Ep.215: Baby Bottle or a Steak Knife?

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 5 says,
Though by this time you ought to be teachers,
you need someone to teach you
the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.
You need milk, not solid food!
Anyone who lives on milk,
is still a baby,
and is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
But solid food is for the mature,
who by constant use have trained themselves
to distinguish good from evil. (vv. 11-14).

After introducing us to baby food and grown up food, the author of Hebrews goes off in a strange direction. He doesn’t tell us to start eating adult food to make us grow up. Instead, he tells us to get into a training program, in which we constantly distinguish good from evil. What makes us grow is not adult teaching, but adult practice in discerning good and evil.

It’s easy for teachers to get a bit defensive about this passage, saying, “Oh, yes, it is important to practice discernment, but the foundation for good practice is good teaching. You have to start with the milk of Christian basics–how to be born again, etc.; then you proceed to some meaty teaching that will guide your discernment of right and wrong.”

Good argument, maybe, except it completely misses the point Hebrews is making. The author doesn’t emphasize teaching and knowledge as the foundation for maturity. On the contrary, he says that people can’t even understand advanced teaching until “by constant practice [they] have trained themselves to discern good from evil” (v. 14).

So what does training in discernment look like? Some would say, “That’s easy. Just read your Bible and do what it says! It tells you everything you need to know about good and evil.”

I say it’s not quite that simple. Scripture provides lists of things not to do because they are evil, but you can’t grow up just by staying home and doing nothing

Because God wants us to grow by discerning and doing what is right. I must replace bad attitudes with love. I must replace neutral behavior with activity that builds community. I must replace foolish opinions with wisdom. When I am solidly engaged in the project of transforming my heart into a heart of love, and my neighborhood into a community, then I am ready to stop sucking milk from my baby bottle, and start eating a bit of solid food.

Solzhenitsyn said, “If only it were all so simple!. . . But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” (The Gulag Archipelago, Part I). Discernment, training in good and evil, starts with seeing my own heart problems and destroying the evil there.

Let’s pray.

Our father, it’s time for us milk-drinkers to move up to solid food. Help us to discern the good and evil in our hearts and in our actions. Give us a vision of true righteousness.

– Help us discern where our obsession with news and social media and entertainment obstructs our ability to hear you and obey.

– Help us discern which is more important to you: Should we be politically active in helping church and government adopt the right policies on abortion and gender and sexuality? Or does our activity there simply contribute to fragmentation and divisiveness in society?

– Help us discern where our hearts are wayward and careless and unruly, that we may bring them fully into your kingdom.

Our father, we feel the line between good and evil that runs through our hearts and our attitudes and our actions. Help us to practice discerning good and evil in our hearts, in our relationships, in our world.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.214: Psalm 98: Sing a New Song.

Ep214_Psalm098. Sing a New Song.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 98 begins,
Sing a new song to the Lord,
for he has done marvellous things (v. 1a).

The poet’s suggestion for a “new song” answers traditionalists who say, “What’s with this modern music? The old hymns are better–more singable, more substantial than this fluffy modern stuff.” Consider, however, that the psalms model many of the most criticised features of modern worship music:

– Too repetitive? Psalm 136 repeats the phrase “His love endures forever” 26 times.

– Too much complex instrumental music? Psalm 150 is all about instrumental music and dancing. Perhaps churches should add worship dance to their contemporary music.

– Too much emphasis on personal experience, too little on doctrine? Psalm 133 is all about the unity of God’s people; God is just a footnote in the last verse.

– Too much emphasis on personal emotions, too little on God? Psalm 40, “Why are you downcast, O my soul” is about personal depression. Psalm 100, “Shout for joy to the Lord” is exuberant, and probably too loud for the traditionalists in many churches. (inspired by Rant About Worship Songs | Jeremy Pierce | First Things).

Traditional hymnals speak the cultural and musical language of an older generation. However good that culture is and however regrettable its loss, the church needs to move on, translating the gospel into new words and cadences that speak to moderns. The lost tribes of the Amazon need the Bible translated into their language. The lost tribes of western civilization need to hear and see the gospel in their lyrics and their culture.

The happy-clappy hymn, “In my heart there rings a melody”, was page 276 in the hymnal I grew up with. It is a lasting testament to the fact that every generation needs exuberant songs of the heart, even if they don’t teach sober doctrines. Perhaps God approves us translating the heartfelt melody into contemporary English accompanied by contemporary music.

