THE DIFFERENCE

PRAYER THOUGHTS NOV 1st

As we were praying this morning the topic of relying on God and God alone came to me, and i felt God speaking to me from the knowledge of believers in other countries and why is it that their faith seems a lot more real and active and alive and relevant than ours. 

Why is it that it seems like their spiritual lives, their everyday lives, even though under pressure, under attack, under challenges, trials and difficulties, seem more alive, more full of joy, peace, love, kindness, and just an overall contentedness and wholeness than ours?

What is it about their faith that seems so different and real than ours?

I believe that one of the reasons that they experience God in a different way than we do is because most of the time their situations and the availability of “other gods” is not available to them. They have no financial security. they have no counseling services. No medicine experts. No psychologists, no big shopping malls, no 150 channels, no sports figures and big rock bands. no great educational systems. No running water and air conditioned places, no heated homes, no big luxurious houses and vehicles, vacation spots, etc. They live very simple, rural, humble, scarce, shaved off lives without the temptations of other gods screaming at their lives and hearts. What they have is trouble without the option for bandaids. 

They have to rely on faith because most of what they can see is not hopeful. Most of what they see is already depressing. Hopeless. Dark. Oppressing. At times even demonic.

So they need to believe in something greater and higher than what they can see. And God becomes something they embrace and cling to because they know that apart from the divine they have no hope, no joy, no chance for life, freedom, peace, comfort, etc. 

And for us that is not the case or the reality. We have so many choices, options to try out before we come to God and believe that he can do anything about it. We try on our own not once, twice or three times, but countless times before we come to the end of our rope, and then we might turn our eyes to heaven and might try crying out to God, still many times in complete disbelief and doubt that he might even care or even be able to do something about it.

How sad is our situation when the one source, the one place where we can find all we need is relegated to the last option and even then we might not even try it.

And when he does show, we fall in love with him all over again only to be choked up again pretty soon by the temptations and things of this life, the empty and relentless pursuits that leave us hollow, tired, exhausted and spent without the energy or strength to be who God created us to be in our families as mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, teachers, doctors, workers, lawyers, etc. 

When we talk about revival i don’t believe it will come like we think will come. It won’t be a magic trick performed by God in a prayer meeting. We are far too gone for that. It will come as he brings conviction to individuals and communities all over this country and world that we need to return to His word, to the true message of the gospel and we allow His spirit to use this message, the simple message of the gospel to transform us, to change us, purify us, rebuke us, reshape us and then empower us to boldly live it out!

Until we realize that our culture has taught us that we don’t need God and has educated us and discipled us into the belief that we have all we need and that we can be self-sufficient apart from God, until we realize we’re living under the influence of satan’s lie that says we cannot trust God and that we “can BE LIKE GOD”, we will not see anything happening but the continued debacle of our society and our world!!!

There’s a reason why God tells us the story of the Israelites and the Exodus. He had to lead them to a place of complete dependance on Him so that they would truly become his people, and even after everything he did for them and how he kept them safe, fed them, provided for them and loved them, they still wished for Egypt. 

Crazy, uh???

When we think about the people around the world and see their situation we feel bad and sad and we pray for them, but honestly, I think even when we hear that they’re being massacred and killed and murdered, they die happier, fuller, and more fulfilled people than us. And why? Because they have experienced the verse that we so often sing but do not live “i once was lost, shackled, bound, enslaved, but now i am found, freed, liberated…was blind, ignorant, alone, depressed, hopeless and finished, but now i see, know, hope and am alive!!!”

What do you think???