Prayer and Praise (Part 2 of 2)

There are two ways that people respond to trials. Some people will lean into God for comfort and direction. Others will rebel against him. But did you know the Bible also teaches that happy times can test our faith?

So how do we respond when life is going great? We'll hear the answer today on Truth for Life as Alistair Begg takes us to James chapter 5. We're looking at verse 13.

Secondly, is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. The word that is used here is actually used only here and also in the Acts, in Acts chapter 24, and also in Acts chapter 27. Twenty-seven may be most memorable to us, because that's the account of the shipwreck where Paul is on board with the sailors, and he tells them, We're going to be wrecked here pretty soon. And he precedes that by telling them to be happy. He says, We're about to face a shipwreck, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer.

Fascinating, isn't it? This is not, you see, We won't be shipwrecked, therefore, hey! No, we're going to be shipwrecked, therefore, be of good cheer. A reminder to us that this kind of happiness, this genuine joy, may be known both in good times and in bad times.

It is something more than a superficial response, a kind of happiness that results from the well-being of or the outcome of that which we most hope for. So what he's saying is, I'm speaking to you as a congregation, as it were. I'm writing to you all. I want to know, is any one of you in trouble? Make sure that you're coming to God in prayer.

And is any one of you happy? Are you buoyed? B-U-O-Y-E-D. Are you encouraged? Well, then, this is what you should do.

Sing songs of praise. Now, you may read that and say, Well, you know, there's nothing quite like stating the obvious, is there? Of course. I knew that.

Is anyone happy? Songs of praise. Really?

Really. Are you unprepared to admit that when the sun shines and when prosperity beckons, you are not tempted to forget God? That when the storm settles and we move into an era of plain sailing, we forget about the captain of our salvation and the Lord of our destiny and the champion who runs before us?

I actually found myself, in studying verse 13, far more challenged by the second part of the couplet than the first. Oh, trouble may turn me from God, it may make me bitter, it may drive me away in self-pity, but the chances are it will take me finally there if I have a living relationship with him. But when happiness comes, when success beckons, there is a genuine danger of us falling asleep.

Falling asleep. And we should not be surprised by this, because God himself warned his own people about this very issue in Deuteronomy chapter 6. And following the words of the Hebrew Shema, he gives clear directives to his people who are going to go into the land of promise.

And listen what he says. When the LORD your God brings you into the land, he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant, then, when you eat and are satisfied, here it comes. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD who brought you out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery. You see, if we forget that we're involved in a continual and irreconcilable war in living the Christian life, then we will be caught off guard when the insinuations of the evil one in the face of trouble come to us and say very strongly, You should just bail out on this operation. After all, look what's happened to you. Look at the trouble you're in.

This is worthless. Forget God. And in the same sneaky way, when everything's going so fine, you don't need to read your Bible. You don't need to be involved in that stuff. You're doing so well.

Forget him. I think you can identify with this. If you're honest, I know that I certainly can. You see, there is a choking of spiritual life that doesn't come simply by way of worries but also comes by way of riches and pleasures. You can read that in Luke chapter 8 in the story Jesus told of the farmer who went out to sow, and when he sowed his seed, it fell on all kinds of soil. And the pictures of the human heart and the response of the human heart to the good news. And some are instant bloom and instant fade, and others disappear within a matter of time. And then the third soil is represented by that which goes along for a while, says Jesus, and then the very life is choked out by worries, by riches, and by pleasure. So in other words, here we go. The plant is bedded.

It is starting to grow. And then trouble comes. The person decides, I won't do what I'm supposed to do with God's help and take it to him and bow before him and trust his sovereignty.

I'll try and muscle through myself. And they begin to be choked by disappointment, doubt, self-pity. And then the upswing comes, and there are riches, and there is advancement, and there's promotion, and there are options, and so on. And before we know where we are, the very same thing happening—riches and pleasure, choking out the very lifeblood experience of our Christian faith.

Seems fairly straightforward, doesn't it? Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. So sing, we must! But again you say, there's nothing in this, is there? People sing when they're happy. You come around the corner, and you see someone at his work or someone at her work, and they're like, you know, hey, diddly-dee-dah!

Oh, diddly-dee-dah! You know, there's no words or anything. It's just… And you say, well, it's lovely to see you so happy. The person says, yes, I am happy. I say, well, there you are. That's what you're supposed to do. Is anyone happy? This is what you do. Diddly-dee, diddly-dee-dee. No.

Anybody can do diddly-dee. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. The word that is used here, the verb, is sallow, from which we get our English word, psalms, which is a reference to the fact that the distinguishing feature of the Christian in happiness is where they direct their adoration and their praise. It's perfectly normal for somebody who is feeling fairly good. This is, you know, The sun'll come up tomorrow, you know, hey-hey! Or, I can see clearly now, the rain has gone.

