Running the race with perseverance

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

I was playing a bowls match in South Africa to decide the winner of the ladies competition at our small club.  It was not an important fixture except for the two of us involved.  It was a hot day and I just about had the edge and was slightly in the lead but my opponent would not give up. She was hot, desperately wanted a drink but just kept persevering.

When she did not do well, she just said, ‘Well I must try harder and do better’ and she did. She would not give in and in the end her perseverance paid off and she won the match.  I kept thinking why don’t you just let me win but no, she was not going to be defeated.

The analogy is obvious but I know, too often, I just want to give up and give in to temptation, disappointment, hurt and rejection. It is sometimes easier to listen to the lies of the enemy and feel sorry for myself instead of persevering, standing firm and just keep trying. It is hard to do better when you feel like you are failing.  The key of course is to fix our eyes on the prize and better still the prize giving and the person who is handing out the prizes.

The prize giver is not just a celebrity who has little to be proud of other than the fame they have acquired. Our prize giver is the pre-eminent overcomer; the man who never gave in or gave up. The person who persevered and won the ultimate prize and we share in the benefits that he won for us because his race was not for his benefit but ours. Yes Jesus victory on the cross meant his glorification and exaltation to the highest place but we are the chief beneficiaries.

It can be hard when we are being tested and everything in us just wants to give up but the writer of Hebrews says in verse 3 of chapter 12 ‘Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ The answer is always Jesus and fixing our eyes on him and considering what he did for us, will give us the boost we need to persevere and do better.

We will see victory if we do not give up but even if we fail, God’s loving arms are there to pick us up, dust us down and help us start all over again. There is a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on who have been there before us and encouraging us to succeed. With their support and Jesus’ we have all the encouragement we need to persevere and win our race. 

Our illimitable God

There is a wonderful description of God by Adam Clarke (an 18^th century theologian) quoted in The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It draws me back time and again.  It is so rich and inspirational and one of the things it says is that God is ‘illimitable in his immensity.’ My immediate reaction was no, you mean unlimited. I was wrong. There is a huge difference between unlimited and illimitable.  Unlimited means you have no limits which is true about God. Illimitable means you cannot be limited.

God cannot be limited by anything and anyone. God will be God. He will do what he will do. You can choose to put limits on God in your life but the person you harm most if you do this is yourself. By limiting God you limit yourself.

Too often Christians are fearful of what God will do if they open themselves up and say, ‘anything, anyway, anytime God.’ They fear if they give God that liberty God, like some hard taskmaster, will ask them to do something they hate, go somewhere they do not want to go and be someone they do not want to be. So often it is much easier to maintain the status quo than risk letting God do something that may completely change your life.

However, reading on with Adam Clarke he says, ‘(God) from his infinite wisdom can do nothing but what is eternally just and right and kind.’ God is good. He doesn't do anything  unjust, unkind or nasty. He only asks us to do things that are for our good and whilst they may be temporarily uncomfortable, in the long term they will be a source of great blessing. If he asks us to go somewhere that we do not think we will like, we can be confident that with God for us and with us, it is the best thing for us.  In fact that comforting thought can help us through difficult times.

God asked a family I know to move from South Africa to UK. The mother did not want to go but she knew God was in it so they could move with the confidence that if God was asking them to do something, it would be for the good of all. It wasn't easy by any means; in fact at times it was really hard but now, years later, God has used the whole family greatly and there has been wonderful fruit from their ministry. They could have limited God and stayed in South Africa. God would still have used them, they would still have been a great blessing but the best for them, was a move to UK, confirmed many times.

God cannot be limited and if we let him, he will be unlimited in our lives. When we limit God, we put a cap on all the possibilities that could open up. Do not let fear limit you. Anything is possible with God – now that should be a comforting and exciting thought!

Courage to obey

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, ‘Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.’

‘My father,’ she replied, ‘you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request,’ she said. ‘Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.’

