Have you ever been to Key West by car? I lived in Florida most of my life and did not make that journey until I was in my late 40’s. I was quite impressed with the Keys. I was impressed with the beauty of the water and the scenery. But one thing really impressed me. I was impressed with the number of bridges you had to cross to get there. I pondered that and what you would have to do to get back to the mainland of Florida if a hurricane was bearing down on the keys. The thought has stuck with me that if you could not cross each of the bridges as you came to them, you would be stuck in the face of looming disaster.
Have you ever thought about the bridges we as Christians must cross if we are to receive help from God when disaster is looming? There are bridges to cross. God has requirements that He wants us to meet before He will help in our difficulty. It is true that God offers unconditional love to anyone who will accept it, but He also has a conditional promise for help in times of difficulty. A conditional promise is the connection of IF and THEN. It states that IF one action is taken by one party THEN a different action will be taken by the other party. The action of the THEN part is always conditioned on the action of the IF part.
In II Chronicles 7:13-14 God states His conditional promise to help in difficult times. To set the stage, Solomon has completed building the Temple. He has been in prayer with God for all of Chapter 6 asking God to help the Israelites stay close to Him and to help them return when they stray. He and the people of Israel have had a feast of dedication. God comes to Solomon at night and says:
“If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people,”
“And My people, who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
To paraphrase we could say that God has said ‘if tough times come and my people will cross four bridges that are before them, then I will hear, forgive, and heal’. Let’s look at the bridges we must cross and the order in which we must cross them. Just a note about crossing bridges, you have to cross them in the right order and when you come to them. Somewhat rhetorical but I believe there is a very good reason God puts these bridges in this order.
The Bridge of Humility:
What does it mean to humble oneself? It is important to note that this is humbling oneself before God. It is not humiliation. What is humility in the biblical sense? What are the characteristics of humility? In order to understand this concept let’s examine a few passages of scripture.
Isaiah 6:1-7: This is Isaiah’s call into God’s service. In this chapter Isaiah comes into the presence of God Almighty. He becomes overwhelmed at God’s glory and the awesomeness of His presence. In verse 5 Isaiah shouts “Woe is me for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah has beheld the glory of the living God and recognized two things. The first thing is the character of God, that is His holiness and righteousness. The second thing is his own personal sinful condition. This is one aspect of biblical humility. That is that God is holy and righteous and that as humans, we are sinful and unworthy.
The second passage I want us to look at is Luke 15:11ff. It is the parable of the prodigal son. You know the story. The younger son left his father’s house after receiving his portion of his father’s inheritance. He squandered his money in sinful behavior and when he had to resort to feeding hogs to survive, he came to his senses. The section I want us to focus on is verses 20-22. In those verses, the prodigal is coming home to confess the error of his ways and beg his father’s forgiveness. Notice in particular verse 20 when the father saw him, he felt compassion for the prodigal son, ran to him, and started demonstrating how great his love was for his son. The father did not tell his son “I told you so”. He just rejoiced and showed his love for him. How do you think the son felt? Do you think he was overwhelmed by the love the father showed to him? Paul wrote in Romans 5:8 that ‘God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’. This father’s love overwhelmed his son. While he was still stinking like a hog pen, dirty from living outside of his father’s house, flat broke, and full of shame and guilt, totally down and out, and feeling unworthy to even be a son, the father accepted him just as he was, loved him unconditionally, forgave him for his leaving, and celebrated his return. The part of biblical humility I want us to see here is that while we are unworthy, God will overwhelm us with His love and celebrate our return to Him.
The last passage on humility I want us to look at is in Luke 18:9-17. It is the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican praying. Again, let us just summarize the passage. The Pharisee is standing in the synagogue praying to God. If we put his words in modern language to fit the today’s times it would be something like this. “God I am glad I am not like these drunks and dopers. I do all I can for my church. I show up for every service, I teach Sunday school, I serve as a deacon, I am an usher, I give lots of money to the church. I have been a member of this church all my life. I am not a sinner like the rest of the people here. I certainly am not like that sinner over there because I am a good person.
The poor tax collector is too ashamed of his own sinful condition to even lift up his eyes to God and beats his chest pleading for mercy. Jesus said that he would be justified rather than the self righteous Pharisee. Then Jesus made some very pointed statements. He said “everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” Christ spent much of his ministry exposing the hypocrisy of self righteousness. In essence he pointed out many times that seeking recognition from men on earth meant no reward in heaven. The aspect of biblical humility that we need to garner here is this: self-righteousness is the opposite of humility. Pride in religious service, membership, or practice is not humility.
