The Caylor Family

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

I was discussing this verse with my kids today, and it occurred to me again that this verse doesn’t say anything about actually getting the stuff we want from God. There are other verses about God answering prayer, but this verse (one of the key verses in the Bible about prayer, I think) isn’t about answers to prayer at all. Its about our heart condition before God.

This verse uses some very absolute terms. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything…” When I was talking to my kids about the verse this was one of the points I stuck on, partly because its so easy. “What should we worry about?” I asked them. “Nothing,” was the obvious thing to call out. “What should we talk to God about?” “Everything!” Easy answers, but significant in their absoluteness. Like tends to happen when I teach my kids about ideas from the Bible I asked apparently simple questions and stuck myself with the implications.

In everything that comes up in our lives, comfortable or uncomfortable, expected or surprises, bliss or calamity, we are to bring our praise and concerns to God. We are to do so thankfully, trusting Him. And then having trusted him, we continue on our way not expecting everything to be fixed as we might have expected, but continuing to trust him.

I asked my kids, “So does this mean that we get everything we ask God for?” We’ve talked about this before, and they repeated my answer from before back to me (does that mean they understood, or just remembered the quote?). “No, because if we ask for a hundred pieces of candy God knows that would be bad for us.” “We’d get sick,” another one added. “No,” another one piped in, “’cause I want a thousand pieces of candy.”

We don’t trust God to give us what we want. We trust God to be God.

“Consider it all joy,” James tells us, “when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” Joy and peace that pass understanding. Those would be great to have, wouldn’t they? These are the fruit of the Spirit. They are things that God will give us if we turn to him, along with patience, kindness, faithfulness, self control… It’s very noteworthy that this doesn’t include a smooth road with no bumps, roses without thorns, a life without pain or sickness or struggle. God, in fact, promises us trouble. But he also promises us peace and joy.

I think that our problem is that we’re looking for the wrong peace. We equate peace with a lack of problems. We think joy is a good feeling we get from people who love us and treat us well, and peace is when we have the stuff we need so we don’t need to worry about anything. Then people let us down and our joy vanishes, and we find out that peace doesn’t come with stuff. That’s because it’s a misplaced expectation. True peace, the kind that surpasses understanding, is not found in the events of this world or the people around us (even our brothers and sisters in Christ). It comes from God, through his Spirit into our hearts, not because of the circumstances but often in spite of the circumstances. After all, peace that is caused by and scales to the normal events of our normal lives doesn’t surpass understanding. That kind of joy and peace can only come from one who has boundless reserves of joy and peace and love he can pour out on us, and the circumstances we find ourselves in become irrelevant.

There is no need, nor room for anxiety or worry in the life of the Christ follower. We can trust God absolutely, not to keep us from discomfort and trouble, but to guard our hearts and minds through whatever comes and through all circumstances to give us joy and peace. He brings us safely through, transformed and whole, to completeness before him on that final day when he will welcome us home.

Our part is to turn to God, to surrender to him thankfully, and give him our concerns. “Cast all your anxiety on him,” 1 Peter 5:7 tells us, “because he cares for you.” Complete peace calls for complete surrender. The pieces of our pain and trouble that we cling to and refuse to give to him will continue to cause us pain and trouble. God doesn’t require us to surrender our problems to him so that he can give us peace, any more than he requires us to accept his gift of life in the first place or to love him. We have free will. We can try to manage our problems ourselves, and keep our worries, or we can surrender them to him. Peace from God comes from surrender to God.

Bring it all to Him, and give it to him completely. He will take it all, and give you peace in return. He has promised it, and he always keeps his promises. Since I know that this is true, I know that if I still have anxiety that it means that I have not surrendered it to him. Works are a symptom of faith. Obedience to him is a symptom of loving him. Peace is a symptom of surrender and trust.

Our struggle is not with flesh and blood. It is with rulers and powers and spiritual forces of darkness, and they are out to get you.

