Monthly Archives: August 2012

Taking Risks

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“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”1

How true it is, as someone (with tongue-in-cheek) said, “Blessed be he who aimeth at nothing for he shall surely hit it!” Or as another said, “Better to aim at the clouds and hit the tree tops than to aim at the tree tops and hit the ground.”

To have meaningful goals in life is to risk failure. Not to have any goals may keep one feeling safe and comfortable, but it is to guarantee failure. “Equally comfortable,” writes Peter Wagner, “is to define your goals in terms of what you happen to be doing at any given time. If you shoot first, then draw the target around the bullet hole, you’ll never miss the bull’s eye. If someone looks later, he might even call you a good marksman.” Then you can brag about your accomplishments!

But this is not success. It is allowing life to shape you rather than you shaping your life and deciding how you want to invest it.

True success is to discover what God’s purpose for your life is and then give life everything you’ve got to achieve that purpose.

Whatever that is, it’s not failure that is a crime, but to have such a low aim that there is no chance of failure. Or, as somebody else put it, “Not to have a goal is more to be feared than not reaching it.” If you tried and did your best, even if you failed to achieve all of your goal, you are already a success. All God requires is that we do our best.

Remember, however, if your goals are in harmony with God’s purpose for you, he has already equipped you with the wherewithal to be able to achieve them. It’s up to us to get well trained and learn how to effectively use these abilities. So, don’t waste your life. Invest it in a worthwhile God-given life purpose—a noble cause into which you can put your best efforts and be excited about it.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the desire to find and the insight to discover my God-given life purpose and goals and, with your help, the courage and determination to pursue and reach them, and do so for your glory. May they always be in harmony with your will and be a part of what you are doing in the world today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (NIV).

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Don’t Be a Part of the Living Dead

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”1

Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-famous architect, tells how a lecture he received at the age of nine helped set his philosophy of life. An uncle, a stolid, no-nonsense type, had taken him for a long walk across a snow-covered field. At the far side, his uncle told him to look back at their two sets of tracks. “See, my boy,” he said, “how your footprints go aimlessly back and forth from those trees, to the cattle, back to the fence then over there where you were throwing sticks? But notice how my path comes straight across, directly to my goal. You should never forget this lesson!” “And I never did,” Wright said. “I determined right then not to miss most things in life as my uncle had.”2

To experience the wonders of life we need to be in touch with all of our God-given emotions—including the emotion of wonder. “Life without emotions,” said one humorist, “would be like playing a trombone with a stuck slide,” which of course would be dreadfully monotonous and boring. The same is true when one’s emotion of wonder is repressed, the effects of which are to be characteristically bored with life.

Emotions are God-given. They are a vital part of living a life with vitality, joy and wonderment. So learn to enjoy the emotion of wonder. Learn to let your hair down more often. Have fun. Hang loose. Go with the flow. Plant a tree. Write a poem. Draw with your non-dominant hand. Tell your spouse and kids how much you love them … tell them now and tell them often. Get out of your ruts. Do something different. Stretch your imagination. Step out of your comfort zone.

As Robert Frost said in his poem, “Road Less Traveled,” “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence / Two roads diverged in a wood / And I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference.”

And by the way, being in touch with all of your God-given emotions and using them as God intended is a vital part of being whole and living the abundant life Jesus spoke about. It’s also being authentic. Repressed people are a part of the living dead.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be in touch with all of my God-given emotions and use them as you intended. Help me to be authentic and free, and an open channel through whom your love can freely flow. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV).

2. Gary Swanson, “Living in a Powder Keg,” Focus on the Family, Sept. 1992, p. 14.

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The Scorpion and the Frog

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“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”1

You’ve no doubt read the old fable about the scorpion and the frog. It illustrates how man’s nature is much more devious and controlling than is his logic.

The fable says how, “One day a scorpion arrived at the bank of a river he wanted to cross, but there was no bridge. He asked a frog that was sitting nearby if he would take him across the river on his back. The frog refused and said, ‘I will not, because you will sting me.’

“The scorpion replied, ‘It would be foolish for me to sting you because then we would both drown.’

“The frog saw the logic in the scorpion’s words, and agreed to carry the scorpion across. But when they were halfway across the river the scorpion stung the frog. The stunned frog asked, ‘Why did you sting me? Now we will both die!’

“The scorpion replied, ‘Because I’m a scorpion … and that’s what scorpions do.’”

