Pulling Up the Collar
Posted on July 23, 2007
Filed Under Personal, Worldview |
I have often confessed my lack of ability to fully understand or explain the seam that ties together God’s sovereignty and man’s free agency. It is not a contradiction, but thinking deeply about it will sometimes throw one’s brain into a black hole.
The fact that God answers our prayers is always a delightful mystery to me and occasionally raises some of those innocent, child-like questions. First of all, if He knows what I am going to say before I say it, then why say it? And if God has a perfect plan and is working all things together for good, then if He answers my prayer, won’t that mess up His plan? Or does it imply that His plan wasn’t really that good in the beginning if He “improves” it by responding to my prayer?
Well, I think most of that is answered in 1 John 5: 14-15
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
So somehow, all of our prayers that He is going to answer are bound up in His plan already (”according to His will”). Amazing!
All of this is leading me to thank you again for your prayers for my Dad. He appears to be improving despite the medical staff’s prediction. Yesterday we were able to understand pretty much all of his speech and the physical therapist has been successful in getting him to walk, although he needs a soft brace around his right leg. Saturday evening, he grasped his own spoon and was able to feed himself with very little choking. These are remarkable strides forward.
So, in the midst of God’s grace, He has answered and responded to your prayers—prayed in 2007, yet planned in eternity past.
Go figure!
All of this is the continual evidence of God’s gracious presence in our lives and it is what helps us become stronger in our faith.
That will now be required even more so in our lives. Last week brought two new events. My wife’s brother was rushed into heart surgery for a quadruple by-pass and my Mom was diagnosed with cancer. We met with the oncologist on Friday and he is scheduling her for surgery as soon as possible.
I hesitate to share any of this because I know that many of you are weathering your own storms. A close friend is going into surgery this morning and another is going to have a biopsy done on a growth in his vertebrae. Some of you have lost children recently and others are wrestling with family and relationship issues.
But in the midst of all of this, we are a people of hope because we have a Father who is really and truly working all of this together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. He is faithful and worthy of our trust.
We just have to pull that truth up around our necks when the wind is fierce and bitterly cold and seems to be coming from all directions.
P.S. I know I’m behind on my Islam series…I’ll pick it up this Thursday.
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17 Responses to “Pulling Up the Collar”
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Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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Del -
I want to encourage you to not hesitate in sharing information about your person life when you feel led to do so. As much as I enjoy reading your thoughts on the state of our country and God’s amazing creation, your comment today on answered prayer was a message that came as a great encouragement to me. I am currently wrestling with the very thing you talked about in my own life. Although I had asked God for something and felt He had told me I would get it, I didn’t take any action but just waited until it happened. Well, it turned out it didn’t happen, so I figured I must have misunderstood God. Then God began teaching me about prayer. Specifically, Mark 11:24 - “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
This, I believe, was my error. Not that I failed to hear God correctly but that I failed to have an active faith that took steps even before I saw my prayer answered. But God is gracious and he has given my a second chance at what I was praying for. (”it” is actually a little girl that we want to adopt) We don’t have her yet, but this time I am planning for her arrival, and not just hoping.
Which brings me to exactly the struggle you spoke of. Obviously, God’s answer to every prayer is not “yes.” But yet, His Word tells us that if we ask according to His will then we will receive it. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly that all means, but for now I am moving forward by faith, not by sight. I believe God is more interested in me having childlike faith than having everything figured out intellectually. I still have moments of doubt where I’m afraid I may end up looking foolish in the end, but I will not waiver in my actions until the final answer is given. However, your posting today encouraged me that I am doing the right thing. Thanks.
Dr. Tackett,
As I was reading your post, I related to the childlike questions. Especially the one that asked, “Or does it imply that His plan wasn’t really that good in the beginning if He “improves” it by responding to my prayer?”
I am thankful that you shared the medical struggles of those that you are close to. For me anyway, it gives me a way to pray for you, along with the prayers for your father’s recovery. And although I am currently in the midst of a financial situation, I always feel better when I can give back to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s almost a “pay it forward” sort of a feeling. Plus it helps me get my mind off of my circumstances and puts my mind on things above.
