It has been almost five months since I decided to do this blog (a little less since I actually started writing it). I think it is a good time to take a look back. I started writing the blog because of a promise from the Bible that Jesus would give me whatever I ask in His name. This seemed outside the bounds of my religious experience. I have called myself a Christian for a long time, but the idea that this was a promise and not just a nice sentiment had not really crossed my mind in a meaningful way. I came to realize that I had been living my Christian life on the basis of principles and practicalities contained in the Bible, but not on the basis of promises. As this dawned on me, I started studying the Bible with a new perspective, and I found promises everywhere. God Himself was standing by His promises to hear my prayers, to take care of me, to guide me, to give me joy, peace and freedom . . . and rest. The thing about all this is that it is available to me by faith; meaning I have to believe it to receive it. That is the most startling part to me. Here in the modern world, as of right now, I can call myself a Christian, go to church every Sunday, sing songs and listen to sermons; I can say grace before my meals, I can grumble about receding morality; and I can do it all while exercising zero faith. Would it surprise you to know that I never really thought of myself as faith-deficient before. It is not so much that I felt like I was lacking in faith, but that there was this awesome resource available to me that I just found out about, like suddenly realizing you had a fortune in the bank. Not only is believing a powerful tool; it is the only thing we can do that God counts in our favor. The Bible says, "without faith, it is impossible to please God.
In addition to being confronted by faith and promises, God showed me something that has changed the direction of my life. He showed me that He is not angry at me. God did not condemn me for the things I thought were keeping me from having a close relationship with Him. My theology has always told me that I was in good standing with God, in a theological sense. But in an actual sense, I thought any bad thing that I did separated me from the blessings and the promises. It caused me to be occupied with myself and my own failings. We should all be introspective, right? Wrong! Along with this came the realization that God loved me, not because He loved everybody, and I am in that group, but because He knew me and cared about the details of my life. So, one of the most powerful things I have learned is to quit trying to fix myself (or others, for that matter), and just learn to receive the love of the Father; to literally turn away from my problem, and focus on Jesus.
Because I received a new look at faith and love, I also found a new hope. I understood that I was not tethered to the spot that I was currently occupying. There were aspects of my life that I had just come to accept. But, now it is clear that God has a purpose and a calling for me, and that He does not intend for me to just accept what He wants to change.
"Ya gotta know your limitations."
Here in Indianapolis the other day, there was a cheetah that escaped from its enclosure at the city zoo (joke I tell my grandson: Why can I always win a race with a cheetah? Because cheetahs never win!). While they were trying to decide what to do with it, the cheetah climbed back into its cage. I am guessing it felt safer there. I have always heard that the cheetah is the fastest animal on land. Except we are not going to find out if that one is fast, because he likes his cage. To be honest, the original purpose of this blog is to keep me from being like the cheetah and crawling back into the safety of my cage. The promise of Jesus is to give me what I ask is like the wide open spaces calling me to a new kind of life. Sure, there is promise, but isn't there danger, too? I have committed myself in print to search out the fulfillment of the promise in my life, and I intend to see it through. So, I have focused on three things, especially, that I am asking God for, that relate to people that I love and to my own personal situation. I have found, though, that I can't share the specifics for now, about all of them. I have been soaking up all kinds of writings, sermons, opinions, and stories about prayer since I began. I have been looking at all the passages in the Bible that deal with prayer, and especially with the promises to answer prayer. But I have determined to only share what I have experienced, and not theologies and opinions which seem interesting. Have there been setbacks? I would say that the only setback is that life happens and distracts me sometimes. What I have found is that pursuing answers has been a faith and character building exercise. I can tell you that I feel like a different person than the one who started this journey. I saw a movie called "The War Room," the other day, and the main character had a board where she had recorded specific answers to prayer that God had given her over the years. This board was a great source of encouragement to her. That is another purpose of this blog, to be a source of encouragement, not just to myself, but to anyone else who might read this. And if you have just come across this now, I would encourage you to go back and read from the beginning post.
I want to try to share the first request, because I believe God has answered it. I believe God has answered all three of them, plus others; I am just waiting for the answer to get here on the other ones. You know I have a grandson, named Ashton, who is eight. Last year he was in second grade, and he is my middle daughter's child. If you know me, you know that they live with us. He had behavior problems in school, after-school, church, home, the neighbors, actually everywhere. His anger was out of control. We were frustrated with him, of course, but mostly I just hurt for him and his mom. She tried every different piece of parenting advice anyone would give her. She took him to counseling, she went to many, many conferences with teachers, counselors, etc. We tried to help. I can tell you that if it was possible to try, we tried it. I look back, now, and it is hard to believe that we were in desperation mode this last spring. In all those places and in all those situations, he behaves like a healthy eight year old boy, now, which is to say, full of life and hope, and with normal eight year old boy problems! If I were not writing this blog, I don't know if I would have the perspective to look back and thank God for answering our prayers for him.
It's possible that you could look at Jesus' promise to do what we ask as some kind of Genie in a bottle trick, like it is a shortcut to new cars, new houses, and new bank accounts. But, you know those are not what your heart longs for. They are not the deep longings that draw out faith that moves God. I think you know what those are in your life. I know what they are in mine.