That almost sounds paranoid, doesn’t it? But we know it’s true, and forgetting that it is true will end up with us getting blind sided and derailed in our walk and growth. Satan is limited in what he can do to us, as God’s children. However, he is very cunning, and he will cause you all of the trouble that he can. When we ignore that, we set ourselves up for a frustrated walk.

Satan and his minions want to keep you from growing in your relationship with God. They want to discourage you, get you to skip opportunities to learn about God, prevent you from praying, and keep you from meaningful interaction with fellow believers who might build you up. He will do that with all of the tools at his disposal, which mostly means throwing temptations and distractions at you at just the right moment. Satan is subtle. He’s prowling and watching and he’s waiting for just the right opportunities to slip a barb in where it will be effective.

Of course, when I say “Satan” I don’t really mean Satan. The devil is an individual, a created being like us. He’s not like God, who is everywhere and all knowing and all powerful. Satan can only be in one place at a time, and he’s limited in his capabilities even there. So when I talk about Satan, I don’t really think the devil himself came to my house. However, there are a large number of Satan’s minions, the powers and spiritual forces of darkness that Ephesians 6 and other Bible passages talk about. These forces are active, and are present in our daily lives.

In talking about this, it is important that we do not start just blaming things on Satan and his followers. When I choose to give in to temptation it is my fault. I am prodded and tempted to react wrongly, but I have free will. Satan himself (even if he came to my house in person) couldn’t force me to respond badly to imagined slights, or to yield to temptation. My sin is my fault. The woman doesn’t make me do it, and neither does the serpent. I choose.

On the other hand, the warning in Ephesians 6 is there on purpose. We are to be on our guard against the attacker. We are to prepare ourselves with the armor and weapons God provides, and be prepared. A part of the defense is being aware of the attacker.

The attacks lose a lot of their power if we are aware of them. When I recognize that I am under attack, I am prompted to turn to God for help. Many of the subtle jabs lose their influence, like a magician’s tricks become less impressive when you know how they work.

Watch for it. When you sit down to read your bible or pray the chances are you will be distracted. There will suddenly be reasons not to do it, or to cut it short. When you are tempted and you give in, Satan’s not content to just gloat in his win. He wants to turn up the heat and get you to the next level. He is looking ways to make you stumble. When I sit down to watch TV, its easy. When I seek to spend time with God its like wading against a current. I immediately start to think of all of the little tasks I need to do first.

Satan and his followers are liars. The lies he whispers to you are the lies he knows from practice you’re likely to listen to. His favorite lies are the ones that undermine our relationships with each other, and with God. He wants us to believe that we have no value, that we aren’t loved, that we aren’t worthy of love. He wants us to believe that God can’t possibly love us like God says he does. And he wants us to believe that the things that are harmful to us (like sin) aren’t really so bad.

When you see his attacks, what should you do? One of the things you should not do is focus on the attacker. You should be aware of him, but you should not obsess about him. Satan is not like God. God is all knowing, eternal, all powerful, and holy. Satan is just a creature. A powerful creature, but just a creature. There is no comparison between the infinite power of God and the finite power of Satan.

Defeat lies with truth, the truth of God through his Word. Remember that you are righteous, not by your own righteousness but the righteousness of Christ, who has removed your sin and replaced it with his righteousness. Remember who you are, in Christ, as a child of the living God. Remember that you are dead to sin, and that God is faithful and will complete the work in you that he has started.

The best way to prepare is to prepare in advance. In our ongoing walk we do this by reading and studying and meditating on God’s word, and discussing it with him. It is much easier to turn to God when you know him well. In order to gird yourself with truth, you have to know the truth. This can’t be an academic knowledge. Like learning a second language, you have to learn it in an applied manner to the point that it is second nature, that you think in the new language.

In the moment of the attack we respond by calling on God for protection, and turning to him for help. When I recognize that I am being attacked, I ask my Father for protection, and he gives it. Actively resist the devil, but don’t try doing it on your own. We must recognize that it is the power of God against which the devil cannot stand, not our power. When James says, “resist the devil and he will flee from you,” the words that come immediately before are “So submit to God,” and the words that come immediately after are “Draw near to God.” It is God who defeats the devil.

