The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 12:13-15,
"Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.' Jesus replied, 'Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' Then he said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'"
I have to think the man in the crowd that sought the Lord's help in gaining what he considered to be a legitimate portion of his family's estate had truly been treated unfairly by his brother. Since the man brought it to the Lord publicly, in a setting where his peers were present, among those who might have known of the circumstances, it must have been an appropriate and real complaint. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that when he asked for the Lord's involvement in redressing his grievance, it was a real and genuine situation where he had been treated unfairly. If I were to dismiss this man as simply someone who was a money-grubbing opportunist, looking to the Lord for an upper-hand, I think I'd miss the message here. He is not presented that way.
What I am told is that the Lord declined to get involved and warned of greed. Here is something I think that many never stop to consider. Just because we come to the Lord with our issue, whatever it may be, does not necessarily make it the Lord's issue. Does this mean he doesn't love us or care for us if we have some burden on our heart we bring to him? Not at all.
Look at the Lord's response to the man. The man wanted his fair share of the inheritance, but the Lord responded by pointing to the danger of being driven by greed. His concern wasn't the equitable distribution of the estate, but the danger greed posed for either the man or his brother, or possibly both. The man came to the Lord out of a concern for wealth, the Lord expressed a concern about a condition of the heart: greed.
But... shouldn't the Lord care if I am mistreated? If I am treated unfairly? This, I think, is the message for me. There are more important issues I am faced with than being mistreated or treated unfairly and it has nothing to do with whether the Lord loves me. Consider the Hebrew believers: "Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions." Hebrews 10:32-34.
Didn't the Lord care about these believers? Of course he did! They were reminded of their earlier devotion to the Lord, their own example to themselves of what confidence in the Lord looks like. Likewise, as captured in the Scriptures, they are offered up to us as examples. I'm certain the Lord loved these believers dearly and cared about them deeply. Yet, he did not intervene in their mistreatment and it becomes clear to us the end result of their mistreatment transcends anything they may have had, had the Lord intervened and prevented them from being mistreated.
But do these thoughts occur to us when we are in the midst of the fray? Paul points out something very interesting in talking of what we bring to the Lord, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:26-27. We don't always know what it is we should be praying about. I suspect this extends not to just what we fail to bring to the Lord, but also the things we do bring to him. We can find ourselves asking for those things that are not "in accordance with God's will" and we can't expect his involvement, as the mistreated man in the crowd found.
Sometimes we assume if we have "an issue" we can make it the Lord's issue and expect him to resolve it for us. James has a warning for us, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." James 4:1-3. There are things the Lord will not do for us.
As the man who brought his concern for the inheritance to the Lord was unable to see the bigger danger of greed, so we may miss the bigger picture of what it is that really concerns the Lord out of his love for us. We do know that the Lord loves us and wants his very best for us. Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church speaks to this, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:17-21.
God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine! Those issues he addresses in our lives, the prayers he answers are the kinds that can and do transcend our requests and even move beyond our imagination. Far from being an errand boy for our pedestrian wants and desires, he brings us the very best. He asks us to bring to him what is on our hearts and tells us that our confidence needs to be in him. But, it will be those requests that are "according to his will" that he responds to, "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." 1 John 5:14-15.
James provides us one example of a prayer the Lord will respond to if we ask in faith, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." James 1:5-8
At times I feel I lack such maturity in the things of God. James example is an excellent prayer for me. I could use much of what he says we should ask for... it certainly is much better than many other things I've asked of the Lord!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
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