Part 7 of 8 qualities of the heart that resists error
Ultimately God is the one responsible to lead truth-seekers into what is real, and he is trustworthy.
This series examines eight soul qualities that make us immune to false teaching.
7. Trusting God for truth
We must have faith in God’s ability to keep us. The one who doubts can become fearful and susceptible to manipulation by strong personalities. Paul talked about the instability of those who are “children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14).
James warned that “the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind…. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (Jam. 1:6, 8).
Therefore, though vigilant, we must not fear deception. Instead we must trust in Jesus’ promises to keep us, not in our ability to keep ourselves, as we fulfill our responsibility to pursue truth diligently.
God has promised
The Lord’s promises to keep his children bear repeating because they are the foundation of trust. “[God] is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 1:24).
“Our Lord Jesus Christ…will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:7–9).
“He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:27–29).
Therefore we can rest assured that God will lead as we sincerely seek the truth, and as we pray Psalm 25:4–5:
“Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”
In Genesis 22 Abraham’s action shows the reality of his faith.
In the previous posts we have seen in Genesis 22 that God tested Abraham by commanding him to journey to a distant mountain and there sacrifice his son Isaac. We considered Abraham’s thoughts as he took that journey with attention to what Abraham knew about God that enabled him to obey. Below we see Abraham in the moment of truth.
What Abraham does
By the time they reach the mountain in Moriah, Abraham has concluded that God will indeed provide a lamb that will substitute for the sacrifice of his son Isaac. He stops short of the site for sacrifice and there leaves his two servants and donkey. He puts the wood on Isaac’s back and takes the fire and knife. As they walk to the site, Isaac recognizes the obvious and says, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
From the overflow of his heart, Abraham’s mouth speaks. “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” The Lord had not told Abraham that explicitly, but Abraham knew God, and based on everything he knew about him and what God had told him he concluded this was what God would do. He set his faith on it. All his life, including decades as a sojourner in the Promised Land, he had seen God provide everything he needed, and what he needed now more than anything was a lamb as a substitute for his son Isaac. Whatever he truly needed, he believed God would provide.
Building an altar
Meanwhile what he needed was to obey the Lord’s command, and that he does. Father and son arrive at the site for sacrifice. With solemn confidence Abraham builds an altar. On it he carefully arranges the wood. He turns to his son, his only son Isaac, and without delay proceeds to bind his hands and feet. His heart is settled; he will not withhold his beloved son from the Lord. He has already given him to God in his heart, and now he will give him as a sacrifice. He wraps his arms around his beloved son, trusting this will not be the last time he holds him close, lifts him, and lays him on the wood of the altar. God gives the old man physical strength to lift his son’s weight, some 50–100 pounds, and God gives him emotional strength to take knife in hand.
Isaac’s trust
Isaac is surprisingly passive. He did not resist as Abraham bound his hands and feet. He did not object. Isaac did not struggle to make it impossible for Abraham to place him on the altar. He does not twist and kick to roll off the altar, as he certainly could have. Why not? Did he have the same confidence as his father? Did he believe what his father had assured him, that God would provide a lamb? Had he surrendered himself to God in the same trusting way his father had surrendered him? Did he trust Abraham the way Abraham trusted God?
The story repeats an important sentence two times: in verse 6 it says, “So they went both of them together.” Again in verse 8 the identical words: “So they went both of them together.” This repetition is wrapped around the crucial interchange in verses 7–8, where Isaac said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” and Abraham replied, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Father and son are in this “together.” They both choose to trust and obey God.
Now that the knife is in Abraham’s hand, God has seen enough. He knows everything he wanted to know from this test. The Angel of the Lord cries out, “Abraham, Abraham!”—a twofold repetition, which conveyed intimacy.
