Dear Jesus, just do what I want.

Answered prayer can be a tricky situation.

On the one hand, we’ve prayed and asked God to intervene – perhaps with a physical healing, or a job opportunity, or a financial rescue – and the situation has changed in the way we prayed that God would resolve it.  “God came through” is what we often say.  And we should absolutely continue to bring our requests for help to God.  He invites us to do so (Philippians 4:6), and He’s happy to say yes to us (Matthew 7:7-11).

But what if He says “no”?

How do we respond to not getting the “good thing” we want?  What should we do when God doesn’t immediately bless our plans? 

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, there were those who had specific requests for Him, but Jesus didn’t go along with their plans.  While preaching and ministering in the town of Capernaum, which is in the northern region of Galilee, Jesus performed two healing miracles.  When word got out about the miracles, the whole town showed up for more:

Luke 4:40-42
When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him.  As He laid His hands on each one of them, He healed them.  Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “ You are the Son of God!”  But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah.

When it was day, He went out and made His way to a deserted place.  But the crowds were searching for Him.  They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving them.

Here’s what the people of Capernaum missed: The miracles weren’t performed just so they could have an easier life.  If that was all there was to Jesus’ ministry, then He could have set up shop in town, and everyone with a broken arm, demon affliction, or even a case of the sniffles could stop in for a quick healing.  He would have been immensely popular (and profitable for the town) had He done so. 

The crowds in Capernaum wanted to keep Jesus in town so they knew where He was and what He was doing at all times.  In case of an emergency, they knew exactly where to go.  They didn’t want to let Jesus go beyond how they have experienced Him to this point.  They wanted to keep Him stashed away for themselves and have Him do His work on their terms.

However, Jesus had a larger purpose for the miracles He was doing:

Luke 4:43-44
But He said to them, “It is necessary for Me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose.”  And He was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Jesus’ miracles authenticated that His message was from God, but the miracles were not the focus of Jesus’ ministry…even if other people wanted them to be.  Jesus had no intention of being their “in-case-of-emergency-break-glass” healer.  Instead, His mission was much, much bigger.  The other towns needed to hear the message that the kingdom of God was at hand, that their Messiah had arrived, that their spiritual condition needed healing even more than their physical diseases did.

It’s easy to scoff at their near-sighted, selfish attempt to control Jesus…but the truth is, we’re just as guilty of doing the same thing.  We struggle when we don’t see God move in our lives like He did before.  We pine away for how close we felt to Jesus in the beginning or at a certain moment when He rescued us…and we’re confused as to why we don’t see Him like that now.  We ask Him…even beg Him…to bring healing to our physical body or our mental illness or our relationships…and we despise the silent “no” that comes in the moment.

We want Jesus to stay in one place and fix all our problems.  But, deep down, we want those things for selfish reasons…mainly that we want life to be easier.

There were lots of blind, broken, demon-possessed, hungry, and hurting people in Judea during Jesus’ time there.  Only a small fraction of them received any sort of healing.  Because healing wasn’t the mission.  Being the Messiah they needed was more important than being the Healer they wanted.

When Jesus firmly told the people of Capernaum that He was leaving, against their wishes, they were left with a choice: Would they shrink back from Jesus because they didn’t get what they wanted, or would they support Him in His larger, kingdom-sized purpose?

The same question hangs in the air for us, too.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

That wasn't the answer he expected

In this series, we’re walking with a prophet that is little-known to most of us modern-day Christians.  Habakkuk lived in the last days of the southern kingdom of Judah, just before the Babylonians invaded and destroyed Jerusalem.  However, where the writings of most other Old Testament prophets were about God’s message to the people, what we find unique about the book of Habakkuk is that the prophet records his conversation with God on behalf of the people.

Last time, we heard Habakkuk confront God about the selfish, even down-right evil, actions his fellow countrymen were committing.  He was struggling to understand why God hadn’t stepped in to address the troubles in Judah.

God did reply – but His response certainly wasn’t the solution Habakkuk was looking for:

Habakkuk 1:6-11
Look!  I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter impetuous nation that marches across the earth’s open spaces to seize territories not its own. 
They are fierce and terrifying; their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves. 
Their horses are swifter than leopards and more fierce than wolves of the night. 
Their horsemen charge ahead; their horsemen come from distant lands. 
They fly like eagles, swooping to devour.

All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination.
They gather prisoners like sand.
They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it.
Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through.
They are wind; their strength is their god.

The Chaldeans are not who Habakkuk was expecting when he petitioned God for a “rescuer” for his people.  In fact, these pagan foreigners are the complete opposite of who Habakkuk expected.

In Habakkuk’s situation, he asked for help…but God told him it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  This was necessary, even though it would be painful.

When looking back in our own lives, we often thank God for “unanswered prayers”, when we asked for blessings that we ultimately did not receive.  We thought the best thing for us would be to get “that job” we had applied for, or we wanted a romantic relationship with a specific person, or even safety when traveling.  Because if God had fulfilled our request and we had received what we wanted in the moment…life would have been so different that the relationships and blessings we have now would not have been experienced.

