Here we get into the details about faith and life

Lord, Open My Eyes

And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17

I’ve written before on this verse, on this account of Elisha helping his young attendant see with spiritual eyes rather than just physical ones. Back in November, some friends and I took a weekend for retreat, and this was the verse I brought home. We didn’t discuss it or mention it at all. We spent the time considering worship. The posts for the last few weeks hit on some of the ideas we focused on.

I won’t go into all the details of how I got from the retreat to this point, but Elisha’s prayer became my own prayer for myself. I am praying for God to open my eyes.

Open my eyes to Your work around me.
I don’t want to look around in hopelessness or frustration because it seems You are silent or disengaged, but rather in confidence that You see and know, that You have come down to deliver.

Open my eyes to the needs of others.
I don’t want to be so inwardly focused that I miss Your work in the lives of others. Show me how I can come alongside or carry a burden. Show me where my loaves and fishes can be multiplied, and give me the willingness to offer them.

Open my eyes to my own sin.
I don’t want to be so blindly self-righteous that I ignore or gloss over my own sinfulness. I have not arrived and I am in daily need of the transformation the gospel brings.

What prayers are you praying right now? Where do You see God at work?

Magnificat

By Paula Wiseman

For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. Luke 1:49

You know the story on this one. Mary had been visited by Gabriel with the news that she will give birth to the coming Messiah. She went to see her cousin, Elizabeth who had experienced a miraculous visitation of her own.

While there, Mary utters an amazing hymn, weaving together her own wonder and humility with praise for God and just a dash of prophecy. It is sometimes referred to as the Magnificat, going back to the Latin, she glorifies.

Perhaps the key to the whole thing is uttered by Elizabeth a few verses earlier in verse 45. “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Luke 1:45. Maybe Elizabeth is referring to the angel’s message, saying Mary is blessed because she believed the angel. I don’t think so. I think it points to Mary’s habit, her lifestyle, her character.

She lived a life of faith, of belief in the promises of God. Her hymn proves that. Consequently, she understood that she had a role to play in the fulfillment of God’s plan. The angel gave her the details of that role and granted it was a little more significant than she expected, but Mary’s song highlights her belief in a God who was active in the affairs of men, who worked through men to accomplish His purposes.

You and I can stand with Mary and proclaim, He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. (I could rattle off some mighty things He’s done in just the last week.) All of those things are evidence that God has not changed since Mary’s time. He is still active in the affairs of men, choosing to work through us to accomplish His purposes. It is my duty, then, to live a life of belief and to take on the role He gives me to play.

Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! Luke 1:46-47 NLT

If you wrote your own Magnificat, what would it say?

( I’ll post a chapter of Embraced tomorrow and then I’m taking the next week off. See you back here January 2. You are a blessing and an encouragement to me in so many ways.May the joy of the angels, the wonder of the shepherds and the devotion of the wise men be yours.)

Singularly Devoted

By Paula Wiseman

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 1 Kings 18:21

This is one of my favorite stories. Israel, under King Ahab, was suffering through a drought that was dragging into its fourth year. This drought had been proclaimed by Elijah, who boldly declared there would be no rain or even dew except at his word. (17:1) The drought devastated the agrarian economy, and neither the king nor Jezebel the queen, nor the hundreds of prophets of Baal on her payroll had been able to do anything about it.

Israel was torn. Jehovah was the God of their ancestors and certainly they were bound to sacrifice and pray to Him, Baal was the god of fertility and crops. Wouldn’t it be wise to court his favor as well? It made logical sense. Hedge the bets. Cover the bases.

It is easy to read this account with a condescending smile. Who could be so foolish as to try and follow God and an idol? Everyone knows idols aren’t real. But we grab the latest self-help book to find peace, balance our lives, raise our self-esteem, overcome our past. We chase diets and success and follow plans and regimens. We buy apps and organizers and planners and monitors to streamline and optimize. We pull from everything culture tells us we should be. Then we go to church and small group and we disciple and we’re intentional and missional. Just like we should be. Covering all the bases. Checking all the boxes.

Late in the afternoon after the prophets of Baal had exhausted themselves trying to impress a god who could never hear, Elijah prayed, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

Then the fire of God fell.

A single man, singularly devoted to the one true God.

The one true God is unlike any other. He is a God who loves us intently, who desires a relationship with us, so much so that He came and lived among us. He is the Word made flesh. He is Immanuel. Don’t falter. Don’t waffle. Don’t be like the people of Israel who stood in silence. Be that one singularly devoted to the one true God.

Confession Enables Worship

By Paula Wiseman

And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.” 1 Chronicles 21:17

David is one of the most discussed individuals in Scripture. He is supremely devoted to his God, enjoying a unique intimacy but then in the next chapter he throws it all away in a stunning display of arrogance. David does this multiple times. I suppose that is why we love him. He gives us hope in the midst of our unexplainable failures. He also shows us how confession enables worship. 1 Chronicles 21 records the aftermath of one of those failures, and the confession that follows. It is the account of David’s census

On the surface, and from our vantage point thousands of years later, this may not seem like such a big deal. A census makes good administrative sense, right? It wasn’t just a census, though. It was a reckoning of military strength. David wanted to rest on his perceived power and not the God who granted it. Blinded by his need for numerical confirmation of his own greatness, David ignored the advice of his closest advisors and ordered the count.