Here am I
This interruption Abraham was expecting. Slowly, firmly, with reverence for the God he loves more than Isaac, Abraham replies. “Here am I.” This is the third time in the narrative that Abraham says, “Here am I.” The first was when the test began. God broke the silence by calling his name, and Abraham replied, “Here am I.” The second time Abraham said this was at the pivotal moment when he and Isaac were climbing the mountain. Isaac broke the silence: “My father.” And Abraham replied, “Here am I, my son.” And Isaac asked the million-dollar question: “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” The third time Abraham said these words is now, at the moment of salvation as God intervenes to answer Abraham’s faith and spare Isaac. “Here am I” reveals Abraham’s heart, that he is available to God his Father and Isaac his son, responsive not withdrawing, near not far, open not closed, listening not ignoring. Through the threefold repetition of “Here am I” the author of this narrative calls quiet attention to Abraham’s intimacy with God and Isaac, a closeness that withstood the sternest trial.
A heart of love
In the midst of this test Abraham could have closed his heart toward either God or Isaac in an attempt to maintain emotional consistency. One might think Abraham had to choose between them. But in his holy heart that was not so. Abraham did not close his heart toward either. His wholehearted love for and trust in God were so great that he was able to maintain wholehearted love toward Isaac even as he surrendered him. In relation to God, perfect love, trust, and surrender integrate one’s heart.
Although we know little in a divine test, we do know God can be trusted.
In the previous post we saw in Genesis 22 that God tested Abraham by commanding him to journey to a distant mountain and there sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham acted without delay to collect the necessary supplies and depart with Isaac and several servants on the journey.
What Abraham knows
All the while Abraham is thinking. As he rides his donkey for three days to the mount in Moriah, as he lay each night under the stars—reminding him, no doubt, of God’s promise to give him offspring as countless as the stars—he tries to understand what is happening. He pieces together clues from what God has revealed about himself. Abraham knows that the Lord wants committed relationships, for God had made a covenant with him. That means he is a faithful God who would not revoke his promises. Abraham never forgot his vision in which God appeared in the form of a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch and followed the human practice of covenant-making by passing between the sundered halves of slaughtered animals (see Genesis 15:17). By this God said that if he breaks the covenant, let the same happen to him that happened to the slaughtered animals. Abraham knows beyond doubt that the Lord is not betraying him.
God understands your situation
He also knows that his other son Ishmael, who is the offspring of his union with Sarah’s servant Hagar, is not the son through whom the chosen people would come. God told him years before, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named” (Gen. 21:12). So Abraham knew God had chosen Isaac alone as the line of descent through which he would fulfill his promises to Abraham. When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, he even called attention to Isaac’s crucial role by calling him “your son, your only son Isaac” (Gen. 22:2, italics added), although Abraham also had Ishmael.
This was God’s subtle reminder that he had not forgotten what he said about Isaac. As Abraham rode his donkey for three days to the mountain in Moriah, perhaps God’s words repeated in his mind, like a clue to a puzzle, “your only son Isaac…your only son Isaac…your only son Isaac.” By these words Abraham knows that somehow, despite this sacrifice, Isaac must live.
God can do anything
He knows more. He knows nothing is impossible for the one who enabled him and Sarah to have a child in old age. God told him that when he appeared to Abraham one year before Isaac’s birth and announced that the promised child was soon to come. Sarah overheard the announcement and laughed, and the Lord took issue with her. “The LORD said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too hard for the LORD?’” (Gen. 18:13–14, italics added). Abraham now reasons that the one who can do anything can raise the dead.
The New Testament actually provides an inspired glimpse into Abraham’s mind during this test:
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” (Heb. 11:17–19, italics added)
God only does what is right
He knows more. He knows the Judge of all the earth does only what is right. Abraham himself had said that to God many years earlier when the Angel of the Lord came to him and revealed his intention to investigate the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham interceded for the cities in order that his nephew Lot and his family would not perish with them. He asked God to spare the cities if 50 righteous people could be found in them and appealed to God’s nature: “Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25)
Knowing that God only does right, Abraham knows that in this current test God is doing right. Abraham is not suspicious of his purposes. He does not entertain the preposterous notion that maybe God is not entirely good, for that would mean we humans are the standard of goodness, knowing better than God what is moral. No, the fallen creature of Adam’s race is not morally superior to the perfect and unchanging Creator. There is much Abraham does not know in this test, but what he does know with certainty is he does not need to question the goodness of God.
