Through the Summer months, the messages that I’ve brought to you have centered around my meditation and study of some of the prayers that are recorded in the Bible.

∙ Starting on May 27^th I spoke of the power of a praying Believer for in prayer we declare our dependence on the Lord.

∙ In the next message I took young Samuel’s prayer, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” for my text about the importance of listening as well as talking in times of prayer.

∙ We considered Solomon’s prayer for wisdom as a guide for our own petitions for guidance in this complex world.

∙ One week, I took the story of Elisha’s prayer for healing of his servant’s spiritual blindness as my text, “Lord, open his eyes!” We will live a life pleasing to God if we only live by what is obvious. We need the insight of the Spirit, the ability to see into the spiritual realm.

∙ In a message about praying for courage, we looked to Moses who prayed about his sense of inadequacy, and heard from the Lord, the reassurance that he needed to become the leader of Israel during the Exodus.

∙ Jonah’s complaining prayer became a lesson for us about the necessity of praying with true thankfulness.

∙ And, last week, I took Ezra’s amazing prayer of repentance, which was grounded in his renewed revelation of the Majesty of God, as our text. I pray that we will be so in awe of God that this kind of prayer comes from our lips, too. "When I heard all this, I ripped my clothes and my cape; I pulled hair from my head and out of my beard; I slumped to the ground, appalled. . . .My dear God, I’m so totally ashamed, I can’t bear to face you. O my God—our iniquities are piled up so high that we can’t see out; our guilt touches the skies." (Ezra 9:6, The Message)

Today, I want to direct you to the first book of the Bible, to Genesis 15. (Pew Bible page 20) There we read a prayer framed in doubt and confusion! It is an incredible conversation from which we can gain instruction.

Prayers for Assurance

Last Sunday afternoon, I was called to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital where a woman lay in distress and great pain.
We spoke for a few moments and then they took into surgery. Gary and I waited in a little room. With a broken heart and troubled mind I went to prayer - at first not sure even how to pray. A beautiful young woman lay just steps away, holding onto life by a thin thread. "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God" - was all I could manage, at first; but then with the help of the Spirit, I began to thank Him for His beauty, His majesty, His greatness, the love He has shown to us. From that praise came a boldness to ask God to intervene. Nearly an hour slipped quickly by as I prayed in quiet murmuring of petition and silent ponderings of praise. That alcove became a sanctuary! I felt Him come close and touch us!

Two days later, I returned to the hospital and found our sister once again in terrible pain and great anxiety! Her suffering hit me hard emotionally. I myself had spent a day with sick with a fever and felt physically drained. In addition, that day there was another situation of loss and grieving that required my attention. Needs multiplied and my strength diminished!

As I drove up Interstate 78 that evening, I literally wept in my car. No, I did not doubt the existence of God, for that is an issue I settled long ago by faith and revelation. But I did ask Him Tuesday evening,

“Do You care? Are you present?

Have I done something that has broken my fellowship with You, Lord?”

Amazing, isn't it, that I can go from a wonderful time of intimate prayer, knowing the touch of the Hand of the Lord one day to wondering where He is the next? But, that is to be human.

I am fairly certain that in your own quiet places you, like me, have wondered where God was and/or what He is doing? Perhaps you have felt guilty about letting those kinds of thoughts into your mind.

There are some Believers who think that prayers like the one I prayed in my car, prayers of desperation and doubt, are sinful. Some even think that speaking those words destroys God’s work, that a true Christian only ever speaks positive, optimistic, sunny words of unwavering confidence in the plans, purposes, and Presence of the Lord.

Our text challenges the idea that our prayers need only be positive to please God. Let’s take a look at Genesis 15.

Let’s set the scene. The story is about Abraham, the man the Bible calls the ‘father of the faithful.’ It happens at a time in his life when he has walked with God for years, with many experiences to support his faith. God had called him to leave the land of his fathers to journey to the land he giving to Abraham’s descendants. He had promised him descendants that would be a source of blessing to the whole world.

There was one big problem - Abraham and Sarah had no children and they were getting well along in years, past the age of natural conception of a child. It’s an obvious difficulty. How does one have many descendants to inherit the land and bless the world, IF one has no children?

READ - Genesis 15: 1-8

That conversation is one that is amazingly honest, that reveals a quality of relationship between a man and God to which we should all aspire! God makes a promise of great rewards and Abram says, “So what good are these promises if I don’t have a son?” Don’t misunderstand me today. I am not advocating that we adopt a manner of irreverence with the Lord. I am not advocating prayers that are bitter towards God. But from this lesson, I do think that we need to realize that we are invited to real conversations with God that include our doubts and confusion.

The patriarch pressed the Lord, even after God assured him that he would be a father, “How can I know this to be true?” The facts around him and in his own body argued against the promise and he acknowledged his struggle with faith to God, albeit reverently. Note the title for God that Abram uses twice in this passage -

“O Sovereign LORD.” In the Hebrew OT, the phrase is Adonai Yahweh.