When we find that we have given in to the attacker, we should immediately turn to God and repair our relationships. First and foremost we must repair our relationship with our Father. That is needed not because God has moved, but because we cloud our thinking and turn our backs on him when we are reminded of the stains we once owned. Turn back to your Father, and he will remind you that you are his child and that you are clean.

Remember also to repair your relationships with others. Give grace and forgiveness away liberally, by the power of the Spirit and with the measure God used to give grace and forgiveness to you. Of course, you can’t do that on your own. God will help you if you surrender your hurts to him and ask him to help.

The attacker is real, and he intends to ruin every part of your walk with God that he can. We cannot and need not stand on our own against him. We are children of the one and true God, who is good, who is infinitely powerful, and who holds us in his unassailable hand. It is in that context that we can stand firm. So stand!

There’s a newborn baby at my house this week. He was born just a few days ago. He drinks his two or three ounces of formula, deposits two or three ounces in his diaper, and goes back to sleep. He’s tiny, a little less than six pounds. He can’t talk yet, obviously, and he’s months from understanding human speech. He can barely focus his eyes. And yet, he’s human. He’s a complete person.

No parent would take a brand new baby in his or her arms and think, “My job as a parent is done.” The baby is a complete person, right? What more is there to do? The job of a parent isn’t just to bring a person into the world. Parents are responsible for bringing up the child, for raising him, teaching him, disciplining and training him, bringing him to maturity so that he can lead a responsible life as a mature adult.

When a person accepts Christ as their savior they are “born again.” They enter into a new life. The Bible talks about them as spiritual babies. And yet, we seem to think that the work is done. Get someone to accept Christ and say a prayer, and the work is finished. Do that in every nation on Earth and the Great Commission will be accomplished, right? If you really want to put the extra work in, give them a brief handful of sessions on the right doctrines to believe, and get them to go to a church. I guess that since we outsource raising our children to schools, that’s at least consistent, but it results in millions of Christians who are spiritually still babies.

What does it mean to be a mature Christian? I heard this week that most people think you’re an activist if you attend a meeting for some cause, that you’re a Christian if you attend church. Mature Christians tithe and participate in church activities. Really dedicated Christians go on a mission trip, and if they are really fanatical they consider full time ministry.

Sometimes you hear that being a Christian is avoiding a list of bad things. Sin avoidance is a large part of the traditional Christian experience. It’s also a big part of the public perception of what being a Christian is about. When some prominent pastor is accused of some big sin, as has happened again this week, people point fingers and talk about the hypocrisy. I don’t know anything about this week’s scandal, but a life of genuinely following Christ does not have very much to do with avoiding sin. In fact, making your Christian life largely about avoiding sin is a sure path to frustration and failure. You can’t have a mature relationship with God just by avoiding sin.

A mature Christian is someone who has a mature and growing relationship with God. Its that simple. How do you have a mature relationship with God? How do you have a strong relationship with anybody? You spend time with them, and you take the time to learn all you can about them. The same is true of a relationship with God. If you want to know God well, you spend time with him. You read His Word, not as an academic exercise, but as you would strive to learn about someone you wish to know well. You spend time talking to him, not just about your list of prayer requests, but talking to him like you have a relationship that you want to grow.

You can’t have a growing relationship with God by doing good works. Works that are valuable come from a heart that God has filled with his fruit. His fruit comes from being planted in him, from abiding in him, from spending time with him. Faith without action isn’t real faith. It is dead. Works without the Spirit of God at their heart are spiritually dead as well.

Likewise, if you want love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control to be evident in your life, you can’t get them by trying to do the right things. You can only get the fruit of the Spirit from the Spirit of God. You get the fruit by abiding in him, by building a relationship with him, and you do that by spending time with him.

