Dealing with Unbelief

Prayer: Lord, thank you. It is a good thing to be able to remember your mercies that are new every morning. It is good to be able to see a blue sky with the sun shining. It is even a good thing to hear and to feel the brisk wind. Thank you. Inspire me with the beauty of your world the word I hear today. Amen.

Scripture: Mark 9:14-23 (NIV) *In the interest of space, I ask you to click the link and read the verse before you read the message. Thanks.

Message: These verses have been used in devotions and sermons to discuss everything from mental health, to demon possession. I want to focus on just the last three verses. The father asks Jesus to help in this way, “If you do anything, take pity on us and help us.” I am fascinated by the fact that Jesus answers the father in this way. “If you can?” I have read the scripture many times and heard about a hundred sermons on it. Never have I heard Jesus using you referring to the father of the sick boy. I have always heard in my mind Jesus saying, “I am able to help.” The Greek word translated you in both places is dyne. This word is used throughout the bible to identify ability and power. Here it is combined with you.

            While some might conclude that the father’s belief alone should have been able to heal his son. We all know what it feels like when a loved one is sick. You wish everything, that it could be you instead. I have heard parents told me how much harder they cried than their babies when the babies received their first shots. I am certain this father, wished his son could be healed. Being cut off from his community because having a sick son most likely meant the entire family might be prohibited from worshipping and from being in the worshipping community, there was no one who was going to be able to help them out, physically or spiritually.

            The news that Jesus and his disciples were in the neighborhood must have been not only the answer to his prayers but also provided great fear. He had no doubt tried many home remedies to cure his son. If this didn’t work…what were they going to do? The disciples had tried and failed to cure his son. The source of the argument was if it was impossible for his son to be cured. Like any parent, grandparent, or surrogate, he had to try even if it meant he was going to take his son home in the same state he had been in for years….he had to try. Jesus turns the ability to help his son back on the father. Since the man had tried other cures, what was left? Jesus answers, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Let us again turn to the Greek to “flesh out” the word translated belief. Pisteuó can be translated to believe or to entrust. I often forget that an act of believing in something can be the same as being able to trust or to entrust. The father was self-aware. He recognized that even though he believed, at the same time, he didn’t believe. His belief that his son could be restored to health was confronted with his experiences of all of the attempts and failures. This father honestly admits, “I do believe” but asks “help me overcome my unbelief!” Maybe it is the father's honesty that caused Jesus to have compassion for them. I don’t think so. I think it was just the nature of Jesus' character to answer need. This response has nothing to do with whether the father had enough ability, could believe, or could trust enough. I came to this conclusion because Jesus heals the boy in verses 25-27. Every time Jesus encountered someone with imperfect faith, he responds with healing with presence, with his own faith. He responds to those with imperfect faith in the same ways he responds to those who he describes as having great faith. It is not about our ability to trust or to not trust that gets Jesus attention and presence.

The message I want you to receive today my friends, is this. God knows we don’t have perfect belief. God knows we can’t always trust perfectly or entrust our deepest concerns to him, perfectly. That does not prevent God from answering, from being concerned, from showing compassion, or from showing up! Please pray with me.

Closing Prayer: Lord with this father we ask, “Help our unbelief.” For your answers of which we are sure, we thank you. Amen.

Have a great day! Pastor Yolanda

Hope that Does Not Disappoint

Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you today that we have made it through another day. It has not been easy, but we are grateful to be here on March 19^th with another opportunity to pray, to praise, to worship, to help someone, and to be in your presence. Remind us today of the things that are going right, the things of which there is cause for joy, or at least not despair. In your strong name, we pray, Amen.

Scripture: Romans 5:2b-5

We exult in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only this but let us also exult while we are in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵ and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Message:

            Paul encourages us from the book of Romans to practice exulting in the hope we have in the glory of God. He is not asking us to call the tribulations good, therefore worthy of being exulted in, (honored, glorified, boasted about); but that the glory of God of which and in which we have hope is worthy of praise, honor, glory, and exultation. Likewise, we exult in what can be the outcomes of going through tribulation, namely, building up perseverance, proven character, and more…hope.

            As a young Christian, I believed that I should look for tribulation, chase tribulation even, as a way to get to the outcomes of perseverance, character, and hope. This, I have learned, is wrong. God doesn’t ask us to seek out crisis. Crisis is a built-in part of living in a broken world. This is why Jesus says, “In this world, you will have trials also called tribulations or trouble” (John 16:33). No, it is because trouble is built into the lives we live that we must use them as opportunities to practice perseverance, leading to character, leading to increased hope.

The kind of hope that is bolstered by the fact that it has gone through the test of tribulation is the type of hope that cannot disappoint. Hope doesn’t disappoint because the hope is centered in the one who doesn’t disappoint not in our expectations of the way life should be, or in our human sense of justice.

            We have all seen and felt the effects of trouble. We know what it’s like to feel the weight of tribulations on us like a weighty cross. We can choose to bear the full weight of these crosses, or we can choose to let Jesus carry some of the weight, allowing us to move through the tribulation to those attributes that make us better able to bear some of the weight the next time.

