Category Archives: Prayer

“I guess it’s just meant to be.”

The words rolled off her tongue, a verbal white flag.*

Before, even months ago, I probably would have nodded, smiled, perhaps even commended her for her full surrender.

But now, something rose up inside, indignant.

No. That is not true. The works of the devil are not just “meant to be.” 

They are meant to be  … destroyed. (1 John 3:8)

The anger that rose up inside wasn’t about me. In fact, it would’ve been easier, in that moment, to assent to this line of thinking. Easier to slip my hand softly on hers, around that white flag, and wave it with her, to resign together to the “will of God” and feel a strange sort of comfort, pride even, that we were chosen to “suffer” in that way.

Except that isn’t what our King calls us to do.

Friends, it’s hard to even know what to write here, confined to a few hundred words every few days. I wish I could share with you in person all that God is doing. Online communication is so flat, so prone to be misconstrued or misunderstood. Sharing my heart in this space feels like trying to write a memoir on a post-it-note.

Remember that statue, the one I mentioned here, it’s coming unveiled, taking shape, and it’s massive. It changes everything. It has everything to do with the power and presence of God coming here, to earth, because of Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, to actively move, convict, free, heal, save, transform. It has everything to do with the simple prayer, Your Kingdom Come.

This bit about suffering is huge. It radically changes the way we pray. Digging deep into God’s Word clearly reveals the heart and will of God. He’s shown us the Stuff Jesus Does and He’s verbally given us a clear and great Commission. Sure, He might not have told us which brand of toilet paper to buy, but He’s made His overarching will for us on earth crystal clear.

Preach the gospel and perform signs to physically demonstrate the love and power of God (Matt. 10:7, Mark 6:12-13, Luke 10:9, John 10:38). Destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). While you do that, you will suffer much persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). But the persecution will actually work to increase your hope and prove your faith and prepare for you a glorious reward in heaven (Rom 5:3-5; 1 Pet. 1:6-7, 2 Cor. 4:17).

Here is what I’m trying to say: I have taken the biblical concept of surrender and skewed it.  It has slipped from surrender to resignation to fatalism, all in the name of trusting the sovereignty of God. This is a perverted view of sovereignty. God is SO sovereign that “when He redeems a situation He does it so thoroughly that it looks like He created the problem as an opportunity for His power and glory to be seen” (Bill Johnson). [bctt tweet=”When God redeems a situation He does it so thoroughly that it looks like He created the problem as an opportunity for His power and glory to be seen.” @billjohnsonBJM”]

We think that a situation was “meant to be” but in reality God is so powerful He can destroy the works of the devil and turn them on their head, redeeming them and using them for good. But He calls us to partner with Him in this. Practically, this means that we must not just resign to the evil around us, but we must believe God and press in, praying in faith for the complete redemption of every evil, for the glory of God and the furthering of His kingdom.

Get what I mean about a memoir on a post-it-note? There’s just so much to talk about here!

What does this mean for my mundane today?

• It means I will refuse to mindlessly accept all that happens as “meant to be.”
• It means I will immerse myself in the Word of God so I can better understand His heart and His will.
• It means I will pray in faith, as best as I can, for evil to be destroyed, for sin and sickness to be destroyed, for salvation and health and life to spring up, so that many will witness the power and glory of God.
• It means I won’t look at my child’s sin and say, “Oh that’s just the way she is. It’s the terrible twos.”
• It means I won’t give in to cynicism and defeat.

Getting really mundane it means I won’t give in to the entropy of my endlessly dirty house–I will reject apathy and destroy the works of the devil and scrub that toilet once again! 🙂

I will surrender my way, and my will, and take up God’s way and God’s will. And I will trust His Word to show me that good and perfect will.

Fatalism says, the future is fixed. Accept it. Faith says, God is alive, and He has graciously chosen me to be an active part of His will, in His world, to let His Kingdom come.

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

{Thanks for reading.}

*This is a fictitious conversation that’s a compilation of various discussions and situations.

Another game?  I was kind of anxious for this thing to just be over with.

It’s a terrible thing for the retreat speaker to say, I adore these ladies and we’d had a fabulous time, but it was late Saturday night, I had one more session and a long drive home ahead, and I’d just heard some disturbing news and was eager to get back home and deal with it. (You know, since it all depends on me. *smile*)

Instead, while I inwardly wrangled that worry down like a wild crocodile … they were going to play a dancing version of musical chairs.

Really? I have a thousand worries tossing to and fro inside, this crazy storm brewing in my soul and I’m sitting here watching musical chairs? Deep breath.

Ok, Lord, I trust You, I’ll look for you here. 

These precious ladies situated themselves in a large circle. The leader began explaining the rules, and I was struck afresh by her joviality and joy, her easy-going attitude about everything, especially since she’s got seven kids at home including a 16-year-old daughter with Downs Syndrome.

The “chairs” for this game were the 5-gallon bean-buckets from her pantry. Someone sits on pinto, another on Great Northern. This lady knows mundane faith.

