Children are often competitive in almost everything, and sometimes they love to “report” things their siblings have done. For example, at a family meal, when everyone is glad to be together and thankful for God’s provision, we pause to give thanks; but as soon as “Amen” has been spoken, the “prayer police” can make their presence known.
“He had his eyes open the whole time!’, one will announce.
Another “official officer of offense” makes his case by adding, “Well, he didn’t even bow his head!”
In our home, we had to ban the “prayer police” from making their reports. We are trying to make our home a place where we are all on the team and have each other’s best interests at heart… even when we disagree.
As our boys grow in their faith and in maturity, our prayer for them is that they learn to focus on what is truly important.
The importance of a prayer posture of any kind is far less meaningful and significant than having a thankful heart. Certainly, the focus and condition of our hearts matter most to God. Any external posture or demonstration of reverence or piety is meaningless to Him without our true devotion and genuine gratitude.
While we can see the truth about what is really important easily when dealing with our children’s spiritual understanding, what about our own?
Are there areas of life, worship, and Christian growth
where we, who know the Lord,
who have been redeemed and given new life,
often focus on form and function
and on the symptoms of sin sickness and spiritual death
rather than on the heart attitudes
and awakened hearts and lives
and true love for the Lord
that are most important?
The answer is… YES!
We, too, deal with a tendency to become…
the prayer police,
the sin spotters,
the style seekers,
the soapbox spouters,
the commitment captains,
and the pet peeve pronoucers.
Often, our tendency is to notice the behavior rather than the heart need of others.
This focus on style rather than the substance or on the external behavior rather than the motives of the heart can be revealed by what I’ll call “Hollywood Action Movie Syndrome”. In the extreme scenarios often found in the plot lines of movies like superhero flicks, the bad guys are depicted as heartless machines whose sole purpose seems to be mayhem and pain. Movie goers are relieved and even happy to see these bad guys “get what’s coming to them” as the hero stops the madness by destroying the bad guy.
Even in our own lives, we can be quick to label others as irredeemable “bad guys” with statements that get a lot of “likes” on social media. For example, I’ve seen posts made by sweet Christian people saying that they are “sick” of the behavior of a celebrity or politician who seems to be seeking attention by being self-destructive or by choosing to do things that many people would consider shocking. In other words,
our first reaction is often disgust and even extreme dislike rather than broken hearts over the spiritual need that is being manifested as bad behavior.
The Biblical perspective…
Perhaps we need to consider God’s attitude toward us… and toward our bad behavior, as revealed through scripture.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.” ~ Ephesians 2:4 &5
“The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” ~ Psalm 145:8
“For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” ~ Psalm 100:5
(note: in some translations, lovingkindness is everlasting and faithfulness endures)
“For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all them that call on you.” ~ Psalms 86:5
“The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” ~ Psalms 145:9
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” ~ Titus 3:5
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” ~ 1 Peter 1:3
What, then, should be our response to people and situations that we feel are less than they should be?
“Be you therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” ~ Luke 6:36
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
~ Micah 6:8 NKJV
The Creator God of the universe,
who is holy and good and yet who is so often talked about with disrepect, as people whom He loves and was intimately involved in creating blatantly choose to go against their God-given conscience and intentionally do what is wrong,
❤ LOVES ❤
MERCY.
He loves showing mercy to me and you; and He wants us to love mercy, too.
He loves justice and goodness and holiness, but He loves mercy even more…because of His great love for all of the people that He has created in His image.
For a while, He is delaying His judgement and the fully realized reign of His holiness over creation…. because He loves mercy. He is no less holy and no less just even as He is allowing the free will of man to sometimes cause pain. He is always holy, always just, and yet, always merciful.
God wants to show mercy to us, whom He loves. He wants us to experience and know His mercy and to choose mercy for others. His mercies are new every morning because He chooses mercy over righteous anger. If He did not choose mercy, all of mankind would have been consumed by the intensity of His wrath against sin, against wrong, and against our rebel hearts, which cause us to hurt others and even to hurt ourselves. The pain of life in a fallen world would be eliminated by God’s final judgement NOW if it were not for mercy, chosen in every moment as the sun rises on another part of the world around the clock. It is a very good thing for all of us that God loves mercy and that human beings are not our final judge and jury.
Have you ever noticed that it can sometimes be difficult to read certain Psalms? I cringe as the Psalmist asks God to judge those who are his “enemies” or who are simply referred to as “the wicked”. And yet, because God is the righteous judge and is no respector of persons, He is the only one who can judge with perfect fairness. He says, “Vengeance is mine,” not just because He will someday make everything right but also because we would never be able to be as impartial, fair, and just as He will be. He wants us to choose to trust Him here and now, although we are fully aware that there is still injustice in this world, but that at some point He will make everything right. And yet, God delays the final judgement… because He loves mercy.
Even in the lives of people we read about in the Bible, we can see a struggle to learn to love God’s mercy for others.
In Psalm 73, the Psalmist Asaph speaks of being confused by the prosperity of the wicked. He talks about how they almost seem free from care and begins to wonder whether his own efforts to live for the Lord, walk with Him, serve Him, and do what is right are all in vain. However, he does come to his senses in these verses:
15 If I had spoken out like that, (questioning whether loving and serving God is worth it)
I would have betrayed your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Asaph realized once again the goodness of God and that fact that His mercy will not delay judgement indefinitely. At that point, he began to actually view the wicked with compassion, and his perspective completely changed. He realized that he, himself, is rich in what all of the money amassed by the wicked could never purchase… salvation and relationship with the Lord. Asaph also realized how senseless his earlier comparisons have been and what he has possessed all along.
