Amy Boucher Pye

Tag: faith

  • Weekly Devotional: Moving mountains (9 in Hope and Trust in God series)

    Photo: Abdul Rahman, flickr

    Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt … you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:18–22

    Our passage comes during what was the original Holy Week of Jesus’ death and resurrection, although the disciples didn’t realize it then. (And yes, I’m a little out of sync with the church calendar with Lent starting tomorrow. Think of it as a taster of things to come…) Jesus and his friends were walking from Bethany to Jerusalem when he encounters an unfruitful fig tree. He makes it wither, which amazes the disciples. But the fig tree symbolized Israel, for neither were they reflecting God’s fruit.

    Then Jesus says that we should have faith and believe. That if we hope and trust in God, looking to him for our fruitfulness, he will answer our prayer. Of course, this can get tricky if we believe it literally, in a mindless “The Bible says it; I believe it” sort of way. Then we become as a demanding child, insisting that God should give whatever we ask in prayer.

    Those who care for young children can see this folly acted out. Of course we aren’t going to give kids endless sugar or let a toddler climb a ladder unaided. God might similarly turn down some of our requests. Perhaps our most poignant experiences of learning from and leaning on God have come through unanswered prayer. They certainly have for me.

    But Jesus wants us to have faith and believe. While we become downhearted quickly, thinking that our circumstances or another person will never change. I know I’ve been prone to this stance of unbelief. For instance, a former colleague and I couldn’t reach a meeting of the minds in terms of expectations or delivery, and I wanted to give up. But I knew I had to examine my own attitude, so I asked God to help me see her as he created her. Slowly, and sometimes painfully, I began to change in my outlook. And our working relationship improved.

    What mountains need moving in your life?

    For reflection: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2).

  • Devotional of the week: Blessed Be the Name (3 in Genesis 22 series)

    Abraham going up to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, as in Genesis 22, illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible.
    Abraham going up to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, as in Genesis 22, illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible.

    “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Genesis 22:5

    Matt Redman’s song “Blessed Be Your Name” has helped many voice the mystery of worshiping God when we’re suffering. Though we feel “pain in the offering,” yet blessed is God’s name. We may croak the words through tears or gritted teeth, but the act of singing can inform our emotions.

    Abraham names what he is about to do as worship. He doesn’t know why God would ask him to sacrifice his son, but he trusts in the Lord. Biblical commentators remind us that child sacrifice would not have appeared as shocking to Abraham as it does to us, for back then it was common for deities to demand this as an act of worship – though of course the true and living God is not just any deity.

    Note also what Abraham says to his servants: “We will come back to you.” Did he sense that God would stop him from killing his son? We don’t know, but we can marvel at his faith, finding encouragement that a man who once lied to Pharaoh, calling his wife his sister, or who another time tried to fulfill God’s promises through his slave, is now a man of great faith.

    How might we worship the Lord today, even if we are walking the road of suffering? May we affirm him as our loving Father who wants the best for us.

    Prayer: Lord God, you sacrificed your only son that our slate might be wiped clean. Thank you for your love.

  • Devotional of the week: Hebrews 11:32–40 (7 in series)

    Delayed gratification

    These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:32–40)

     

    Suffering because of skin color. A statue to commemorate the people sold as slaves in Zanzibar, at what is now an Anglican Cathedral but used to be the site of a slave market.
    Suffering because of skin color. A statue to commemorate the people sold as slaves in Zanzibar, at what is now an Anglican Cathedral but used to be the site of a slave market.

    The writer to the Hebrews wraps up his discussion of the heroes of faith in this hodgepodge list of people, triumphs, and tragedies. Through faith they did some amazing feats, such as shutting the mouths of lions and quenching the fury of flames. But they also faced torture, chains, imprisonment, persecution, and mistreatment. And horrible deaths: by stoning, being sawn in two, by the sword.

    Not exactly a list of experiences we’re eager to embrace. Nor to advertise to people who are curious about the Christian faith. “Yes, become a Christian and you too could endure ridicule and maltreatment!” Sometimes instead we highlight only the amazing promises of God – that he will never leave us, that when we walk through the river the waves will not submerge us, that he loves us with an everlasting love.

    But because we live in a fallen world, which is not as God intended it, we may experience house fires and breast cancer. We may lose our jobs or our spouses to a roving eye and hand. God doesn’t cause these horrible experiences, but he allows them. Why? We just don’t know. At these times, perhaps more than ever, we need to cling to God’s faith-building promises while sinking back into his everlasting arms. And to know that God has something better for us planned, such as our home in heaven.

    None of these heroes – Abraham and Moses nor Gideon and David – received what they had been promised. But they welcomed it from a distance. May we who have the gift of the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – live in a manner worthy of our callings. May God increase in us our faith, that we too may be heroes who welcome God’s promises, perhaps also at a distance.

     

    For prayer and reflection: “God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of his blessings…. Faith by its very nature must be tested and true.” Oswald Chambers

     

  • Devotional of the week: Hebrews 11:1–3 (2 in series)

    By faith

    “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Hebrews 11:1–3, NIV)

    Photo by runran as found on Flickr
    Photo by runran as found on Flickr

    By faith Abel… By faith Enoch… By faith Noah… By faith Abraham… By faith Sarah… Hebrews 11 is chock-full of ordinary people who believed that God would do what he promised. They are therefore known as the heroes of our faith.

    We live in their shadows, which can be intimidating. We might think, “I’m just a mother trying to get through the day without shouting my head off at my kids.” Or, “I’m older and can’t find work; I’m not sure if God will provide a job for me, much less ask me to perform some amazing act of faith.” Or, “My biggest accomplishment today will be loving my cranky parent, who is not ageing gracefully.” How can we who aren’t escaping death or building an ark or becoming the father of nations also be heroes of the faith?

    The answer is simple, but not easy – by faith. By believing that God loves us and wants the best for us. By holding an active confidence in him as the One who provides us not only with jewels and fine linen to wear, but living water to slake our thirst and bread that truly satisfies. By knowing that God presides at the center of the unseen realm, which is greater than our physical world.

    And so by faith we can shoot up an arrow prayer to God, asking him to reign in our tongues when we’re about to spew angry words at our children. We can look to him for the strength to keep hunting down that elusive job, knowing that in his time he will provide. And to ask him to show us our parent as he sees them, drawing forth the real person who may be cowering in fear and uncertainty.

    By faith, your name here…

     

    Lord Jesus, I often feel like I’m hiding in the corner, lacking faith. Fill me with your grace and love, that I might believe in your promises.