Like an eagle

One of the reasons that I like that television show, The Mentalist, is the delighted and perhaps smug certainty shown in the main character’s smile. He is positive that his deductions and hunches will lead him to solve the crime. He is so sure of that outcome that his certainty affects his coworkers to trust what he is doing. His positive confidence is similar to what the Bible calls hope.

In normal English use, hope usually means “I want this” rather than “I’m sure of this” but the way it is used in Scripture is never associated with hopeful uncertainty. Instead, biblical hope is that pleasurable confidence that God is going to do everything He says He will do.

The word actually means “to anticipate with pleasure, confidence, faith” showing how closely hope is related to faith. Faith is knowing something is true, even if the eyes cannot see it yet. It is confidence in God, not in myself or my I-wants. Biblical faith is a certainty about God and His promises to the point that I have no doubts at all. 

Like faith, hope is a gift from God. The Bible says this about the source of faith…

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

No one can conjure up faith. Intellectually, I could know that there is a supreme Being who can do all things. This is the “faith” of many religious people. However, without the faith that God gives, I could remain lost in my sin, unchanged and without hope. This gift of biblical faith is like the gift of hope. The root of hope actually comes from having faith, just as Paul indicates in this benediction from Romans…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

God Himself is a God of hope. He knows that what He has planned will happen. This certainty is passed on to His people. He can fill us with that same hope because we believe in Him. Because He has given me faith, then, through the power of His Holy Spirit, I can be so filled with His hope that I abound in it. 

This morning, these verses and the joy and peace that God gives make me feel like dancing!

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Oh Lord God, thank You for You. Without You, without Your gifts of faith and hope, I would be filled with doubt and hopelessness. Instead, You fill me with both faith and hope — and add to that Your joy and peace. You lift me up. Your hope carries me on wings like an eagle. Some days, a mere thank You seems like very small words.

Doubts and Putting out a Fleece

Every summer the Family Bible School committee in our church asks me if I will teach in the Fall. Every year, my immediate response, inside and out, has been “Of course!” but this year, I hesitated.

That inner response confused me. Teaching is my passion. Seeing others discover truth in the Word of God is as exciting to me as finding it myself. But the hesitation was there. My question was, Is this from God, or am I just tired?

I waited, prayed, and after a few weeks of continuing to sense that I should say no, I was still feeling a bit uncertain. At that, I did something I’ve hardly ever done; I put out a fleece to the Lord.

A fleece is a one-time occurrence in the Bible. It happens in the Old Testament. Israel is under oppression from the Midianites. God says to a meek man named Gideon, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor.”

Gideon almost says, “Who me?” yet the Lord tells him, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

Gideon wasn’t sure he was hearing correctly. His tribe was the “least” and he was the “least” in his family. He wanted to make sure of what he heard before he moved ahead into what seemed a certain disaster.

My devotional reading today puts a positive spin on this kind of doubt. It says (slightly edited, as this older book needs it), “Doubts of (God’s power to save) are to manifestations of (that power) what hunger is to food, nakedness to clothing, a thunderstorm to a shelter, a gallows to a reprieve, and death to a resurrection. These things precede, prepare, and open a way for the other. The first is nothing without the last, nor the last without the first. Thus, next to a testimony of God’s power, the best thing is spiritual doubt. To know we are right is the best thing; to fear we are wrong is the second best. To enjoy the witness of the Spirit is the most blessed thing this side of the grave; to pant after that enjoyment is the next greatest blessing. . . . I am speaking only of spiritual doubts; that is, doubts in a spiritual man, for natural doubts are as far from salvation as natural hopes. For those who believe in God, the path through the valley of Baca is “from strength to strength,” that is, according to the eastern mode of traveling, from one halting-place to another, where wells are dug, and “the rain fills the pools.”

Gideon trusted God and had heard a word of command from God. This is important. I’ve known of people who wanted to do something and put out a fleece to God to confirm their own wants. One was the story of a woman who said to God, “If You want me to leave my husband for this other man, then have three people phone me today.”

This sort of “fleece” is not biblical. Gideon’s fleece was to make sure that he had correctly interpreted the word that he heard. His uncertainty was based on his own sense of inadequacy to hear and to do what God asked, not on what he wanted. In other words, he was not asking God to rubber stamp something he’d already decided.

In fact, he was so unsure, that he actually put out a fleece twice. Judges 6:39-40 describe the second time. “Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.’ And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.”

My fleece was not literally a hide and the wool of a sheep. Instead, I asked God to verify to me what I was supposed to do. If I was hearing wrong, on a certain day when I was with His people, I wanted Him to have one of them say to me, “What are you teaching this Fall?” This often happens, so it would not be a miraculous thing (like dry where there should be dew), yet I trusted God to control the mouths of His children.

