Faith in His promises

“Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise” (Psalms 106:24)

There’s much we can learn as believers in the New Testament age from the wilderness wandering of the Israelites in the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ[c] to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10”6-11). 

After hearing their cries, God brought the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt to bring them into the pleasant land—the promise land. However, the majority of them that came out of the bondage of Egypt, died in the wilderness never making it into the promise land. 

Similarly, God in Christ sets us (believers) free from the bondage of sin (power and penalty) to bring us into a fruitful and life transforming relationship with Him (1 Peter 3:10). Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). However, there are many professing believers that seem to be stuck in a spiritual wilderness never making it to a place of abundance—a place where they become spiritually mature and walking in the fulness of all that God is for them in Christ. 

The journey from Egypt to Canaan was an eleven-day journey. It took them forty years to get there. Essentially, they wandered in circles. Why? They had no no faith in the promise of God (Psalms 106:24). In fact, their lack of faith not only kept them from possessing their promised possessions, but they despised the promise land. Whenever they encountered obstacles in the way, they told Moses that they were better off in Egypt. 

I believe that the greatest hinderance to professing Christians today—the reason they are not walking in the fullness of all that God saved them for is little or no faith in the promises of God. Oh, they may profess to believe in the promises of God, but when faced with obstacles, trials and tribulations, they doubt, murmur and complain. They may even turn to seek refuge in Egypt—at the places, among the people and in the practices that they were enslaved to and that God brought them out of. Are we not despising the promises of God when we do so? 

God allows trials and tribulations to bring us into a fuller, richer and more abundant relationship with Him. He will allow trials to increase our faith through them for greater fruitfulness ahead. There’s a song that says, “If I never had any problems I wouldn’t know that God could solve them, I wouldn’t know what faith in God could do. Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon the Lord.”   

It’s been said, “A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted.”  What does it mean for our faith to be tested? It means that there will be times in our lives when we will have to exercise our faith—when we will have to decide to cling to the promises of God, or go another way. Clinging to the promises of God will cause them to become realized in our lives. We will experience the power, presence and or provision of God when we cling to His promises, especially in difficult times. When we look backward to Egypt we will get what Egypt can do, but when we look upward to God, standing on His promises, we will know what only God can do. Oh, we must not doubt in the dark what God has revealed to us in the light.   

What does it look like to have faith in the promises of God?  In the longest chapter of the bible, which are prayers expressing faith in the word of God, the Psalmist prayed this most unusual prayer, “Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope” (Psalms 119:49). The reason I say that this is a most unusual prayer is because it’s not a prayer that I hear believers pray much today. It’s not a prayer that I have prayed much in the past. However, it’s obviously a biblical prayer, which teaches us something vital about laying hold of the promises of God. To experience the promises of God, like the promise of His provision to meet Christ centered needs, (Philippians 4:19-20), often we must step out in faith. We may have to move forward in obedience to what God is calling us to do even when we don’t see how it’s all going to work out. But we must also claim or stand on the promises of God in prayer. For example, God promises to give extraordinary grace for extraordinary seasons of life (2 Cor 12:7-10; James 4:6). But we learn from Hebrews 4:16 that this promise is laid hold of through bold and confident prayer in the name of Jesus. Jesus promised to send the presence and power of the Spirit to His disciples, who were to wait for it in Jerusalem (Luke 24:48). But although He promised to send the Holy Spirit, while they waited in Jerusalem, they didn’t wait for it while twiddling their thumbs. They waiting in an upper room in prayer (Acts 1:14; 4:31).  

To some it may seem too bold to pray like the Psalmist prayed, “Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope” (Psalms 119:49). But to God, it’s a mark of great faith in His promises. God delights when we are confident enough in His character and promises that we hold Him to His Word in prayer, which He has made us to hope. The God of the mountain is still God in the valley. Trust in the promises of God.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN IT FEELS LIKE GOD IS WASTING TIME?

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5).

Have you ever felt like God was taking His sweet time answering your prayers or that He wasn’t moving quick enough for you? Our theme for the year is “Don’t waste your life.” This is a vital exhortation for all believers in a world filled with so many distractions that can keep us from making the best use of the time God has given to us.

