God’s Word

Sunday’s sermon was about Daniel and I can’t stop thinking about him.

You know the story. King Darius has been tricked into making a law that would hand down a death sentence to any man or woman who prays to anyone or anything other than the King. Daniel hears the news. His response is simple.

He goes upstairs, opens the window towards Jerusalem and prays like he has done three times a day, every day of his life.

What an understated moment in Bible history!

Daniel is faced with a horrible execution of unthinkable violence and he just does what he always does. It sounds so unspectacular, so uneventful.

But it really isn’t.

It is a glimpse into the secret life of a man of God, just before he receives his deliverance. We are made privy to the backstory, to the secrets behind the miracle so when the miracle comes we understand.

My youngest is learning to drive. He will be safe on the road when the mechanics of driving a car are automatic to him so that he can handle unexpected situations without having to think too much.

And so it is with me.

The enemy of my soul dreads the day prayer becomes my automatic response to difficulty.

He knows there is a place of victory available to me when God’s presence and His Word become non-negotiables. He knows that when I no longer believe the lie that discipline is legalism, I am on the way to a powerful, overcoming life.

And it can start today.

When I feel too busy, I can pray. When life is good and I have nothing to worry about I can pray. When I don’t feel like it, I can open my Bible. I can slowly, daily wear out the carpet that leads to my prayer spot. I can keep going until prayer is like breathing and God’s Word has become the place I go for my answers, without exception.

You see, disciplines are slowly grown. There are no shortcuts or microwaved entrees when it comes to habits and character. Eugene Peterson calls it a ‘long obedience in the same direction’. What a beautiful description of following Jesus every minute of every day.

Because most of the time following Jesus looks somewhat ordinary. It isn’t, of course, but its miraculousness can be hidden within our daily grind. We get up, meet with Him, worship and commune with Him and then we cook or type or iron or change diapers or draw buildings or run companies. And we do the same thing the next day and the next.

When small problems and troubles show up, we remind ourselves to do what we always do. When disappointment arrives, or fear or betrayal, we just do what we always do. If something happens that we don’t understand, nothing changes.

We climb those stairs and open that window and tell God He is all we need. We listen for His voice. We turn our eyes away from circumstances and towards the God of promises and faithful, loving care. We decide to believe He is good. We allow His Word to comfort and redirect and change us. We raise our expectations of the miraculous and flex our faith muscles.

We remind our hearts that God is very, very big and lions and kings are very small.

And then when a big crisis hits, there is no big decision to make. It has already been made.

I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

‘It takes wisdom to build a house, and understanding to set it on a firm foundation; it takes knowledge to furnish its rooms with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.’ Prov. 24:3-4

I don’t know if you have ever worked on a building project. It is all-consuming.

Eighteen years ago this month, my husband and I bought an ugly house on a pretty street. It needed to be completely redone but we saw the potential for our growing family and so we took a leap and embarked on years of redecorating, building work, dust and dirt.

And, this summer my brother and his wife finished a monumental project. For three years they managed the building of a new medical clinic in Mexico and it completely took over their lives. They are incredibly proud of the end result but so happy to be finished!

Building a clinic can teach you a lot about life.

That is because there are so many darn decisions! Some are really, really important and some are not and you have to know which is which. Some decisions take a lot of thought and some just need to be made quickly so you can move on. Sometimes those decisions have a knock-on effect that you didn’t anticipate. Building projects of any kind can have tricky junctures that need to be navigated and problems that block your forward motion until you solve them.

And so it is with our lives.

Proverbs 24.3-4 beautifully reminds us that we dare not built without God’s wisdom, knowledge and understanding. It is above our pay grade.

In Exodus 35.31 we see that the craftsmen working on the tabernacle needed supernatural wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 3.19-20 tells that creation was formed using wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

If you look up the meanings of wisdom, knowledge and understanding you will see definitions like skilful, shrewd, insightful, intelligent, cunning, aware of the facts, thoughtful, sensible, practical, well-fitted and stable.

Like Proverbs 24.3-4 so beautifully describes, we are all building things. We are building marriages and families and ministries and careers. We are helping our children build their futures and faith-walks. We are constructing relationships and characters and legacies every minute of every day, either consciously or unconsciously.

These precious projects need insight, skill and thoughtfulness. They cannot be thrown up or they will fall down. Foundations need to be laid well, structures need careful planning and layouts have to practically work or they are no good. There is so much to think about, how do we manage it all?

We read in Ecclesiastes 4.12 that there is a strength in the number three and I believe there is a durableness to our lives when we look for our wisdom, understanding and knowledge from three places –

God’s wonderful, perfect Word,

really great advice from good people

and the personal promptings of the Holy Spirit

Now, we all have our natural tendencies. Some of us are quite independent and so we look to God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit but we are not particularly interested in advice from others.

Others of us thrive on advice from books and friends but don’t take the time to seek God’s will for ourselves in His Word and in prayer.

And some of us read and follow the Bible but haven’t yet discovered the whispers of the Spirit that can help us apply Bible verses or advice for a specific situation in a really personal way.

I think that if we neglect any of these, it can make us weak and unbalanced.

Marriages and friendships, families and ministries all need a foundation of God’s way of doing things that we find in His Word. You cannot scrimp here because it will determine the strength and stability of the finished product. There is endless wisdom for every area of our lives found within the pages of the Bible, just waiting to be discovered and applied.

But our building projects also need inspiration. Like the dozens of home decoration magazines I devoured when I was working on my house, we can be creatively stimulated by others. New ways of doing things, different perspectives and clever insights are invaluable. So, read good books and articles. Listen to Godly advice and implement it. Ask questions of those around you who are building well. Let wise counsel be a gift in your life that sparks solutions.

And then let the Holy Spirit breathe life into it all. Listen to His sweet voice as He gives you insights that will transform situations with the resurrection power of God. Allow Him to show you not just how to do things but when to do them. Let His voice guide you personally. Listen and follow.

Every day we are building things.

Don’t build alone.

Allow wise people to come alongside you and help you. Let God’s Word inform the design so that every room looks like Him. And, eagerly welcome the still small voice of the Spirit of God.