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- Written by: Don Goulding
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:13)
Just outside Chennai, India, a throng of bright-eyed villagers followed us hut to hut. White people were a novelty and everybody wanted a greeting or handshake. In the press around us it was impossible to engage the full beauty of each soul.
A ten-year-old boy in rags cradled a leaf over an O shape made with his finger and thumb. He slapped the leaf and it burst apart with a loud pop. To overcome the language barrier, I motioned for him to teach me his art and he adopted me as his disciple of popping. A bond was forged in that simple moment.
Later, I saw a man, presumably the boy’s Hindu father, pull the lad out of the crowd listening to my gospel presentation. My heart ached with a desire to pour a river of truth into that boy. I prayed the small, wordless interaction between us had been enough for the Holy Spirit to move him toward Christ.
Unlike me, our three in one God is able to have deep encounters with each of his of children though they number in the billions. He longs for the bond that forges when we experience him in the inner person. That’s the grace, love and fellowship Paul prays for in the verse above.
The wonder of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is that it seems so individualized, like I’m the only child in the universe. Only a unimaginably big God who’s name is love can accomplish this feat for the fifty billion souls who have trod this earth.
I was only able to share a thimble of love with the Indian boy, and in the same way I’ve only had trickles of God slip down my throat. Yet a taste of his Spirit is so potent it spreads inside until I’m changed into a new kind of person—one touched by his personal friendship.
Prayer: Beautiful triune God, may your fellowship be with me today.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive it, so that your joy may be complete. (John 16:24)
I needed a sermon illustration for how God answers prayer. At the same time our phone required service. I reported the trouble, then asked the Lord to cause the usually sluggish repair service to handle the matter in a timely way. This would be the perfect example for my sermon on trusting God. I wasn’t going to take matters into my own hands and pester the phone company.
Two days went by and I was tempted to make a follow-up call. Soon four days lapsed, then five. I was squirming to know if my service order had been deleted by accident, yet I wanted to hold out so the Lord could provide a living illustration.
“Okay God, I can give you until three o’clock tomorrow, then my sermon has to go forward.”
The deadline came and went, and the phone wasn’t fixed. I was out of an illustration, a telephone, and confidence in prayer.
I asked God why my experiment failed and he reminded me I often mislabel my requests as kingdom necessities. It’s silly to think I can manipulate God by declaring that my agenda is on his behalf. The relationship works the other way around. To ask in Jesus’s name is to pray in harmony with his desire. It’s not the magic utterance tacked on the end that will force the genie to perform.
When we were children my siblings and I bought our father an Easter present—a live, fluffy chick. It was a thinly veiled ploy to obtain something he’d probably not allow. As children, we lacked the foresight that a chick would grow into a rooster who crowed in the city at five in the morning. Dad named the bird No No and sent it away after the first screeching attempts at cock-a-doodle-do.
Rather than manipulating our father, we might have simply asked, “Is there a pet that would be good for us?” What loving parent could refuse such a request? That’s the kind of humble dependance I need in my prayers so my joy will be complete.
Prayer: Patient Father, show me what you want me to ask.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)
I am not bound to win
But I am bound to be true.
I am not bound to succeed,
But I am bound to live up to what light I have.
Abraham Lincoln
In 1888, Canadian born Dr. William Leslie began a career as medical missionary that would last thirty-five years. His last assignment was in the jungles of Africa’s Congo. After many years of fruitless ministry among the cannibals, he had a fallout with a tribal chief and was told to never return. Discouraged, Dr. Leslie retired in 1928 believing his ministry had failed. He passed into heaven ten years later.
Jesus of Nazareth was the most inspired speaker of his, or of any, era. The masses responded to his compassion for their abused hearts. Many times he demonstrated the power necessary to overcome his enemies whether they be Roman or Jewish. Then, on a dark Friday, Jesus the Son of God was captured, beaten and crucified. His followers defected and the greatest potential ever known to mankind was squandered like so much flotsam.
These two lives share something in common. By the world’s standards they both died abject failures, but God views success differently.
In heaven, success is defined as faithfulness to God. William Leslie and Jesus Christ were faithful until their departures and so it was impossible for them to fail. On the other side of death the glory of their failure became evident.
In 2010, eighty-two years after Dr. Leslie left the Congo, another missionary expedition flew into the same jungle. They discovered the seeds the good doctor planted had taken root in the form of eight village churches spread over thirty miles.
We also know the outcome of the tragic death of Jesus Christ—how he was celebrated by angels as the greatest victor in history. We know it was impossible for him to fail, as it was impossible for Dr. Leslie to fail, and, even though everything we touch crumbles, it’s impossible for any of us to fail who obey Almighty God.
Earthly failure is most often the soil in which heavenly success grows.
Prayer: Gracious Father, let me fail gloriously for you.