Tim | Living in God's Shadow

Desperate Conversations With God

May 27, 2020 by Tim

Many times when we pray, it is because we are desperate. We have already tried our plan and have exhausted our ability to reason the problem away with no change in the circumstance. We believe that we are without options or at least without any options we like. We then tend to pray, “God, I am in a desperate situation here. Could You please intervene? Could you please get me out of this uncomfortable circumstance?”

We usually pray these kinds of prayers when we face cancer, bankruptcy, or other catastrophic events. However, no one blames you if you pray like this after a hard day with toddlers. If you have prayed something like this, you are not alone, and you are not the first person to have prayed that type of prayer.

Sometimes when we have these types of conversations with God, we are out of ideas or options of how to deal with the problem. Other times it is because we do not like any of the options available to us, and we would like God to create a more comfortable option for us to use to escape the situation.

I have enjoyed woodworking since my teenage years. Much of my work as a woodworker is repair work to antique furniture. There have been times when I have been working on a project and have run out of ideas about how to resolve a problem I am facing.

I recall one day when I was working on a project and was mystified by how to solve the difficulty I was facing. I stopped and prayed. I said, “Jesus, I don’t know what to do to fix this problem. You were in a carpenter’s shop when you were growing up. What would you suggest I do to be able to complete this project?” Within just a few minutes, a previously unthought-of method popped into my head, enabling me to complete it. I had exhausted my options and asked God to make an option. I have found it helps me to pray as though Jesus is standing right there.

In the book of 2 Kings, I read about a king of Judah named Hezekiah. While he was king, the army of another country tried to conquer the land of Judah. This foreign army sent threats to Hezekiah and tried to influence him to surrender. They even sent a threatening letter to King Hezekiah. It was a challenging time. The choice seemed to be, would Hezekiah surrender and allow all his people to become slaves to a foreign power, or would he try to fight against an army that was vastly larger than his army? Hezekiah prayed a prayer of desperation. (You can read his actual prayer in 2 Kings 19:15-19) God’s answer to that prayer was a third option that was beyond Hezekiah’s ability to produce. The opposing army suffered defeat without Judah’s military, even going into battle, and the king of the foreign army went home. When the foreign king arrived home, his sons assassinated him. You can read the details in 2 Kings 19:20-37.

I recognize that most of us are not facing a foreign army, but we all face times when it seems like there are no acceptable options. There are times when I find myself praying, “God, I need a win today. I have had so many areas where the situations are challenging lately, and I am starting to lose hope that things will get better. Please help me to get something completed successfully today.”

Sometimes my desperate prayers are a little more self-serving. “God, please help me to complete my to-do list today even though it has two days worth of work on it! You see how hard I am trying and how much I need to get these projects done.”

Thankfully I am not the first to pray a prayer that some would view as somewhat selfish. King Hezekiah prayed for God to extend his life. (2Kings 20:2-3) He reminded God of all the good he had done and of how he had dedicated his life to following God.

God knows the attitude of our hearts when we have desperate conversations with Him. God answered King Hezekiah’s prayer and granted him an additional fifteen years.

I am guilty of making one-day to-do lists that really should be two day’s work. I am amazed by how much I have accomplished after a prayer for help with my oversized to-do list. I believe that the answer to why God answers some of these prayers of desperation, that onlookers would call selfish, is found in the words of Jesus. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11 (NIV) God likes to give good gifts.

God understands desperate prayers. He comprehends the reason for the prayer and the situation, causing us to pray with desperation. Desperate prayers show our true feelings, motivations, and the fact that we realize we do not have the answers in ourselves. We recognize that we are not all-powerful and need help when we have these desperate conversations with God. When we do not have the solutions to the problems we are facing, we express our true beliefs about God.

Desperate prayers express faith that God has help for us in our times of hopelessness. It seems that many times, these conversations that we have with God when we are in a difficult place, help us to remember our need for Almighty God. Perhaps the situations that bring about the prayers are designed to remind us of our need to live in God’s shadow. When we do not face hard times, we tend to forget that we do not control every aspect of life. It is when we face hard problems that we remember our need for the Creator of the universe.

Living in God’s shadow places us in His care during both the good and the bad times. It enables us to live confident of His assistance, whether life is easy or hard.