‘You may go,’ he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. Judges 11: 34 – 39

I read recently that real courage is obeying even when you know the consequences. Jephthah had made a rash vow that if God gave him victory in battle over the Ammonites, then he would sacrifice the first thing that came to meet him when he got home.

God did give him victory in battle and the first thing to greet him when he got home was his daughter, his only child, celebrating his victory in battle and homecoming. What I notice though is her response. She neither begs nor pleads with her father or God to let her off a vow that she has not made. She understands the bigger picture; her father has had great victory in battle because God helped him. The Israelites would continually need God’s help to win victory over their enemies and breaking this vow would seriously compromise their future cause. Vows made to God are serious things and should not be readily broken. Jephthah’s daughter understood this. (see blog Broken vows break relationships).

Instead she just asks for two months to go and weep with her friends over what would never be; her own husband, home and children. She had the courage to go through with this even though she knew the consequences for herself. I am sure during those two months some friends would have encouraged her to defy the vow. You can imagine them saying that surely God would not expect her to die because of something her father vowed. The consequences though for the nation would have been greater if she had not gone through with it.

Imagine too the anguish of Jephthah’s heart that he must have endured. No daughter or grandchildren now. Did he beg God to let him off his vow I wonder? Nevertheless, he went through with it; that takes courage – a courage only exceeded by his daughter’s.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was another woman who had the courage to be obedient to God’s calling, despite the consequences. When she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit before marrying Joseph, the consequences were awful. There was a very real chance Joseph would reject her and I am sure society did. Unmarried mothers were outcasts in those days. However she also got hold of the bigger picture and knew she was the most blessed of women because she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. Simeon prophesied to her that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul (Luke 2:35). Watching Jesus being crucified must have been indescribable and like having her soul pierced just as Jephthah’s soul must have been pierced when he had to kill his own daughter. What courage these people displayed.

I do not expect we will have to face such awful choices but may we have the courage to obey God in our circumstances even when we know the consequences will be hard. 

Keeping our faith

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Hebrews 11: 39 – 40

Hebrews 11 is the wonderful chapter about the Old Testament men and women of faith from righteous Abel through to the prophets. Many of them triumphed in their faith yet others suffered terribly facing persecution, imprisonment and even martyrdom. Yet the chapter concludes by saying that none of these wonderful saints of old, though commended for their faith, received what was promised; the fulfillment of their faith found in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. 

I find this fact very inspiring that they never gave up but died still believing that what God had said was true. Their faith was not in vain because though they did not see it, God brought about what he had promised. Now, these men and women of faith will be joining with us who have come to faith through Jesus Christ and together we will be made perfect.

Like these saints of old, we too may not see those things we are believing for but we must not give in to disappointment, doubt and unbelief.  These will rob us of our faith.  The object of our faith may be personal; the salvation of a loved one or work colleague or for our healing or it may be that we are believing God for a mighty revival in our nation or anticipating the return of Jesus Christ.

We may see any of these events or we may not but we must maintain our faith, trusting that what God has said will be fulfilled whether we see it or not. Alan Vincent (one of my heroes of the faith) says that for years his grandmother prayed for him yet she never saw him saved. However she never lost faith and took her ‘faith cheque’ to heaven and cashed it there. Her grandson was not just saved but became ‘a faith-filled, devil destroying warrior for a grandson.’

I don’t know about you but I can become very disappointed when I do not see the things I am believing God for. However today I want to rise up in fresh faith, shake off  my disappointment and declare before God that whether or not I see my loved ones saved, revival in UK or whatever, I will not let go and slide into doubt and unbelief but I will trust that what God has said will be accomplished .

Lord Jesus, today I raise my eyes afresh to you and ask that you will forgive me for doubting you and letting disappointment and unbelief creep into my life. Please will you strengthen me afresh today so that whether I see the things I am praying and trusting you for, or whether I do not, I will still be found in faith in Christ Jesus? Amen. 

