Tuesday, January
22, 2019
The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. Psalm 145:18-19(NLT)
That God is powerful has never
been in question during my adult years. My
questioning about God has always been whether I would ever really know Him
personally. Whether I was good
enough for God to call me his friend.
When I was very young, I believed
in God as a child believes…wide-eyed, full of expectation, and eager to
please. As a teen I was a Prodigal,
wandering in the far country, angry, and without faith. When I returned home to God’s fold as a young
adult there were a lot of questions that hung-on and haunted me. Trying to have faith in Yahweh was a
quagmire of wondering, full of unanswered questions;
· why is this not
clear, and
· why is that
silence from Heaven what I hear most?
· Why…if I’m one
of His…does bad stuff happen to me?
My questions were selfish, but that’s
what happens in the inner-place of the will.
You can hear a zillion testimonies of other people’s faith experiences
with God, and how their prayers were answered, but deep down what we long-for
is a personal
connection with God. We want to know He’s
there; we want to feel His touch.
For some years the strongest desire
of my heart and soul was to praise God…and really mean it. It’s hard to do that when life’s big
questions challenge your faith as being less than genuine. You stand or sit in a church service and join
in the smiles, tears and offering of praise through hymns, giving, and prayer…but,
for some reason you feel like a hypocrite.
John Wesley had that
experience. Wesley struggled in the same
way Russell struggled with faith. From
his journal we read that he questioned Peter Bohler how he can preach faith in
God if he had no faith in God. Bohler’s
response was: Preach faith until you have it;
and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.[2] The view from this side of history, centuries
later, Wesley’s struggle is a little faded.
But it’s there in his journal, a record the preacher kept, unearthing
all those questions and yearnings, the evidence of a soul, wracked with the
overwhelming desire to know the living God personally, not second-hand, but
up-close and personal!
The famous meeting of John Wesley’s
soul with that living God, Jehovah, at Aldersgate church one cold night, was
also recorded in Wesley’s Journal as the tipping-point in that personal faith
Mr. Wesley experienced, and that which started a movement that swept through
the entire world of personal holiness:
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate
Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works
in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt
I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given
me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin
and death.[3]
I cannot say I have never had
questions since the day God began placing faith in my heart; just the opposite,
I have many questions, the answers which may have to wait until I ask Jesus face
to face. But this one thing is true; the
faith that is bedrock within me is because I took Christ on faith; I learned,
as the Psalmist declared is true about God:
He is close to those who call on Him…in truth.
“In truth” – nothing held back.
For You Today
If you struggle in this area, even
occasionally…or if it is all day, every day…take
heart, and take a lesson from David the Psalmist, John the Methodist, and
Russell, a simple preacher…take all your questions to him; He’s got big
shoulders, and just loves to hear from His children.
Go to VIDEO
[2] As
recorded in Christian
Classics Ethereal Library
