Judges 10:11-16

A Prayer of Confession

The Israelites had forsaken the LORD. So he permitted enemy nations to oppress them. Finally, his people returned to the LORD and confessed their sin. God reminded his people that he delivered them in the past from their enemies.  But then they forsook him for false gods, so God challenged them to pray to those gods that they had chosen.

This challenge from the Lord led them to a prayer of confession. "We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now." Then the Israelites discarded the false gods they had accumulated, and they served the LORD. The actions of the Israelites show the sincerity of their prayer of confession.

Sometimes it is easy to say "I am sorry" or "I was wrong" only so that we might get out of trouble or get our way. However, what’s in our hearts really matters.  Saying the words "Do with me whatever you think is best" reveals hearts that have been truly humbled. Making a change in our way of life shows hearts committed to true repentance.

When we sin, we can say a prayer of confession similar to that of the Israelites. We can ask God to do with us whatever he thinks best because we know that while we may face consequences for our sin, because of Jesus the final word from God is always "Your sin is forgiven."

John 17:14-15

The Heavenly Father Protects You

“Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is.”  So wrote C.S. Lewis in his famous book, Mere Christianity.  He was correct.  This world is not our home.  Heaven is our home.  Jesus knew this better than anyone.  Jesus knew from personal experience how difficult it is for God’s people to live in a world ravaged by sin and under constant attack by Satan.  That is why Jesus prayed for his disciples the night before he went to his death.  He knew that his disciples would face temptation and persecution and poverty and imprisonment.  Knowing this, we might expect Jesus to pray for his disciples to be delivered from this world.  Why not just ask the Father to whisk them right to heaven so they could avoid all the evil and opposition that the devil throws against Jesus’ followers?  But the reason he prayed as he did was because Jesus had work for his disciples to do.  They would take the good news of forgiveness and eternal life to the ends of the earth.  So, rather than ask the Father to take them out of this world, Jesus prayed that his Father protect them.

Jesus asks his Father to do the same for all of his followers, including you.  He knows about every temptation you are facing.  He knows about every trial you are undergoing.  He knows about every trouble you are enduring.  He knows that temptations and trials and troubles are part of living in this sin-filled world.  But he does not ask his Father to take you out of this world.  There is work for you to do.  You have people to love and serve.  You have God’s good news to share.  Your heavenly Father will answer Jesus’ prayer.  He will give you strength to do this work and protect you from the devil until your Father DOES, in his time, take you home to heaven.

Acts 11:19-21

Scattered by the Wind!

Last fall our lawn was sprayed to kill the dandelions.  This year our lawn was filled with them.  Last fall I cleaned out our garden and didn’t plant anything.  This spring the garden area was filled with weeds.  The reason?  Seeds were blown by the wind and deposited all over our yard.  We would never have known except those seeds took root and began to grow.

The spread of the good news about Jesus happens in a similar way.  Although it’s not the physical wind that blows, the Spirit of God blows when and where he wishes.  For the early believers, the impetus for scattering the seeds of the gospel was the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem.  What seemed like a hardship and tragic situation, led individuals out of Jerusalem into the surrounding areas.  Wherever they went, they planted gospel seeds, “telling them the good news about Jesus.”  The result? “…a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

Are you open to where God might “scatter” you to connect you with someone who needs to hear the “good news about the Lord Jesus?”  As you travel on your next business trip, plan your next vacation, drive for the next field trip or contemplate a major move, are you open to God’s Spirit scattering the good news of Jesus through you?  The place where God has you today and the place he will take you tomorrow is a place where he wants to use you to connect a soul to the saving message of Jesus.

Your confidence?  “The Lord’s hand was with them…”  You are not alone.  Even if the reason for a move or transition is painful, know that just as the wind blows seeds to plant them, so the Spirit scatters God’s people to plant the gospel message in the hearts of people all around.

Genesis 17:17-21

Prayers of the Bible - Expressing the Desires of the Heart

God called Abraham and promised to make him the “father of many nations.”  Most importantly, God promised that from his descendants would come the one who would be a blessing for all peoples on earth—the Savior, Jesus Christ.  But as the years passed, Abraham wondered how God would fulfill his promises since he remained childless. In sinful weakness, Abraham took matters into his own hands and had a son with Hagar, his wife's maid.  However, God intervened and told Abraham clearly that the the promises he made would not be fulfilled through Ishmael.  Even at ages that were well passed childbearing years, God declared that Abraham and his wife Sarah would have a son born to them.  Abraham laughed with joy that God’s promise would be fulfilled soon.  At the same time, his thoughts turned toward his son, Ishmael, now that it was very clear that God’s covenant was not going to be fulfilled through him.  Abraham’s love for Ishmael prompted him to speak his heart's desire to God: "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

God's answer was, "Yes, but..." He told Abraham, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him."

When someone answers "Yes, BUT..." it makes me cringe. Usually it makes me cringe because I realize that the answer is going to be different than what I want. For Abraham it meant that Ishmael would not be the one through whom the covenant would be fulfilled, yet he would be blessed.

God's plan was different from Abraham's plan. God was faithful to his promise and he was going to make sure that the lineage of the Messiah would be accomplished by his power and not by man's scheming. God was going to use Isaac and his descendants to carry out his plan.

Like Abraham, we always have the freedom to express our heart's desire to the Lord. But like Abraham, we must learn to accept God's answers in the realization that he has a better plan.

1 John 4:7-12

God’s Love Changes Our Lives

“Dad, how come every song is about love?”  Even my 11 year-old daughter recognizes that there is no topic quite as popular as love.  It’s the theme of an entire genre of movies, the driving force behind many poems, and the basis for interesting conversations at work.  Love.  We can’t seem to get it off our minds.  Yet do we really know what love is? 

The apostle John says that “God is love.”  He explains, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”  God’s love is more than an abstraction, more than a feeling, more than a philosophical concept.  It is a definite reality in Jesus Christ.  Here we see what love really is.  In Christ we learn that God’s love is sacrificial, unconditional and totally undeserving.  God loved sinners so much that he sent his one and only Son to suffer and die for us, so that we might have life with him forever.  This is love.  It reaches down from heaven and changes our lives. 

Those who know the love of God want to love others.  At the end of the wedding ceremony the pastor sometimes tells the bridegroom, “You may kiss the bride.”  The groom usually doesn’t feel like this is some burdensome obligation that he has to carry out.  Instead he rejoices because it’s exactly what he wants to do!  It’s kind of the same when John encourages believers to love one another.  Since we have experienced God’s love in our lives through Jesus Christ, since we know that he has forgiven our sins and made us his children, this is exactly what we want to do.  We want to love others as God has loved us.  Amazingly, when we do, others might see God’s love in us.  They might see this love and wonder about its source.  It’s then that we can point others to God who loved us enough to send his Son to die for the sins of the world.