When I awoke one morning this past week, immediately troubles came to my mind, in particular trials that some members of my family are experiencing. I feel so much sometimes, so burdened and heavy in my spirit when I think of my loved ones suffering or facing difficulties that sometimes seem insurmountable.
Over the years, I have wondered if feeling so much (heightened emotions) is a gift or a curse. Recently, an NDSU professor led a Bible study over a noon hour (NDSU faculty/staff Christian fellowship). His study was on faith and feelings, and he admitted to not being in touch with his feelings; in fact, he said he did not experience emotions much at all. When he shared some of the undesirable results of such a condition, I responded by saying it's not always so great being at the other end of the spectrum, either.
But I digress...
As I lay in bed thinking of those troubles, along with those thoughts came not only the usual sadness, heaviness, but also a cry in my heart--God, help me pray today--how can I pray for these loved ones and circumstances when I feel so hopeless at times, so sad and even discouraged, helpless?
God, who is faithful always, answered my cry through His powerful, living and active Word.
I picked up my Bible and opened it to 2 Chronicles 20, and I began reading. Verses 6-12 is a prayer of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, when he received reports that his enemies--the Moabites, Ammonites, and Menunites were coming to make war with him. "A vast army is coming against you. It is already [near]." Jehoshaphat was alarmed, but instead of seeking wisdom and advice from his advisors, he "resolved to inquire of the Lord." In fact, he proclaimed a fast for all Judah, and all the people of Judah "came together to seek help from the Lord."
I am impressed by how Jehoshaphat humbled himself before the Lord and before his people. He did not command the priests to pray to the Lord, but he "stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD . . . and said:
O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?What a powerful prayer--and how relevant for me today, so many generations later. I used this prayer as a foundation for my own prayer that morning. And as I meditated, the prayer fell naturally in line with so many things I have been studying and reading this year.
You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.
In your hand are power and might,
so that none is able to withstand you.
7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land
before your people Israel, and give it forever
to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
8 And they have lived in it and have built for you in it
a sanctuary for your name, saying,
9‘If disaster comes upon us,
the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine,
we will stand before this house and before you—
for your name is in this house—
and cry out to you in our affliction,
and you will hear and save.’
10 And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir,
whom you would not let Israel invade
when they came from the land of Egypt,
and whom they avoided and did not destroy—
11 behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession,
which you have given us to inherit.
12 O our God, will you not execute judgment on them?
For we are powerless against this great horde
that is coming against us.
We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
--Recently, we studied in Ephesians about putting on the armor of God and understanding that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12) I could not help but think of the "great horde that is coming against us" in terms of the spiritual forces that are behind the struggles we experience in our lives. But even though we are powerless against that "great horde," our God is not. He is powerful and mighty, and none is able to withstand Him.
--Another thing that struck me was the reference to God's house, which in Jehoshaphat's prayer, referred to the Tabernacle, a physical man-made structure that was the dwelling place of God. Today, God's Spirit lives not in a temple, but inside me, and I can enter in to His presence freely because of Jesus. I Corinthians 6:19:
19 Or do you not know that your bodyHebrews 3:5-6:
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God?
5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant,We have been studying Hebrews, and there is much scripture there that connects the Old Testament (law, blood sacrifice for atonement of sins) to the New Testament (grace, Blood of Jesus once for all), Old Covenant to the New Covenant, the earthly tabernacle and the "real" heavenly tabernacle. Hebrews Chapter 9 is powerful teaching about the Blood of Christ and how it relates to the tabernacle and the priestly order. The Old Covenant, the sacrificial system for atonement of sins, the physical tabernacle (first a tent and later the temple in Jerusalem): all of it copies and shadows of what is to come.
to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,
6 but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.
And we are his house if indeed we hold fast
our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Hebrews 8 calls Jesus "the High Priest of a New Covenant."
1 . . . We do have such a high priest,High priests in Old Testament times served "at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven" (vs. 5).
who sat down at the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
2 and who serves in the sanctuary,
the true tabernacle set up by the Lord,
not by a mere human being.
Hebrews 9:24: "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was a only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence."
We tend to think of things on this earth as "real"; but God's Word confirms that it is the spiritual counterparts of earthly things that are truly real and the earthly things that are reflections or copies of spiritual reality.
We so often take God's Word for granted, but today I feel immensely blessed to be able to know and learn through scripture how Jesus' birth, life, and death on the cross ushered in the New Covenant and what that means for me.
13 In speaking of a new covenant,And from Hebrews 9:
he makes the first one obsolete. . . .
(Hebrews 8)
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—
now that he has died as a ransom
to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
24 . . . but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.Praise God!
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him,
because he always lives to intercede for them.
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