Don’t Pray for Patience

I have said this in different contexts, so I feel obligated to mention here on the new blog.  I was talking to our men’s group Wednesday morning.  We are still working our way through the Fruit of the Spirit.  That morning we talked about patience, kindness and goodness.

Here is the trap that we fall into.  We think that we want to be more patient, and we recognize that we need God’s help.  So we pray for God to help us become more patient.  Here is the problem.  The way that God teaches us patience is to put us into situations that call for patience.  Who wants that?  Who wants to be put in frustrating situations?

Here’s the reality.  Life is full of such situations whether or not you are praying for patience or not.  We just become more aware of them as God is putting our need for patience in the front of our minds and hearts.  (All it takes for me is missing a stop light or someone in front of met to go 2 miles under the speed limit in front of me.)  Honestly, there are few traits I need more in my life than patience. I wish that my first responses to what life throws out was grace, kindness and calm. What a difference that would make in my life, my family, my church, etc.  So despite all of the advice that I have given over the years, I am now praying for patience. I’ll keep you all posted.

Joy–conditional or unconditional happiness

This morning at our men’s group, we talked about joy.  I said that the simple man’s definition of joy is extreme happiness.  I said this knowing that it would raise some eyebrows.  We are told that there is a difference between joy and happiness.  Happiness depends on circumstances, and joy does not.  I understand why people say that and this may be splitting hairs, but bear with me.

Biblical joy is based on your circumstances, primarily one circumstance in particular.  God has forgiven us and given us eternal life with Him.  His Spirit lives inside of us and empowers us.  He is changing and redeeming us, day by day.  That is the circumstance that we find ourselves in as Christ-followers–an incredible circumstance.  That should bring us joy.  It is not that joy is not circumstantial, it is that the one circumstance is so overwhelming and incredible, no other circumstances can compare.

If I were to win a million dollars and then 5 minutes later discover that a five dollar bill had fallen out of my pocket, would that rob me of the joy I felt from winning the million?  I would like to think that it wouldn’t.  In the same way, what can rob us of the joy of knowing that God is redeeming us, has saved us and that we will have billions and billions of years to experience his presence fully?  Can the ups of downs of day-to-day life?  Can the worst that life has to offer rob us of our joy?  It shouldn’t, if our hearts are focused on the intense joy that comes from knowing God.

Before anyone thinks that I am getting too preachy, here me say this, I am giving this lesson primarily to me.  Whether you are impacted by this or not, I need to write it and then read it and then read it again.  The routine ups and downs of my day greatly effect me.  My joy is typically determined by what has happened in the last 30 minutes, not by what God has done and is doing for me.  My hope and prayer is that I can live out what Peter proclaims here:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious JOY (emphasis added), for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I Peter 1:7-9

“But Hate is Such a Strong Word” (video)

Lord, how many times should I forgive?

Recently in a sermon, I was preaching on forgiveness.  I was fairly strong in the statements I made about the limits we put on forgiveness.  You can see that sermon here:  http://www.cloften.com/?cat=37 In some circles that has caused quite a stir.  We don’t want to have to forgive everyone for everything, especially if they have hurt us repeatedly or deeply.  “You can only hurt me so many times” and “Well, I can’t forgive that.” is what we say.  However, there appear to be no limits on what and who we are to forgive.  I am reminded of this, because I was reading in Matthew 18 today.

In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells a story about a man who owes the king 10,000 talents, the equivalent of millions of dollars.  In today’s money, that would be roughly 1 cagillion-babillion dollars.  It is an unreasonable amount of money.  It is such an outrageous amount of money that it makes the story bizarre.  Why would the king let such a debt run up? Why on earth would the king forgive such a debt?  Yet this is how Jesus describes our situation before God.  Our sin has run a cagillion-babillion dollar debt and he has forgiven us.

The servant after having his debt forgiven, then comes across someone who owes him a few dollars.  Rather than showing parallel mercy, he has that guy thrown in jail.  Again, this is absurd.  If the bank calls me and tells me they are getting rid of my mortgage and then I see someone who owes me $10,  I’m thinking, “no big deal.  I will make it up 100 times over after the first time I miss my mortgage payment.”  At least I would like to think that I would.  In fact, we do not forgive this way.  God has forgiven us of our sins which are great and we turn around and hold huge grudges for significantly smaller offenses.

Why do we do this?  One of two things (or both) are true.  First, we do not believe that our sin has truly run up a cagillion-babillion dollar debt (I believe this is the first blog post in history to use the word cagillion-babillion 3, now 4 times).  We think that God has only forgiven us a little.  Second, we don’t believe that by comparison people offending us represents just a few dollars.  Hurting me must be a lot of money, simply becomes I am just that important.  If you accidentally cut me off in traffic, that’s at least $10,000, isn’t it?  I mean you delayed me getting to where I’m going by at least half a second.  If you gossip about me and hurt my feelings, that’s off the chart.  At least that is what we believe.  However, by comparison, people’s sin against us are small compared to ours against God.  Do we believe that?

What are you holding on to? What grudge do you have? Whom have you not forgiven? Remember how God has forgiven you, celebrate that forgiveness and then forgive as God has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)

The Generosity of Fellowship Cabot

I am proud to be a member of Fellowship Cabot. Forget about that I work there for a second.  I am proud to be a member there to worship with such great people.  On the weekend of November 14th and 15th, CASA asked us to adopt 20 kids in foster care for Christmas.  We adopted 40.  At the same time we raised $800 for Autism research thanks to Jack Ratliff.  The next weekend (Nov. 21st and 22nd) we raised $700 for turkeys for Mannafest Blessings to give out for Thanksgiving.  This was during a week where so many people went to help another ministry, Hope’s Closet, make food baskets for people for Thanksgiving.  Way to go, Fellowship Cabot. 

Did I mention that both of those food ministries are ministries of other local churches in town?  That’s a praise for you guys for another day.  It doesn’t matter who gets the glory as long as God gets the glory and lives are being changed.

Who you are not what you do.

I met with a group of guys this morning. We are meeting every Wednesday morning. We call it a leadership class, but it is not what you would necessarily expect from a leadership class. We have spent the entire fall talking about our spiritual life and how that provides the foundation for everything in our lives. Our relationship with God is not a piece of our lives but it is the driver for everything in our lives.

Anyway, we have been looking at Galatians 5 for the last couple of weeks. What I was struck by today is what Paul describes as the “fruit of the Spirit.” What he says next is what Paul believes is the primary evidence/result of God’s Spirit in our lives. He could have said anything: “The fruit of the Spirit is church attendance, serving, tithing . . .” “The fruit of the Spirit is working soup kitchens, feeding the poor, . . .” The fruit of the Spirit is not stealing, not drinking, not having sex outside of marriage. . .” “The fruit of the Spirit is speaking in tongues, performing miracles, healing, . . .”

All of those things are things that we do, but the result of God’s Spirit in us is who we are. God is interested in transforming our character, not in simply altering our behavior. It is when God changes our character that then our behavior really changes. Our behavior does not change our character.

(Expect more on this)

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