In a test, things turn upside down
Abraham knows one more crucial thing that enables him to navigate this situation. Knowing all the above, he had to realize this is a test. He knew God had tested him before. If we know God is testing us, then we understand why the situation is upside down, and we do not lose our bearings. In a test, the Lord’s normal ways with us are temporarily suspended in some way, though not in every way. Instead of peace, there is trouble. Instead of full provision, there is lack. Or instead of health, there is sickness. What the Bible says is the normal portion of God’s people suddenly departs. Though God does not change, his way of working in us might change for a season.
In Abraham’s current test, God certainly suspended what was normal. With God, normal is not death, but life; not taking, but giving; not losing what God has promised, but keeping what God has promised. Above all, normal is not sacrificing one’s beloved son. So Abraham knew this was a test, and he was determined not to fail. To pass, he knew he had to trust God with childlike simplicity and do precisely as commanded. Obedience and trust are always the keys to passing a test, especially the daunting, once-in-a-lifetime sort of trial Abraham was navigating.
God supplies what we lack
All things considered, Abraham reaches a conclusion. If God wants him to go through with the slaughter and fiery offering of Isaac, God will raise him from the dead, even raise him from ashes. God the Creator will resurrect the one and only son.
But by faith Abraham also foresees another way, for he knows something else about God. Abraham knows God accepts a substitute. Abraham had offered animal sacrifices before, and he knows what they represent. The lamb was a substitute for the one making the offering. Burning a lamb on an altar was a way of saying, Lord, I give my life to you. Abraham reasoned that God could give a substitute for Isaac that made his death unnecessary. God could provide a lamb for the offering.
Waiting on God in the dark is possible when we know the truth about God.
In the previous post we learned from Joseph that we can wait a long, long time for God with seemingly nothing happening, and then God suddenly acts to fulfill his Word. In this post we learn from Abraham more about waiting on God in the dark.
Barrenness tests Abraham and Sarah
In Western culture we value the ability to make things happen. We say things like, “I’ll find a way or make a way.” “He’s a mover and shaker.” “They’ll run through brick walls if necessary.” “She stirs the pot.” “Manage by objectives.” “Just do it.”
But God often does not cooperate. In fact you can count on it that he will allow something in your life that no amount of will power and effort can change, something that requires you to wait on him.
Why
He does this because waiting develops spiritual muscle, in particular muscles of faith and hope, in which he delights. Scripture says, “Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Rom. 8:24–25, NIV). And, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for” (Heb. 11:1–2, NIV). Faith and hope thrive when we must wait.
The benefit of waiting does not end there. Scripture says, “The testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jam. 1:2–4, NIV). Situations that require steadfastness work like the barbells and machines of a fitness center to develop all aspects of godliness. So if we could fulfill every desire instantly, we would be spiritual weaklings.
The disappointment of barrenness
Abraham and Sarah could not fulfill their desire. They wanted a child but for about 50 years remained barren. By human standards they were a power couple: Abraham was wealthy, and Sarah beautiful. But no matter how much they yearned for a child, they could not conceive. In the culture of that time, children signified the favor of God, and barrenness brought shame. So Abraham and Sarah endured the daily frustration of unfulfilled desire.
When Abraham was 75 and Sarah 65, however, their prospects suddenly improved. God appeared to Abraham and promised, “I will make of you a great nation” (Gen. 12:2). Surely that meant they would soon conceive a child. But for the next 24 years they waited, without knowing how long the wait would last. Since God knows the future he could have told them how long their wait would last, but he did not because being in the dark intensified their test, requiring more trust.
