We have had a wave of funerals at our church lately…two this week.  I’m always struck by our desire to prolong life – to live forever if we could.  It is amazing what people will go through to live a few months or a year longer.  Their loved ones sometimes encourage them to go through excruciating treatments just to have a little more time with them as well. When we die, even at an advanced age, it seems wrong – as if the universe has betrayed us.  I believe there is a part of every one of us that does want to live forever.  We want that because it was God’s original intent.  When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden, they were given free access to the Tree of Life.  As long as they ate from the tree, they would live forever.  That was God’s original for his entire creation.  Sin, of course, inserted a great parenthesis in that intent.

Solomon declared, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecc.3:11).  Every culture looks beyond this world for some form of eternal life, whether they look for it in reincarnation, some version of paradise or becoming one with the world soul.  Something tells each of us that physical death should not be the final chapter.

We are entering the Easter season.  It comes early this year but always brings a sense of hope.  It comes as Spring approaches and everything that appears dead begins to show life again. Our rose bushes are blanketed with fresh green leaves.  Fruit trees in West Texas, barren just a week ago, are covered with white blossoms.  Life is emerging again. It is a metaphor for eternal life in Christ.  When we thought all had ended, God had more.  An empty tomb is the promise of eternal life.  Physical death does not have the last word. Jesus has the last word.

His word is, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this” (Jn. 11:25-26)?  Through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, God has restored his original intent.
Jesus is the Tree of Life.  As long as we partake of him, we live.  Our eternal physical life will not be apparent on earth until the Lord returns with his saints and restores the earth to its pre-curse glory. In the meantime, we are with Christ in Paradise.  Ultimately, Satan will not beat the Lord out of anything.  The earth he set in motion with a pristine environment that partnered with man rather than opposing him, will spin through space once again.  God will live with his people and death will not be found in the dictionary.  

I have come to believe that our desire to hold on to life in this world is not so much a lack of faith about God’s goodness and a home in heaven, but is proof that we were never meant to die in the first place.  Death always seems wrong.  So, we comfort one another at each funeral with the hope that God has placed inside of us. We do so because we can, in fact, live forever with those we have loved and thought we lost. As Easter approaches, remember that physical death is not the end even as winter only hides life that emerges each year by God’s grace. Physical death for those in Christ is only the prelude to the eternity God has placed in our hearts. 

Last week I wrote a blog affirming that becoming a follower of Jesus does not mean life will be trouble free.  In fact, Jesus assured us that in this world we will have trouble.  In hostile environments such as China, Russia or the Middle East, that trouble could be for a life time as believers are targeted for persecution by the state.  And yet even in those environments, it seems that certain seasons produce more trouble than others.

In the west, Christians are not so blatantly targeted but may find more subtle persecution in certain environments such as in universities, the entertainment industry, some corporate environments, families, and so on.  If you live or work in a “Woke” community and verbalize biblical values, you will be opposed and probably censored.  There is a price to be paid for our faith in this world.  We need to be at peace with that reality.

After my last blog, someone asked if trouble was simply going to be their lot for a lifetime.  In the context, it was not trouble from persecution but simply from things in life never working out.  There are believers who seem to face a disproportionate amount of loss and failure which might include a number of deaths in a family in a relatively short time, financial stress even though they work hard, promotions going to less qualified people at the workplace, and constant vehicle breakdowns and expenses around the home that just always keep them under water.  Sometimes it is a disproportionate amount of sickness that makes life hard.  Perhaps, you have known those individuals or families.

I believe it is normal for all believers to have seasons of hardship, but not for that to be the standard of their entire life.  In cases like that, it seems that some kind of curse is operating that gives the devil a legal right to afflict or oppress an individual or family. The idea of curses seems very antiquated to most Americans, but it is a very biblical theme.  In fact, in Deuteronomy 28, God spends a great deal of time explaining to Israel that diligent obedience to the Lord would bring abundant blessings, but persistent disobedience without repentance would bring abundant curses that touched every part of life.  Abundant blessings include health, financial prosperity, fruitfulness from their efforts, blessed relationships, peace from their enemies, and even the promise of rain at the right times to bless their crops.  Curses would bring just the opposite…health problems, financial failure, broken relationships, war, natural disasters, and so forth.

