Everything I Needed to Know About Prayer...

I LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL

Philippians 4:6-7

Okay, strictly speaking that title probably isn’t true, but it’s true enough and certainly truer than a lot of what the “name it and claim it” crowd might say.

Anyway, I don’t recall the Sunday school teacher’s name.  And I’m sure what she shared on that Sunday morning so many years ago wasn’t original with her but it made enough of an impression that I recently found myself thinking about it.  That, in itself, is surprising because even though I attended Sunday school throughout my childhood and teen years, I don’t recall much about the details.  My parents had a picture of me in a Sunday school class and I don’t remember the teacher or any of the other pupils.  I do have a vague memory of wondering how the flannelgraph worked.  But back to the lesson on prayer my Sunday school teacher shared.

On the chalk board—that’s right, chalk board—she put the letters: ACTS.  She then explained that they stood for what should be part of every prayer.   She put the letters on the board; I’m giving the explanation.  Any confusion in the explanation is mine, not hers.

The first component of prayer is Adoration.

Adoration is praise felt at our deepest level.  It is born out of our recognizing who God is.  The psalmist exhibits adoration when he cries out, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your Name….”  Adoration celebrates God’s nature and character.

Adoration ought to be a component of prayer for at least two reasons. 

First, because it is appropriate:  God is worthy of our adoration.  That is at the heart of worship.  The very word comes from the same root as “worthy.”  Worship says God is worthy of our praise and adoration.

As such, the more we reflect on God’s nature and character, the better we are able to worship.  Psalms—like Psalm 8, 19, 100 and many others—are the products of hearts that have thought about who God is.

There’s another reason for making adoration an element of our prayer.  Adoration inspires hope and confidence as we pray.

With our minds on who God is, we are better able to pray with the hope that he is able and willing to answer our prayers.  There’s a hint of this in the passage.

As Paul writes to the Philippians to help them banish anxiety, he refers to God as “the God of peace.”  He seems to be saying that it is the nature of God to give peace to those who trust him.  When we pray for peace, it makes sense to pray to the God of peace.

Paul does much the same thing in the opening chapter of Second Corinthians.  He is addressing those who have been battered about by life.  Before he speaks to them he offers a prayer of adoration to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”—then he further describes God as “the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.”  To appreciate that description, look at the Amplified translation:  “the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement).”

If you need comfort and encouragement, wouldn’t you like to know that’s the God you’re praying to?

When we pray, let’s make time for adoration.

The second component of prayer, according to that Sunday school teacher, is Confession.

Most of us would just as soon skip this bit.  It makes us feel uncomfortable.  You can certainly understand why.  Confession calls upon us, in the words of the classic prayer, to acknowledge that “we have done those things we ought not to have done and left undone those things we ought to have done.”

But we don’t like to admit we’re guilty of either.  Maybe that’s why it’s placed just after adoration.  When we spend time looking on the glory and majesty of God, we become more aware of our own spiritual poverty.

Of course, the clearest example of this in the Bible is found in the story of Isaiah’s vision of God.   We find it in Isaiah 6.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
      Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
     And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
    And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
   And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

I like the New Living Translation rendering of “Woe is me!”   Is says, “It’s all over.  I’m doomed.”

Isaiah, who was probably someone you’d like as a neighbor, someone you’d describe as a good guy, was brought to a moment of heart-wrenching confession.

And that prepared him to receive God’s blessing.

When we truly confess, we disavow any notion that we somehow merit God’s gifts.  We reject any claim that we have the right to have our prayers answered.  We experience the humility that is open to receive what God deems best for us.

Confession clears away the clutter that stands between us and God.  It opens our eyes to the goodness of God and prepares us for the next phase of prayer.

The next component of prayer involves Thanksgiving.

We need to understand that this is not simply a call to be polite when we pray.  The wording “with thanksgiving” might suggest the note of gratitude is almost an afterthought.  Rather, I think   the idea is that we should thankfully pray, thankfully supplicate, thankfully request.

