From Faith to Faith

Part one continued: Clive Staples chimes in

C.S. Lewis has a nice little essay called, "The Efficacy of Prayer" which I remembered after writing the last post.  Its more about how you can tell if prayer really "works" but he then moves into the subject I'm thinking about now.  He answers with a quote from Pascal:

    "God", said Pascal, "instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality."          (Lewis continues)  But not only prayer; whenever we act at all He lends us that dignity.  It is not     really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my     other actions should do so.  They have not advised or changed God's mind - that is, His over-all         purpose.  But that purpose will be realized in different ways according to the actions, including         prayers, of His creatures.

In a universe ruled by an omnipotent God do any of our actions actually accomplish anything or are we just puppets, playing out the irresistible will of God.  As Christians we believe that is not the case, that we have free will and that our actions have meaning and consequences.  Why should prayer not simply be one more action we may take to affect our world?

Prayer only being effective when it is in line with God's will makes more sense in this light.  We know that our actions in life will, more often than not, be futile unless they are founded in God's will.  Prayer, as a way of affecting ourselves and the world around us, is only effective when it is based in God's will.  And, as with other actions outside of God's will, if a prayer outside of His will is granted, beware, it is to your hurt and only His grace will bring you back to safety in faith.

Pet Peeves about asking: Number one in a series

1 John 5:

14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

The concept of asking according to God's will seems silly, if something is of God's will, why do we need to ask?  If we, by our free will, choose to walk in His will, would our needs not come about with or without His asking?  I mean, if its God's will it will come to pass, thats kind of the nature of the will of an omnipotent being.  In my mind, the need to ask seems to imply some deficit on God's end, that He must be informed by us about our needs and wants.  This is obviously not true as the requisite proof text illustrates, "...for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."  Matthew 6:8.  He's omniscient,  of course He knows, so why must we then ask Him for things?

Quick answer, because the Bible tells us to do it that way. 

    James 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war,     yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Easy as that, if we don't ask God for stuff won't get it and we'll end up killing each other to try and get it.  Anything deeper than that I really can't say for sure.

Don't worry though, I'm not going to leave with out a little speculating.  My gut tells me it has something to do with our Father/child relationship with God. 

    Mt 7:11  "If you (earthly parents) then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,         how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

Our earthly parents (in theory) give us everything we need to live and to do their will, but kids still ask for all sorts of other things.  If the thing asked for fits into the parents will, they will happily give it to the child.   God, like our early parents, except perfect, will also happily give us good things for which we ask.  This does nothing for the question of whether our needing to ask for things somehow lessens the potency of God's will, but it makes me feel better somehow.

Another speculation lies in my lasting fixation on faith and works.  If we are to receive good things from God by faith, where is the step by which we exercise the faith which God has given us.  Maybe He tells us to ask Him for things as another way of walking out our faith.   We see a need, God gives us faith that the fulfillment of said need is of His will, we ask Him, He gives it, and our faith is built up by seeing Him work.  Maybe?

Whatever the case, God says ask Him for what you need or, more appropriately, ask Him for the things which fit into His will and you'll get them.  Don't ask and you don't get nuthin'.

   

Asking

"Asking in faith" is a faith topic I've wanted to get into for a while and looking into the book of James reminded me of that. 

James 1:
5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8  he is a double–minded man, unstable in all his ways.

People tend to use this verse to say that any time you ask God for something without complete, unwavering confidence, you are a wind tossed wave and ought to expect nothing.  This, though, is foolishness.  We know that God has not promised us anything we want and so, sometimes, we must ask for something which we believe we need with only hope that God will give it.   This is not lack of faith or double-mindedness, simply asking your Father for something you want.  But, I'll try to look more deeply into that type of asking another time.

In this instance, God commands us to be confident.  My proposition throughout this study has been that our faith is not so dependent on our state of mind as our state of mind would have us believe.  In this instance, though, God demands a specific state of mind to accompany our belief.  If we want wisdom we must believe and have no doubt.  No shades of gray here, no "kinda hoping" for wisdom.  No doubt means no doubt. 

I have to assume that this state of mind is not possible apart from the grace of God.  I know I can work up a pretty good sensation of confidence from time to time but that is going to be much different than standing on a promise made by the God who created the universe.  Therefore, if you want wisdom, I guess we need to ask for faith first.  Once you get that you may, essentially, demand wisdom from God.  The nature of wisdom is a whole other study but its vital to our Christian walk which is why God tells us He'll always give it at our request with no questions or condescension. 

Step Back

Aaron makes a good point in his comment on the last post.  Its hard to separate God from His law and I think I'm splitting hairs a litte too closely here.  Or maybe my wording is just bad.  I know this, whatever the motives or our hearts, the law is good and must be followed.  Either you follow the law because God has filled your heart with faith and you then do what the Father does, or you follow the law because you believe that doing good things will make you good.

Law vs Spirit

Continuing through Galatians we find that Paul spends most of chapters 3, 4, and 5 exhorting the Galatians not to try to find justification in the law.  You'd think that they must be a pious, legalistic bunch.  5:13 seems to imply that, despite their desire to be justified by the law, they still have a problem with the deeds of the flesh. 

13 ¶  For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
15  But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
16  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Verse 18 seems to be a much better way of expressing what I tried to say in the last post that a true Christian obeys God, not the law.  Yes, there is right and wrong, but it is not by doing right things that we are justified.  We are justified by faith in Christ Jesus alone, we then spend the rest of our lives walking in the Spirit.   

We no longer obey because these things (days, and months, and seasons, do not touch, do not taste...) because they hold in custody, enslaving us.  We obey God and are led by His Spirit.  If a thing ought not be touched the Spirit leads us not to touch it.  If a day ought to observed, the Spirit leads you to observe it.  Is the Spirit leading you?  Is He leading me?  Do I obey to be good enough or because God is with me, leading me where I ought to go?