Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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The enemy of joy

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My previous post highlighted the command given to us by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:4 to rejoice. But there are times when we find this difficult to do. Why is it difficult and how do we counteract the difficulty?

R. C. Sproul, in his book Can I have Joy in my Life?, rightly points out that the great enemy of joy is anxiety. In support of this statement, he points out that two verses after the command to be joyful Paul writes about anxiety:

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (CSB)

(c) Can Stock Photo / ivelinradkov

There are two tools Paul gives is for counteracting anxiety in our lives.

The first tool is thanksgiving. It dawns on me that it is difficult to be thankful and anxious at the same time. Being anxious stems from a lack of confidence that things will work out properly. For the Christian, we claim that God has everything under control, but our worry is an indication that we don’t really believe this, or at least, we don’t believe it enough to be fully trusting.

It seems to me that if I am working at finding things for which I can be thankful, it will go a long way toward displacing my doubts about how things will work out.

The second tool is petition. Jesus taught us to ask for our daily bread (Matthew 6:11) so we should have no scruples against being honest with God about our concerns and our needs.

The problem is that I let God know about my concerns and my needs while continuing to worry about whether or not they will be met. This again belies my claim to complete faith in God. I have very imperfect faith which is not strong enough to overcome my anxiety.

It boils down to a choice. I can choose to believe that when I give the problem to God, he will address it. I can choose to be thankful for the blessings I have received and remain in thanksgiving even when I have no evidence that my current concern has been addressed.

I know that I cannot muster up more faith, but I can choose to act on the faith that I already possess. The choice is mine (and yours).

Rejoice is a command

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I don’t know about you, but I too often allow my circumstances to dictate how I feel. I allow myself to be like a block of foam on the ocean, bouncing around where the current and the waves take me. When things are going well, I’m OK but when things are difficult or uncomfortable, then . . .

Challenging me in this tendency is the Apostle Paul when he writes:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:4 (CSB)

(c) Can Stock Photo / nebari

The verb rejoice in this verse is in the imperative mood; it is a command. Paul is not making a suggestion. Nor is he presenting rejoicing as a nice-to-have. It is a command from one who has authority to give one. We have no option but to rejoice.

What is most interesting to me about this command is that Paul was in a Roman prison when he wrote it. He was not on the beach surrounded by friends. He was not hiking with snow-peaked mountains as a backdrop. He was in a stinky, dirty, moldy prison.

The ability to rejoice when things are going wrong is a byproduct of having a strong sense of where God is leading. If I know I am where God wants me to be, then I will be more likely to rejoice when things are difficult.

The Apostle Paul was confident that he was in prison for a purpose and in that prison he practiced what he preached. He rejoiced in the difficult circumstances and demonstrated that I have no excuse for not doing the same.

But if I left you with the impression that one only need to try harder at rejoicing, I would do us both a disservice. I find that in my own strength I can give the appearance of rejoicing but cannot produce the real thing.

My ability to rejoice in difficulties is a work of God’s grace in my life. It is not something that I can muster up on my own. But, by God’s grace, I am taking baby steps in learning to really rejoice.

Lead (and follow) like Jesus

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A quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi comes to my mind this morning.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

From www.goodreads.com

This statement should be viewed as an überchallenge to church leaders and to those they lead.

The challenge to leaders is to avoid getting so fixed on our own agenda that we become insensitive to those we lead. We can also become too aggressive in promoting our “vision” of how the church should be organized. We can be so focused on results that we do inadvertent damage to those we lead.

The challenge to those of us who are being lead is to avoid getting frustrated by our church leaders. We should remember that Jesus is the ultimate leader who will build “his church” (Matt 16:18). Our challenge is to exercise trust in Christ which results in submission to the leaders that he has put in place.

Jesus submitted himself to the leaders of his day even though they were misguided and corrupt. He spoke truth to them, but he also submitted to them. After the fact, we know that this was all part of God’s plan to bring salvation through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. But still, he worked within the system.

I often demonstrate a lack of faith in Christ by struggling to submit in the way that Jesus did. Can I work within a structure that I perceive to be less than optimal, perhaps even under a leader who drives an agenda that I do not fully understand or do not fully agree with?

Jesus did it. And this morning it strikes me that I should also be willing to follow Jesus’ example.