If adoration is inspired by who God is, thanksgiving is inspired by what God does.  It involves thinking beyond our immediate need.  It calls upon us to think about something else for a moment.  The old admonition, “count your blessings,” may seem simplistic.  But counting anything demands you pay attention, focus on the task.  It means setting what’s happening to you right now in the larger context.  It isn’t always easy but we can do it.  Finding cause to be thankful may keep despair and panic at bay.

It’s easy to forget to be thankful.  The word “supplication” implies intensity.  It can imply someone who is crying out, pleading, even begging.  That kind of feeling can cause us to forget to pause and say thank you.

Practicing gratitude is important because it reminds us that God is still watching out for us.  He is still on our side.  Thanksgiving fills us with hope as we enter the next phase of prayer.

Finally, we get to what some seem to think of as the defining component of prayer, Supplication.

Paul defines it for us by saying that supplication is simply “making your requests known to God.”

The language Paul uses is encouraging.  It implies definite requests.  We’re not limited to vague generalities when we pray.

Knowing we may bring every concern to God can calm the anxious heart.  As a consequence we know the “peace of God.”  Such peace may puzzle those who observe the Christian who is facing a situation that ought to inspire panic.  It is truly a peace that defies understanding or explanation.

Knowing God cares and hears allows us to calm our minds.  We can begin to discipline our thinking in a way that forestalls anxiety and helps us clarify our real needs.

Which List is Longer?

I’m going to spend the remainder of my time talking about these final two components of prayer:  Thanksgiving and Supplication.

If the first part of my sermon was inspired by something a Sunday school teacher said decades ago, this part of the sermon is suggested by two more recent conversations.

In a recent Friday night Bible study, where a group of twenty-somethings met at our house, we discussed how to face financial crisis.  Naturally, the issue of praying about our needs came up.  The matter of balancing giving thanks to God and asking about our needs was raised.  Only a few days later, Pat was in a conversation with our daughter-in-law Kelly and the topic turned to the same subject.

In each case, it was suggested that we have two lists.  One list enumerates those things for which we are thankful.  The other list enumerates our needs and wants—the concerns we bring to God.  In each case (the Bible study and the phone call), the question was raised “Which list is longer?”

It’s a good question.  Of course, not everyone who prays comes before God with two lists.  Many people come with only the one list—the list of what they want from God.  So recalling that we ought to have two lists is important.

At the same time, I don’t want to be misunderstood.  I would never judge a person’s spiritual condition by the relative lengths of their thank-you and their request lists.  Neither should you.  That broken-hearted person whose life is in shambles just may not be able to produce a lengthy gratitude list at a moment’s notice.  Because of this maybe we would all be wise to always begin our thanksgiving list with “Thank you, Lord, for the many anonymous and secret ways you bless me every day.”

Spending time on our thanksgiving list is good discipline.  We need to be like detectives looking for clues pointing to God’s activity in our lives.  Jesus once told a crowd that both sunshine and rain are God’s blessing.  We sometimes forget that.  Years ago, I heard an Amarillo DJ complain that the rain predicted for the upcoming weekend would spoil plans he had made for an outing.  The region that depends so much on agriculture was in the midst of a long-standing drought.  The DJ failed to see there would be other picnics and that his temporary disappointment would lead to greater prosperity for his neighbors and job security for him.  May we have the wisdom to put together a good thanksgiving list.

If we spend time on our thanksgiving list, maybe we need to spend time on our request list.  That would be good discipline too.  We need to understand why we need what we believe we need.

It will help us to pray more intelligently.  It may help us to see when God is beginning to answer our prayers through the back door, rather than answer them in a way that is obvious to everyone watching—including us.

Whether these two lists ever exist anywhere outside your mind, they will help you keep a balance to your praying.  They will sharpen your insight into what God is doing in your life.  And you will be encouraged as a matter that was once on your request list finds its way to your thank-you list.

