One of the things about the Christian life that I have had the most difficulty with is fully appreciating my identity in Christ and the implications of that identity.

I have nearly completed my sixth decade of life, all but five years of it as a believer, yet I find myself trying to earn the approval of both God and the people around me. I need to transition from trying to earn God’s approval to responding to the love and acceptance that I already have. Rather than trying to be an initiator, I need to be a responder.

In the case of God, my head knows that he already approves of me. I do not need to earn his love. By doing so, I am trying to earn what I already possess.

In the case of the people around me, it is a fools errand to try to please them due to a combination of my propensity to failure and their own similar struggles. My experience is (John Lydgate not withstanding) that I can’t please some of the people all of the time. I can’t even please myself all of the time.

Yet, I am reminded that while I do not need to earn God’s approval, my life goes better when I am obedient to what he calls me to do. While I cannot earn God’s love, nor earn my salvation, I can act in such a way that brings pleasure to God. In the parable of the talents, Jesus enjoins us to faithfulness so that in the end we hear “Well done, good and faithful slave . . .” (Matthew 25:21).

But I find this complicated by the distractions both within and around me. My life has been a process of transitioning from being a man-pleaser to being first and foremost a God-pleaser. I feel that I should be so much farther along than I am in making this transition.

I am very good at making excuses for my lack of progress. I might blame it on personality (indirectly blaming it on God who made me), I might blame the way I was brought up or I might blame it on the people in my life. While these often make it more difficult, they are not the reason for my lack of progress.

My lack of progress in making this transition is due to my pride. I want to be in charge. I want to earn what I am given. I want to be admired for what I have done. I want to finally conquer the lingering feelings of inadequacy through hard work and determination. I. I. I. I ad infinitum.

My only hope is what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:4-7:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (ESV)

I should follow God’s advice and cease striving and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10) and let him do the work that only he can do.

In the culture around me, there is a constant focus on results. For our sports teams, it is not enough to play well, the focus is on winning the championship. You may have heard the statement, “second place is just first loser.”

In the large city near me, all four professional sports teams are currently toward the bottom of their respective leagues. As a result, they are “rebuilding” and their management personnel constantly encourage the fan base to “trust the process.” They are pleading for patience from their fans because the fan base is conditioned to believe that winning the championship is the only acceptable result.

The same urgency to see results carries over into the church. It is tempting for church leaders to look for the newest technique for getting more people into their services. Delegations are sent to growing churches to see how that growth can be emulated in other congregations. We want to see results to validate that we are doing the right thing.

It is right to want more people sitting under the preaching of the gospel. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to learn from others. But the danger is that we can lose focus on what real spiritual growth looks like and we lose sight of who causes that growth.

I recently heard an interview with Timothy Keller where he made a reference to Elijah building an altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20 ff). His point was that Elijah was faithful to build the altar and God was faithful to send the fire. Elijah could not directly cause the fire to come down. God did not send the fire before the altar was built.

From this story, we learn that we are called to be faithful to do what God has called us to do. Having done this, we can trust God to bring about the result that he desires.

Here are a few suggestions about how we can “prepare the altar” in the same way Elijah did:

• Regularly read your Bible while asking God to show you what you need to learn from your reading
• Regularly pray – The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 shows us the balance between inward and outward focused petition
• Study the Bible with other believers with the focus on transformation rather than just information
• Volunteer to serve at your local church or community group – make yourself available to be used by God

By doing the things that God calls us to do, we are then in a position to be used by him to accomplish is purpose.

Also, we must see where our responsibility ends and where we need to trust God for the rest. Failure to define that point will lead to frustration and exhaustion. Paul made such a distinction when he wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

If you have any other ideas about how we can “build the altar” please add them using the comment form below.

In the United States, there is a political divide that is palpable. Left and right spend little time in real dialog and a lot of time shouting across the divide. Sadly, the church has not been unaffected by the rancor.

It may be hard for you to get your head around the fact that you may go to church with people that voted for the other candidate, the one that you strenuously opposed. You might be tempted to doubt the sincerity of the faith of someone who voted against who you think was the better candidate.

Perhaps Paul offers us an antidote in the verses quoted below.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4, ESV)

We are to pray for “all people”, even that candidate that is so disagreeable to you. We are to pray for those who voted differently that we did. We are to pray for our elected officials even if we did not support their candidacy and especially if we disagree with their political agenda.

It is so easy to get caught up in the labeling of other people. Adjectives like liberal, conservative, progressive, left-wing, right-wing, etc. carry so much baggage, always oversimplify and are not very helpful. The fact that I have encountered this type of rhetoric in the church is lamentable.

In the church, we must keep in mind that we are not called to support a political agenda. Our agenda should be defined by the command to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We may disagree on what the government should be doing with regard to any number of issues, but every Christian should agree that the government is limited in how much good it can do.

The government is limited in how much good it can do because it can only alleviate some of the symptoms of what is wrong with the world. But one does not cure the disease by seeking relief from the symptoms. To cure what is wrong, the disease itself must be attacked and conquered. It is only the Gospel of Jesus Christ that can transform a heart. And heart transformation is the only thing that will begin to address the problems we see around us.

Rather than getting all worked up about your Christian brother who has a different idea about what the government should or should not be doing, why not offer to pray with him. If you are both believers, what you have in common should be so much more powerful than the issues over which you might divide.

By praying together, you will stop seeing your brother as the enemy and become unified in confronting the real Enemy.

I must confess that I am sometimes intimidated about praying in a church gathering such as a prayer meeting or small group. My brain is not wired to call up Old Testament images about restoring what the locusts have eaten or calling down mighty angels. These references make those adept at praying sound so . . . so . . . spiritual and powerful.

I am not poking fun at them, I really am impressed with some people’s ability to think of these things to spice up their prayer. Such eloquence is a gift, it just happens to be a gift that I do not possess.

But some encouragement came to me during a recent reading of Exodus 5.

That chapter records that Pharaoh increased the workload on the Israelites as a result of Moses’ request to let the people of Israel celebrate a feast to God. The Israelites, in turn, confronted Moses blaming him for the increased hardship.

Moses then brings this to God. Notice the language of his prayer:

“O Lord, why have you brought harm to this people? Whey did you ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to this people and you have not delivered your people at all.” – Exodus 5:22-23

That prayer contains no flowery language. It is short and honest. Moses asks the questions that are on his heart and tells God why he is asking. There is no hiding behind excess words here. Moses comes to God and directly tells him what is on his mind.

This encourages me that prayer does not need to be eloquent to be effective. It is OK to come directly to the point. It is OK to be honest and straight-forward.

I suppose the lesson is that there is no best way to pray. The important thing is to do it.