Jon Bloom's Blog, page 36

I Need Thee Every Hour

One of the sweetest refrains in English Christian hymnody is this:

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

Thank God for Annie S. Hawks who wrote these lyrics and her pastor, Robert Lowry, who composed the music. The lyrics could hardly be simpler, and yet they capture one of our heart’s most profound longings and can be prayed in the sweetest, most sorrowful, or most mundane moments in life. The prosody of the music, the way the melody and meter aligns with the wording, could hardly be more perfect.

But it is not the skill of the hymn’s construction that makes it so powerful. It is the colossal truth it so beautifully expresses.

O I Need Thee!

We need God.

It is not until we feel in the depths of our souls our utter poverty without Christ, our bankruptcy of any inherent righteousness, the impotence of our own strength and self-sufficient planning, our inconsolable loneliness when we are out of fellowship with God, the pathetic pretentiousness of our pathological pride, the hollow emptiness of all the godless gain of the world, our utter helplessness in the face of personal, institutional, cosmic, and molecular evil, that we know just how much we need God.

Every Hour I Need Thee!

Yes, we need to feel our need. Where real need is not felt, there is rarely any real praying. When Paul tells us to keep “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication . . . for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18), it’s in the context of grasping the nature of the war we’re in and our helplessness without God in the face of the overwhelming power of our enemy.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus gave them the Lord’s prayer as a sort of prayer template or structure (Luke 11:1–4). But in Acts 4:24–31, we see a prayerful exposition of “your kingdom come.” Those early Christians felt their desperate situation in the face of potentially lethal threats and cried out to God. And God answered, just as he promised:

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).

Desperation drove our ancient brothers and sisters to prayer and it’s what drives us to prayer too. Our places of desperation are the places of God’s revelation of his power (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Need drives us to prayer, and our need is great. We need God every hour and we need him to show us this level of need. If we’re not really praying, we must plead with God to teach us. And his answer likely will not be a new method but a heightened awareness of our desperate need. And when he does this for us it is a priceless gift to us. It is key to not wasting our lives. An unceasing awareness of our need leads to unceasing prayer. And the constant practice of praying will teach us the methods of prayer most helpful to us. And constant prayer leads to new breakthroughs.

O Bless Me Now, My Savior

“Come to me,” Jesus says to us, “all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Jesus calls the desperate and burdened. He calls the sin-sick (Mark 2:17). These are the ones who know their need.

When we really come to Christ, we find in him all the rest and all the forgiveness for our sin-infected burdens that we need. In Christ is all our provision (Philippians 4:19). In Christ is all our wealth (Ephesians 3:8). In Christ is all our righteousness (Philippians 3:9). Through Christ comes the abounding grace (2 Corinthians 9:8), not of mere talk but of real power (1 Corinthians 4:20). Through Christ we draw near to God and he draws near to us and we are never alone (James 4:8; Hebrews 13:5). In Christ we discover the unexpected and exalted joy of loving, servant-hearted humility (Philippians 2:3–11), knowing Christ is our greatest gain (Philippians 3:7–8), and in the power of Christ all evil at every level will be overcome and destroyed (Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; Philippians 2:11).

All the blessings of God the Father come through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I Come to Thee

When we feel deeply our need, not merely know it abstractly, we come to Christ. We come asking, seeking, knocking (Luke 11:9). We come alone and we come together. And we come continually, because we know we must abide in Christ our Vine or we won’t be able to do anything (John 15:5).

So let us come to Christ. Let us cry out to show us our need. Let us go to him for all our needs. And let us allow Annie Hawks and Robert Lowry to lead us in singing before the throne of grace this prayer that glorifies our triune God:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

A modern version of the hymn is provided by Indelible Grace and lyrics by Annie S. Hawks.

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We Should Pray for Healing

One Sunday afternoon my wife was in bed with a high fever, groaning and unable to sleep. I was lying next to her praying. I actually wasn’t mainly praying for her. I was in a season of significant spiritual wrestling, which was absorbing most of my prayers. But I remember being filled with hope over some precious promises of God and expressing thanks to him. Suddenly, my joy in God grew unusually intense. It was both inexpressible and irrepressible. God seemed almost tangibly near. I was almost overcome and I couldn’t help overflowing in awe-filled worship. Almost immediately I knew, without doubt, that if I prayed for Pam, she would be healed. I laid my hand on her back, prayed very simply in Jesus’s name and immediately my hand sensed her body temperature drop and she was instantly asleep. She got up later completely healed.

One weekday a group of us at church had gathered to pray for a brother who had suffered for months from a pinched-nerve in his lower back, causing debilitating pain in his leg. No medical treatments had helped and the pain had recently forced him to step down from his job. So we prayed for him in Jesus’s name. Afterwards he thanked us but didn’t mention any change. A week later he reported that when I had prayed for him the pain disappeared. But he had chosen not to say anything lest it turn out to be psychosomatic. However, after a full week with no pain he was able to return to work. A couple years later his back was still well.

When visiting a friend a number of years ago, I found him in a neck brace. He told me he had recently damaged some neck vertebrae and his doctor warned him to be very careful because wrong movements could damage his spinal cord. This posed a hardship: my friend was a personal care attendant for paraplegic man who was an unbeliever. The injury made it impossible for my friend to perform necessary duties for his employer. I prayed for him and specifically asked the Lord to heal him later that day (I don’t know why I prayed that way). But later that day, while resting on his bed, my friend suddenly felt his neck being “adjusted,” sort of like a chiropractor does. He sat up and realized he was completely healed. He resumed his full duties and was able to share this story with his unbelieving employer.