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Conversations of Faith

May 20, 2020 by Tim

Faith is a word that is defined by the context of its usage. I can say, “The Christian faith,” and I am talking about the doctrinal statements of a group. If I tell someone to “keep the faith,” I am telling them not to doubt whatever we are discussing. For those pursuing God, the most commonly used definition of the word faith is being convinced of the validity of God’s word and promises to the point of taking action. This point of view seems to be the idea contained in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (NRSV Bible)

Faith that we can have a relationship with God and that He hears our prayers is the foundation of Christianity. Pursuing God requires us to believe (have faith) that He is who He says He is. (Hebrews 11:6) Lacking this faith makes it impossible to pursue God.

We tend to confuse faith and presumption. Presumption tends to be based on our thoughts and wants. We consider how to make things convenient. Unfortunately, when we presume, we tend to plan schemes that are inside our abilities to perform. Presumption usually holds our egos and plans as having a higher value than pointing others to God. True faith considers what God wants and freely declares, “I do not know how God will do it, but I know that He will.”

My definition of faith is a wholehearted belief. It is when you believe something so entirely that you rest in it as fact. The strength of the conviction causes you to take action. Faith is trusting God to lead us down the correct path even when we cannot see any sign that a trail exists. Praising God for answers He has given in the past often helps to strengthen our faith today.

Years ago, I felt called to start a Spanish language church service. I knew very few Spanish speakers at the time, but in faith, I started the service. God rewarded my faith-filled actions by providing a congregation of Spanish speakers from people I did not know.

A prayer of faith is a purposeful conversation with God. Sometimes I find myself going through the motions of conversing with God, but my mind and heart are disengaged. Have you ever listened to your prayers? It is a good idea to listen to what we are saying to God. Are we giving Him orders? Are we mindlessly saying words? If our answer is yes, then we have to ask, “Do we believe with all our heart that God hears and answers prayer?” Faith is not about placing an order like we would at a fast-food drive-up window. A strong relationship with God enables us to believe that God is hearing our requests and working on our behalf. I have not found anywhere in the Bible where ordering God around was ever considered an exhibition of faith.

Bringing requests to God in prayer, convinced that He will respond, appears to be the methodology of faith illustrated in scripture. Jesus instructs us to ask in faith. (Matthew 21:22) The teaching expressed in both Matthew 21:22 and John 14:12-14 states that we can ask for anything, and God will do it. Common sense tells us that we would not request that God help us to break the Ten Commandments or anything else that would dishonor God. Therefore we should consider what our motivations are when we make requests to God. Are we looking for an easy way to get what we want without work?

It is easy to pray, “God, please put unlimited funds in my bank account.” Much more difficult is a prayer that says, “God, I want to honor you with everything you have given me. I am trusting You to supply all my needs.” Exhibiting faith does not mean sitting in a chair and hoping. Instead, it is actively taking advantage of the opportunities God provides.

As I review my life, I recognize many times when God rewarded my prayers of faith. If I prayed about a financial need, the answer would often be an opportunity for paying work. Housing needs meant that I still had to go out and look at housing opportunities.

About twenty years ago, my wife and I were looking to buy our first house. We had never experienced owning a home before, and we had just moved to the county where we hoped to buy. We prayed, asking God to help us find a house that fit our needs. We believed that God would supply. Our prayers and beliefs did not stop us from talking to real estate agents or from driving around areas we liked looking for ‘house for sale’ signs. Our faith that God would provide moved us to the action of looking for the provision. Faith is evidenced by living in expectation of the answer to our request. We are sure that God will answer our prayers; we just do not know how or when.

Hebrews chapter 11 gives an extensive list of people from the Bible who exhibited great faith, and some of them lived in expectation for a considerable time before they received a result from their prayers. Think of Abraham, who seems to have waited more than a decade before Isaac was born. In some cases, the faith-filled prayers of some received no result until after their death. Joseph, the son of Jacob, the patriarch, in faith, believed that his fellow Israelites would leave Egypt and return to where they had been living before coming to Egypt. While the answer to his faithful prayer did come, it was more than 400 years later.

Exhibiting faith does not mean that we never have doubts, that we are never impatient, or that we never try to control how things work. When my wife and I were trying to find a house to buy, we faced setbacks that made us have doubts. We had found a home that seemed to be the answer to all we needed. We called our real estate agent to put in an offer on the house and found out it had just been placed under a contract that morning. We faced the temptation to ask, “God, what are you doing? We have been asking You, God, to help us find a house. What do we do now?” We continued to look at houses but found nothing that would work or that was in our price range. About two weeks later, our real estate agent called us and said, “That house you were interested in is back on the market, the sale was not able to be completed. Are you still interested in it?” We assured her we wanted to place an offer. After the seller agreed to sell to us, we found out that we had only outbid our competition by a small amount. We marveled at how God had answered our prayers.