One other aspect of biblical humility I think we need to take heed of is demonstrated by the life of Jesus himself. He stated himself in Matthew 11:29 that he was “gentle and humble in heart”. Since Jesus was sinless He had no feeling of being unworthy because of his actions. He demonstrated his humility by complete dependence on the power of God and complete obedience to the will of God. He took the position of a humble bond servant seeking to act only as the master told Him to act. His humility was that of seeking His master’s will rather than His own.
To summarize what the bridge of humility means. God is all, I am nothing. I can do nothing on my own but God can do all things. I am overwhelmed by God’s love which takes me from my position of being totally unworthy to being worth the life of Jesus. When we become overwhelmed by the grace of God for our sinful lives, then we cross the bridge of humility.
Why so much about humility. Humility has been called the “queen of all graces”. It is the beginning point of all grace that grows in a Christian’s life. It is the one thing that Satan never wants us to practice, because pride is the one thing that precipitates all sin. It was the lack of humility on Satan’s part that caused his fall from heaven.
The Bridge of Prayer:
The second bridge to cross is the bridge of prayer. After studying the word for prayer in the Old and New Testament I found that its root takes form in the word “prostrate”. There are many definitions but basically it means to converse with God in a worshipful manner. I read some commentaries that all pointed to the same thing. Prayer is an open and honest communication between me and God. It is as much listening as it is talking. God can be approached in open honest conversation without worrying about how you sound or what you say. He knows what you need before you ask Him and he knows your heart before you reveal it. In fact, Jesus warned about long flowery prayers in Matthew 6. He cautioned about doing anything for notice from men. I heard a sermon by Chuck Swindol not long ago about prayer. He said that he doubted if any new prayers had been offered in some churches in years. He commented that the prayers offered in a lot of churches had become meaningless repetition of the same thing. That is what Jesus warned against.
Notice this about prayer. True prayer, that is open and honest communication, cannot be attained without humility. We cannot be honest with God if we are not humble before Him. We may think we can, but when we pray without humility, we might as well just be quiet.
The Bridge of Seeking:
The third bridge to cross is the bridge of seeking. God tells us to “seek My face”. What does it mean to seek God’s face?
When I fished for a living the first time, I was very inexperienced. You could say the term “green horn” fit me well. Oh I could catch a fish myself, but it was a different matter to teach people who could not “catch a cold” how to catch fish in a single outing. I met a crusty old fisherman named Skipper. Now Skipper was one of the ugliest people that I have ever known. His skin was leathery and pock marked, his clothes were a shambles, his hat needed an oil change, his nose looked like a turkey woobler, and he had no more than a dozen teeth. But Skipper was the best fisherman around. He was a pioneer in technology. He was the first captain to use a rod and reel on the party boats instead of a hand line. He was the first to use monofilament line on a party boat. Skipper could catch a fish when no one else could. Basically, if there was a creature in the sea, Skipper could figure out how to catch it. In fact, Quaker Oats hired him as consultant to teach third world fishermen how to catch fish for pet food. They flew him all around the world for more than a year.
Well, every day I would look out for Skipper. I would watch for him and when he came by my boat, I would invite him to go get a cup of coffee at the coffee shop nearby. We would sit and openly talk about fishing and I would pick his brain for any tidbit of information he would tell me. I asked him how to become a better fisherman and boatman. He would gladly volunteer and I learned so much about fishing from him. In fact, I learned more about fishing by drinking a cup of coffee with Skipper than other people could teach me in a lifetime. I sought Skipper and his opinion of my fishing techniques, and the things that I should do to improve. I sought to know what things I had to change to make me better.
That is what seeking God’s face means. It means seeking to know what God thinks of your life as a person. It is seeking God’s thoughts as to what needs to be changed in your life to make you a better Christian. Seeking God in this manner can only come because you have already crossed the first two bridges. It is important to note that you can start seeking God’s face and when He starts getting too close, that is He is getting personal, you can shut Him off. Often time this is the stopping point of many people. They claim to be seeking God, but then He starts showing them things that are not to their liking, things that make them uncomfortable, they shut Him down. The further we go in seeking God’s face, the more difficult and painful it becomes because He shows us things about our life that we have grown to accept as normal. He shows us things that make us uncomfortable when we see them through His eyes.
All of us have things that are wrong in our life. I gave up on murder and thievery many years ago. But now God is working on the little things and that makes me uncomfortable. He is working to show me that what I want to call little things are not little to Him. Things like petty jealously, things like disrespect for other people because of their actions, either past or present, contempt for the person who calls making a solicitation and interrupts my routine, disgust for the cashier that is not paying attention to my order at a fast food restaurant or at Wal-Mart, and other things that I want to overlook and point to as just my nature or a quirk of my personality.