Ready for action

I make known the end from the beginning,

    from ancient times, what is still to come.

I say, “My purpose will stand,

    and I will do all that I please.”

From the east I summon a bird of prey;

    from a far-off land, a man to fulfil my purpose.

What I have said, that I will bring about;

    what I have planned, that I will do. Isaiah 46: 10 – 11

All through the book of Isaiah, God tells the people that he is in charge of history; that the events unfolding and about to unfold before their eyes are not random happenings or the plans of men. He makes plain that what is happening is at his instigation. The Assyrians were a terrifying people who took all before them and yet the Lord says he has summoned them. In fact in Isaiah 5: 26 he says he whistles for the nations to come and they do! The Israelites and all the surrounding nations would have thought that Assyrians were unassailable. They were the dominant nation and yet Isaiah foretells their downfall.

It is as if someone prophesies the downfall of USA today. It seems unbelievable but we live in unbelievable times. Who would have foreseen the overthrow of communism on the planet and the iron grip of the USSR broken over the countries of Eastern Europe and yet in happened in such a short time? Who would have thought that some of the Arab countries would see the overthrow of their seemingly entrenched leaders?

Yet these events have been foretold. In 1896 a scholar, from reading the Bible, foretold both the rise and fall of communism before any nation was communist and made reference to what turned out to the First World War (AGS Consulting website). One incredible prophecy was from the lady who in May 1997 told us: …  this shall be a sign, that there will be a day very soon when the whole nation will mourn. And the whole nation will put flowers in their cities.” At the time no one in UK knew what it meant but by September, its meaning was obvious. Princess Diana had been killed in a car crash and the nation was covered in flowers.

Jean Darnall’s prophecy for UK given at least 40 years ago of fires being lit from Scotland to Land’s End and into Europe seems very relevant now. God spoke to her about young people reaching out and of ordinary believers being used to evangelise with signs and wonders following. That is exactly what is happening at Cwmbran in Wales and other places right now. (These prophecies can be found at the Crossrhythms website).

However fascinating though the prophetic is, especially in hindsight as we see that which was foretold coming to pass, God does not tell us these things to entertain us. He first of all tells us so we can know He is God and in charge of world events. Secondly he wants all men to turn to him.

In Isaiah’s day the Jewish nation was backslidden and in idolatry. God wanted the people to return  to him, the only source of their personal and national security. It is the same today. God is still looking to see everyone saved and he wants the church prepared and ready for what he is doing. It is like he is shaking the church awake through the prophetic so they are ready for action when God moves mightily by His Spirit. The prophecy about Princess Diana went on to say: 

For I am at work in this nation and I will bring this nation to it's knees before me and they will know the joy of their salvation in the mighty risen Lord Jesus.… Therefore let the rivers of living water flow from within you and know that you will have many opportunities from this point to speak of my grace, to speak of my love, to see in action my Spirit at work. Know that I will be with you in that and you will see the miraculous.

That is what is happening in UK today. God foretells events so we can know he is God, know he is in control, turn to him and be ready for what He is going to do in our midst. Do not let us be the generation that missed it but the people who grasped the moment and ran with it.  God is on the move – let’s be prepared and ready. 

Be still and know that I am God

Be still, and know that I am God;
      I will be exalted among the nations,
      I will be exalted in the earth.  Psalm 46: 10

One of my favourite books of the Bible is Isaiah.  His gift of beautiful poetry and wonderful use of words is an inspiration. However Isaiah lived during some very troubled times in the kingdom of Judah and he must have experienced great highs and lows during his ministry.

The early chapters of Isaiah were written during the reign of King Ahaz, a wicked king of Judah who did not follow in the path of King David.  He reigned in the troubled times of the Assyrians whose total warfare of terror, destruction and deportation was both brutal and barbaric.  The surrounding nations of Syria or Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel suffered greatly at their hands. Indeed it was the Assyrians who took Israel into exile as God had promised because of their unfaithfulness to him.