But sometimes, God’s answer to our requests is more than just a “No”.  Other times, He does allow the car accident, the cancer diagnosis, or other difficult situations to occur.  But if we’re honest, the motivation behind many our prayer requests has more to do with our immediate comfort than with our connectedness with God.

And that’s the bigger picture – both for us and for Habakkuk – going through hard times has the ability to strip away our selfishness and self-centeredness that keeps us from being who God made us to be.

If you’ve learned how to look into your past and thank God for what didn’t happen, the next step in maturity is to be able to thank God in the moment He denies our prayer request.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Flashback Favorite: I don't know why you struggle

My migraines have flared up recently. Remembering what God taught me before has helped reframe my frustrations about it. Sometimes, our ailments are to be brought before God as a tension to be managed instead of a problem to be fixed.

I don't know why you struggle
Originally posted on July 14, 2022

I’ve had glasses since I was in Kindergarten.  I’ve always detested them.  Not because of how they look, but I’ve always wanted to be able to wake up and see everything clearly.  I hate not being able to rest without smashing my glasses into my face or into the side of my head.  My frustration came to a boil in junior high, and I can still remember one exasperated conversation I had with God about it.  I wanted to be healed.  I wanted to see normally, clearly – like everyone else.  I prayed, hard.  I knew God was capable of correcting my eyesight.  I was familiar with the number of stories where Jesus healed the blind.  In desperation, I offered to give God “all the praise and glory” if He would just fix me.  But nothing changed.  No healing came, despite the number of times I shut my eyes hard and reopened them quickly, just hoping that one of those times…I’d be able to see.

I also deal with a shoulder that’s prone to dislocation, frequent migraines, and essential tremor.  Within my family, there are issues with bi-polar, various cancers, MS, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s (just to name a few).  I’m sure you could add your own experiences to this list.

Throughout the centuries, people have struggled with explaining why some of us deal with physical, mental, and emotional brokenness and pains.  Most explanations from able-bodied people to the disabled or impaired boil down to some form of “well, sucks to be you”.  Other explanations we may assume about ourselves are that “God is punishing me” or that “my parents messed up and I’m the one paying for it”.  Acknowledging that the world is broken may help explain the mess of aliments we see, but it doesn’t make the day-to-day activities any easier for those living with their issue.  It’s also hard to reconcile being told that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) with our list of struggles.

When we look in the Bible, we find that we’re not alone as we try to understand the imbalances we see in society:

John 9:1-2
As [Jesus] was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

In first-century Jewish thinking, somebody must have messed up for this guy to be blind.  Blindness was viewed as a punishment from God.  So this would have been a natural question for the disciples to ask Jesus.  However, the answer He gave them was not one they were expecting:

John 9:3
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered.  “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.”

Jesus then healed the man.  For the first time in his life, he could see clearly.  As you can imagine, this drastic change caused quite a stir among the community – especially with the religious leaders, who made the same assumptions the disciples had about the reason for the man’s blindness.

A second example I want to look at is the Apostle Paul.  When God called Paul to be His ambassador to the Gentile nations, He gave Paul specific revelations and teaching.  However, this was not the only thing God gave him:

2 Corinthians 12:7
Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself.

Paul never specified what the thorn in the flesh actually was.  Most scholars think it was some physical malady, along the lines of chronic eye issues, malaria, migraines, epilepsy, or a speech disability.  Even though the thorn’s purpose was clear – so that he wouldn’t become conceited – Paul still didn’t want it. 

2 Corinthians 12:8-9
Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me.  But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”

In these two examples, neither person did something to cause their physical failings or situation.  Instead, God had a purpose and a plan that actually included their struggles. 

Could the same be said of us?  I don’t know why I have the struggles that I do.  I can’t explain yours, either.  But here’s what I think is a strong possibility.  While I don’t have any direct Biblical evidence of this, given what I know of the character of God, it would not surprise me: I think that sometimes, when God sees the results of sin in this world and a non-believer gets cancer, He allows one of His own children to have that same cancer.  Not out of punishment or spite, but so that the world can see the difference in how those two individuals handle it.  So that whether you have always struggled or a specific event caused your struggle – God’s comfort, strength, compassion, and ability to change a life will shine through His kids...even though we would not have chosen our situation or we ask God to take it away.

I can’t say for sure why you have to deal with anxiety, or depression, or same-sex attraction, or cerebral palsy, or lust, or pride, or anger, or colon cancer, or any other struggle.  But God knows how you can partner with Him through it.  However life is hard for us, we can still choose our attitude about it.  May we make the same choice that Paul did after God told Him three times, “No, I won’t take it away.”  Instead of being down on himself, Paul recognized that this area of his life was where God was most visibly at work.  Not to indulge himself or give into his area of difficulty, but that God’s power helped him overcome and do great things, despite the struggle:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.  So I take pleasure in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Keep Pressing,
Ken