Actions reveal my heart

Leviticus 13; Psalms 15–16; Proverbs 27; 2 Thessalonians 1

Trials tend to bring out the true character of those who experience them. This morning, the news featured a few accounts of those who are using this pandemic to try and line their own pockets. Imagine robbing the cars of those visiting loved ones in the hospital or stealing a warehouse full of medical supplies to sell to the highest bidder. Imagine having the virus and spitting in the face of police or medical personal. What does this reveal about those who do such things?

This morning, a friend sent me a virtual Easter card that was not about bunnies and eggs but about the glory of the empty tomb. I’m not sure if this friend is a Christian but what does this card reveal about her heart? Yesterday a neighbor put a package of medical masks on our doorstep. I don’t know her spiritual state, but what does this reveal about her?

The NT uses actions to evaluate the heart. Saying I believe is not enough. Showing that I believe is important. While the thief on the cross had no time to do anything, obedience to God’s commands is important — not to earn salvation but to reveal that God has visited the heart and done something there that shows up in life.

For instance, Paul says in one of his letters that the life of the recipients reveals that they are in the kingdom of God and showing evidence of it. This is not their own doing but Christ is working in their hearts.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:3–12)

It is God who makes people worthy, His power resulting in every good work of faith. He is bringing glory to Himself and marveled at by all who believe. For that, I am to always pray for my Christian family. Their lives are evidence of faith and bring glory to the God in whom they trust.

APPLY: I can pray for those who disobey God and who show their sinfulness, sometimes in horrifying ways. However, the commands to do that are conspicuously absent. The Word of God tells me to pray for the people of God. He wants us to stand together, not only in our battle against personal sin but in the desire to glorify Jesus Christ by living by faith and by His grace. I am not to rely on the flesh or any selfish or worldly notions, particularly during this pandemic trial, but walk by faith, reminding others that Jesus will come one day, taking care of all who have mocked goodness and enjoyed sin, and reveal to everyone that He is Lord of all. The best reminders are those whose lives reflect His grace and power.

Pity party or intercession?

Listening to someone pray reveals much about them. Some cannot pray aloud. Are they shy? Private people? Worried about saying the wrong thing (?) or about what others might think?

Those who do pray aloud might use flowery “King James” language that once seemed normal, but now it seems superficial. Many pray for physical needs indicating they value comfort and good health. Some pray giving long explanations as if God needs all the details. Some use prayer as a way to spread gossip (Yikes) and I’ve heard prayers filled with apologies for not being good enough.

The Old Testament story tells how Job went through a test in which he lost everything, including his children. He queried God for he could not understand why this was happening to him. His friends thought they knew — Job must have sinned and God was punishing him. Job insisted otherwise.

In the end, God never told Job what his situation was all about, but He did declare that his friends had not said the right things as Job had. He told them Job would intercede and rescue them from getting what they deserved. The Lord accepted Job’s prayer . . . 

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10)

Just as prayer brings out our priorities, so do severe trials. Over the last week, my trial involved the threat of heart failure. With good medical advice, I’ve been able to get rid of the retained fluid (about 10 lbs of it) and start feeling normal again. Yet during that time, my thoughts went to questions and fears. My priority was my own mortality.

However, by the amazing grace of God, I found myself thinking about others. I have many friends and relatives that do not know Jesus yet. I’ve been praying for them for many years. Last week, I couldn’t fix my own threat, but neither can I fix the perilous situation of others. Also, Christian friends are in need. One is dying of brain cancer. How could I think of only me when she is so frail and needy? I left my pity-party and began again to intercede again.

I don’t know if my situation is like Job’s, but Chambers says I must leave myself in His hands, and pour out to God in the priestly work of intercession. I’m not to pray in disbelief concerning the saving work of Jesus Christ, not am I to focus on my own fears and doubts. I confessed them to God and quit insulting Him by asking to do things He has already done or promised to do.

Chambers says that if I am not being blessed, or not getting my daily needs met, then I should start praying for my friends. “The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer.”

Wherever circumstance God puts me in, my work is either interrupted (one of Satan’s ploys), or I can keep on doing what God has given me to do. Intercessory prayer is asking God to have mercy, forgive sin, open eyes to the need, and bless those on my list with faith and eternal life.

If what happened to Job is a pattern for those who respond to their situation by praying for their friends, them I identify more with Job that I thought. If not, I’m still glad that the Lord redirected my concerns for ‘poor me’ to the greater concern and need of others who still do not know about His amazing grace and power. Like Job, I need to keep interceding for my friends.

Tests of a different kind . . .

August 31, 2008

Today could hardly be called a day of suffering. We are on Vancouver Island in a Bed & Breakfast where the owner could be a chef in any fancy restaurant in the world. Fabulous food. Our room is about 14 x 18 with comfortable furniture and pleasing decor. Luxurious yet not expensive. This home is on the beach where we can look across the bay to a range of mountains on the other side. Their large sunroom has a telescope. Eagles and water birds fly over head. The sun is shining in a deep blue sky. In about an hour we will attend a church, a solid one that we have been to before and have friends. Life could not be much better.

But suffering happens. My devotional verse for today says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”(Romans 8:18).

God uses tough times to shape His people into the image of Christ. That suffering has no comparison with the good that comes out of it. God is wise; He knows exactly what I need to bring His glory into my life. He has taught me that trouble is not my enemy. While I don’t like it, He can and does use it for my good.

So what about the opposite? Do the almost perfect conditions of today also fit into His plans? Verse 28 of Romans 8 says yes. Good things are also part of the “all things” that He can “work together for good” in my life, the good being that constant work of transforming me into the likeness of His Son.

I’ve a responsibility here. I could permit this idyllic vacation to indulge my old nature. I could resent any interruptions to the ease, like clouds in the sky, or rain, or something like my husband driving by a place where I really wanted to stop. Grouchy can come easy when Eden is invaded.

I’m noticing though that even on holidays the Holy Spirit is still nudging me, still making me aware of temptation and His conviction. He says, Don’t go there, or Confess that right now, and as I do, the sense of ‘almost heaven’ returns and I am deeply aware of Him and His power.

My experience with God is that He does use the tough times to produce a different attitude, but this vacation shows me that He also uses the best of times to test those changes and ensure that what He has taught me is still here, in place, and not at all shaken by all this pampering.