Conclusion

Of course, as I said, my title is not entirely true.  My Sunday school teacher’s effort to simplify prayer didn’t cover everything.  Her teaching device was helpful but didn’t cover those aspects of prayer that remain mysterious.

Still, if we practice adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication we may come to that place where we can trust God for what can’t be easily put on the chalkboard or in an Elmo presentation.

Sailing through the Doldrums

A sermon preached because we've all been there.

Joshua 14:6-14

            You’ve probably heard reference to the doldrums, either as a term related to the sailing ships or related to the emotions.  Like me, you may have assumed the mental and emotional condition took its name from the weather condition.  Listen to this from a dictionary on the history of English.

The Doldrums is the region of calm winds, centered slightly north of the equator and between the two belts of trade winds, which meet there and neutralize each other. It is widely assumed that the phrase 'in the doldrums' is derived from the name of this region. Actually, it's the other way about. In the 19th century, 'doldrum' was a word meaning 'dullard; a dull or sluggish fellow'…  The term was used to mean 'a general state of low spirits' in the early 19th century.

So, “doldrum” came refer to region of the ocean where ships were unable to continue their journeys.  Coleridge describes the effect in The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner:

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

It’s a good picture of what happens when you and I experience the doldrums. 

I certainly have been there.  Nothing seems worth the effort.  The future seems without promise.  You can’t muster the energy to do what needs to be done to get back on track.  You’re in the doldrums.  In the children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster describes a place called The Doldrums “…inhabited by the Lethargarians who do nothing all day, a place where ‘nothing ever happens and nothing ever changes.’" [1]

How can we break out of them?   Can we do anything to avoid them?   How can we keep sailing through the doldrums? We can find some answers in the life of Caleb.

Caleb's life was defined by two events.  One took place when he was about forty; the other took place forty-five years later.

Minority Report

The first event took place at Kedesh Barnea and helped determine the future for both Caleb and the recently-liberated nation of Israel.  Kedesh Barnea is in the northeast part of the Sinai Peninsula, due south of Gaza.

The people had escaped from Egypt only a few months before.  Now they stood poised to enter the land that had been promised to Abraham four centuries before. 

Twelve spies were sent into Canaan to scout the territory.  When they returned all twelve reported the abundant wealth of the land.  All agreed that it was a land of plenty.  But ten of the spies said, "We could never conquer the people there.  They were like giants; we were like grasshoppers." 

It wasn’t long before Caleb had had enough of this and spoke up.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."  (Numbers 13:30)

In the end, only two, Joshua and Caleb, said, "With God's help, the land can be ours."  No one listened.  The people began to complain that they would have been better off back in Egypt.  They said that they would die in the wilderness.  Some of them even suggested killing these blatant optimists.  They weren’t ready to move on, if anything, they were ready to start a back to Egypt movement.

In response, God decreed that no adults, except Joshua and Caleb, would enter the Promised Land.  What followed was forty years of wandering, one year for each day the spies had spent in Canaan.

Down By the Riverside

The next scene takes place several decades later near the end of the conquest of Canaan.  It is my text for this morning:  Joshua 14:6-14.

Canaan was almost conquered.  Caleb had long fought beside his younger countrymen and, now, when many would have opted for a small place down by the river, a place already secured by the military forces, Caleb approached Joshua and said, “Give me my mountain.”

I can imagine Caleb, his beard growing grayer every passing year, but his strength never seeming to diminish.  There were no doldrums for him.  I can imagine younger Israelites marveling at him.  I can imagine him telling all who would listen, “One of these days God’s going to give us a home, a land of our own.  And in that land there’s a mountain with some tough people living on it.  They don’t know it yet but I own that mountain!”

When Caleb chose his inheritance it’s obvious he’d never heard the real-estate mantra:  “Location, location, location.”  The land he chose for himself was the home of the Anakim—the people who had so intimidated the ten spies some forty years before.  They were a rough group; biker gangs would have walked softly around them.  Clearly, Caleb had no intention to start taking the easy route.