Pray for Healing for Today

I believe the church should pray for healing today. I don’t believe this because of my modest experiences. I believe it because the New Testament teaches that the Spirit gives this gift (and others) to the church (1 Corinthians 12:8–11) and instructs me to desire to exercise it (1 Corinthians 14:1). I believe that God occasionally answers prayers for healing, such as mine, when it accords with his sovereign will (Hebrews 2:4).

When God gives a gift of healing, it is always intended to glorify Jesus Christ and point us to believe in his gospel. None of us has authority to heal a body, only the creator does (Acts 3:12–13). That’s why we always pray in Jesus’s name. And when God heals someone, he does it for the common good of the church and as a witness to the world.

Paul tells us that healing, like all the spiritual gifts, is given for the “common good” of the church (1 Corinthians 12:7). Christians are not to expect every illness or injury they experience to be healed. In this age the gift of healing is exceptional, not normative. And the “common good” it achieves is multifaceted. In just my low-key examples, healing was a quiet mercy for my wife, a faith encouragement for me, provisions for my friends, unique opportunities to share the gospel, and no doubt there were other numerous other purposes. Healings are never merely individual blessings. They are given for the “common good” of the church and its mission.

Healing is a Witness to the World

The New Testament also makes it clear that healing is a sign to the world that the kingdom of God is invading the domain of darkness under Satan’s rule. It is a witness that the reign of death and this age of futility is coming to a final redemptive end (Romans 5:17, 8:20).

That’s why Jesus went about “teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people” (Matthew 4:23). It’s why when Jesus sent out the twelve and later the seventy-two, he “gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal” (Luke 9:1–2, 10:9). And it’s why, when faced with the threat of persecution, the believers in Acts prayed, “grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29–30).

Healing is meant to bear witness to the proclaimed gospel (Acts 14:3). It is a visible manifestation that the kingdom of God is taking ground from the kingdom of Satan. And it is a herald of God’s coming final triumph. When we pray for healing, it is one way we pray, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).

When God Doesn’t Heal

God obviously doesn’t answer every prayer for healing. The ultimate reason is that he is God and knows best. He distributes this gift according to his will (Hebrews 2:4). So if it is not his will we can trust that healing will not achieve the best “common good” or the best declaration of his kingdom and therefore it is not best for us to receive. God uses illnesses and afflictions in amazing, beautiful, and sanctifying ways to build our faith, cultivate our humility, experience his strong sufficient grace, and heighten our joy (2 Corinthians 9:7–10).

But the Bible also teaches us that healing, like other spiritual gifts and fruitful labors, can be inhibited by of our lack of faith (Mark 6:5–6, Matthew 9:22, 9:29, Luke 17:19). “Lack of faith” is not a club with which we beat afflicted people with shame. It is primarily a diagnostic question to ask ourselves. Do we believe God loves to give good gifts, including healing, to his children? Do we have the boldness to ask him in faith? Do we avoid seeking this gift because we don’t believe God will answer and we don’t want to look powerless, be disappointed, or make God look bad? If we find our faith is small, the best thing to do is begin to ask. We can ask for more faith and begin to pray for healings.

The gift of healing can also simply fall into neglect. I feel convicted about this. I used to pray more for healings, and I used to see more. In recent years I haven’t asked as much and therefore I haven’t seen much. “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Join me in resolving to not let this be our experience any longer.

Pray for Healings

Should we pray for healing? Yes! The New Testament instructs us to ask God to distribute this gift for the glory of Jesus. Pray for the sick. God will only answer these prayers with good! Don’t settle for little faith and low expectations. Stir up faith! Earnestly desire this gift. With Paul, earnestly desire healing for the common good of your church. With the saints of Acts, ask for this gift as witness to the world of the gospel of the kingdom.

A word of warning: since healing is a harbinger of Satan’s demise, he will oppose and thwart it wherever he can. Similar to sharing the gospel, expect to be assaulted with self-doubts, accusations, fears, and various discouragements when you plan to step out in faith. Often we need to press through a season of adversity before we see a breakthrough.

How should we pray for healing? The Bible provides a few models but no formulas. Basically, ask God. It’s the prayer of faith that heals the sick (James 5:15). One of the clearest biblical instructions is to have elders pray for the sick (James 5:14). Praying for healing is not the sole province of elders (1 Corinthians 12:8–9), but if you’re an elder, praying for healing is definitely part of your ministry calling.

The act of praying for healing should not be dramatic. Jesus often tried to keep the healing drama to a minimum. He did not want people to miss the forest of the gospel for the trees of miracles. Satan is the glitzy showman. Wherever healing is being hyped for publicity, beware of counterfeit.

When God does answer prayers for healing, joyfully share the stories with the saints and with unbelievers as God gives you opportunities. Because in healing God is after is the common good of the saints and the declaration to the world of his already-not-yet kingdom.

