I was thrilled to be asked to write an article for “Influence Magazine” based on my book When Sheep Bite.
This article is a synopsis of my entire book. So if you are interested in seeing what sort of content I have in When Sheep Bite, please check out this article.
If you are a pastor—or if you love your pastor—pick up your copy of When Sheep Bite today!
Remember not the sins (the lapses and frailties) of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your mercy and steadfast love remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord. … The troubles of my heart are multiplied; bring me out of my distresses. Behold my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins of thinking and doing. Consider my enemies, for they abound; they hate me with cruel hatred. (Psalm 25:7, 17-19 AMPC)
In this prayer, it appears that David’s enemies are his own accusing thoughts brought on by his sinfulness.
But David also knows that with God there is full forgiveness. Because of His “mercy and steadfast love,” God forgives our confessed sins and forever forgets them.
The way to vanquish the internal enemies that accuse and torment us is to bring our “sins of thinking and doing” into the light of our Savior’s presence—only there will we be freed from those enemies.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
It could be that the enemies that are dogging your footsteps—harassing you and closing in on you—are doing so because God incited them to do this.
Why?
So that you will grow stronger in your dependence on His keeping power. God says He will gain the honor and glory when He does what no earthly power can do.
Check out this part of the story about the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites—
“For Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are entangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ I will harden (make stubborn, strong) Pharaoh’s heart, that he will pursue them, and I will gain honor and glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so. … The Lord made hard and strong the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, for they left proudly and defiantly. … Moses told the people, “Fear not; stand still (firm, confident, undismayed) and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians you have seen today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.” … Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians, and the people reverently feared the Lord and trusted in (relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord and to His servant Moses. (Exodus 14:3-4, 8, 13-14, 30-31 AMPC)
God allowed the enemies to pursue the Israelites. Actually, God Himself stirred up these enemies to go after His people.
So let me ask again: Why would God do this?
Two things happened as the Israelites remained at rest:
Instead of complaining about your foes—or even trying to defend yourself or fight back against them—keep your eyes on your Savior. He will be glorified as He cares for you as only He can! And when God does unleash His power on your behalf, you will have a testimony that will reverberate through the ages—
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider or its chariot has He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my Strength and my Song, and He has become my Salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. … Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:1-2, 11)
God will be glorified in your difficult situation. Stand still and watch your awesome God work in awesome ways!
I wrote about this story from a different angle in my post Between a Rock and a Hard Place. And check out my video clip Different Thinking in Difficult Places.
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Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Last week I asked, “How long do we keep praying?” Answer: Until God answers or until He lifts our burden. In the meantime, the Bible encourages us to…
With that in mind, let me ask you another question: What does this look like? How do we wait expectantly for God to answer? I’ve got three thoughts from the Scripture.
(1) Keep walking
Eliezer had a 300-mile journey which would have taken him about 10 days. Abraham prayed for him before he left and Eliezer prayed when he arrived (Genesis 24:7, 12, 15). His expectation that God would answer him kept him walking. The answer came after 10 days—before he even finished praying!
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
Nehemiah prayed for God’s favor with King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 1:11) but then he had to keep walking to work every single day for at least 4 months (2:4). All the while he was praying, expecting, and planning, so when the king asked him what he wanted, Nehemiah was ready to answer.
A royal official met Jesus in Cana and asked Him to heal his son who was was sick in Capernaum. Jesus said, “Go! Your son will live,” and that father began walking his 20-mile journey home. Along the way, his servants met him to deliver the good news of the boy’s full recovery. When the father asked, he found out it was at the very moment Jesus had said, “Go” (John 4:46-53).
Faith takes Jesus at His word and starts walking toward the approaching miracle!
(2) Keep waiting
There are two Hebrew words in the Old Testament that frequently are translated “wait”:
Check out how one psalmist linked hoping and waiting—
Out of the depths I cry to You, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. … I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His Word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:1-2, 5-6)
And David wrote how he had learned to quiet himself in God’s loving presence: But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content (Psalm 131:2).
Then listen to the wait-hope-quiet link in Jeremiah’s prayer—
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentation 3:24-26)
In the New Testament, the idea is patience for an expected result is like a farmer who had prepared his field, planted good seed, watered it with his prayers, and is now assured of an abundant harvest (James 5:7-8; Galatians 6:9).
(3) Keep smiling
We put on a smile, not a show!
Contrast what Jesus said about the wrong way to pray and fast…
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. … And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans … When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting… (Matthew 6:5, 7, 16)
…with the God-honoring, God-trusting way—
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen … But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face. (Matthew 6:6, 17)
It’s not a fake smile, but a smile that comes from the joy in our rock-solid expectation in God’s reply to our prayer (Psalm 28:6-7; 38:15)
Pray—then keep walking, keep waiting, and keep smiling in anticipation of what your Heavenly Father is doing on your behalf.
If you want to check out the other messages in this prayer series, please click here.
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Christian parents often experience both a weight and a wait as they pray for their children. Biblical waiting is always active, calling us to continue to pray for our kids—not matter how old they are!
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The Institute for Creation Research reported: “Perhaps one of the top evidences for creation are the subcellular and incredibly efficient molecular protein machines that clearly function by known engineering principles. They are hardly simple. Determining just a part of their function requires the best science has in twenty-first-century technology: ‘While belonging to the nanoscale, protein machines are so complex that tracing even a small fraction of their cycle requires weeks of calculations on supercomputers.’”
Dr. Thaddeus Williams said, “What do you think is the most repeated phrase in the entire Bible? It’s, ‘Thus says the Lord…’ which clocks in at over 400 occurrences. The God of the Bible is not the stone-cold silent god of the ancient Greeks. Nor is He the stone-cold silent god of the ancient Stoics or Epicureans, too busy enjoying the amenities of divine bliss to bother with humanity. No. The God who exists is a God who speaks.” What does this mean for us? Dr. Williams talks about what happens to people who make time to regularly hear what God has to say to them through His Word.
“Work is the outcome of effort; fruit, of life. A bad man may do good work, but a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” —Hudson Taylor
I love studying my Bible, and I also enjoy passing along things that encourage others to begin studying their own Bibles. This is a really cool infographic from Wesley Huff, giving a great overview of the Bible.
Dr. Steve Nichols has an interesting mini-biography of King Louis IX, whom some have called “the greatest king of the Middle Ages.”
J. Warner Wallace leads us all along “the fuse” that led up to the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah, the One to whom the Old Testament prophets predicted.
Craig T. Owens 