Category: Whispers (Page 2 of 166)

Our own efforts will never be enough, for the bottom line is that we must trust God and listen to the voice of the Spirit. So many start out well but then slip into trying to do it on their own or take back their will rather than doing God’s will. We need to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit and respond right away, rather than waiting and deciding if we want to do what He is directing.

Maybe we have a wrong image of the Lord, thinking He is harsh and will hold us back from enjoying life. No, He came to give us fullness of life and joy as we cooperate with His grace. Without Him we can do nothing. (John 15:5) We must let go of self-reliance and grab hold of God-reliance and live in His grace.

What I have pondered lately is that we cannot do any good works for the Lord except if He produces them in us by His Spirit.  But even when we live a life of prayer and show compassion to others, etc., it was all prepared in advance by God. And of course, all the credit and glory then goes to Him, for it all originated with Him and not our own doing. We can plan and act, but all that we do comes from His grace.

I think of Jesus’ brother, James who wrote the book but didn’t believe in Jesus until after the resurrection, when a change took place in his life. He became a believer and the leader of the churches in Jerusalem and delt with areas of misbelief and behavioral problems in the congregations. He frankly tells them in the fourth chapter that they are spoiled children and that their quarreling comes about because they all want their own way. He says, “You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and His way.” He goes on to say what God gives in love is far better than anything else they would find, for God goes against the proud and gives grace to the willing humble.

We may like to think of the church as a place where perfect people come together and there is harmony and peace. But really the church is more like a hospital where sick people come who want their illnesses diagnosed and healed. God uses pastors and leaders to help in that process, and as we are willing and open to humbly confess those areas of our lives, we are on the road to wholeness.

James was used of God to confront those things in the churches that needed attention and call people to maturity. It has been said in church tradition that he was called “Old Camel Knees” as he spent so much time on his knees in prayer. Let that be said of us as well.

I read an article in Just Between Us magazine by Dr. Leslie Umstattd who is a pastor, a wife, and mother of two daughters. She gives some helpful hints to remind us of how we are to view the situation when our children stray. First of all, we are to remember that we are not the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the one to convict them, to show them their sin and speak truth to them about their actions, and not us. We are not to hammer away trying to point out their sin, but it is the Holy Spirit’s job. Our natural tendency also is to want to protect them from getting hurt and suffering the consequences. But what if God wants to use that to bring them back to Himself? When our kids were teens, I use to pray, “Whatever it takes for them to know and love you.” Sometimes that will mean watching them suffer presently but looking toward the day when they will come back to Him.

We can’t make our children believe or live a life of obedience to God, for each of them has to make their own choice. But we must remember that God always hears our prayers even when we see no outward evidence of change. He is always listening to us and working in ways we may not know. We are to hang on in faith and trust that He is at work without the outward evidence. God sees our grief and hears the cries of our hearts, and we can give Him our burden. He says in Matt. 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He gives us hope and we can lay our burden at His feet and trust Him with our child. Leslie gives comforting words of encouragement given to her, “As long as there is breath, the gospel has space to regenerate and transform the heart.” We must never give up and always pray.

Familiar to most of us is Jim Elliot, whose brief life among the Auca Indians of Ecuador ended with his martyrdom, along with four fellow missionaries. He had written in his journal, “God, I pray Thee light these idle sticks of my life that I may burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one, like you Lord Jesus.” His life was short for he died at only 29 years of age but he considered the salvation of the lost more important than his comfort or his very life. His wife Elisabeth wrote a biography of her husband and then carried on his work with the very people who had murdered her husband.

I read of others who made sacrifices and took the risk to go where they felt called by God. C.T. Studd was considered the best English athlete of his day. He experienced a renewal of his faith at a crusade and felt called to Africa as an evangelist. Then there was Mary Slessor, a worker in a textile factory in Scotland who, when she came to faith became active in street ministry and witnessed wherever she went. God laid a burden on her heart to go to Nigeria to a cannibalistic, savage tribe. Later she built a mission house, a school and a church, rescued orphans and even adopted some of them. God also used her for intervening in tribal affairs and she became their tribal mediator. Then there was William Carey, a cobbler. When he came to the Lord, he became a lay preacher with a passion for world missions. He went to India and started a school and a college. He mastered many languages, translated the Bible into six of the languages and parts of the Bible into twenty-nine others.

The list could go on and on of those who took a step of faith and risked their lives. They didn’t put limits on what God could do through them. For us also, the ultimate sacrifice is to give our whole selves to God. Who knows what He will do through us?