From Death To Life — In His Name

As Chad and I were heading to visit dear friends, I noticed trees growing from huge rock formations, not just a few trees, but thousands of them. I thought “how is this possible?, aren’t trees suppose to grow in dirt and spread out their roots?, how odd, yet, how beautiful to see trees sprouting from stone.” I’m not an expert in geology by any means, but I’m pretty sure there’s a logical, scientific reason for this, I’m just not sure what it is.

In a spiritual sense, there is another thought that comes to mind. Life can also arise from a cold, dead, hard-as-stone, heart. The Father can reach lifeless souls and touch them in ways so powerful, so permanent, that the only explanation points to them having been in His presence.

As some of you may know, my husband Chad has been furloughed for a number of months now from a job he loves. Through his struggles of doubts and despair, isolation and fatigue, he has come to conclusion that Jesus IS the only answer that makes sense.

He recently challenged me and others in our bible study to pray for one person that we hate. Yes, I used the word “HATE.” From my experience, we all have that person in our life who rubs us the wrong way, who, when we see them coming, duck and run in the opposite direction, hoping they won’t notice. We avoid their calls and texts, and wish we wouldn’t see them at church. This “hate” or great dislike, if you feel more comfortable saying, can go beyond the encounters of our normal day to day interactions co-workers, friends, and family.

If I may, I’d like to extend even further out on this limb of uncomfortability and suggest that we may have hateful feelings towards specific people in government and media, those with different political views, and those causing destruction in the streets, and even wish they would disappear for all eternity. In an essence, we “hate” them. They bother and offend us, they persecute us through their immorality and lack of integrity, and disrupt our comfortable, predictable lives. Yet, Jesus said “forgive as I have forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). He showed us by example the way in which to live.

The lyrics from the song Highly Exalted by Robin Mark describe it best when referring to the way The Lord handled Himself as He chose to be slaughtered for our sins and the sins of every person in this world -

“You were despised, You were rejected Lord. Those who passed by even averted their gaze from the sight, such was the suffering You bore for us. Led like a lamb, a lamb to the slaughter, You spoke not a word, chose to be silent, though You did no wrong, nor was deceitfulness found in You. Yet by Your wounds our salvation has come. Yet by Your suffering our freedom is won. For God has highly exalted Your name. He has enthroned on You high. Jesus the Name above all names…

Through His great sacrifice, we get to experience freedom from fear and hatred, and live the life He has called us to. Are we allowing His life to flow through us or have we permitted our minds, our hearts, to become burdened and blinded with revenge, envy, bitterness, and, yes, even hatred? For those of us who have a personal relationship with the Maker through Jesus Christ, there is good news. We don’t have to live with this burden, we can truly walk in freedom.

When Chad asked the question who do we hate?, I’ve got to be honest, no one came to mind. Instead I thought, I’m a christian, I’m not supposed to hate, I don’t hate. Then he shared about a person he knows personally who abused his own child for a many years and has escaped punishment for his crimes. Aha, the lightbulb went on for me at that moment, and I confessed that I had bitter, even hateful feelings towards this individual. The Holy Spirit also reminded me that He had delivered me from hate many years earlier, so, I was to continue to walk in that freedom as I prayed for this individual, but more about that later.

Chad further challenged us with how we should pray for the people we hate. Rather than the usual impersonal, prideful, and selfish “Lord change them, make them see the light, make them change their ways, make them believe like us, make them pay for their offenses,” prayers, he challenged us instead to ask God to prepare our hearts before we pray, to change our hearts as we pray, and give us His heart so that we can pray for their souls to be saved. Isn’t this the end result? Don’t we want lost souls to be saved, to experience, maybe even for the first time, the precious love and eternal acceptance that only comes through Jesus Christ? Don’t we want people to know Jesus personally? Isn’t this what we live for?

What is causing us to skirm in our seats right now? What is causing us to hesitate? Is there unforgiveness or disbelief hidden deep within? What is it that is keeping us from moving forward in prayer, when this is what God expects from us? Do we think they don’t deserve it? Do we think they’ve done too many evil things, that there is no hope left for them?

It’s OK to process with The Lord, He can handle it. It’s the not-letting-Him-do-the-work-needed-in-our-hearts that prevents others from seeing Him live through us. As we take a step back and allow The Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, just imagine for a moment, if every believer in every part of this world prayed for the person(s) they hate. Are you getting a glimpse of the possibilities of what could happen? Are you getting excited like me? The possibilities are endless!

I’d like to share a story as we sit with this reality in our hearts. There was a life changing moment for me in which God rocked my world. It was early on in my walk with The Lord at a Prison Fellowship training. I was truly struggling with accepting the truth that anyone, and I mean ANYONE, could be forgiven by God. This was an internal struggle, I didn’t dare share with other believers because, surely, I was the only one battling this and trying to come to grips with it. Then I heard the testimony from a man whose sister was brutally murdered. He revealed his struggles to forgive the man who did such unspeakable things and the process The Lord carried him through so that he could forgive. At that moment The Lord touched my heart in a magnificent way. He gave me His eyes for people so that I could see them as people first who sin, people in need of The Savior, just like me. There is no heart so evil, so vile, that cannot be stripped bare, cleansed, washed with the blood of The Lamb, then sealed for eternity with The Lord. So, let’s pray. Let’s ask The Lord to change us and give us His heart, His eyes, for the lost and despondent people in this world. It’s not our job to decide who gets a ticket to heaven, rather, it’s our call, our privilege, to pray on their behalf and leave the results up to God. Anyone with me?

Isaiah 53:7-9