indulge me here folks, i am just trying to process out loud.
My nephew Tyson was diagnosed yesterday with a brain tumor. He is 9 months old. Doctors will attempt to remove the tumor from his 9 month old brain in two days. If the tumor is found to be “aggressive” they will remove what they can and then treat what remains with radiation and chemotherapy. They can do chemo on a 9 month old?
This type of situation causes one to do two things. The first thing one does is spread the word through whatever means possible to as many people as possible so that the prayer base will be as strong as possible. The next thing one does is question those very prayers. We pray for healing - does that mean God is going to heal? Does it not happen every day that sick infants who have been bathed in prayer die? We try to get as many people to pray as much as possible - because God is more likely to decide in our favor if more people are praying?
In Romans 8:26 Paul tells us that we “do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” It is in times like these that this concept is understandable. I do not know how to pray but somehow I do it anyway - and the Spirit takes over. Last week I was teaching our college Bible study group about worry. We talked about Philippians 4:6 which tells us not to be anxious about anything. We also talked, of course, about Matthew 6:25 where Jesus tells his followers not to worry about their lives and goes on to make us all ashamed by juxtaposing our position against that of birds and flowers. Obviously neither Jesus nor Paul were ever told their 9 month old had a brain tumor or else they would not have been able to utter these words. Right?
As I have been cluelessly praying these last 30 hours the Spirit has directed my thoughts to an answer that I gave to a question at last week’s Bible study. The students know that worry is something that I have a good handle on (I have plenty of spiritual weaknesses, but this is one of my strengths) and they asked me what the key was. I did not realize at that time that my answer would be exactly what I would need to hear just 5 short days later. My answer was that we must follow Paul’s advice in Philippians 4 and offer everything (especially worry and anxiety) to the Lord in prayer, but that we do so trusting Him even if the outcome is not what we desire. We need to seek first His Kingdom and trust that he will provide - but even if he does not provide we are continue seeking and always trust.
I used the biblical example of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis 22. I do not believe that Abraham set out on the three day hike knowing that the Lord would provide a ram in the thicket. As he bound his son and sharpened the knife I don’t believe that Abraham was stalling, hoping that God would intervene. I have to think that as the tears streamed down Abraham’s face (it doesn’t say that in the text but you know it happened that way) and he rose the knife to kill his promised son that he was not looking around for the animal that would take his son’s place. I believe that Abraham completely trusted in the Lord, had hoped he would not have to slay Isaac, but trusted in God even if the angel would not have intervened at the last second. Abraham was prepared to kill Isaac because he trusted in the Lord.
There are two other examples in Scripture of this exact same idea. When Daniel’s friends were about to be thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow to the King’s image (the most powerful pagan king in the world no less) they told him, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). They trusted in the Lord completely - not that He would save them, but he was God even if he did not. The other example is from the hellish story of Job. Job lost it all, his wife told him to curse God and die (2:9), and Job is trying to discover the unchartered territory slightly beneath rock bottom. He gives us the answer to what if God doesn’t... He says what Abraham was saying at Moriah, what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were saying on the threshold of the furnace, and what I say today - “though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (13:15).
I trust in the Lord not because I believe He will heal. I trust in the Lord because I know He can heal, and because even if he does not - He is God alone.
My nephew Tyson was diagnosed yesterday with a brain tumor. He is 9 months old. Doctors will attempt to remove the tumor from his 9 month old brain in two days. If the tumor is found to be “aggressive” they will remove what they can and then treat what remains with radiation and chemotherapy. They can do chemo on a 9 month old?
This type of situation causes one to do two things. The first thing one does is spread the word through whatever means possible to as many people as possible so that the prayer base will be as strong as possible. The next thing one does is question those very prayers. We pray for healing - does that mean God is going to heal? Does it not happen every day that sick infants who have been bathed in prayer die? We try to get as many people to pray as much as possible - because God is more likely to decide in our favor if more people are praying?
In Romans 8:26 Paul tells us that we “do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” It is in times like these that this concept is understandable. I do not know how to pray but somehow I do it anyway - and the Spirit takes over. Last week I was teaching our college Bible study group about worry. We talked about Philippians 4:6 which tells us not to be anxious about anything. We also talked, of course, about Matthew 6:25 where Jesus tells his followers not to worry about their lives and goes on to make us all ashamed by juxtaposing our position against that of birds and flowers. Obviously neither Jesus nor Paul were ever told their 9 month old had a brain tumor or else they would not have been able to utter these words. Right?
As I have been cluelessly praying these last 30 hours the Spirit has directed my thoughts to an answer that I gave to a question at last week’s Bible study. The students know that worry is something that I have a good handle on (I have plenty of spiritual weaknesses, but this is one of my strengths) and they asked me what the key was. I did not realize at that time that my answer would be exactly what I would need to hear just 5 short days later. My answer was that we must follow Paul’s advice in Philippians 4 and offer everything (especially worry and anxiety) to the Lord in prayer, but that we do so trusting Him even if the outcome is not what we desire. We need to seek first His Kingdom and trust that he will provide - but even if he does not provide we are continue seeking and always trust.
I used the biblical example of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis 22. I do not believe that Abraham set out on the three day hike knowing that the Lord would provide a ram in the thicket. As he bound his son and sharpened the knife I don’t believe that Abraham was stalling, hoping that God would intervene. I have to think that as the tears streamed down Abraham’s face (it doesn’t say that in the text but you know it happened that way) and he rose the knife to kill his promised son that he was not looking around for the animal that would take his son’s place. I believe that Abraham completely trusted in the Lord, had hoped he would not have to slay Isaac, but trusted in God even if the angel would not have intervened at the last second. Abraham was prepared to kill Isaac because he trusted in the Lord.
There are two other examples in Scripture of this exact same idea. When Daniel’s friends were about to be thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow to the King’s image (the most powerful pagan king in the world no less) they told him, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). They trusted in the Lord completely - not that He would save them, but he was God even if he did not. The other example is from the hellish story of Job. Job lost it all, his wife told him to curse God and die (2:9), and Job is trying to discover the unchartered territory slightly beneath rock bottom. He gives us the answer to what if God doesn’t... He says what Abraham was saying at Moriah, what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were saying on the threshold of the furnace, and what I say today - “though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (13:15).
I trust in the Lord not because I believe He will heal. I trust in the Lord because I know He can heal, and because even if he does not - He is God alone.
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