Living in God’s shadow requires us to have faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 (NRSV Bible)

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Gratitude

May 13, 2020 by Tim

The power of expressed gratitude is impressive. I have found expressed gratitude uplifts the spirits of both the person giving the appreciation and the person receiving the acknowledgment of their efforts. We are accustomed to every transaction being one in which one person is the taker and the other the giver. Gratitude is something that does not conform to the usual rules. Both the giver and the receiver of thanks can receive a better sense of well-being. Gratitude is simply an attitude that requires cultivation.

Expressing gratitude is simple to do, but it may surprise people with whom you interact. When I was little, saying ‘thank you’ whenever I received anything was the expectation. Years later, I thanked the clerk at the check out when she handed me the change on my transaction. Her face conveyed that she was in complete shock and bewilderment. She then told me that she had never had a person thank her for their change. That interaction made a difference for her that day.

Gratitude must be sincere. False thankfulness or false modesty is quickly recognized and will cause more damage than saying nothing at all.

I have observed that expressing gratitude usually motivates those receiving praise. There is nothing like knowing that your work is appreciated to inspire you to be more productive.

The fact that giving thanks uplifts the person giving the thanks is fascinating. When we stop long enough to give a heartfelt thank you, it causes us to pause. This pause gives us time to recognize how many things we have for which we should be thankful.

Gratitude is a great way to improve a bad day. The author of Psalm 42 seems to express this idea. Multiple times throughout the psalm, he outlines some problematic situations he is facing. He then reminds himself to give praise to God. The author expresses the human tendency to be overwhelmed by the surrounding problems. He points out the way to overcome the depressing circumstances is with gratitude to God.

I visited a church in South America that had a general format that they used when they prayed. The church used this form to teach the parts of prayer we see illustrated in the ‘Lord’s Prayer.’ The pattern began with giving praise to God. Using that format, I have found that beginning with thankfulness changes both my attitude and the faith with which I pray. Sometimes I have forgotten, and I would try to start with a request like asking God how to handle a situation. I would go to prayer with my request list and start asking for things. Prayer would be challenging, almost like I was talking to myself. When I would begin with a prayer of gratitude, my attitude would change.

Some days being grateful was challenging. I might have to start with something simple like, “Thank you, God, for the fact I am breathing.” I found that the exercise of being grateful opened my mind to how much I had for which to be thankful. Once I recognized how much God had blessed me, I found that my faith received new strength. I was then enabled to trust that God had everything in control. Even though I could not discern what God’s plan was, I knew He had put His plan in action, and nothing could stop it.

We tend to understand that other people like to receive gratitude, but we seldom remember that we should express gratitude to God. We do not give thanks to God because He needs it to boost His ego. We give thanks to God to help us recognize how many blessings we have. Thankfulness also helps us understand how much God cares about us. It is in praying prayers of gratitude that we realize that we are not alone. We then begin to recognize God is with us providing for us. Gratitude gives us an attitude adjustment.

When I think of the word gratitude, a special memory floods my mind. I was part of a small team going to do missions work in South America. While there, we assisted a church as they worked to renovate an old building, they were turning into a church. It was evident that the people were poor and relied on God each day to supply them with work and sustenance. The team I was with had a few hundred dollars earmarked as a donation to the church. The amount was small, and we were not sure how much help it would be. We gave the funds to the missionary, who then delivered them to the church. I will never forget the reaction when they received the gift. Total surprise showed on their faces, and then they gave profuse thanks. What was most memorable was the phone calls made from the makeshift church office after the gift was received. The telephone calls sounded something like this, “Hello, I want to let you know what God has done. Remember how we have been praying for the funds to renovate the building? God just supplied most of the funds! Isn’t God good? Thank God for this answer to prayer!”

I was impressed by the gratitude of those people. Equally amazing to me was the fact that their example of thankfulness impacted and influenced me. I thanked God for the opportunity to have been part of the answer God sent to the prayers of these people.

Throughout the years, I have noticed that genuine gratitude tends to produce generosity. My wife had cancer several years ago. During that time, we received many unexpected gifts, including some from people we did not know. When we came to the end of that time of dealing with her cancer, I noticed that we were more generous toward others. Our gratitude for the help we had received caused us to want to help others.

