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I’ve always been one to watch the news. It’s never really depressed me before. Or maybe it has, but just not like it has lately. It’s getting overwhelming, honestly. I can’t think in thousands of dollars, let alone billions. I can’t comprehend the mountain of debt we are piling up for our future generations. I hear that China is the one loaning us all of this “bail-out” money. As the Bible says, the borrower is slave to the lender. I’m not sure being China’s slave is a great American solution. Having said that, though, it’s not like I have some great new solution to offer. I trust that our President is doing his very best out of a true love and loyalty to this country. But something tells me our past generations — like the one Tom Brokaw calls the “Greatest Generation” — would have handled this differently. It seems to me they would have been willing to sacrifice so much more than we are in order for our kids and grandkids to be in a better situation rather than a far worse one. Anyway, I’ve wandered from my point.
Whenever I start freaking out about all of this, an image from the Bible flashes into my mind. It is an image of a very old Jacob standing in front of the Pharoah of Egypt. He must look his age at this time because Pharaoh’s first question is “how old are you?” It is Jacob’s answer to this question that keeps me hopeful, keeps my focus on the right perspective, and calms my fears.
He says, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years.”
Why do I find this so encouraging? Because Jacob teaches us a great lesson about the perspective we are to have as God’s elect. He was well aware that this place — this world — was not his home. It was just a land he was a pilgrim in. By definition, a pilgrim is one who is on a journey to someplace else, a final place. Jacob held on to this world loosely, looking forward to the world and reward to come.
God is doing something in this economic mess. Some say He is bringing judgment. Some say He is just allowing natural consequences to occur. Some say it is the initial happenings that will set the stage for the Second Coming of Jesus Himself. Some say it’s just dumb stuff that happens and God could care less. Honestly, I have no idea. And I’m not sure it matters. What I do know is this… God has either ordained this to happen or has at least allowed it. Either way, God remains in control. I have this strong feeling that, if we could see this from God’s perspective, we would be rejoicing for the good He was going to bring from it. If I had a peek of what God was doing, I would be rejoicing at every new gloom and doom newscast because I could see where it was all leading. Again, I have no idea where it is leading, but I do have faith in God. And I know that I am called to praise Him in the good times and the bad. It is not a prerequisite that I understand what God is doing before I praise Him. I can so easily look back in my own life on some of the worst times I’ve gone through and praise Him now for what He accomplished in my life through them. Why would I now doubt that He is doing the same as He has always done before?
So, in this mess of money, greed, and panic, I choose to praise and thank God. If I can’t see how to praise Him for the world around me, I will at least praise Him that I don’t truly live here. I am a citizen of the world that waits for those that are His. I am just a pilgrim here.
So my title may seem a little harsh. But I think it’s biblical. Let me explain.
In James 2:19 you find James writing to people who were confused about the relationship of grace and works. He says this, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe–and tremble!”
What James is saying here is that believing in God is not really that big of a deal. After all, even the demons believe there is a God. Satan himself surely believes in God. While belief in God is a good thing, it is not enough, otherwise the demons and Satan would have as much claim to heaven as saved Christians do.
It comes down to our relationship with God. We are made to love God, and receive love from Him. And the Bible is very clear that, if we love God, we will follow His commandments. All of His commandments are summed up by Jesus in two expressions of relationships… love God and love your fellow man. That’s why works are such an integral part of salvation. Not because our works earn us the admission ticket to heaven, but because they are evidence of a relationship of love between us and God… they flow from it naturally. After all, we understand this very clearly in marriage. Is there really love in a marriage relationship where there are no works of love? There may be co-dependency or familiarity, but certainly not love. Because we love, we do. Because we love, we sacrifice. Because we love, we try to please. Because we love, we serve.
This is James’ point. And he makes it even clearer in verse that follows; “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”
It is not that works without faith earn anything, it is rather that faith without works reveals that there really is no living faith, no relationship of love.
We can get so concerned with getting people to believe in God that we can forget that, without a relationship of love, it is really quite pointless. In this sense, faith must speak of more than just belief in God. It must be a faith that comes from a relationship of love with God. That is what separates us from the demons who also believe. We not only believe in God, but our love for Him motivates us to work for Him, giving evidence of our relationship with Him.
I had the opportunity to go to some great workshops on prayer earlier this week as part of the 40 Days of Prayer for the Treasure Valley that is launching on February 25th. I’ll probably go on to post in greater detail about some of what really spoke to me in these workshops but, for now, just wanted to share this simple little thought.
One of the presenters asked this question: “Which is easier, to evangelize people or to pray for people?” The unanimous answer of the group was that it was easier to pray than to go out and evangelize. “And don’t you think that people who are prayed for would be easier to evangelize?” Again, a unanimous yes from the group. “So why would you go out and try to evangelize people that have not been prayed for?”
Now, he wasn’t trying to say that instead of evangelizing we should be praying. He was only pointing out something that I do all the time. I get all caught up in great bigs plans to evangelize without spending hardly any time at all in prayer for those I hope will hear and accept the gospel message. I get the cart before the horse, so to speak.
These workshops are just one of many ways that the Lord seems to be speaking to me about the importance, power, and effectiveness of prayer lately. I’m the kind of guy that often comes up with great big ideas — and even attempts a few of them — only to see the desire or interest to complete them fade away. I think I’m beginning to understand that this is at least partially because I don’t start out with prayer as I should. I get an idea in my head and just run with it. It’s really no different than trying to evangelize an unprayed for people. It is trying to undertake an unprayed for project. I hope I’m learning my lesson, especially since the next project is about ready to launch. Only this time, the project IS prayer, so maybe that’ll help. 