…I cannot wait for Thursday; I am so thoroughly enjoying reading your posts on this series. I pray that God blesses your efforts and that somehow we can begin to build strongholds of truth rather than lies.
God bless!
A wonderfull column! It is always amazing to realize that the God who holds the world together cares about and loves each one of us so very much!God is the best storm shelter!
I will pray for those in your family with health problems.
Your commentary today was very helpful in clarifying the scope and magnitude of my own personal “problems.” I’ll stop whining for a while.
Dr. Tackett,
well I am praying for you and your family. I lost my mom and Grandmother about 9 months apart in 2003 my Grandmother had Lung cancer and my mom died in a car accident. The one thing that keeps me going is knowing that they are both in heaven holding the Fathers hand. I am a new believer so I am still learning. its been about 9 months since I was saved. but I am so excited to keep learning more and growing in my faith.
And through the Truth Project and my Church and the Disiples in my life I hope to grow strong in Jesus Christ
-Tamara
Wow! Jen Davis’ comment “I believe God is more interested in me having childlike faith than having everything figured out intellectually” is powerful! The Bible study group I attend on Thursday nights is studying prayer, and I am so eager to share this with them.
As you said, Del, our prayers are a part of God’s plan - He moves in our hearts to pray, and thus begins the process of His will being done - it all begins with Him! What an awesome God we belong to! And what a privilege He has granted us in allowing us to have such a powerful part in His work through prayer.
Dear Del
One has to ask the question - Why do we (each of us) find such reticence in sharing our problems and burdens with the body of Christ? Is it because we don’t want to somehow impose or further burden those we know are wrestling with their own problems? Or perhaps we don’t want to appear weak and unable to carry the burdens? - Whatever the reasons, I think you have said it before, “It’s all about relationship”. Whether we are considering the conundrum of “the seam that ties together God’s sovereignty and man’s free agency” or the efficacy of prayer or the burdens of our lives and those around us, it truly comes down to relationship.
We have this remarkable relationship with the God of the Universe and He, in his infinite wisdom, is trying his utmost to bring us closer to a full knowledge of Him and the fullness of His plan.
In allowing the body to share in our lives in an intimate way we give opportunity to members to have the blessing of praying, seeing the effects and result of prayer and exercising an element of relationship with the Father and the body and thereby growing in the knowledge of Christ. Soli Deo Gloria. Isn’t it amazing?
As we wrestle with the conundrums or inside the “cocoons” and search God’s word for the answers - they lie no where else - we are drawn into that relationship with the Living God and voila, we find ourselves face to face. Soli Deo Gloria! To Him be the Glory, Amen.
We pray for the peace and comfort of God in you and your family.
Best Regards
Don G Moore
I am so excited about your Dad’s progress, Dr. Tackett! I will certainly keep your mother and brother-in-law in my prayers.
And for a hedge of His protection around you and yours.
Dr. Tackett, I have just prayed for you, your family, and your Dad. When your dad joins Jesus, (may the day be long in coming) he leaves behind the richest of legacies: His son. Continue to be used of he Lord to call the body to Truth. He has chosen you in this generation to reveal, remind, and offer reproof when warranted. You are a blessing, brother. Thank you for your continued obedience.
Your insight is right on. Yesterday, before reading your thoughts on sovereignty and free will, I was pondering the correlation of two opposing world views and the conclusions of them.
If we are nothing but the result of mindless chance - if Darwin were correct - then there would be no free will. Since we are created by the Triune God who has will, being created in His likeness means among other things that we have free will.
To the argument by some that Father God - Yahweh cannot be sovereign if we have free will - I ask this, if our creator is sovereign, does He not have the right as well as ability to grant free will?
I am so glad that your father is doing better, but am saddened to hear of your mother’s cancer. Please know that my husband and I will be praying for you.
I am enjoying reading your blog and hearing your thoughts on issues and your personal life. My husband and I have been teaching the Truth Project and thoroughly have enjoyed it. It is so deep and well thought out that I am glad that we will be teaching it again in the fall as there is so much information to grasp and I want to be able to process it all.
My husband and I will be coming to the Focus Over Fifty seminar and are hoping to meet you there.
