Barbie Jeeps and the Prayer of Faith

Matthew 21:21

God is good.

All the time.

Go back and read that again.

No, seriously.

Now read it again. Actually pause over each of those first two sentences and ask yourself this question:

“Do I believe this?”

When I was young, maybe eight years old, I used to pray to God and make my requests as I imagine most children do—new bike, Barbie jeep, make my sister less annoying…you get the picture.

And when some of these prayers didn’t get answered the way I’d hoped, I began to doubt that God actually cared, or that he wanted to give me “good gifts” like he said in Scripture (I decided that when he said that, he just obligated himself to give me everything I wanted).

But no matter. I was a creative cat, so I figured out how I was going to outsmart God: I would just pray for the opposite of the things I wanted, since God seemed interested in saying “no” to a lot of my prayers. I asked God to make sure he didn’t give me any new toys, and that my sister would become more annoying. I was so proud of myself for being so brilliant!

Listen, God knows our hearts. And he knew mine at eight years old. He knew that my prayer was in faith of the wrong thing. My sister didn’t get less annoying, and I still didn’t get that Barbie Jeep. See, I fell into the trap of wanting to believe that I had a God who would give me everything I wanted in my selfishness instead of believing that I had a God who was good.

And believe me:

God. Is. Good.

He moves mountains of distrust and fear between people all the time.

He stills the seas of torment in souls that are mired in shame.

He delivers people from lifestyles of depravity, and societies from systems of injustice.

He brings souls to life.

I can place my faith in a God like that.

(And by the way, God actually did make my sister less annoying...once I stopped being so impatient with her) :)

Christ-Centered Suffering

READ: Colossians 1:24-29

Everyone suffers. We fail ourselves and suffer internally. Then come the attacks of the world. We work hard, but our bosses don’t appreciate us. Friends and family return our affection with negligence, betrayal, and animosity. Even God torments us with disease or the premature deaths of people we dearly love.

Yet, bound up by all this suffering, we’re expected to proclaim Christ to the world by embodying the fruits of his Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). How is this even possible?

If we are focused on ourselves, it’s not, but if we, like the apostle Paul, are focused on Christ it’s actually quite easy.

Paul writes his letter to the Colossians from a prison cell where he is awaiting execution. For him, this is a natural consequence of the purpose God gave him: to proclaim the Gospel. His life’s suffering is probably far greater than what you and I have endured, yet he rejoices because he’s focused not on himself, but on Christ, whose mission is being fulfilled in him.

I can be incredibly self-centered at times, which causes me to wallow in sufferings when they come and lose sight of the purpose God gave me, namely to proclaim his love and grace to the world through my words and actions. I pray that soon the words Paul spoke in Acts 20:24 will echo in my heart as well: “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Search My Heart

Philippians 2: 1-11 is one of my favorite passages in scripture. My bible is filled with notes on this page. I love how it lists benefits we receive being a follower of Christ; encouragement, fellowship, tenderness and compassion.  I experience these wonderful benefits most, when I am around other believers.

The passage immediately gives us a challenge. God doesn’t want us to only stay around situations where we only experience these benefits. We are called to take those benefits and serve others.  As a Christian this shouldn't be a surprise.  We hear and read that our job is to serve.  But, this is where a lot of us struggle.

I think there are three kinds of Christians when it comes to serving others.  

1. The one who “gets” it.  Serving seems to flow from them.  It is who they are. They give of themselves freely.
2. The one who serves but it just doesn’t seem or feel natural.  They serve because they know it is what God wants.
3. The one who leaves serving to others.  They will give their money and donate items to their church or community outreach projects, but they think they are not gifted to serve.

No matter where you may fall, I believe we can all check our heart with regards to serving. If you relate to the third example, let me encourage you. I have not read anywhere in the bible where serving others is only for those naturally gifted to do so.

God has called you to serve!  Philippians 2: 5-7 tells us, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus...he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…”

I think the rub comes with, WHO and HOW do we serve…

WHO do we serve?  Paul says in Philippians, “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit...consider others better than yourself.”  

If we have a hard time serving, we have possibly put ourselves in a higher position than the one we are called to serve. Is there a particular group of people or even a singular person, you think you're better than? I know this is a hard question, but spend some time honestly searching your heart.  Take time to pray about it, asking God to reveal the truth.

When you see who it is you put “below” yourself, THIS is WHO you should serve.

So, HOW should we serve? Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

In humility.  This is hard.  The easiest way to serve in humility is when we've been humbled. It can feel very humbling when we realize we put ourselves before so many others.  This is a good place to start. It will take HUMILITY and faith, and when you are not sure you can do it, remember; Jesus did it for you.