Just Talk to Me Already!

So the other day my 17 year old son texted me asking for $20. As expected, I replied, “K.”  A few hours later, he came home and kind of stood around me shuffling his feet. Then he went and took the trash and recycling out followed by feeding the dogs and giving them water. In other words, he actually did all his chores without being asked. He then came over and stood around looking at me some more. I knew he wanted the money and I was willing to give it to him but I wasn’t going to give it to him until he actually asked for it since that seems to be the only time he ever talks to me. He finally asked and I gave him the money. At which point he left the house and I didn’t see him again for a couple days.

As soon as he left, I had an epiphany. I realized how much the interaction I just had with my son parallels my interactions with my Heavenly Father. You see, I am just like a teenager. When I want something, I start trying to be good and doing my chores and I expect to get blessed. I want things from Him and He is more than willing to give them to me. But He waits and makes me ask for them. I used to wonder why we should have to ask if He knows what we want, what He is going to do, and wants to give us what is best for us. Maybe it is just because it is the only way He can get us to talk to Him. Even if all we do is ask for stuff, at least we are communicating with Him.

I know this is a strange way of looking at prayer. But I am beginning to understand that Jesus did not die on the cross just to get me out of hell. He didn’t suffer in my place so He could impose rules on me and take away my fun. He did what He did to have a relationship with me. He was literally dying to talk to me… and to you.

What is hard to believe is that He values me that highly. I struggle to understand why He wants me to spend time with Him. I don’t even want to spend time with myself most of the time. I can feel it now. I know how desperately I want my teenage children to spend a few minutes with me. That desire is just an infintesimal portion of the intense longing God has to spend time with me… and with you.

Believing For Dead Stuff

Faith is an interesting thing. The moment we have what we had faith for, it is no longer faith. It does not take faith to call God our provider when we do not have any unpaid bills. It does not take faith to call Him our healer when we are healthy. It takes faith to rely on God when things do not appear to be under control. In Heb. 11:19 it says that Abraham had faith when he offered up Isaac because “he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead…” In other words, Abraham had faith when circumstances seemed to be going against the promise and vision that God had put in his heart. He had faith that even if the vision died, God could raise it back from the dead. Faith is believing that even if it looks like everything is falling apart, God is still in control and there is nothing, not even death, that can put the final nail in the coffin of His promises for His people. I have had some promises and visions that seem to have died but I believe that God can raise them from the dead. Again I am haunted by the words of Erwin McManus who said, “If the cross teaches us anything, it teaches us that sometimes God comes through after we’ve been killed.”

Lord, give me the kind of faith to believe even when everything seems to be dead. Nothing, not even death, can make things too hard for YOU. I trust that YOU are in control even when I can’t see it.