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Like Asaph, how can we do anything but rejoice in the fact that God is choosing mercy even for those who have wronged us, just as He chose mercy for you and for me? He is a merciful and loving God.
So, in light of God’s mercy, what are we to do? As we seek to focus on what is really important and to lay aside our tendencies to get caught up in what we observe, what frame of mind should replace our tendency towards judgement of others? Here’s one answer, from Romans 12:1-2.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
When we read the phrase, “in view of God’s mercy” in the scripture above, we need to think about what that really means.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
…even though the world is filled with injustice…
…even though people prey upon and use other people…
…even though good people will sometimes be victimized…
…even though people we love may be hurt…
…even though the thoughtlessness of others breaks our hearts
…even though the evil of this world distresses and disgusts us
I urge you… in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
…to offer your hurts…
…to offer your confusion…
…to offer your right to take revenge…
…to offer your all… even when life doesn’t make sense…
…. a sacrifice… holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.
(In choosing to make this sacrifice of surrendering our all, we are also choosing to trust Him with everything. Why? Because we know that He is good and merciful and just.)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
What is God’s good pleasing, and perfect will for us? It’s found in Micah 6:8. We are called to “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”
☆ Do what is right.
☆ Be merciful to those who do wrong (and love the fact that God stands ready to be mercy-full to everyone at all times).
☆ And, walk humbly with our God (which we can only do when we remember that we, too, are recipients of His mercy).
Sometimes, we want to pick and choose the people who we feel “deserve” God’s mercy, although we really know better. We know that truly, none of us deserve mercy. It is freely given because of God’s amazing grace. It is not earned. We are incapable of earning His mercy.
So, when we feel the tendency to judge someone else without calling upon God’s mercy on their behalf and praying for their salvation… when our expectations are disappointed… when we have been hurt… when we or someone we love has been victimized… when we feel powerless over injustice… when innocence is abused…
Let us always remember the final destiny of those who reject God, and let us desire His mercy even for these.
Because God loves mercy.
God loves people, sinful people, and He longs to be merciful to them when they turn to Him in need of forgiveness and salvation.
Let us fight the tendency in our lives to focus on the unimportant, and let us be transformed through the renewal of our minds. Let us keep moving forward in this journey toward Christlikeness, and let us choose mercy. Let us choose God’s mercy and grace toward others rather than becoming mired in our own opinions, which would only result in continual disappointment and stall our growth as Christians.
To that end, these are the things that I want to focus on in order to avoid becoming more caught up in what I believe is right than in the mercies of God.
* I want to avoid assumptions, realizing that we often don’t know the challenges that others are facing.
* I want to have the mind of Christ, looking beyond the sad and shocking and even disgusting behavior to the person in need of a Savior.
* I want to employ grace with fellow believers, realizing that we are all in the process of becoming more like Christ and that it is a long journey for all of us.
* I want to learn to love mercy. When it comes to my own behavior, I am required to behave justly and “do” justice. However, when it comes to the behavior of others, the requirement changes. In regard to others, I am required to love mercy, recognizing my own need for mercy and the fact that I was undeserving of the mercy that I have personally been shown by God, based upon my own actions in choosing my way over His.
*** Most of all, I want to remember these things: ***
* Judging any human being as “more unworthy” of God’s mercy because of what they are doing or saying, what they wear, listen to, or read, their current beliefs, what they eat, or substances they use, is just simply wrong.
* Relationship with God, love for the Lord, and thankfulness are more important than any posture of prayer, any show of piety, and even more significant than a person’s current level of knowledge or maturity as a Christian. God gives us the opportunity to grow in Christ, and we should extend that grace to others as well.
* Connecting others with a message and an experience of grace and salvation is more important than our human ideas of behavioral perfection.
* Style (in music, clothing, or anything else) is less important than the heart of worship and the hearts of people.
* Opinions (and even deeply held convictions) will not reach hearts like the love of Christ.
* Only God can work in the hearts of others to draw them to a place of deeper spiritual relationship and commitment. Conviction of the heart over one’s wrong-doing or lack of love is the Holy Spirit’s job, not mine.
(I’m too busy dealing with my own spiritual mess.)
* Finally (and most importantly), what bothers me about this world needs to be turned upside down…
… so that I become
more and more bothered
by my own lack of concern
for the eternal destiny of others
than by the stinking graveclothes of sin and spiritual death
that have often prevented me
from seeing the person
rather than the actions
and words and attitudes
of a lost soul that needs Jesus
or a fellow traveller,
who, like me,
has encountered some bumps in the road
on the path to Christlikeness.
The Prayer of a Forgiven Heart
Lord, may my first thought be love.
May my second thought be a prayer.
May my actions demonstrate grace and humility.
May my heart be broken by the brokenness in this world…
and in my own life.
May my opinions matter less than my desire to bring You glory.
May my life be given to serving others and lifting up Your name.
May my heart be given to You.
May my mind be transformed by Your Spirit.
May my time and talents and resources be committed to Your plan for my life.
And may I always be mindful that You are the Giver of all good things,
the Lover of my soul,
the Joy of my heart,
the Fountain of mercy and grace,
and the Source of pure and sacrificial love.
In Jesus’ holy and powerful name,
Amen
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This post, including “The Prayer of a Forgiven Heart” was written by Cynthia A. Boyd.
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