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- Written by: Don Goulding
Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Dear Brittany,
It’s good you question God’s existence. Faith should be the result of an informed choice. So it’s okay to wrestle our doubt monsters. Let me tell you about a few of mine.
One beast whispers that I’m foolish to disagree with the majority. Most people, he says, know how pointless it is to ask questions about origin and purpose. But I can’t stop thinking about where we came from. The beast mutters scientific theories but he never has an answer for where matter first came from.
Another monster leans into my face, “How could a God of love allow so much suffering?”
I pinch my nose against his breath, and point into the Bible. It says Satan, not God, introduced pain into the world. The Bible changes the question from, where is God when there is suffering? to, where are humans when God offers a solution? That brut goes limp too.
A third monster reminds me that believing in God will mean accountability. He thumps my chest and says I’d better drop the God stuff so I can do what I want.
I reply, “And pretending to hide from accountability is the dumbest kind of stupid.”
Brittany, I know the monsters are powerful. Please don’t give in to them because the new earth will not be the same without your precious smile.
Prayer: Savior God, I pray for more faith for Brittany, for myself, and for all the doubters.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver. Then David built an altar for the Lord there and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And the Lord accepted prayers for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel. (2 Samuel 24:24-25)
David lost sight of the fact that God was the source of his military victories. Against the counsel of his advisors, he sent a general to count his fighting men. The result was a plague that killed seventy thousand Israelites.
Grieving over the losses he had caused to his own people, King David went for a prayer-walk. He came to the threshing floor on Mount Moriah. Instead of wheat, it was David’s heart that would be threshed, pummeled, and crushed. He saw the angel of death with a sword raised over Israel. David’s response defined the rest of his life.
The king put on sackcloth, threw himself on his face, and pled for God’s mercy. He bought the threshing floor and sacrificed burnt offerings on the spot. Only a supernatural removal of his heinous guilt could save him and his people.
Seventeen years later, David bequeathed the land where his heart was threshed as the site for the first temple.
Like David, I’ve made epic mistakes in my lifetime. We’ve both been threshed by our own guilt. Can God do for me what he did for David? Can he transform my threshing floor into a temple of praise? The answer depends on my response. If I also repent in anguish and place my shame on the Lamb of God, then yes, I can still see a temple rise where my betrayal once stood.
Prayer: Merciful God, transform my worst sins into praise for your best grace.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15)
When I sin, I feel far away from God, and when I’m far away from him, I sin. The whirlpool goes round, sucking me down. Each time I repeat my vices, I’m pulled further in.
I pray for release from of the whirlpool of temptation, but my heavenly Father has a different plan. First, he teaches me that temptation is not sin, and living within its tug will make me stronger because of the fight.
During his sinless thirty-three years on earth, Jesus didn't leave the whirlpool. He felt its pull when Satan baited him in the desert. The whirlpool caused his prayerful struggle to accept the cross. Our forerunner demonstrated that wholesale escape from temptation is not Father’s purpose for this stage of life.
The vortex froths white at the safe horizontal top, and black at the dangerous vertical bottom. Deep inside the funnel’s walls, failure is a certainty. When I loiter in those lower regions, and tell myself it’ll never get a complete hold on me, it’s already too late.
The key to success isn’t escape from temptation, but in living within reach of heaven’s assistance. Up there risky indulgences can’t master me. For now, I have to live somewhere inside the whirlpool, but I don’t have to surf the wall.
Prayer: Holy and beautiful light, I choose to live near you today.