Tag: change

Prayer Changes Us (Prayer Changes Things Pt. 2)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

For how “Prayer Changes Things Outside of Us”, click here.

Prayer moves mountains (Mark 11:23), heals nations (2 Chronicles 7:14), and ends droughts (James 5:17)–both physical and spiritual. God grants a dangerous amount of power to mankind through prayer. But if we reduce prayer to simply a means of changing our external circumstances, we may miss an even more amazing work of prayer: It changes us.

The Work of Prayer

I’ve cried out to God for countless prayer requests, and I’ve viscerally experienced God’s silence and God’s no. I’ve prayed for family members and seen them walk away from the faith. I’ve prayed for friends who’ve died weeks later. At times I’ve seen myself fall into the trap of tying my hope to an outcome rather than a Person. And when things don’t go my way, I’ve been tempted to say, “Prayer doesn’t work.” But prayer always works. Its work might just be in the precious, yet invisible space of our souls.

In the Garden of Gethsemane on the night Jesus was betrayed, He told Peter, “‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Matthew 26:41). Therefore, prayer is essential to aligning our flesh with God’s Spirit. And we cannot resist temptation without it.

E.M.  Bounds—an author, attorney, and clergyman fiercely devoted to prayer—once said, “Prayer makes a godly man, and puts within him the mind of Christ, the mind of humility, of self-surrender, of service, of pity, and of prayer. If we really pray, we will become more like God, or else we will quit praying.” I often find it’s only in that unhurried time away from my digital devices that the Holy Spirit reveals myself to me: my fears, my hopes, and my hidden sins. Only in the still place of God’s presence do I become more like Jesus and less like the man I used to be.

Conclusion

No matter how long and how hard we pray, we’re still promised trouble in this world (John 16:33). Trials and tribulation are our portion in this life if we take up our cross and follow Christ daily. But through prayer, we can endure the hardships of this Christian life well. And we will live to see all the good God has in store for us on the other side (Romans 5:3-5).

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

(Hebrews 4:16)

The Distance Between Our Foundation and Our Cornerstone

By Ife J. Ibitayo

Even when my parents were struggling to make ends meet, my mother still insisted on sending me to a Christian private school. She hoped to instill in me a love for Christ through consistent messaging at home, at church, and at school. Now my faith is deeply personal, and those early, formative years planted the seeds for it.

However, I didn’t embrace my faith as my own until middle school. When I was transplanted from a private school to a charter school, my new classmates challenged my faith. They forced me to do some serious introspection and answer, “What is the foundation of my faith?” Without that jolt, I’m not certain when, even up till now, I would have answered that question.

A similar shift is occurring throughout the United States. For centuries, the USA was known as a Christian nation. We used to be “one nation under God.” Now we’re many nations under many gods all sharing the same flag. Numerous Christian values that formed the atmosphere we breathed have been uprooted, and we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by strangers.

It’s a bit like senior year of high school. We were on top of the world, but now we’ve “graduated” and find ourselves at the bottom again. The many bastions of society that we took for granted in earlier years have been overturned. Mothers’ right to choose has silenced unborn babies’ right to live. Fluid gender identity has transplanted fixed biology.  And many Christians are furious. In rage, they’ve leapt onto their social media accounts and stormed the ballot boxes to reinstate the sacred principles they believe form the bedrock of Christianity.

Our Cornerstone

But that was not the focus of Christ, our true cornerstone. At the start of His ministry, Jesus described His purpose here on earth as “preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom to captives and sight to the blind, setting free the bound, and declaring the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). To put it another way, Jesus’ mission was not to transform the government but to transform the governed. He was focused not on policy change but heart change. He spent far less time with the governmental and religious elite of His day and far more time with the destitute and downtrodden.

Now Jesus was angry too. But He directed His anger at the conmen who’d taken up shop inside His holy temple (Matthew 21:12-13). He had no patience for those who saw the gospel as a means of gain rather than great treasure in and of itself (1 Timothy 6:5-6). But toward the lost—the prostitutes, the tax collectors, and foreigners, Christ’s primary response was compassion (Matthew 21:14) and friendship (Matthew 11:19).

Conclusion

Anger is justified. There is quite a bit to be angry about from this past year: the lives this virus has cut off, the dreams this pandemic has shut down, and much more. America is changing significantly in many uncomfortable and frustrating ways. But we should let that anger drive us to love others more, not less. We should use our hands to vote, but then we should use our fingers to help.

1 John 4:18 says, “perfect love drives out fear.” It has the power to drive fear out of the hearts of immigrants who’ve moved into our neighborhoods and just maybe out of our own as well.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

(James 1:27)

Changing Seasons

By Ife J. Ibitayo

This summer has been glorious. I’ve walked for miles through nature, enchanted by verdant summer flowers and serenaded by chirping thrushes. I’ve exalted in picture perfect sunsets and had many a blissful car ride, wishing the drive would last forever. But like all good things, this summer is coming to an end.

Fall officially starts next month. But we’re already starting to see its signs and feel its effects. Days are shrinking shorter, and nights are growing longer. The bright sunshine is being hidden more and more by stormy clouds and fierce rain. The fiery dragon of summer is slowly being wrestled into submission by the frost giant of winter, and there is nothing we can do to halt its advance.

Seasons are Jarring

Change is always disorienting. We are laid off from one job and start another. We move from the east coast to the west. We transition from the bachelor life to the married life then to the parent life. Even Jesus Himself said, “‘No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, “The old is better'” (Luke 5:39 NIV). Something deeply engrained within us craves constancy.

Seasons are Inevitable

Yet change is a regular part of life. Just as no one stays in college forever and no one remains engaged for fifty years, we all reflexively know that whatever the state of our life today, it won’t last forever.

But I for one get nostalgic from time to time. I look at old photos and see my happy younger self with my friends and family, and I wonder where the “good old days” have gone. As this season of COVID has stretched on, I’ve found myself wondering if it will ever end.

Seasons Are Temporary

The LORD, speaking to Israelites who’d been exiled from their homeland, said, “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name: ‘If this fixed order departs from before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever'” (Jeremiah 31:35-36 NASB).

Just as the Israelites’ exile and dissolution as a nation was a temporary setback, so is our current season. I don’t despair that “winter is coming” because summer is chasing hot on its heels.

Conclusion

King Solomon once said, “For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV). Even though we may hate one season and love another, our appreciation of our favorite season arises from having others to compare it against.

Further, the toughest seasons of our life are often the soil in which God plants the most bountiful seed. We must wait patiently to reap the harvest.

“Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”

(Psalm 126:6 NIV)