When we first become a Christian, when we first start our relationship with our Father, it isn’t the end of the process. It is not realistic to think that a baby is going to act like an adult. We must grow in our relationship with Him. Similar to the way it takes a life of living and walking with a child to teach them how to be a mature person, it takes a life of walking with God, conversing with him, listening to him, to become a mature Christian.

It isn’t a Sunday morning thing. It isn’t a church thing. It isn’t even a religious thing. Its a personal relationship with a Person.

As a father when I stand in my living room holding a little baby and looking at him sleeping in my arms, I am committed to doing whatever it takes to give him every opportunity to grow up to be a mature, responsible adult who is kind and generous and hardworking, a person of integrity and courage. I pray he will grow to love and serve God. However, I can’t make his choices for him. I can’t choose who he will love. I can’t choose who he will ultimately decide to worship. In the end, he has free will, as he should. Neither does God force us to choose him, and even once we are His children he does not force us to choose to build a growing relationship with him. It is a choice we must make each day. There is an enemy trying to keep you from it. Don’t let him. Choose each day to spend time with the Father, talking to him and listening to him through his Word.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2

Last week I mentioned that I have been reading The Heavenly Man, which is the story of Brother Yun, a leader in the Chinese house church movement. One of the remarkable things that Yun talks about a number of times in the book is that he was imprisoned because God loves him. “There is always a purpose behind why God allows his children to go to prison. Perhaps it’s so they can witness to the other prisoners, or perhaps God wants to develop more character in their lives.” Therefore, Yun maintains, we should not pray so much for release from prison for these brothers and sisters, but rather that God’s purpose in putting them there will be fulfilled, that they will have the strength to persevere.

I think that it is likely that God’s purposes in something like prison are more complicated than we can easily figure out from observation. We can figure out one or two dimensions of what God is doing. God is working personally in the lives of each person inside and outside of that prison. Each person who is touched by any event in our lives is touched intentionally by God for his purposes in loving that person. This gives a depth to the events of our lives and the lives of the people around us, as guided and directed by a sovereign God, that we can’t understand by human minds.

It is hard to imagine the beatings and abuse and suffering of our brothers and sisters who undergo physical persecution for the name of Christ. We face some persecution in the West, but is of a completely different nature. The trials that we face are very different. Our trials deal more with the seduction of the easy life. In our culture it is easy to think that we don’t need God. After all, we can be quite comfortable in this life without God. Especially if, as Yun maintains (in accordance with Scripture) that if we follow Christ we will find suffering. Isn’t it easier to just coast along? Does God really demand that we hand our whole lives over to him, to trust him, when we know he will put us in uncomfortable and maybe even very painful situations?

It seems to me that if Yun still had things in himself that God needed to work on after two or three times in prison, refining him and molding him, I am far from getting there myself. The worst struggles of my life pale in comparison to some of the easier events of Yun’s life. I don’t mean to suggest that I feel guilty about not undergoing those experiences, or that I have missed out. I am grateful for God’s hand in my life. I’m grateful that he has given me opportunities to grow, to respond to his voice, to serve and to learn about grace and forgiveness.

I am acutely aware, though, that I’m not there yet. In fact, it’s hard to imagine getting there from here. Can I become complete in Christ, transformed into his likeness, starting from where I’m at.

The answer is “No, of course not.” You can’t get there from here. It takes God to transform us. We can’t do it ourselves. It does require our cooperation. God doesn’t force himself on us. Sometimes we refuse to learn, and the lesson needs to be repeated. Yun talks about this in regard to his most recent time in prison, that he went at least in part because he had not yet learned what he needed to learn. When we don’t get the message, God patiently repeats himself.

I know that I am particularly hard headed and stubborn, and sometimes it takes a lot for God to get through to me. When I think about that, I almost despair of ever getting there, ever reaching who God intends that I will become. But I know that he is able, and I am confident that he who began the work in me will continue it to completion.

If you are not being changed, if your life is not substantively different because you are following Christ, you should examine your life now to understand if you are indeed following him. You cannot follow Christ without being changed. You can not be a true Christian and stay the same. It doesn’t happen, ever. If you are not willing to be changed, you have not handed your life over to God.

