Tag: faith

Waiting Patiently For God (Psalm 40:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
    and put their trust in the Lord.

Happy are those who make
    the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
    to those who go astray after false gods.
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
    they would be more than can be counted.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
    but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
    you have not required.
Then I said, “Here I am;
    in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart.”

I have told the glad news of deliverance
    in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
    as you know, O Lord.
I have not hidden your saving help within my heart;
    I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation.

Do not, O Lord, withhold
    your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    keep me safe forever. (New Revised Standard Version)

Some of the greatest gifts any of us could ever receive are God’s steadfast love, faithfulness, and mercy. These are no problem for the Lord to bestow, because they are all a part of God’s very character.

Since, according to Holy Scripture, people are created in the image and likeness of God, every single one of us contains a divine reflection of faith, love, and mercy inside our very souls.

So, why aren’t these gifts and character virtues more evident in humanity?

Why does it seem to so many that love, faith, and mercy are in short supply today?

I believe today’s psalm gives us a clue to the answer. Virtuous character only really arises out of us through the practices of patience and gratitude. Another way of looking at this is: Our waiting and our thanksgiving help us become aware and in-touch with love, faith, and mercy.

Waiting Patiently

The Psalter is replete with encouragements to wait. The ability to be patient is connected to our character’s integrity.

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
    for I wait for you. (Psalm 25:21, NRSV)

Our patience is an expression of our trust and reliance upon God.

Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27:14, NRSV)

Throughout the psalms, faithful and patient waiting leads to God’s deliverance.

Wait for the Lord and keep to his way,
    and he will exalt you to inherit the land;
    you will look on the destruction of the wicked. (Psalm 37:34, NRSV)

We can wait because we have the hope that God is good for promises given.

And now, O Lord, what do I wait for?
    My hope is in you. (Psalm 39:7, NRSV)

It would be great if love and mercy were always right there, embedded clearly within every human community, family, group of people, and nation. But, as you well know, virtuous character is not always there for us.

This is why there are times in life in which we must wait for others’ love and faithfulness. We can do that through active patience, that is, by purposely loving others and being committed to them despite their unloving and uncommitted behaviors.

I’m not saying this is easy. In fact, it is downright hard. Yet, our persevering patience, expressed in mercy, will eventually win the day. What’s more, the Lord Jesus made it plain that we are to love others whether they are nice to us, or mean to us. (Matthew 5:43-48)

Giving Praise and Thanks

When God gives us deliverance from whatever or whomever is oppressing us, a new song arises in our hearts. The song declares and testifies to God’s goodness toward us. A song provides witness to our experience of God’s steadfast love, faithfulness, and divine mercy. Through singing, we show others the path toward deliverance.

O sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord; bless his name;
    tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous works among all the peoples. (Psalm 96:1-3, NRSV)

I admit that there are many times I don’t feel like singing. Yet, even using my voice to sing a lament is a way of expressing thanks to God for being present with me in my grief, and for what God will do in my life.

For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will set me high on a rock.

Now my head is lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me! (Psalm 27:5-7, NRSV)

Monetary sacrificial giving and offering is needed, yet this is not so much what God truly desires from us. God delights in our delight to do God’s will. So then, our sacrifice can look more like the exhortation of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2, NIV)

Petitioning God For Mercy

In today’s psalm, the psalmist makes a shift from offering thanks to asking God for mercy. Mercy in the form of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness is what the psalmist needed. And it is likely what you and I need, as well.

Any sort of deliverance we experience in this mortal life seems to have a temporary element to it. There is really no final deliverance until Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. In the meantime, we need a lot of mercy.

I don’t know if you have ever had that feeling of deliverance from a slimy pit, and having your feet set on firm solid ground. Thankfully, I have.

My own deliverance(s) were never experienced because of any superior character on my part. No, deliverance is realized through asking. And asking requires some humility which admits need, and knows how much we cannot simply save ourselves from trouble.

But we must brace ourselves for the reality that we might do a lot asking over a seemingly long period of time. It’s one thing to ask; it’s another to keep asking day in and day out, week after week, month after month, even year after year, or decade after decade.

Yet this is the nature of patient waiting. There is no deliverance apart from perseverance in prayer. I’m not talking about a vain repetition of trying to get God’s attention – that’s because you and I already have it. I’m talking about the reality that we ourselves are not in control of anything except ourselves. And even our own self-control doesn’t often go so well.

A song of thanksgiving to God always understands that there will be ongoing trouble in this old world; and a continual need for deliverance.

I humbly ask that you join me in getting on your knees every day and asking for deliverance from the injustice and unrighteousness of our current world and national troubles. They are legion.

It isn’t easy watching friends live in fear, and neighbors becoming victims of oppression and abuse. But here we are, all of us in need of seeing God’s kingdom come to earth and God’s will be done on this planet, as it is always done in God’s heaven.

Soli Deo Gloria

May it be so, to the glory of God.

