Truth Telling

I’m reading The Truth Teller by Angela Hunt. She will be at a writer’s conference I’m involved in next month, about ten minutes from my house, and I want to experience her skills beforehand. She writes well, which is not a surprise. What surprises me is that God used this book of fiction to show me a reality in my own life.

Usually He uses truth to change people. My Bible reading today is the story of Peter going to the home of a Gentile, Cornelius, and telling him and his household about the life of Christ. As Peter spoke the truth about Jesus, that story changed their lives.

Acts 10:44 says, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.” It goes on to say that these people not only heard it, but believed it, were filled with the Spirit, and immediately baptized. For those conversions, and for perhaps millions like them, the Holy Spirit used the true story of Jesus to show people their need and open their hearts to His solution.

Last night, in the middle of a suspense-filled action scene in Hunt’s book, God used something in this fiction story to show me my need. I’ve been struggling with prayer. After years of praying for certain people, nothing is happening. I’ve started to lose motivation and yet the burden for these requests remains. As I read Hunt’s book, I realized how many of my prayers are more like twisting God’s arm than simply asking in faith.

This morning, my devotional book points out that God was always interrupting Peter. The man had ideas but God had better ideas. In a way, I suppose this is what He did with this book. Hunt’s story is exciting, inspirational, and captivating, yet pure fiction. God interrupted it and made it something she very likely did not intend. The story is not about instructions for prayer, yet God jumped in and used it to make a correction in my prayer life.

Responding is easy. I gave Him the concerns on my heart, but first confessed how I had been foolishly thinking that His work depended solely on my faithful, dutiful labor in prayer. I had made prayer more about what I was doing than what God is doing.

Sure, I’m supposed to pray, even work hard at it, but my praying is not coercing God. If I’m battling anyone, it is the Liar who holds people in sin and darkness. I’m to go to war against spiritual wickedness, not strong-arm God. The Holy Spirit reminds me that of the fine line between believing God answers prayer and assuming His answers depend on my prayers.

I’ll have to thank Angela Hunt when I meet her, but right now I’m thanking God. I feel twenty pounds lighter and much more eager to talk to Him today.