Related Resources

Gifts of Healings and Workings of Miracles (sermon)

A Hope Greater Than Healing (article)

The Elders, the People, and the Prayer of Faith (sermon)

Praying for a Breakthrough

A breakthrough is a military concept. When one army is able to weaken its enemy’s forces to the point of collapse, a breakthrough occurs allowing that army to invade and take its enemy’s territory.

But in war a breakthrough only really matters if it occurs at a strategic location. And the evidence that a location is strategic is almost always revealed by the amount of enemy forces amassed to protect it. An enemy led by skilled generals plans to ferociously protect what it prizes highly.

This means that an invading army can expect its attempt to achieve a breakthrough to be met by a barrier of fierce enemy opposition. Increasingly intense fighting always precedes strategic breakthroughs. Strategic ground is not yielded easily.

Our Breakthroughs Are Opposed by Powerful Forces

This is as true for spiritual warfare as it is for terrestrial warfare. In the spiritual realm, as opposed to the terrestrial, the church is an invading force. Though we can easily slip into a defensive, circle-the-wagons mindset, Jesus clearly intends for us to be aggressors, not merely defenders. The Great Commission is to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). In a world that “lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), that’s militant language. Our mission: to liberate those the devil has taken captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26).

But we must keep in mind that strategic ground is not yielded easily. Whether we’re battling for breakthroughs against our own stubborn sin or the unbelief of a loved one or breakthroughs in the missional advance of our local church, reaching unreached peoples, rescuing persecuted believers, orphans, sex slaves, or the unborn, we are up against “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). We don’t know exactly what that means except that these forces are very strong.

Daniel’s Example

Daniel 10:12–14 gives us a brief glimpse of what’s happening. Daniel had been praying and partially fasting for 21 days to gain greater insight into the revelations he had received (Daniel 10:3) when an angelic being finally showed up with an answer to his prayers. This messenger said that he had been trying to get to Daniel for those 21 days, but had been detained by “the prince of the kingdom of Persia.” The chief angel Michael had to come and free him.

This experience of Daniel is an example to us. It’s not a formula that can simply be boiled down to pray and fast for 21 days and Michael will come help you overcome cosmic forces. But it is an example of what is taking place outside of our sight. God does not want us to know more about the angelic realm than what he has revealed in Scripture, otherwise Scripture would have revealed more. But he clearly wants us to know that there is more going on than we see so that we will pray to him and fast until he gives us an answer.

When God Moves, Satan Responds

The consistent pattern throughout the Bible is that every significant move of God is preceded by a season of increasingly difficult, discouraging opposition. And if we take Ephesians 6, Daniel 10, and other warfare texts seriously, we can understand why: God is invading what Satan considers his territory. God’s kingdom is breaking through the lines of the domain of darkness (Colossians 1:13).

If we are not encountering opposition, it’s likely we are not attacking a strategic location. But if we are, we are on to something. Where the enemy is fortifying his forces is where we must focus our assault.

And where the enemy is fortified, there is going to be a fierce fight if we are going to achieve a breakthrough. We are going to receive volleys of flaming darts (Ephesians 6:16). We are going to be attacked on the rear. There will be spies in the camp. There will be jeering and intimidation and accusations. There will be efforts to destroy our morale and determination.

A Call for Breakthrough Determination

So this is a call for holy determination. Keep praying and don’t lose heart (Luke 18:1). Just like in any large-scale war, there are many battles. Some breakthroughs are achieved relatively quickly; others require long, persevering endurance. But either way, breakthroughs require a determination to keep up the assault.

Usually breakthroughs are not achieved by prayer alone — there are works to be done and courage to be exercised. But real spiritual breakthroughs are not achieved at all without prayer. Concentrated, specific, persistent, prevailing prayer, often engaged in by two or more (Matthew 18:19), is needed to weaken our spiritual opposition. And fasting is a wonderful help. “Fasting tests where the heart is. And when it reveals that the heart is with God and not the world, a mighty blow is struck against Satan” (A Hunger for God).

So if you’re praying for a breakthrough and not seeing it, and in fact experiencing more temptations to discouragement, frustration, weariness, doubt, and cynicism than before, do not give up. Increasingly intense fighting always precedes strategic breakthroughs. Strategic ground is not yielded easily. You’re up against more than you know. But “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). He has overcome the world (John 16:33) and he will give you justice (Luke 18:8).

Don’t lose heart. Grow determined. There’s a breakthrough ahead.

Related Resources

A Picture of Prevailing Prayer (article)

The Main Ingredient in Effective Prayer (article)

A Theology of Prayer in Three Minutes (interview)

A Picture of Prevailing Prayer

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Bartimaeus was blind. And his soul-weariness over his blindness was beyond description. As soon as he understood that it was Jesus passing by, he began shouting to him. He did not want the Son of David to pass him by, not without giving him what he so longed for.

His first shouts got no response from Jesus. But he did get a bunch of “be quiets!” from nearby Jesus watchers. Bartimaeus was not about to be quiet though, not when the one person who had the power to give him sight was this close.

This was no time for courtesy. This was no time to observe the social taboo of blind beggars violating a holy rabbi’s sacred space. This was no time for the passive fatalism of “I guess God just doesn’t listen to me.”