Max Lucado illustrated a very common sin among Christians in his book “In the Grip of Grace”. He stated that he felt contempt and disgust for Jeffery Dahmer. Dahmer, if you recall was a serial killer. He killed dozens of people, carved them up, cannibalized some of them, and kept the body parts in his house. Lucado stated that his contempt for Dahmer was not because of his murderous ways. It was not because of his cannibalism. It was not because he coveted and kept a human heart. It was not because Dahmer was such a horrid criminal. He stated it was because just months before Dahmer was murdered by another inmate, he accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and began growing in his relationship to God. That is sort of like the older brother of the prodigal son. I wonder how many people who call themselves Christian have contempt for their fellow sinner when he repents and comes to Christ. Or how many have contempt because they do not approve of the lifestyle another Christian. Jesus said “let him who is without fault cast the first stone”.
I know from personal experience that if we seek God’s face he will reveal the sins that we have become comfortable in accepting as normal behavior. It will make us uncomfortable to do so, but that is His purpose, to bring our sin out in the open.
The Bridge of Repentance:
The fourth bridge I want to discuss is the bridge of repentance. God says “turn from their wicked ways”. Repentance is a change of attitude toward a sin in your life to the point that you make a commitment to change your behavior. It is interesting to note that mere acknowledgement of sin is not repentance. Repentance comes when we change direction and attitude. We stop going in the direction of sin and change our pathway. Also note that it is only by God’s power that we have the power to overcome. Paul wrote “I am crucified with Christ and yet I live, not I but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
I want to point out that we will not know what to repent of unless we genuinely seek God’s face. Seeking God’s face comes when we openly and honestly communicate with Him. Open and honest communication can only occur if we humble ourselves. It is not by accident that these bridges are given to us in this order.
And now comes God’s part. This is the connection of the IF and Then. Notice the order of God’s part as well as the action of God.
Hear from Heaven:
First He promises that He will hear from heaven. This gives implication that if we do not do our part; God is not even going to hear our prayer. I believe that if we fail to do our part God will take the same action allowable to the US Supreme Court when petitioned. There are many petitions for hearings to the court, but the justices have the right to refuse to hear any petition, if they so choose. God is not obligated to hear our prayer if we come to Him in the wrong way and with a wrong attitude. If we do not cross our four bridges, He is not obligated to do His part.
Forgive Our Sin:
The second thing God promises is to forgive our sin. Forgiveness of sin is the most important aspect of coming to God and of staying in fellowship with Him. All of us have sins that need to be forgiven. I John 1:8 says in essence that if we claim to have no sin then the truth is not in us. When the truth is not in us, we are liars. We certainly won’t know what sins we need to repent of unless we have sought God’s face. I John 1:9 tells us “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. Confession means to say the same thing in the Greek language. You cannot say the same thing about your sin until you see it as God sees it.
Heal Our Land:
The third thing God promises is to heal. A word about healing: Healing does not mean a reversal of the circumstances or removal of the adversity. It can be those things but that is not all there is to it. If I have a foot amputated due to illness or accident, the stump will heal without growing another foot. God will teach me how to deal with the adversity. If I lose a loved one to death, they will not be resurrected because I pray. Not in this lifetime. But I will be given peace about their death. The McCameys sing a song with a line in it that goes something like this: “Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He calms me.” Healing of the guilt of sin or other emotional hurt is far better than having circumstances reversed.
Called by My Name:
The one bridge that I have not talked about yet is that of being “called by my name”. This conditional promise of God to help is only available to those who are called by God’s name. Unless you have a born again relationship with God, He is not under any obligation to hear your prayer, unless it is the prayer of repentance and acceptance. You may think you are praying and that God has answered your prayer but remember “the rain falls on the just and unjust” or you could be receiving the benefit of another person’s prayer. It is important to note that God never refuses to hear the prayer of the lost person who repents and wants to be saved. It is not His will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and eternal life (II Peter 3:9)
To Summarize:
Let me illustrate what God is saying in this passage. I have a son, a daughter, and a step daughter. They are all called by name in some manner. We are all connected as family. I am obligated to them by relationship.
If any of them came to me and said “I am in trouble. I have been so wrong in my life and the choices that I have made. I have not given heed to the advice you gave me or considered anything you said as having merit. I am ashamed of my behavior. Would you please sit and talk with me openly and honestly. Would you show me the things in my life that need to be changed to make me a better person and get my life straightened out? I want to change and am willing to change anything about my behavior that is not right. Will you help?”
I guarantee that I would bust a gut to help them. I would hear what they had to say, I would forgive all the wrong that they had done to me, and I would try to comfort them and change their circumstances if possible.
Any parent would. And God loves us more than we can ever love our children.