The frustration of not knowing how long the wait will last
Not knowing how long a wait will last makes waiting much harder. When, for example, you wait on the phone to talk with a customer-service agent, patience comes easier when you are told approximately how long until an agent takes the call, even if that will be 45 minutes. But when you do not know what to expect, even a 5-minute wait is frustrating.
Scripture tells how Abraham was able to pass the test of waiting in the dark for almost 25 years:
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (Rom. 4:18–21, NIV)
This Scripture reveals five things about how Abraham was able to wait on God (we will note one principle now and four more in coming posts).
The decisive power of hope
First, he could wait because “against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.” He had hope, not despair. If you have hope, you can wait not only for 25 years, but for 250 years. If you despair, you cannot wait 25 minutes. Hope and despair have enormous power for good or harm. One or the other decides your future. Even though Abraham’s circumstances argued for despair, he had hope.
Hope drove his belief: “Abraham in hope believed.” We cannot believe in God’s promise when our hearts are governed by despair. Bring the candle of God’s promise into a room dark with despair, and despair blows out the flame. Light the candle again, and again despair blows out the flame. Light the candle of God’s promise as many times as you want, and despair will blow it out again and again. Despair cannot believe because despair does not want to believe. The despairing heart wants to believe untrue thoughts about God because it resents the circumstances God has allowed.
The hope that enabled Abraham to believe God’s promise came from somewhere. He was not hopeful because of a sunny personality. He was hopeful because he had true thoughts about God. Abraham was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” He did not bitterly lower his view of God and resentfully withdraw from him because of Sarah’s barrenness. Rather he chose to believe truth about God, and because he believed truth about him he was able to believe his promises.
Waiting on God in the dark by knowing God even in the dark
Anyone who believes the truth about God’s nature always has cause for hope. That is because, not only does God have power to do what he promises, he also has the grace and love to do wonderful things for those who believe him. The better you know God, the more you have hope; and the more you have hope, the more logical it is to believe even his most amazing promises. With hope and faith established in your heart, you can wait for God as long as necessary.
In the next post we will explore two more principles about successfully waiting on God in the dark.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
When prayers are not answered, we still have every reason for hope and faith.
Have you ever given up on prayer or faith? At a low moment have you ever said to yourself that it really does not work, that faith and prayer are a waste of time?
Sadly, that is the situation of most people in most churches. I assume that because according to surveys most Christians barely pray and most do not attend prayer meetings. Anyone who really believes what the Bible promises about prayer will want to pray because the promises are so great.
Suppose when Abraham was 98-years-old you asked him whether prayer and faith work. Had God given him a child through Sarah? No. Did he have descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand of the seashore? No. Did he have possession of the Promised Land? No.
Twenty-three years of faith and what did he have to show for it? A son through Sarah’s servant. And he did not own one square inch of the Promised Land. Yet he is the archetype of faith, exhibit A, the father of all who believe—God’s chosen one.
When Prayers Are Not Answered
All this points to the critical importance of knowing that God fulfills your faith and prayers in his time, his way, and according to his will. If you do not know this, your efforts at serious, specific prayer that expects answers may end in disappointment and even disillusionment.
There are many reasons for this. We cannot control God. He is perfectly good, and so he does only what fulfills the highest good, which only he in perfect love and wisdom understands. Our ways are not his ways. He tests our faith.
So those who mean business in prayer and faith had better dress for the weather, pack for a trip, and bring an umbrella. Shallow, naïve faith will get you little but soggy shoes.
Let’s look more closely at the crucial factors affecting answers to our faith: God’s time, God’s way, and God’s will.
God’s time
In the four Gospels, God acts quickly. Jesus heals people and drives out demons on the spot. One of the frequently used words in Mark is immediately. God of course can and often does answer prayers sooner rather than later, even immediately. I pray and believe for prompt and timely answers.
But I am not disoriented if that does not happen. I adjust mentally and settle in to exercise perseverance. Luke 18:1 says Jesus “told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
For instance, by the time Abraham was 100, God had given him the son for whom he had believed, but his descendants would not take possession of the Promised Land for more than 400 years. And as for having descendants like the stars in the sky, that promise is still being fulfilled three thousand years later, for every believer in Christ is a child of Abraham.