“Sing a new song,” the poet tells us. Don’t stay stuck in your old way of doing things.

Let’s pray.

Lord, I too am stuck. Week after week I pray familiar psalms in a similar manner. Teach me a new song, new words to speak to you, new melodies in which to live my life, new metaphors to communicate to the modern world.

O Lord, we are all stuck in complaints about our churches and their style of worship. The sermon is too long or too short, the music too old or too modern, the church culture too traditional or too irreverent.

O Lord, teach us to know you and love you and to experience you in the ways the poets did in the psalms, in the ways the hymn writers wrote and sang about, and in the ways our modern music speaks of you.

Teach us to
Sing a new song
for you have done marvellous things!

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.213: Suffer and Obey.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 5 says
[Jesus] offered prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears
to the one who could save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
Though he was a Son,
he learned obedience from what he suffered,
and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation
for all who obey him . . . (vv. 7-9).

Here are two observations about this passage.

First, the word “obey” occurs twice: Jesus learned obedience through suffering, and he saves those who obey him. I find it interesting that Jesus learned obedience, and that suffering was part of the lesson plan. We don’t talk a lot about Jesus growing and maturing and learning during his human life on earth.

After pointing out that Jesus learned obedience, the Book of Hebrews says he saves those who obey him. This is not a description of instantaneous salvation by faith. It’s an invitation for us to learn and grow as Jesus did, to respond to our sufferings by learning obedience, and to receive the promise that he will save those who obey him.

A second observation is that this passage presents prayer as a paradox. “Jesus prayed. . .to God, who was able to save him from death, and God heard him because of his reverent submission” (v. 7). From this verse, you might conclude, “God heard Jesus’ prayer and saved him from death.”

Bad conclusion. Jesus prayed at Gethsemane that God would bypass the way of the cross. But that’s the very thing God, “who could save him from death”, didn’t do.

This is the paradox of prayer. If we are on the path of salvation, obeying Jesus with reverent submission, God hears our prayers, as he did Jesus’ prayer. We are confident God is powerful enough to grant whatever we ask. But for reasons of his own, he often refuses to give what we ask, and sometimes he even gives us the opposite.

Why bother to pray, then? Because prayer is part of our path of obedience. As we learn obedience through suffering, part of our pain is that God often lets the suffering continue, declining to release us from it or to fix the problems that cause it.

Let’s pray.

Our father, after Jesus asked you to bypass the cross, you refused his request, and you made the cross the centre of his story. You place a cross at the centre of our story too, for Jesus told us to take our cross daily and follow him (Luke 9:23). Since he provides salvation for those who obey him, we must live the story of our cross, abandoning our fantasies of comfort and riches and pleasure.

Help us then to learn obedience through the things we suffer, as Jesus did. And bring us to eternal life with him.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.212: Psalm 97: God’s Storm.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

In Psalm 97, God shows up in a storm and earthquake, like he did at Mt. Sinai when he gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The psalm says:
The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
     let the distant shores rejoice.
  Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles (vv. 1-4).

Exodus tells us that when the commandments were given, “There was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain. . . . Mount Sinai was covered with smoke. . . and [the mountain] trembled violently” (Exo 19:16, 18). Here, in Psalm 97, God uses similar special effects, as he comes to the temple in Jerusalem to establish Zion as the seat of his kingdom, and to rule the nations of the earth.

God’s rule brings Israel security, good government, and joy. He plans the same for other nations, to deliver them from false gods and injustice. The poet says:
Zion hears and rejoices [at your coming, God],
and the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgements (v. 8).
Light shines on the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
and praise his holy name.

Let’s pray.

Our father, in scripture you often appear in a storm. On Mt. Sinai you delivered the law with darkness and clouds and lightning and earthquake (Exo 19:18). When Job finished talking and started listening, you spoke to him out of a storm (Job 40:6). Jeremiah predicted that that “the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a driving wind swirling down on the heads of the wicked” (Jer 30:23). On the Sea of Galilee, Jesus slept through a storm, until his fearful disciples woke him. Then he rebuked the wind and raging waters, and asked the disciples, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:23-25).

