Another hit

It is 10:47 AM and we have just been informed that we will not be able to rent the home in Front Royal that we were hoping to rent. Our landlords have told us that we must vacate the house we are living in by August 20. That gives us two weeks to find a house, get approval, and complete our move.

Please pray.

Update - 3:00 pm

Matthew 6:16-18

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

I had a talk with my father and he shared with me Matthew 6:18, “Your father who sees in secret will reward you.” After I finished talking to my father, I looked up the verse in its context. This is a very well-known passage (The Sermon on the Mount), so I was quite familiar with it already, but I needed to read it again.

Christianity is a personal relationship with Christ. I have looked at this concept from only one side until the past year or so—that it is not up to us to force our convictions on other Christians. But until recently I have ignored the flip side of this issue—that we are not supposed to do our good deeds in front of others in order to show what great Christians we are.

I have recently been more and more convicted of this aspect of the personal relationship nature of Christianity. But my father directed me to this verse for an entirely different reason—to point out that God knows.

Ephesians 8:26-27

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

He knows our needs. We are to ask him to meet our needs and we are to solicit the prayers of others. But God knows. In fact, God knows much better than we know. And he knows much better than the multitude of praying saints that we may be able to engage in praying for our unique situation.

According to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the Holy Spirit fills in the gaps in our prayers, praying for things that we don’t even know how to pray for. Who could possibly be a better prayer partner in a time of need than God himself?

In that letter to the Ephesian believers, Paul goes on to say (in the well-known verse 28): “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

This will all work out in the end. And my heavenly Father who loves me enough to send his Son to die for me will make it work out to my good. The darkness will lift. I will see Jesus’ lovely, and loving, face.