There are several sections in scripture that picture Satan standing before the Lord bringing accusations against God’s people.  As he brought those accusations, he was looking for a legal precedent that would allow him to afflict those people on the basis of their sin or the sins of their fathers or on the basis of words they had spoken or oaths they had taken.  Those things may constitute a curse which the enemy can enforce as long as that curse remains.

When hardship, other than persecution persists, and is clearly over-proportionate to what most believers are dealing with, a curse may be operating.  An unrepented sin may clearly present itself as the probable cause of the curse.  Unforgiveness towards others who have wronged you would be the first thing to search for in your heart.  Other ongoing sins that you are excusing would be the next place to look…sexual sin, materialism, an immoral relationship, gossip, judging others, bigotry, discrimination (especially against Jews), ignoring the poor, idolatry, addictions, violence, abortions, etc. are things that need to be identified, acknowledged, repented of and renounced in order to take away the legal right of the enemy. 

Sins of the fathers (Ex. 20:5) is another thing you must consider.  It is not aways easy to know what our ancestors have done that may have opened the door to a generational curse that can be passed down from generation to generation. Violence, defrauding another, adultery, involvement in the occult in any form, molestations, antisemitism, participation in false religions, etc. can be found in most family lines.

You may research your family history for clues or spend a season in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the root of the curse operating in your life.  When you sense what it is, then confess it and repent of it on behalf of your bloodline. Then renounce the sin and cancel the curse in the name of Jesus.

Words spoken over us by those who have had spiritual authority over us can also establish a curse.  A parent telling us we will never amount to anything or that we will never be loved or announcing that they wish we had never been born can open the door to sickness, business and relationship failures, etc.  If we said those words over ourselves, they can also establish a curse.  If any words like that that have been spoken, they need to need to be renounced and repented of as well.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the root of any curse that may be operating.  It is God’s will to bless his people so if curses predominate instead of blessing, seek to know the root. Have those with prophetic gifts and gifts of discernment pray with you to see what they hear from the Lord as well. Trouble will come our way, but God is also a God of blessing who wants to bless his children even in the midst of trouble. Blessing should be the rule of our lives rather than the exception.  

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Many have turned their back on Jesus because they believed following him meant they would not have to face trouble or crisis or heart-breaking loss in this world.  When the trouble and trauma came, they felt betrayed by God as if he had not kept his promise to them. I have seen this after someone discovered their spouse had been unfaithful.  I have seen it after the death of a child. I have seen it after healing did not come.  Each one felt betrayed because life did not turn out as they expected and because God did not answer their prayers as they hoped. They had believed for a relatively trouble-free life.

To be sure, there are many promises of blessing, healing, protection, and deliverance in scripture.  However, there are also assurances that those who follow Jesus will experience trouble, persecution, and betrayal in this world.  Some trouble comes from our own bad decisions.  Our walk with Jesus does not exempt us from the law of sowing and reaping.  Bad decisions bring negative outcomes. Some are minor.  Others are catastrophic. David’s adultery with Bathsheba is front and center as evidence.  David repented of his sin but there were still serious consequences from his bad decisions.  The child born to David and Bathsheba died.  His son Absalom conspired to take his thrown.  That son then died in battle.  Because of his repentance, David was forgiven.  His relationship with God was restored.  God walked with him through the consequences, but he still had to deal with the loss and betrayal his sin had triggered.

At other times, we will face trouble and crisis simply because we still live in a fallen world and operate in enemy territory.  Our unseen enemy is very real and works tirelessly to derail us and, if possible, snuff out our faith. Even without his attacks we are broken people living with broken people. Hurts and losses come out of living in a world of broken people with free will. Often it is free will to hurt others.  Sometimes, because the earth has been cursed because of sin, natural disasters will also bring their share of pain.  

