"I believe, help my unbelief"

The resurrection reminds us of the life giving, Spirit empowered reality of Christ’s victory over death, sin and Satan (Colossians 2:15). It redirects our often distracted gaze back to the cross with the guarantee that God has restored us to himself and given us eternal life. With the promise of our unshakable and eternal union with Christ, we also gain confidence that every lesser promise will be fulfilled, or as the apostle Paul put it – every one of his promises are “yes and amen” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). The certainty that he’s not only secured our eternal destiny but has taken responsibility for meeting all our needs, enables us to recommit our hearts to seeking first his Kingdom and righteousness, knowing that all these other things will be provided as well (Matthew 6:33).

If…. then…. 

If he did not hold back his Son and allowed him to suffer and die on the cross to restore our broken relationship, then why would he not give us everything else we need (Romans 8:32)? God guarantees that if we set our hearts on him and his Kingdom, he will take care of all the other needs. He has written this promise, along with thousands of others concerning his intention to lovingly look after his children, and sealed them in the blood of Christ so that we do not have to wonder if he is really serious. Since he’s already given us the greater gift of his Son and his Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, he’ll most definitely give us the less significant gifts that we need for life so that we can effectively follow Him. 

It takes trust…. Too often there is a huge disconnect in our lives and practice with regard to trusting him for “all these other things”. I’ve found this to be true in my own life. I often say without any hesitation I trust in his promise that when I die I will go to be with Christ. But ask me on certain days if I’m sure about God’s provision for my other perceived needs and I may flinch. I realize how completely illogical it is for me to say that I’m trusting Christ to save me, to literally raise me from the dead and give me a resurrection body, and still live in doubt that God is going to provide all the essentials for life. 

The only way to bridge the gap of this fear and doubt is through knowing him better, spending time in the Word and prayer. He says that faith comes from hearing (listening to, trusting and following) his Word (Romans 10:17). The more we learn about his faithful love, along with his many other characteristics, the more inclined we are to trust him to do what he says he’ll do in the here and now as well as the distant future. One story that is especially inspiring in overcoming the gulf between trusting in God’s power to transform day to day life and the actual unbelief we’re living in is of the man who came to Jesus for healing of his tormented son (Mark 9:14-29). He came complaining that the disciples could not heal his son, but Jesus turned the conversation back to his own lack of faith when he basically asked him, “What about you? Do you believe I am who I claim to be and can transform your life right now in this moment?” Rather than walk away in shame or even try to cover up his lack of faith he responded with humility and honesty, “I believe. Help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). 

Interestingly, his willingness to confess and repent of his unbelief stands in great contrast to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were, as Isaiah prophesied and Jesus proclaimed, “ever seeing but not perceiving” (Isaiah 6:9; Mark 4:12). Their self-sufficiency and self-righteousness kept them from seeing their need for God’s miraculous intervention in salvation as well as daily grace to provide for their needs. Like the parable of the rich man who had so much “stuff” that he built a barn to store his excess, they had learned to trust in their own wisdom, resources and strength instead of turning to Christ in childlike faith and asking him to meet their needs, both the greater and the lesser (Luke 12:13-21). 

Thousands of years later we realize that we are also immersed in the same kind of culture – one that either denies the need for God’s power or has reduced him to a savior who will eventually keep us from eternal destruction. When we embrace either way of thinking, we miss out on experiencing his all sufficient presence and provision throughout the minutes of our lives. Instead of truly believing Christ’s command to seek him first, to love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to trust him to give us everything, we listen to the lies that tell us we have to seek first our own security and self-preservation. The underlying fear and unbelief in God’s goodness, ability and power, keeps us from looking to him to abundantly care for us and supply all our needs. And we end up anxious, confused and missing out on a whole lot more than we could ever imagine (James 1:6-8). 

The great news is we don’t have to keep living like this. We can call out to the Father with the same prayer a desperate man prayed over 2,000 years ago when he saw his need for God’s hand in his everyday life, while also recognizing his own lack of faith – “I believe, help my unbelief!” It’s a prayer of faith the Father loves to answer that will change the trajectory of our lives, as we make the shift from trusting in own abilities and resources to allowing Christ to be both Lord and Savior. Letting go of this striving frees us to rest in his all-sufficient love and provision and enables us to live out our true purpose in life. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Great video on God's "khesed", loyal love, and how knowing this love frees us to trust him for all things!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfbyFLgs_NM

God Never Forgets His Beloved

 Even in prison Joseph honored the Lord's name and brought him glory as the all-powerful, all-knowing God who alone could interpret dreams. His testimony of God's greatness, along with his humble dependence on him, revealed a deep friendship with God which was cultivated in a prison cell of suffering (Psalm 25:14). His suffering, rather than being a sign of the absence of God, was evidence that he was being set apart for a special purpose, which God fulfilled in his life. God never forgets his beloved!

