Following Jesus is difficult. We wish it was easy. In fact, we think it should be easy, but it’s not; it’s hard. That’s just the way it is, and that reality is something that most people struggle to come to grips with. How about you?

The Road Less Travelled

Adversity is a fact of life. It happens in all areas of our lives at different times: In our finances, in our relationships, in our job, in our family, in our health, in our own thoughts and emotions and reactions. Last year on the program, I shared a series of messages with you called How to Stop Your Family from Falling Apart. Quite a number of people wrote to me and said in effect: ‘Well, my family’s already fallen apart. What about me?’ And so, later on this year, we’ll be chatting about marriage separation and divorce; losing a loved one; singleness; childlessness, because things don’t always follow that old fairy-tale ending that they lived happily ever-after.

My preference and your preference is that life should be easy; if not completely easy, then at least 10 or 15 or 20% easier than it is just at the moment; just a little bit less of a struggle; oh, and no major catastrophes, right? No major disasters that cause us pain, and the key here is our expectations.

See, my parents’ generation went through World War II. My dad fought in the German army on the Russian front. My mother lived through air-raids and the bombing of her home in Graz in Austria, and when I look at those people from that generation, whether European or Australian or wherever they come from, their expectations of life being easy aren’t really as high as perhaps yours and mine.

My generation, the baby boomers, we were born in the 1950s and 1960s, in that golden era of prosperity and hope. Our parents, having suffered much through World War II, worked hard to give us a better life: All the modern electric kitchen gadgets and televisions (ok; black-and-white, but televisions nevertheless), motor cars … All those things happened post-World War II, and they indeed gave us a better, more prosperous life, and so we baby boomers carry on that tradition with our children, generation X and generation Y, who carry it on with their children, the millennials, and so on it goes.

As prosperity boomed in the West, our expectations of what is normal became incredibly inflated. Prosperity is normal! Peace is normal! Success is normal! And of course, the advertising industry chimed in: Feeding us, bombarding us constantly with those images of success.

Now what I’m describing doesn’t apply everywhere. There are plenty of people listening today who live in desperate adversity: In refugee camps in war-torn parts of the world, but even as I travel through those parts of the world, what I see is this lure of prosperity that beckons from the West. Media is global today: TV, the Internet – they’re global, and so people feed on this inflated sense of expectations, and we begin to imagine that success and peace and prosperity and comfort are the norm, or if not quite the norm, at least those are the things we should aspire to.

And for men and women of faith, those of us who believe in Jesus, we tend to drop this worldly model of success onto the Bible. We try and create our own blended theology of success. We expect that following Jesus should be easy, and when we discover that it isn’t, many fall by the wayside. ‘Surely if God loves me, He wants to bless me. Why am I having to deal with all these problems and challenges and issues and conflicts and adversity? Either there’s something wrong with Him, or there’s something wrong with me. I don’t know, but something isn’t quite working the way it’s meant to.’

Have you ever had that sort of thought-process? Or perhaps, if you haven’t quite articulated it that clearly, as I talked about it, you find yourself nodding your head in agreement. ‘Yeah! That’s right! That’s what I’m feeling!’

So, before we can really talk about following Jesus with confidence and hey; if I’m going to follow Jesus, if I’m going to call Him my Lord and my Saviour, then I want to follow Him with a quiet confidence in my heart, but before we can talk about that, we need to deal with this expectation gap. Have a listen to this exchange between Jesus and a couple of would-be followers whom He met along the way. Matthew 8:18:

Now when Jesus saw the crowds around Him, He gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached Him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.’

But Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

Another of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’

But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’

Seems to me that Jesus isn’t calling you and me to a life of comfort. Following Jesus is a journey, and from what I can see here, Jesus isn’t promising you and me a big house with two living areas, four bedrooms, a double garage and a nice suburb. He’s setting out the reality plainly and simply that following Him is an uncomfortable journey.

I often wonder how that second guy felt – the one whose father had just died. ‘Jesus, I really want to follow You, but my dad’s just died. I have to go and bury him first’, and Jesus replies: ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’ The only words that I can come up with to describe that response from Jesus is harsh and unfeeling. If I’d been that guy, I’d have been thinking: ‘Do I really want to follow this Jesus?’ But Jesus here was making a point – a strong point about what it means to follow Him. It’s not a life of comfort or compromise. Here it is again – Jesus. Luke 14:23-35:

Now great crowds accompanied Him and He turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, when you have laid a foundation and you are not able to finish it, all who see that will begin to mock you, saying, ‘This guy began to build, but wasn’t able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet those who come against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.’