What we must remember is that our pain does not come from God but from sin and the accumulation of billions of people reaping what they have sown through their rebellion against God.  Unfortunately, we also reap what others sow…like innocent bystanders being killed because of a drunken drive or a deranged person walking in to a school with an AR15.  

That seems discouraging, but here is the good news.  First of all, we know that God often does protect us and provide for us when things could easily have gone the other way.  He has saved us many times, even when we did not know we were in danger. He does bring healing … sometimes supernaturally and sometimes through the grace of healing.  And yes, he does sometimes deliver us from the consequences of even our own actions and the actions of others…but not always.  However, I have seen time and time again that in our worst moments we are not alone. He brings grace to the moment that sees us through to another day.

And although trouble may come and we may face our worst fears, one promise stands that gives hope to every situation. The apostle Paul declared, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom.8:28). The challenge is in accepting that what may be in our eternal best interest is not always what we have in mind. God’s primary commitment to us is to get us across the finish line with our heavenly citizenship intact.  We naturally want everything this side of the funeral to be as smooth as everything in the other side.  We will have seasons like that but we will also have seasons that belong to living in a fallen world. 

All in all, we will get scrapes and bruises in this world that we don’t always understand.  God will not cause those but will use those to shape us, mature us, and prepare us to fulfill the destiny he still has for us.  We may feel like Joseph in an Egyptian prison, but those bitter days prepared him to lead a nation as Pharoah’s second in command.  At other times, we may not sense the good that God is working for us until years later when we look back to see his hand.  Don’t be surprised when trouble comes.  Blessings are promised but so is hardship at times.  God has not forsaken you and his grace will be sufficient.  Ultimately, he is working to get us home with him where there will definitely be no pain or sorrow ever again. 

One of the things I have consistently seen through the years in counseling, deliverance, and in my own life is Satan’s attempt to make us feel disqualified.  Let me explain.  The enemy’s first strategy ys is to keep us from receiving God’s grace though the sacrifice of his Son. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explained that, for many, the enemy simply takes the word of God from their hearts before they can believe.  He works hard to keep us from an encounter with God’s word and then works hard to keep us from opening our hearts to God.

Having failed at keeping a man or woman from being touched by God’s word and his Spirit, one of his standard strategies is to make the saved or those close to salvation feel disqualified.  Satan is referred to as the accuser of the brethren.  He accuses us before God, but he also accuses us in our own hearts and minds.  To those close to salvation, he whispers that they need to be better and do better before God will accept them.  They never surrender to Jesus because they don’t feel “good enough.” Perhaps, past sins haunt them and Satan whispers that  they are beyond God’s grace.  Of course, that is a total misunderstanding of grace.  We don’t clean ourselves up so we can come to Jesus, we come to Jesus so he can clean us up.  But in a world of highly conditional love, grace can be a difficult concept to grasp. Satan somehow seems to skew the message of grace so they don’t hear it clearly. Their sense of disqualification keeps them from moving ahead.

Even if a person surrenders to Jesus, Satan continue the accusations.  He will whisper continually that even though we are saved, we are still disqualified from God’s further blessings or from serving him in any significant way.  He reminds of past sins and suggests that we were not sorry enough, did not repent enough, or did not hate the sin enough for God to forgive that sin.  We live as if God is still holding something against us.  The enemy always implies that the blood of Christ is not really sufficient…for us. Feeling as if God is holding something against us, we have little faith that he will answer our prayers, bless us by meeting our greatest needs or deepest desire, or that all the promises in scripture are available to us.  When asked to serve in any significant capacity in the kingdom, we retreat, feeling that we simply don’t measure up.  We may even feel as if God would be angry if we took such a “presumptuous” step.

