Flashback Favorite: If you could ask God for just one thing

What’s the most important request on your heart right now?

If you could ask God for just one thing

Originally posted on June 22, 2017

When I was a child, I would sometimes think about what Heaven would be like.  All I really understood was that Heaven was this great place where we would “be with God forever” and everyone would be happy.  Well, to my little mind, the greatest place I would want to spend long lengths of time in would obviously be chock full of my favorite Saturday morning cartoon toys.  I had it all planned…when I got to Heaven, I was going to ask God for the ENTIRE COLLECTION of He-Man action figures and playsets.  Pure bliss, as far as I was concerned, required a large amount of the best toys I could imagine.

Even as I’ve grown and matured in my understanding of God, Heaven, and Eternity Future, my desire to ask God for “just one thing” hasn’t subsided, but the “one thing” I would ask for has changed.  At various stages of my life, it’s been financial assistance, romantic love, new friends, a new job, a healthy baby, my own health, the health of someone else, a reasonably-comfortable life, and many other things. 

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but if I’m feeling very spiritually mature, I tell people that when I get to Heaven, the only thing I plan on asking God for is a blue-ray history lesson narrated by Him.  I just want to know why stuff happened like it did and how He worked through it all.

But when you look closely at my progressing list of “just one thing” requests, not much has changed since I was fully enamored by plastic toys.  Even though I’m asking Him about good things for myself or others, I’m still treating God like a cosmic vending machine.  Even if God actually gave me the toys, the money, and the good health…each “one thing” item is still something that I could lose, something that could be taken away from me.

In the second stanza of Psalm 27, David asks God for “one thing”.  His ask puts his life and God in the proper perspective:

Psalm 27:4-6
I have asked one thing from the Lord;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking Him in His temple.
For He will conceal me in His shelter
in the day of adversity;
He will hide me under the cover of His tent;
He will set me high on a rock.
Then my head will be high
above my enemies around me;
I will offer sacrifices in His tent with shouts of joy.
I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Relationship.  Created Being relating back to his Creator.  That is the most important “one thing” we could ask for, and it will not be taken away from us, not even in the day of adversity.  However, we often let life’s issues and detours distract us from the true aim of our lives – to know God and to be known by Him. 

I think C.S. Lewis summed us up rather well, even if it does sting a little:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

It’s good to pray about all our requests, cares, and concerns, for God has instructed us to do so (Philippians 4:6).  However, the next time you do ask for something, go for the biggest thing you can ask Him for.  Ask God to give you Himself.  Seek a deeper relationship with Him.  Ask for even a glimpse at His glory.  Ask to be closer to Him, even if that means dealing with enemies and adversity.  God’s beauty and splendor exceeds everything we can see on this earth.

Ask for Him.  He will not disappoint.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

If you could ask God for just one thing

When I was a child, I would sometimes think about what Heaven would be like.  All I really understood was that Heaven was this great place where we would “be with God forever” and everyone would be happy.  Well, to my little mind, the greatest place I would want to spend long lengths of time in would obviously be chock full of my favorite Saturday morning cartoon toys.  I had it all planned…when I got to Heaven, I was going to ask God for the ENTIRE COLLECTION of He-Man action figures and playsets.  Pure bliss, as far as I was concerned, required a large amount of the best toys I could imagine.

Even as I’ve grown and matured in my understanding of God, Heaven, and Eternity Future, my desire to ask God for “just one thing” hasn’t subsided, but the “one thing” I would ask for has changed.  At various stages of my life, it’s been financial assistance, romantic love, new friends, a new job, a healthy baby, my own health, the health of someone else, a reasonably-comfortable life, and many other things. 

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but if I’m feeling very spiritually mature, I tell people that when I get to Heaven, the only thing I plan on asking God for is a blue-ray history lesson narrated by Him.  I just want to know why stuff happened like it did and how He worked through it all.

But when you look closely at my progressing list of “just one thing” requests, not much has changed since I was fully enamored by plastic toys.  Even though I’m asking Him about good things for myself or others, I’m still treating God like a cosmic vending machine.  Even if God actually gave me the toys, the money, and the good health…each “one thing” item is still something that I could lose, something that could be taken away from me.

In the second stanza of Psalm 27, David asks God for “one thing”.  His ask puts his life and God in the proper perspective:

Psalm 27:4-6
I have asked one thing from the Lord;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking Him in His temple.
For He will conceal me in His shelter
in the day of adversity;
He will hide me under the cover of His tent;
He will set me high on a rock.
Then my head will be high
above my enemies around me;
I will offer sacrifices in His tent with shouts of joy.
I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Relationship.  Created Being relating back to his Creator.  That is the most important “one thing” we could ask for, and it will not be taken away from us, not even in the day of adversity.  However, we often let life’s issues and detours distract us from the true aim of our lives – to know God and to be known by Him. 