Have you ever noticed that God is not concerned about being “politically correct?” Sad to say some people today are more concerned about being “politically correct” than they are about being “biblically correct.” They change the name of sins to justify people’s sinful behavior. They do this because they are more concerned about the approval of man than they are about the approval of God. To God, sin—all sin—is sin by whatever name we call it, and all sin is ultimately self-destructive regardless of how we seek to justify it.

Furthermore, God’s Word reminds us that no matter how good, how noble, how educated, how refined, or how sophisticated we may be, we are all sinners.2 Like the leopard that cannot change its spots neither can we change our nature. We are not sinners because we sin, but rather, we sin because we are sinners. That’s our nature and that’s why we need God’s salvation to save us from the eternal consequences of our sin—which is eternal separation from God for all eternity in the place the Bible calls hell.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for providing a way of escape from the eternal consequences of my sinful nature in that you gave your Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in my place to pay the punishment for all my sins. Help me to be certain that I am a true Christian, and that I have received your gift of forgiveness and eternal life. And dear Jesus, because you died for me, please help me to live for you always in all ways. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

For help be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian without having to be religious” online at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian.

1. Jeremiah 13:23 (NIV).

2. See Romans 3:23.

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A Reminder About Healing

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“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”1

Does God heal people today? Let me answer by first asking another question, “Does God answer prayer today?” My answer is, “Sometimes, ‘yes.’ Sometimes, ‘no.’ Sometimes, ‘wait a while,’ and sometimes, ‘you’re praying the wrong prayer!’” James in the Bible wrote about prayer saying, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”2 In other words, when we don’t get prayer answered, sometimes it is because of false motives or simply that we’re praying amiss; that is, we’re praying the wrong prayer.

The same principle applies to prayer for healing. Sicknesses can have many causes for the simple reason that we live in a sin-sick, broken world. And, as it rains “on the just and on the unjust alike,”3 sickness also “rains” on the just as well as the unjust.

However, we can avoid many sicknesses by living a wholesome life, resolving impaired relationships, putting wrongs right, avoiding stress, and resolving super-charged repressed negative emotions such as guilt, hurt, anger, hostility, jealousy, irrational fears, and other sins of the spirit. This is why the Bible, God’s Word, makes it clear that before we even pray for healing, we need to confess all sins to God (and, at least, to one safe person)—including the sins of the spirit—in order to clear the way for healing.

In my many years of being involved in church life from childhood until the present, and having heard a number of “faith healers” in years past, I have never heard one of these preachers even mention James’s instructions regarding the necessity to confess one’s sins to one another before ever praying for healing.

As I have shared before, I grew up in a very dysfunctional family and was taught early in life to bury and deny my negative feelings, but when I realized the fallacy of this teaching, and got in touch with my “super-charged repressed negative emotions,” and confessed them in a growth support group as well as to a counselor, I was healed of several years of miserable hay fever and painful bursitis. In fact, I am physically healthier today than when I was half my age, for which I truly thank God that I followed the biblical principle for healing.

The fact is that some sicknesses (not all by any means) are symptoms of a deeper fault, sin, or unresolved problem. In these situations the prayer for healing needs to be directed not merely towards the symptom, but on the deeper cause (or causes) which need/s to be confessed and resolved to clear the way for healing.

Being honest with one’s self, with God, and with at least one trusted person is the righteous thing to do; and such prayers are truly powerful and effective.1

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, whenever I have any unresolved problems, issues, or sicknesses, please confront me with the truth of any cause in me that might be in any way contributing to or causing the problem I am experiencing; give me the courage to see it, to confess it to a safe person, and the help to resolve it so that I can be healed. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 5:16 (NIV).

2. James 4:3 (NKJV).

3. Matthew 5:45 (NLT).

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Hammer Theology

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“The reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”1

People who provide simplistic solutions to life’s complex problems can leave a trail of hurt people in their path. I heard a so-called “faith healer” tell a woman who had just experienced a major stroke that the reason she wasn’t healed after he prayed for her was because she (and not he) lacked faith. I mean, how cruel can you get?

I attended a lecture on healing attended by some 300 people, all in some form of ministry. At one point during the lecture the speaker asked all those not feeling well to stand. About 50 people stood—including me. The speaker called on the demon of sickness to be “cast out” en masse. He then told all those who had been healed to sit down. All but nine or ten of us sat down. One by one he then “cast out” the demon of sickness and told the individual to sit down if he had been healed. One by one they sat down. Then came my turn! He then “cast” the demon of sickness out of me. Nothing happened. The pressure to conform and lie was incredible. I refused to do so. I told the speaker that I still felt sick and that I thought my upset stomach was because of a new medication I was on, and I sat down. He moved on to the next person. During the following break one attendee thanked me for not yielding to the pressure to conform.

