prayer coach

image courtesy of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

I have been reading Prince Caspian to my daughter and came away with a beautiful analogy on the fear of God. The fear of God has always been a tough concept for me to comprehend. How does fear and love coincide?

Like many I was taught that the fear discussed in the Bible referred more to an awe of God. While this helped ease my tensions about God’s love, I still had a hard time believing that was all it meant. Whenever people encountered the Lord, they always fell face down to the ground (Joshua 5:14, Ezekiel 1:28, Matthew 17:5-7, John 1:17). Gideon fear his life because he only recognized he encountered the Lord afterwards and had looked on the Lord face to face (Judges 6:22).

The image in Prince Caspian comes right after the children had made a long detour trying to get to Caspian. There is a small hint of this in the movie, but the book brings it out in more detail. Lucy had seen Aslan before the detour, but could not convince the others to believe her. In the end they made a long trek in the wrong direction.

When the children started back in the right direction, Lucy sees Aslan again. As they talk we find out that Aslan had wanted her to follow him even if the others had not. Lucy had feared the opinions of her siblings over what Aslan wanted her to do.

Here is the definition for the fear of God: to care more about what God thinks than anyone else.

The fear comes in the disappointment of hurting the one you love so much. Susan expressing this when she admits that Lucy had been right about Aslan. She said she could have had believe Lucy from the beginning but she listened to her fears. As she apologized to Lucy, she expressed anxiety of what she would say to Aslan.

images courtesy of Getty images

Christians are not new to professional athletics, but with first Tebow and now Lin, you would get the impression that this is a new trend. Still Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin are similar in how they came in mid-stream and provided a needed spark to their respective teams. Both have weaknesses in their games that cause people to doubt them – passing for Tebow and turnovers for Lin. Ultimately, it is their quick thanksgiving to God for their opportunities that have linked the two together.

With the recent explosion of Jeremy Lin just after Tim Tebow’s rise a couple months ago, I have started wondering what God is up to. Is he media playing these two’s stories up because they know it will sell? Or is God trying to get our attention?

Since God is always trying to get our attention, I will choose that is what is going on here too. Therefore, what is God trying to say? Here is a list of possibilities:

1. Confidence is not pride. Both of these men are good at what they do. Tebow met with fans before each game using his platform to bless others. Lin has just started to shine, but he easily dishes out praise to his teammates building up the people around him. Pride is all about what you can get for yourself. Confidence is knowing what you have to strengthen those around you.
• Christians have too often been afraid of confidence for fear of being prideful.
2. Your biggest limitation is how you view yourself. Both have been criticized for what they lacked. Both had been overlooked in their positions. And yet, both prevailed when given the opportunity. They didn’t let the views of others hold them back. They believed in themselves and were ready when the time came.

image courtesy of interrobang

How long do you have to confess and feel the guilt of your sin before you feel accepted? We all know this feeling of uncleanliness before the Lord. It’s that “yuck” feeling that’s a mixture of shame and disgust. We instinctively feel that we need to get ourselves right before we can go to God in prayer. Is this from God? If it is, when are we ready to appear before Him?

I was thinking this the other day in regards to the way approach sharing our faith. Too much of it comes across as stop sinning so that God can love you. It’s like God’s holiness keeps his affection for us in check. As if is in heaven God saying if I can just clean this person up there is someone in there I can love.

Sin still has a powerful effect in the world, but we have mis-applied where the issue belongs. When we sin it makes us feel separated from God because we no longer live up to His holiness. Our separation causes us to either hide our mess or ourselves from God. Although we may feel this way, when we sin God does not see it on those of us hidden in Christ. The wages of that sin has been paid.

Allow people to come to Jesus. The cross is more than sufficient for anything they bring with them. He knows if they are sleeping around, stealing from their company, or looking at porn. That doesn’t stop Him from loving them.

As parents we send our kids to their room when they’re bad because we believe that sin requires separation. That is not true. Sin causes separation. Our kids feel it when they are aware of doing something wrong. They hide. They look down. The become unsure. Our goal as parents is to bring them back into fellowship. Our goal in witnessing is to bring people back into fellowship with God.

Saturday as I was checking online for the scores of my college team, crying came from the other room. My wife was using this “play by yourself” time to catch up on some needed work. I was first to respond to the scene. Our youngest was under the covers of our bed crying with our oldest sitting over her saying she was sorry. Time to open the investigation.

It turned out that the oldest wanted the youngest to do something. When she couldn’t do it, the oldest bit her twice.

Naturally concern and attention went to the youngest. Hold her. Comfort her. Make her feel safe.

Once she settled down, I dropped her off with mom for some extra attention and turned my attention toward the oldest. What am I to do? They are sisters. I can’t permanently remove them from each other. I love them both. Sure I will discipline the oldest, but I also don’t want to crush her spirit.