Think about it, our leaders are human. They struggle with the same pride and insecurity that we struggle with. They are made of the same stuff that we are. And keep in mind that it is likely that we would not do any better if the roles were reversed.

The temptation as followers is to use the same tactics that we disapprove of in our leaders. We threaten to leave for another church (with equally flawed leaders) or we work with a coalition of those who think like us to manipulate the leader(s) into our way of thinking.

Remember what Jesus told us about the log and speck (Matt. 7:3). If I threaten or manipulate, I ignore the log in my own eye while pointing out the speck in the leader’s eye.

I offer two challenges:

  1. Leaders need to compare their leadership style to Jesus’ leadership style. Jesus never manipulated or threatened his followers. Neither did he force his followers into particular behavior. He simply spoke the truth, loved them when they failed, and served them even when they were not understanding what he was trying to teach them. Jesus understood that the mind cannot go where the heart is not prepared to go. Threats and manipulation only bring short term, external change.
  2. Followers need to understand that all church structures and church leaders will have inconsistencies and problems. There is no pool of perfect people from which to draw our leaders. They are flawed like we are and they are in need of Grace. There is no perfect church structure because there are no perfect people to populate the org chart.

The bottom line is that we all (leaders and followers) need to look first to Jesus and be guided by him. If we are guided into a particular church by Jesus, we can then serve Jesus in that church no matter what may happen with the leadership.

If we take our eyes off of Jesus and focus on our leader(s), we will always be disappointed and disgruntled.

Prayer: The Best Way to Keep Your Mental Health

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This is a guest post by Patrick Bailey. If you would like to submit a guest post, please review the guest post guidelines. Contact me if you can work within those guidelines.

Awareness of mental health disorders has been growing for quite some time. We see more people—celebrities and politicians as well as friends and neighbors—coming out of the darkness to speak about their depression, anxiety, or other internal struggles that they have kept hidden for years.

Rather than rare, the latest statistics indicate that one in five Americans suffers from some form of mental illness in a given year. About half of them also have a substance abuse issue, a co-occurring disorder known as a dual diagnosis.

Mental health problems can be debilitating to a person’s life, to how they manage relationships with others, and it can even be a strong factor if a person thinks their life is worth living. There are many ways to get support for mental health, such as counseling, support groups, therapies, and dual diagnosis rehabilitation centers.

One powerful tool that should not be overlooked is prayer. Whether you are a Christian or not, prayer is an effective tool to find peace even in times of solitude. While it would be foolhardy to expect to cure mental illness or drug addiction purely through petitioning the Lord, it can be an important part of the overall treatment plan.

How can prayer help in my mental health?

1. Prayer works. The power of prayer, the Bible tells us, is that it is a direct communication to God: “And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:15, ESV). As long as our hearts are pure about our prayers, and we are sincere about what we are asking for, God is ready to listen and help us.

This does not mean that God will answer our prayers right away, or that his answer won’t be “No”. However, God can give us the peace we need in order to overcome any challenges that may come our way. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7, ESV).

2. Prayer can communicate things we cannot express in words. Are you at a low point in your life where no words seem suffice to express your feelingsof grief, despair, or hopelessness? Prayer offers the opportunity to seek comfort in God. Prayer need not use words. Sometimes, even a cry or sitting in silence while asking God for help will do.

If you have surrendered your life to Jesus and consider him your Lord and Savior, he gives you his helper called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit intervenes for us and helps us communicate to God what we cannot put in words. Romans 8:26 (ESV) says: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

3. Prayer helps relieve anxiety. Often, we are anxious about the things that go on in our lives. Whether there is a loss, a sudden change, or just the constant bombardment of difficulties, our hearts and minds can be overwhelmed and we long for peace.

God, however, does not want us to carry these burdens on our own. In fact, He invites us to surrender our anxieties to him—whether big or small. There is nothing too small or large that you can’t present to God, even mental illness or substance abuse. He invites us to cast all our burdens on him: “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7, ESV).

Connect with God and find peace through prayer

Prayer does wonders, not only for your mental health but also for the enrichment of your life. If you don’t know how to start, simply come to God as if you were talking to a friend. With an open and sincere heart, he is listening and he cares. Find peace through prayer and make it a habit to communicate with God daily.

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