I can see everything, you know, in my rearview mirror. We're good now! Is that what he's saying? No! Anybody does that! That's natural! What he's saying is supernatural.

Supernatural. Back to 18, verse 18 of chapter 1. What has he said about these people? God has chosen to give them birth through the word of truth so that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. It's akin to what Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, where he says, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and so on, in order that you may show forth his praises, who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Now, you can go to your friends and neighbors and say, You know, I lived in darkness, and now I live in light. And they can say, Okay, that's fine.

You know, pass me the salt. But I'll tell you this. When they discover that you don't praise yourself for your success, but you praise God, when they discover that you have a view of looking at science that looks to the genius of a creator, when they find that in your enjoyment of art you look to he who is the great artist, then they'll say, You tend to look at things a little differently from me.

Why is that? The answer is, well, God the Creator chose to give me birth through the word of truth. I discovered who Jesus is and why he came. I discovered that I was actually upside down in my thinking and in my living, and I came to Jesus, and he turned me the right way up. And ever since he's turned me the right way up, I find that I'm looking at things in a far different way. You see, the believer considers all the good gifts of God. James 1.17, Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow due to turning.

So one of the ways that we know ourselves to be in Christ is in our response to things that everybody makes a response to. I'm so happy to have this vacation. I'm so glad to have this wife. I'm so thrilled to enjoy these children. I'm very thankful for the provision of employment. I love to read good books.

I love it when the snow crusts over at midnight and sparkles under the moonlit sky. And I say, O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the world your hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, your power throughout the entire universe displayed. That's not natural.

Our friends say, No, I don't see that at all. I look up in the Milky Way, and I say, Milky Way, man, that's fantastic. And I'm glad that Darwin figured it all out for me. Well, you might say to them, Well, you should sing your songs to Darwin.

Or maybe you'll sing your songs to yourself. Which is, of course, exactly what our friends and neighbors do. Making ourselves God.

Ruling over our own little empires. Not the Christian. When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. You either look at that and say, Evolution is a fantastic thing. Or you look at that and say, The genius of God, to do this? And certainly, and when I think that God his Son not sparing sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin, then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee.

You are great. See, that's the Christian view. Are you a Christian? You see, the challenge in it is that a happy heart, which is good in itself, may become the occasion of that which is bad, if the very happiness draws us away from God. And therefore, we need to be alert to these temptations, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, heeding them so that neither trouble nor happiness will prevent us from prayer and praise. It's very, very important—and I need to draw to a close—but it's very, very important that we recognize that in the everyday events of our lives, Christian faith does not anesthetize us from trouble. It doesn't anesthetize us from trouble.

You don't become a Christian and get a Teflon suit, and then you just go through, and things that affect everybody else don't affect you, because, quotes, I'm a Christian. No! No, no, no, no, no, no. No. If you have one of those lumber things, and you're a Christian or you're not a Christian, guess how it feels?

Exact same. Oh, you can ask God for help, and he will give you peace, perhaps, but in terms of when the thing goes in, it goes in. So it's a silly thing to try and suggest to our friends and neighbors that they might want to opt for Christianity, because in Christianity, trouble? Bye-bye, trouble.

Get your Teflon suits here? Not a problem. Raising your children? A breeze. Finances? Under control. The future?

Not an issue. Come and join us. Come and join us in the mental hospital. Nor does our Christian faith spiritualize the experience of happiness. You know, this kind of super-pious approach to things that says, No, that doesn't really make me very happy. I'll tell you what makes me happy.

Oh, when I think of these… Oh, give me a break. Come on. When Manchester United win, I am happy. I am really happy. Why?

Because of a football match. Should I be that happy as a Christian? Yeah. I think I should be even happier than the non-Christians. Because I know the Creator who made all these guys to do these phenomenal things. So don't let's try and present to our non-Christian friends this kind of weird approach to life. Like our unbelieving friends and neighbors, we face bereavement, we face the loss of employment, we face disappointment, we face failure. And in it all, we are seeking to do, by the help of the Holy Spirit, what James is calling us to do here. The flip side of it is, we also enjoy success. We also appreciate beauty. We also enter into the opportunities of sport and of art and of scientific discovery. And all of that is transformed for the Christian in light of their discovery of who God is and what he has accomplished.

It is a sad caricature of basic Christianity that offers Christianity to people as either being the introduction to a trouble-free existence or the introduction to a joy that, frankly, doesn't pay any attention to the earthly joys of life. You know, you could say that what James is saying here is, Hey, guys, get real. Get real. Is any one of you in trouble? Okay. Is any of you happy?