Most of us look at Caleb and see someone we admire.  Why?  He didn’t let circumstances stop him.  He kept a goal in sight and kept moving toward it.

I

IF YOU WANT TO SAIL THROUGH THE DOLDRUMS STRIVE TO MAINTAIN A VITAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

1.  Not long after we meet Caleb God gives him a very powerful commendation.  " my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, " (Numbers 14:24)

1:1 Caleb’s “different spirit” was seen in his refusal to follow the crowd.  While the crowd was saying “We can’t,” Caleb was saying “We can.” 

The phrase “follows me wholeheartedly” is interesting.  Literally it means Caleb was "fulfilled to walk behind Jehovah."  The Hebrew words carry the notion of "being satisfied."

1:2  Caleb found satisfaction in a vital, dynamic relationship with God.  Many of us go through life looking for satisfaction.  Caleb found it in God.

2.  Some forty years later Caleb summed up his testimony in almost the same words.  He said, “I have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.”  :

2:1  This was an ongoing commitment.  It did not change with the seasons of life.  Neither prosperity nor hardship had shaken it.

2:2  This was a humble commitment.  Caleb was willing to "walk behind" God, allowing him to lead the way. 

2:3  Caleb was an outsider, a foreigner, one not born into one of the clans of Israel.  This Kenizzite recognized himself as a recipient of God's grace. 

--On the one hand, that knowledge meant he would be content to live with God's plan and God's timing.

--On the other hand, knowing that he had been accepted by God gave him a boldness which made him willing to stand alone, to stand against the crowd.  That day at Kedesh Barnea Caleb didn’t say to Joshua, “You know, the polls show that 80% of the experts are against this plan to conquer the promised land;  maybe you and I should reevaluate our position.” 

No, when he was younger, he had the faith to say, “With God’s help we can win.”  Then in old age he said, “I’ve lived my life with God’s help; now, with God’s help, I can take that mountain.”

II

IF YOU WANT TO SAIL THROUTH THE DOLDRUMS, WE SHOULD MAINTAIN SOME KEY PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE.

Caleb’s positive attitude changed his outlook on those things which sometimes rob our life of joy, it will change ours too.

1.  To sail through the doldrums, remember the presence, the power, and the promises of God.

Caleb knew God was with them on the threshold of the promised land.  When it came time to cross the Jordan, God wouldn’t be standing on the bank waving to them as they invaded the land alone.  He would be with them.

Caleb knew God had the might to bring them into the land.  The very existence of Israel, free from the slavery of Egypt, testified to that power.

He knew God had said He would bring them into the land.  One writer has said, “Caleb was brave among cowards, assured among skeptics.”  God’s promise was enough to fill him with confidence.

For the Christian, a positive attitude is not simply a matter of wishful thinking;  it is rooted in what we know about God and his faithfulness.

When we think of the promises of God, we can approach the future with “a different spirit.”  Think about this.  Those who have a secular worldview, who reject the Christian worldview say one of two things about the future:  Things are going to get better or things are going to get worse.  (The apocalyptic stories of a lot of modern science fiction seem to take the second position.)  At the same time, those who hold the Christian worldview, depending upon their approach to the End Times, say one of two things about the future:  Things are going to get better or things are going to get worse—before they get better.

Knowing the God who has our good in mind is with us, can keep us sailing.

2.  To sail through the doldrums, reject the hyper-negativity of those with no vision. 

Four decades after the tragic rejection of Caleb and Joshua’s minority report the wiry old general would recall:  “…my brethren [the ten spies] who went up with me made the heart of the people melt….” 

Few things are as contagious as negativism.  Someone paraphrased Kipling’s famous observation:  “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs,  you obviously don’t know what’s going on.”

Caleb's attitude was not born out of denial.  He knew there were giants in the land.  He knew the cities were well fortified.  He knew the enemy would have the "home field advantage."  But he was so positive about the promises of God that he didn't mind standing in the minority.