But have you ever felt like God wasted time—that He didn’t show up on time? Mary and Martha felt that way. When their brother Lazarus was sick, they sent a message to Jesus saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (John 11:3b). I love the fact that, although Lazarus was sick, his sisters didn’t doubt Jesus’ love for him. On the contrary, they appealed to Jesus and sent for Him on the bases of His love for their brother.

However, as time went on, and Jesus seemed to be taking His time for no good reason, the sisters may have begun to think, “doesn’t He love our brother? Why is He taking so long? He should have been here by now?”

When Jesus got the message that Lazarus was sick, He remained where He was with His disciples for two days longer (John 11:6). And by the time He showed up, Lazarus had expired. In fact, He had been dead for four days. Soon after, both Mary and Martha said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32).

What do you do when it feels like God is wasting time? Should we accuse Him of being on Puerto Rican time? When it feels like God isn’t in a hurry and is late to the party, it’s vital that we recall three things about God that we can learn from His dealings with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

First, no matter what is happening in your life, always, always be assured that God loves you. Remember the cross. Before the Apostle John continued to reveal how the events in Lazarus’ life unfolded, he writes in verse 5, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). Why would the Apostle John insert that before continuing to write about the events that unfolded? Because the events that transpired in the lives of Mary, Martha and Lazarus could bring God’s love into question. Therefore, he wanted the readers of his gospel to be clear in their minds that although Jesus seemed to take His time, it wasn’t because He didn’t love this family. On the contrary, it was because He loved them and us, (the readers of John’s gospel) that Jesus didn’t immediately go to them when they called. Because Jesus delayed in coming to them, they got to experience the glory of His resurrection power in their lives.

Secondly, when it feels like God is wasting valuable time, we must recall to mind that He not only loves us, but that He’s in control. The seeming delays of the Lord were divine delays. When Jesus waited two days longer in the place where they sent for Him, He knew exactly what He was doing. God’s delays are not always His denials. After hearing the message that Lazarus was ill, Jesus said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4).

God is not only in control of the outcome of what He purposed to do through the delay, He’s in control of the beginning, the end and everything that happens in between. Often the best work that God does in our lives happens while we are in the waiting period. The waiting period is not a wasted period. Our sufferings are never in vain when we hold on to the truth and promises of God to work through them in love for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).

Prayer is essential when it feels like time is ticking and running out. God is not bound by time. He’s not limited by time. This is why when we pray it’s vital that we first seek His face and not just His hand—that we acknowledge in prayer who we are praying to, more so than what we are seeking from Him. In the delay, keep praying until God answers, yes, no or wait. Keep praying because prayer not only changes things, prayer will change us.

Thirdly, it’s vital that we recall to mind when it feels like God is on Puerto Rican time that His timing is always, always perfect. He may not show up when we want Him to—it may feel like God is late and never in a hurry, but we can trust that He’s always on time. By the time Jesus showed up in town, Lazarus, who was sick when he first got the message, was dead for four days. And when Jesus commanded that the stone be rolled away, Martha responded, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). She forgot that time doesn’t restrict the Lord. In addition, she forgot that even when things looked like they went from bad to worse, Jesus was still in control.  I love the way Jesus responded to Martha.  “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God” (John 11:40). Oh, did they ever. At the command of Jesus, Lazarus walked out of that grave.

It’s interesting to note also that Jesus, who raised Lazarus from the dead, asked for the stone to be rolled away first. It’s clear that Jesus didn’t need that assistance. When He rose from the dead, He didn’t need human assistance to roll the stone away and walk out of His tomb. There’s a lesson here for us. When it feels like God is late, we need to recall that He’s in control, that He knows what He’s doing. What may feel like a setback of time, is just a set up for God to gloriously show us His power and control in our lives.

However, as we recall that in the delay God is still in control, we should never think that there’s nothing for us to do but wait. There are some stones that we need to roll away in our lives—there may be some commands that we need to obey before we see God show up in ways that we can’t even imagine (Eph 3:20-21). In fact, it may be that God is delaying to show His power, because we’ve delayed to heed His command to roll away the stones in our lives that are coming between our souls and the Savior. Delayed obedience is disobedience.