I’ve heard another well-known speaker teach that the answer to personal problems was to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and another that the answer to loneliness was to accept Jesus as your Savior. These may be an answer for some situations but certainly not for all. Some of our problems are physical in nature, including biological problems such as a chemical imbalance in the brain; numerous problems are emotional in nature caused by unresolved negative emotions and/or by impaired relationships; and some by a multiple of different spiritual causes. Problems may be caused by a combination of all three of these areas.

The causes of our problems can be very complex and multiple and to tell a person who has appendicitis that he has a demon or doesn’t have enough faith to be healed is ignorant, insensitive, cruel and possibly even life-threatening—and certainly not Christian or Christ-like.

As psychologist Abraham Maslow said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” May I suggest you stay clear of hammer theology—it is neither of the truth nor of God.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be sensitive to the needs of others and never give simplistic solutions to life’s complex problems. Help me to understand the nature of human suffering and always seek the truth about the true causes of my own and other’s problem, when called for, and thereby pray accordingly. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 4:2-3 (NLT).

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Feeling Lost or Far From God

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“From one man he made every nation of men … God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’”1

A Daily Encounter reader writes, “I am feeling lost before God and fear that I will never get to heaven and am on my way to hell. Please can you help me?”

Dear Janet (name changed), feeling lost in relationship to God and feeling far from him is something many people experience, so you are not alone in your struggle. This can be caused by various things such as the following:

First, it can be because we are depending on our feelings rather than trusting in what God’s Word says. So be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian at http://tinyurl.com/8glq9. If you prayed the prayer to receive Jesus as your Savior and truly meant it, God has forgiven all your sins and has guaranteed that you have the gift of eternal life in Heaven with God forever. You need to believe God’s Word and what he says regardless of your feelings. We are saved by faith in God and not by our feelings.

Second, feeling lost or far from God can be caused by guilt … that is, if we are acting in ways that we know are sinful and wrong. This causes a barrier to come between us and God. If this is the case, you need to confess your sins to God, ask for his forgiveness, and change your ways.

Third, another major reason for feeling lost and/or feeling far from God is because of impaired relationships which can go back all the way from yesterday to early childhood. If you have any unresolved issues with any significant person in your life, ask God to help you to resolve this if at all possible. If this isn’t possible, you need to resolve any repressed negative feelings in you (such as hurt and/or anger) regarding this relationship so you can freely forgive the person (or persons) whom you feel have hurt you. These supercharged negative feelings not only build a barrier between ourselves and loved ones, but also between ourselves and God. For further help be sure to read the article, “Forgiveness: The Power to Heal” at http://tinyurl.com/dvwh5. You may also need the help of a well trained counselor to help you resolve repressed negative emotions.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you are close to me regardless of how I feel. Please reveal to me the cause (or causes) of my feelings when I am feeling lost or when it seems that you are far away. With your help I choose to trust in you no matter what, and please help my feelings to catch up with my choice. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Acts 17:26-28 (NIV).

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Barking Dogs and Sleeping Lions

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“Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise … the weak things of the world to shame the strong … the lowly things of the world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”1

Washington Irving is credited with having made the remark that “a barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.” Another way of saying the same thing is that “the race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running.”

One of the encouraging aspects about God is that you don’t have to be an expert or anything out of the ordinary for him to use you. God uses people just like you and me. Consider, for example, the men Jesus chose to be his disciples: a couple of fishermen, a despised tax gatherer, a traitor, and so on. They did, however, spend three years with Jesus, the Master Teacher to equip them for service.

Jesus himself didn’t attend college or seminary (or the equivalent in his day) but chose as his profession to be a carpenter as was his earthly father.

For God to use us, all we need to do is to be available and faithful to his calling. One of my daily prayers is: “Dear God, I’m available. Please make me usable and use me today to be as Christ to my family, to someone in need, and in some way to every life I touch.”

What a difference we Christians would make in our family, in our church, and in our world if every one of us would pray this prayer and mean it—every day!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, I’m available. Please make me usable and use me today to be as Christ to my family, to someone in need, and in some way to every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 (NIV).

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Weight Watchers

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“Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ.”1

Jean Nidetch, a 214-pound homemaker desperate to lose weight, went to the New York City Department of Health where she was given a diet devised by Dr. Norman Jolliffe. Two months later, discouraged about the 50 plus pounds still to go, she invited six overweight friends home to share the diet and talk about how to stay on it. This was in 1963.

Today, some 50 years later, one million members attend 250,000 Weight Watchers meetings in 24 countries every week. Why was Nidetch able to help people take control of their lives? To answer that, she tells a story. When she was a teenager, she used to cross a park where she saw mothers gossiping while the toddlers sat on their swings, with no one to push them.

