tomb image courtesy of Joel Milhouse

I was reading The Jesus Storybook Bible for my daughter the other night. We were on the story of the women who went to Jesus' tomb on resurrection Sunday. As I was reading it to her, I was struck by how it related to the post last week on God Works All Things for Good. The story comes from John 20:1-18, but parts are found in the other Gospels as well (Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, and Luke 24:1-12).

Roughly the story goes as follows. Three women went to the tomb on Sunday morning with spices for Jesus' body. When they got to the tomb, the stone that had covered the entrance had been rolled back and Jesus body was gone. As they pondered what happened, two angels appeared to them saying Jesus had rose from the dead and to tell the disciples to go to Galilee to wait for Jesus. They ran back to the disciples to tell them what they had saw. The disciples did not believe them, so Peter and John ran to the tomb to check it out. They went in the tomb and believed. Mary Magdalene had gone back to the tomb with the two disciples, and she stayed there after the disciples left. And, as she lingered she met with Jesus.

We must understand the troubling time this was for the followers of Jesus. There was excitement surrounding Jesus and a belief that He was the Christ, but no matter how much He said it, the followers did not believe that Jesus had to die. We see this most clearly in the two who met with Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-33). They had heard that the women spoke of the empty tomb and seeing angels. They had even heard that Peter and John had verfied the tomb was empty. But Jesus had died and that was the end of the hope.

Whenever we try to interpret events apart from God's inpiration, we are bound to get them wrong. It is obvious that Mary Magdalene did not understand what had happened to Jesus. She had seen the empty tomb and had angels tell her that He has risen, but she still believed him to be dead. When Jesus appeared to her (not knowing it was him), she asked him where Jesus body was taken.

The thing that I admire about her in this story is that even though she did not understand, she continued to struggle with what had happened and to try to find Jesus. And by persisting with it, she was the first to see the risen Christ. In seeing the risen Christ, she was able to understand that all was well.

There will be events in your life that will be hard for your to interpret in light of the truths of Scriptures. Continue to fight through them in prayer. Pursue God to help give you understanding. "God, You say You work for the good of all things, but how can the death of my loved one be made good?" It was this kind of pursuit that was rewarded for Mary Magdalene with a visitation from Jesus. Jesus loves to be pursued.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. - James 4:8

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28

This is a follow-up to the previous post on "We Love Because God First Loved Us." That post discussed the lies that we believe that keep us from the love of God. This one will focus more on how those lies came to be.

With the current nationwide unemployment rate at 10.2% many people are more fervently asking God where He is in their situation. The truth is that life has always been full of events that make you question the existence of God and His goodness. You may have experienced any of these events:

• others get promoted before you
• you total your car
• a friend slanders you behind your back
• you have a miscarriage
• your spouse leaves you
• your child dies before you do
• you are diagnosed with cancer

Each of these events appears as something bad. Yes, I said appear. The truth is only God has the right to interpret the events of our lives. If we chose to interpret them without Him, we will allow lies to take root in our hearts. Let's take for example something as common as having a miscarriage (I've heard that 20% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage).

What goes through the mind of a young woman when she her child has miscarried? She suffers tremendous grief, as it is a loss of a child. One of the first things she will consider is whether she had done something wrong. Did she not take the right vitamins or was she not eating right? But, also just as quick, she will question God about why He took her child. He was ultimately in control. He can do whatever He wants. He could have saved her baby? But, He choose not to. Can you see how easy it is for the logic to go there?

Now she has put herself in the place of receiving any of these lies:

• God does not want me to have a child.
• He thinks I would not have been a good mom.
• I am too selfish to have a child.
• I have messed up to much to get anything from God.
• God loves the world, but He does not love me.
• My husband would be better off with someone else.
• I am worthless.
• Nobody would miss me if I was gone.

John 11 tells the story of the death of Lazarus. This is a very intriguing account with Jesus. First of all, He hears that His friend, Lazarus is sick. Then he waits a couple days before going to him. In verse 15, He says that He was glad that He was not there before Lazarus died.