If you follow Christ, if you make him your Lord, he is going to transform you. That is going to mean suffering and trials. You can count on it. In addition, you are not going to be able to understand all that God is doing, at least in this life. That has to be ok. All we can do is trust God, and commit continuously to faithfully submit to following him. He is able, and he will transform us. He has promised to do it, and he always keeps his promises.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

I have been reading The Heavenly Man, which is the story of Brother Yun, a leader of the house church movement in China. There is a huge amount in this book. Yun has suffered greatly for the cause of Christ, more than we in the West can really imagine ever experiencing. But in addition to the stories of imprisonment and torture, there are a number of lessons to be drawn from this book that are directly applicable to our lives and walk with Christ, even though we are very unlikely to experience anything like what this Brother has gone through.

In 1994 God called Yun to bring unity to the various house church movements in China. This was a very hard thing to be able to do. It meant rejection and ridicule from people who Yun had known and worked with for many years. Satan had managed to drive some deep wedges between the groups. Yun was deeply discouraged in the strong opposition he got from the church leaders, and didn’t want to do it. God told him to continue on. “The vision for unity seemed impossible, but the Holy Spirit told me, ‘Don’t cry. You’re not my first choice to bring unity among my people. Several others were called but did not persevere in the vision.’” In the end, God did use Yun to bring unity, and out of that came increased cooperation and fellowship and a stronger Church.

Years ago I used to listen to a preacher on the radio in California. A few times he told the story about a time when he was in a place where he shouldn’t have been. God prompted him to go and talk to someone across the room about God. He was embarrassed that he was even there, and embarrassed to be talking about God in a place that he assumed would not welcome the message. So he didn’t go. Instead, he sat there arguing with God. Immediately the door opened and someone else walked into the room, directly over to that same person, and started witnessing to them.

God has prepared things for us to do each day. If we are attuned at all to his voice, he prompts us to do them. Sometimes they are obvious, the loving things we know we should do for the people around us anyway. Sometimes they are out of our comfort zone, outside of what we would normally do even when we are walking with God. Sometimes they are in the normal course of our “ministry” work, sometimes they are tangential or outside of that normal activity. In any case, God prepares them and he calls us to them. However, he does not force us to do anything. He calls, he prompts, and he allows us to choose.

Sometimes God is gracious enough to prod harder when we aren’t listening. I’ve had the experience in which he put the same person in my path until I listened. I’m pretty dense, especially when it means really paying attention to people around me that I am not already in relationship with, and sometimes God has to go to significant lengths to get my attention. Other times we get one shot. When we miss it, God’s plan for that other person isn’t thwarted. Like Brother Yun and the Chinese church, God will call another leader to bring unity, or like the pastor who balked when God prompted, God will bring another to deliver his word where it is needed. Our refusal doesn’t thwart God’s plans, it just removes us from what God is doing.

We all miss these opportunities sometimes. God isn’t mad at us or going to punish us when we miss them. He doesn’t love us more when we get it right and do the things we should. It isn’t about that. What its about is being a part of what God is doing. God prepares things for us to do because he wants to include us in his work. It’s for our benefit, for our growth in our relationship with God, for our transformation, and for the blessing of being a part of the only work that is worthwhile.

God doesn’t always give us the tasks that are easiest for us. In fact, if we are following him and are growing, he is going to give us work that is stretching, and that helps us grow more and brings about our transformation. He does not intend it to be easy. Part of the most obvious conclusion from Brother Yun’s experience is that sometimes the things that God calls us to are brutally hard. But God is good, and all that he does is good. All that he brings us through and all that he calls us to is for our good. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials…” (James 1:2)

If we love God, we will obey him. That’s not a prescription, its a description. Brother Yun says “You will never really know the Scriptures until you’re willing to be changed by them.” If you are his child, God has prepared works for you to do. If you love him, you will obey and do them. If you do them, you will be transformed. Be transformed!