May God bless
Dell,
Thank you! Thank you for reminding us that God is bigger than all of us, bigger that our trials, bigger than our needs. He is so big, yet so loving that He will come to us in those trials and hold us in His arms with more love than we could ever comprehend. You and your family are now daily in my prayers.
Dr. Tackett,
It is wonderful to hear that your father is doing better; my prayers will be with the rest of your family.
In regards to God’s sovereignty and man’s free agency I heard an interesting analogy yesterday.
Imagine you are playing the world’s greatest chess champion. It really doesn’t matter what moves you make, the champion is going to use those moves for his end goal (to win the game).
How much wiser is our God then a chess champion. To say that God can not accomplish his plan if we have free will both diminishes the power of God and increases our significance.
I also second Jacqueline Turner’s comment, well said.
Dr. Tackett,
Your honesty in saying that you don’t understand everything about God and the bible, is so helpful to me. I have a very good prayer life, but I can’t explain why it works, or answer any of the “child like questions.” That always bothered me, and sent me chasing after the answer only to be left confused and lost.
Now I can honestly say I don’t know, and still have faith that prayer is worth doing, and in Gods will.
Thanks, I am a “lurker” I often read but this is my first post. I really enjoy the chance to challenge my daily life, and thoughts through this blog.
Toshia
My Brother,
How can the Fellowship share a burden that is withheld from our knowledge? How can we comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received if the need is hidden from sight?
What restrains each of us from transparency? The lie that as Christians we are somehow immune from the fallout of sin in the Garden and calamity and sorrow should not come to us as Believers if we are in His Will? Surely not!
I am thankful for *Streams in the Desert* and all the suffering this saint endured for the revelation contained within its pages. Just as Cowman captured those questioning moments in the valley and received grace light to illumine her walk with glorious confidence, so have I.
So will you.
As one who has suffered the loss of husband, children, and mother, I can step forward boldly with a gentle smile and say with Warren Wiersebe (I think?), “Whom God would use greatly, he often wounds deeply in the school of life.”
This is yet another facet in the maturing process of the saints.
There is nothing unusual or amiss here. But instead of “turning up the collar” and gritting my teeth as though I am going it alone, I am learning to be transparent about the pain and request support and prayer regarding spiritual and practical needs. For how else can God’s strength and abundant mercy be revealed except through my weakness?
Blessings on you, Brother. Thanks for sharing the need.
Remembering to pray,
Kay
Dear Del,
Just got back from the Alaska cruise. Missed you. The coolest thing I saw there (above and beyond the eagles and whales) was the little “Beaver” on floats with the radial engine we flew up to the misty fiords. For chance to produce a living creature with the data processor to build that plane and fly it evokes the vision of a “Tornado in a Junkyard” producing the universe.
I’ve come to a place in my walk where there aren’t too many mysteries as I begin to grasp the magnifience of our Lord……. but I can’t wait to ask Him about the interface between His preordained plan and what I decide to do today. I’ve been through that cocoon too.
“The Course” is getting rave reviews @ our church. I get to present tour 10 next week…one of my favorites.
Press on,
Alan
Dr. Tackett,
I really appreciated your comments on prayer versus God’s sovereignty. I along with several of our friends, have struggled with this. Your explanation helps open our ‘cocoon’.
Don’t ever hesitate to comment on your personal life, it reveals your human side and makes you more of a friend/brother in Christ, not just the great teacher you are. We are praying for you, your father, mother and family.
I’ve been catching up on some of your blogs. We just returned home from Colorado Springs after attending our son’s Institute graduation. We didn’t realize while we were there how full your plate has been. I am very fortunate to still have my parents, both 82 years old. In fact, they were able to make the trip with us to Colorado Springs. It is wonderful when generations can celebrate milestones together. I know the time will come when I will be facing similar things that you are facing now. I have always been able to depend on my parents support and have appreciated the closeness we enjoy. They have played an important role in our children’s lives.
We will continue to pray for you, your father, mother, your work with “The Truth Project”, and “FOTF Institute”. We will be facilitating our second series of “The Truth Project” this fall. The first time through was very well received. Can’t wait to begin again.
God Bless,
Linda