By the way, notice this.  After all those years, he refers to the ten spies as “my brethren.”  He may not have agreed with them.  Their attitudes may have cost him a lot of shoe leather as he wandered around the wilderness.  But he never forgot they had a fundamental relationship; even more so do you have a relationship with your fellow believers, even if they lack vision.  Only by keeping that relationship in mind can you hope to help them see what you see.

Historically, a ship caught in the doldrums could very soon have serious trouble as supplies of food and fresh water began to run low.  Getting out of the doldrums sometimes meant the crew had to lower their rowing boats and tow the ship to wherever there was sufficient wind.  No single sailor could do this.  It required the effort of the whole crew.  While we admire Caleb and Joshua for being willing to stand against the majority, we should remember going it alone isn’t the ideal.  Don’t recklessly disregard the strength and support you may find in the community of faith.

3.  To sail through the doldrums, reject unproductive comparisons.

Both Caleb and Joshua gave positive reports about the land.  Yet it was Joshua who became Moses’ lieutenant, Joshua who became the leader of the people after the death of Moses.  Caleb could have become bitter.  He did not.

Some of the most miserable people I know are those who are always comparing themselves to others, especially if others receive recognition for some effort.  They envy the spotlight falling on others.  These people easily get bogged down in bitterness.

4.  To sail through the doldrums, be willing to let others shine..  (Judges 1:11-15)

In an arid land water was crucial.  It showed great trust to give the springs to his daughter and her husband.

Some family patriarchs just can't let go.  Of business.  Of the kitchen.  They fail to see how affirming trust and responsibility can be.

5.  To sail through the doldrums, take delight in helping other win.

Caleb had helped others win their land.  He didn’t say, “First, I’ll get my mountain then I’ll help others.”   He gave himself to others before going out to win his piece of the promised land.

Caleb’s generosity was further demonstrated when he gave Hebron to be one of the Levitical cities.

Self-centeredness is one of the ugliest traits and it can leave us stuck in the doldrums.

CONCLUSION

Allow me to make a couple final points.  Depression can sometimes masquerade as a stint in the doldrums.  There may be times when nothing you do helps you set sail again.  At times like that you may need some professional help.  Be glad it’s available.

Caleb’s story is sometimes held up as an example for senior adults.  Certainly it is, but it’s more.  His story is a story of how to finish your life but it’s also a story of how to begin your life. 

Caleb’s life is an example of how young and old should live for God:  Live all out. But keep in mind, the Bible assures us that a gracious God allows us to make mid-course corrections, to enter into a relationship with him even if we ignored his claims for years. 

Then, with God’s help our lives will be transformed, we can sail out of the doldrums.

---

[1] See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doldrums

Change or Change

Philippians 4:10-13

A few years ago, Pat and I visited a little village somewhere west of London,  Moreton in Marsh.  Stepping into Moreton was like stepping back into another century—not the twentieth. 

We arrived on a Tuesday, the day of the weekly village market.  Stalls selling everything from tea towels to lamb chops were set up on the square.  Next to the square were old buildings that seemed unchanged for generations.  It wasn’t like downtown Worthington.  Here in Worthington you get the impression that some years ago the civic leaders said to themselves, “Let’s keep the old buildings we have and even require any new buildings to look like they were freshly built in colonial New England.  We might attract a few tourists and, besides, think of the fun we’ll have making the merchants and homeowners follow all the rules.”

In the center of Moreton in Marsh there weren’t any new buildings.   The buildings didn’t just look like they belonged to another century; they belonged to that century.

Now, I’m sure you could buy a computer in Moreton or a power drill, but I never saw a computer store and to buy tools you had to visit the ironmonger’s shop.   We had tea in a quaint little café  where, if you wanted the washroom, you had to go to a little building at the end of a path.

Toward the end of the afternoon, we decided to eat before going back to the train.  It was about 5:00 when we went into one of restaurants.  “Are you serving dinner,” Pat asked.  The proprietor looked at us as if we had just suggested Queen Elizabeth wear a miniskirt the races at Ascot.  He said, “Dinner is at 6 o’clock [period].”  The “period” was unspoken but it was there. 

