prayer coach

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.

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“The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” – 1 Kings 19:11-12

There are so many people hungry to hear the voice of God, desperate for something to bring understanding to their situations. Unfortunately all they hear is the tormenting self-hatred and condemning thoughts that send them into fear and paralysis. Why can’t God speak up and silence these negative thoughts?

It is out of His mercy on us that God speaks in a still, small voice.

First of all, God is looking for people to love Him. Satan is looking for people to obey him. That is one reason their tactics are different (among many other reasons). Since the devil is doing whatever he can to get obedience, he will yell and scream to get your attention. He will make his thoughts so loud that they fell like your own. He is wanting to discourage you and lead you into despair.

On the other hand, God’s main goal is love. He wants to get you to press into Him, seek Him out. God respects your will. Therefore He is not trying to force you to do anything. He is not anti-obedience, but He wants you to choose to obey. His words give life, hope, peace, and joy.

image design modified from Paul Carlson’s original.

We know that perfect love casts out all fear since there is no fear in love (1 John 4:18). But, one thing I have not thought much about is that fear casts out love. If we bring fear into the equation, love is going to leave. I have been thinking about with regards to my parenting. Whenever I discipline one of my daughters about something they are doing wrong and when it brings about fear in them, love will be driven out. What a scary proposition!

I love my daughters very much, and the thought of driving out love in them is not anything I want to entertain. One of the reasons most kids rebel during their teenage years is that the same methods that installed fear in them are not as much a factor anymore. But those motivated by love will continue to obey.

This is what God would like to get to with His children. If you love me, you will obey what I have commanded (John 14:23). Fear is not a motivator in God’s kingdom. He does not threaten us with hell though it is a real place. He does not coerce us to follow because of potential bad things that would happen otherwise. There is no fear in love. God is perfect love, therefore He cannot motivate with fear.

We need to receive a constant in-filling of His love that no fear will be in us. Then we will not be able to give fear to anyone else.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

The collective wisdom of the church wanted people to know that God is more ready to hear us than we are to pray and that He is willing to give more than we ask or deserve. What an encouragement about the graciousness of our heavenly Father. Too often we get caught up with our sin and think it presumptuous to ask anything of God. But we need to see Him as a good Father who loves to give good gifts (James 1:17). He is not waiting for you to prove yourself, but there are cases where we don’t have because we don’t ask (James 4:2).

Do not doubt whether you deserve something from God. You may have lung cancer because you smoke. You may be bankrupt because of poor decisions with your credit card purchases. You may have an STD because of promiscuity. You may suffer with guilt because of what you have done to someone else. Do you think this disqualifies you from a touch from God?

All sin has been punished at the cross (Colossians 2:13-14). God has no more anger for sin (Romans 8:1). You may be suffering consequences to poor decisions, but you may still go to your Father to receive mercy. Mercy is the interruption of the law of sowing and reaping, and it is readily available to you. How many of you would bail your child out of jail after they were caught drinking and driving? God sends the rain on the just and unjust. He is not looking to punish but to bless.

I just finished reading The Shack by William Paul Young and highly recommend it to anyone. The story does a great job getting past our preconceived ideas about God and challenges the lies that we believe about Him. (see our blog post on We Love Because God First Loved Us).

The story follows the character Mack through his struggle with coming to grips with a loving God and deep tragedy. As with any good book, it begins with setting the stage. This may be hard for some to read – for those who emotionally connect with stories like me. But, this beginning is necessary to understand the depths of struggle Mack will have later on trying to balance the anger he feels and the emotions he feels are being asked of him.

The unhealed pain and unresolved issues of our lives h

ave a tendency to feed lies into our hearts about ourselves and/or about God. These lies often live deep within our hearts which we keep safely hidden from others because we intellectually know they do not match the words of truth in Scripture. Unfortunately while we can keep them hidden from everyday thought, when push comes to shove we act out of those lies.

• God will not provide for me, so I spend more time away from my family to provide for them.
• I will never be free of this addiction, so I will never share it with anyone else.
• God will not take care of me, so I will live in fear of potential tragedies.
• I will never be able to manage my emotions, so I distant myself from other in order not to hurt them.
• God does not really care about me, so I manage the hurt of my life myself.

Screenshot from the Jesus Film

Lately I have been hearing many people ask in prayer that God not give them what they deserve. While I know what they mean when they prayed this, something did not sit well with me. What I assume people are meaning with this statement is, “Lord, we see sin in our own lives and we know that you are holy. Your justice demands punishment. Do not punish us.” This sounds humble and contrite, but it is a lie from the enemy to keep us from having confidence as we approach God.

Here is what I mean. Look at the picture above. Who is on the cross? Jesus. What was He doing there? Paying the penalty for our sins. Does he have to go again to the cross? No. I’m sorry for the simple logic, but it is important to get us to know that there is no more judgment left for us. When we placed our lives in Christ, we exchanged our lives for His. All of the negative behaviors, thoughts, and attitudes were placed with Christ on the cross. They are forever taken care of. Therefore, we have no more fear of condemnation or judgment of sins (Romans 8:1). We can now boldly enter the throne room of God with confidence because we are now hidden in Christ (Hebrews 4:16).

AND, all of the blessings that are for Christ are also bestowed on us. We are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Now then, what do we who are in Christ deserve? We deserve all rights and privileges that are set aside for the sons and daughters of promise. He who has given us His only Son, will He not also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)!!!