Some of the thoughts that I shared in this blog came from a sermon I heard several years ago. I heard this sermon before entering a period in my life where I would experience hardship, pain and suffering like never before. When I thought I was out of the woods, I received news that the cancer was back, and that this time there was not much that could be down. If I had not recalled to mind during this time the three truths that God loves me, He’s in control and that His timing is always perfect, I don’t know how I would have made it this far.

Since that diagnosis 7 months ago, God has turned things around. But some heavy stones had to be rolled away first. And at the time I wondered why the delay, but God in His time has showed up in a mighty way.

I received a card from Betsy Abbe, a beloved sister in the Lord, a couple months after hearing that the cancer was back. In the card, she included in big letters the following quote: “You have been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.” That was the case for Lazarus. After God moved the mountain in His life, many who witnessed it came to believe in Jesus. I believe God is doing that in my life. My testimony is opening many doors for me and others to share the good news of the gospel with the unsaved in our circle of influence. And I believe that God is not done with me yet. I see God through my testimony giving me a much bigger platform to proclaim the good news of Jesus’ saving grace and resurrection power.

If you haven’t already, there will come a time when it will feel like God is late in answering your prayer, like He’s wasting valuable time. You must hold on to the following truths, especially during divine delays: God loves you, He’s in control and His timing is always perfect. You can bank on it.

PRAYER EMPHASIS DEVOTIONAL DAY 2 - UNDERSTAND THE WILL OF THE LORD

Understand the will of the Lord

¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:17)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “it does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.” In Ephesians 5:15-17, Paul teaches us how to live life well. In verse 17 Paul exhorts all believers to not be foolish. The word foolish translated means, senseless or stupid. The bible makes it easy for us to identify if we are being foolish or senseless when we it said in Psalm 53:1, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” In relation to this passage some may think, “I know a lot of smart people who say there is no God. People with a lot of letters after their names.”  Yup! But as I’ve heard some of the old timers call people like that, those people are educated fools. The bible calls those who say there is no God foolish, because they live their life as if God isn’t present. They live as if God doesn’t care. They live as if God isn’t worthy of their devotion. They are living like fools.

Paul urges the Christian to live life noticeably different from the fool. If the fool lives like God doesn’t exist, believers are to live as those who know God does exist and “he rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). A problem facing many professing ‘believers’ today is that they live like practical atheist. Meaning, they say all the right things about God, but their walk doesn’t match their talk. Which in essence makes them fools, according to Paul’s line of reasoning.

So, how do we avoid living like fools? By understanding what the will of the Lord is.  Nothing is more important in life than to understand and apply the will of God. However, it’s important that we distinguish between what theologian John Stott calls God’s ‘general’ and his ‘particular’ will. God’s general will is found in Scripture. For example, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” It’s God’s will for ALL believers to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all circumstances.

On the other hand, God’s particular will for our lives will not be found in scripture in black and white. The bible doesn’t tell us the exact person you are to marry or the vocation you are to choose. However, we can find biblical principles to help guide us when scripture isn’t clear about what we should do. For example, Jesus taught us to, “…love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). So, a great question to discern God’s particular will in a matter would be, is what I’m thinking about doing honor God? I’m confident of this; we will discover the particular will of God for our lives in the process of living out the general will of God.

Today is day two of our week of prayer and fasting as a church. Our theme for 2019 is, “Don’t Waste Your Life.” We are asking the Lord to help us not waste the precious gift of life.  For this not to happen it’s essential that we study the Bible to understand what the will of the Lord is and we walk out in wisdom what we learn from our time in the word. May our walk match our talk in 2019 and beyond.   

Prayer Points:

·        Pray for wisdom, ask God to give you understanding, so that you know where God wants you to spend your time, talents, and treasure.

·        Pray for the strength to continue to fast.

·        Pray for your heart to grow more tender to the things of God.

Grace and peace to you,

Pastor Lucas Rivera

PRAYER EMPHASIS DEVOTIONAL DAY 1 - INVEST YOUR PRECIOUS TIME ON THE PRECIOUS PEOPLE AROUND YOU

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:5-6).

Every year at Midwest Bible Church we not only start the year with a prayer emphasis week, but also with a specific spiritual emphasis (theme) for the year. As the Pastor of Midwest Bible Church, I strongly believe that one of my great responsibilities is to cast vision. However, the vision that I believe that God wants me to cast is first and foremost a clearer vision of the magnificence of God.