The truth is that none of us measure up, are “good enough,” or are worthy of His promises based on our own merit and righteousness.  It is only by the blood of Jesus that we can stand in the presence of God and be confident that he will answer our prayers.  Jesus gives us a position in heaven long before our condition matches that.  When we can accept our position as sons and daughters who are seen by God through the lens of his Son’s righteousness, we can then begin to pray with faith and expectation that God will care for us and use us in his kingdom in ways that we could not anticipate.

Faith is certainly based on our view of God and his character, but Satan uses our own doubts, insecurities, and self-image issues to cloud our view of the Father and the complete adequacy of his son’s blood to make us totally acceptable to our Father.  This, I believe, is the primary area in which we must take every thought captive and align our thoughts with the Father’s truth.

Most of us can stand a healthy dose of what God says about us on a daily basis by speaking the things that God has said about those who belong to him.  You can probably Google “Our identity in Christ” and get a great list of scriptures that declare what God has said about his children. When other thoughts enter our minds regarding our standing with God, we need to rebuke those thoughts as lies and speak God’s truth over ourselves.  Old ways of thinking are engrained in our brains and it takes an intentional season of declaring God’s truth over the old thoughts before God’s truth becomes our primary way of viewing ourselves…especially when the enemy keeps whispering our disqualifications to us. 

Sometimes we assume that what we think about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is all that matters. But, all of His truth matters and what he has done for us through the cross is just as significant because our righteousness in Christ and our state of being “new creations” also reflects on God.  The quality of a sculptor’s work reflects on him as a person and God is sculpting us through Christ.  

So…when the accuser of the brethren comes around, recognize him, reject him, and silence him by declaring God’s truth about you in response to the lies he whispers.  Part of our transformation comes from the renewing of our minds and that renewing comes from saturating our thoughts and words with God’s truth.  You are not disqualified but made totally acceptable in Jesus Christ for salvation, blessing and even challenging assignments.

In the 13^th chapter of Matthew, the former tax collector records an incident that occurred in Jesus’ home town.  Jesus had been touring Israel, preaching in villages and along the shore of Galilee.  After a season of ministry, he went home and began to preach in the synagogue.  Those who had known him previously were amazed at his teaching and his miracles. Perhaps, they had heard of his healings more than having witnessed them.  

Interestingly, after being amazed, they began to be offended.  The text reads, “Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him” (Matt. 13:54-57).

Instead of being excited and celebrating what God was doing in the life of the man they had known as a boy, they took offense.  They fell into the trap of not being able to see what a man had become, but only seeing him as he once was.  Jesus had all the markers of a great prophet, but they could only see him as the carpenter’s son.  

Apparently, his teaching with authority felt as if he were talking down to them.  The last sentence in that section said, “And he did not do many miracles there because io their lack of faith.”  Jesus reflected on the experience by saying, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.” Remember that even his own brothers did not believe until after the resurrection.

Perhaps, you have had the same experience trying to share Jesus with your family or old friends.  They may be polite, but still only see you as their child, their sibling, or their old “running buddy.”  It’s hard for parents to see even a grown child as one who can teach them or give direction to their lives.  Even when you are grown you are still their child.  Our siblings fall into the same trap.  It’s hard to submit your heart and intellect to someone you played with in the mud and carried with whom you carried out childhood rivalries. Old friends may be offended because you don’t share in their lifestyle of pursuing sin and pleasure anymore.

If you have a real burden for these people you love and care about, you may feel frustrated or feel like a failure because they won’t hear you.  Jesus gets you! He definitely knows how that feels.  How could anyone turn him down as a prophet with his stellar teaching and amazing miracles?  And yet they did.  We often forget that more people turned Jesus down than accepted him.

Let me encourage you.  Don’t measure your testimony or witness by those in your old circle of friends or even family.  Certainly, we need to share the gospel and tell them how Jesus has changed our lives.  Some will respond and reach out to Jesus.  But if they don’t…continue to love them and let your life be your testimony.  But in addition, pray that the Holy Spirit will birth faith and spiritual hunger in their hearts.  Just as importantly, ask the Lord to bring someone into their life to share the gospel whom they can hear – a peer, someone they look up to, or someone inserted into a circumstance at just the right time.  They may not be able to see us as someone who can give them direction, but we can pray and we can continue to model Jesus for them.  Take heart, Jesus’ entire family came to believe eventually.