I think C.S. Lewis summed us up rather well, even if it does sting a little:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

It’s good to pray about all our requests, cares, and concerns, for God has instructed us to do so (Philippians 4:6).  However, the next time you do ask for something, go for the biggest thing you can ask Him for.  Ask God to give you Himself.  Seek a deeper relationship with Him.  Ask for even a glimpse at His glory.  Ask to be closer to Him, even if that means dealing with enemies and adversity.  God’s beauty and splendor exceeds everything we can see on this earth.

Ask for Him.  He will not disappoint.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Does the past predict the future?

Past performance is not indicative of future results. 

We see that phrase all over the place, especially when investing money is involved.  It’s the author’s attempt at a legal disclaimer: “Don’t blame me if you lose all your money by trusting this investment I’m recommending.”  And yet, more often than not, the author is basing his or her assessment of “investment worthiness” on the stock’s historical performance.  Strange contradiction, right?

Isn’t that how we treat God sometimes?  We look back at everything He’s done for us, all the times He’s rescued us…and while we confidently say the right things “I trust God with my future.”, we end up worrying about how events will unfold.  Like the unsteady investor, we’re contradicting ourselves as we attempt to point others toward Jesus.

David begins Psalm 27 with his current outlook, looks back at his past, then extrapolates these out to his future.  Do you find any unsteadiness?

Psalm 27:1-3
The Lord is my light and my salvation –
whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life –
of whom should I be afraid?
When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh,
my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.
Though an army deploy against me,
my heart is not afraid;
though war break out against me,
still I am confident.

David could look back and see that when someone was gunning for his life, God stepped in and took care of it.  We shouldn’t blow this off with the thought of “well, no one’s trying to kill me, so I can’t relate”.  There are many, many ways others will try to take a pound of flesh from us.  Ruined reputations, finances, careers, marriages, community involvement, even volunteer positions could all be targets of those who want to take us down.

Notice, too, that David doesn’t say God prevented all hardship; rather, with the benefit of hindsight, David could see how his foes and enemies stumbled and fell.  Best of all, David recognized that God was the one who handled his foes.  Instead of proclaiming that he survived the ordeal, David gives God the proper credit for his protection.

David’s current confidence and faith in God was rooted in God’s previous workings in David’s life.  So much so that David says he will still trust God even if the future trials are significantly worse.  Previously, individual evildoers threatened him.  Now, David says that even if multitudes come against him – armies or full-scale war – he will remain confident in God’s ability to handle the future.

David is not worried about the future.  He knows that he can find light and rescue and strength in the Lord.  He’s not adding any disclaimers or hedging his bets anywhere else.  Given everything God has done for us in the past, we should also be giving Him our full trust with our futures.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

God's faithful love

David’s psalm started with fear and a request for protection from his enemies.  Once God steps in and rescues him, David begins to sing God’s praises.

Psalm 57:9-11
I will praise You, Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your faithful love is as high as the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

God, be exalted above the heavens;
let Your glory be over the whole earth.

The key to David’s rejoicing and praise toward God is found in a special phrase used in this section of the psalm.  David identifies God’s faithful love as the reason for singing God’s praises.

The Hebrew word translated as faithful love is hesed.  Hesed means to have a zeal (in a good sense) in love and kindness toward any one; it especially refers to the grace, favor, mercy God shows toward men or that one person may show to another.

It was this portion of God’s character that David was banking on when he petitioned God for refuge and shelter as his enemies closed in.  David says that God’s hesed is so great that it fills all the skies of the entire earth.  If that aspect of God’s character is true – and it is – then David felt that he could confidently approach God with his request for shelter.

When we recognize the magnitude of grace, favor, and mercy God has shown us…well, take a look at how Paul described God’s feelings for us:

Romans 8:31-32 What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?

A few verses later, Paul adds:

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

In a word, he’s crazy about us.  We can count on God’s hesed towards believers.  As a result, when trials come, we can have the same confidence as David to approach God with requests for refuge.  We can find shelter and rest in Him because of His faithful love toward us.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Confident steps

When David was feeling at his lowest, when he could see the traps set by his enemies all around him…that’s when he finally saw the rescue he was asking God to provide.  Notice David’s response:

Psalm 57:6-8
They prepared a net for my steps;
I was downcast.
They dug a pit ahead of me,
but they fell into it!

My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident.
I will sing; I will sing praises.
Wake up, my soul!
Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.

Recall that at the beginning of the psalm, David had said:

Psalm 57:1 I will seek refuge in the shadow of Your wings until danger passes.

Now that the danger has passed, David is ready to confidently step out from God’s protective refuge.  David’s confidence comes from God answering his prayer for rescue.  With jubilant language, David celebrates God as he moves from the sheltered safe haven into the light of a new day.

God is our refuge, but we we’re not made to stay sheltered forever.  Once the danger is gone, it’s time for us live…and live jubilantly before God!

Ships weren’t made to stay in harbor.  The harbor is for restoration and shelter from the violent storms.  However, once the storms have passed and the supplies have been restocked, it is time to set sail again.

