Day 4: The Life Which I Now Live

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galations 2:20

 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

Perhaps you don’t even realize you’ve given up.

Resignation has replaced the faith in God you once had that your prayers would be answered. Or maybe you have a request that seems so audacious you’ve yet to voice it. It  hovers on the outskirts of your mind while you wonder, Is my God really that big?

For this week of Lent, we are going to focus on faith. The Bible tells us that if we have mustard seed faith, we can move mountains. I’d like to take God at his word by growing my faith in Him: trusting Him with my prayers, both big and small; leaning on Him in difficult times; praising Him when all is well — and when it isn’t.

 What Is Faith?

One way to nurture faith is by simply spending time with Jesus. In the little book The Promise of Answered Prayer, Jim Cymbala says,  “Faith is especially nurtured when we just wait in God’s presence, taking the time to love him and listen for his voice. Strength to keep believing often flows into us as we simply worship the Lord. The promise of scripture becomes wonderfully alive as the Spirit applies them to our hearts.”

This year I’ve focused on waiting quietly with God. Several times a week, I pick up my prayer journal, still my heart, and just sit with God, listening for His voice and journaling what I feel the Holy Spirit witnessing to me. It’s been hard to make myself stay still. A million tasks vie for my attention, but as I sit at Jesus’ feet, He brings scriptures to my mind to read, and people to my heart to pray for, and sin to be confessed. He gives me wisdom for situations I’m facing and peace for my soul and pictures to ponder.

These times of quiet add a richness and depth to my devotion time that was absent before.

Now I find that if I don’t have this one-on-one with Him that I miss it. I long for his presence and that still, small voice whispering to my heart, fanning the sparks of faith into flames. And I’ve learned that faith is not the absence of difficulties, but the presence of Jesus in the midst of difficulties.

This week, let’s remember that faith does not rest on our abilities, but on the ability of the One we believe in, as Psalm 130:5-6 reminds us:

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord

more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.

What will you put your faith in God for this week?

Pray on!

Fish and Loaves Faith

“Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barely loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” John 6:8

Read John 6:1-15

Miracle Story

Of all the miracle stories in the Bible, this is one of my favorites–for many reasons. First of all, I love the fact that the lunch of five small barley loaves and two small fish belonged to a child.

Understand, the Bible leaves some of the details of this exchange to our imaginations, so I don’t know that this is exactly how the story unfolded, but I imagine it playing out in the following way:

The Bible tells us that Jesus asks Philip where they should go to buy bread for the five thousand people to eat. Philip replies that eight months of salary wouldn’t be nearly enough to feed the crowd of people.

Here is where things get interesting. I think that perhaps a young boy who is sitting close to where Jesus is teaching hears the conversation between Jesus and his friends and eagerly offers his lunch that his mom packed for him that morning. It would be just like a child not to see the futility of his meager lunch feeding such a crowd, but to instead faithfully hand over his bread and fish to Andrew to give to Jesus. And it would be just the typical adult thing to then bring it to Jesus—with the caveat of “but how far will they go among so many?”

Spark of Faith

Jesus was just waiting for that spark of faith. He takes the lunch, has everyone sit down, gives thanks for the fish and bread, and passes it around–and everyone took as much as they wanted (v. 11). After they had all eaten, Jesus wants nothing wasted, so the disciples gather up 12 baskets of leftovers!

Doesn’t it seem that we could learn a lot about faith from children? In most cases, their minds have not yet been clouded by the harsh realities of life. It’s not hard for them to believe in the improbable, or the impossible.Their eyes can easily see the thin space between the reality of this world and the unseen heavenlies where angels, miracles, and God all live. Jesus took the little boy’s lunch and multiplied it into a buffet for 5000.

That’s the kind of faith that Jesus is watching for, that we need to cultivate. A faith that causes us to unflinchingly step forward and offer up our bread and fish to Jesus to multiply beyond our wildest expectations.

When we feel that nudge of the Spirit to take our offering to God, we need to stamp out the adult voice that rises up with a “But, …” and just give it. Or just do it.

What does this look like in our lives?

• The nudge to give that $20 to a charity, even though it’s just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.
• The nudge to teach a Bible class, even though you’re not a “real” teacher.
• The nudge to keep praying for your wayward child, even though you haven’t seen any change in three years.
• The nudge to start a Moms-In-Touch prayer group at your child’s school, even though you’ve never led anything in the past.

A vibrant faith requires that I present to God what I have. Jesus is waiting for people with a fish-and-loaves faith to take Him up on His promises so He can to equip us (2 Timothy 3:17) and set us loose in His kingdom. The results are up to Him.

What do you have to offer Him today? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Fish-and-Loaves Faith is the second post in our  faith series. Please leave a comment below on your thoughts, feelings, or experiences in growing your faith.

Image courtesy of [FrameAngel] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

Read John 5: 1-9

Don’t you just love that Jesus isn’t afraid to live His life on the edge?

As chapter five opens, we see that Jesus is once again in the middle of a group of people who aren’t the up and comers of Jerusalem: they are all blind, lame, or paralyzed (v 4). Can’t you just picture Jesus walking by the Sheep Gate and being drawn to the crowd of helpless people lying by the pool? Jesus always has the poor, the orphans, the helpless, and the sick on his radar, and I can just imagine Him making a beeline for the worst one there. Verse six tells us that Jesus learns that one of the men has been sick for 38 years.

Jesus then asks him what seems to be an obvious question: “Do you want to get well?”

Why would Jesus ask this question when the man has been lame for 38 years? Surely the answer has to be yes. I wonder if Jesus did this because the man has lost hope, accepting this affliction as his permanent reality. Perhaps Jesus needs to reawaken in this man his dreams of a normal life and a healthy body.

