Praying God’s Sovereignty

The sovereignty of God.
We were reminded of it again this Easter season as Jesus’ resurrection demonstrated God’s power over sin, hell and the grave.

So is that what sovereignty means? That God won at the cross and He wins in the end – that by the book of Revelation He sorts everything out, throwing Satan off the premises for good, and setting everything eternally right?

Well, partly. But I don’t think that in between the empty tomb and Armageddon God lays down His power and right to rule. Sure, there’s room for a lot of mystery as I wonder how that fits in with free will and man’s power to make sinful choices... but I should never lose hold of what I do understand about God’s sovereignty, because it’s not just a dry theological fact. It matters when I serve the body of Christ and when I interact with unbelievers, and it matters when I pray.

That’s because Easter demonstrates that God can redeem anything at any point. No matter how far off track things have gotten and how dismal the prospect of anything ever being right again, God has a way back. He did it for the whole world at the resurrection; He offers it all the time in each of our daily lives. There’s never a point at which He shakes His head and says, “What a mess. It’s beyond Me.” He may choose to back off and let consequences occur – but He’s never bewildered or not quite strong enough or low on resources or caught without a plan.

Faith in God’s sovereignty makes a huge difference in the way I pray for myself or for my family or for my world. It’s the difference between little, wishful prayers and prayers as big as God is, as deep as His passion for restoring people to Himself, as powerful as the resurrection dynamis.

How can I grasp this in a practical way? I can pray Psalm 139 - that discourse on God’s sovereignty – and apply its truth to:
• myself... “Lord, you have searched me and known me... see if there is any offensive way in me”
• those I love and am concerned about... “Lord, I know You are familiar with all ---‘s ways... Where can she go from your Spirit?”...
• the unsaved I pray for... Their “darkness will not be dark to You... for darkness is as light to You”
• persecuted Christians, our military, our missionary families... “You hem them in, behind and before; You have laid Your hand on them”...

Psalm 139 is one way to bring God’s sovereignty into our prayers – and into the lives of those we pray for. Try it.

Easter All Year Long

You hear it in holiday songs and read it in Christmas cards; it’s the plaintive subject of Christmas sermons and children’s pageants and December devotionals: “Why can’t it be Christmas all year long?” Singers and writers and speakers often suggest ways to carry the aura of joy and celebration and general goodwill on into the coming New Year...

At Easter, we don’t have to work so hard at finding a way to turn once-a-year into a year-long observance. It’s already been done. While researching Easter symbols recently, I came across the following sentence on annieshomepage.com: “Sunday is an Easter symbol that is also observed the year-round. Christians traditionally worship on Sunday because that day is associated with the Resurrection.”

Maybe that’s one reason why Easter is my favorite holiday. It doesn’t come and go like the others. It’s always here, the first day of every week, the “Lord’s Day.” It’s just that once a year we stop and look at it directly, and see it afresh for what it is – a victory celebration in honor of Jesus Christ, Lord over sin and Satan and death and the grave, Lord of life and power and truth, Lord in you and in me, Lord alone and forever. And every subsequent Sunday morning worship service is its own “resurrection” of that celebration.

So come to FAC this week and we’ll celebrate Easter. Come the following Sunday and we’ll celebrate it all over again - because every Lord’s Day we praise a living Savior and hear in the strain of a hymn or a confident prayer or an encouraging Scripture something that echoes those final words spoken by Easter:

“It is finished... Christ is risen... Death is conquered... Satan is defeated... We are alive forevermore!”

Lion of Judah, Calvary's Lamb

Lions are imposing. Awe-inspiring. There’s a magnificence about their massive heads and tawny manes and slow, regal movements that commands respect.

I’ve only ever seen them in a zoo. Even then, I was happy about the sturdy fence and deep moat that separated us. Sure, I would have loved to put an arm around that great mane and patted a huge paw, but I didn’t consider doing anything like that – not for a minute. Lions aren’t... approachable.

But a lamb. So non-aggressive, so lacking in self-protection. Lambs are gentle and vulnerable as they look at the world around them. Lambs invite laughter as they frisk clumsily about. They practically beg to be patted and petted and whispered to as they lay mutely on their straw.