Okay, here's what to do. When the two prisoners were brought into the jail in the late evening, all the other prisoners must have just been watching to see who they were and what they were on about. They would have been familiar with the sounds of their arrival, with the horrible sounds of the beatings and the floggings. They would have winced as they realized what was going on, they themselves having experienced it before the two who'd now arrived. All of that was usual. All of that was the enactment of Roman law. Nothing unusual about that. But what they would have been unprepared for was what they saw and heard in the midnight hour, when these two prisoners, Paul and Silas, were praying and singing hymns to God.

Praying and singing hymns to God. Man, Silas, that guy near killed me there without meeting. I just want to go to sleep. I don't know what I want to do. I want to die. Silas, hey, come on, Paul, you're the apostle, for goodness sake.

You can't be saying that. I'm looking to you for encouragement. Why don't we pray? You go ahead, Silas.

Go on. Oh, Father, we were telling the good news about Jesus. We never bargained for this. Look at us, a sorry spectacle.

How could the world ever think we were worth anything, all beaten up in here? Do you want to sing? What? We could sing. Silas, you're starting to really get on my nerves. Well, what else are we going to do?

Complain? You know what? You're right. And about midnight, Paul and Silas were in trouble, and they were praying and singing hymns to God. And then Luke says, And the other prisoners were listening to them.

I love that line. And the other prisoners were listening to them. Of course they were. That's unusual. What's usual is people cuss in the jailer out. If you let these get these chains off me, I'll tell you, you, your wife, your family, the whole rotten lot of you is going to get this. That was standard stuff. No, the jailer, his wife, and family were all going to get some of this.

Some of what? Some of God's grace when Paul conducts the baptismal service for the whole family. Why? Because he was trouble-free?

No. Because in the face of trouble he prayed, and in the reminder of what he had in Christ, he sang songs of praise. Here's the conclusion, and I think it's just as simple as this. This is what I was struck with, and therefore I leave with you. I found myself saying, Perhaps my friends and my colleagues will be more inclined to listen to me when my troubles give way to prayer and when my happiness issues in God-focused praise. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg urging us to seek and praise God in bad times and in good times. Alistair will be back in just a moment to close with prayer. Life doesn't get easier when we become a Christian.

In fact, in some ways it's even more challenging. But God uses all the seasons of our life to fulfill his sovereign purposes and plan. And that's the subject of a book that Alistair wrote about the providence of God. In fact, if you've never read it, let me recommend it to you. It's titled The Hand of God, Finding His Care in All Circumstances. And right now you can download a copy of the book for free from our website. It comes as an e-book. And in The Hand of God, Alistair unpacks the dramatic ups and downs in the life of Joseph, as told in the book of Genesis.

Alistair shows how God is always at work orchestrating the events in our lives, even when we can't see it. This is an encouraging book. Again, you can download your copy as a free e-book today when you go online at truthforlife.org slash hand. And you'll want to do it today because this free book offer ends tomorrow.

Again, the link is truthforlife.org slash hand. Tomorrow is also the last day we'll be recommending a book called Sowable Word, helping ordinary people learn to lead Bible studies. Whether you have led Bible study groups for years or you've recently decided to give leadership a try, you will benefit from this practical how-to book. It straightforwardly guides you into how to lead others in the study of Scripture, how to maximize learning from God's Word. The book will help you effectively lead discussion groups and engage every member of your group while you stay focused on the key points of the passage you're studying. Sowable Word is loaded with many useful tips and insights from an author who has nearly 20 years of experience teaching the Bible. He teaches you how to help your group apply the Bible's lessons to their own lives, how to foster a sense of community within your group, even how to correctly gauge your success. This is a great book to refer to whether you're meeting one-on-one with a friend to share the Gospel, leading family devotions, holding a weekly Bible study group, or preparing for a one-time presentation. Ask for your copy of the book Sowable Word when you donate today to support the Bible teaching ministry of Truth for Life.

You can donate through the Truth for Life mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or call us at 888-588-7884. Now here is Alistair with prayer. Our God and our Father, for the Bible we thank you for the comfort that it gives, for the direction it provides, for the otherworldly dimension into which it calls us, freeing us from saying silly stuff about being trouble-free or simply finding a basis for happiness and all the same things that are offered to us in our transient journey through life. But we realize that when you bring us to yourself and take us out of slimy pits and put our feet upon a rock and establish our going, our going goes through bereavement, it goes through sickness, it goes through darkness and doubts and disappointments and failures. And these things call us again and again to humble ourselves before you, and then even through our tears and our stammering tongues to sing your praise. And make us like little lights that shine into the darkness and disappointment of people's troubled lives and into the darkness and emptiness of superficial happinesses, so that God might be known and praised. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen.

Thanks for listening today. Prayers for healing are a common request every time there's a prayer get-together. James claims that the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. Tomorrow we'll find out what's involved in that kind of prayer. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.