THE DESPERATION ZONE

Have you ever been to the desperation zone? Its a place precious to God, but dreaded by many. It can drive us either to prayer or it can drive us to despair. The desperation zone is the place where all other courses of action have been eliminated, where you stand at the edge of the abyss, where you approach God with empty hands and an aching heart.

Psalm 107:23-30 describes it like this,

"Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven."

The sailors were in a desperate situation. There was a great storm and all of their seamanship skills were useless. The Psalmist describes their plight as being "at wits end". In short, they were in the desperation zone. So what did they do? They prayed! They cried out to the Lord who heard their desperate pleas and did for them what they could not do for themselves.

It seems for most of us that it is the desperation zone that forces us to pray. The times we often resort to prayer is when we have no other recourse, no where else to go, when we feel inadequate, helpless, and desperately need Gods help and intervention. 

I think this is the heart of true prayer and the place where true prayer is launched. We cry out from our heart in desperation to the only one who can help meet and satisfy our deepest needs. DL Moody once said, "whenever I am in trouble I pray. I'm always in trouble so I always pray." Moody had prime property in the desperation zone.

God offers this promise to those who live in the desperation zone in Psalm 50:15, "and call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” It does not take much to make us desperate.Each of us have a nerve that once touched, drives us right to our knees.

Desperate people pray because they have no other choice. They pray because the are starving; they pray because they are dying of thirst; they pray because they are being persecuted. It is pray or go under, prayer despair, pray or die.

Remember some of the people like you and me who lived in the desperation zone?
Jairus, who's daughter was sick and could not be cured, and no amount of his wealth could save (Mark 5:21-24). A woman with the I curable blood disorder prayed because no doctor had been able to cure her (Mark 5:25-34). They were desperate and Jesus so kindly heard them and answered there
desperate cry.

I have learned over the 39 years of praying how desperate I really am. Jesus said in John 15:5, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Oh, how I deeply agree. I am so aware of my inadequacy in every area of my life. I have come to see that God is my only hope, my last resort, my one chance, my only solution.

I'm not saying that I always live like this. But whether I always feel or live it, my need for God is infinite and absolute. The desperation zone compels me to pray to God with the attitude, "if I don't pray, I won't make it". My need for God is as great as my need for air, water,food, and sleep.

 Without God, I am dead. So I pray and pray and pray and pray and pray. God help me, provide for 

me, heal me,strengthen me, save me, have mercy on me. 

Life is a journey and on it there are moments and places that feel safe, easy, comfort, and secure. But they are all an illusion and fleeting. As much as I'd like to stay in those places,we are never able to stay there. Inevitably we face new dangers, threats, troubles,and challengs, that bring us right back to the place called the desperation zone.

It is the place where God lives closer to,you than you could ever imagine. Will you join me there?

To be continued...

THOUGHTS ON WHEN GOD SEEMS TO NOT ANSWER MY PRAYERS

I warn you about this weeks blog. I will be speaking about things that perhaps many of you have felt but dare not talk about with other Christians for fear of glib answers, rejection, or condemnation. I want to share my struggles and questions not to raise doubt, but to help with faith in regard to serious matters of the Christian life.

Do you ever feel that God does not pay attention to your prayers? Why does the bible tell me to pray yet when I do He often times seems silent, distant, and unwilling to answer me? I am not talking about trivial prayers like asking God for a parking place. I'm talking about sincere prayers in moments in times of desperate need. I have deeply wrestled with this the past three and a half years. I have been rocked with disappointment by my wife's and my own unanswered prayers.There have been many cries for help, believing earnestly that God would answer yet ended up feeling unheard. What do I do when I really believe that God is able and willing, yet in regards to my prayers, He seems the opposite.

I ask this serious question because I am a man of prayer. I take it seriously and have made prayer a default response to trouble as well as a way of life. Prayer for me is a habit, a reflex, and also seems to get results. I have experienced countless answers to my own prayers over my 39 years as a believer and I have seen numerous supernatural healings, Prayer is central in my life. I believe God hears and answers prayers.