You’ll notice that the man doesn’t directly answer Jesus’ question with a yes or no. He instead offers an explanation as to why he hasn’t received healing—he has no one to help him in the pool when the water is stirred, so someone else always gets there first. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder the man is discouraged.

Probably every day a friend or family member on his way to work carries the lame man to the pool and then picks him up on the way home. All day the lame man simply waits and watches the water—we don’t even know how often the Spirit stirs the water. Every day, week, or month? At the first ripple of water, the man desperately tries to crawl or roll to the pool, but for 38 years, someone else always gets there first.

I can just imagine that Jesus stays quiet until the lame man stops talking. Jesus locks eyes with the man and tells him “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” And just like that, he does. Thirty-eight years of atrophy gone in one second.

What can our friend from the pool of Bethesda teach us?

• A vibrant faith reawakens hope in our lives. When the lame man meets Jesus, he sees the power of God in Jesus. This ignites his faith, and Jesus heals him.

• A vibrant faith sometimes requires us to make a move. The lame man has to act on that faith. He takes Jesus at his word, picks up his mat, and stands up.

Where has hope died in your life? Jesus is trying to get your attention, look you in the eye, and shake you out of your spiritual paralysis.

What is he asking you to move out of and on to in your life? Like the lame man did, we need to pick up our mats and leave behind the years that crippled us. Faith flies in the face of years of bad habits, patterns, and stagnation and moves us toward health and healing and possibilities.

This is the first blog in our faith series. Please leave a comment below on your thoughts, feelings, or experiences in growing your faith.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.” Proverbs 25:28

A big snowstorm the night before had dropped lots of snow in our city—so much that the schools were closed for the day. But of course that didn’t slow down my 9-year-old son, and he and his neighborhood friends had been outside for hours playing. After awhile, the boys split into two groups and began building snow forts in preparation for a massive snowball fight. They needed strong, sturdy walls to keep the enemy out and to protect “command central” from which they would stockpile their ammo (lots of snowballs) and plan their warfare.

With preparations finally complete, I watched as the boys tried to break into each other’s snow forts, knowing that if they could breach the enemy’s walls, they could probably win the battle.

Today, I’m fascinated by the history of city walls and gates. According to BibleHistory.com, in ancient times, walls around cities were of utmost importance to both cities and villages. Cities were large areas with many homes, a metropolitan area, and were surrounded by protective walls. Villages were smaller areas than cities and did not have walls around them. They were often located close to a city and depended on that city for commerce and protection.

The walls of a city were very tall and several meters thick, with a flat top and towers. The flat top enabled guards to walk along the top edge and see far in every direction—both inside and outside of the city. They could watch for criminal activity inside the city, and they could watch for enemy invasions coming from outside the city.

Towers were built higher than the rest of the wall and were often positioned on top of a gate. They were also located where the walls turned a corner (called corner towers). The towers allowed even greater visibility and also provided a protected place to fire off arrows and hurl other weapons at the enemy. The gates themselves were an important part of a city’s life. The gates were open during the day to allow for commerce and travel and were closed at night to protect the city. Important meetings were often held at the gates.

Ultimately, a city depended upon its walls for protection. If the walls were breached or knocked down, an enemy could overtake the city. Understanding the importance of a city wall helps us understand this analogy as God compares a man who has no rule over his own spirit to a city without walls.

When we go through our days without taking charge over our own spirits, we are like a biblical city that didn’t have a wall to protect it. We are vulnerable to attack from the enemy.

So, how do we have rule over our own spirit? By protecting our “walls.”

I believe the main way is by putting on the armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18. God does not leave us without protection while we are living on this earth. We have our armor to protect us from enemy attacks, we have prayer to fight the battle, and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us. We need to be proactive to protect ourselves.

However, the threat is from more than outside sources. Just as the soldiers of an ancient city could see criminal activity within their own city walls, we must also protect ourselves from the battle we fight with our flesh from within ourselves, because it’s just not outside enemy attacks that can hurt us—our own decisions and choices can lead to our downfall as well. Having control over our own spirits means that we live as mature believers, taking control of our emotions, actions and words. It means walking in the Spirit so that we do not gratify the desire of the flesh. We must set a guard on what we watch, read, hear and do.

When we set boundaries, our “walls of protection” can’t be breached, but when we ignore our own boundaries, we can end up saying things we regret; we can end up dwelling on negative, fearful thoughts; or, we can end up in places we shouldn’t be doing things we shouldn’t be doing. We have then breached our own walls of protection, giving the enemy a foothold into our lives. If we repent and make a better choice, we can move forward. If we repeat the bad pattern, it can become a stronghold.

Just as a bunch of 9-year-old boys understood the importance of walls in winning the battle, as Christians we too must be savvy enough to maintain the walls of protection in our own lives.

Thought: Keep your wall of protection in good repair.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, We thank You that You have not left us defenseless. You have given us the armor of God to protect us, prayer to wage the battle and the Holy Spirit to guide us. Help us to make the right choices each day so that we can live in freedom, not in bondage. Amen.

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I’m reading a good book by Henry and Norman Blackaby called Experiencing Prayer with Jesus:  The Power of His Presence and Example. I came across this quote that really made me stop and think .

Prayer is not for the purpose of getting God to help us … but for getting us in line with what God is about to do. Prayer is God’s invitation to enter His throne room so He can lay His agenda over our hearts.

I haven’t ever looked at prayer in quite this way before. It really is a training and molding ground for our hearts. It’s more about God preparing us so that He can start using us by working through us. I began to think about how much of my time I spend on asking God for things versus how much time I am in prayer for the Spirit to use me. Now I still think we need to bring our requests before God, but I also see how we need to be quiet so that the Spirit can start to do the work in our lives that God wants to do.

What do you think? What does this look like for your prayer time? Does it change anything?  

Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment and pray on!