It is impossible to live in God’s shadow and be ungrateful. Being thankful helps us to recognize the contributions of others and the times of divine intervention in our lives. When we fail to show gratitude in our lives, we discourage others from trying to live in God’s shadow.

Express sincere gratitude to someone today and brighten both their day and yours. Be an example of what it looks like to live in God’s shadow. Do not forget to express your gratitude during a conversation with God. The next article will be about conversations of faith.

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Conversations With God

May 6, 2020 by Tim

Do you ever have conversations with God? Have you ever vented your feelings to God as you would to your best friend? My conversations with God have covered almost every imaginable topic. Yes, I have talked with God about politics, the weather, and religion.

We often try to make our prayers, eloquent lists of requests, while we hold little hope of hearing any response. Perhaps it is that we do not expect a response. Therefore we are surprised when God answers prayer. We often act like God will not be able to handle our raw emotions.

Some of the most intense conversations I have had with God have been in challenging times. Times when I would ask, “God, do You know what You are doing? God, do You have any idea what is going on? Have You forgotten me?”

I became the pastor of a small church upon graduation from college. Several years passed, and my wife let me know that we were expecting a baby. Things went as planned for the first 36 weeks of the pregnancy. Then the unexpected happened. We visited the doctor for a routine checkup, and the doctor discovered that the baby had a heart rate so fast it could not be counted by just listening to it. The news got worse when the fetal heart rate monitor was used to try to count the heartbeat. The baby had a heart problem. This condition caused part of the heart to beat at a regular rate while the other part of the heart attempted to beat at twice that speed. We were transferred to a hospital about an hour away from our home to try to treat the problem. The doctor decided that the best thing would be to deliver the baby by caesarian section. I was there and watched the operation. I will never forget seeing the baby for the first time. She was a rosy pink, had dark hair, and a set of lungs that let us know that she did not like being removed from the warmth of the womb. The nurses immediately whisked the baby away to the neonatal intensive care unit to have her heart worked on.

I was able to visit the baby several hours later. I was shocked when the nurse pointed her out to me. The pink, squalling baby I had seen in the operating room now looked lifeless, the pink skin was now a mottled purple, and the breathing was only happening because of a ventilator. Everyone there stayed far away from me like they did not want to have to help me understand what was happening. I believed the baby was probably dying.

There was not anyone I could call to walk with me through this time. I was the pastor, the leader of the church. Leadership lends itself toward isolation. As a leader, you are walking out in front of everyone else. I felt the pressure to be a perfect example. My frustration and fear boiled over at God, and I asked, “Is this really how You behave? Are you just going to tease my wife and I with this baby? You are going to let us go through all we have experienced these last few days and then take the baby away? I have tried to follow You faithfully, and this is how You reward us? God, what are You doing?”

God was not offended when I lashed out in rage about the situation I did not understand, and His plan that I could not see. He was not upset with me for being angry. God recognized where I was and what I was experiencing. He understood the context of my questions and accusations.

Prayer does not have to be pretty. There is no requirement to be eloquent. Your prayers may be full of pain and rage. Times, when you are not even able to express what you are feeling and thinking your prayers, may sound incoherent to other people listening, but God understands what you are saying. Our prayers are not just background noise for God.

I wonder what Elijah thought as he prayed for rain to end the drought in Israel. He had just seen God answer a short prayer with fire that even burned up the water around the altar. Now Elijah was praying for rain. He sent his servant to look out across the sea for rain clouds. The servant saw only clear skies. What did Elijah think as he continued to pray and sent the servant the second and third times, then a fourth, then a fifth time? I wonder if he thought, “What is going on God, You answered my short prayer for fire, but You are not answering me now? You are going to make it look like that last prayer was a fluke.” Elijah continued to pray and sent the servant the sixth time. Then on the seventh time, Elijah sent the servant, there was a report of a tiny cloud in the distance. Elijah knew that the answer to his prayers had come. (Read the complete story in 1Kings 18:16-46)

I do not claim to understand God fully, but I do know He hears our prayers. He loves to give good things to those who ask. (Matthew 7:11) God did allow our baby to recover from her problems. She did go home with us. She has grown up and served as a missionary in South America. I rarely think of her, but what I remember that almost lifeless baby in the hospital. Her life is a miracle. I remember the days when I lashed out at God, and He supported and comforted me. He understood my angry prayer, even though it was not in a composed and measured tone.