No, this was a time for desperation. This was a time for prevailing. This was a time for holy demanding. If the Son of David wasn’t hearing his shouts, then Bartimaeus was going to shout louder. He was going to be heard. “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Suddenly the rebukes stopped. The crowd buzz quieted. Adrenaline flashed through Bartimaeus when someone said to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” He leaped up and fairly pushed his guide to wherever Jesus was.

When the guide stopped, a voice spoke: “What do you want me to do for you?” The voice was patient and kind but confident like nothing Bartimaeus had never heard before. The words seemed to rest on immovable authority, as if Mount Zion were speaking.

Bartimaeus suddenly felt his unworthiness to address Jesus. He now spoke his desperation with deference. “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”

There was a silent pause. Bartimaeus’s heart was pounding; his palms were clammy.

Then the voice spoke again: “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Before the words had finished Bartimaeus could feel a strange sensation in his eyes. Revived optical nerves detected first brightness, then swimming images. Could it be? Tear ducts began to overflow, both to lubricate the conjunctiva and to express a joy just dawning after darkness. As his pupils contracted from the brilliance of the midday sun, Bartimaeus rubbed his eyes.

When he opened them again, Bartimaeus was looking into the intense eyes of a young man. A wave of dissonance passed over him. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but Jesus somehow didn’t look like he had expected. The extraordinary voice was housed in a man who looked surprisingly ordinary. He looked like . . . a man. Then he noticed all searching eyes in all the faces surrounding him. And then a cheer went up from those who could see that the blind man could see.

When Bartimaeus looked back at the Son of David, he saw his back. Jesus was already headed toward Jerusalem. His words, “Go your way,” were still ringing in Bartimaeus’s ears. It took no time for him to decide that Jesus was now his way.

Bartimaeus Teaches Us How to Pray

Bartimaeus teaches us something very important about prayer. This story of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52) is a picture of prevailing prayer, not in its time scale, but in its dynamics.

Real prayer begins with real desire, often with real desperation. We cry to God, but he does not seem to respond. We are discouraged by circumstances, and sometimes by people, from continuing to ask. How does God want us to respond to this? He wants us to keep asking and cry out louder!

Don’t be polite in prayer. God is not looking for polite pray-ers — he is looking for persistent, prevailing pray-ers. The widow’s persistence in Luke 18:1–8, the nagging that irritated the unrighteous judge into action, is precisely the quality God is encouraging in us. He’s looking for those willing to “cry to him day and night” (Luke 18:7). He’s looking for desperate Bartimaeus’s who will insist on being heard, who won’t take a non-response for an answer. He’s looking for those who will “always . . . pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). He’s looking to “find faith on earth” (Luke 18:8).

Hear this amazing question from Jesus: “What do you want me to do for you?” Do you know? What are you desperate for? Don’t be vague, be specific. Don’t be reticent, be bold. The Son of David is near. Follow Bartimaeus’s example and do not let him pass without giving you an answer. Whatever his answer is, it will open our eyes to mind-blowing glory.

God promises to give justice to his prayerfully persistent elect speedily (Luke 18:8). We’ll let him define what “speedily” is. For our part, let us determine to cry out louder, to cry night and day, to nag him incessantly in faith until he answers us. He loves that kind of faith.

Related Resources

The Main Ingredient in Effective Prayer (article)

A Theology of Prayer in Three Minutes (interview)

Prayer and the Victory of God (sermon)

Unlock God’s Storehouse of Grace

Nothing will deplete your faith like looking at what you lack.

I find that the more I fixate on my lack of resources, the strengths I don’t have, the weaknesses I do have, the heavier the weight of unbelief becomes and the harder the race of faith becomes (Hebrews 12:1).

Looking at a deficit fuels our fear and drains our hope. A deficit says we don’t have enough to make the payment, meet the need, make the deadline, preach the sermon, fix the marriage, instruct the child, counsel that hard case, defeat the sin, or overcome the weakness. We don’t take risks with a deficit in view.

Looking at a surplus, on the other hand, fuels our courage and fills us with hope. A surplus means there is more than enough to meet our needs. And a surplus encourages expansive dreaming and generosity toward others.

You Have No Deficit

Left to ourselves, we have deficits that are horrifyingly real. Without God in this world we would have very good reason to feel hopeless (Ephesians 2:12).

But the good news is that if you’re a Christian, you no longer have any deficits. None. Christ not only paid your unfathomable sin debt (Colossians 2:14), he also purchased for you “all things” (Romans 8:32). That’s all things! What you have is an oil jar of God’s provision that will never run out (1 Kings 17:14). You have a bank account you cannot overdraw.

If this hasn’t been our experience, we are tempted to qualify this nearly incredible claim. But we cannot qualify it and be faithful to the Bible. This is not some prosperity theology’s over-realized eschatology. It’s what the Bible unequivocally and unapologetically tells us we should expect to experience right now in this age:

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

They are astounding promises. They aren’t promises of unfailing health (Philippians 2:25–27) or extravagant wealth (Philippians 4:12). But they promise that God will provide for every need so that we will abound in every good work and be “enriched in every way to be generous in every way” (2 Corinthians 9:11).

The Key to the Storehouse

These promises of provision are unequivocal and unapologetic, but they are not unconditional. The condition is faith (Matthew 17:20; John 11:40; James 1:5–7). We open the jar of God’s provision and access God’s bottomless bank account by exercising faith. We must act on the promises, or their contents remain untapped.