These were truly terrible days and King Ahaz did all he could to appease the Assyrians but to no avail. Isaiah kept urging him to seek the Lord, turn back to him because only he could help. Instead King Ahaz closed the temple and set up his own altar which he had built modelled on one he had seen and liked in Damascus (II Kings 16).

Nevertheless, in the midst of all this, Isaiah prophesies one of his most famous and frequently read encouragements found in Isaiah 9. At Christmas we usually hear and read just Isaiah 9: 2, 6 – 7 because this is the most obvious prophecy about the Messiah but the first seven verses of the chapter taken together were indeed a source of great encouragement in the dark days of King Ahaz’s reign.

God promised through Isaiah that the northern lands of Zebulun, Naphtali and Galilee which had suffered terribly at the hands of the Assyrians would one day be greatly honoured. This of course was fulfilled during Jesus’ ministry there. God promised the people who were walking in the darkness of despair that a light will dawn, that the yoke of oppression will be broken and all the tools of warfare will be burnt.

This will happen because a child will be born, a royal child from the house of David who will rule with justice and righteousness for ever. ‘The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.’ God will make sure this happens and he has. He has sent his son Jesus who even now is reigning in glory and will one day return to the earth to establish his kingdom on earth for ever.

In the midst of despair and terror, God spoke words of life and hope to the Jewish people. God never left them even when they were eventually taken off into exile; he is indeed Immanuel God with us.

In the midst of our trials and difficulties, no matter their source, he will speak words of life and hope to us if we will be still and know He is God.

Getting justice

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”

⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”Luke 18: 1 – 8

I always find it surprising that sometimes Christians let the devil steal from them and they do nothing about it. We all know the devil is a liar, a thief and comes to destroy yet when troubles come, Christians all too often just accept that this is the way it is.

God tests our faith to strengthen it through trials and difficulties (James 1:2) and sometimes he lets the devil steal from us and lie to us, to teach us how to use our faith to overcome the devil and grow spiritually strong.  If we never had any difficulties or life was always easy, we would be very passive Christians. Jesus came to overthrow the works of the devil and he wants us to do the same in our lives.

Sometimes Christians face great injustice because of the work of the devil and in this story, Jesus explains how we can get justice by coming to God the great, just Judge.

If you imagine a court room with God as the Judge, you are the defendant, the devil is the accuser or prosecutor and Jesus is the defence counsel. We can come to this court in heaven and ask God for justice. God is righteous and therefore he has to listen to all the devil’s lies and innuendos but once they are heard, he will find in your favour if the devil has been lying and stealing from you.

A few years back we had a minor car accident which was not our fault but we could not get our £250 excess back from the insurance company.  It was ours, we were entitled to it but all letters and phone calls produced no result. I started praying in the court of heaven and coming to God the Judge and asking him for justice. We had been stolen from. I continued to pray and God showed me I need to start a formal complaint procedure. That unlocked the door and not only did we get our money back (two years late) but we got 20% added for the inconvenience (Numbers 5:7).

God is looking for faith on the earth this parable tells us and through persistent faith expressed through persevering prayer, we will get justice. In the natural if you give up on a court case before the end, you lose everything.  It is the same in the spiritual. We must persevere in faith filled prayers and God will give us justice. 

Moving past tragedy

I confess that today I am writing about something of which I have no personal experience. I am talking about personal tragedy by which I mean circumstances that are outside the experience of most people and which have such an impact on a person’s life that it changes them forever. Nevertheless, despite my lack of experience, there are some in the Bible and others who I know who have suffered and overcome this level of tragedy.

Most of us have had some very difficult circumstances such as the death of someone close to us, the loss of a job or an accident, all of which will have impacted our lives. However there seems to be a level of tragedy which can affect a life in such a way that they find it almost impossible to move on. Life stops and they get stuck at that moment and though everyday life continues, underlying it is a sorrow of the heart or even a bitterness of the spirit that seems impossible to shift.

