“Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which He could be arrested. They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with Him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we know how honest You are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites.” (Matthew 22:15-16 NLT)
Jesus quickly saw through their hypocrisy, but the point is, though they were seeking to say what they thought Jesus wanted to hear, they were actually stating a fact of who Jesus was and is – completely honest and true to Himself and to His Father. Unfortunately, we sometimes pull the same kinds of stunts when we pray. It’s like we’re trying to use His goodness, kindness and perfection, against Him to get Him to do what we want.
Francis Chan makes an interesting observation when he writes: “There is a HUGE difference between believing what God has promised and praying for things you’d like to be true.” It always saddens me when I hear someone living in open sin say something like: “The Lord and I have an agreement. He understands I can’t change, so He’s forgiven me and He’s okay with how I’m living.” The very thought that we can’t change by the power of His Spirit goes against everything the Lord taught, and to believe He’s okay for us to continue in sin when He died to free us of it is blasphemous.
He calls us to repentance, which is a turning away from the sin that has us bound. Our sin is what has us captive, the very sin from which we’re set free when we’re born again, not to continue in it, but to turn from it. Satan seeks to blind us to truth through the exaltation of our feelings, our emotions. We wrongly believe as long as we “feel” okay about something, the Lord must be okay with it also, but it just doesn’t work that way. Feelings lie, they mislead us into believing things that are of the enemy, not of the Lord.
Ravi Zacharias had it right when he wrote: “We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right.” Unfortunately, Brother Zacharias didn’t always practice what he preached, but truth is truth whether we live it or not. I can believe mules are racehorses, but it just doesn’t make it so. I can also believe sin is okay when it is not.
God’s promises are true, but to distort them and try to make them mean something they don’t is damning. When Paul writes in Philippians 4:13: “For I can do everything (or some translations say “all things”) through Christ, who gives me strength.” The context reveals his “everything” or “all things” is that which is in line with God’s will for him. Our strength to live godly, faith-filled lives to the glory of the Lord ONLY comes through utter dependence upon the Spirit who resides in us as His children.
When we use our God-given freedom to seek to distort truth, we reveal our independence and alienation from the Lord; thus, reveal our need of repentance and forgiveness. We know, based on the authority of God’s Word, that every word Jesus spoke was true, but to take them out of context or to seek to have them say what He never intended is sin. That’s true of any words of Scripture and is seen on full display in and through many of the cults that roam the earth today. My sense is the Lord has a special place in hell for the Joseph Smith’s of the world who have started satanic cults in the name of Jesus, seeking only glory for themselves.
Please only pray and believe that which is true to Scripture and true to the heart of God.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
