Recently, I received an email with a link to a Youtube video. What made this email unique was that it was from the singer herself and that she is from the town where John Newton preached and where he wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.
This video features Hannah Layton Turner singing Amazing Grace along with pictures from Olney, England where the song was first performed.
If you want more information about Hannah Layton Turner, you can go to her website or Youtube channel.
A fast scroll through the news or your Facebook feed can be overwhelming. This morning I am bombarded by news of bickering presidential candidates, government overreach, religious terrorism, friends dealing with disease and destructive wildfires. These are typical of what my world is facing on a day-to-day basis.
As Christians, we have the opportunity to bring all of our concerns to God in prayer, but where do we begin? It seams as though the list of things to pray about is way larger than our ability to pray about them. Perhaps this is why Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. But even when I pray, there are times when I wonder if things will ever be right.
But then, seemingly when I need it most, there are times when I read Scripture I find a nugget of encouragement that helps me see past the difficulties around me. I found one such this morning while reading through Isaiah.
“He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Isaiah 42:4, ESV)
This verse is at the end of the first of the Servant Songs, which are parts of Isaiah’s prophecy where he writes about the Servant of Jehovah who Christians identify as Jesus of Nazareth.
This verse in Isaiah encourages me that at some point justice will be established. At some point, all the issues that I highlighted in my opening paragraph will be resolved. We will no longer experience terrorism, disease, or government corruption. We have a hope that rises higher than any flood of bad news that comes our way.
There will be an ultimate resolution, but we can also find hints of that resolution now.
We can actually see him working in the lives of some of those around us. Not only that, we see God working in ourselves. While we may feel that we take a step backward for every two steps forward, there is progress none-the-less.
I also like Isaiah’s reminder that Jesus will not grow faint or be discouraged about the mess we see around us. While we don’t understand why God allows any particular thing to happen, we can be assured that it is not because he has lost control or lost interest.
Because Jesus will not grow faint or be discouraged, we can find hope. That hope can then allow us to not grow faint or be discouraged. I am reminded of a verse from the old hymn, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”:
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
In reading through Matthew 6, this evening I read two verses which raised a question. They are these:
“. . . your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then in this way . . .” (Matthew 6:8b-9a)
The question is, why should we pray if God already knows what we need? It is not like I am going to provide God with a missing piece of data without which he could not make a good choice.
Also, when we look at the way that Jesus interacted with humanity, his behavior does not reveal a God who is reluctant to meet the needs of those who are seeking him. So the assumption in verse 8b is that God knows what you need and is more than willing to provide it. Later in the same sermon Jesus tells us that we are not to worry because God will take care of his people.
Why then are we to ask?
I think that we are to ask because through prayer, God grants us the dignity of participating in bringing about God’s will for humanity. He chooses to work through our prayers, even though he could accomplish his purpose without them.
It is a little bit like asking a 4 year old to help you paint the house. The little tyke will be excited about working with Dad, but won’t really contribute much that will benefit the house. Allowing the 4 year old to “help” grants him a dignity that he would not otherwise have.
Because God wants to be in relationship with us, he chooses to let us “help” him get his business done. He enjoys the fact that we come to him to ask for what we need.
Sometimes we are mistaken in what we think we need. But God, being the perfect father, will use the process of praying to shape our desires. Even when we ask for things that are not right for us, God will patiently answer our prayer. If it is not right for us, he will answer in the negative, but it is the correct answer.
I am thankful that I am ecouraged to bring my requests to God. I can do so knowing that even if what I am asking is wrong, he will make it right.
I’ll close with the first verse of an old hymn:
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
I find this verse to be challenging:
“When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 1:8, ESV)
I understand that worship of God is not as much about what we do as it is about who we are and what our priorities are. Do we love God enough to give him the best? When I ask this question, I do not have material things primarily in mind.
I find that the reason that I do not offer the best to God is that I am often more interested in looking good than honoring God.
For example, when I read my Bible, am I getting a “check in the box” on a reading schedule or am I doing it to allow God to speak to me through Scripture?
Do I attend a Bible study to give Scripture and my brothers to mold me, or am I going because it is the thing to do and it would look awkward if I didn’t attend?
Am I serving out of a sense of calling or because I want to be seen as someone who serves?
Sure, we will never have completely pure motives for anything that we do, but an honest inventory is worth the effort to reveal parts of us are in need of redemption.
I should point out that there is value in doing the right thing even if our motives are not entirely pure (which they will never be in this lifetime). I’m certainly not saying that one should sit on the sidelines until something can be done with perfect motives.
My point is that we should be aware of the motive behind our activites and confess when our motive is selfish.
Perhaps the deciding question is “who gets the glory?” The recipient of the glory is either God or me, we cannot share it.
