Mission Impossible?

"Without faith it is impossible to please Him..." Have you ever really considered that verse (Heb. 11:6)? It's in a book I've studied several times before, in a chapter I'm familiar with (hall of faith) and actually is a verse I've read over many times. But I don't think I've really ever paused to consider that without faith, it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. Of course I say as a believer that I want to please God, but do I include faith in that equation (if an equation there really existed)?

It seems to me it is very easy to live my life, attempting to please God, without faith ever entering the picture. I make it all about my behavior, which is clouded in my understanding. That is the opposite of faith. Faith seems to come into play when there is no understanding. What in my life am I seeking to have faith in without understanding? What is God calling me to do that I don't really understand? At the core, the question becomes, where is my faith?

I guess to find the answer of that, I need to also ask, "where are my fears?" Unfortunately, I think fear and faith are 2 sides of the same coin. For example, I fear being single the rest of my life. Do I have faith to believe that God is good and has blessed me as I am? Do I have faith to believe that His plan for me, whether He provides a spouse or not, is best? Do I have faith to believe He really is enough? They go hand in hand. That's how it works.

So what do I need to learn? Let's look at one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament. 2 Chron. 20. We'll take it chunk by chuck over the next couple of posts. Jehoshaphat is king and all of a sudden he finds 3 major enemies allying themselves together and coming to make war against him. It would kind of be like Egypt, Syria and Jordan all uniting to wage war against Isreal today. How does this godly, wise king of a great nation react? He's afraid. He's scared. I think it's safe to say he's worried. All perfectly natural considering his circumstance.

So what does he do? What would you do? I think I would immediately begin pulling my armies together, fortifying my cities, evacuating civilians, etc. But Jehoshaphat , of all things, chooses to worship. Scripture says he "turned his attention to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah." And it goes on from there. Not only did he proclaim a fast, he called the entire country together, he sought community.

How many times when I'm afraid do I turn to my friends, to my community to share my fears and to seek faith? Hardly ever. Most of the time, I try to handle it on my own. And I'm way to proud to admit my fears in front of folks, much less an entire group. And yet, that's what Jehoshaphat did. In true community, he turned his attention to the Lord.

I'm begining to think that fear is abundant and faith is abondoned in isolation. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Maybe we need others to have faith.

We'll see how the story continues later. In the meantime, the full passage, up to where we are, is printed below.



So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.
Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court,
and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and )give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying,'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You for Your name is in this house and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'"Now behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt (they turned aside from them and did not destroy them),see how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from Your possession which You have given us as an inheritance."O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You."All Judah was standing before the LORD, with their infants, their wives and their children.

Something's Missing

Recently we participated in our company’s worldwide day of prayer. It was a corporate mandate that we take a day in our busy schedule, stop, come before the Lord, and pray. It was time to beseech our sovereign Lord to glorify Himself in our ministry, to show up, to bless, to change lives, etc. So we gathered on the designated Tuesday morning, hovered around the snacks (so much for fasting) and waited with dread for the day to begin. It seemed that no one, including myself, wanted to be there. And since we were all so busy with important events coming up, we decided to only pray for half a day and call it quits at lunchtime.

Was it Hudson Taylor who said something like, “I have a lot to do today so I should pray twice as much.” Well, if it wasn’t him, it was some cool spiritual giant that has gone before us. My point is this, what has happened in our spiritual lives that we so quickly sacrifice prayer? Are our tasks really that important or could it be that praying more is the very task we should be doing? When presented with the opportunity to participate in something that has spiritual depth, why do we balk?

I’ve been wrestling with this question lately. I’m involved in the singles ministry at my church. And whether in my community group or in our evening worship service, whenever we do anything that is participatory and has spiritual depth to it, well… very few participate, including myself.

Are we afraid of intimacy with Jesus? I’m not sure I can answer that. I’m not sure I really know what intimacy with Jesus looks like (or intimacy with anyone for that matter). But to be honest, I’m not sure that question is even on the radar. Whether I’m afraid of intimacy with Him or not (after all, He knows me and all the things about me I’m ashamed of) I think it’s more that I am content in the shallow relationship I have with Him. Or I just don’t know any different.

To me, if I can make a sweeping, unfair statement, this defines a majority of the singles at my church (again, including myself). And here is what I think is missing. The Gospel.

No wonder my relationship with Him is shallow. It is so easy to go through our days and not experience the Gospel in our lives. We've made a habit of treating the Gospel like fire insurance, our ticket to heaven as the sayings go. We buy it and never think about it again, or if we do, it's on our deathbed. And why not, daily experiencing the Gospel is hard. After all, experiencing the Gospel involves dealing with sin in our own lives and perhaps confronting it in others. That is never fun. At church in my community group I sense a general reluctance to really deal with sin. And in my own life I’ve grown adept at glossing over it and rationalizing it. Therefore repentance and forgiveness and healing and growth… etc. are missing and thus, the Gospel is absent too.

The Gospel or the lack thereof affects everything we do. If I’m not experiencing the Gospel, I’m not experiencing true, Biblical community. If I’m not experiencing the Gospel, then I’m forgetting my true identity as a believer. If I’m not experiencing the Gospel, then I’m running in shame from my Lord, instead of boldly approaching His throne to find grace and mercy in my time of need. And if I’m not experiencing the Gospel then yes, I probably am afraid of intimacy with Jesus. And finally, if I’m not experiencing the Gospel, then my motivation to pray is limited. Without the Gospel, prayer is sort of pointless, tasks become the focus, and we stop seeking His glory. It becomes all about us and what we do, whether we realize it or not.

Oh to experience the Gospel (and thus intimacy with Jesus) in such a way that I can honestly say, in community, “we have a lot to do, let’s pray all day.” Not because we should, but because we long too. Because we can’t wait to spend a day with the lover of our soul. Because we know who He is and thus, who we are with all of our sin, and our desperate need for Him. Because we know we are loved. Because we know we need the Gospel.