When strolls into town Lazarus' sisters have separate encounters with Jesus. Both say to Him that if He had been there Lazarus would not have died. They both interpreted Lazarus' death as something bad. Jesus as we already saw in verse 15 interpreted the event differently. He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Now this is an amazing story. This is not always the interpretation, but God does say that He will work for the good for those who love Him. If you are a believer and tragedy comes your way, you have every right to go to God and ask for His interpretation. "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously" (James 1:5). The only way to avoid the lies and to live in the truth is to allow God to interpret the events of your life. Hold fast to the truth that God works all things for good!

If you are having trouble believing God's goodness because of an event in your life, pray through the heart of our loving father in Isaiah 61:7.  Also purchase and listen on repeat the song below. I have played this several times this week and I do not think its truths will ever grow old. My friend, God loves you!

Your Love Never Fails
By: Chris McClarney

Verse 1:
Nothing can separate
Even if I ran away
Your love never fails

I know I still make mistakes
But You have new mercies for me everyday
Your love never fails

Chorus:
You stay the same through the ages
Your love never changes
There maybe pain in the night but joy comes in the morning

And when the oceans rage
I don't have to be afraid
Because I know that You love me
Your love never fails

Verse 2:
The wind is strong and the water's deep
But I'm not alone in these open seas
Cause Your love never fails

The chasm is far too wide
I never thought I'd reach the other side
But Your love never fails

Bridge:
You make all things work together for my good

You can buy this song at Jesus Culture Music estore.

Have you ever thought you just did not love God enough? Well, don't let it get you down because no one really does. We can only love God to the measure that we ourselves have been loved or to the extent that we understand His love for us. Remember the woman who barges in the dinner party to bathe Jesus' feet with tears? Jesus said the she loves much because she had experienced God's love and forgiveness (Luke 7:36-50).

We love because He first loved us. If you want to love God more, then you need to first receive more of His love. When we place all of our focus on ourselves to generate the loving feelings for God, it will lead to striving and religion—trying to earn God's favor.

What keeps us from God's love? First of all, it is not God. He has bent over backwards to show us that He loves us. Sending His Son to die on the cross is a huge sign. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)

While it is true that no one seeks God without the Father drawing them. No one would blatantly reject the love of Christ if they really knew it. Therefore misinterpretations of events and lies in our hearts block our view of his love. Knowing that they were deceived allowed Jesus to say from the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). When we really know in their hearts the love of God, we would come running, weeping, and rejoicing into the arms of our Father.

What kind of lies are we believing? There can be multiple lies, but I will walk through a typical one for many. Many people grew up in a busy family where your parents did not have much free time to play with you. Or, maybe your parents were divorced limiting your time with one or both of them. Whatever the causes, many people have developed a lie that we are not important enough for those we care about to make time for us. Simplify this lie down, and we live life as if we are unworthy or we do not measure up. Therefore we live our lives either trying to prove to others and ourselves that we actually do measure up by our efforts and striving, or we give in and stop trying altogether and resign ourselves to being a burden on others.

So we come to a place our lives where we decide to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. For the first time in our lives we start to receive a different interpretation about ourselves. Then trials hit and we go back to the patterns that have always made sense to us. We say, "God is so good and kind that He wants everyone to go to heaven, but now that I have received Him, He does not have time for me. There are more important people for Him to attend to." And then, we go back to same patterns of living. Either we try to earn God's favor in order to get His attention, or we resign ourselves to not going to a God who does not have time for us. Both ways are motivated by a fear of rejection. If I try too hard or care too much, I am just going to be let down.  Can you see how lies are keeping us from going to God? Can you see why lies are keeping us from prayer?

How can we receive God's love? First of all, we need to repent of the lies we believe. Dear Jesus, I confess that I believed the lie, that ...