There is an appointed time for our faith in God’s promise to be fulfilled. Referring to God’s promise to Abraham, Romans 9:9 says, “This was how the promise was stated: ‘At the appointed time I [the Lord] will return, and Sarah will have a son.’”
When you trust the promises of the eternal God, you are dealing with One for whom a “day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
“You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (Hebrews 10:36).
God’s way
Sometimes God gives us exactly what we ask. “According to your faith be it done to you.” (Matthew 9:29). Other times, however, he gives an upgrade over what we believe and expect by answering our faith in a way we never could have imagined.
The unanswered prayer of Zechariah and Elizabeth
For example, the priest Zechariah and his wife simply wanted a son. God had someone greater in mind. He wanted them to raise the one Jesus described as the greatest prophet of the Old Covenant.
For decades Elizabeth was barren. Their prayers were not answered as they expected; instead they got older and older—until one day near the end of his life Zechariah stood performing his duty in the temple when an angel suddenly appeared to him. The angel promised him an answer to his prayers; he and Elizabeth would bear a son.
Unfortunately this fulfillment of prayer was not unfolding the way Zechariah expected, and he answered the angel with words of doubt. Nevertheless, after being disciplined with muteness for months, he received John the Baptist as his son. None of this did Zechariah or Elizabeth expect as they went through their previous adult years. But God had a plan. God had an upgrade.
Unanswered prayers and assorted surprises
The next time you read the great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, notice the diversity of ways that God fulfilled the faith of his people. Rarely if ever could any of these people have predicted how God would answer.
Certainly the children of Israel who cried out year after year to God for deliverance from Pharaoh and their taskmasters in Egypt could not have imagined the ten plagues, the terrifying Passover, their plundering of the Egyptians, the parting of the Red Sea, the days of hunger followed by the giving of manna, the covenant requirements enacted at Mount Sinai, the promise of entering the Promised Land and inheriting it as their own. In fact they rejected Moses numerous times because God was working in ways they did not understand.
Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego could not have imagined their faith being fulfilled by being thrown into a fiery furnace, their walking around in the furnace with the Angel of the Lord, and their exiting the furnace with not a hair singed nor a thread of their clothing burned.
Joseph could not have imagined that his dreams would be fulfilled by his being sold into slavery in Egypt, by being falsely accused and thrown into a dungeon, by 13 years passing for him in Egypt until he was suddenly taken into the presence of Pharaoh and exalted as ruler of the land.
Naaman’s way and God’s way
And then there is Naaman, who came to Israel to see Elisha the prophet for healing of leprosy. He had faith to believe that Elisha could heal him in a certain way, but God had other plans. Elisha told him to dip seven times in the Jordan, and he would be healed.
“But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and went away in a rage.”
Naaman is a picture of many people when God does not do what they expect. We want the answer our way, but God wants to answer his way. We get upset and walk away.
Fortunately for Naaman his servant persuaded him to give the Jordan River a try, and Naaman was healed as he submitted to God’s way.
We need not only to pray and believe; we also need to trust. People of faith must be people of trust in God.
God’s will
Have you ever felt that you might have more success at receiving answers to prayer if you just could say the right words or fast from food for a longer time or intercede more tearfully or pray more times a day or whatever?
Certainly there are biblical principles for answered prayer—yes, emphatically yes—and the Bible commends earnest praying and fasting. But unconsciously we may be trying to control God, and if so, we will probably be disappointed. God cannot be manipulated. He never turns over ultimate control of the world or our lives to us. While he may have mercy on us when we pray this way and grant our requests, it is not because he has been manipulated.
When we think that all we need for answered prayer is the right method, or following the right formula, we are not taking into account God’s will.
1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
How Jesus prayed
Jesus famously prayed in the Garden, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
Although it is possible to pray like this when we have no faith, or when we are afraid to hope lest we be disappointed, that was certainly not the case with Jesus.
