God reaffirms our faith

Judges 7 finds the Israelites facing the large, intimidating Midianite army. (Their count was "without number"!) Gideon, the Israelite leader, has an army of only 300 men, so things look dire! But God tells Gideon (Judges 7:7, KJV),

I [will] save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.

Gideon, faced with such improbable odds, probably struggles to really believe this. But then a member of the Midianite army has a vision in a dream, and an interpreter conveys the meaning that dream to Gideon (Judges 7:14, KJV),

This is ... the sword of Gideon ... for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.

Gideon, encouraged by this message, proceeds to worship God and eventually defeat the Midianites.
 
The amazing part of the story is that, rather than punish Gideon for his (understandable) doubt, God seeks to boost his faith by sending Gideon a reaffirming message. And this is after God has already told Gideon that he will defeat the Midianites.

The larger message, as it seems, is that God understands our day-to-day weaknesses in faith. And, if we keep our hearts open to him, he'll send reaffirmations to boost our faith.

...asked not counsel of the Lord

Life, of course, is not always easy. Jesus acknowledges as much when he says (Matthew 6:34, KJV),

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

But we don't have to confront those daily troubles alone. God not only offers his help, he requires that we seek his help.

Turning to Chapter 9 of Joshua, we find the Israelites entering into an ill-advised treaty with the Gibeonites. God already has forbidden such treaties, but the Gibeonites present a convincing, albeit deceptive, case for establishing a peace treaty.

When confronted with a morally ambiguous situation, the Israelites should have consulted God. They didn't have to make that decision on their own. Instead (Joshua 9:14, KJV),

[They] asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.

And, ultimately, the Israelites' habit of acquiescing to their neighbors -- against God's explicit orders -- resulted in spiritual rot and the eventual demise of the Israelite kingdom.

Let us not follow that path. Whatever difficult scenarios we encounter, let us "ask counsel at the mouth of the LORD." We can do so through never-ceasing prayer! 

A command near to us

God's main command to us is explicitly stated in Deuteronomy 30:16 (KJV),

I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply.

In the same chapter, God emphasizes that this is not some distant, esoteric diktat, but rather a command that we already know and understand because it has been written in our hearts (verse 11-14, KJV),

This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven ... neither is it beyond the sea ... But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

This is why sin causes such guilt and shame; it goes against the very spirit put into us. We must listen to that spirit, and that is achieved through never-ceasing prayer!

Jesus removes the "Legion"

In Mark 5:1-20, Jesus encounters a man possessed by many demons. The man seems in especially rough shape (verse 5, KJV),

Always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

When Jesus asks his name, the demons answer (verse 9, KJV),

My name is Legion: for we are many.

Jesus then orders the demons out of the man and into a herd of nearby pigs. The pigs, now possessed, proceed to drown themselves in a lake.

It's a strange story, and I can't claim to completely grasp the full theology of the event. (The role of the pigs especially confuses me, although perhaps their "unclean" label holds some kind of importance.)

The larger message, as I see it, centers on the fact that we, as sinners, are in a similar state to that of the demon-possessed man. Like him, we are beset by our own legion of sinful behaviors. And they are many! The path to freedom from those demons comes not from our own power, but from the mercy of God.

After Jesus removes the legion, the people (verse 15, KJV),

see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.

And thus the reward for trusting in that cleansing power! We, too, can find ourselves in our "right minds," and the path is easy. Just believe.

Lessons from Philemon

Owing to its brevity and personal nature, Paul's letter to Philemon is easy to overlook. But closer inspection of the letter reveals some important spiritual insights.

In the letter, a slave named Onesimus has wronged his master Philemon and fled to Paul. (The letter does not specify Onesimus' wrong -- much to Paul's credit -- but the transgression must have been relatively serious to warrant Onesimus' running away from Philemon.)

The letter basically is Paul's appeal for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and take him back. But Paul pushes a step further, by requesting Philemon to accept Onesimus not as his former slave status, but as an equal (Philemon: 15-16, KJV),

He ... departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.

This seemingly personal story has corollaries to our relationship with God. Like Onesimus to Philemon, we are subservient to God and dependent upon him for survival. Also like Onesimus, we sin against our master, which brings us far away from him. But rather than destroying us, as we deserve, God forgives us, and even restores us to a higher state as heirs to his kingdom!

Paul's letter does not report what happened when Onesimus returned to Philemon, but assuming Philemon followed Paul's advice, Onesimus must have expressed his heartfelt thanks. Let us do likewise toward God for his forgiveness.

A simple prayer of contrition

An important part of a life of prayer is continually asking God for forgiveness. To many people, that part of prayer might sound depressing. But if done frequently and from the heart, it is incredibly liberating and joyful. Paul touched upon this when he said (1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV),

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

For a simple, easy-to-memorize prayer of contrition, consider David's words in Psalm 25:18 (KJV),

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

Especially toward the end of the day, let us reflect upon the ways in which we might have disobeyed God's commandments, and then let us cite this simple prayer. It's more fulfilling than it sounds!

On the effects of prayer

(Note: This post borrows insights from a sermon recently delivered by Tom White.)

Hannah's Prayer stands as one of the Bible's most famous examples of prayer. It takes on added Messianic import owing to its similarities with Mary's Magnificat. But, with any prayer, it's tempting to ask, "What's the point?" More specifically, what did Hannah's prayer accomplish?

It doesn't seem likely that Hannah's prayer changed God's behavior. After all, the birth of Hannah's son, Samuel, for which her prayer gives thanks, had already happened. More than that, Samuel's life and purpose were already preordained.

But just because the prayer didn't alter the will of God does not mean that the prayer had no effect. For one, it affected Hannah, in that it forced her to acknowledge God's compassion and power. And that very acknowledgement surely affected her subsequent actions, as any prayer acknowledging God's power tends to do.

But perhaps more importantly, the prayer affected Israel, and, ultimately, people's understanding of the magnitude of Jesus. The existence, and wide distribution, of the prayer alerted Israel to the importance of Samuel, who eventually became Israel's kingmaker. And as Israel's kingmaker, he eventually brought a lowly shepherd, David, to the heights of power. And then from David's genetic line emerged Jesus.

Without Hannah's prayer, it's not obvious that Israel would have recognized Samuel authority. And without Samuel's authority, it's hard to imagine David's meteoric rise to power. And without the establishment of the Davidic genetic line, from where would Jesus have emerged?

Of course, Hannah's probably wasn't considering those larger ramifications. Rather, she was merely offering her thanks and praise. But to what great effect! Our job, then, is to follow Hannah's lead. Let us offer our thanks and praise, never knowing what profound impact our prayers might have.