In verse 8, David prays, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” David is given the choice of judgments to fall on Israel. He chooses three days of plague. Thousands die in a costly lesson on the consequences of misplaced faith.

The prayer in verse 17 comes after David sees the effects of his sin, especially on the multitude of innocent people whose lives are irreparably devastated. It is far more intense and wrenching than his earlier confession. It is after this second confession that God sends instructions to build an altar.

Confession enables worship.

Worship requires fellowship, and there can be no fellowship if sin exists. In verse 8 David asks for his sin to be dealt with. It is a sincere prayer, not unlike one we would pray, I would pray. But then David is allowed to see why sin is so horrible – innocent people suffer because of his sin. Innocent people suffer because of my sin.

It is in the midst of David’s anguish and brokenness over his sin that God invites him to worship. God invites David to worship at the very spot where the Temple will be built, on the same mountain where Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac, on the same mountain where Jesus would deal with sin once and for all.

David buys the ground and offers burnt and peace offerings, the ones offered in faith that God would take away the sin and restore fellowship. In verse 26, God answered with fire.

Confession enables worship, and worship brings about intimacy.

In this season of Advent take some time to consider the amazing gift of Jesus, who not only takes away our sins but restores our fellowship with God. Spend some quiet moments confessing the hurt inflicted on innocent people because of pride and a determination to find strength in ourselves. Then accept the invitation to worship the God who answers by fire, consuming the sin and purifying the sinner.

Build the Altar

By Paula Wiseman

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Genesis 8:20

It is easy to pass over these familiar words, but I invite you to stop and linger for a moment. The landscape that greeted Noah and his family upon their exit from the ark was very different from the one they left. Everything they knew from before was gone. There were no friends, no towns, no roads, no merchants, no goods … nothing. The earth around them had been scoured by floodwaters and here they were, alone and isolated.

Noah’s first response is worship. (Build the altar.)

This is the first time the word altar is used in Scripture. Now we know from Cain and Abel that worship, or at least sacrifices had been going on, but here the altar is highlighted. In chapter 6 Noah built the ark. In chapter 8, Noah built an altar. I suspect there is some effort behind that simple statement. Like gathering the stones, for instance. How far did he have to walk to find them? Yes, they were on a mountain, but had the flood washed away all the ones small enough to carry? Did he have to dig them out? And what about trees? Were there any trees left for the wood? Did he have to hack off a piece of the ark? How long did it take to get everything arranged?

Worship required effort. (Build the altar.)

Every clean animal and every clean bird. In chapter 7, God said to take seven of each of the clean animals aboard the ark. There were only seven in the world and here, Noah sacrificed one. He didn’t wait until a sufficient flock or herd had built up. He willingly offering to God what was, in real terms, very costly.

Worship is costly. (Build the altar.)

I had a tremendous opportunity to guide the study and discussion at a small retreat a few weeks ago. This was the first passage we considered. We posed a series of questions. How are you like Noah? Have you ever followed God, not quite knowing what you were in for, only to be dropped in an unfamiliar, maybe even hostile place? Was your first response worship or self-preservation? How effort goes into your worship? What does your worship cost?

You see, Moses wrote this account because there were things that Jehovah wanted His people to know about Him and how to approach Him. It is preserved to teach us as well. Considering Noah, I confess, worship is rarely my first response, and when I do worship, it is often cheap and lazy. So I’m sure it’s a far cry from the sweet-smelling savor in verse 21.

Right now, the most costly thing I could offer is time. I have none to spare. I am overbooked times three. But this morning, I got up early so I could have some quiet. Not reading. Not studying. Not planning or trying to organize what needed to be done. Just quiet. Waiting. Listening.

This season as we celebrate the God who not only preserves us through the flood but who became flesh and dwelled among us, I encourage you to make the effort, bear the cost of quiet moments with Jesus. I encourage you to build the altar.

One Thing

By Paula Wiseman

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.” Luke 10:41-42

November is practically gone, and I’m still trying to figure out what happened to May. We’re traveling over Thanksgiving and Christmas. My December calendar is filling quickly with wrestling matches, band and choir concerts and church events as I’m sure yours is. Well, maybe not wrestling matches. Living under the tyranny of the urgent never gets any easier.

Many things.

What to cook. When to shop. What to buy. How much to spend. Where’s the list? I had a coupon. I ran out of milk. Do we have Tylenol? When to visit. Who to see. How to avoid the traffic. The interstate is down to one lane. I thought we had wrapping paper left from last year.

The next thing.

I tend to spend the holidays so focused on the “next thing” I’m not present in the moment. I rush. I fulfill obligations. I check off lists. I get things done. But I head into January exhausted rather than refreshed.

One thing is necessary.

Necessary means absolutely needed, essential, or required. If you don’t do anything else this Thanksgiving, this Christmas, be in the presence of Jesus. Get up early. Stay up late. Cancel something. Turn off the television. Hide your phone. Get away. But do it.

That’s what I’m doing this weekend. I’m taking a few days for that one necessary thing–being in the presence of Jesus, listening to what He has to teach me. I’ll catch you again in a week or so.

(I’ll post again November 28. Thanksgiving blessings on you and yours. It is a deep privilege to write for you. You mean more to me than you know!)