We tend to focus on the many years Joseph spent in prison as he was waiting for God to deliver him. Even after asking the cupbearer to remember him, he was forgotten for two more years. But God never forgot him. During this time, Joseph was learning to trust the Lord with all his heart and not rely on what he could understand (Proverbs 4:5-6). He was learning endurance and perseverance in trust in spite of his circumstances (Romans 5:3). What seemed like the worst years of his life were instead some of most blessed as God taught him how to walk closely with himself.

I’m amazed as I read about the imprisonment of believers and how they seemed to thrive in captivity, much like Joseph. Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in a Romanian prison camp because of the Gospel. There, he was beaten daily and subjected to much physical suffering. Amazingly, he and the other prisoners used their chains to sing songs of praise to God. After being released, the Lord led him to start one of the most powerful ministries to persecuted Christians in the world – Voice of the Martyrs. If we choose to focus on the terrible aspect of his suffering, we miss the whole point. He did suffer tremendously, but eclipsing this horror was the greatness, glory and power of Christ in him (2 Corinthians 4:17). This resurrection power by the indwelling Holy Spirit that Paul writes about enabled him to keep praying for and loving his enemies (Ephesians 1:19), to show Christ’s sacrificial love to other prisoners, to stand on God’s promise and rejoice in the midst of pain and, finally, to return to the trenches so that he could show Christ’s compassion and love to other Christians suffering persecution throughout the world. 

Another miraculous story showing the overriding grace and glory of God in suffering is the life of John Bunyan. He was also put in prison because of the Gospel, because he refused to give up his right to preach as a free man, saying he’d rather that moss grow on his eyelids in the prison than to give up that for which God had called him to do. During his imprisonment he wrote ten books, one of which is the second best-selling book of all time – Pilgrim’s Progress. He later testified that God gave him the story in a dream and then enabled him to write it. What seemed like wasted years in a cell, God used to bring a story of redemption that would reach hundreds of millions of people: "What [Satan] meant for evil, God meant for good" (Genesis 50:20). When John Bunyan was set free, he was one of the most sought after preachers of his day. People wanted to hear from a man who learned to walk closely with God during extreme suffering and loss and was still declaring the goodness and kindness of God.

We may not experience such extreme suffering, but we will definitely go through times where it feels like we’re locked up in some kind of cell (John 15:20; 16:33). A prison is a place where we feel trapped, where there’s no sign of being delivered, where there are sparse supplies of something that we desperately feel we need. Instead of focusing of all the ways that we’re missing out and losing our freedom in these prisons, God wants us to rejoice in him, to thank him for his sovereign goodness and kindness in allowing us to be where we are and to rest in his good plan (Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:18). He promises that he’s with us no matter where we are, and that nothing will ever be able to separate us from his love (Matthew 28:20; Romans 8:38). He promises that even in the deepest darkest places, like the bottom of an ocean, he’s there -- and it’s not darkness to him (Psalm 139:8). Where we go, he goes. And where he is the light of the glory of Christ is shining (Matthew 5:14). 

Jesus: The Lifter of our Guilt and Shame

The enemy of our souls is a master of shame. He uses it to crush us under the lie of worthlessness and makes our lives miserable. His favorite weapon with us, just as it was with Adam and Eve, is to first tempt us to sin and then to hurl accusations at us regarding our shame and guilt (Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10). In the Garden, Adam and Eve were so shamed that they hid from God, the very One who lovingly made them and walked with them in intimate communion as their Good Father (Genesis 3:8).

The great news is that if we are in Christ, God beckons us to come to him through Christ's atoning blood to receive his glory covering in place of our shame. The Bible says that "those who trust in him will never be put to shame" and that their "faces are never covered with shame" (Rom 10:11; Ps 34:5). This isn't, of course, because Christians are sinless, but because of the imputed righteousness of Christ credited to our account (Rom 5; 1 Jn 1:8). He promises that nothing can ever separate us from his love and that instead of being covered with shame and guilt he has covered us with his honored robe of Christ's very righteousness (Rom 8; Is 61:10). Theologians call this an alien righteousness since it does not originate with us but with Christ our Lord -- who is our "righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor 1:30). When we sin as his adopted and chosen children, instead of standing in the shame and guilt and soaking it in, we can go confidently (and quickly) before the throne of grace to "obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). Jesus assures us that he is at the Father's right hand interceding for us (Rom 8:34). And the Father through his living Word promises that we are eternally loved, accepted, chosen, adopted and forgiven (Eph 1). He also guarantees that he will not allow anything or anyone to take us from his sovereign hand if we have been joined to Christ through his gift of repentant faith (Jn 10:28). He has become our eternal glory covering and the lifter of our head (Ps 3:3), so that guilt and shame no longer have power to rule our lives. This truly is Good News worth soaking in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDyMJhd4Bo