I can only imagine what he’d think of one of our restaurants advertising “Breakfast Served All Day.”

Change is hard.  If dinnertime were the only change we had to contend with most of us would be happy.

Change happens all around us.  It happens in every facet of our lives.  Schools are changing.  The workplace is changing.  Families are changing.  Even our churches are changing.

We don’t care for change because it impinges upon our comfort zones.  The status quo makes us feel safe and secure.  Change—at least at the beginning—brings insecurity.

Columnist Ellen Goodman has written

“We cling to even the minor routines with an odd tenacity.  We’re upset when the waitress who usually brings us coffee in the breakfast shop near the office suddenly quits, and are disoriented if the drugstore or the cleaner’s in the neighborhood closes….  We each have a litany of holiday rituals and everyday habits that we hold on to, and we often greet radical innovation with the enthusiasm of a baby meeting a new sitter.”

We don’t care for change because change demands learning new ways of thinking and doing.  Change can be hard work.  Some of those teachers you’ve had who are using the same lecture notes they used a decade ago may simply be too lazy to change.

We don’t care for change because change opens the door to conflict with others.  In fact, most students of conflict tell us there is no change without conflict.

Dr. Spencer Johnson in Who Moved My Cheese?  says we can be like mice who have become so attached to their cheese they fail to notice when it has become rancid.  Such mice are unwilling to seek new cheese, so unwilling they starve.

The Bible nowhere addresses the issue of change.  It does assume that change is a fact of life.  It does portray a spectrum of responses to change.

*                    The men and women who had been carried away from Israel to Babylon as living spoils of war looked at the change and cried out, “By the rivers of Babylon we wept when we remembered Zion—the way things used to be, before it all changed.  On the willow trees we hung our harps, unable to sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land.”
               You’ve known such men and women.  They seem unable to move into the now, to accept the changes which have occurred in their lives.  They may dwell on the past—for them, “BC” refers to that portion of their lives “before the change.”  Their “joy” never seems full or complete.  You can easily imagine them clicking their heels together and whispering, “There’s no place like home, there’s no job like the old job, there’s no church like the old church, there’s no house like the old house.”  The litany could go on and on.  They have never moved into “AD”—accepting the difference.

*                       Paul, sitting in a prison cell, reflected on all the changes in his life and wrote, “I knew plenty, then things changed and I knew hunger;   I was popular, then things changed and I was despised.  In all of these changes I have learned how to be content.  Through Christ I’ve handled the changes.”

You’ve known men and women like Paul.  They seem to be able to accept whatever life throws their way with hardly a loss of stride.  They can go from lunch at The Refectory to brown-bagging it without losing their balance, their joy.

Some men and women in the Bible handled change well;  some handled it poorly.  Some men and women we know handle change well;  some handle it poorly.

Even though the Bible doesn’t directly discuss change it does provide enough insights for us to draw certain principles for dealing with change.

The Bible reminds us that change is part of life.

Although he may have been less than enthusiastic in reporting the matter, the writer of Ecclesiastes pictures the changes which occur as we grow older.

ECC 12:1 Remember your Creator

    in the days of your youth,

  before the days of trouble come

    and the years approach when you will say,

    "I find no pleasure in them"--

  ECC 12:2 before the sun and the light

    and the moon and the stars grow dark,

    and the clouds return after the rain;

  ECC 12:3 when the keepers of the house tremble,

    and the strong men stoop,

  when the grinders cease because they are few…

The writer’s picture of old age is bleak but, of course, this writer is bleak about most things.  Other Biblical writers speak of the joy of getting older.  The point is, change is part of life.  It’s the way things are.  Almost six hundred years before the birth of Christ made the simple observation, “You can’t step into the same river twice.”  Even in Moreton in Marsh some of those stands were selling cell-phone cases. 