1. No one will love me for who I am.
2. I must isolate myself from others so I don’t get hurt again.
3. I am not worthy to receive anything good from God.
4. If people knew the real me they would reject me.
5. I have messed up so badly I have missed God’s best for me.
6. My value comes from what I do, not from who I am.
7. Even when I give my best, it is not good enough.
8. If I take time off to relax, God will be upset.
9. I must keep my thoughts and feelings to myself because they are not important.
10. Authority figures cannot be trusted to care for me.
11. I am not competent as a man.
12. I will always be a failure.
13. My wife would be better off without me.
14. God loves others more than me.
15. I will always be on the outside looking in.
16. If I can’t stand out, I am a nobody. I am second-rate.
17. I cannot trust God or feel secure with Him, because He has let me down.
18. It is a mark of failure to be tempted.
19. God would not choose to speak to me.
20. I blend into the crowd; I am nobody special.
21. I cannot receive complements.
22. Things never work out for me.
23. Someone else could do a better job than me

• Whatever else God is showing you...

The secret is each one of these is it's a lie. They need to be confessed and repented of so that you can receive God's truth. God created you. He does not create failures. To live out of any of these lies is to not live the life you were created for.

Each one of the lies listed above is a lie that I have believed. Is it any wonder that I could not fully give myself over to God. I needed God to reinterpret the grid in which I was living my life. I needed to receive more of His love before I would ever be willing to love Him more, much less any one else.

We need to see loving God as we do tithing. We give God a portion of our wages as an act of thankfulness for the provisions that He gave us. If He did not give us the money, we would have nothing to give back to Him. Loving God is the same. We can only love God with the love we have first received from Him.

If you want to love God more, start asking Him to show you what is keeping you from receiving what He so willingly wants to give.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.- 1 John 5:14-15

This is a principle I learned from Dr. Bill Bright's Transferable Concept booklet, "How You Can Pray With Confidence." And before I get very far with this post, let me say that Dr. Bright's Transferable Concepts should be a must read for every new Christian. They go through some basic priniciples of the Christian faith in easy to understand and actionable ways. When I was on staff with Crusade I tried to get every one I discipled through these wonderful booklets.

Dr. Bright said, "If you know you are abiding in Christ, are controlled by the Holy Spirit, and are praying according to the Word and the will of God, you can expect God to answer your prayers." You can expect God to answer because when you are abiding in Christ and controlled by the Spirit, your requests will be in line with the will of God. And, if in line with the will of God, according to 1 John 5:14-15 we have what we ask. And, if we know the promise has been given to us in the Bible, then we are even more confident with it being in line with God's will. Many of the other Transferable Concepts build off this principle.

• How You Can Love By Faith - the Scriptures tell us to love one another (John 13:34). Therefore if we pray for God to help us to love someone, then we can trust we are praying in accordance to God's will and trust 1 John 5:14-15 by walking out our love for that person by faith that God is answering our prayers. This is the way we can love our enemies.
• How You Can Introduce Others to Christ - first of all, pray for them. Scriptures say that God does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore when we pray for someone to come to Jesus, we can trust in 1 John 5:14-15 by thanking God for someday bringing that person to a saving knowledge.

Basically, the point is to find passages of Scripture that reveals God's heart or plan and pray them for yourself or others. Now, all of sudden the Bible comes alive and we start living our lives as if we believe what it says is true.

The resource that I like for this concept is Praying God's Word by Beth Moore. This book categorizes many verses and personalizes them into prayers. This is a perfect book for your first steps in this practice. My wife and I both have a copy of this book because when we first started using it, we needed our own copies as it was a regular partner in our prayer times.

Praying Scriptures expands your view of God and what you would naturally pray for by yourself. Just today I was reading through Romans 8 and was stopped by Romans 8:8 where it says that those who are controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. I found myself praying if there was any areas of my life still controlled by the sinful nature. I prayed for my church that it would be led by the Spirit. I prayed for leaders. This is not my normal prayer topics, but it is definitely on God's heart. Scripture allows into God's heart. It shows us how God's kingdom works. Prayer taps us into the source of power to live the Spirit-filled life.

Prayer is connecting with God—sharing your heart with Him and coming away with His heart. Scripture enables you to enter in and empowers you to have confidence before God.