chaos

Move, Mountain! (Prayer Devotional for the week of Sept. 7, 2014)

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A couple of times in the book of Matthew, Jesus used a mountain as an illustration for his disciples’ faith. In chapter 17:20, he says that with a small dose of faith, you can instruct a mountain to move from one place to another. Later in chapter 21:21, he makes a similar reference to telling a mountain to throw itself into the ocean. Whenever I’ve heard sermons on these verses, the gist is always about trusting the Lord and putting our faith in him.

That’s all well and good, but now that I am surrounded by mountains everywhere I turn, I have a greater appreciation for just how much effort it would take to relocate one of those enormous piles of rock. I realized that mountains can be moved by one of three ways: explosion, erosion, and effort.

Driving through a mountain is a beautiful experience, but sometimes I wonder how much TNT went into blowing a hole into the mountain in order to build a road. When God does a mountain-moving work in our lives, it can feel chaotic and uncomfortable. Sometimes, it seems downright explosive, as we are compelled to make serious and swift changes to correct sin in our lives.

On other occasions, God’s handiwork is slow and deliberate, like the way wind and water carve their way through rock formations. Similarly, our old self erodes away as we grow closer to Christ. I think this might be what Paul meant in Philippians 2:12-13 when he talked about “working out” our salvation. Our decision to follow Jesus is a one-time deal, but becoming more and more like him takes the rest of our lives.

Lastly, it seems like sometimes when we ask God to move mountains in our lives, he hands us a pickaxe and says to get to work! Moving mountains can require a lot of effort on our part. Yes, God is almighty, and yes, he could make the mountain move effortlessly, but the learning experience and character building is for our benefit when we get our hands dirty with work.

Radio Static (Prayer Devotional for the week of August 3, 2014)

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There is a stretch of about 4-5 blocks along my morning commute where the radio turns to static. I don’t know what causes the interference, but invariably, I’ll be driving along and suddenly lose my music in the same spot every day. I usually just turn off the radio, but one morning I left it on because I knew that the static wouldn’t last very long. It was interesting how I could still make out the song behind the garbled airwaves. It was difficult to understand and rather annoying, but I could still hear it.

Isn’t that how our spiritual lives are, sometimes? We go through patches that feel like static – nothing seems to be getting through during our prayer time, and the background noise feels overwhelming. And yet, if we concentrate, we can still listen amid the chaos.

One of my kids is dealing with a lot of static right now; in fact, he’s been handed more chaos in his young life than many adults I know could cope with. Sometimes the static makes it difficult to make good choices, and he feels overwhelmed. We sat together one evening and talked about prayer as a way to help him make better decisions, a way to cut through the distractions and temptations. We talked about James 4:7, which says that when you take a stand against Satan, he runs away like a coward. We also talked about Philippians 2:9-10 that tells us the name of Jesus is so powerful that every creature in heaven and earth must bow to his authority.

Guess what, friends? Satan is a big loser, The End. I’ve read the last chapter, and I know that Christ conquers! But what do sore losers do? They try to drag others down with them, don’t they? Satan wants us to feel overwhelmed by life’s static. He wants us to get distracted from our faith-walk and lose sight of God in the midst of the chaos.

Yet, through our faith in Christ, we have the mightiest weapon of all in our arsenal: the name of Jesus. When you don’t know what else to say, where else to turn, where to even begin, call out to Jesus. Say his name aloud, in bold defiance of the enemy that seeks to devour you (1 Peter 5:8). Cry out to him in the quietness of your heart (Psalm 34:17-18). Then listen for his voice through the static.