Praying With Confidence

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14 (NAS)

Today I met with the Director of Missions for our church's association and a group of leaders from a local Hispanic church. David, our Director of Missions, asked me to meet with them to discuss the possibility of sharing our church facilities with their church. I thought I was just going to be meeting with their pastor and his daughter who translates for him, but there were actually six other leaders from their church, only one of which spoke a little English.

The Hispanic church is nine years old and they had been renting a little storefront building for the last few years. They shared that they had been having problems in the building because the air conditioning had gone out and the owner didn't want to pay the $2,000 fix it unless he raised their rent. They also shared that when it rained, water would come into their children's area and the church has been growing and they needed more space, but they didn't have resources to rent a larger space.  Over the past two to three months they had been praying earnestly for God to provide a place for them that would meet their needs and something they could afford.

We had a great discussion and I will be talking with our church about opening our doors to our brothers and sisters in the coming days, but what really touched me during our time together was their passion for prayer. They spoke of how they had been praying with confidence that God was hearing their prayers and that He would answer in His time. They were confident that He would provide a place that would meet all their needs they believed God had brought us together in answer to their prayers. I was also struck by their gratitude - each person individually expressed their gratitude that we would even be willing to consider allowing them to use our building (I told them that it is not "our" building, but it was God's building and He wanted it used for His work and His glory, whoever was using it).

When it came time to depart, David asked their pastor if he would pray for us. We stood, held hands in a circle, and I expected him to pray in Spanish and his daughter translate for me and David. What I heard though, was a chorus of Spanish voices praying passionately to our Heavenly Father with gratitude and confidence that He was not only hearing but answering their prayers. All of them were praying out loud at the same time, and it was beautiful. I didn't understand the language, but I felt the Spirit and the confidence they had in the reality of God hearing and answering their prayers was unmistakable. We have a ways to go before having an agreement to use our building, but if today was an indicator of how things are going to go, God will bring things together for us soon.

Something changed in me today - just being in the presence of the Spirit and of God's people praying with passion and confidence. I can't really explain the change, I just know I am different. Something about praying with my Hispanic brothers (and sister) has stirred something within me to pray with more boldness and passion, having confidence that God is hearing and answering my prayers. I can't wait to see what He is going to do next. I'm praying God spreads this change to those around me as well.

Spiritual Warfare: What's Going On Here?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...  John 10:10 ESV

On Wednesday nights we have been studying Scriptures on spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 tells us that "... we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." (v.12, NLT) The battle is real and the enemy is real. In John 10:10 Jesus tells us about the nature of the enemy and what his primary goals are in fighting against us; "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy." (NLT) Our enemy is a thief, and he wants only to steal, kill and destroy.

Because everyone is different, the enemy attacks in different ways, and through different means, but his goal is always the same - steal, kill and destroy. Last Wednesday I shared how I have experienced his attacks in my life, following those three purposes.

1. He wants to steal our joy - joy is an incredibly important component in the Christian life. Jesus tells us in John 15:11 that He gives us His joy so that we can be full of joy. Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us that the "joy of the Lord" is our strength. We draw spiritual strength when rejoice in the Lord. That's why we are told repeatedly in the Bible "to rejoice," "to count it all joy" or to "rejoice in the Lord." Spiritual strength comes from rejoicing in the Lord.

So, in my experience, one of the primary ways the enemy attacks is to create situations, in my life where I am tempted to lose my joy. Sometimes these are big things like the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, or a broken relationship. But often they're smaller situations like having a flat tire when you're late for work, losing your keys, staining your favorite shirt, or an argument with your spouse over something stupid like which way the toilet paper roll goes on the holder (BTW, the correct way is "over"). These are not major catastrophes, just little irritating episodes, and often one right after another; anything to cause us to become frustrated, unhappy or react with a negative attitude, anything to steal our joy, because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

2. If the enemy can steal our joy, he makes an easy transition to killing our peace. Once I've lost my joy, I become unsettled, anxious, worried and maybe even fearful. Peace is another wonderful gift that Jesus gives us (see John 14:27, and Romans 5:1), but when we've lost our joy, we almost always lose our peace as well. For me, a lack of peace is manifested in chronic worrying - I start mulling over negative situations in my mind, usually creating "worst-case-scenarios", wondering why "bad things" are happening, and how am I (emphasis on me) going to fix things. I stress, and fret, and overthink situations to the point where I become discouraged ore even mildly depressed. If I continue down that road, I start to withdraw and cut myself off from friends and family, which is just what the enemy wants - isolation, which makes it easy for him to transition to the next phase of attack...

3. He wants to destroy our confidence and trust in God. This is his ultimate goal. If you are a follower of Christ, he can't destroy your salvation (because your salvation isn't based on what you've done for Christ, but on what Christ has done for you), so he wants to cause you to doubt or question God's goodness, His love for you, or His sovereign grace in your life. You begin to think, does God love me? Have I done something wrong that has made Him made at me? If He is good, then why are these bad things happening to me? Can I really trust God? Does God even care about me or my situation?

Again, I'm speaking for myself, but in reflection this is how the enemy has often worked in my life - he causes or creates situations where I allow myself to become unhappy - sometimes big events, but usually a series of smaller, irritating episodes in my day or week. His goal is to cause me to lose my joy and when that happens I become anxious and unsettled (worried and stressed); and from there I begin to lose my confidence and trust in the goodness, love and sovereignty of God, and I become a pretty miserable person. He hasn't destroyed my salvation (because he can't) but he has stolen my joy, killed my peace and destroyed my trust in God. I've moved from unhappy, to unsettled to uncertain.

Unfortunately, I've allowed this cycle to repeat too many times in my life as a follower of Christ, but in the last few years God has been revealing the enemies strategies and showing me how to defend myself against his attacks, which I'll talk about next time ... but for now, "Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT) AND if you are experiencing spiritual warfare in your life right now and needing someone to pray with and fight alongside of you, please reach out to me, you can comment on this blog or email me at glmiller1965@gmail.com ... I'm not from the government, but I am here to help ( I know... not everyone will get that joke, 😁).