And as we venture out, we too can sing confidently – because we remember how our God has provided for us once again.

Keep Pressing,
Ken 

Praying for an enemy (part 2)

Words are cheap.

Words are easy to say, but sometimes they are hard to follow through with.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has this to say about how those in the Kingdom of God should act toward enemies:

Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of our Father in heaven.  For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Last time, we wrestled with this passage and what Jesus is instructing us to do.  Someone who is actively plotting our downfall, someone who takes pleasure in seeing us fail, someone who harasses us without end – that is not the person I am generally interested in showing love to or want to pray for.

As we look at what Jesus taught here about prayer…it almost feels too big. 

All sorts of defensive thoughts and emotions come to mind when I imagine praying for those who persecute me.  However, the core of all those thoughts and emotions is my own self-centeredness.  Even when recognize this truth, I’m still unsure of how to pray for an enemy. 

Thankfully, we have an example.

Within about a 12 hour timeframe, Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, slapped, spat on, beaten, repeatedly mocked, savagely whipped, crowned with thorns, and had three metal spikes viciously hammered into his wrists and feet.  After all that, and while he was suffocating to death on the cross, Jesus said

Luke 23:34 Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.

In the midst of excruciating pain, less than a few hours before death, after all he had been through – Jesus petitioned God for their forgiveness.  Jesus kept his enemies’ most important need in mind, despite the circumstances.

That’s something I love about Jesus.  He never asks of us anything that he couldn’t do or wouldn’t do himself.

Everything he went through in those 12 hours, we have also experienced, to some degree, at the hand of an enemy.  On the days when I feel betrayed by those closest to me, the days that someone’s words leave welts and wounds on my heart and in my mind, or when I am antagonized to the point that it feels like they have ripped open my flesh – Jesus has been there before.  There are times when we’re getting run over by someone who is purposely out to make our life miserable (or worse).  Let’s be honest, there are people like that in the world.  They go beyond just being self-centered, and they are actively looking for ways to take us down.

It’s in those frazzled, exhausted moments that we need to be praying for our enemies.  Just like Jesus did, we must remember that their greatest need – God’s forgiveness – is greater than our greatest pains.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Praying for an enemy (part 1)

The first time Jesus discusses prayer during his Sermon on the Mount is at the end of a series of Kingdom-living examples.  Jesus begins each example with “you have heard that it was said”, which is followed by Jesus quoting a portion of the Mosaic Law.  Then Jesus looks beyond the letter of the Law to teach that even the person’s motivation is to be evaluated by that part of the Law.  His last example in this section states:

Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

The Jewish community of Jesus’ day was very internally focused.  They thoroughly believed that it was them against the world, and in many ways, that was true.  However, nowhere in the Law does it give license for the Jew to hate your enemy, the only direction is to love your neighbor.  Unfortunately, in their acceptance of the command to love their neighbor, they applied it only to their Jewish neighbor, and then they rationalized that they could do the opposite to an enemy.

Let’s not mince words here, either.  When Jesus said enemy, he meant enemy.  Someone who is actively opposing you.  The Greek word for persecute means to actively pursue or systematically oppress and harass a person or group.  Jesus isn’t giving instruction on how to deal with the annoying or selfish people we encounter…he’s talking about those who purposely oppose, fight, and undermine us.

Enemies are the ones who instigate situations, initiate fights, reduce us to tears, stress us out…we have heart problems, sleep issues, and mental breakdowns because of their actions and their desire to see us fail.

But should I seriously love them?  Why should I pray for that person?  Why should I petition the God of the Universe to lovingly interact with someone who is out to get me?  Truthfully, I’d rather pray that God gives me strength to deal with them…or better yet, I’d rather pray that God just removes them from my life altogether.

Matthew 5:44-45 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

The sobering question we must ask ourselves is “How does our Father in heaven act toward enemies?”

Jesus continues:

Matthew 5:45-47 For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

God uses the things he has authority over for the benefit of those who love him…and for the benefit of those who actively oppose him.  Let that sink in for a moment…

There are some blessings God continues to give toward those who practice evil against him.  He does it daily, without fail…even if they never acknowledge him for it.  And when we act like God does toward enemies – loving them and praying for them, even when they don’t deserve it – we are modeling God’s love to others.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  He goes on to explain that choosing to treat enemies the way the sons of your Father in heaven would…to choose to love and pray for those that persecute us…these actions will be rewarded!

Jesus makes this point by referring back to how the Jews were loving only their Jewish neighbor and hating their enemies, and pointing out the lack of reward for acting differently towards enemies than God does:

Matthew 5:46-47 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?  Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary?  Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?

Love, greet, and pray for your enemies.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ first direction about prayer is for us to petition God on behalf of those who actively try to undermine us.

Will we follow through on this instruction?  As we saw before, it is the wise man who hears Jesus’ words and does what Jesus says.  It won’t be easy, but God promises a reward when we choose to act like he does.

Keep Pressing,
Ken