither Lot's wife nor the people of Israel benefited from their backward-looking attitude. It only left them doubting God's faithfulness.

Yet the Bible does tell us to "remember". We're told to remember what God has done and the way that he has provided for us in the past. But rather than mourning for what we have lost, we are called to be thankful for the blessings we have received.  Remembering God's goodness to us in the past is a means of reminding us to live in hope that he will continue to provide what we need in the future.

We're also told to remember the way that God has been with us through difficult times. Instead of becoming nostalgic, we can live in the reality of the present, knowing that the same God is still with us now and will continue to be with us forever. Remembering will give us the strength to endure.

Working in the family business

Generally if someone says they are working for another person, we can assume one of two things. Either they are working with the expectation of some reward for their efforts, or they are working to pay off a debt owed to the other person.

If that's the case, what are we to make of phrases such as "he's working for God" or "she's doing God's work"? If we're working for God in the hope of some reward, we've missed the whole idea of grace. Everything we need has already been freely provided  in Christ. We don't need to earn it. And God owes us nothing. What can we possibly do that would make God indebted to us?

On the other hand, if we're working for God with the idea of "repaying our debts" to him, we've again misunderstood grace. We don't owe God anything except to love him and delight in what he has done for us. Good parents don't give gifts expecting their children to repay them in some way. Neither does God.

Christians who speak of 'working for God' tend to fall into the second error more often than the first. How many times have you heard "Since God has done so much for you, you should show your gratitude by working for his glory" or some similar sentiment? Sometimes it's a subtle call to dishonour the giver by offering payment for the gift.

I'm not suggesting that we should just take what God offers and go on our selfish way. Over and over we are called to labour and work with our best effort. But I think the New Testament emphasis is on 'working with God' rather than 'working for God.'

Having absorbed the amazing truth that through Christ we are now God's children, filled and empowered by his Spirit, and free of all debts except the debt to love, we are ready to co-operate with him in the work he is doing. We are sons and daughters working alongside our Father, learning from him to follow the family business. Where he succeeds, we share his success, but not vice versa.

Should we be more grateful?

In my most recent post I wrote about the difficulties we create for ourselves when we mentally divide up our lives into "Christian" and "other" activities. The result is a constant struggle to find time amongst the "other" activities to do the "Christian" things we think we ought to be doing, leading to frustration, weariness and resentment.

What I didn't touch on was the whole idea that we somehow 'owe' God something in return for his goodness to us. This might seem quite obvious at first glance, but it runs counter to the whole concept of grace. We did nothing to deserve God's love, and we can do nothing to repay it. We can only gratefully accept it.

If there's any sense of 'ought' or 'should' about our response to God's goodness, then it's not gratitude that we're experiencing but anxiety. We're anxious to show God how grateful we are in case...what? In case he takes his gifts away again? In case he doesn't give us anything more? In case he punishes us for our ingratitude? If we think this way, even subconsciously, then we've not understood grace.

Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not suggesting we grab everything God gives us and never give him a thought. True gratitude inevitably wells up into acts of love and service towards the giver as well as those around us. But there's no 'ought' or 'should' about it. It's spontaneous, heartfelt, nothing can stop it.

Telling someone that they ought to demonstrate their gratitude to God is like telling a child that they ought to write a nice thankyou letter to Aunt Mavis for the Christmas present she sent. It might produce a polite child, or it might produce stubborn resistance, but it won't produce any love between the child and Aunt Mavis.

Berating ourselves or each other for our lack of gratitude towards God is pointless, even counter-productive. If our response to God's grace isn't overwhelming gratitude expressed in love towards him and other people, then let's remind ourselves of what he has done for us. Let's strive towards a deeper understanding of what it means to be a child of God. Let's focus on the gifts and the Giver rather than the quality of our response.