Lead:

God answers some prayers. Here’s what we know. And what we don’t.

Intro:

God, though this life is but a wraith,
Although we know not what we use,
Although we grope with little faith,
Give me the heart to fight — and lose.
Ever insurgent let me be,
Make me more daring than devout;
From sleek contentment keep me free,
And fill me with a buoyant doubt.
Open my eyes to visions girt
With beauty, and with wonder lit —
But let me always see the dirt
And all that spawn and die in it.
Open my ears to music; let
Me thrill with Spring’s first flutes and drums —
But never let me dare forget
The bitter ballads of the slums.
From compromise and things half-done,
Keep me, with stern and stubborn pride.
And when, at last, the fight is won,
God, keep me still unsatisfied.(1)
~ Louis Untermeyer

As we pick up today, Paul’s just wrapping up his direct, in-your-face appeal. Then, as he usually does, he talks about how this applies to life. Then he closes with yet another warning. Like I told you at the beginning, Galatians is a pretty stern letter, but we can also hear Paul’s heart of love breaking like a parent breaking for a wayward child.

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Bible:

Passage: Galatians 5-6
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 44
Words: ~962

All Our Minds:

When it comes to prayer, I have always been fascinated with Daniel chapter ten. You will recall that in that story Daniel’s in angst. Three weeks later an angel shows up and says

12 And he said to me, “You must not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself ⌊before⌋ your God, your words were heard, and I myself have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood ⌊before me⌋ for twenty-one days. And look, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to assist me, and I left him there beside the king of the Persians. 14 And I have come to instruct you about what will happen to your people ⌊in the future⌋, for there is a further vision here ⌊for the future⌋. Da 10:12–14, LEB

Three weeks! (Right here is a good example of stuff you’ll hear on the podcast that you don’t get in the notes…because these are alway the first draft).

Friends, today isn’t about a theology of prayer so much as a personal reflection. That poem was in a book of poetry I received as a gift from a friend who is no longer a friend, and I still pray for this person. And, you see, I could recount a lengthy list of answered prayers including one as recently as yesterday. But not all of them, including some I’ve been praying every day for a long time.

There was a show a few weeks ago (#923) where I pointed out that one way to do “life hermeneutics” (interpreting the world around us) is like how we interpret the Bible — we interpret that which we’re less sure about by that which we’re more sure about. And what do we know about prayer?

God hears all of them. His timing isn’t our timing. He wants to give us good things. He has promised He’ll give us that which is asked for in His name and according to His will.

But all of these have something common: We don’t know everything that’s going on. But even if we can’t know Him exhaustively, we can know Him truly.

I have been blessed. Just in the last few days I’ve seen more than one prayer answered. But that’s some prayers, not all prayers.

Now lest I sound like I’m this awesome, pious, perfectly-trusting-God prayer warrior, let me assure you I’m not. I’m like you. I wish I prayed more. I sometimes pray and feel like I’m wasting my time talking to a wall. Or thinking that if He reeeeally knew what a dumbass I am that there’s no way I could expect Him to respond.

Except He does. Both knowing that I’m a dumbass and responding.

And I want that for you. Wherever you are. Whoever’s friend you used to be but aren’t anymore. Whatever you’ve done or haven’t done, Jesus loves you. And that poem isn’t wrong…we should be unsatisfied in the sense that we are hungry for our relationship with Him and others to be better. But in His great wisdom, somehow in all of that we can rest with assurance and blessing and sufficiency and hope.

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 123-124
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 12
Words: ~197

Passage: Proverbs 12:11-20
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 10
Words: ~160

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

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(1) A Treasury of Poems: A Collection of the World's Most Famous and Familiar Verse, compiled Sarah Anne Stuart, (New York, NY: Galahad Books, 1999), 515-516.

The new translation we’re trying this week: New Century Version

Not used today, but stuff I like:

D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998).

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993). <—this, and it’s OT companion, are great commentaries if you like something more than a study Bible and less than a set of 66 books — they add a lot of interesting details. Keener’s a killer apologist, too.

The Story of Reality, Greg Koukl — Love this book. A killer intro to the Christian worldview that is philosophically and theologically sound while being accessible to all readers.

#941: Galatians 5-6 | Some prayers | Psalm 123-124 | Proverbs 12:11-20