Can you imagine this is what God does day in and day out. He has a huge heart of love for each person—those that are mean and do evil things and those that have evil things done to them. He is able to go to the child who has been molested to give comfort healing and peace. He is also just as able to go to the child molester and calmed their storm and give forgiveness. Somehow while maintaining justice, God can love the one without hating the other.

Corrie ten Boom was a victim of the evil concentration camps in Nazi Germany. After the war, she was in a church in Munich telling the story of the forgiving God. At the end of her sermon, a guard from her concentration camp came forward. Recognizing him, fear and pain once again gripped her heart. He introduced himself and asked to hear her say she forgave him.

image courtesy of the Jesus Film

I have been thinking again about the theme of love and fear. Jesus was the perfect representation of God on earth (Hebrews 1:3). He was perfect love, and perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). Think through the life of Jesus. Was He ever afraid?

• While in the desert during a 40-day fast, Jesus had a personal encounter with Satan.
• Several times, Jesus heard the audible voice of God.
• After a short sermon in His home church, the people tried to stone Him.
• When faced with 5,000 hungry people and little resources, He proceeded to feed them.
• In the midst of two terrible storms at sea, he sleeps through one and walks on the water in the other.
• The religious leaders throw a woman they caught in adultery in front of Jesus and demanded His response.
• After a long night wrestling in prayer, soldiers come to take Him to His death.
• Jesus subjected Himself to lies, mockings, beatings, and torture.
• Before going back to heaven, He leaves His ministry to a bunch of guys who a few weeks earlier all abandoned Him.

During each of this situations, Jesus showed no fear. How did He do it? I think to answer this question, we need to know how He continued to love since love casts out fear. The story where Jesus washes the disciples’ feet provides this for us. It begins with Jesus wanting to show the full extend of His love. The passage says that Jesus had a firm grasp on His identity, power, and purpose. And, it was out of this that He then washed their feet.

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. – Luke 2:40

I have grown up in the faith being taught and believing that grace is the unmerited favor of God for believers. Since mercy is not getting something your deserve, then grace is getting something you don’t deserve. And where this makes definitions easy to remember, they cannot be right. If they are, then Jesus would have no need for grace. Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly. Therefore, Jesus would have merited and deserved blessings from God.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! – Romans 5:15

Grace was manifested in Jesus’ life and ministry and then distributed to us who believe. Where the death passed down by Adam gave us the power to sin, grace was passed down by Jesus giving us the ability to live in life. It is the power to live to God’s standard. Grace came through Jesus, came on the disciples, provided by God, and we can grow in it (references: John 1:17, Acts 4:33, 2 Corinthians 1:2, and 2 Peter 3:18).

The question should then be, how do we grow in grace? We need to love it, treasure it, pursue it, and give it away. God supplies what we need for all our circumstances.

• Don’t miss any prayer blog post. Sign up to have them emailed directly to you.

Down in you heart there is a temple
Come and kneel before its throne
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know

Pursuing the heart of God is a goal of all believers. What is it that pleases Him? What is it about us that He likes? What makes God tick? This is not a pursuit so we can put Him in a box, but it is so we can be more intimate with the One who loves us.

A person’s heart is not only the place where all the blood circulates from, it is the source of all life for that person – physical, emotional, and spiritual. To understand the heart of God is to make sense of all of life. Why did He create everything? Why He lets us have free-will to sin?

The good news is God wants to reveal His heart to us. The access point to knowing the heart of God is through our hearts. God is looking for intimate lovers and friends. He will give us as much of His heart as we give Him ours. He may give a little more than we give, but that is His attempt to entice us to share more of ourselves with Him. Therefore we hit a roadblock with God when we don’t know what is in our hearts.

The degree with which we don’t know our own heart is the degree that we will be hindered in knowing God’s.

This Sunday is Father’s Day, which is a natural time to think about the importance of our dads. In my family this has actually been a topic of discussion for awhile. When my wife’s parents divorced in her early teens, her father went MIA for many years. As she goes through healing of the hurts this caused her, we are learning together more deeply why we need a father.

1. Provision

It is the role of the father to make sure the family has what they need. He is responsible for making sure there is food on the table, the family has a place to lay their heads, and everyone has clothes on their backs. The father is the one who tears down any worry about needs being met.

2. Protection

The father projects security to his children. He makes the home and thus the world a safe place. Fear is rejected in the father’s presence.

3. Play

The father is the tickler. He makes the family laugh. He teaches that the world is to be enjoyed, and that you are enjoyable.

4. Purpose

The father speaks life into his children. He lets them know they are important and significant. He calls them to something bigger than themselves. He gives them the challenge to make a difference in the world, as he has made a difference in their world.

5. Support

Not only does the father call you into greatness, but he believes you have what it takes for greatness. In fact, he knows you can do it. He prepares you as an overcomer and sets you up for success.

I know many of you did not have a father like this, but you have a Heavenly Father who is all these perfectly. Our earthly father can enhance our view of God the Father, and God can redeem all that our earthly fathers lacked.