Faith Runs on a Different Clock

Nicole's parents, David and Mary, miraculously made all 3 flights on standby and arrived in Paris this morning. Our 3 year old joined me on the airport run. Even though he didn't say anything, it was good to have his company. It's also good to have the other set of grandparents with us for a week.

I had a free international call (thanks Skype) with John Barcanic, one of our supervisors. I'll go through "LifeMap" a character and spiritual formation program that our organization has set up. With some of the transition that I'm in, this is a good time to go through something like LifeMap.

I worked on a power point presentation to show this Sunday at church to publicize our upcoming "Open Doors of Belleville" outreach May 20-23. I'm really glad for the stock of photos that I've built up over the past 3 1/2 years. It's good to have some of these photos be useful for the publicity.

Got back to reading Jim Cymbala's "Fresh Faith." Chapter 7 is titled "Faith Runs on a Different Clock" and is about Zechariah and Elisabeth, the aged parents of John the Baptist.

By this stage in life, Zechariah had probably stopped thinking that fatherhood was even possible for him. But it didn't matter; his many years of praying in faith were still on record! When prayer comes from a sincere heart, it rises into God's presence and stays there. The more prayers you add, the more they collect in heaven. They don't evaporate like gas. They remain before God. Remember how another angel said to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God" (Acts 10:4). Those prayers didn't just float away. They added up, until the day when God sent a special messenger to this man. (p. 102).

When we seek God for answers, we must persevere in prayer, letting it build up day after day until the force of it becomes a mighty tide pushing over all the obstacles. No wonder God says his house is supposed to be known as a house of prayer--not merely a house of preaching or of singing, but especially of prayer. How else will we receive great answers from God unless we persevere in prayer? (p. 102).

The great battle of our spiritual lives is "Will you believe?" It is not "Will you try harder?" or "Can you make yourself worthy?" It is squarely a matter of believing that God will do what only he can do. That is what God honors. He treasures those who respond and open their hearts to him. He's looking for faith so strong that it will anchor on his Word and wait for him, the One who makes everything beautiful in its time. (pp. 104-5).