Nobody laughs with a lion. Nobody giggles in his ear. He is a very serious beast.

The theme for worship at FAC during these weeks surrounding Easter is “Lion of Judah, Calvary's Lamb.” Those words tell the Easter story. We needed a Savior, and God sent Jesus to conquer sin and death, and lead us into eternal life:

As our Lion, he took sin and Satan very seriously, and engaged them in a cosmic showdown. With relentless intent He set His face toward Jerusalem, and when He got there He dragged evil outside the city gate and mercilessly disposed of its power over mankind.

As our Lamb, our Savior became vulnerable to us. His betrayer easily came close to kiss Him. His executioners met no struggle. “He was led... to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). He did not recoil from the sin that was heaped upon Him, and He died without a snarl. Lambs don’t snarl.

In Revelation 5, the apostle John is shown a scroll filled with writing. It is sealed, however, and there is no one worthy to open it. He begins to weep at the impossibility of the situation, until an elder says to him, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll.” When John looks through tear-dimmed eyes to see this Lion, there appears... a Lamb, looking like it has been slain. A Lamb Who is being worshipped by living creatures and elders and angels numbering ten thousand times ten thousand, and every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth...

The Lion of Judah, Calvary's Lamb, our Savior and Lord.

I realize afresh this Easter that I need a lion and a lamb. A Lion Who commands my respect and protects me and defeats my enemies... and a Lamb Who invites me to come close and laugh in His ear and know Him intimately.

As Holy Week draws near, I want to worship Jesus Christ as both Lion and Lamb. The Lion Who has become approachable, the Lamb Who has become Lord.

Contented?

“Our Creator loves for us to be content.” That is a line from Sunday morning’s sermon. It’s a line from God’s Word, too; in fact, there's more than one:

- “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). [Or, as the Amplified more literally translates, ‘I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let you down!’ (Hebrews 13:5). Three negatives precede the verb!]

- “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation... I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (the apostle Paul, Philippians 4:11-13 NIV).

- “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6 NIV).

Such counsel both attracts and repels us at the same time. Perhaps, like our culture around us, we’ve become afraid of “content.”

Contentment, to the world, means quitting the quest for the best. It means settling for less, leaving abilities undeveloped, and losing influence. It involves abandoning goals and ignoring the vast world of need around us. Contentment connotes complacency and lack of initiative and acceptance of the sub-standard. Therefore, we conclude, contentment is the enemy of fulfillment and achievement.

That couldn’t be further from God’s mind! He sent His Son for the express purposes that “we might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV), and that Son promised, “If a man remains in me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit” (John 14:4-5 NIV). Christ’s disciple will reach his or her full capabilities - not by striving, but by remaining, resting, abiding.

Contentment is not our enemy. It’s the climate in which godliness best operates. Of course, Paul did say, “I have learned to be content.” It’s a learning process, and Jesus offers to be the Teacher:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV).

I think that if we prayerfully meditate on those words of Jesus, and step into yoke with Him, we’ll be pleasantly surprised both at how content He genuinely desires us to be – and how very possible it is.

Grace Upon Grace

Insufficiency.

It's a long word, but I think we understand it all too well: not enough.

In today’s world, we frequently experience the effects of “not enough.” Projects, events, commitments and dreams are postponed or cancelled or never even attempted, due to insufficient interest, insufficient time, insufficient funds.

And then there’s personal insufficiency – the inner realization that emotionally we are a house of cards that could collapse in the next gust of wind. That physically we are fragile even in the seeming best of health. That spiritually we are helpless to make the changes God is calling us to make.

The apostle Paul understood personal inadequacy. Describing the task of ministry to believers and unbelievers, he queried, “Who is equal to such a task?... not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves...” Yet he went on to add, “but our competence comes from God” (2 Corinthians 2:16-3:5 NIV).

Paul grasped a wonderful truth that he shared in a later letter to the church at Philippi: “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].” (Philippians 4:13 Amplified Bible).

