Fresh Blessings!

Speaking of hangry, we got something going on at the Truth Network that's going to help the world not be so hangry. Yeah, he's talking about just needing God's Word. He said, please help the Truth Network send Bibles to Africa.

And we know that they need God's Word. We have until the end of the month, just $5 gets a Bible in the hands of a poor, impoverished believer all over the African continent with the help of the Bible League. Just $5.

Just think about that, Robbie. Just $5. So please give. If you can give more than $5, man, we'd love for you to do it. And the number to call is 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD.

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But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. What are you looking forward to right now? Are your best days in front of you or behind you?

Do you see yourself as blessed or just wish you were? These are some of the things we're going to be talking about on today's Encouraging Prayer. So, James, go ahead and take it from here.

Well, thank you, Robbie. These have been stressful times lately, haven't they? So, it just helps to ask, what am I looking forward to really? And this is where prayer comes in because God can give us hope and peace in the most difficult circumstances. It was in the middle of lamentations in a national crisis at that time that the Prophet Jeremiah wrote, because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassion's never fail.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. So, I think a good question is, are we looking for fresh compassion from God? Fresh blessings each day? Yeah, if God's compassion's are new every morning, we really do need to be looking for them. But you got to admit, you don't expect that stuff coming out of lamentations.

You're exactly right, Robbie. And I read this interesting letter this past week from C.F. Lewis, where he's talking about something similar. He said, I'm beginning to feel that we need a preliminary act of submission, not only towards possible future afflictions, you know, how you're praying, Lord, help me to be ready for whatever, but also toward possible future blessings.

He goes on, I know it sounds fantastic, he says, but think it over. It seems to me that we often almost sulkily reject the good that God offers us because at that moment we expected some other good. Do you know what I mean? On every level of our life, we are always harking back to some occasion, Lewis writes, which seemed to us to reach perfection, setting that up as a norm and depreciating all other occasions by comparison. But these other occasions I now suspect are often full of their own blessing. If only we would lay ourselves open to it. God shows us a new facet of the glory, and we refuse to look at it because we're still looking for the old one.

That's where his quote ends. But in other words, we often expect the worst and get it just because that's what our eyes are open for. But if we stay creatively open to God in the moment, he has blessings waiting for us right then and there that we never thought of.

So is the glass half empty or half full? I mean, you're saying that even in difficult circumstances, we can still hope in God and prayer has a lot to do with this? The only reason prayer has anything to do with this is it lays us open to God. As Lewis was saying, he's the one who can inexplicably change our outlook for the better in a heartbeat if our hearts are resting in him. But the frustrating thing is that when we're trying to be with God in the moment, when bad things happen, even then it's like, where are you? Unless we stay with him in the moment, we won't break through to the good he has waiting for us. I think about the Westminster Confession, you know, what is the chief end of humanity to enjoy God, you know, to know God, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And I think of something Frederick Faber wrote.

I'll paraphrase it a bit. He said, we must wait for God. We must wait in the cold and dark, wait in the wind and wet. But wait, we must. He does not come to those who do not wait.

He does not go their road. It is the relationship with God that brings us into this place of blessing. So ultimately, he's the greatest blessing of all.

It's hard for the person who's in the crisis, right, to see that and really be able to accept it. And that's why we have to accustom ourselves to doing this. I think that's part of what Jeremiah was doing when he prayed, your mercies are new every morning. And what Paul meant in Philippians 4, when he said, in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. What we really need are fresh eyes to see the blessings that are there. And God will help us with this.

God will lead us into this if we just ask him. Yeah, that takes me back to what Lewis said about looking at some situation in the past and setting it up as the norm for what it means to be happy when there are actually new blessings, just waiting to be had if we can only see them. What do you think are some of the things that keep us from seeing the blessings God has waiting for us? That could be a long list. There are so many things that get in the way and they're not always our fault.

Grief and pain are two of the first that come to mind. So is just routine. I mean, do you ever notice how the first bite of ice cream tastes better than the third or fourth?

Because by then your tongue starts to get numb. So it's not that our life is meant to be one pleasurable experience after another. If that were the case, we would be worshipping our experiences and by extension ourselves, right? So again, it all comes back to our relationship with God.

I can think of some very difficult times when our son was struggling with heroin addiction and we were so worried and not knowing what to do. And I went into my room and closed the door to be with God and I didn't feel any different. But then I got up and went on my way and maybe just as soon as I'm walking down the hall out of the bedroom, it hits me. The Lord was there, but I in my pain. I was too numb to feel it, but I could see it after the fact like the wake of a boat in the water. You look back and realize it, but you don't see it when it's happening.

It makes me think of the footprints in the sand analogy, right? Where in those places where there's just one set of prints that God was carrying us, even though you thought it was you, you were all alone, right? And the important thing is that we just be real with God.

So please, listeners understand, we're not meaning to make light of any of the difficult circumstances that we're encountering. But if we don't feel his presence or support in the moment, be real and tell him that. The Bible is full of prayers like that, where people are saying, how long, oh, Lord? But again, this is where we have to look forward and not backward to take any amount of faith and trust that we have no matter how small and just look forward to him not expecting a feeling necessarily, but just again looking to him. There's something about doing that even in the very difficult places that lightens our load. So seeing ourselves as blessed starts with asking for God's help to do it, going to him in spite of our circumstances and letting him lead us to see the blessings that are really right there.

And again, that may not happen right away. It may happen a few steps down the hall as we were saying, but it sums it up well, most of all recognizing that he is the greatest blessing of all, reveling in him, loving him, adoring him. That will lead us into fresh places of blessing again and again, not because we're making it happen, but because as this word says, he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Wow, thanks, James. Well, let me close today with a prayer that we can do just that. So Jesus, thank you for this insight and Lord, I pray that you would guide us in our next prayer session, that we would be looking for the new mercies, not waiting on something that used to be and that we would enjoy.

We would enjoy you forever in the new fresh ways that you come after us, but also help us to sense your presence, even in our lowest moments that we just know that you're the realest thing that we could possibly ever see. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, Jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.