Father, our faith is in your storm-like presence in our lives. We experience you as a hurricane blowing away the lies we construct, as an earthquake destroying the religious systems we build, as a fire burning impurities out of our lives until we become like gold. O God, be the lightning of love that destroys our selfishness, be the fire of holiness that burns away our sin, be the refiner’s fire that melts away our dross and makes us holy and beautiful.

Father, your presence is a storm in the church, a storm that would overturn comfortable evangelicalism and make it into an army of God. You are the cyclone that devastates lukewarm Christiantiy, and calls us to be hot or cold (Rev 3:16). You are the breath of the Holy Spirit that blows through our stale lives, opening them to the wind of God.

Father, you are the storm at the end of the world, for you promise, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens” (Heb 12:26 quoting Haggai 2:6).

Thank you that you come not only for destruction, but to rebuild and protect and save. As the poet says,
You, Lord, are the most high over all the earth,
you are exalted far above all gods.
You guard the lives of your faithful ones,
and deliver them from the hand of the wicked (vv. 9-10).

With the poet we pray,
Let your light shine on us, Lord,
Give us joy.
Teach us to rejoice in you,
For we praise your holy name (vv. 11-12).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.211: Faith, Temptation, and Mercy.

Ep.211: Hebrews 4: Faith, Temptation, and Mercy.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 4 says,
Since we have a great high priest who has gone into heaven,
Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are–
yet he did not sin.

So let us approach with confidence God’s throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need
(vv 14-16).

Hebrews tells us here to find help in our time of need by confidently approaching God’s throne.

What is our time of need? Hebrews describes two.

The first time of need is when our faith is slipping. Hebrews pictures faith, not as something we acquire and possess it forever. It’s more like an investment that we can hold or sell. When the stock market falls, it’s tempting to sell off our investments at a loss before they lose all their value.

Similarly, our investment in faith sometimes goes up in value, and other times seems to go down. And down. And down. Hebrews advises us to hold on to our faith, because it has great value, even when we feel like it is worthless, and we’re ready to sell it off as a lost cause.

A second time of need is when we are tempted. Our temptations vary from simple things like stealing or lying or eating too much chocolate, to more complex activities like holding grudges, letting ourselves sink into hopeless depression, giving up on difficult relationships, or needlessly squandering mental and emotional energy on news and conspiracy theories. Hebrews reminds us that Jesus faced the same temptations we do. He knows how weak our faith is and how susceptible we are to temptation. As our high priest, he leads us to the throne of a merciful God who helps us, not an angry God who judges.

Let’s pray.

Our father, we hoped that faith would be a simple journey, but we find it fraught with difficulties. Scripture points us to you, who we cannot see. We sift through its ancient stories looking for food to nurture our faith. But how seldom the Old Testament law, and the mystical teachings of Jesus, and the rational rhetoric of Paul bring us life or hope or give us strength against temptation.

We thank you that our faith is in you, God, not in the book that tells us about you. Not in the systematic theology that explains the book, nor in the stories that fill it. Today we come to the throne of grace, where you are king and father, helper and savior. Teach us to hold fast to the faith we profess.

At the throne of grace, we remember the temptations that assail us.

– We are tempted to immerse ourselves in anxiety-inducing news and conspiracy theories and social media, and to respond with outraged shock or quiet despair at the state of our world. O Lord, save us from the news and social media and ourselves, reveal to us Christ and his kingdom.

– We are tempted to despair at the state of your church, to avoid the community of your people because of its petty politics and vested interests and endless arguments. Give us grace for other Christians, for they too are gathered here at your throne of grace.

– We are tempted to draw back in relationships, to isolate ourselves. Teach us to actively love the people we live with, to initiate conversation and friendship and acts of love for neighbors. To seek people out on Zoom when we cannot visit them in person. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We pray this confidently, at the throne of grace, in the strong name of Jesus our high priest.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.210: Psalm 96: God, King of the Nations.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 96 celebrates God’s kingship and says that the kings of the earth worship gods that are not gods at all. These kings must answer to the real God, the one strong enough and wise enough to create a world out of chaos. This God will again exert his creative power by judging the nations righteously and fairly, deposing the kings of earth.

We share the poet’s great religious and political hope, that one day God will set the world right–economically, socially, racially, politically.

