Tim | Living in God's Shadow

Why?

July 1, 2020 by Tim

Have you ever had the question, “Why?” asked you multiple times in quick succession? If you have been around children, the answer is likely yes. My children started asking, “Why?” at a very young age. Why do I need to get dressed? Why can’t I have a snack right now? (It was five minutes before a meal.) Why do you tell me what to do? I recall being thankful when sleep overcame the children, and I could stop answering the question, “Why?’ for a few hours. While my children have learned more advanced ways of wording questions, I find that the intent remains the same.

Asking, “Why?” seems to be part of the human experience. Part of the question comes from curiosity and a desire to understand. Almost every invention has sprung from some form of the question, “Why?” It is a question that visionaries and leaders curiously ask in a desire to make things better.

The other part of the question seems to be a challenge to authority. I have observed that when “why” is used this way, the person is trying to ask, “Can I trust you? Are you considering what is best for me?”

When my children were small, there were occasional conversations that ended with, “because I am the dad.” The children did not understand that I was considering their best interests when I had them nap or eat healthy food. They saw me as an oppressive authority to defy. If we find that we are resisting God’s rule, it is time to recognize that He is thinking about our best interests.

Even as I have gotten older, I have never stopped asking why. Usually, I ask because I want to understand. Occasionally, I ask because I am trying to avoid some new thing that is about to be added to my schedule. Asking the question, “Why?” is healthy as long as you do not do it to be defiant or obnoxious.

I cannot find any scripture where God forbids or even discourages us from asking, “Why?” God is not looking for robotic obedience. He desires willing obedience. Often, we have to understand, at least to some degree, to take action; therefore, we ask, “Why?”

God understands that as humans, we are curious and often will supply the answer to why before we ask. Think of Noah. When he received instruction from God to build the ark, God prefaced the direction with the explanation, answering, “Why?” (Genesis 6:13-14) Usually, understanding the reason behind a request makes it easier to comply with the demand. Comprehending the rationale does not mean that the task will be easy; it just means that it can be logically understood. In Noah’s case, God was clear. Destruction was coming to the earth, and obedience would bring salvation, a logical reason why.

When God gave the Ten Commandments, it seems that the “why” was primarily to enable the people to live in God’s shadow. The secondary “why” appears to be to create a society where people lived in peace with each other. (Exodus 20:1-17) If each of the Ten Commandments were fully practiced by every person today, most, if not all, crime would disappear from society.

I wish I could say that God prefaces all instructions with the answer as to why, but he does not. Abraham received a directive from God to go to a distant mountain and there to sacrifice his son Isaac. You can read the story in Genesis 22. God did not give the reason for the command until Abraham had proven that he was obeying. Just before Abraham sacrificed Isaac, God stopped Abraham and provided an alternate sacrifice. When it was all over, God then revealed the “why.” This test answered the question, “Does Abraham trust God enough to obey completely?”

I wonder why I do not follow Abraham’s example. The faith that Abraham exhibited through his obedience is a challenge to me. It also causes me to ask questions like, “Why do I not grasp every promise in scripture? Why do I feel the need to restrict the scope and reach of these assurances instead of taking them literally?” The curiosity of the question, “Why?” excites me. How much fuller could life be? Why am I allowing myself to hold back from fully living in God’s shadow, and what is holding me back? Why does what anyone thinks, what society says, or even what my church says, prevent me from trusting in God completely? Why does it seem such a scary thing to allow God to guide me in planning? Why do I live like I doubt the words of Jesus Christ?

Perhaps the reason we ask God, “Why?” so often is that experience has taught us that we cannot trust ourselves. It is common for individuals to project the perception they have of themselves onto others. The idea that humans project their opinions onto God is not an unlikely scenario. The difference is that God never breaks our trust. We may fail to meet expectations with each other and even with ourselves, but God is always faithful. While we may question why God trusts us, we never need to wonder whether we can trust God. We know that God’s goal is to enable us to live in His shadow and enjoy His presence.

I do still ask, “Why?” I remain curious and sometimes hesitant. I know that I am not perfect. I find comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul. He said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12 (NIV) Living close to God places us in His care whether we understand the reason for what we are experiencing.

Living in God’s shadow is not an exercise in never asking why. It is a willingness to obey whether the “why” is explained to us or not.

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Conversations About Others

June 3, 2020 by Tim

Did you know that we can live in God’s shadow and still have conversations about others? Yes, it is possible when we are having a conversation with God. Anyone listening to most conversations would ask, “Is it even possible to have a conversation without ever mentioning another person?” It is human nature to talk about other people. I believe that God wants us to have conversations with Him about others. I am aware this idea may sound far-fetched, but the reason for these conversations is not to pass on juicy tidbits of information to God. He already knows.

The key to understanding this is that scripture instructs us to pray for one another. The Apostle Paul lived this out. Throughout his epistles, he tells the readers many times that he is praying for them to be made complete in some aspect of Christian living. Paul was not gossiping about the people he was writing to; instead, he was praying for their spiritual welfare.

When we have conversations with God about other people, we should not be doing it to gossip to God. God is not interested in gossip. He already knows every person’s secrets. What God wants to hear is your requests on behalf of others. He wants to listen to your desire for their well-being.

We find examples of people making requests on behalf of others throughout the Bible. Abraham pleaded on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18:22-33) Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites several times. Jesus made requests on behalf of the disciples and even the believers of today. Yes, Jesus also prayed for the believers of today in John 17:20-21. Each of these cases is a situation where the person making the request did so without being asked to do so by the person for whom they were praying.

One thing I have noticed intercessory conversations with God is that they almost always are about other people. Elijah interceded on behalf of the kingdom of Israel, and God ended the three and a half year drought. Moses interceded for the Israelites, and God forgave the people. Intercession is the act of seeing others’ needs so clearly that you passionately converse with God about resolving the need, whether there is any benefit to you or not.

When we participate in intercessory prayer, we act out the fact that we believe that God hears and answers prayer. We demonstrate that we believe in prayer so strongly that we make passionate requests for God to benefit others. Moses is an example of this style of praying. While Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, the people started worshiping an idol. Following this incident, Moses pleaded with God on behalf of the people. He prayed, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin — but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” Exodus 32:31-32 (NRSV) Moses was not gossiping about the people, nor was he telling God anything God did not know. He risked his life and reputation for the people he led. Even though Moses was innocent of wrongdoing, he was willing to be identified with the wrongdoers if it would cause God to forgive them.

Living in God’s shadow changes us. Dwelling near God causes us to stop being focused only on ourselves. Allowing God to make changes in us helps us recognize others’ needs and make requests for God to resolve those needs.

Writing this blog has caused me to analyze what I believe and why carefully. It has also presented questions to me. The most recent inquiry was, “How often do you pray for the readers of the blog you write?” I realized that this was an aspect that I had not given any thought. God used this question to broaden my perspective and to cause me to recognize that only writing articles to encourage others to pursue Him was not enough.

I quote the words of the Apostle Paul, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” Ephesians 1:17-19. (NRSV)

I will remember my readers in prayer this week. I challenge you to intercede for someone this week as you try to live even more passionately in God’s shadow.

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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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