I recently read some New Testament verses that resonated with me deeply. Their powerful message centered around how we live as Christians. Although distinct in context, they were also intertwined. In this case, they offered me a transformative perspective on faith, purity, and the renewal of the mind. Let me explain.
In Mark 7:15, Jesus spoke about how we can act to ensure we appear perfect on the outside. Yet He said the external isn’t the issue. “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” His words cut the religious traditions of His day to the core and challenged the norms. They were religious norms which heavily emphasized external purity laws and rituals. Everything had to do with the outward appearance.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been learning about the historical use of a long sword. It takes great precision to design them. The long edge faces away from you, while the short edge is toward you. Additionally, the blade has three sections. First, there is the “Strong” — the section from the crossbar to the “Middle” section. After the “Middle” comes the “Weak” or the top half. Each part has advantages for combat. Swords are both defensive and offensive weapons. All of the parts work together to make it formidable.
The comparison of God’s Word being like a sword (found in Hebrews) certainly came to life for me.
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” — Psalm 62:5-8
I’m not exactly sure what each of you is going through. But I know that, most likely, we are staring something in the face that brings us to a place of needing to trust Jesus. Perhaps in the past weeks (or in the coming weeks), you are wrestling with trusting Jesus.
Have you ever prayed to God and seemingly nothing happened? How about praying 10 times? 100 times? Maybe you felt like you didn’t even deserve the gift you asked for? I recently read the first chapter of Luke and empathized with Zechariah. God spoke to me in a new way — to not lose heart when I pray. I had three takeaways I wanted to share with you.
Remember These Things:
1. Be faith-filled and pray continually.
Think about how long Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for a child. Being advanced in years and well beyond the age of having children (Luke 1:18), they must have prayed thousands of times to have a child. They continued to have faith and pray even though their prayers seemed unanswered (Luke 1:6).
2. Gifts from God are good.
When God answered their prayer for a child, Zechariah didn’t believe it. I can certainly empathize with that feeling! There are times I feel like I don’t deserve a blessing from God. In fact, it leads me to doubt the prayer will be answered. God shook Zechariah a bit by removing his voice until his son was born. It was as if God needed to get his attention (in a drastic way) for him to understand the depth of the gift he was about to receive. Being mute drove Zechariah to an even closer relationship with God than he had before (Luke 1:67–79). Take heart, even when things seem like they are “bad”, God is working it for good.
3. God loves us and will answer us.
He hears us and answers according to His will for our lives (Luke 1:13). Certainly, our prayers aren’t always answered the way we want. That’s because our Father knows what’s best for us. I know there have been times I’ve specifically prayed for something and it didn’t happen the way I wanted. But God knew what was best.
When we faithfully pray, we are heard and loved by Him. He will answer us according to His will for our lives. With this in mind, don’t lose heart while you’re waiting. Sometimes, just like for Zechariah, God needs to grab our attention during the process. Take heart.
Every once in a while, I go through all the “stuff” in my house. I take inventory of things that are useful and decide what things are just taking up space. Then, I’ll put anything useless into a big pile and take it out to the trash. If we’re honest with ourselves, we all have “stuff” we need to take inventory of, don’t we? We need to know what’s useful and what’s not.
Simply put (good or bad), there are many things fighting for first place in our hearts. Our jobs, family, friends, bills, hobbies, “to-do lists”, debts, recreation, wealth, pets, church (and even our houses) — all of these want a little piece of our hearts, don’t they? Here is what the Bible says in Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your hearts above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” In Matthew 6:34 it says, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be also.”
I really love serving God. I absolutely mean it. My heart longs to do more for Him. I love serving His people and playing music for Him. I love knowing Him more and more. Each day, I seek to bring honor to God by serving Him.
That being said, this verse in Psalm 50 has recently really impacted me. Prior to verse 23, God reminds His people that though they “sacrifice” to Him, what really brings Him honor is giving thanks to Him.