James Dobson, founder and former head of Focus on the Family, was shocked and disappointed at President Trump’s defeat in the US election. In a post-election newsletter, he wrote that millions of evangelicals prayed Trump would be re-elected. He couldn’t understand why God didn’t answer their prayer. How could God let the presidency be overrun by the most leftist regime in American history, he asked. (https://www.drjamesdobson.org/newsletters/november-newsletter-2020).

Then Dobson says, quoting from his book When God Doesn’t Make Sense: “We must never forget that [God] is God. He is majestic and holy and sovereign. . . . He is not an errand boy who chases the assignments we dole out. He is not a genie who pops out of the bottle to satisfy our whims. He is not our servant—we are His. And our reason for existence is to glorify and honor Him . . . even when nothing makes sense” (ibid.).

We may not agree with Dobson’s politics, but his description of God’s greatness mirrors Psalm 96. God is king of the nations, even when he doesn’t support our political candidates or answer our political prayers, even when evil and injustice carry the day. As Christians we pray that God will protect and guide our country, but that is secondary to the larger prayer Christ taught us: “Your kingdom come, God. Your will be done.”

Let’s pray.

Our father, the poet tells us
You will judge the world in righteousness,
and the people in faithfulness (v. 13).

We point out to you some of the poorest nations in the world who need a righteous and faithful judge, an honest king.

Sierra Leone is still suffering the effects of a decade-long civil war that destroyed much of the infrastructure, from an ebola epidemic, and from corrupt governments. Liberia, famous for its activity in the nineteenth century slave trade, has suffered civil war and ebola and allegations of government corruption and abusive. In Burundi, where over 80% of the people live by subsistence agriculture, deforestation, soil erosion, climate change, and political instability make their livelihood risky and uncertain. And the list goes on, through Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Niger and Eritrea and South Sudan. O God, with the poet, we ask you to judge the world in righteousness and the people in faithfulness.

We think also of refugees and victims of oppression in Asia. The Myanmar army viciously attacked the Rohingya ethnic population, forcing them to leave their homes and go to refugee camps in Bangladesh. Yemen is engaged in a brutal six-year civil war, with the Houthi ethnic group fighting an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia. The Chinese government oppresses the Uyghur Muslims, suppressing the Islamic religion and indoctrinating the people into Chinese culture and values. In Iraq, home of ancient Babylon where the Israelites were exiled, racial and religious violence have run rampant since the United States deposed Saddam Hussein, but was unable to replace him with a functioning democracy. O God, bring your righteousness and justice to these ancient corners of the world.

Bring it also to North America, where we too wish an end to political posturing, to right wing and left wing populism, to divisiveness and hate in politics and culture. Rule the nations Lord, set the world right.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.209: Psalm 95: Call to Worship.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 95 communicates two different messages. The first is a beautiful call to worship, an invitation to praise God in a community of worshippers. The second is a stern reminder, repeated from the previous psalm, that true worshipers listen to God and obey his voice.

The call to worship summons us to praise God because he rules over creation. The depths of earth, the heights of the mountains, the roiling sea and the dry land are all works of his hand.

A second call to worship summons us to kneel before God, thankful that we too are his creation. But we are not mere created objects, wandering aimlessly through a vast universe. We are God’s sheep, God is our shepherd. The hand that formed the worlds cares tenderly for his flock.

The poet now moves to his second theme, saying:
If only you would hear his voice
do not harden your hearts (vv. 7-8).

Here, the poet speaks as prophet revealing God’s heart. God longs that people would listen to him and heed his voice. But he has often experienced the opposite: His people turn from the place of worship back to lives of faithless struggle. Our songs of praise get lost in lives of employment, pandemic, personal failure, social injustice, or outright idol worship. “O, if you would only listen to me and heed my voice” says God. But sadly,
Their hearts go astray
and they have not known my ways (v. 10).

Let’s pray.

Our father, we worship you in the temple of creation.

Yours are the depths of the earth and the height of the mountains. The title deed to my small property on earth excludes mines and minerals lurking below. But your ownership extends from the centre of the earth to the highest mountains. You built the world, and your name is on the title deed.

We praise you for the seas, the vast oceans that we use for work and play, where we harvest food, where our ships travel for commerce and our navies patrol against enemies. Thank you also for the dry land, for we are land animals who walk the solid earth, and work it,and build on it, and fight over it.