My friend, have you counted the cost? Are you expecting an easy ride with Jesus, or do you see this stark reality that He’s painting here? Of course, we go through times of great blessing in our relationships and in our circumstances from time to time. Well, most people do, but what Jesus is saying here is that suffering and sacrifice are the norm for a Christ-follower. Most of us are worried about the single-most important person on the planet: Me. ‘What’s in it for me?’ we’re asking, constantly. ‘What do I get out of this?’ but Jesus said (Luke 9:23-25):

If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Me daily. For those who want to save their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for My sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but they lose or forfeit themselves?

If we have the wrong expectation of Jesus, then we are never going to be able to follow Him with confidence, because some days it’s going to get hard – really hard. That doesn’t mean we’ve failed; it means that that’s what Jesus promised, so let me leave you with this question before we go to the break: In your heart of hearts, what are you expecting of Jesus? Are you expecting what He promised, or are you expecting what the world tells you, you should be getting?

The Power of the Word 

Recently my wife had an operation on her foot, and in those days immediately after the operation, she was in a lot of pain. Now she’s an active woman: Out there doing things; planning things; helping people … That’s just who she is, but in those few days after the operation, all she could focus on was the pain she was in. That’s pretty natural. Acute pain has a way of blocking everything else out. I was still having to think about this and that and keep the ministry running, which she’s normally involved in; get meals on the table; do the shopping, but for her in those few days, it was pretty much all about dealing with the pain.

Of course, you’ve been there, whether it was physical pain or emotional pain, and you know all about that. You know how pain seems to block out the rest of the world, and convince you that the pain is all there is. It’s our natural reaction to adversity, isn’t it? We lower our gaze, we focus on the immediate and nothing else matters, but as natural as that is, this reaction to adversity and pain, you know something? It doesn’t serve us very well at all, and what magnifies our pain often is the unrealistic expectation that we shouldn’t be having to deal with it at all. ‘Hang on, I believe in Jesus! Surely, surely God wants to bless me? So why is this happening to me?’

That’s often what we find ourselves thinking, right? When all along Jesus said, ‘If any of you want to become My followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Me. For those who want to save their life will lose it; those who lose their life for My sake will save it. What does it profit you if you gain the whole world, but you lose your life?

That’s a picture of suffering and sacrifice, not comfort and compromise, and it seems to me that accepting this reality is one of the hardest things to do, and yet it’s just so necessary if we’re going to get the sort of perspective from life that allows us to follow Jesus with confidence. What do I mean by that? If we simply don’t accept this reality, if we’re kicking against it and struggling with the reality, if we refuse to accept delivery of the reality that Jesus promised to anyone who’d follow Him, how can we possibly be in a place where we can follow Him with confidence? Listen again to Jesus’ own words. Matthew 7:13-14:

Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

So there you are. You’re travelling on that narrow, difficult road that leads to life because in your heart of hearts, you’ve chosen to follow Jesus – the road less travelled, yet you’re heading upwards on that difficult road wishing that it was a whole bunch like that wide, easy road that heads downwards to destruction, and this double-mindedness is going to kill you. This double-mindedness is what’s stopping you from following Jesus with confidence, because your heart is longing after the alternative. Double-mindedness is a real killer. Have a listen to this from James 1:2-8:

Brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

But the problem is, how do we change our minds? It’s easy for me to sit here in the comfort of a nice, isolated radio-studio and tell you: ‘Look, don’t be double-minded’, and you’re thinking: ‘But it hurts so much. It’s so hard. I’m struggling. I don’t want to be double-minded, but I don’t know how not to be.’

Yeah. Well you know, sometimes, I have exactly the same problem, and the answer (the how) comes to us from God’s Word. Let me read this short extract from the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. It’s written by a man who’s struggling; who’s going through a lot of difficult times, and he tells us the how. Psalm 119:97-114:

O, how I love Your law. It’s my meditation all day long; Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your decrees are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep Your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep Your Word. I don’t turn away from Your ordinances, for You have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your Word is a lamp unto my feet; it’s a light unto my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe Your righteous ordinances. I am severely afflicted; give me life, o LORD, according to Your Word. Accept my offerings of praise, o LORD, and teach me Your ordinances. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget Your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from Your precepts. Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform Your statutes forever to the end. I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law. You are my hiding-place and my shield; my hope is in Your Word.

