Paul K.

From “Heaven Came Down” by John Peterson

O what a wonderful, wonderful day, day I will never forget;

After I’d wandered in darkness away, Jesus my Savior I met.

O what a tender, compassionate friend, He met the need of my heart;

Shadows dispelling, with joy I am telling, He made all the darkness depart.

CHORUS

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul,

When at the cross the Savior made me whole;

My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day,

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul!

You know, sometimes an old hymn or song can retouch you like it did when you were a young believer. We sang the above song this weekend at Sunday worship service and it was like an old treasure rediscovered. I haven’t sung that song in over 20-30 years (literally cannot remember the last time).

Yet, it can still speak volumes to the young—or young in heart—in Jesus. At the times in my life when as a Christian I had a hardened heart, Christian music would get through to me when nothing else would or could. I remember years ago when I was feeling forlorn and troubled as a believer. I was at work in a factory. Each of us had a work desk, arranged in long twin rows, where in one row all desks were side by side, and the other row was also that way, but back-to-back with our row so that the desk opposite me was face-to-face with my desk.

Anyway, the lady across from me was minding her own business and had on an easy-listening FM station. I was in a perfect fit of a mood against God, wallowing in pique and despair. As I went on in my spiritual hissy-fit and tirade throwing a spiritual tamper tantrum as a child of God, I finally stopped off my rant against Daddy (literal meaning of “Abba” in Romans 8:15) with the thought, “I can’t trust You for anything!”

The very exact moment I said that in my heart, the radio across from me then began playing in “a capella” (singing without instrumental accompaniment) “Amazing Grace” by Judy Collins (and choir). I was smitten in my heart and soul, tears began brimming in my eyes. I realized that I had trusted God for the very greatest thing of all, my eternal destiny. So, if I could trust Him for that, I could trust Him for the lesser things about which I had so worked up myself. All my fury and wind was snuffed out. (See Ephesians 5:19)

God’s timing is impeccable.

This brings me to God’s answers to our prayers. At prayer service this past Sunday morning, the brothers asked me to say something about prayer. Since God’s answering prayer was already in my mind, I brought some verses.

When we pray, there are two things of which we need to be assured. The first is CAN He do it, and the second is WILL He do it?

First things first: Can He do it? Of course, we who are Christian believers know God is all-powerful/omnipotent. One of the names for God is El Shaddai. But, when we pray, it seems we forget this, that it somehow slips into obscurity and into a quiet background. We believe it, and yet, when “push comes to shove,” we don’t believe it.

There is a story in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 9, where, after the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus comes down to find a man whose son is demonized.

“And one of the crowd answered Him, ‘Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.’“ (Mark 9:17-18)

Here was the plight of a father, his heart breaking for his son, desperately seeking help. He had some faith, for he had brought that son to Jesus; yet, he didn’t believe. Aren’t we like him, too? We come to Jesus with our prayers, yet we wonder if Jesus can do anything about those prayers.

Skipping ahead to verses 21-23:

“And He asked his father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!’ And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.’“

Aren’t we like that father, asking Jesus, “If you can?” We believe He is El Shaddai, God Almighty; yet we ask as well as that father, “If you can.” The father’s response is instructive.

“Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief.’”

So, in answer to Assurance #1, “Can He do it?”, the true and right response is, “All things are possible to him who believes.” It was the Son of God who said that, our Creator Himself. A question in Christian circles, a question that has been so often used as to become a cliche, is, “How big is your God?”

A childhood friend, whom I had met in elementary school in second grade, was at his mother’s wake, both of us then adults. He was struggling with tears and his faith. The unspoken question was, “How could God let this happen to my mother?” He said to me, in the depths of his sorrow and doubts, “How could there be a Virgin Birth? It takes a man and a woman to make a baby.” He’d sunk low in his faith, lost in his doubts. I thought about it for a moment, and prayed for wisdom.

I said to him, “God created the universe. He spoke and the vast galaxies sprang into their vast greatness, billions of them, and yet each containing billions of stars. He created our solar system, the sun, moon and our planet Earth. He created mountains and valleys. He populated the oceans with all kinds of fish and other life; the land was filled with an incredible variety of animals, both on the ground and in the air; and He created astonishingly more kinds of plant life on land and in the water. So, do you think that He’s going to have a problem with one little baby?”

My friend looked startled at that. He said, “I never thought of it that way.” For him, the problem was settled.

Our God is El Shaddai, God Almighty. CAN He do it? Absolutely!! If we look at God’s infinite power, it should settle it for us as well. How BIG is YOUR God?

Now, this leads us to the Second Assurance, “WILL He do it?”