This is an extension of last week’s blog that focused on Ezekiel’s “valley of dry bones.” God keeps reminding me about the promise of persistence so, perhaps, I or someone reading this needs the encouragement.

In his letter to the church at Galatia Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:7-9).

These verses serve both as a warning and a promise. The spiritual law is confirmed in natural law. Whatever seeds you plant, will produce a crop of the same. Apple seeds produce apple trees. Watermelon seeds invariably produce watermelons. The seeds of thorn bushes produce thorn bushes. The spiritual law demands that whatever we sow will produce a harvest of the very things we have been planting.

In general, if we sow or do things to please our flesh, destructive things will eventually come our way. If we sow or do things that please the Spirit, we will receive life giving responses and blessings . Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Proverbs 18:21 declares that the tongue has the power of life or death. If we consistently speak negative words or “death,” negative things will come our way along with failure. If we speak positive things – life and hope, success will be birthed out of our words. This spiritual law is also reflected in the words of Jesus: “With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged” and those who will not forgive, will not be forgiven.

Paul’s point in his letter was that to believe we sow one thing and receive another to that we can sow without a harvest, is mocking God. His promise is that we will reap what we sow. Like harvest in the natural realm, the more seed you spread, the more you harvest. The more people you bless, the greater will be the blessings that come back to you.

One of the challenges of this law is is that there is a season of waiting between seed time and harvest. In the spiritual realm, it can be a more than a few months. For those who sow to the flesh, this extended season between sowing and reaping can be deceptive. Those who do evil may interpret the lag time as evidence that they can act without consequence. Paul assures us however, that God will not be mocked. Destruction is in the pipeline for those who sow to the flesh without repentance.

On the other side of the spectrum, we may become discouraged from doing good, from hoping, from trusting, from continuing in prayer, from slogging through a disappointing marriage, because we don’t see “green shoots pushing up through the ground” from our efforts or prayers we have sown into the spiritual realm. But once again, the promise is that God will not be mocked. Paul says we should not grow weary in doing good because God guarantees we will reap a harvest for the good we have sown, the prayers we have uttered, the ministry or relationships, we have been pouring into, the life-giving words we have spoken, and so forth.

So…whatever you have been sowing that pleases the Spirit, be assured a good harvest will come. You may see it soon, see it later, or only see it in your bank account where you have laid up treasures in heaven, but God promises a rich return. If you consider timelines in scripture regarding deliverance from bondage, children being born to barren women, the Messiah coming, and so forth, there are just as many prayers that took decades as there are the overnight, miraculous interventions we delight in. Even those may have been preceded by someone sowing seeds of prayer and life-giving words. If weariness has set in, take heart. God knows and God promises.

This past week I’ve been reading through Ezekiel again.  It’s always a fascinating read with his prophetic visions and pronouncements.  Once again, I came to Chapter 37 which is the “valley of dry bones” chapter. Ezekiel is taken by the Spirit to a sight where some ancient battle had been fought and where hundreds or thousands of bodies had been left without burial. All that remained were dry, bleached, and scattered bones.  It was a scene of absolute desolation. As Billy Crystal would say in the Princess Bride, these guys were “all dead” not just “mostly dead.”

Then the Lord questions Ezekiel.  “Son of man, can these bones live?”  The obvious answer would have been, “No way, Yaweh!”  But Ezekiel was wiser and simply replied, “Sovereign Lord, only you know.”  Then the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophecy over the bones. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.  Then you will know that I am the Lord!” 

As Ezekiel began to prophecy, the bones began to rattle and come together.  Then tendons and flesh appeared, then skin, but they were not yet living. Then the Lord told him to prophecy for breath to enter these bodies.   The word in Hebrew for breath is the same word as Spirit.  When “the breath” came into these bodies they stood up as a vast army.  Then God explained to Ezekiel that these dry bones represented Israel.  From a human perspective Israel had been destroyed.  Most of the Israelites had died in battle or had been taken to foreign nations as slaves.  The land was desolate and no one believed the tiny nation could ever live again.

