I’m so thrilled and grateful to have a special guest with us today! I first met Christine Duncan of Precepts & Life Preservers back in the summer of 2015, and since that time I have been incredibly blessed by her friendship. Christine was a part of the Everyday Joy blog series last year (this was the springboard for the eventual launching of the Finding Joy podcast) and today, she returns to the Making Life Sweet blog to share what God has been teaching her about prayer. Grab your coffee mug and pull up a chair, because this is a word all of us need to hear.
God’s been teaching me about how I define an answer to prayer lately. Again.
Because as we so often do with life lessons, we forget quickly when a crisis is over the things He reveals in the midst of struggles and battles at the time. And I’d forgotten this simple truth: As believers, it’s so easy for us to make life about our circumstances.
And when that happens, we often make our faith about our circumstances.
“Lord, I have faith that my circumstance will change soon! Lord, I have faith that this situation will be removed. Lord, how soon before the hard things grow easier?”
Not that the Father can’t meet us in our need, because He certainly can. But often His plan to meet our need and our ideas of His plan to meet our need are two very different things.This is what I’ve been learning on my personal journey anyway. Something feels hard, or goes terribly wrong, or starts wearing us down and all we can think about or pray on is how badly we need the situation resolved. Meanwhile, He wants our undivided attention in a completely different capacity.
When we look at the Bible, we see the nation of Israel was being taught the same thing. Concerned about their status, concerned about their legacy, concerned about threats looming large over them for eons, and their delicate future, Isaiah steps into prophetic shoes and makes a declaration from God that needed special attention. Because it concerned their much needed salvation. And as God plunked me into the middle of the book of Isaiah last week in my devotions on the prayerful life, I realized there lays a declaration I had misinterpreted in regards to answered prayer for such a long time.
How many in Israel misinterpreted it at the time as well? Or misinterpret it still?
“They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. They shall neither hunger nor thirst. Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, even by the springs of water He will guide them. I will make each of My mountains a road, and My highways will be elevated.” Isaiah 49:9(b)-11
At first glance, this part of Isaiah’s prophecy seems circumstance-based. I had always read it that way. My devotional was prompting me to read it that way. Out of context it certainly seems like a verse I could really pray out and expect new pastures, shade, refreshing waters, paths carved out…. answers to prayer. The hard things made right. Out of context, relief coming for Israel that they could really sing about.
But when the Spirit prompted me to back up and take in the whole scene, it changes and becomes oh so much more.
This is actually from a whole prophecy from Isaiah about The Answer. This is a prophecy about the Servant Messiah Christ, the Light of the World. They are words from God about the solution He has prepared to give soon in the form of Jesus.
It is not a sweet passage about fixing your circumstance. It’s a passage about Christ entering into our circumstance.
Read back through the passage, friend, and understand what God was saying then, and continues to say now: Desolate heights may remain, but He’s given us Christ who shows up to be our pasture we can thrive on regardless. Heat or harsh sun may beat down and surround us, but He gives us Christ who becomes our shade and protection.
He is the water in the desert. He is the road taking you out of the valley. He is the highway carrying you up and over.
Do you know what this means for us?
We don’t have to make our faith all about what level of hardship we’re facing yet again, and how long it might take for prayer to resolve it. This isn’t about wondering if we have enough faith, or whether we can endure much longer. This is about the Prince of Princes and Lord of Lords who stepped out of his perfect and heavenly realm, threw off His royal robes of glory and inserted Himself into every aspect of our lives, for His glory.
The One large enough to fashion galaxies and hold them in His hands now available to fit into our circumstances. In every capacity. So we would never be alone. So we would become victors. So we could have everything we need to carry on. So that one day we would meet the Answer face to face.
Pasture. Provision. Shade. Water. The Road through. Our Highway.
There’s a name for our answer to prayer — His name is Jesus.
*Quote background floral graphic designed by Devon Aragona.
Such a good reminder in hard times. No one promised us life would be easy, but we are promised that God will help us through it.
Amen, Julie! Such a great word from Christine — exactly the reminder I need each and every day.
Such a good word! Thanks for the beautiful encouragement!
Thanks for stopping by Kelly! Blessings to you! 🙂
Oh if we would only turn to Him all the time
Amen! It’s something I’m working on more and more each day.
Ladies, so grateful for your comments and response…. and Lauren, man oh man, I’m super grateful that we connected not all that long ago, and feels like we’ve been friends for so much longer. Thank you for your gracious invite to be your guest today and share what was on my heart! He is our constant victory, amen? xxoo
This is a great reminder. We are sometimes so focussed on ourselves that we can’t see that even if God did nothing else for us, He gave us Jesus and that is enough. Lucky for us, He didn’t stop there though!
This is such a good devotional! And how often we read Scripture and think of God circumstancially; as in, if things are better it means He’s with us, if things are not, it means He’s against us. It reminds me of the blind man they brought to Jesus, and everyone asking, “Was this man born blind because of his sin or his parent’s?” And Jesus answers, “Neither. But so that the glory of God would be revealed.” His circumstance was an opportunity for God to enter. He wants to enter in all our situations.
Beautiful post. In the midst of our trials, so often we want God to take us out. When we know that God is always about His work of Grace and desires our best, we learn we can trust Him in the trial. Sometimes the very trial we want out of is an act of God’s Grace to draw us in and reveal that He is our greatest treasure. As I battled ulcerative colitis, I was awakened every morning at 4 am with severe pain and trips to the bathroom every 20 minutes. Between the bathroom trips, I would retire to my prayer closet where I had placed my recliner, a side table, and my bible. For 2-3 hours every morning I sat with God in prayer and bible reading. I still get up at 4 every morning to be alone with God. So, all the pain and suffering from that dreaded disease which continued for over a year until the surgeons removed my colon, were God’s Act of Grace to bring me ever closer to Him. He is my greatest treasure, He is my joy. Let me share with you this poem I wrote.
An Act of Grace
As I look back over my life
Remembering the pain and strife
There were those nights of bitter tears
When I awoke heart full of fears
To stumble then to find my chair
Where I would sit alone in prayer
My Bible opened there I’d read
Of hope, of love, of all I need
Your songs of joy poured over me
Salvation’s song had set me free
And suddenly I saw a light
A thought that brought such pure delight
The pain had been Your act of Grace
To Cause this heart to seek Your face
And find in You, my love, my friend
This hope and joy will never end
And now, Dear Lord I know it’s true
All that I need I find in you
I leap to rise before daylight
To sit with You, my pure delight
And talk with You about each day
That I might find Your will, Your way
My Bible opened there I read
Of hope, of love, of all I need
Your songs of joy pour over me
Salvation’s song has set me free
And as each day with dawning light
New trials come as is life’s plight
Whatever comes it is Your Grace
Allowing me to seek Your face
I find in You, my love, my friend
This hope and joy will never end