Now with all that said,  I still wrestle with unanswered prayer. unanswered prayer has hit some raw nerves for me. As I said, I pray because I believe that God hears and answers my prayers. I tell God my needs and He seems distant and aloof to my cries.

I have always taught others that God answers every prayer according to His will with a yes, no, or wait answer. It provides a rational, easy, simple, and workable answer to this troubling question. But...deep inside I have found this really hard for me to accept. Sure, there are many prayers that are not difficult for me to understand why God does not answer. I have witnessed my wife 
begging God to heal her terribly crippling disorder, yet she still suffers. I asked God for many years to do a certain thing in my own life and when I rejoiced at His seeming answer for several years, 
suddenly, the whole bottom fell out. What about your own unanswered prayers? Do you find yourself frustrated and crushed because no matter how earnest, no matter how hard, no matter how 
believing, and no mater how long, God does not seem to answer. Sometimes God's. seeming silence is deafening.

Why did not God answer? I have given and heard many well meaning answers:
God has a plan for you
You need more faith
Perhaps there is unconfessed sin in your life
You must not be praying according to Gods will
You have not been tithing (heard that recently)
Your motives are wrong

Now there is undoubtedly some truth or half truth at times in all of those in regards to answered except the tithing one). But are any of those really helpful? Do they really help us to pray?

Then there are the promises the bible makes that are so huge and God does not seem to keep them a
that further exasperates the problem.

"And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." Luke 11:9-10

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will 

do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Ifyou ask me anything in my name, I will do it."

John 14:12-14

My simple reading of these texts tells me this: If I pray. God will answer. So what do I conclude
when God does not answer my prayers? I pray because God tells me to pray and I pray because god promises to answer my prayers. We have the assurance of answered prayer from our Savior Jesus, Himself.

So what happens when my prayers are not answered? Is there anything that I can do about it? Is it my motives that is the problem? Could it be the ongoing sin in my life? Could it be that something is wrong with my faith? Could it be the way we say our prayers? Of course motives, faith, and the right words are important. But these also lead me into so much introspection and reflection that can paralyze my prayer life. Am I to blame every time? The fact is my motives are not perfectly pure ever. My faith is never perfect. And sometimes I don't say things so well. So the question that disturbs me is this, does God only answer the prayers of those with pure motives, perfect people, with perfect faith, and words spoken properly? 

I cannot live with that kind of burden. It would paralyze my ability and desire to pray. 
In fact, as far as I am concerned, it contradicts the very reason that we pray. 
We pray as desperate, poor, broken, helpless, and needy people.It would seem to me to be unreasonably demanding if  in order to be heard and answered by God I had to prove myself worthy by perfect living, motives, faith, and words. This is a burden that none of us can carry.

Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

This is His way of saying that little faith is required. Quantity is not the issue. The object of our faith is everything. Jesus is a mountain moving God. So faith is not the key, the object of who we put our tiny, minuscule faith is everything! 

Faith trusts not in self but God. Faith comes poor, desperate, lacking self confidence,empty handed, insufficient, needy, empty, and lacking. Faith assumes we being nothing to God and need everything from God.

We must dare to pray even as we doubt, are disappointed, wavering, defeated, frustrated, and empty, just as the desperate father cried, "I do believe, help my unbelief," Mark 9:24

True faith is tiny little light that rises up when darkness surrounds us and threatens to overwhelm us. I pray to this God I love and trust because He is God and I have no one else to turn to and know where else to turn. Yes, I am dissapointed. Yes I don't understand. But...I keep on praying.

I think of the sincere prayers so many have made that seemingly were not heard or answered. What went wrong? Was it sin, wrong motives, lacking faith or sincerity, wrong words? Why did God not answer my prayers? It's all a mystery. I'm not sure I'll ever know why or understand it. But this I do know: unanswered prayer is not the end of the story for you and me. Not as long as God is God.

Next week I'll share what I mean :)