Disappointments. Pt II.

     Hindrances

    Sometimes people hope and pray for things, and its right we do so, because only the Lord can help us with our request. But what if the answer comes back as ‘no’ - ‘no, I have plans for you that you don’t know yet. But that thing you are hoping for will not come to pass. Yet, will you still follow me?’ This was the case with C.S. Lewis. He prayed his mother might live, but she didn’t. So his faith was hindered by the unanswered prayer.
    We may think, prayer doesn’t work. But the truth is, it’s not prayer that doesn’t work, it's simply that God quite often says no. Those of us with children will know how often we say no to our children, yet it does not mean we don’t love them. We need to be aware that unanswered prayers can hinder us, because the thing we want is very precious to us. But it seems to me that the Lord deliberately doesn’t respond to our petitions on many occasions, and this might be because he’s teaching us to trust him, or he’s testing our faith to see if we’ll stay close to him even in adversity (because he does not want fair-weather friends), or even because he’s disciplining us, because we have not yet learnt a valuable lesson.
    Unanswered prayers are often disappointing. Sometimes though, we are grateful, in hindsight, that prayers have not been answered. And it is certainly true that unanswered prayers and various disappointments in life can do one thing that answered prayers can never do. They give us an opportunity to show God we will trust him even in disappointment.

    Hopes
    What might we hope for, in the face of disappointments? How do we overcome the disappointment of a lost friendship, or relationship, or an unrealised goal? Looking at the big picture - Firstly, lets remember our purpose in life is to bring glory to God, not for some other reason. It is easy to take the good gifts that God has given us, and accidentally turn them into idols. A good wife is from the Lord, but it's not difficult for a man to start living for his wife instead of for God. It’s worth thinking carefully about how we glorify him amidst disappointments.
    Has God allowed a disappointment to happen because we have wandered off the path and started desiring something more than we should do? Often the thing we hope for, we want, is because we feel it will give us some status and some identity. When I was a teenager I failed to make the First XV rugby squad. I was very disappointed. But why did I want to be in the team? It was for the prestige. If someone had come alongside me and said ‘you know what Ian, it doesn’t matter that you’re not in the team. God still values you and is looking out for you, and it must be the case he has other plans for you — that is why you’ve not made the team this year’ that would have been a big help. When we live for God’s glory, then our disappointments can be used for him. Because its in adversity that our real commitment to God is made clear. One of Israel’s prophets shows us this:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
 I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
(Habakkuk 3.17)

    Habakkuk says he will rejoice in the Lord no matter what. Habakkuk sees the big picture. He lives for God’s glory. And that is, I think, one of the hopes God has for us, when we experience a disappointment.
    Secondly, lets remember that God disciplines his children, and no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but later it produces a harvest of righteousness. In hindsight we can see God working for our good where at the time we did not understand. The lesson is that we are a work of art in God’s hands. Clay in the master potter’s spinning wheel, living stones fashioned by the master mason. Now a work of art may not always be treated kindly, but it is treated lovingly by the artist. The master artist may rub out and restart various times on his life’s work, not because he has made a mistake but because the artwork is not yet what he wants it to be. If we were the painting we might rather the artist didn’t spend so much time on us, but God is not making a sketch for a child, but a work of art. So we may have to start again — getting rid of sins and idols that have crept in unawares. But its God’s hope, or expectation, to make us into the image of Jesus. Clones of Jesus, if you like. 

This happens in space and time, and disappointments may well be part of the creative process.

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In a busy world with many options before you, thanks for taking the time to read this blog. I really appreciate it. Today, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make his face to shine upon you, may he lift you up and give you peace.

Disappointments - Part.I

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.   

 

 The Christian Life certainly has its helps, its hindrances, its hopes and its fears. We all know that disappointments are a part of the life. But what are they? It’s good to remember disappointments are simply unrealised hopes. That’s all they are.

    Three things generally cause disappointments. 

    Situations. 

    People. 

    God. 

    We might as well face it that sometimes Christians feel disappointed by God, generally when our prayers are not answered. The classic Biblical example is Jonah. He was disappointed the Lord did not destroy Nineveh. Was Jonah’s attitude right? No. But he demonstrates human thinking. We do have expectations of the Lord. Here are some people who had their share of disappointments, as recorded in the Bible:
    1 Samuel 8:1-7 - Samuel was disappointed in his sons.
    He was disappointed by the people.
    He’d worked hard at his job, served the Lord, and yet the Israelites did not want him, nor his family, to continue. 

    In 1 Samuel 15:34-35 we learn that Samuel was disappointed by Saul, the one the Lord had told him should be king. But note it, the Lord himself was disappointed in King Saul. 

    Our Lord Jesus appears to have been disappointed by the disciples slowness to learn. He had to rebuke Peter at one point, and on the night of his betrayal he says ‘have I been with you so long Phillip and yet you do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the father.’
    In addition, it appears the Lord was disappointed by mankind in the time of Noah. We can read about this in Genesis 6.6 It's a good lesson to learn that we can cause the Lord disappointments, or, to put it another way, we can disappoint the Lord. Yes, we can let him down.