But as the five chosen contestants situated themselves around the musical buckets, she interrupts my daydreaming admiration by mentioning the final detail:

“Oh, and you’ll be dancing blindfolded.” 

My interest piques every so slightly. Blindfold dancing? I’ve seen this before, at a college retreat, and can attest to the fact that it is, perhaps, the funniest thing on the planet.

But this was even better.

This was a group, not of college students who are used to being footloose and free, this was a group of middle-aged women. This was a group wearing color-coordinating eternity-scarves and neat strands of pearls. These were Bible-carrying, verse-referencing, polite, respectable women.

I watched their faces as they were handed blindfolds: Not thrilled.

But then something happened. With the blindfolds secure and the sight of all of the rest of us completely removed from their vision, the music started, and lo and behold …

These girls could dance.

“Because I’m happy! Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof…”

Pretty soon our amusement turned to chuckles turned to laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Tears spilling over. I had watched these ladies all weekend long; this was not their norm.

Ever-careful, ever-measured movements gone. They were free. 

Something in that room transformed. It was beautiful. They were beautiful. Joyful, unhindered exuberant dancing. I watched them and couldn’t help but pray, Lord let me live like that.

No, not making a fool of myself. *smile*

I mean, it is a ridiculous comedic version of Peter walking on water. Right?

“‘Lord! If it is you, command me to come to You on the water.’ And Jesus said, ‘Come!'” (Matt. 14:28)

As soon as Peter heard that beautiful music, the voice of Jesus calling, Come, Peter became blessedly blind to the crashing, wild, deadly waves assaulting his senses.  [bctt tweet=”When Peter heard Jesus calling, he became blessedly blind to the waves. “]

The miracle of pure faith: Walking on water, doing what Jesus did, defying physical laws, living by the greater, spiritual ones instead.

But as soon as Peter took that blessed blindfold off, when he looked back down at the waves which rose, incessant, threatening … as soon as he looked back down at this and away from Jesus, he sank.

Jesus is perfect theology. Jesus is truth. Jesus is life.

The fight of faith for me is to blindfold myself to the crashing, wild, deadly waves that assault my senses each day.  To refuse to fix my gaze on all that is unanswered and unclear in this messy sea of life and to fix my soul’s gaze on the face of Jesus, bringing Him my honest questions from a pure heart of faith.

Questions clarify truth and bring life, doubt discourages and brings death.

Jesus, let me hear the music of Your voice, through Your Word. Let me walk based on Your beautiful beckoning, Come!, blindfolded to the onslaught of anti-faith that threatens my senses each day.

Though I may look a little foolish to the world, I know I’ll find an inner victory — faith.

{Dance! Thanks for reading.}

Dear friends, I want to thank you all for journeying with me on this road of discovering who God is, as healer. I know discussions like these can bring excruciating pain, bitter memories, and heartache to the surface. My friend Christine says, “God breaks our hearts to bring breakthrough.” The reason I am pleading with God for breakthrough in our understanding, is because of my own broken heart.

We all have walked through different sorts of pain. I’ve not walked through yours and you’ve not walked through mine. It serves no purpose to compare our wounds. They’re different.

Several years ago a friend of mine died of cancer, at age 36. I prayed fervently for her healing. She left two young children. My dear Mama has suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 12 years. Nothing has broken me wide open like watching my precious Mama walk through pain, humiliation, suffering, frustration. It seems that daily I hear more news of young Mamas and Daddies dying of cancer, of sweet children’s lives cut short. Certainly suffering isn’t new to the scene, but I wonder if God isn’t stirring up in our spirits an Enough already broken-heart that might breakthrough, that we might see Him move mightily in our day?

I don’t know, friends. I don’t know exactly what He will do.

But I know Him. He’s my Dada-God. 

And that is what I’d like to put front and center today.

This weekend I read a sweet book called Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet. I’ll admit, I believe that theologically we need to be very careful with that saying. Everything is NOT good and everything is NOT sweet, But God. God is good and God is sweet and God is gracious in all things. Let us always be certain we say that He is the gift, not the evil that He sovereignly allows.

Evil is evil and God is good.

But what I appreciated about hearing Sara Hagerty’s story of suffering, is that she brings all healing and suffering into the context of relationship. Similarly, in Heidi’s Baker’s phenomenal book Birthing the Miraculous, she always points back to the supernatural and miraculous happening in the context of an intimate, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. As Sara says,

“To know God as Healer is a relationship, not a moment.”

If we truly want to know healing, we must know Jehovah Rapha, The LORD our Healer. She also recognizes that for years she saw herself as a beggar, unnoticed by God, who needed to whine or beg to try to get his attention. She says,

“My request, around which my fingers had been clenched for years, was meant to be delivered palm to palm as I sat on His lap in confidence.”

Let us always remember our identity–beloved children of the King. He promises His goodness because of who He is (the Good, Omnipotent God) and who we are (His beloved children). We need not scrap and beg and whine. We’re not street urchins tugging on the robe of an uncaring ruler. We ask palm to palm. We need only crawl up onto His lap in loving relationship, immersing ourselves in the truth of His Word, and frame our requests in the context of relationship.