Unbelief looks at what we perceive to be a deficit and loses heart. Unbelief doesn’t think there will be anything in the jar and so doesn’t open it. Unbelief doesn’t think the funds in the account will be available and so doesn’t draw against them.

Unbelief can exist with alarming ease alongside an assent to sound doctrine. We can affirm the truth of these promises, but if we are unwilling to act on them they do us no good. Because we don’t in fact believe them.

In these promises, God shows us his storehouse of abounding provision. Faith is the key that opens the storehouse. And God wants us to open his storehouse! He wants us to have his abounding grace! Yet he requires faith because “without faith it is impossible to please him . . . [but] he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Stop the Deficit Review

Now, if you’re like me, at this point you say, “I know! But telling me that I don’t have enough faith doesn’t help me have more. It just shows me my deficit and makes me feel defeated! Show me how to have more faith!”

Good! When we’re sick and tired of being a disciple with “little faith” (Luke 12:28), we’re ready to take steps to change.

And change begins by stopping our deficit review. We must stop looking at our lack: our lack of resources, wisdom, and power, even our lack of faith. Our deficits discourage and defeat. Our deficits deplete faith. That’s why Satan accuses you, tries to point out your bankruptcy, and overall encourages you to think about yourself as much as possible. He does not want you to look to Jesus and all the abounding grace that he purchased for you.

Seek First the Kingdom

But if we look to Jesus, he shows us how to increase our faith. First he says,

“Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” (Luke 12:29–31)

Jesus tells us not to look at the world’s deficits, but to the Father’s kingdom. Make kingdom priorities our top priorities and he will provide every need of ours. What specific priorities? Ask God and look to the Scriptures. He will make that clear.

Then Jesus says,

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:32–34)

Jesus tells us to exercise faith by actually divesting ourselves of our security idols and giving away more than we believe we can. Jesus’s challenge: Put the promise to the test and do not be afraid. Our Father delights in giving us the kingdom and all its treasures!

Lay aside the weight of your deficits by:

Looking away from deficits
Instead, look to your Source of abounding grace and never ending surplus, which is available to you right now
Seek the Father’s kingdom first
Take steps to liquidate your false securities and give with radical generosity.

God’s promise is that if we do this, we will see him act and our faith will increase.

Related Resources

Unbelief Is Sure to Err (article)

Don’t Follow Your Heart (article)

How Does Scripture Produce Faith? (Ask Pastor John)

There Is Hope in Your Struggle for Light

In the tiny front yard of our little inner-city plot in Minneapolis live two crabapple trees. My wife and I bought them from the same nursery and planted them on the same day fourteen years ago. But if you were enjoying a late summer stroll down our street today and noticed them, you would wonder why these two trees look so different.

The tree just off the north corner of the house is the picture of a fine-looking young crab. It stands about fifteen feet high with branches spreading in pleasing proportion in all directions. It is just beginning to develop the familiar gnarled beauty of a mature crab tree. As summer gives way to autumn, almost every branch is hanging heavy with its beautiful, deep red fruit — so much fruit, in fact, that most of its leaves have dropped just to make room.

But the tree just off the south corner is much different. At first you might not think it a crab tree at all. It is nearly thirty feet tall and oddly slender. Its branches are full of leaves, and though it’s producing fruit in similar quantity to its north-side sister, the berries are growing almost entirely in the top third of the tree.

So why are these two crab trees so different?

The Altering Influence of Struggle

Actually, for their first seven years of life they weren’t much different at all. Both trees grew at similar rates and proportions. Then something happened that changed the life of the south-side crab. A mulberry tree began to grow in the hedge just a few feet away.

Our neighbors to the south had always carefully maintained the hedge. Then they moved, leaving me with hedge-trimming duty — and a problem. An embankment put the front end of the hedge out of my reach, even with my ladder. As I put off buying another ladder, the hedge front grew and in it the unforeseen mulberry.

This mulberry tree grew with amazing speed. But it began to look nice, drew lots of birds, and people even made mulberry jam from it. So I let it be. But the larger the mulberry became, the more it blocked sunlight from the young south-side crab tree. This forced the crab to struggle for nourishing sunrays. For years the mulberry adversity pushed the crab to grow oddly tall while its north-side sister grew “normally,” basking in unimpeded sun.

The Lord of the Mulberries

Perhaps you’ve had a mulberry in your past. It may be gone now, but its effects linger. And it has shaped you in ways you wouldn’t have chosen. You feel different, abnormal.

Or perhaps right now you’re living in the shadow of a mulberry, struggling for light. Jesus invites you to ask what you wish (John 15:7). He will give you what you ask in faith, for he is the Great Remover of mulberries (Luke 17:6), though do not be surprised if it feels like he’s taking too long.

But whether your mulberry is removed or you’re waiting for its removal, the Lord of the Mulberries is your gardener. Unlike me, he knows where the mulberries grow. He foresaw your mulberry, and therefore your unique growth is not an accident.

Your dimensions as a tree in the garden of God may look different from other trees, perhaps conspicuously so. But there are purposes in your dimensions (Romans 8:28). They will have unforeseen benefits, and you will still bear fruit as you trust your gardener (John 15:1, 5). You also will have a unique ability to comfort those who are struggling against their mulberries (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).