Thank you for sunsets and sunrises as earth spins from day to night and night to day. Thank you for the phases of the moon that regulate the tides and mark our months, for the seasons that attend our pilgrimage around the sun. Thank you for our home in the solar system, for the Christmas conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that reminded us of the Star of Bethlehem.

Thank you that you are our shepherd, the guardian and overseer of our lives. In the pandemic, conspiracy theorists derisively call us “sheeple”, accusing us of giving away our freedoms by wearing masks and following questionable medical advice.

O God, our shepherd, we are not your sheeple, we are the sheep of your pasture, who listen to your voice and search for your truth. In the social and political confusion of life, our society shows the weakness of its hold on sanity and wisdom. Care for us, God, lead us through problems bigger than we can understand and solve. We are not the independent, self-sufficient cowboys of the American myth, we are people bound together by a common culture, a shared civilization, worldwide medical problems, and governments that triy to act wisely.

Help us to live as the sheep of your flock, help us to speak your truth to our world, help to live your life into our culture. And save us, Lord, for we need your deliverance.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.208: The Active Word of God.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 4 makes two comments on how the word of God works in our lives.

The first comment answers the question, “After God helped the Israelites escape from Egypt to go in the Promised Land, how come they got stuck in the desert for 40 years?”

The New Testament Book of Hebrews gives this answer: When the Israelites encountered tough times, they were quick to blame God for their problems. They invented a conspiracy theory that God brought them out of Egypt just to watch them die in the desert (Exo 14:11-12).

Their hearts were stuck in the slave mindset of complaining: blame it on the government, blame it on the leaders, blame it on the opposition. God’s response was another promise. He said,
“I declared an oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest’” (Heb 3:11, quoting Psalm 95).

Hebrews concludes that though the Israelites heard the good news, the message didn’t sink in. It did not benefit them because they did not combine it with faith (Heb 4:2).

God’s promises to us don’t work like his word at creation. Back then, he said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. But his promises to us are useless unless we receive them with faith.

How and where to find faith is a problem.

Some teach that faith is something you generate in yourself: you focus and psych yourself up until you believe! But for most of us, that doesn’t work. Instead, ours is a journey of faith, through a Desert of Unbelief. In times of trouble, we struggle … to keep a soft heart toward God. We struggle … to quash the lies and conspiracy theories. We struggle … to live in the light God gives us.

Hebrews makes another comment about God’s word, saying:
The word of God is living and active,
sharper than a double-edged sword
it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;
it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12).

Nothing in this verse suggests faith is required. Here the word of God acts directly and powerfully like it did at creation, separating light and darkness, dividing soul and spirit, piercing joints and marrow.

Imagine for a moment your knight in shining armor, driving his sword into your stomach, until it hits your diaphragm, separating your breath or spirit from your soul or your sense of self. Imagine again the sword driving into your elbow, piercing the joint and separating the bones.

Not exactly comforting images, are they?

Let’s pray.

Our Father, we sympathize with the Israelites’ wilderness journey. Like them we find your way difficult. You often leave us thirsty and hungry. The promised land is distant and elusive. We are not sure how to quiet our complaining, how to combine your promises with faith.

We hear you promise that your word is living and active like a double edged sword. May it judge the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. May it expose the inner sources of our lack of faith. May it do its surgery on our hearts. O God, you freed us from bondage, now free us from the faithlessness we learned in our long years of slavery.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.207: Psalm 94: Praying in Three Voices.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

In Psalm 94, the poet speaks with three voices of prayer: a voice of complaint, a teaching voice, and a voice of confidence and praise.

The psalm starts with a complaint to Jehovah, God of vengeance.

This psalm, and others, present two different views of God’s vengeance. The first view is the vengeance as imagined by the poets. The poets are not impartial judges, objectively suggesting measured punishments for measured evil. As victims of ruthless oppressors, bloody wars, slander in court, sometimes hounded to death, they want God to set things right…now… by stopping the evil and stomping on the evildoer.. The poets offer helpful suggestions for how to punish enemies and destroy their lives and property. While we approve the poets’ desire for justice, we are sometimes shocked at their vicious suggestions for revenge.