But God still had a destiny for Israel and he swore he would make her a nation once more.  It would be that miracle that would convince Israel that God was their God. All through the Old Testament, God declares he will restore Israel and bring his people back from the nations where they have been scattered.  That reunification of God’s people to the land he had given them began in 1948 and is continuing.

We could go into all of that, but the principle I want to point out is that God is a God who breathes life into hopeless situations.  There are times when we may find ourselves hopeless…a marriage on the rcoks, a child caught in addictions, a bad report from the doctors, too much month at the end of the money, and so forth.  But God raises the dead…not just those who have been dead for a few days, but whole valleys of bleached bones.  

He does these things because he has already written a destiny for nations and individuals.  He does these things to draw people to him and for the glory of his name.  Sometimes when God calls people to Jesus, they feel as if their life is such a train wreck that no one, including God, could ever make it live again.  My wife Susan and I talked to a friend last night who is living in a large metropolitan area in Texas.  She told us about a young woman she had encountered who was making a living as a prostitute.  She has a teenage daughter she is trying to raise and doesn’t know how to make enough money any other way.  But, bit by bit, she is coming to Jesus.  She is slowly opening her heart. She is coming to believe that God can breathe real life into her again. She hasn’t yet given up her profession, but it is coming and she will soon be changed forever by the Lord…her and her daughter.  Like the bones coming together – bones, then tendon, then flesh, then skin, then breath, resurrection can be a process rather than an immediate event.  

If your life feels like a trainwreck and you’re wondering if you can ever recover and breathe again, remember the valley of dry bones.  God still has a destiny for you.   He wants to restore that destiny, set you on your feet, and breathe life into you again. Nothing is beyond his reach.  It may be a process instead of an overnight event, but he specializes in such things for your sake and for the glory of his name.  Hang on. Cry out. Don’t give up.  As Ezekiel prophesied over the bones, begin to speak life over your situation in the name of Jesus.  See what God does.

This past week our congregation joined other churches around the world for five days of prayer and fasting. We met each night for a time of worship and corporate prayer while we drew close to God and one another.  Naturally, the emphasis was on the goodness and faithfulness of God and his willingness to answer our prayers. We had great testimonies of answered prayers and celebrated with those individuals.   When we do something like that, however the question always comes up about why God has not yet answered someone’s prayer who has been petitioning God for months or maybe years.  That is a legitimate question and one I thought I would respond to in this blog.

There is not just one answer, of course, but several possibilities.  One interesting element can be found in Daniel 10.  In that chapter, the prophet is given a revelation of a terrible war.  He is troubled by the vision and is unclear about who the war will involve.  Rather than pulling out a book on the interpretation of dreams, he begins to petition the Lord for the understanding of the revelation.  And so, he begins to fast and pray while waiting on his answer.  On the 21^st day of his fasting, an angel comes to him in a vision.  

The interesting part of the angel’s response is that he was dispatched with the answer to Daniel’s prayer the very first day he began to pray.  He explained that while he was in route, a demonic prince, the prince of Persia, confronted him and they battled for twenty-one days.  The angel who came to Daniel explained that he was only able to deliver the message because Michael, one of the chief angels of God, had come to take up the fight so that Daniel could receive the interpretation he had asked for.

We learn some important things from this.  First of all, things don’t just automatically happen in the spiritual realm.  Many times, angels are dispatched to come to us and facilitate the answers to our prayers.  Sometimes, they face demonic opposition that is not just swept away.  We have no idea how much demonic opposition may stand in the way of our prayers for someone’s salvation, the success of a business that will give generously to the kingdom, or for a nation. Paul declared that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers and principalities in the heavenly realms (EPH. 6).  We usually have no idea what is involved in the answer to our prayers in the unseen realm.  This chapter of Daniel draws the curtain back just a bit.  