There is more, much more, I’d like to share, from the Scriptures on God’s power to heal, and how we are to proceed from here.  I think there are some dangerous ditches on either side, and I want to be careful we don’t wind up there. So I’ll write some more in the following weeks, but wanted to pause here first. Because no matter what type of suffering we’re walking through, one thing is the same.

If you’re experiencing the suffering of persecution: Draw near to Dada-God.

If you’re experiencing the pain of sickness: Draw near to Dada-God.

If you’ve lost a loved one to tragedy: Draw near to Dada-God.

Instead of shaking a fist at God or recoiling in fear that it’s all your fault, crawl up onto His lap and honestly pour out your pain to Him. It does no good to mask it or make up our own theologies to explain away the hurt. It doesn’t work. The reality is that who God says He is, and what we see in our daily lives, don’t always seem to match up. Turn to Him with those areas of apparent contradiction and humbly ask Him to reveal Himself as Daddy, as Healer, as Redeemer.

God loves you. I pray that as we continue to travel this road and wade through the Word as it pertains to this topic, that you will know the love of God who bore our pain on the cross, who was acquainted with grief and sorrow, who walks with us through every valley of the shadow of death.

As we wait for our healing, hoping, hand-in-hand with Him, we are being healed.

Thank you for reading. 

“Suffering is suffering is suffering.” 

This is a quote I read in a book last year. At the time, I agreed, but as I’ve continued to study the scriptures this year, I’m rethinking.

In fact, I need to contact the author and let her know I think this is incorrect. So, that’s what I’m doing …

The author was me. (smile)

See, I’ve always thought that: suffering is suffering is suffering. That is, whether it’s sickness or hardship or persecution or emotional pain, it’s all vaguely classified as hard stuff, right? Or, in a biblical term, trials. Right? And so our response is basically the same–Rejoice.  Scripture says to rejoice when we face various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces perseverance (James 1:2-3).

We can safely surmise, then, that it is God’s will that we suffer because that produces perseverance in our lives. So we can gladly accept any hard stuff, whatever it is, right?

Well …

A close look at Scripture reveals some interesting nuances; here are a few observations..

Please note: My prayer for us is that we simply make these as observations, and are slow to draw final conclusions or judgments. We are in the process of studying God’s Word and it’s a process. *smile*

1. No godly person in Scripture ever died young of disease. (They were either martyred or lived long lives–God “fulfilled the number of their days” Ex. 23:26).
2. MANY godly persons in Scripture died as martyrs (i.e. persecution). In fact, all the disciples except John died martyr’s deaths. John died of old age after a long life.
3. Jesus completely healed every single sick person who came to him. (While certainly not every single sick person was healed during Jesus’ time on earth, but all who came to Him were. That is, Jesus never said “no” to a person requesting healing.)
4. Jesus did nothing to prevent the martyrdom of John the Baptist, who was beheaded.
5. The “prescription” for those suffering, is to pray (James 5:13)
6. The “prescription” for those sick is to “call for the elders and let them anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:13).
7. In Scripture, the suffering of persecution was a sign of godliness, a crown, an honor, a way of identifying with Jesus’ suffering on the cross (Heb. 10:34, Phil 3:10, Heb 11:32-38)
8. In Scripture, the suffering of sickness was a sign of sin (NOT necessarily that particular individual‘s sin but the general decaying effect of sin) and the curse and was removed by the power of Jesus’ finished work on the cross (Matt 8:17).
9. The Great Commission (to make disciples) was 3-fold: 1)Preach the gospel 2) Cast out demons 3) Heal the sick.  The early church prayed specifically, when they were being actively persecuted and their lives were in danger, “Grant to your servants to continue to speak your words with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29).
10. Although the persecuted are promised special blessing in the beatitudes (Matt. 5:10-12), there is no such reward or promise for the sick.
11. In the promised “hardships of ministry” (1 Cor. 6:4-10) sickness and disease are nowhere mentioned. Persecution and poverty, yes. Disease, no.

Now, please hear my heart–that last thing I intend to do is to discourage the sick by saying there is no promised blessing or by pointing out that no godly person in scripture died of sickness. The LAST thing that sick folks need is discouragement!

My point is this: We need to pray in-line with God’s will, with confidence knowing how we are to pray and respond to various types of suffering. And although yes, we ARE to rejoice always (again I say rejoice!), we also need to armed with the truth and pray effectively.

We tend to resist any form of persecution and pray resolutely against it and yet we lie down and accept sickness and diseases of all forms. It’s backwards! Jesus said to rejoice when we are persecuted for His name, but to lay hands on and heal the sick. [bctt tweet=”Jesus said, Rejoice when we are persecuted and heal the sick.”]

Why? I don’t know the answers, but I do know that it all has to do with displaying God’s power and furthering His kingdom.

I hope and pray to know better the powerful love and will of Jesus, and to know His heart. As best as we can, let’s pray in accordance with His will, knowing He hears. Amen? Thank you so much for reading.