Do you see the power of what this man’s saying here? It’s God’s Word that is a lamp to his feet to help him to take the next step, and a light to his path so he can see a little way further ahead. The person who wrote this Psalm is going through a whole adversity and pain thing, just the way you and I do. He has enemies on his tail and the going is tough, but what he’s saying here as he pours his heart out to God is that God’s Word is what makes all the difference. Listen again:

O, how I love Your law. It’s my meditation all day long; Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your decrees are my meditation.

Whenever someone who is going through a rough patch asks me, ‘Berni, what can I do? How can I find peace? How can I discover confidence and rediscover my faith in God?’ I ask them this question: How much time are you spending reading God’s Word; pondering it; meditating on it; turning it over in your mind; praying about it; thinking, thinking, praying? Invariably, the answer I get is little or no time at all. Man, I tell you, this is the only way to discover God’s peace in the middle of the storm: Bible-reading and prayer. I know it sounds glib; I know it sounds simplistic; I know it sounds like, ‘Here. Take a couple of aspirin for your migraine’, but it’s not that at all. Prayer and Bible-reading are simple and powerful, and the only way I’ve managed to get through some of the really rough patches in my life has been to listen to God speak to me through His Word.

You can read books; you can listen to guys like me yabber on; you can phone a friend; you can try all sorts of things, but I am here to tell you that there is nothing, nothing as powerful as God’s Word. His Spirit uses it to strengthen you, to encourage you, to admonish you, to guide you, and to give you wisdom. It just doesn’t get any better than that, and yet so many of God’s people are travelling through a rough patch, but they leave their Bible in a bottom drawer or up on the shelf gathering dust, or in a box in the storeroom. People, what’s the matter with us?

That “One Thing”

So, what is your one thing? That one thing that right now is rocking you to the core; shaking your foundations. We don’t like to admit that’s what’s going on in us, but let me tell you, as I sit here chatting with you, I certainly have my one thing that’s testing my faith.

See, we go to church on a Sunday and we sing the songs; we listen to the sermon; we catch up with people afterwards; they ask us, ‘So, how are you going?’ and we smile and we tell them, ‘I’m just fine. How about you?’ in a well-rehearsed ritual, as we hide our despair behind a mask that we put on before we left home. We want to believe that this Jesus is in this with us, and we want to have the faith that we think we’re supposed to have to get us through, but somehow it eludes us.

I know you know what I’m talking about, because anybody who has determined to follow Jesus has been in that place. Sometimes it’s disillusionment; sometimes we express it as anger or frustration or by isolating ourselves, so the question that arises is this: When we’re in that place of low confidence, overwhelmed as we often are by our circumstances and situations, what can we do? How can we get through that? How can you and I at this moment lay hold of the confidence in God that’s eluding us in the difficult times?

Well, let me pick up where I left off before the break. The only way in my experience that I’m able to lay hold of my faith in God – you know, find it so that it makes a difference; experience this confidence in God; experience God’s peace that I know I should have – is to spend time in His Word, the Bible, and in prayer; alone; just with Jesus, over and over and over again. Listen to this parable that Jesus told about persistence in prayer. It’s a powerful one. Luke 11:5-13:

Jesus said to them, ‘Imagine that you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and you say ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a fried of mine has just arrived and I’ve got nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s already been locked; my children are in bed with me. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you something because he is your friend, at least because of your persistence he will get up and give you whatever you need. So I tell you ask, and it’ll be given to you. Search, and you’ll find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened. Is there any among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if a child asked for an egg, would give them a scorpion? So, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?’

Do you see? God wants us to persist in prayer. Come back again and again, day after day, ask; search; knock. Ask; search; knock. Why? Why does God do things this way? Why doesn’t He just give us what we ask for the first time round? Because He wants to grow our faith and our confidence in Him. He wants us to rest; to believe in His Word; to pour out our hearts to Him day after day, and do you know what? In that process, as the answers to prayer come, what we discover is that all along the Holy Spirit, given to us by this gracious loving God of ours, has been at work in us.

