Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances

Be joyful always. A young lady, fairly overweight, out of her element desired with all her heart a role in a movie, one that tells the struggle of her people. She auditioned and heard nothing for two long months. She convinced herself that if she were just thinner, taller, prettier, more self-assured that she could have had the part. She struggled to do this or do that to make herself more right for the part.

She also struggled with God. She has prayed and prayed; prayed continually: Lord, let me have this one thing; Lord, if You’ll just do this one thing I’ll never ask for anything else. Lord, if You will do this; I will do this and this and this.

What she was doing was praying, not God’s will but her will be done. And St Paul writes, Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

With a broken heart she finally gave up and gave in. “God I give up. Not what I would have but what you would have for me.” For the longest time she wept and prayed, wept and prayed. Her heart and the sins of pride were laid out before God. Finally, she is resolved, “Whatever You would have for me, help me Lord to take hold of it, to do more than accept it but to embrace it. God, give me a peace that passes understanding.”

After a time of surrender, after a time of having given it all over to God, she lifted her spent body up and started for home. Shortly, before reaching home she is greeted with the news that a phone call has come, one that offers her a part. That which had once been the desire of her heart is given to her not on her terms and in her time but on God’s terms in His perfect timing.

Some will hear this story and think if one only prays hard enough and long enough God will come through, and if we think like that we’ve missed the point! The point is not that she got the part. The point is that by the working of the Holy Spirit she surrendered her desires. She was brought to a point of praying “not my will but Your will be done. This woman was blessed not because she got the part. She was blessed even if the phone call never came. She was blessed because Jesus was her Lord and Savior.

I think many of us have been in similar situations when we earnestly desired something, maybe not even selfishly for ourselves, but we earnestly desired it nonetheless. We prayed and prayed and yet the answer we wanted never came. We may have like the young lady did even in great anguish surrendered it all to God. But we never got the phone call, never got the part, never received the healing, never had it turn out as we hoped, BUT that does not mean we were any less loved by God. God so loved us that He sent the Son to live, die, and rise again to life for us. He sent the Spirit to dwell within us. He gave us the objective promises of baptism: forgiveness, adoption, the indwelling in us of His Holy Spirit. He gave us the power of forgiveness in a very unforgiving world. He gave us the comfort of His Word. By that Word we have the objective promise to see us through all manner of things: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. (Heb 13.5) Jesus who is the Word in flesh appearing says to us: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world. By that Word part or no part, health or poor health, good times or bad we will be victorious because He was victorious for us and He shares His victory freely with us. In this we can rejoice.

In addition to rejoicing St Paul writes, pray continually. To the Romans St Paul writes, Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. (Rms 12.12)These are tall orders but not impossible. Others have gone before us who help show us the way. I came across this story that may illustrate this point: I read of a man who was successful in business. His son wrote that he and the family had all the trappings of success: the house, the cars, the gadgets, and the vacations. One day the bubble of his father’s success burst. They lost it all: the house, the cars, the bank accounts, everything. It was hard to go from a Cadillac to rusty Volkswagen, from the big house to a cramped apartment, from a man of means to man of no means, from friends who sought you out to friends who avoided you.

Where some would cruse God, by God’s grace, this man did not. Even this, is not what impressed the son the most. What impressed him most, was how his father never gave up on God, nor did the father believe God had given up on him. “If God loved me enough to set aside heaven for me, to live, die and rise again to life for me then I know even in all this He is with me.” The son shared that every day early in the morning while it was still dark his father would get up and go out in the living room, put his Bible on the couch and kneel down in prayer. The father never lost sight of the fact that the things of this world can be gone tomorrow- money, health, whatever, but the things of God last. Oh sure, for a time we might have to suffer all manner of things but these have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold may be refined and proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when we come face to face with Jesus. (1st Peter 1.6-7) I’m sure the father would have welcomed some relief, but he never lost sight of the promises of God to see him through all things, and so he met with God in prayer. (From one of the Chicken Soups for the Soul) St. Paul writes be continually in prayer.

Our daughter, Sabrina, called from Bangladesh yesterday. She asked that we pray that the people of Bangladesh would have peace. This is an election year and a new political strategy is emerging: bombs and now suicide bombers. With that peace she asks for safety and security. I pondered her request and you can bet her mother and I will pray for peace in the region especially in her city and for her safety and security, as well as, for others.

As I pondered her request I was reminded of the many people who will pray for peace this Christmas season. They will ask for the end of wars, hostilities, hatred, bigotry, religious intolerance, and the list goes on. They will clamor, “We want peace; we want peace.” Many unbelievers will even invoke the name of Jesus hoping it will give us peace on earth.

Don’t get me wrong I wish for peace on this earth as much as the next person but as I listen to many people ask for peace on earth I realize that many have missed the point of Jesus’ coming, treating as St Paul says in our lesson, the prophesies with contempt.

The peace that so many people long for is a worldly peace and that in itself would be wonderful, but if we live a life in peace with others and God is not at peace with us, then it is all for not. What good is it if a man gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? (Mk 8.36) What we need most of all is peace with God.

The peace God had with us was shattered by the sin of Adam and Eve. Because of original sin every generation since then has been at war against God. Our sins have locked us into a war we can never win. Yet, God did not abandon us. He sent the Son not to defeat us but win the peace for us.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds they proclaimed, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on who His favor rests. (Luke 2.14) Jesus was the Prince of Peace, but the sinners of this world would not give up easily. He had to fight His way to the cross to win the peace. The peace we all need was only found in the substitutionary death of Jesus. He had to lose His life in the battle that the victory over sin could be ultimately won, and win it He did.

His victory became our victory when He rose from the dead and proclaimed to all who would believe in Him as Lord that we are forgiven. To all who would believe He offers a lasting peace with God, a peace that will find us forgiven and blameless at the coming of our Lord.

That peace is proclaimed in the words of absolution, your sins are forgiven. That peace is proclaimed in the Scriptures: For the Scriptures are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you have life in His name. (Jn 2.20) by believing you may have peace. Peace is proclaimed by and through baptism: This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you. (1 Peter 3.21) Peace comes to us in, with, and under the bread wine of communion: We have been reconciled to God by the sacrifice of the Son, a reconciliation that comes to us in the body and blood of communion. By that sacrament we receive the peace with the Lord which is the forgiveness of our sins.

In the peace of Word and Sacrament the words of St Paul are made plain to us: May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, body and soul be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The peace the world often seeks there in Bangladesh and here in our communities is at best only a cease fire. The lasting peace the world needs is found only in Christ. Sabrina, we will pray for your safety and temporal peace; we also pray that the people all around you, as the people all around us, would come to know the Prince of Peace.

Amen