    Helps - the Lord wants us to learn from our dashed hopes. Firstly, that all human sources of hope and expectation will, at some point, fail. For instance, a congregation may have high hopes of their pastor, but it is inevitable that he will disappoint them at some time. This might be because the hopes are unrealistic or misplaced, or that the thing it is hoped the pastor will do is beyond his power.  
    We may have hopes for our children, and yet inevitably they will disappoint us at some point, just as the children may hope something of their parents, but are disappointed by them. A relative of mine had asked his father for a toy gun for his birthday. The lad’s father bought him a bow and arrow instead. The boy was exceedingly disappointed by his father, and spoke often of this incident, well into his adulthood. But we must learn a lesson from disappointment - firstly, that the only source of true satisfaction will be found in the Lord.
    And when he disappoints us, when we feel he hasn’t answered our prayers, we can be sure that the problem lies in what we hoped and prayed for, and probably in our misunderstanding of what love truly is, and what the Lord’s purposes are.  Because God always knows the best outcome, and gives us opportunities for learning. I know a couple who were married a number of years ago. On the honeymoon, it looked like the wife had fallen pregnant. Her monthly cycle was delayed, first a week late, then two, and she and her husband thought — maybe we’re expecting a baby. But then, it came to pass that obviously she was not pregnant. Whether the baby was lost, or whether it had never actually been conceived they do not know — but they were disappointed. However, they learnt a valuable lesson. That it is foolish to think you can just have children when you want, because Scripture says it is the Lord who opens and closes the womb. So they changed their whole approach from thinking we’ll have child A in this year, and child B in this year, instead they put the whole matter in the Lord’s hands and received children when he gave them. In this way their disappointment helped them, for they learnt a lesson from it.
    Secondly, a disappointment can help us by spurring us on to a new thing that we would never have looked for, had we not been disappointed first. I failed my last semester at Bible College. I was bitterly disappointed, but it was because of that failure that I took up doing a Master’s degree at Exeter University. I was greatly helped by doing that degree, in some senses what I learnt shaped my preaching. It certainly shaped my thinking. But it would not have happened, but for the earlier disappointment....

  Hey, in a busy world where you have many things to do,  thanks for taking the time to read this. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you today.

A Perfect Disciple Shall Be As His Master.

This list is certainly not complete, but I thought I’d write it to show how being a disciple of Jesus is not just a Sunday activity. Here are ten things that Jesus has taught me that has transformed my thinking.

Jesus teaches me:

The importance of rendering to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. (Matthew 22:15-22).

The permanence of marriage (Mark 10:5-9).

The importance of children (Mark 10:12-16).

The deceitfulness of riches and the world’s troubles (Mark 4:18-19).

The need to take drastic action to avoid things which cause a man to sin (Matthew 5:27-30).

That a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15).

That Noah and the Flood was real (Matthew 24:36-39).

That Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights (Matthew 12:39-40).

That God really did make Adam and Eve (Mark 10:5-9).

That we should follow him no matter what the future may (or may not) hold (John 21:22)

Those are just ten things the Lord has taught me. What has he taught you?

In a world with much activity, and many choices before you, thanks for taking the time to read this post.

May the Lord bless you today.

Interruptions are life, not just part of it.

 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
Luke 2

We don’t think of this very often, but truly, government edicts and decisions mess up our lives. This decree from Caesar was no doubt deeply inconvenient to all those affected, including Joseph and Mary. Yet it was through this interruption in their lives that God was working.

You know how it goes. You’ve been planning to do something, you want to spend at least a couple of hours on the project, and then the phone rings, and suddenly your plan is out the window. Always there are interruptions.

This year, I am trying to see that it is through the interruptions that God is moving me into the places he wants me to be. It is through the interruptions that I am able to help the people he wants me to help. Furthermore, he is shaping my character through the interruptions.

Interruptions aren’t part of life - they are where God makes life happen.

Interruptions are life! If I embrace the interruption, I embrace life.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

When the interruptions come today, embrace them. They are God’s gift to you.

Thanks so much for reading this fair. In a world when you could have been doing anything, I really appreciate you took the time to read this.

God ever bless you.

Shepherding and Stewarding

A very sweet girl sold me her flock of 22 sheep last Wednesday, and I went to see them this morning. The flock are in a field which runs down to Ullswater Lake. They have the best view in the world, those sheep, especially today as the Fells were covered in pristine snow. It was beautiful to watch, and peaceful to walk amongst them. Very quiet today, almost no traffic on the road due to the heavy snow.  The drive to the hotel, (to which the field is adjacent), was slippery, and no cars tried to come down it.

On entering the field the sheep (who are very tame) came over to me with the feed bucket. After counting them I counted only 21, and heard the missing sheep “baa-ing”, a little way off. I didn’t take long to find it, it was completely entangled in a web of brambles on the edge of the field. I was grateful to have my Swiss army knife with me, but even with the knife, it took me ten minutes to cut the sheep free. This involved using the scissors to trim some of the wool, and the blade to cut some of the brambles.
I was very gentle with this young sheep, and there were two reasons for doing so. First, the girl who sold me the lambs is very gentle. It defines her character and makes her the beautiful young woman she is.

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewellery, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.

Because of my affection for the ‘shepherdess’, I was particularly careful with the tangled sheep.

The second reason is connected to the first. Although I am the new ‘owner’ of the flock, really I am just the ‘keeper’ or ‘steward.’ All sheep belong to God, men just ‘keep’ them. The shepherdess was the first keeper of this flock, and she has raised many of the sheep since they were lambs. I am the second keeper, but I expect she’ll quite probably want them back when she returns from her travels. I don’t want her to be disappointed in the way I have managed the flock, when she comes back, even though I don’t know exactly when she will return, or even if she will want the sheep back.

This has got me thinking about the good and perfect shepherd, Jesus Christ. He cares for his flock, even laying down his life for us. He also speaks to us, and if we are of his flock, then we hear his voice. I want to listen to him all the more keenly this year, for I know he is the good shepherd.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Jesus Christ has only one ‘flock,’ but he has many sheep ‘folds.’ I like the one I’m in, and I like the way the Lord used a real sheep to teach me a lesson today. Sheep need looking after, they need a shepherd.

And so do I.
Reader, thanks for taking the time to read this far. In a busy world you could have done anything else. 

So I appreciate your time, please visit again soon.