Because change is part of life it is advisable to expect it, to prepare for those changes we can anticipate and to develop skills for dealing with those changes which come on us unexpectedly.  The first step in preparation seem to be to make a commitment to God, “your Creator,” early in life.

The Bible reminds us to embrace some change wholeheartedly.

Jesus once spoke of the radical impact of the gospel.  Using homely language he described how his message of grace and freedom could not be confined in the rigid structures of the past.  Listen to his   words:

MK 2:21 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. [22] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

Change can be a challenge.  It seldom can take place in isolation from other changes.  You can attach an automotive computer to a ’57 Chevy but it won’t make a difference in how the car runs.  Other changes would have to be made as well.

A teenager who has had to move to a new school may find herself friendless, not because the school is so different than the one she left, but because she refuses to employ the simple people- skills she brought with her to the new situation.  She is so angry at her parents for moving, angry at God for letting it happen, angry at these new people for not being like her old friends, that she dooms herself to failure.

It seems we seldom have the choice to change or not change.  Instead, we either  face the change in a way that suggests our determination to seize the opportunities that may be latent in the new situation or face the change in a way that leaves us with no voice, where we are at the whim of circumstance. 

The Bible reminds us that change in our lives doesn’t mean God has changed.

In Romans 8 Paul discusses the many challenges we may face as Christians, challenges which might include extreme changes in our lives.  He even says that some to these challenging changes might cause us to doubt God’s love.  They shouldn’t because God’s love is steadfast and certain.  In the midst of all the changes we may encounter in our lives one thing is certain: “…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (RO 8:28)

What a shame if we were to be so resistant to change that we fail to see God’s hand at work in our lives to bring his good to us.

How do we handle change?

We all know change will come to our lives.   Sometimes it is bidden, sometimes it comes unbidden but change will come.  How can we face it?  The following suggestions deal with handling change.

In his book, Confronting the Fear of Change:  What to Do When Better Seems Worse, Blaine Smith offers some Biblical principles for dealing with change.

First, Smith reminds those facing change that it is normal to have reservations about change.

This is true whether you are changing jobs or planning to get married.  There are those folks who seem fearless before the changes which come their way, but you shouldn’t feel bad just because you aren’t one of them.

Second, Smith suggests those facing change take time to mourn what they’ve left behind.

A certain amount of grief results from change.  Moving across the country involves leaving behind familiar friends and special places.   If you didn’t grieve the loss of those friendships, those places, it would be surprising.

At the same time, grief eventually subsides.  The grief which results from change ought to eventually subside.

Third, Smith encourages those facing change to pray for strength and eagerness.

We can only help ourselves if we turn to God to help us face change.  In asking for strength we are saying, “Lord, with your help, I know I can face this change.”  In asking for eagerness, we are saying, “Lord, with your help, I know I can have a new attitude in the midst of this change.”

Fourth, Smith challenges those facing change to take control of their thinking.

Control your thinking and your feelings about the change and the battle is nearly won. 

It won’t be easy.  In fact, there may be those friends whose attitudes will hinder you.  They just don’t feel happy about the change you’ve made and can’t bring themselves to support you.  Don’t abandon these friends but try to seek out those who are encouraging.

Fifth, Smith suggests those who facing change to accept the principle of tradeoffs.

Simply put, while most change brings losses, those same changes usually bring benefits.  If a move means distance from some friends, it also means the opportunity to make new friends.  If  a change of employment means having to learn new skills, it also means discovering we have talents untapped before.

CONCLUSION

I’m not sure I will ever learn to love change.  I’ll never buy the notion that all change is good.  Yet, when you resist change you may be keeping yourself from seeing something magnificent, something grand:  God’s grace at work in your life.

Blaine Smith has a final word for us:

“The best news is that God is on our side as we make the effort to confront our fears of change and embrace his best for us.  We should be determined in this effort, trusting that he will give us all the grace we need as we step forward.  May God grant us the wisdom to see his best at every point in our life, and the courage to move beyond any fears that stand in the way.”