Growing in confidence in any one or any thing is a process. Trusting a person, trusting the pilot on the plane in the middle of a severe storm, it happens through experience. Right? The first time you hit one of those storms on a plane, you’re petrified. Once you’ve done it a hundred times, you’ve got a confidence, so why wouldn’t it be the same in our relationship with God? It happens through a combination of faith and experience through the tough times, and as we travel through those tough times, God pours His Holy Spirit into us, and those times of one-on-one prayer and Bible-reading, my friend, they’re so precious. They’re so incredibly precious and powerful, because they deliver us the results. Now, maybe you don’t believe me, so here’s the thing: Try it. Just try it. You’ll be amazed.

When we’re travelling through times of great trial, the first thing that springs to mind is that we must have done something wrong. Maybe … but as I read my Bible, what I discover is that pretty much all the great things that God has ever done, have been birthed out of times of trial.

Hannah’s Pain

Hannah’s story from the Old Testament is one that I absolutely love, it touches my heart each and every time that I read it. It’s a powerful story of a woman in some considerable distress.

We’ve been programmed these days, that life, our lives in particular, should be filled with success. But the last time I checked, that’s not always the case. And the times when we really need to be able to trust in Jesus with great confidence, aren’t the easy times, they’re the tough times.

The Bible knows little if anything about worldly success. God’s plan for you and me isn’t a life of comfort and compromise, but one of sacrifice and suffering. That’s exactly what Jesus promised when He spoke to some would–be followers, Matthew chapter 8, verses 18–22:

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’

Now, we’re going to go a lot deeper with this. It’s one thing to hear someone, even Jesus, talking about this idea that following Him often means an uncomfortable journey, but it’s another thing entirely to see this principle in action. That’s why today, we’re going to spend some time with Hannah, so that you and I can discover the secret of having a strong confidence in Jesus, when the going gets tough, because it’s in those times that we really, really need that confidence.

Hannah’s story is one of adversity and out of that adversity, God births, quite literally, one of the great Prophets that He sends to His people. So let’s spend just the next few minutes entering into Hannah’s pain – 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 1–8.

There was a certain man whose name was Elkanah. He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Now, Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now this man used to go up year by year from his township to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.

Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as he went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?’

No doubt there are some women today tuned in who either have been there or who are in that place right at the moment … but even as a man, I can just feel the pain that Hannah was going through.  Her body clock is ticking, her heart is to have a child, and … nothing. But as bad and as tough as that is … it was even worse. Because layered on top of the personal pain, were two other things. The first was the most obvious: Peninnah, Elkanah’s other wife. Polygamy was all the rage in the early days of the Old Testament. It wasn’t until society had time to grow and mature that God revealed that this wasn’t His ideal plan for us.

I mean, it should have been obvious, Adam had one wife Eve, not two or more. But we humans have a way of wandering away from God’s ideal for us. And God has a way of choosing just the right time in history to reveal His plans. So at this point, polygamy was the norm. That’s why Elkanah had two wives. That would have been bad enough except one of them could have children and the other couldn’t and the one that could, Peninnah, taunted the one that couldn’t, Hannah.

Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her.

What a terrible situation. A woman who can’t have children and a rival for her husband’s affections, who can, and then uses that to rub salt into her wounds, year by year. And the final layer of shame, as if all that weren’t enough, was that back in those days the thinking went something like this: If you were a good and godly person, God would bless you with many children. If you weren’t He wouldn’t.  So Hannah’s plight was further compounded by the fact that socially, people looked down upon her. They would have whispered behind her back She can’t be a very good person, look God has cursed her and she is childless.

Put yourself in Hannah’s shoes for a moment. How do you feel? Terrible right? You’d be asking some serious questions of God: ‘Lord, why are you doing this? I’m doing my best to honour you and my husband. My rival is taunting me. People despise me. Lord what have I done to deserve this?!’

I don’t know what particular pains and trials you’ve gone through in your life, but this one of Hannah’s would rank right up there wouldn’t it? I mean you can equate your trials and your pain, with what Hannah was going through. This feeling that God has forsaken you. That God’s treatment of you isn’t fair.

But I’d like to suggest that when you and I are having Hannah moments in our lives, often a mighty intervention of God is the last thing we expect. In fact, we don’t even expect to be in this rotten situation in the first place, because surely God wants to bless me and if I’m going through this terrible time, something must be terribly wrong in my relationship with God.