Yes, we now understand God “Can do it,” but wrestle with whether “He will do it.”

Scripture says it best:

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” (1 John 5:13-15)

IF we are a believer in Jesus Christ, that His blood was shed for our sins on the cross, that He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, THEN we know He hears our prayers and gives us which we have asked.

Just one stipulation, though: “if we ask anything according to His will.” (verse 14b)

Well, what does “according to His will” mean? First let’s address what is definitely NOT “according to His will.” James wrote:

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? (James 4:1)

Peter wrote: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance.” (1 Peter 1:14)

And Peter wrote: “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” (1 Peter 2:11)

So, it’s clear that if we ask for things because of our lusts, we can expect that it’s NOT “according to His will.” James reinforces this.

“You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:2-3)

What, then, IS “according to His will?”

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

God’s will includes that which is: good, acceptable and perfect.

Back to 1 John 5, we see: “...if we ask ANYTHING according to His will...”

If what we pray for is “good, acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2), then we will have “the requests which we have asked from Him.” (1 John 5:15b)

What I am writing here does not even begin to exhaust all that can be written about prayer, though. For instance, there are the matters of persistency and timing.

First of those two is persistency, which means being persistent when praying.

Scripture teaches:

“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, “Give me legal protection from my opponent.” For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, “Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’“ And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?’“ (Luke 18:1-8)

Jesus’s point was that persistence pays off, even with an unrighteous judge. And, if even an unrighteous judge will respond, how much more will the Righteous Judge? Now, I always used to wonder why Jesus asked “will He find faith on the earth?” in connection with that parable. Then it became clear that a persistent pray-er is a person who has faith. It takes FAITH to generate that kind of motivation to continue in persistent praying, especially when nothing seems at first to be happening.

I heard a story about persistence. It was told that a huge bell cast in bronze was being ported on a barge along a river in Asia, when the bell fell off and sank to the muddy bottom of the river. All engineering efforts to raise the enormous bell failed. Finally, a local Buddhist temple priest asked that if he could raise it, could he have the bell for their temple?

The government agreed, so the priest got together a team of divers, who swam down to the bell and tied bamboo strips to the bell. Now, bamboo is very buoyant and floats quite well, However, the massive bell was just too heavy. Nevertheless, the divers kept swimming down, tying on more and more bamboo strips. Finally, when one last strip was tied on, the combined buoyancy of all the bamboo pulled the bell loose from the muck on the river bottom, and it floated to the surface.

So it is that we as believers, priest of the Most High God (1 Peter 2:9), must persist in offering up prayers in faith because we know that God hears whatever we ask according to His will (1 John 5:15). Then, the most weight and seemingly immovable objects, must give way. As our Lord Jesus said, “...that at all times [we] ought to pray and not to lose heart...” (Luke 18:1)

This persistency ties into the second point I brought up: timing. God does things in His time, which does not necessarily coincide with our idea of WHEN things should happen. A close Christian friend of mine was experiencing some incredible legal trouble. I pointed out Psalm 34:17:

“The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:17)

I told him, in the Psalm, God promises to deliver, but doesn’t promise WHEN He will do it. The issue was a civil lawsuit, and it was eventually settled for 1.75% of what was sued for (meaning, he didn’t have to pay 98.25% of it.) I’d call that a deliverance.

“Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” (Psalm 37:7)

I wrote before about what that devotional booklet said about Joseph being in prison with the chief cupbearer and chief baker. Joseph had to bide his time in prison, and eventually God brought him out and exalted him.

The thought for the day was:

“Patience means awaiting God’s time without doubting God’s love.” (“Our Daily Bread,” September 2, 2009)

Yes, God CAN do it

And

Yes, God WILL do it

* If it’s not evil.

* If it’s according to His will.

* And perhaps we’ll have to persist.

* And perhaps we’ll have to wait.

* Last of all, if we have faith that He will do it.

I have yet one more thought, and that is of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane where He prayed.

“And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.’“ (Matthew 26:39)

When we pray, remember Jesus as our example. Let us offer up our prayers, confident that God can and will, but be willing to accept that He knows what is best, and acknowledge that truth by praying in like manner, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.”

Let’s await with eager anticipation, confident that we will have the very thing we prayed about, but be equally happy to give way to His veto. Who knows? He might have something even better than what we had in mind, a thing we would miss if we had it the way we prayed. Remember, “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think.”

Prayer changes things, so PRAY! Remember, His timing is impeccable.

AMEN.

So, may the Lord come back today, before you get this letter. I can tell you all about it on the way UP.

Blessings,

Paul