Often what Pastors ask other Pastors around lunch tables at conferences is, “What is your five year vision for your church?” There's nothing wrong with setting goals and having plans. But unless we have a big and growing vision of who God is, our motives, methods and means in regards to seeing the “vision” realized can go south real quick. 

I once heard Pastor Adrian Rogers give a response to the “vision” question that has stayed with me ever since. He shared that once, while walking through the facilities of Bellevue Baptist Church, which at the time had 25,000 members, he ran into two Pastors that were touring the facilities. One of the Pastors asked Pastor Rogers, “When did you get a vision for all of this?” He responded, “God never gave me a vision for all of this. He gave me a vision of Himself and this is the result.”

One of the results of growing in the grace and knowledge of God is a deep conviction about not wasting time. I’ve heard people say and I’ve said it myself in the past, “I’m just killing time.” This phrase should not be in the vocabulary of Christians. Time is life. When we are killing time we are killing life. Killing life should not be one of our New Year resolutions in 2019. And it will not be, if we have a clearer vision and right conception of God. When we have a right view of God, we recognize that God is the source, sustainer and satisfaction of life. We see life as a gift from God. Every day we awake we acknowledge that this new day is a day that the Lord has made—it’s a day that has been gifted to us by God—it’s a precious day (Psalm 118:24).

Time is life and life is time. Paul, whose greatest desire was to know God, (Philippians 3:10), understood this. Therefore he desired and exhorted other believers to make the best use of the time that’s been gifted to them by God—to not waste time. How can we make the best use of our time? 

There are a number of things that we can say about making the best use of time from the scriptures. But one thing that God has been leading me to focus on this years and I believe wants me to challenge the church to focus on is investing time in people. Once again, time is precious. It’s precious because time is life and life is a gift from God. Therefore time is not only precious, but people, who possess life, are precious. So the best way that we can use our God given time in 2019 is by investing our time in people. More specifically, use the time that we have to share the love of Jesus with others by our words and actions. The Apostle John wrote, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). What is John saying here? He’s saying, don’t just talk the talk. Walk the walk. Live it out.

Now, here’s an important question, "Can we share the love of Jesus with everyone in the world?" The answer is no. God doesn’t expect us too. However, we have been strategically placed where we are by God to share the love of Jesus with those in our circle of influence. 

We are to share the love of Jesus (invest time) with insiders. In other words, we are to invest time building up our children and spouses in the Lord.  In addition, we are to invest time doing good to insiders who are part of the family of God. The Apostle Paul wrote, “So then, as we have opportunity [time], let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). 

Furthermore, we’ve been called as Christians to invest time on outsiders.  Paul wrote, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time” (Col. 4:5).  The Apostle Paul is exhorting believers to seize every opportunity that God gives in relation to those who are outside of the faith—in relation to those who have earthly life, but don’t have eternal life—who don’t have Christ who is life (John 14:6; 17:3). Seize every opportunity to do what? To share the hope of Christ. This was Paul's passion so much so that in addition to looking for these opportunities, he asked others to pray for open doors to share the hope of Christ (Col 4:2-4).  

Now we are not called as Christians to meet everyone’s (insiders and outsiders) physical and spiritual needs. It’s impossible. For this reason, Paul exhorts believers to “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders.” Wisdom is to understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:15-17). We need to seek God's wisdom, and look for the doors of opportunities that He opens to invest in people.    

God is not expecting us to meet every need in the world. He’s calling us to avail ourselves of the opportunities that He makes available. Seize them. Don’t waste them. Wake up every morning thanking God for the precious gift of another day. And in addition, ask Him to help you to make the most of it, to open up doors of opportunity for you to share the love of Jesus, to share the hope of the gospel, to meet the needs of others to the glory of Jesus. 

We are not called to meet everyone else’s expectations. We don’t have enough time to do that. But if we seek God’s wisdom, we will discover that He has given us enough time each and every day to do everything that He wants us to do, while we leave the results to Him.

Prayer: Father, I praise you for the precious gift of time. Open my eyes more fully to see time as precious because time is life, which is a gift from your hand. Help me to see that, because life is precious, people created in your image are precious. Therefore, grant me wisdom to invest the precious time that you’ve given me into the precious people you’ve placed in my circle of influence for their eternal good and your glory.