Silence. During that time frame, no one said anything to me at all about upcoming classes, what I would teach, or whether I would teach. I’ve been asked since then, but by then had the certainty of my response. I know that God told me to say no this year.

A few have asked, “Why not?” with some consternation—for I always teach. I’ve tried to imagine what God’s reasons might be, but have no idea. I tell them that He has told me to take a break this year, and I cannot argue with the Boss.

Perfect assurance because . . .

January 10, 2008

Holidays, especially at the beginning of a new year, are a great time for reflection. As my husband and I experience the simplicity of being ‘away from it all’ and the enjoyment of ‘no schedule’ I tend to think about ways to reorganize my life, perhaps to make it more like a holiday?

Other thoughts on my mind include those things I am sure of, things that I can build upon. Life holds few guarantees, yet I’m fairly assured that when we arrive home, I will still teach, quilt, cook meals and need to keep my house clean. Of course there will be all those interruptions and sideswipes that push their way into the simplicity of that to-do list making even the basics an uncertainty.

One thing is different: spiritually I stand on solid ground. God is true and no matter what happens He will not change—and whatever is based on His character stands forever. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

The promises of God are also a certainty. Some of them do depend on my response, but even that response comes from Him. Consider this from 1 John 5:10-13:

“Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who 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 so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

“Anyone who believes” depends on verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 that declare how faith is a gift from God. It comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), another gift of His grace.

This passage goes on to affirm that eternal life is also a gift. This life is in Christ, and those who have Christ also have life. He lives in those who believe in Him. When God granted me faith, He also gave me Jesus. Now that I have Jesus, I also have eternal life—and I know it.

I’ve known it since that day Jesus Christ made Himself known to me and came in. That was more than thirty-five years ago, and even though I’ve had many ups and many downs since then, I’ve never doubted that I belong to Him. This secure knowing and deep assurance are not based on me, or what I do, or even on how much I trust Him. It is about Jesus. He is the source of my salvation, not myself.

Some may think that this wonderful eternal life depends on faith, as if a person stopped believing they would no longer have it, yet defining the word ‘eternal’ does not allow for that. Eternal is forever, without beginning or end. It has to find its source in Jesus, not in faith which can come and go.

Apart from semantics, eternal life is definitely a God-thing, not what I do or do not do. There was a short time when I did stop believing, or at least tried to because I was losing a battle against a particular sin and came to the conclusion that this being a Christian is far too difficult. Yet God held on to me. He dropped verses into my situation to show me that He was sufficient and that I could win that war. In other words, my salvation (as well as my eternal life) does not depend on my performance but on the power and sufficiency of God.

This is solid ground. It will not change. This new year could bring all sorts of challenges. My husband has an incurable cancer. Any number of disasters could happen to friends, to family, to me, but God is. He is my anchor, the keeper of promises, my life and eternal destiny. Because He is who He is, He is enough.

Another amazing gift from an amazing God!

Faith is such an odd thing. Sometimes I struggle to believe, and need to continually remind myself that God is able, but often faith just happens. Like a sudden insight, I just know that a will happen, or is true.

When I came to my Bible this morning, I’m thinking about our granddaughter and how impossible her situation. The problems are so enormous and seem to have no answers. Great sadness filled my mind and I bowed my head again and asked for help, help for this day and help for her.

Then God took me back to Joshua 14 where Caleb is described as still having full strength at eighty years of age. On that basis this man asked God, “Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said.”

These words echoed my thoughts, “Lord, the land is full of giants; but give me this mountain.” I don’t feel like I have the strength of Caleb, but nonetheless, a difficult challenge faces us too, and I want to conquer this mountain and its enormous giants, and find rest from this battle for our dear grandchild.

Then I read the verses after that. “Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel. . . . Then the land had rest from war.”

As I read them, something happened in my mind, like a light going on. Suddenly, and without any effort or self-talk on my part, I definitely believe that the mountain that seems so overwhelming today will one day be overcome, and instead of fears and fatigue, there will be rest from this battle. I know I must obey Him, yet also know He will give the victory. It does not depend on me.

The Bible constantly tells us to believe in God, but it also says faith is “not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” In one unexpected instant, He gave this gift to me concerning my mountain. One second I’m anxious and not sure; the next second I know.

As I read the passage again, I noticed that Caleb said, “it may be that the Lord will be with me . . .” and smiled. Even though faith just knows a thing is true, there is that sense of holding it lightly, not presuming that God will do a thing, realizing I could be wrong, realizing that my mountain is still huge, yet inside, deeply knowing that He will do it.

In fact, faith usually carries with it the sense that it has already been done. The mountain could loom large and threatening for a long time, and the battle is not over yet, but in my heart, faith already gives me rest. God, You are amazing—and totally faithful, but Your faith certainly is an odd thing.