Secondly, n a microwave world, we want everything instantly, but in many cases, there must be an element of persistence and endurance in our prayers.  I think anther important question is what would have happened if Daniel had quit praying after two weeks assuming that his prayer was not going to be answered?  Would Michael have come to take up the fight?  Would the angel have been able to complete his assignment?  I believe Michael came because Daniel continued to pray and petition God.  As we pray and declare God’s word over situations, more power is directed to that situation. If we stop praying, a prayer that has been approved may not see its completion because we faltered on our end. We hear lots of testimonies about rapid answers to prayers.  We need more testimonies about answers to something that has been prayed about for years.

Faith endures.  Remember Abraham.  God personally promised him a son in his old age.  Abraham was excited as well as Sarah, but the promise did not come quickly.  In fact, it was twenty-five years before Isaac was born and each passing year made the promi9se seem all the more impossible.  God encouraged him for time to time that the promise was in the pipeline but it had to be hard to maintain faith and keep praying into the promise. In a moment of weakness, Abraham and Sarah tried to see the promise fulfilled in the natural way through Hagar but that was a disaster.  But still, the wittier of Hebrews assures us that they both continued in faith (some days more than others) until Sarah herself conceived.  Twenty-five years was a long time…but their prayers were answered.

In Matthew 7, Jesus taught, “seek and you shall find, ask and it shall be given to you, knock and the door shall be opened.” The verb tenses in that verse are present progressive which means they can and should be translated as “keep on seeking, keep on asking, and keep on knocking.  Again, we love overnight answers to our prayers, but some will require persistence and endurance.  

Even when God says yes, there may be demonic opposition.  In addition, hearts have to be prepared, character needs to be matured, pieces have to be moved on the chess board so that outcomes are orchestrated without violating anyone’s free will.  That all takes time. I have known several people who prayed to be married, prayed for an amazing job, or prayed for a leadership position who would have scuttled the marriage, gone after worldly wealth and fame with their, or would have damaged an organization or a church if promoted too soon because they were not ready to steward the answers to their prayers.  God wasn’t saying no, he was just saying not yet.

The lesson is to pray with faith, but be willing to continue to pray until there is breakthrough or until God shows you something else.  The patriarchs were commended for their faith because some died without seeing promises fulfilled for their children, but still believed God would answer their prayers even after their death.

Bottom line…pray with faith, celebrate the prayers answered quickly, but then be prepared to continue to pray for weeks, months or even years if the desire is from God and worth pursuing for long time.  Some of us stopped praying after a while because we thought answered prayer came soon.  We may need to pick that prayer up again, dust if off and pursue it again with faith.

As you know, many of us fall into the trap of projecting our experience with earthly fathers onto our relationship with our heavenly Father.  If you had an amazing father who encouraged you, was affectionate, and who displayed patience and unconditional love, you had a rare experience and you probably have a very positive and warm view of God..  Most of us had an experience with fathers that fell short of that and it is not unusual for us to carelessly slip into a tarnished view of God from time to time by seeing him as our earthly father. When my view shifts in that direction, my faith falters a little, my prayer life cools, and my security wobbles because I begin to doubt God’s love and care for me since my earthly father was not so kind, loving, and available.

Satan has worked overtime to damage fathers all over the world and to malign the idea of fathers in general. Somewhere along the line, we exchanged the idea of the wise Jim Anderson of Father Knows Best (50’s sitcom) to fathers being made in the bumbling image of Al Bundy in the more recent sitcom Married with Children.  Now fathers and men, in general, are characterized as inept, abusive, or toxic.  The Woke movement is working to make sex (more likely men) irrelevant and unnecessary.  Even the new Barbie movie subtly pushes that agenda. Although this is a strategic move to destroy the family as God designed it and to weaken culture across the board, it is more insidious than that.