“Your Faith Has Made You Well” (Luke 17:11-19)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Jesus heals ten lepers, with one returning to give him thanks

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Ten persons seeking healing called out to Jesus. And they got it. Yet, those persons were much more than passive receivers of healing. And Jesus was more than simply a giver.

Even though the lepers had heard about Jesus, they did not personally know him. It seems that – from their perspective – they had a chance encounter with Jesus. When they least expected a healing, a healing happened.

They called out to Christ, recognizing who it was that had entered their village. There was enough faith present for the diseased persons to make themselves known to Jesus – to expectantly put themselves out there and cry out for a healing to happen.

If you think about it, the power of any healing is really in the connection of being seen and heard in crying out to Jesus.

Although the healing of a person can come through a wondrous miracle, healing most often happens by the beautiful act of mutuality and participation. That is, the healer and the one in need of healing encounter each other with the willingness to both give and receive.

It’s in real human connection that healing happens. And it’s more than a physical cure; it’s also a healing reconnection of persons who were once isolated from the community. In other words, the healed person no longer needs to be on the outside of society, but can once again be a full participant in neighborhood and community.

Faith is central to what happens in the healing process. We all have some agency in realizing our own healing. We need not be passive spectators just wishing for things to be different.

Our anxiety and/or discouragement of present circumstances can move to a different place. We can discover relief through participating in social activities, taking walks in nature, and other modes requiring us to actively make a meaningful connection.

It requires faith.

Where faith is present, relational interaction and participation happens. In this context, a healing can occur. Rarely, if ever, does healing happen in complete isolation from others.

The fact that Jesus declared to the cleansed leper, “your faith has made you well,” indicates the mutuality of the healing encounter.

Let’s keep in mind that it takes at least two in order to have a healing: the healer and the healed one. Both participate together in the healing.

What’s more, when Christ heals, he heals without prejudice or favoritism.

In my front yard is a large ash tree with broad and expansive boughs. It is the ultimate shade tree. The tree’s name is Bob (I have a tendency to name trees, especially the ones I enjoy daily). Bob and I share the similarity of being created by the same Creator; and we both glorify God by simply being who we are created to be.

For Bob, he provides shade to people and animals without prejudice or favoritism. Anyone who comes under his great limbs can enjoy his shade. All that is needed for the protective and enjoyable experience of Bob’s boughs is a person under him.

Although it is appropriate to highlight the need for gratitude and praise in today’s story, the narrative itself builds to the climax of faith, of a participatory experience between Jesus and the leper(s).

And it did not matter if the persons healed were lepers, Samaritans, or even miscreants. What mattered was the faith-dialectic of the healer Jesus and the ones to be healed. All may enjoy the grace of divine shade if they move to becoming participants together with Christ by merely coming under his mercy.

I find that many people get hung-up about faith. We often make faith either too simple or too difficult. We create an overly simplistic faith when it becomes a completely passive affair of just waiting on God, or expecting someone else to heal me. We make faith a great difficulty whenever it becomes all about our level or amount of faith through the strenuous effort of intense prayer and contacting umpteen prayer chains.

But more or less prayer, more or less work, more or less of anything misses the point – because even a puny amount of faith will do, if it moves toward Jesus and seeks the participatory experience of a divine/human relation.

There is a cost to healing. It requires participation, relationship, and most of all, the humility to be seen and heard, instead of trying to control some sort of process to get the healing I want.

We call this genuine participation faith.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Your faith has made you well. (Luke 17:19)

In your love, O God of all, your people find healing. Grant that the pains of our journey may not obscure the presence of Christ among us, but that we may always give thanks for your healing power as we travel on the way to your kingdom; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.

Increase Our Faith? (Luke 17:5-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me; put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’ ” (New Revised Standard Version)

Here’s a simple observation of today’s Gospel text: Because Christ’s apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” they were acknowledging that they did not have enough faith.

But is that really true? Did the apostles – or do any of us – lack the faith we need to live the sort of life Jesus wants us to live?

I know that I sometimes feel like I have such little faith that it prevents me from being the person I want to be, and to do the good things I want to do. Yet, if I’m honest with myself, I truly don’t lack for anything in living out my faith. For God has already given me what I need.

God is good, all the time. Divine resources are always present. The Spirit dwells within us.

I’m reminded of Peter’s encouragement:

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3, NIV)

Jesus gave his disciples a hard answer to their request for faith. Perhaps hearing a bit of exasperation in the Lord’s voice, Christ communicated to them that they already have all the faith they need.

It’s never about the amount of faith. That’s because we already have enough faith. It doesn’t take much faith to radically change things. It’s much more an issue of accessing the faith which has already been provided for us.

Indeed, even if we have faith the size of a tiny little mustard seed, we could command a tree to be uprooted and throw itself into the sea. (Matthew 17:20; Mark 11:20-25)

Therefore, the apparently weakest of people in the world actually have the power to move mountains and uproot trees.