It is a way of addressing God that recognizes both Who He Is, and His place of power and control over all the Universe! It is testimony that Abraham was not accusing or contending with God, but rather was seeking a way to strengthen his faith. This is not a prayer of a puny fist of defiance waving in the face of God.

Despite the doubting words, there was a heart that was seeking to trust God.

In v. 6, we find this amazing line- And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith." (Genesis 15:6, NLT)

This concept forms the whole basis of how we know God. It is not our perfection, not our sacrifices, not our spotless record that gains us right standing with a holy God. Rather it is the faith to receive His gifts that He seeks. Where He sees that spark of faith, He - at His own expense and by His own will - declares us right and holy in His sight!

How does God respond to Abraham’s doubt and confusion? He doesn’t slap him down, rebuke him, or turn His back on him. Instead, He lead him through a ritual to assure him of His continuing care and covenant.

Now go with me back to the text - READ Genesis 15: 9-18a

It’s a terrible scene - the carcasses of a heifer, a goat, and a ram cut in halves and laid either in parallel lines or perhaps in a circle, along with the bodies of a dove and a pigeon. Truthfully, we are not sure exactly what was going on here. Some speculate that God was going through the same ceremony of treaty with Abraham that kings used when making treaties with each other. The halved carcasses speak to the deadness that comes from division of the covenant. Only in wholeness, in the keeping of the covenant by both parties to the agreement, would there be life.

In any event, after making these elaborate arrangements, Abram falls into a deep sleep, and experiences God’s presence, symbolized by a smoking firepot and torch. He hears of the future of the people of whom he would be the earthly father! And he believed God!

My point today is that IF you and I come to God, even with our fears and our doubts, and we do seeking to be strengthened in faith, we can expect to experience His reassurance. Not perhaps in the way we would expect or even desire, but He will speak!

In the New Testament, there is story of a father who came to Jesus with great need.

It is found in Mark 9. (Pew Bible page 1568) A son was possessed and subjected to fits that resembled a epileptic seizure! The man had brought his son to the disciples but they were confounded by the need, and unable to help the afflicted son. When Jesus shows up, the story changes.

(READ Mark 9: 21-27)

There are moments, last Tuesday being one of those, when I come to the end of my confidence, my faith wobbles under the weight of the needs that confront me. I read Jesus’ words, “What do you mean, ‘If I can’? Anything is possible if a person believes.” (Mark 9:23, NLT) and I want to accept them, but my mind says, “How do I understand that? What do I say, what should I do?”

How often I have prayed with the words of that distraught Dad when his faith was challenged. "Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”" (Mark 9:24, NIV)

Here’s the truth of the matter, friend.

∙ Faith is not the same as positive thinking!

Positive thinking has a place and can be helpful in creating an environment of hope, but it is not faith! It is true that faith-filled people are generally much more positive because they have reason to be hopeful.

∙ Faith is not just believing the impossible can or will happen.

I’ve met more than one person who is deep into denial of the reality of the circumstances of life who mistakenly think that they are practicing faith.

Perhaps they have cancer but they won’t acknowledge their disease.

Maybe it is that their family is falling apart but they won’t recognize what’s happening in their home.

More than a few have a terrible addiction which they won’t name or admit.

When this is done in the name of faith- serious folly is sure to follow!

Let me be dreadfully honest here. I often find that those speak with the greatest bravado, who lay claim to God’s promises with noisy demonstrations and lofty prayers of religious rhetoric are those who are actually most fearful and whose faith is weakest. Those who really know God usually live with a quiet confidence that does not need to announce itself!

True faith is focused on the person and nature of God, not on our words or religiosity!

Faith is grounded in the Bible’s revelation of His love for us, the invitation that comes to us by the Word and the Spirit to come to Him with holy confidence because of Jesus Christ.

Are you struggling with a wavering faith?

Don’t look at yourself! Don’t try to ‘work it out’ in your own mind, all alone.

Instead, look up. Take God at His Word when He says, “Come to Me!”

"That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him." (Hebrews 4:14, NLT)

"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it." (Hebrews 4:16, NLT)

Our core text this morning, reminds us that Abram, even as he was conversing with God, trusted Him.

Remember this great text - "And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith." (Genesis 15:6, NLT)

In confident closeness, we like Abraham, can have real conversations with God about our fears, our doubts, about our confusion over His purposes. And we can expect that He will help us to overcome our unbelief, that He will help us to see past the present difficulties to accept that He is the Sovereign Lord who is working through the circumstances and situations of our life to accomplish His purposes.

Sometimes we get to see how our God is working things out, and sometimes we don’t - at least on this side of Heaven. I love the faith stories when people get to say, “Now I know why God let me walk through that place. Now I know why that happened.”

But even more I admire those who inspire me with a faith that says, “I can’t understand this at all, but I still trust Him because I know He is the Lord of All.” That is faith to the max, the faith to which I aspire, faith that finds its strength in the unchanging promises of a holy God and that lets me come close to Him when I feel weak, and feel no shame, nor alienation.

Amen