Because we tend to first understand our Father in Heaven through our experiences with earthly fathers, this cultural movement to vilify the masculine gender is actually designed to alienate us from a heavenly Father. One of the essential parts of the ministry of Jesus was to reveal the Father to us.  In the gospel of John, Jesus declared, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (Jn. 14:9-11).

When I begin to drift in my view or my affection toward my Heavenly Father, I need to go back to Jesus who came to demonstrate the heart of the Father.  Where the Son had compassion, the Father had compassion.  When the Son was excited to heal, the Father was excited to heal.  When the Son expressed unconditional love, the Father was expressing the same.  When the Son rebuked or warned, the Father also rebuked and warned.  If we are going to love the Father, most of us will first need to love the Son.  He is more real, more concrete, and was immersed in the things we are immersed in.

One of Job’s complaints to God in the midst of his suffering was, “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees? Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a man” (Job 10:4-5).  In other words, Job was arguing that God could not fairly judge us because he did not know what it was like to be a man, to be mortal, and to contend with the flesh.  After Jesus, we cannot make that argument. Jesus is our great High Priest who knows what it is like to live on this planet and to suffer at the hands of wickedness.  He knows wat it is like to face temptation and the attacks of Satan.  He knows what it is like to be tired and hungry, hot and cold, disappointed and betrayed. But now…if he knows then the Father fully knows as well.  

So, if I begin to see God as an angry or distant father who doesn’t truly care about the things I am suffering, I need to go back to Jesus.  If I begin to see him as a score- keeping God who is waiting for me to earn his love, I need to go back to Jesus. The more I know Jesus, the more I know the Father.  They enemy has worked hard to distort our view of the Father through the lens of our broken fathers on earth.  Jesus is our reset for that distortion.  When you begin to doubt the Father, spend more time with the Son.

AS Christmas slips by and we are moving toward the beginning of 2024, the year already holds a great amount of uncertainty. The election year will undoubtedly be raucous and it’s a good bet that even after the election there will be months of divisive turmoil…no matter who wins.  China is an ever-increasing threat to us both economically and militarily.  The conflict in Ukraine goes on and Israel is still at war.  The financial guru’s in America are predicting everything from a stock market boom to a crash landing for the economy in 2024.  Some new variant of Covid is wreaking havoc in China again and will inevitably find its way around the world.  On top of all that, every time I hear a news flash or read a report, I wonder if I can trust the source to be telling me the truth.  Sometimes life feels like a ship tossed back and forth in a storm in open sea being driven every direction by wind and waves it cannot control.

More than ever, life needs an anchor to tie us to something unchanging and true.  We need a north star by which we can check our compass each day as we feel blown of coarse by every news broadcast and dire warning that comes across social media.  I believe that anchor will be needed more than ever in the year to come.  Christmas reminds me that we have such an anchor in Jesus Christ…God with us.  I was struck this year with the Christmas carols that I heard once again, remembering that they have been sung for centuries now. Their story is not the latest fad or crafted narrative,   The story of the Christ child was prophesied in the days of Isaiah and has been told over and over for 2000 years. 

History has not swept this story away or changed it’s essential truths although some have made great efforts to do so.  On the other end of Christmas, Easter stands in the same way. “God with us” being tortured and killed and then rising on the third day to take his place next to the Father in heaven waiting to return and clean up this giant mess we call earth. That coming feels more imminent every day now.  No matter what spins around us, the Word of God is truth.  Jesus is truth.  He is our anchor for every storm.  But here is the thing.  A casual relationship with Jesus won’t hold in the storm.  A vague knowledge of God’s truth will not steer you through a dark night.  

When we think about drafting our New Year’s resolutions to get in shape, be more financially responsible, make a career change, laugh more, live in the moment more, etc., we need to put more Jesus, more prayer, and more Word at the top of the list. Do it with someone and hold each other accountable.  When the storms blew on Galilee, Jesus slept because he had perfect trust in the Father. When our seas get rough this year, we can rest if we have perfect trust in the Son who has power to command the storms in our life. Make him your greatest priority.