It’s that false logic that I would like to kick in the guts today. The idea of, yes I am in God’s favour, because I’m being blessed; and no, I must have fallen out of God’s favour and out of God’s plan, because I’m going through terrible trials. That’s a lie, that’s a distortion from the enemy, who’s dropped this healthy, wealthy and wise lie into our heads. Pretty much all the great things that God does, are birthed out of times of trial. We’ll talk some more about that after this short break.

Hannah’s Prayer

As I look back on that moment when I first laid hold of the truth that Jesus died for me, that actually … the Son of God became a man, walked the dusty roads of 1^st century Israel and was ultimately nailed to a cross to pay for my wrongdoing, my sins … my heart leapt out of my chest and I decided to claim Him as my Saviour and my Lord.

If you’re a bit like that, you know that desire in your heart to follow Jesus. The problem is when you’re having that Hannah moment, when you’re going through some really tough times, following Him with confidence just isn’t easy is it?

The reason that we’re in the middle of this series of messages, Following Jesus with Confidence, is that we need to know how to follow Jesus with confidence during those difficult times. See, for me it wasn’t enough to be told, ‘Just have faith in God, just believe in God’. That’s a great theory, but how do you live it out when you’re in a difficult spot? When everything and everybody seems to be going against you? Those were the questions that I needed answers to.

That’s why we’re sharing in Hannah’s story, because through that story, God speaks to us about how, how to have confidence in Jesus through the difficult times. Because let’s face it, it’s in those tough times that we actually need to have that confidence in Jesus. That quiet sense of, I know my Saviour lives, I know my Saviour reigns, I know my Saviour has it under control.

And this next part of Hannah’s story is all about the how. We’ve heard about her desperate struggle, and now let’s take a look at how she chooses to deal with it. The next passage we’re going to have a look at is 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 9-18:

After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting in the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and she prayed to the Lord, and she wept bitterly. She made this vow: ‘O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.’

 As she continued to pray before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.’ But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.’ Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.’ And she said, ‘Let your servant find favour in your sight.’ Then the woman went to her quarters, she ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

I have never been one to shake my fists at God … some people do. It’s not something I’ve done up to this point in my life, and I pray it’s a place that I’ll never get to. But you could have understood if Hannah had gone to God and shaken her fists at Him in anger and frustration and pain. She was deeply distressed, she wept bitterly … not only was she childless, but she was scorned. We don’t know anything much about Hannah’s life to this point, but as I read further about her in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel you discover that she is a good and godly woman. So she seemed to be honouring God in every way, and yet this affliction had struck her life – and there was not a single thing that she could do about it.

Well, perhaps not a single thing … there was one thing … and she was doing it right now. She was pouring it all out to God. She was praying. Prayer seems like a cop-out to some people … and yet the Bible teaches us over and over again that prayer that yields powerful results is entirely normal in God’s sight. Listen to this again, the Bible teaches us over and over that prayer which yields powerful results is entirely normal in God’s sight. In fact, that’s the only sort of prayer the Bible teaches us to pray.

So Hannah engages in that sort of prayer … heartfelt prayer, powerful prayer. I’m sure it didn’t feel powerful to her at the time, as she was weeping there before God, pouring her heart out before God. But it was. Because she came in prayer not just to meet her need, she came with a humble heart, offering this child up, should God grant him to her, to God Himself. Giving up her son, should she ever be blessed with one, into the lifelong service of the Lord, where she would be separated from him.

Come on you women who have children … how difficult would it be for you to offer your precious child to serve the Lord? To never see him? How easy would it be for you to be separated from your little one from birth?

But here she is … honouring God above everything else. That’s why Hannah’s prayer is so incredibly powerful. She doesn’t tell Eli the priest what it’s all about, she just tucks it away in her heart and leaves it with God … and immediately, straight away, she reaps the benefit of her prayer because she receives peace from God. The woman went to her quarters, she ate and she drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. You see, that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen, because Jesus promises exactly that, when we bring our burdens to him. Matthew chapter 11, verses 28-30:

Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

My friend, with all my heart let me say to you, that the biggest single thing that you can do to receive the quiet, gentle, powerful gift of true confidence in Jesus Christ, is to pray. To spend time genuinely in God’s Presence. To pray, to pour your heart out, to read God’s Word. Back to the Psalmist’s words – Psalm chapter 119, verses 105–107:

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word.