The other view of God’s vengeance is how God works to bring about justice. He rarely follows the poets’ violent suggestions. Instead, he’s fair and just in protecting the innocent, delivering the weak, and helping the poor against abusive adversaries. God’s administration of justice often lets people reap what they sow.Those who live by the sword die a violent death.

After his prayer for justice, the poet adopts a teacher’s voice, pointing out that ignoring God is not an option. Despite God’s silence and apparent indifference, he is attentive to the world he made and the people he loves. God who created ears . . . hears what is happening. God who created eyes . . . sees injustice. God who disciplines the nations . . . will set things right. But perhaps not on the urgent schedule the poet would prefer.

The poet now moves to his third voice, expressing praise and thankfulness to God. He says,
When my foot was slipping,
your unfailing love supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought me joy (vv. 18-19).
The Lord has become my fortress,
my God the rock in whom I take refuge (v. 22).

Let’s pray.

Lord, we feel that violence should be rewarded with violence. Isn’t the answer to bad guys with guns, good guys with guns? Isn’t the answer to murder, to kill the perpetrator by capital punishment? Isn’t the answer to assault and bloodshed to visit violence on the guilty? Are you not God, the avenger? Do you not find our suggestions helpful?

O God, you are slow to avenge, slow to stop the violent in their tracks, slow to rescue the orphan and widow and alien. Is this because you are not paying attention? Do you not see? Do you not hear?

But you who created the eye, you do see. You created the ear, you do hear. You discipline the nations, surely you will punish the wicked and set the world right. We submit our case to you, God. If our violent solutions are not acceptable, if our proposed schedule is unhelpful, we invite you to do your work in your way and in your time.

We give thanks that you are God. When we have great anxiety, you console us with joy. When we are vulnerable, you are our fortress. Lead us and protect us until our lives are safe and our world is at peace.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.206: Heart Problems.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 3 warns the reader against unbelief, citing as an example Israel’s unbelief during their forty-year wilderness journey. Quoting Psalm 95, it says:

So, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear [God’s] voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, “Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.”’ (Heb 3:7-11).

The writer warns, “Do not harden your hearts”. Why? Because a hard heart is an impediment to faith.

The first Bible character to be diagnosed with a hard heart was Pharaoh. When Moses advocated for the Hebrew slaves and God sent plagues on Egypt, Pharaoh refused to understand this new reality that was invading his kingdom. He wanted to keep living in his old reality, where he was the only king and no one questioned him.

When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they wanted to go back to Egypt. Their hearts weren’t big enough to take in the new reality that God might look after them in the desert.

Just like Pharaoh and the Israelites. people still cling to the past. The “Make America Great Again” movement looks back to a great past, instead of facing current realities. Climate deniers resist evidence that the world is changing around us. Many evangelicals feel the way forward is to return to an older culture and a simpler faith.

When Carl F. H. Henry was editor of Christianity Today, theologian Karl Barth once asked him, “Is the name of your magazine Christianity Today or Christianity Yesterday?” Each generation struggles to live Christianity today. If we imitate Pharaoh, we focus on the good old days and harden our hearts to today. If we imitate Israel, we want to return to the past instead of learning the difficult lessons God is teaching us today.

Here’s another example of a hard heart. I once talked to a man who said, “God doesn’t exist. A loving God would end poverty and violence and injustice. Unchecked evil proves there is no God of love.” I replied, “If you were God, you would fix all the evil. But suppose God has a different program than yours? Why don’t you check the Bible to see what God’s program is?” The man had a soft heart toward the suffering world, but was unable to soften his heart enough to ask if God had a different program.

Prayer can also lead to a soft heart or a hard heart. God promises to do whatever we ask, but he doesn’t fix our lives and the world. It is tempting to abandon prayer with the thought, “God must not care about these problems” or “I guess I’m not the sort of person he listens to.” A wiser perspective, that comes from a soft heart, says, “There’s something here I don’t understand. I wonder, what is God saying to me?”

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, like Pharaoh and the Israelites, we find change difficult. We are stuck in our old ways of thinking. With the author of Hebrews we pray,
Today when we hear your voice,
help us not to harden our hearts (Heb 3:15).

Help us to believe you are active in our world today–in the pandemic, in the weather, in our wilderness journeys, in the church. Make us willing to hear your voice. Soften our hard hearts until we see your presence and hear your word in the reality we live today.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.