Our ability to “weather” storms is not just necessary for our personal health. It is not necessary for itself, just to be able to build up an ability to go through trials and tribulations in ways that build us up. The ability to weather storms is necessary for our children, grandchildren, nieces/nephews, spouses, and the communities beyond our families.

            Children, in particular, learn how to deal with crises by watching us deal with crises. As an example, I remember clearly the ways my mother and father weathered being treated poorly as Black people trying to get ahead in Gary, Indiana. At first, there was anger melded with hurt, but then at some point… I remember at some point…their backs straightening, their chins jutting forward, and the decision to carry on being obvious in their demeanor. I also remember their words of dismissal of those ways of treating them and the re-affirmation of their own innate value. This behavior, process, and outcomes have stuck with me. While this practice might not cover how to handle every trial, the practice has stuck with me and I now offer it to you.

a)         Recognize that you need to and should process the feelings that     

            trouble causes.

b)         Feel what you are feeling when you are feeling it. Rant, rave, kick something

inanimate. Shout, cry, scream.

c)         Contact your support group and be honest. Ask for support. *If you don’t have a support group, this might be a signal to you that you need to invite people to be supportive of you.

d)         Move on to asking is there anything that is beautiful and true (Philippians 4:8)

e)         Remind yourself of who you are and whose you are.

f)         Exult in the hope that you have in Christ. Hope builds hope.

Of course, there are no pat answers or pat techniques. You will have to think about what the kinds of healthy activities make you feel comforted and the language that makes you feel supported. Sometimes being aware of this, is a helpful first step in itself. Lastly, contact your pastors, we want to be in all ways possible a part of your support circle. As we close this devotion, please join me in prayer.

  

Closing Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we place our hope in you. We ask for your help. It is easy in the midst of trials to become so bogged down in the trial that we don’t look for or are unable to see anything that might be beautiful and true. Open our eyes that we may see hope even in the midst of hopelessness. Open our hearts that we might feel love when we feel unloved. Open our ears that we might hear your still small voice, saying “I am here.” We ask all these things in confidence knowing that you hear us and you are quick to answer. Amen.

Have a blessed day!

Pastor Yolanda

Selah

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you for the many ways you are with us. We see the cloudy day, and we are mindful of you as Creator. The cold air we feel reminds us of the One who set seasons in place. As our bodies take in air, we think of you present in us. You created us to be able to do these things and more. Strengthen us not to take them for granted. Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 103:1-2 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.”

Devotion: The United Methodist Church (UMC) has chosen A Season of Selahs for its 2020 Lenten theme. Its website offers that the word Selah, used in the Psalms and Habakkuk, has an unclear English translation. It appears the word Selah functions as a pause and suggests an “exhaling or resting from routine activities.” While the UMC focuses the term on choosing and walking in bright paths, I want to choose Selah’s function of signaling and requiring pause.
I honestly often think of pauses as negative space. I want to be doing something, saying something, or going somewhere, sometimes, all at the same time. I learned my chosen lifestyle of working multiple jobs from parents who often always took extra shifts, worked overtime, or had multiple jobs. I remember my dad and I talking on the phone once, and he said to me, “You are always tired. When are you going to start working just one job?” I replied, “Dad, just as soon as you do, call me up, and I will quit a couple of jobs.” We laughed, and he admitted that I had come into that heritage honestly.
This season of telecommuting has given many of us more time than we have ever had at home. Some will probably choose to work more than they usually do at their offices because work is in your home, and you have opportunities to work consistently throughout the day, the evening, and the night. I want to encourage
you not to do that; to find ways to set a workday, to close your computer, laptop, or tablet, and to practice Selah, pause, exhale.
Practicing Selah doesn’t have to happen at home or the end of a workday. We are healthier when we find ways to pause throughout the day and evening. A former blessing was that commercials used to force most people to get up out of their chairs and to go into another room. I say “used to” because I know of many you who use that time to surf to another channel that doesn’t have a commercial. That is becoming a little more difficult, now that ad campaigns seem to be scheduling their commercials on multiple channels at the same time. The practice of getting up and moving around the room or into other parts of your home is still available.
No matter what your circumstance, I invite you to experience this time as a time to practice Selah. Teach yourself to breathe deeply, to exhale, to pause. Take clues from yoga, Eastern Meditation traditions, Bahai, and mindfulness.
• Breathe deeply
• Focus on the gemul the word translated as benefits, compensation, recompense, of dealings. How has being in a relationship with God benefitted you?
• Exhale
These moments that you take to cognitively focus your heart, mind, spirit, and body on the goodness of God may be just the Selah you need to be able to get back to the task at hand, to stir your creative juices, to re-center you in the rock that is Jesus. Write on a piece of paper if you can a list of benefits you have access to as God’s child. Write down the compensation you have access to as God’s child. Use these to focus your thoughts. Continue to add to this list throughout the day and evening. Please share what you came up with as you comment on this blog. *Hint: If you need help starting your list, read the rest of Psalm 103. Breathe, focus, exhale...Selah.

Closing Prayer: Lord, we have accultured ourselves to be active. It is not going to be easy to slow down and to enjoy Selah. We need your help. Thank you that you are with us, that you provide your rod and staff to comfort us (Ps. 23:4). Selah. Amen.