Just knowing . . .

A few weeks ago, a book I was reading asked if I would trust God even if He did not answer my prayers for unsaved family members. The author seemed to suggest that their resistance could be stronger than God’s power to reach them. Before this, my confidence was not in my praying or in their receptivity, but in the promises of God concerning prayer and family, based on Scripture. I had been praying, “Not my will but thine be done” with the attitude that He was not willing that any should be lost. However, after this book, I felt estranged from God, as if He could no longer be trusted.

For the past couple of days of talking with Jesus and thinking about the nature of faith, I now see that the problem bothering me was not that God cannot or will not save people, but that the enemy does not want my confidence in God’s power. He saved a man (Saul who became Paul) who was determined to put Christians to death and turned him into an author of the NT. He saved me, a woman determined to run my own life and put me on my face before His Cross. Nothing is impossible for God. To suggest that He cannot do something is from the pit, not from the Holy Spirit.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Assurance is a characteristic of true faith in who God is and what He says. It is resting in God and His promises, not a hope-so longing that something will come to pass. True biblical assurance speaks of essence and reality — the real thing as opposed to mere appearance. It is based on God’s power, not my desires.

Faith, then, involves absolute certainty. Satan’s lies are designed to rob us of our certainty in God’s promises and make us doubt that He even cares. This is done to keep God’s people off our knees. He knows the power of prayer much better than we realize it!

In the Bible, the OT believers were told of a Messiah who would take away sin. They believed God, even though their understanding of Messiah was hazy. Their assurance of faith just knew that God would do what He said. This assurance of faith is the same in the NT.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8–9)

Satan would have me take my eyes off God and His promises and be disillusioned by what I can see. That is, if those I pray for show no interest in God, then he wants me to suppose that God is not at work. However:

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19)

He calls me to trust Him, not what I can see or cannot see. I think how He saved my husband — no evidence at all that He was working and suddenly, dear hubby was captivated by Jesus.

It is far better to believe God and to trust in His promises than the suggestions made by mere humans (who could be motivated by principalities and powers that are not flesh and blood) that God will not answer our prayers. I cannot live in doubt when He wants me to live in hope. Doubt puts my prayer life into slow mode whereas faith has me full of joy and excited to see what God will do next.

PRAY: Jesus, You have been answering prayer in so many surprising ways. The enemy does not want me to pray, and this latest assault has been devious. It came through a respected author, which made the devil’s tactics even more difficult to spot. Confessing my loss of trust in You helped, but also reading today’s devotional about the nature of faith was like a solid one-two punch in his face. Yes, I can trust You even if You do not reach out and save the people on my prayer list, but if that happens, it is not because You cannot do it. Nothing is impossible for You, not even melting the hardest heart. Keep my thoughts on Your power, Your mercy and love. Forgive and cleanse any doubt that people are lost because You cannot find them.

PONDER: Consider the power of God to do all that He wanted done through people to whom He granted faith, the kind of faith that trusts Him and therefore obeys whatever He asks. God is able. He makes promises concerning those for whom we pray. Trust Him to keep those promises and don’t add a “but if He doesn’t” doubt as if their sinful lives are just too far gone for Him to forgive and turn around.

 

 

A Heavy Heart

 

 

In the past eight days, we’ve attended three funerals. Two were sudden, unexpected deaths. Then yesterday, the husband of my friend for more than sixty years called to tell us she had died. Today my heart is heavy.

On one hand, grief for Christians is different. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 links it to our hope and the reality of Christ’s resurrection:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

The passage goes on to say this applies to “the dead in Christ” — a truth throughout the NT. How do I know who is in this category? Usually by their declaration of faith.

Romans 10:9–10. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Even so, words alone are insufficient. As James says, “faith without works is dead” so the reality of faith is backed up by a changed life. For three of those who died, this was obvious. For my friend, our relationship became long-distance years ago, and even though we kept in touch, and even though I shared the gospel with her, I was not able to hear a distinct confession of faith or a changed life, only hints.

Years ago, a young nephew died. At his funeral the pastor urged all who were Christians to tell their family so they are aware where we stand with God. This boy had not done that leaving his family unsure of his eternal destiny. This makes for a heavy heart. It also puts us in a place where we must rely on the promises of God to ASSURE our hearts and give us confidence, not necessarily concerning the destiny of that lost loved one, but that God has heard our prayers and His perfect will has been done.

Interestingly, the Lord says far more to assure me of my destiny than it offers hope to me for the destiny of others. While there are verses like Proverbs 11:21 that say this: “Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered” there are no names attached; and it is a proverb after all.

God also says in Isaiah 54:13, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” Yet without evidence, I wonder if He is doing that in their lives, or in the lives of anyone else that I pray for. Walking by faith is hard. I want to have assurance by seeing the results!

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. As for myself, my assurance is in verses like these:

1 John 5:10–13. “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Romans 8:1–2. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

I can know for certain for myself and be reasonably certain for those who declare their faith and live a life that bears it out. However, some people “pray the prayer” and assume they are okay with God, but do not change or show signs of lifelong worship and obedience. For the fence-sitters and the “religious” I have no visible assurance and only know that God knows who are His. For this and for so many other issues that the evidence of His working is not visible, I must trust Him to do what is right and just. It would be great to have a heart “fully assured in all the will of God” yet I am not there all the time.