What he does in these words is acknowledge God’s ultimate control and his submission to it. It is similar to stating one’s travel plans but adding, “The Lord willing.” (See James 4:13–16). Jesus earnestly prays, but he never gets frustrated with his God or tries to lord it over him. He pours out his soul to try to influence his Father, but never acts as though he knows better how the Father in the end should do things. Jesus never prays in a way that suggests God had better do what he asks, or else…. He displays throughout that he trusts the will of God.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7).
Jesus could have pointed to many promises of the Old Testament that supported his request to be delivered from going to the cross, such as Psalms 91 and 121 and dozens more. But God’s will was for Jesus to fulfill many other Scriptures, especially Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and all the Old Testament sacrificial system in which an animal died as a substitute for the sinner.
The nature of a promise
Granted, this gets complicated. When is a promise a promise, and when is it not? When is what seems to be a promise more like a general principle of the way God often works, but not an ironclad way that he always works in every situation for someone who has faith? (See Hebrews 11, especially verses 35–40.)
I do not have a simple answer, but I choose to take a simple approach. If God’s Word says he does such and such, and I need him to do that, I am going to pray for it and believe it. If God’s will turns out to be otherwise and my life fulfills other Scriptures, I will submit to that and glorify God. And if my heart is right, my faith and trust will not suffer for it.
If our faith crumbles when prayers are not answered
If our relationship with God suffers because he has not answered our faith in the way we want, it shows we do not have the right attitude. It is possible we unwittingly have been trying to manipulate God, insisting that he do things our way, in effect acting as though we are God, that we know better how to run the universe.
We may even resemble the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel who cried out and cut themselves to try to get Baal to burn the sacrifice (1 Kings 18). Or we may be like the mistaken Gentiles in Jesus’s teaching who sought techniques to get prayers answered: “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).
Again, we need not only to believe God’s words, but also to trust his will and remember our place.
Takeaway
When prayers are not answered, we still have every reason for hope and faith, for God fulfills prayers of faith in his time, his way, and according to his will. God always remains God.
I believe that those who persist in faith will not ultimately be disappointed. Somehow in this age or the age to come, God will reward enduring faith.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
All people want lasting happiness. But we find sustained joy in the place least expected.
In this series on practicing God’s presence we have seen the recurring idea of joy. There is a deep connection between practicing God’s presence and joy.
The pursuit of lasting happiness
This is an important subject to explore further because happiness is what we’re all after. We pursue joy in innumerable ways, but in the end that is what we’re seeking. We do things because they make us happy.
So what we need to be convinced of is that practicing God’s presence leads to the ultimate experience of joy. The people on earth who practice God’s presence best are the ones who have the most happiness.
In particular if you struggle with sadness or depression, learning to practice God’s presence better is crucial for you.
What King David learned
David, speaking of himself in the third person, says in Psalm 21:6–7, “You make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.”
David here refers to “the joy of your presence.” He says God’s presence makes him glad. And then he explains further: “For the king trusts in the LORD.” There is a connection between God’s presence and our trust in him. When we practice God’s presence we trust him more.
Security
One of the strongest drives most people have is the pursuit of security. We live in a dangerous world. We can lose anything and everything we value in a moment. Our health, job, money to pay for housing and food and other needs, family, friendships and so on—all are terribly vulnerable. And we know it, so we worry, fear, and feel insecure.
But notice David’s sense of security: “through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” David says with perfect confidence that he shall not be moved.
And he bases that confidence in God’s steadfast love. Ultimately your sense of security can only come from knowing God’s steadfast love, his covenant-based love, for you. It comes from knowing that steadfast love not just with your head, but with your heart, because trust is a heart thing.
And you know God’s steadfast love with your heart when you practice his presence.
Try it today. Practice God’s presence faithfully throughout the day and see if by the end of the day you do not have more trust in God’s steadfast love, a greater sense of security, and ultimately more joy.
Those who walk closest to God are the happiest people in the world.