“I’d give them a push,” says Nidetch.

“And you know what happens when you push a kid on a swing? Pretty soon he’s pumping, doing it himself. That’s what my role in life is—I’m there to give others a push.”2

And isn’t that what Christianity and serving God is all about? We’re here to give others “a push” to help them get up when they have fallen down and to get on their own two feet. And who knows what might be the eventual effect?

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a ‘good pusher’ to help those who need a helping hand when they are down or in need. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Galatians 6:2 (NLT).

2. The online source is no longer available but you can see Jean Nidetch’s story online at: http://tinyurl.com/ygpzn6z.

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Where’s the Scent?

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“The Lord disciplines those he loves … for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”1

Earl Nightingale told how on one National Secretaries Day he gave his secretary flowers and she remarked how beautiful they were. She also said that she couldn’t understand why they didn’t have any scent.

He informed her that the flowers came from a hothouse and explained that because flowers raised in this type of environment have everything done for them, they don’t have to attract insects to pollinate them. As a result they lose their scent. In the same way fruit raised in a hothouse, because it doesn’t need to attract insects to scatter its seeds, doesn’t taste as good as fruit grown in its natural environment.

It’s similar to the child who wanted to help a butterfly out of its cocoon by putting a slit in it and, in so doing, caused it to die. He didn’t realize that the struggle to get out of the cocoon is needed to strengthen the butterfly’s wings so that it is able to fly.

When people do too much for us or overprotect us, especially in our early developmental years, they can do serious harm to us. And even in adulthood it’s the problems and difficulties we have that strengthen us, build character, give wisdom, understanding, and compassion—if we let them. Note, too, that if we ask God to give us wisdom and guidance, he will, but he won’t overprotect us from the things we need to help and make us grow—and to teach us wisdom!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me not to run from my fears, trials, and problems but accept them as opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer, Gratefully in Jesus name, amen.”

1. Hebrews 12:6, 10-11 (NIV).

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Lost in Wonder, Love and Awe

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“But you [God] desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being.”1

In response to an earlier Daily Encounter on materialism being caused by the repression of the emotion of wonder, Kay wrote, “I really like what you said about wonder. I think we get so caught up with the day-to-day drive that we miss out on so many things that are ‘wonderful’ because we don’t value this emotion enough. Could you please discuss how we who are overworked and tired can take some time to re-activate that sense?”

If you are in touch with your emotions, you need to make and “take time to smell the roses” … to walk on the beach, climb a mountain, sing songs, listen to quality music, dance in the snow, let your hair down, plant a garden, have fun, etc., etc. This will greatly increase your appreciation of God and the marvels of his creation. As the hymn writer put it we become “lost in wonder, love and awe.”

However, if one is repressed and out of touch with his/her God-given emotions, it’s a lot more complicated than this.

In much younger days I’d never even heard of the emotion of wonder. The only clue I had that something was missing in my life was that I constantly felt empty inside. On the outside I was living what would be considered a good Christian life but emotionally I felt blah. I recall sharing how I felt with a friend and he, too, felt the same way. Both of us had grown up being taught that feelings weren’t important and that you couldn’t trust them. So, in spite of all we had been taught, we got down on our knees, told God how we felt, and asked him to give us some feelings anyhow.

Whew … be careful how you pray. Very soon after praying that prayer my world fell apart. I won’t bore you with the details but I surely did get feelings back. Early in life I learned to build walls around my heart to protect myself from hurt and negative feelings. However, in hiding my negative feelings I also put walls around my positive feelings and they became buried and repressed too. Unfortunately, as pain is the way into hiding, pain is also the way out. I learned it was only when my pain was greater than my fear that I was able to break through the walls (defenses) that had cut off my feelings.

My recovery didn’t happen overnight by any means and I had many painful experiences to go through, but as a result I am a much healthier, happier, more contented, and more fulfilled person today than I was at half my age.

Let me suggest as a starting point for experiencing wonder that you genuinely pray today’s prayer: “Dear God, thank you that I have been created in your image with the ability to think, to feel, and to choose. Please help me to get in touch with all of my God-given emotions (no matter how painful this may be) so that I can experience the glory of your presence and the marvels of your creation—and therein be lost in wonder, love, and awe. Please grant that my life will become wonder-full. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

P.S. For additional help in this area be sure to read the book, You Can’t Fly With a Broken Wing, by yours truly. Check it out at www.actscom.com/store.

1. Psalm 51:6 (TLB)(NLT).

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