Wow! Self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency! And how sufficient is Christ? Well, have you ever stood at Lake Erie’s shoreline or, better yet, on an ocean beach? If so, you’ve enjoyed a picture of Christ’s provision for us. Gospel songwriter Gordon Jensen describes it this way:

“Grace upon grace, like the waves on the shore,
Always enough,
Always more.
Grace upon grace, like the waves on the shore,
All that we need is ours from the Lord.”

God’s commitment to each of us will never be cancelled due to insufficient Love. His calling on our lives will never be scrapped because He lacks sufficient resources. His promises will never be rescinded due to insufficient divine power to fulfill them. Like wave upon wave, there’s always enough. Always more.

I’m praying for a better grasp of that truth. I do believe that if we could stand and drink in the realization that there’s an ocean of grace pounding incessantly at every shoreline in our lives, we could each say with the apostle Paul,

“I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.”

The Lord's Table

This past Sunday, as is our custom here at FAC on the first Sunday of each month, we observed Communion. It’s one of the few times in which we’re still and quiet together. The pastor begins the familiar “On the night Jesus was betrayed...,” and the music plays and each of us is (hopefully) preoccupied in his or her soul.

But what exactly are we to be doing while the bread and the cup is passed? I’ve assumed we were basically to remember His agonizing death on the cross, but maybe that’s a little narrow. The apostle Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian believers urge them (and us) to use those moments...

• to seriously consider our spiritual condition and our lives.“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup” (11:28 NIV). Are we living in fellowship with God and other people? Like a red flag or a stop sign, we’re not to proceed before all is clear. Instead of feeling threatened by the checkpoint, though, we can welcome it as an opportunity to realign with God and know that all is well with our souls.

• to think lovingly of Jesus. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood... Do this, as often as you drink [it], to call Me [affectionately] to remembrance” (1 Corinthians 11:25, Amplified Bible). Sometimes the chaos of life pushes Jesus to the back of our minds. At the Lord’s Table we can contemplate a Savior Who is, as Pastor Rick said Sunday, “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” We can think about how wonderful He is and what amazing things He’s done for us.

• to celebrate the gift of atonement! Certainly there is a place at the Lord’s Supper to enter into Christ’s suffering, but it is also appropriate to joyfully celebrate the “It is finished!” Redemption’s plan is completed and what a difference it has made in our lives!

• to anticipate His return. By our observance of Communion we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (11:26 NIV). Through Jesus’ death we’ve been invited into God’s eternal presence, and one great Day He will return for His own. “Maranatha,” we can say at the Lord’s Table, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

I think Paul gave us quite a bit to think about – what about you? Any thoughts to add?

Keys to the Kingdom

Just after Peter had confessed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus blessed him for his divinely inspired declaration and said,
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”
(Matthew 16:15-19)

I have never forgotten evangelist Doug Newton’s application of Jesus’ promise. Our words, he said, can be keys that unlock the kingdom for another person. In a sermon on “the ministry of certainty,” Doug spoke of the many ways people are imprisoned inwardly, locked behind doors of fear and uncertainty and discouragement. They’re asking questions like,

• “What should I do?” They long for guidance.
• “Am I able? Do I have what it takes?” They doubt their ability.
• “How am I doing?” They question their effectiveness.

If we listen more closely, we just may hear these – and other - silent questions crying out from the lives around us. Children, parents, pastors, church workers, spouses, and friends need to hear answers, and our Spirit-prompted words can be like a key that unlocks the kingdom for them.

Haven’t you experienced it yourself? You were a monument of uncertainty until someone spoke just what you needed to hear, and it was as though a locked door swung open. You understood a spiritual secret you had never grasped before, or received assurance that dispelled doubt, or suddenly saw with clarity what God wanted you to do, and a whole new vista opened up before you.

Then how do we find the “key” that someone else needs? The prophet Isaiah knew the secret:
“The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue,to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught” (Isaiah 50:4).

Our “instructed tongue” learns what to speak only by listening to the Teacher. The Sovereign Lord alone can awaken us to the need and the needed word. By spending time at His feet, we’ll be able to find the key that turns the lock and opens the door for someone full of uncertainty today.