Remember the Mulberries and Be Patient

Those who pass our yard and observe the south-side crab tree may wonder why it is the way it is. So it is with us. Others who observe us, but don’t know our history of struggle, may misunderstand why we are the way we are.

Perhaps they have not dealt with a mulberry. Or more likely, their mulberry experience was different. They may not understand how our mulberry’s shadow affected our growth and so misunderstand our different dimensions. They might judge with wrong judgments and reach erroneous conclusions. We might do the same to them.

Past mulberries can result in painful present misinterpretations, so be careful. Remember the mulberry and the crab tree, and let love be patient (1 Corinthians 13:4). And rather than see each other’s atypical dimensions as defects, look for the gardener’s grace in them. Likely they have benefits we haven’t yet seen.

In the care of the Lord Gardener, all our mulberry struggles change us for good.

Related Resources

God’s Power Will Guard You (lab)

What Is So Important About Christian Hope? (interview)

Happy in Hope, Patient in Pain, Constant in Prayer (sermon)

How Long, O Lord?

Peter tells us that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Peter 3:9). At some point, each of us joins the “some” group. We reach places where it’s painfully clear that our sense of time-urgency must be different than God’s. And it is. We prefer to measure time in minutes, rather than months. But the Ancient of Days measures time by millennia (2 Peter 3:8).

God knows that he sometimes appears slow to us, which is one merciful reason he gave us the Bible. This book, which God took millennia to assemble, shows us that God is not slow, but patient in working out his redemptive purposes in the best ways (2 Peter 3:9). And it shows that he is compassionate toward us when we wait for him for what seems like a long time.

Not as Some Count Slowness

Abraham and Sarah were not only the parents of all of God’s faith-children (Romans 4:16); their lives are perhaps the most famous picture of God’s redemptive purposes in what seems like his painfully slow pace.

Abram (as he was first called) was already 75 years old when God promised to make him a great nation that would bless all the families of the earth and to give his offspring the land of the Canaanites (Genesis 12:1–3).

However, there was a problem: Abram had no offspring. His wife, Sarai (as she was first called), was barren (Genesis 11:30).

Years passed. Still no child. So Abram prudently planned to make his servant Eliezer to be his heir. But God said, “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir” (Genesis 15:4). Then he took Abram out and showed him the night sky and told him that his offspring would be so numerous it would be like counting stars.

But years later, it was still just Abram and Sarai in the tent.

Sarai became desperate and gave up on waiting. She decided that her maidservant, Hagar, could be a surrogate child-bearer for her. This sounded humanly reasonable to 86-year-old Abram, but he did not consult God and the solution backfired, big time.

Thirteen more years went by before God finally told the 99-year-old Abram that 89-year-old Sarai would bear a son, and he changed their names to Abraham (father of a multitude) and Sarah (princess). A year later Isaac is born.

It was 25 years of waiting, while any earthly reason to hope for a child went from highly unlikely to impossible. Their only hope was God’s promise, which was precisely God’s purpose in the long, confusing wait.

No unbelief made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:20–21)

God determined that all of his true children would be born again through faith to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3) and then live by faith (the faith of Abraham, Galatians 3:7) in his promises alone (Romans 1:17). So he took patient pains to cultivate it in Abraham and Sarah, and he does the same for us.

How Long, O Lord?

One of the most profoundly comforting things about Scripture is how it reveals God’s compassion for us impatient waiters. He knows that he can appear slow to us. He knows that at times we are going to feel like he’s forgotten us and is hiding his face from us. He knows that as he patiently works out his purposes, we will experience circumstances so difficult and confusing that we cry out in bewildered pain.

And so he not only gives us stories like Abraham and Sarah to help us see that we are not alone; he also gives us songs like Psalm 13 to sing.

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)

The canonical songbook is full of raw poetry — more raw and blunt than many of us are, even when confiding our pain to a trusted friend. And these were congregational songs! The people of Israel were to sing them together.

And from this, we are to hear from God that he knows our waiting for him can be hard. He knows it can feel to us like he is is taking too long. He gives us permission to ask him, “How long is this going to last?” He reminds us that when we feel like he’s forgotten us, it is an experience common to all his faith-children — common enough to warrant congregational singing about it.

And as we pray or sing such psalms, they remind us that God, in fact, has not forgotten us, that what we feel isn’t always real, and that God’s promises are truer than our perceptions.

Renewed Strength Is Coming

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God’s chosen pace, as well as his chosen place for us — that bewildering, confusing, painful place where we feel like we’re stuck — is redemptive. More than we know. There is more at stake than we can see and more going on than meets our eyes.

But here are two gracious promises God gives to us when we are waiting long:

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29–31)

Like Abraham and Sarah, God is working for you as you wait for him, and he will bring renewal to your weary heart.

So “be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD” (Psalm 31:24). He is able to do what he has promised.

Related Resources

Do You Hate to Wait? (article)

Battling the Unbelief of Impatience (message)

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part (article)

Unbelief Is Sure to Err

Unbelief messes up how we calculate reality and leads us to errant conclusions and really bad decisions.

After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11, the Jewish religious leaders realized they had a serious crisis on their hands. They, of course, were already aware that Jesus was a force they had to deal with. And they had been trying, but no attempt had yet worked to catch him saying or doing something that would discredit him.

