Sunday, February 12, 2012
Day 10
Blessed
is he who is not offended at me.
Luke 7:23
At this point in the 21-Day prayer
challenge, you might be experiencing a little faith fatigue. You aren't alone.
All of us go through prayer slumps!
Sometimes it's the slow erosion of faith. But more often than not, the
loss of a prayer life is traced to unanswered prayer. Death by disappointment. What do you do when God doesn't answer how
you want or when you want? Let me tell
you what you don't do: you don't stop praying! It's always too soon to quit.
It's always too soon to give up. You need to resolve that you'll keep circling
until the day you die.
John and Heidi are part of the
prayer circle that prays for me. In fact, they are some of the most prayerful
people I know. God has given them some
amazing answers to their prayers for others, but many of their own prayers for
their own challenges have seemingly gone unanswered. But there is no quit in them. They just keep on praying like it depends on
God because they know it does. They
haven't thrown in the prayer towel despite the disappointments. Their secret?
One promise has sustained them through the toughest times and deepest
disappointments. They circled Luke 7:23: blessed is he who is not offended at
me.
Here’s the context.
Jesus
is doing miracles right and left. He is healing diseases, casting out demons,
and restoring sight to the blind, but John the Baptist misses the miracle
train. It seems like Jesus is rescuing
everybody except his most faithful follower who is in prison. And John is his cousin, nonetheless. It seems like Jesus could have, and maybe
should have, organized a rescue operation and busted him out before he was
beheaded. Instead he sends a message via
his disciples. He tells them to tell
John about all the miracles he is doing and then he asks them to relay this
simple promise: blessed is he who is not offended at me.
Have you ever felt like God was
doing miracles for everyone and their brother, but you seem to be the odd man
out? It seems like God is keeping His
promises to everyone but you? I wonder
if that’s how John the Baptist felt.
What do you do when you feel like God is answering everyone’s prayers
but yours?
In the words of my friends who have
experienced their fair share of unanswered prayers: “We try to live our lives
unoffended by God. Jesus promises that
we will be blessed if we aren’t offended.
Obviously we aren’t in prison about to be beheaded, but we have seen
many answers to our prayers for other people when we have prayed for their
finances, their health and their kids.
Yet in our own lives, well…”
When
God doesn't answer how or when you want, you have a choice to make. You can give up or hang on. You can let go or pray through. You can get frustrated with God or choose to
live unoffended.
My friends have chosen to live
unoffended: “Jesus promises blessing if we are not offended when He does things
for others. And if He does it for them,
He might do it for us. I don’t know why God does what He does. I do know that 100% of the prayers I don’t
pray won’t get answered.” I love that approach to prayer, that approach to
life. It’s the circle maker’s mantra:
100% of the prayers you don’t pray won’t get answered.
Live unoffended.
Mark
Batterson-Circle Maker