However there is always God; the God who loves us and for whom nothing is impossible. Only he can heal the bitterly wounded and rescue those drowning in sorrow. We see it most obviously in Job, the man who had everything taken from him and who battled with God and his unhelpful friends but who never gave up. God then intervened and following Job’s incredible God encounter that literally shook him to the core, God restored and increased all that had been lost.

I know of a lady in South Africa who was married with two sons but the marriage was on the rocks. The husband persuaded a doctor friend to have his wife committed to a mental institution though there was nothing wrong with her. By the time she persuaded the doctors there that she was perfectly sane and was released, her husband had absconded from the country, taking their sons with her and clearing out all their money from the banks. She had nothing and even her own family were unhelpful. She has never seen her husband or sons again.

This level of tragedy could have caused her life and especially her relationship with God to come to a grinding halt. Instead, over time, she found forgiveness and healing and God has used her to talk to others in similar circumstances to help them through and out the other side of their tragedy to a place where their lives can begin to function again.

The key seems to be acknowledging all that has gone on and letting God touch every area. There may be areas that are so painful, so difficult that they have to be hidden away till God and time have done a measure of healing. Then they can be brought gently out for God’s divine touch. There may have been great injustice and only letting God help you find forgiveness will bring release and healing.

Why? will almost certainly be the word on your lips and in your heart and you may not ever have a satisfactory answer to this question. God however wants to take your hand and help you climb over the wall that Why? represents and help you trust him with that answer. He wants to help you move on. He wants to rebuild your life. He wants to give you hope.

I confess again this is an area of which I have no personal experience but I know and read about others who have overcome personal tragedy through the God whose love is limitless, who is bigger than anything we can think or imagine and who never leaves us – ever. He truly is the God of all hope.

Accepting ourselves and others on the journey

Continue to work out your salavtion with fear and trembling  Philippians 2: 12

I watched a video on You Tube recently from a Stoneleigh Bible Week in 1998. It stirred up happy memories of these times but also made me realise how much I have changed since then. God has been doing a wonderful work of healing and restoration and things that I struggled with then are no longer an issue.

However it also made me realise that I would not like the person I was then very much and it made me realise afresh what wonderful grace God has for each one of us. He is not fazed by where we are, as he can see where we are going.  All he wants is our cooperation through joyful obedience to let him work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

I think too often we can be afraid of what God wants to do or what may be required of us. However the God who loves us more than we will ever really understand does not want us bound by the hurts of the past but liberated to walk in freedom with him.

As ever, it comes down to trusting God that he knows best and will never hurt us.  His plans are always for our good and if he is asking us to walk through something that he knows we find hard, he is with us every step of the way. He will give us the strength to come through it.

God is always telling me not to be so hard on myself and to accept myself as he accepts me. This should also of course be applied to other people.  As we realise that we are all on a journey and that God loves and accepts us as we are, where we are, he will also give us the grace to accept others where they are as well.

No one has arrived and no one is perfect but as God unravels the hurts, pains, disappointments and failures of the past it brings us into greater freedom and ability to love others.  We are all works in progress and I love seeing the wonderful things that God has done in people’s lives.

The Apostle Paul was only too aware of his past and of how God had rescued him from a religious, legalistic, persecuting past and turned those things which the devil had used for harm into the very things that are a great blessing to us today. We have the testimony of Paul to encourage us and the teachings of Paul to instruct us. Paul’s mind bound up in religion and legalism when liberated by God became a well spring for much of the Christian theology and church practise that we use and understand today.  Paul’s letters have become the foundation for the Church.

It is truly wonderful what God does in the believer’s heart and life as we trust and obey him. So do not be discouraged if you do not feel you are making progress, but accept the journey that you are on.  In the same way accept others who are also on their journeys and give grace to both them and yourselves.