But now he had resurrected a man who had been dead four days. And there were lots of eyewitnesses — some of who had reported this alleged miracle directly to the Pharisees (John 11:46). Things were spinning out of their control.

Case Study in Bad Decision Making

So the leaders were summoned for emergency session, and the Pharisees said,

“What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:47–48)

And we all know the infamous conclusion the council reached after deliberation: “They made plans to put [Jesus] to death” (John 11:53).

This turned out to be a really bad decision. Not from God’s perspective, of course. Everything was working precisely according to God’s “definite plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23). But from the Jewish leaders’ perspective, it was a mistake of cosmic proportions.

Messed Up Faith-Math

What happened? How did they make this horrible mistake? It was a result of a miscalculation of reality. Essentially, they got their faith-math wrong because they missed the crucial factor in their equation.

Here’s how they did their equation in John 11:47–48: In spite of the signs, we don’t believe Jesus is the Christ or a true prophet (John 7:52); therefore if the prophet (P) continues, then we (Q) will lose the temple (what is meant by “our place”) and our nation. As a simple conditional equation, their logic looks like this: P yields Q. To avoid the outcome of this scary equation, the decision must be to eliminate P.

What made this calculation errant was that they got Jesus wrong. And by getting Jesus wrong, they chose unreality over reality. Unbelief completely messed up their equation. And the result was deadly evil. Their miscalculation resulted in fear and urgency that led them to take drastic, sinful action.

They saw the signs — they acknowledged it in verse 47. And Jesus himself pleaded with them:

“If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37–38)

But they did not believe (John 10:25).

The Best Way to Avoid Costly Mistakes

William Cowper, in his famous hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” wrote,

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

It is true that the kind of blind unbelief that was at work in most of the Jewish leaders who met that night was the type experienced by the unconverted. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

However, all forms of unbelief, including the kinds that we Christians are susceptible to, have this equation-wrecking effect. Unbelief blinds us to the crucial factor of God in our calculations of reality. When we fail to believe God, when we fail to trust whatever promise he gives us for whatever problem we are trying to address, our conclusions are simply going to be wrong. And the decisions we make according to wrong conclusions can be really bad.

This is the lesson we can take from the Jewish leaders: “Blind unbelief is sure to err.” Math matters, including faith-math. Miscalculations are costly. Unbelief always does damage — sometimes great damage. The best way to avoid costly and sinful mistakes in the Christian life is to believe Jesus.

Jesus is trying to save us from much pain and heartache when he says, “Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27).

Related Resources

Don’t Follow Your Heart (article)

How Does Scripture Produce Faith? (Ask Pastor John)

Battling Unbelief (book)

How God Gives Assurance

Am I truly a Christian?

Few questions cause more fearful trembling in believers, and few soul-shepherds are as helpful as John Newton in explaining to trembling saints how God cultivates assurance in the Christian life.

God loves to give his children the gift of “the full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). It is a precious thing, a source of deep peace and consolation, and he wants us to have it.

But like most things in the Christian life, assurance is something that is cultivated and grows deeper and stronger over time. It is a gift that God gives to us, according Newton (1725–1807), gradually through frequent testing.

Assurance grows by repeated conflict, by our repeated experimental proof of the Lord’s power and goodness to save; when we have been brought very low and helped, sorely wounded and healed, cast down and raised again, have given up all hope, and been suddenly snatched from danger, and placed in safety; and when these things have been repeated to us and in us a thousand times over, we begin to learn to trust simply to the word and power of God, beyond and against appearances: and this trust, when habitual and strong, bears the name of assurance; for even assurance has degrees. (Newton on the Christian Life, 220)

In other words, God’s way of growing the sweet gift of assurance in us is by putting us through numerous and varied hardships. The process is designed to be hard. Trials are the way that faith is proven, refined, and strengthened. This is why James writes, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3).

Assurance Grows through Spiritual Conflict

It’s why Paul writes, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance [same word translated as “steadfastness” in James], and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4).

And it’s why the author of Hebrews reminds us,

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (Hebrews 12:7–8)

The discipline of enduring trials and sufferings ends up proving that we are God’s children. And though “for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant . . . later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

One of the peaceful, consoling fruits of the “righteousness of God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9) is assurance. And it’s a fruit that is realized “later” and in increasing amounts.

Why God Grows Assurance this Way

Why has God designed the process of giving us a growing assurance of faith through enduring trials? Newton answers this way:

We cannot be safely trusted with assurance till we have that knowledge of the evil and deceitfulness of our hearts, which can be acquired only by painful, repeated experience. (222)

Like Peter who confidently promised Jesus that he would never deny him only hours before he did, we do not realize as younger believers how powerful our sin nature is and how weak our faith is. We don’t know how proud and self-reliant we are. It is the fiery trials that apply heat to our faith and cause the dross of unbelief in the form of doubt, fear, anxiety, anger, jealousy, bitterness, selfish ambition, fear of man, and more to rise to the surface. And when we see the dross, we can fear that our faith may not be real.

And that’s what God wants. For when see the horrible sin in us and feel our helplessness to get rid of it on our own, it pushes us in desperation to trust Christ’s work on the cross alone. When we see our numerous weaknesses and feel our helplessness to be strong on our own, it pushes us to search out and trust Christ’s promises to us alone.

