When things aren't going our way, if we are depressed or sick or poor, or on the brink of tragedy one of the popular 'spiritual notions' that gets presented to us in North America is that we must just have more faith. After all, faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains (Matthew 17:20) and one must not doubt if he / she is to receive from The Lord (James 1:6). In the correct context and taken the right way, this is a good and healthy challenge and encouragement to spur one's self on to trust in The Lord. All too often though the result and the expectation results in an unhealthy 'conjured spirituality;' the idea that if I believe hard enough God will answer my prayers in the way I want Him to.
I've heard more than enough stories of broken people who, instead of trusting in God tried to force God's hand by conjuring up belief within themselves. "My relative will not die of this disease, I believe it and claim it in Jesus' name!" "My allergies are healed because I trust that God has healed them." "I know it is God's will for me to have this thing because I believe it is." Then, despite the most sincere and unceasing prayers, the relative does die of cancer, the allergy almost kills you, and the thing he wanted so badly causes him to miss out on what God actually wanted him to be a part of.
The problem is that we are often told implicitly that God will do things the way we want him to if we just have enough faith and that if things aren't going the way we want them to then that is evidence of a lack of faith. Our emotions lean us toward this sort of superstition. The reality though is that while God is sovereign, and while he does care for us, and while having faith and acting upon faith are critical to the Christian life, He is God and we are not God. His ways are higher than our ways. His paths are not our paths. He is always working in our lives but we rarely perceive it, even and perhaps especially those of whom we think are most 'spiritual' or 'godly'. It is often the will of God that his people should endure hardships in this world. They often serve great spiritual purpose in making us less selfish and greedy, more sympathetic and generous. In going through a difficult time the Christian is molded by God to become the hands and feet of Christ so that we may have the heart and experience to participate in what God is doing in the world around us. One of the primary objectives God is working in us is that we think of others before ourselves. Faith in God acknowledges the possibility that this might be God's will but is also bold enough to wrestle with God on the point yet not so bold as to imagine and bow down to another god of our own making.
Faith is something given to us, each one has a measure of faith provided by God that we can conduct our lives by. Faith is not something we conjure up, as though pursing our lips and squeezing our fists and thinking as hard as we can will change the course of the universe in our favor. Taking God at his word, bringing our prayers and petitions, concerns and contemplations to him though, that is faith that will change us and the world around us.
So where exactly is the line between faith and conjured spirituality and between discerning spiritual realities and doubt? I don't know and I suspect it is different for each person as each person is wired differently. When presented with a serious problem we should pray about it. Bring the request to the Lord and trust that God is able to fix it and that He does indeed hear and cares about you. Do not fall into trap of trying to twist God's arm by claiming a specific result in Jesus name, as though "I claim it in Jesus' name," where a magic phrase. But here is where the line gets blurry, if God does reveal to the believer(s) that he does intend to bring about the desired result, then claiming that result in Jesus' name becomes a wholly appropriate act of faith. I am thinking specifically of my time in Caronport when my church was praying for an older lady not present and one of the elders had a vision of the cancer being taken out of her. After prayer and searching the vision team (the church leaders) also felt that this was a sign from the Lord and not just the hopeful imagining of one person. Later, I do not remember how much later, the doctors' scans revealed that the cancer had vanished.
How does one tell if a vision or strong feeling similar to this is from the Lord or just hopeful wishes? Here are my thoughts on the matter. Continued prayer on the topic over time is important, we must continually return to the Lord in prayer on what concerns us. Some have the gift of discernment and they often know where others do not. Praying with other believers often can makes things more clear.
Always assuming the best and most ideal result in prayer is unrealistic and not in keeping with how God has worked in history (it wasn't ideal that Jesus, the prophets, the apostles, and countless faithful throughout all times and places suffered and died). Assuming that God will never answer your prayer is lack of faith (pray for more faith if this is you).
Ultimately we know that God will reconcile all things to himself in Christ Jesus and that not only we but all creation looks forward to the new creation, the new heavens and new earth where all who have put their faith in God with resurrected bodies made perfect will have life everlasting to reconnect with each other and our God. Until that time we live fallen yet redeemed in the present and are called into God's Kingdom, this new creation under cover that we can partake in the already but not yet.
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