For example, when a sinful woman poured out expensive ointment on Jesus and applied it with her hair, Christ responded with a resounding “Your faith has saved you.” (Luke 7:50)

Furthermore, when a blind beggar longed to see again…

When a Samaritan leper looked for healing…

When a woman reached out and touched a tassel of the Lord’s garment…

When and a Gentile Roman Centurion came to Jesus on behalf of his ailing servant…

Christ affirmed the existing faith which was present with them – and each one of them therefore experienced the healing they so expected to realize. (Luke 3:48; 7:9; 18:42; 17:19)

In God’s economy, there is no distinction between basic trust in God and the faith that uproots trees. There is absolutely no need to try and manipulate spiritual forces in order to access a special kind of supernatural power. That’s what the pagans of old were always trying to do with their religion.

Getting a right or particular formula for a healing or a miracle is the stuff of other religions, not Christianity. For the Christian, something else is going on with faith.

What is impossible for us is possible with God. The issue with faith is where it is placed, and not with how much or how little you have. Any amount of faith that is directed to Jesus is more than enough. Even a mustard-seed-sized faith.

When participating in the sacrament of communion, you may wonder why a quarter-sized communion wafer is supposed to feed you anything. But this is communicating something important about our faith: Even a tiny portion of bread can fill and satiate the Christian’s need for spiritual sustenance.

A little bit of Jesus goes a very long way, no matter how many are gathered around the Table.

Having faith involves possessing thoughts, feelings, and actions which are thoroughly transformed by God. In other words, it involves being a “slave” of God, being a person who is devoted to engaging in God’s purposes for this world.

Whenever we engage in our work as servants of God, there’s no need for medals and accolades; we are simply doing what is expected of us. Our faith is quite enough to sustain us in doing our normal work in the world. Nothing added or unique is needed.

So, how do we access the faith needed to live the Christian life, in order to please God and bless the world? We do the work which is expected of us.

Then, we will find and see that the faith is there to do and to say what is needed. We need not wait for it; the faith is already there. But we will have to act if we want to see faith in action.

God of all ages, you have revealed your grace to us in the Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. As we actively live into your mercy, strengthen us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You. May we accomplish Your divine will and live by the faith You have so graciously provided for us; through Christ, who lights the way to everlasting life. Amen.

I Will Yet Again Praise God (Psalms 42 & 43)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Solitude, by Winslow Homer, 1889

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
    the face of God?
My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
    a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
    at the thunder of your torrents;
all your waves and your billows
    have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because the enemy oppresses me?”
As with a deadly wound in my body,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust,
    deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the harp,
    O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God. (New Revised Standard Version)

I often get asked why God allows such hard things in our lives. There is likely no complete answer to that question; at least not on this side of heaven. Yet, I believe we can respond to the query in part: Facing hard circumstances, difficulty, and  adversity drives us to seek our help in God.

For those committed to knowing God, the desire for help through hardship becomes a deep longing not just to cope with and transcend troubles, but also to experience God like never before.

Every believer is familiar with becoming forlorn, even with crying themselves to sleep at night because of what is happening in their life. And the experience is further exacerbated by calloused others who mock us for our belief in a divine transcendent being.

Much like Christ on the cross, those who care nothing for us stroll by, see our agony, and respond with a “Humph! Let’s see your ‘God’ save you now!” (Matthew 27:42; Mark 15:31; Luke 23:35)

It’s in such times we remember back, when God felt very near to us, and seemed to answer every prayer. Yet now, the silence of God is palpable. This awkward quietness puts one in a position to hope. And when hope reawakens, a new resolve toward perseverance through the trouble comes.

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25, NRSV)

Somehow, deep in our soul, we know that we will yet praise God again for a great deliverance. We remember that we were helped in the past; and now, in the present, that we will be helped again. Praise arises as an organic response to what we know will happen, even though it hasn’t yet happened.

Fresh prayers come to us, smack in the midst of our adverse situations. We pray, not only for our own help and deliverance, but also for the justice of God to have it’s way in the world.

We think of all the other believers who, like us, are facing hardship for no fault of their own. In a wonderful sense of solidarity in spirit, we lift up our sisters and brothers in the faith before the God for whom we are convinced will help them, as well as us.

All we want to do is somehow maintain our integrity of relationship with God and others, to remain in the cradle of truth – keeping our little light shining in the darkness that surrounds us.

It is not a sin to be troubled and to feel alone in the middle of a stressful and difficult circumstance. What we do with ourselves when we are in such a situation is what makes all the difference.

I suggest we flee to the Book of Psalms. In those times when tears become our food and drink, and we don’t know how to pray, let’s let the psalmist pray for us by adopting his prayers as our very own.

O God, our refuge and hope: When despondency and despair haunt and afflict us, comfort us with the stillness of your divine presence, so that we might confess all you have done, through Christ to whom we belong and in whom we are one. Amen.