We can have no security from gifts, labors, services, or past experiences; but that from first to last our only safety is in the power, compassion, and faithfulness of our great Redeemer. (234)

It is the various kinds of pressing, painful, exposing trials that teach us to trust in Christ for everything — to really “live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20).

And so God grows the full assurance of faith in us, and causes the joyful, peaceful fruit of righteousness to grow in us through trials. He wants our faith to rest fully on the Rock of Christ, so that we “rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). Because, as Newton said,

“We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord’s help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without him.” This is the paradox of assurance. (234)

Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares

Newton spoke of assurance from experience. He said,

In mercy [God] has frequently stirred up my nest, shaken me in it, and forced me to fly to him, when I should otherwise have dropped into sleep and [false] security. (221)

For Pastor Newton, the sweet God-given gift of assurance looked much like verse three of his famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”:

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
His grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

Our assurance of salvation does not come from a confidence in some subjectively measured inner witness, nor how warm our affections for God are at any given moment. Rather, our assurance comes from a growing confidence in Christ’s saving work that purchased the fulfillment of all his great promises to us (2 Peter 1:4) and his power to keep them.

Greater assurance comes through stronger faith. And faith only grows stronger through the vigorous exercise of testing.

If you haven’t yet read Tony Reinke’s Newton on the Christian Life, I hope one fruit of this article is that you will. John Newton once said, “There are silver books; and a very few golden books.” That’s true. And this book is a golden one. The chapter on “Battling Insecurity,” from which the quotes above come, is more than worth the book’s price. But you will find gold from cover to cover.

Related Resources

The Agonizing Problem of the Assurance of Salvation (article)

How Do I know I’m Saved? (Ask Pastor John)

Precious Sovereignty — Priceless Assurance (article)

America’s One Enduring Legacy in History

Two millennia ago, “a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1). The most apparently powerful earthly head-of-state ordered a census because the empire needed more tax revenue to fund its budget. At least in Judea, this required people to register in their ancestral tribal homes.

Unforeseen by everyone at the time, except a young Jewish couple and a few of their confidante relatives, the greatest outcome of this plan to stimulate the Roman economy was that it moved the fetal cosmic Head-of-State from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where according to prophecy he was to be born.

The Story of History

Emperor Augustus unwittingly was serving Christ the Lord and his kingdom.

In fact, the Romans unwittingly served Christ and his church in many ways. They invested heavily in technology and infrastructure throughout the empire. Their administrative, management, and communication systems were in most ways unparalleled at the time. They established Koine Greek as the common trade language in the large region encircling the Mediterranean Sea — including backwater Palestine.

Most profoundly, the Romans adapted and honed crucifixion as a method of execution, which provided the vehicle for Jesus’s substitutionary atoning death for the world.

These examples and any number of others unintentionally served the fulfillment and rapid spread of the Christian gospel as well as the amazing growth of his church in the first few centuries of its existence.

God’s Work Among the Nations

It’s an awesome, unnerving thing to contemplate: Despite all the imperial pomp, human talent, military power, political intrigue, atrocities, books written, philosophy debated, speeches delivered, schools established, and day-to-day living of millions of ordinary people in that great empire, Rome’s most influential and enduring legacy was one it never intended to produce (until perhaps Constantine): global Christianity.

History is the story of Christ the Lord and his kingdom.

Such a statement will be met with angry accusations of arrogance. And yet, history is bearing it out.

Ancient Egypt was a mighty civilization, yet its enduring legacy is the Exodus of Israel.
Assyria and Babylon were mighty civilizations, yet their enduring legacies are the deportation of rebellious Israel.
Media-Persia was a mighty civilization, yet its enduring legacy is the restoration of Israel.
Mighty Rome witnessed the hinge of history as God brought Israel’s Old Covenant to glorious fulfillment in the Messiah and the New Covenant burst into life and swept across the empire with its gospel arms open wide to the Gentile world.

And so it goes. The great empires of history rise, rage, vainly plot, oppose Christ the Lord, and eventually fall (Psalm 2:1–2). And still, in spite of themselves, they ultimately and unwittingly serve Christ’s rule and purpose.

The United States Exists to Serve Christ’s Church

The United States exists to serve Christ the Lord. As we approach the next presidential election cycle, we will pray with confidence to our God, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). We will declare truth in the public squares, seek to persuade others to end immoral, unrighteous policies, and we will vote.

And as we do, we will not put our trust in the horses and chariots of earthly powers. As our nation chooses its next head-of-state, we will remind ourselves that the United States is subject to the King of kings (Revelation 19:16) whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:14). And we will remind ourselves that the main thing happening in the world is not the preservation or advancement of American democracy, but the fact that the King is at this moment gathering into one holy nation (John 11:52, 1 Peter 2:9) people from every tribe and tongue (Revelation 5:9) that he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28).

If we want to really know what’s going on in the world, we cannot depend on CNN or Fox News. We will keep our eyes on the global church. She is at the center of history.

The cosmic Head-of-State is allowing the U.S. to exist in order to serve, even unwittingly, the advancement of that one true Nation. As with the great civilizations of the past, America’s enduring legacy will be how her freedoms, wealth, ingenuity, and technology facilitated the spread the gospel, especially to the remaining unreached of Christ’s people(s).

And when the United States is gone, the church will still live, endure, and advance.

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