Prayer is an essential aspect of living in God’s shadow. If we do not converse with God, we will not live close enough to reside in His shadow. Join me as I examine other aspects of talking with God in my next few posts.

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Did You Hear Me?

April 29, 2020 by Tim

I doubt that any question is more common in most households than, “Did you hear me?” I recall hearing this question when I was small and thinking, “Yes, I hear you.” How could I avoid hearing whoever it was? They were no more than twelve inches away and not exactly whispering.

As parents, we frequently ask this of our children usually when we mean do you understand me. As adults, we ask each other this question for two reasons. The first reason we ask this question to be sure that the person understands us. The second reason is to make sure the other person is engaged in active listening. It is unbelievable, but I have occasionally received complaints about not listening to my wife.

When I was a child, I would, at times, get lost in a book. What I was reading would become my world, and I would see and hear nothing except what I was reading. More than once, I got into trouble for not responding when called. I was busy listening to all the sounds my imagination was hearing in the book. The activity in my imagination prevented me from hearing my parents at all.

Most of the time, when we fail to hear it is because we are distracted. We tend to become distracted by anything we consider to be more exciting or more important. Unfortunately, in times of crisis, our priority list tends to get out of order, and we focus on minor issues while trying to handle major ones. Often we disengage because we are thinking about our next response. Our focus is wrong because we have stopped listening.

I have noticed that to understand everything said to me, I have to focus on the speaker. Focusing means stopping what I am doing and listening.

I was working in my furniture repair shop one day and had my youngest daughter with me. She was talking a lot, as four-year-old girls will do, and I remained focused on a project. She was asking questions about all kinds of things, and I was trying to answer while only half-listening. I answered many of her inquiries with “Uh-huh,” or “What did you say?” Then one question stood out.

“Daddy, why does Pepper (our dog) have paws?”

How do you answer that?

I replied, “I don’t know. You will have to ask God.”

Soon from the other side of the shop, I heard her inquiring, “So God, why does Pepper have paws?”

I realized that she was listening to what I said. She was sincerely inquiring. She was not just talking to hear herself.

Often we listen to God the way I was listening to my daughter that day. We tend to believe that communication with God is telling Him what we want and God raining blessings back down on us. We fail to understand that to live in God’s Shadow requires us to have a healthy relationship with God. A strong relationship requires listening as well as speaking. There have been times that I have been praying, well really fretting, to God about some problem and have felt Him tell me to be quiet and listen.

I am comforted as I read scripture to recognize that God never listens to our prayers in a distracted manner. When we fail to get an instant answer, we think that God is not attentive to us. If we do not like the answer, we may believe that God did not hear us. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Bible contains a story about a man named Elijah. Elijah was a prophet of God. Because the nation of Israel had stopped listening to God, they had suffered a three and a half year drought. This drought was brought to an end when Elijah defeated the idol-worshiping prophets and prayed to God. (You can read the story in 1 Kings 17-19) Rain came in abundance. The queen of the land threatened to kill Elijah. He then fled into the desert. He eventually found refuge in a cave. While Elijah was hiding in the cave, God demonstrated His power. God sent a wind, an earthquake, and a fire across the land surrounding the cave. An intense silence then filled the area, and Elijah heard God’s voice, asking why he was in the cave. God then gave Elijah instruction concerning what he was to do next and offered some encouragement.

“Did you hear me?” is a question that God could ask us. We know that Jesus taught that the most important commandment is to love God with your entire being. (Matthew 22:36-40) Failing to follow this teaching is failing to listen to God.

Sometimes we encounter problems, and it seems that God is very distant or not listening to us. At those times, it is good to stop and consider if we have been listening to God. It is impossible to live in God’s shadow if we do not listen. It is easy to read scripture on autopilot. We read the words but do not take the time to understand their meaning.

I used to bake most of the bread for my family. I had specific recipes I followed, and I learned to make some delicious bread. Each aspect of the bread recipe required strict adherence. If I said, “Well, it takes some ingredients, so anything in the pantry will do.” The bread would not have turned out. If I had all the right ingredients but failed to allow it to rise or baked it at the wrong temperature, I would fail. If I had everything else right but baked it for the incorrect amount of time, the bread baking attempt would have been a disaster. Success came from listening to and following the instructions in the recipe.

To successfully live in God’s shadow, we must be listening to scripture. We must follow the recipe laid out in the teachings of Jesus. Living in God’s shadow requires us to listen to His commands.

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