My friend, if you’re looking for the ‘how’ … how to follow Jesus with Confidence … you’ve just discovered the answer. Through Hannah, through the Psalmist, through God’s Word. The answer is heartfelt prayer. The answer is reading and meditating on God’s Word. Can it really be that simple? Well, actually. Yeah. It can. It is.

Hannah’s Peace

When things are on the up and up, we’re really happy to let everybody know about them because obviously we must be pretty clever, obviously God is blessing us, obviously we are in God’s favour and so we don’t mind telling people about it. Right? But when we’re on the back foot, when we’re going through that rough patch, we mostly try to keep it to ourselves, it’s almost like we’re ashamed about it.  ‘Gee, you know, if I’m going through a rough patch, maybe I’ve done something wrong, maybe I’m out of God’s favour.’

But that’s not what the Bible teaches. Have a listen to Romans chapter 5, verses 3–5:

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

See, this is a totally different concept … boasting in our sufferings … but it’s all about letting God have His way with us. So let’s take a look at the next part of Hannah’s story, in our quest to discover how to develop that quiet confidence in God, in Jesus, during our times of suffering. The sort of confidence that has us boasting in our suffering like the Apostle Paul. I mean, way out! This guy is crazy! Who boasts in their suffering?!

So, let’s pick up Hannah’s story thus far: she’s been through a terrible time of trial of childlessness, she’s been despised because she’s barren, she’s been taunted by the other wife of her husband who just rubs salt into her wounds. And, so when she goes to God and pours her heart out to God, it’s just a beautiful thing. 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 9–11. And that prayer gave her such an incredible peace!

Then the woman went back to her quarters, she ate and she drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

I cannot begin to tell you the number of times that I have gone to God in distress about something … some great drama or problem, some great obstacle in the ministry, or blockage in a relationship … something causing me distress or pain and I’ve prayed about it, only to discover the peace of God.

This next Bible verse I’m going to share with you is absolutely pivotal in my personal walk with Jesus. Philippians chapter 4, verses 6-7:

Do not worry about anything (writes Paul from his cell on death row), but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

So if you hear me coming back to this verse again and again and again, it’s because it beats in my heart as a profound truth. The time that I would have taken to worry, if I instead go to God with a thankful heart and just pour it all out to Him the way Hannah did, then the peace of God is going to guard my heart and my mind. That’s exactly what happened to Hannah. That’s what happened to Paul on death row over a thousand years later. That’s what happens to me every time I dare to live out and act out and pray out this promise from Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 … 2000 years after it was written.  See, when you and I believe this verse with our lives, this truth happens in our life.

The peace of God will be restored to you. The confidence that you have in Jesus will grow … it’s like a gift from God. It’s so incredibly special. Not only do you get peace, but God’s peace guards your heart and your mind. God’s peace is like a sentinel, a powerful sentinel, in front of your heart and your mind, keeping all those horrible emotions and those horrible thoughts away from you. The peace of God is restored to you, the confidence that you have in Jesus will grow, it’s like a gift from God, so special.

My friend, please listen to me today. God doesn’t want you to be afraid … as He said to Joshua at a difficult time in his ministry … be strong and courageous. That’s His will for your life and for mine. Strength and courage.

Now, I’m a pretty strong sort of guy, but let me boast here in my trials … when I’m going through a tough patch, I have to tell you, I don’t feel strong. I don’t feel courageous. When fear grips my heart, I feel weak, I feel worthless, just the same way that you do. The only thing that makes a difference, is praying, pouring my heart out to God and trusting God in His Word. Can I say it again, in case you missed it, because this is the crux of today’s message. This is the heart of it all. This is how to receive God’s gift of confidence: The only thing that makes a difference is praying, pouring your heart out to God and trusting in His Word.

And it made a difference to Hannah too. She had peace. Her countenance was sad no longer. Hallelujah. Isn’t that what you are looking for? The confidence in Christ, to replace your sadness in times of trouble. But it didn’t stop there. God blessed her, God honoured her, because she honoured Him, 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 19–28:

They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her and in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son whom she called Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked of him from the Lord.’

The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice, and to pay his vow. But Hannah didn’t go up, because she said to her husband, ‘As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord, and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time.’ Her husband Elkanah said to her, ‘Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord’s word be established.’ So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him. And when she’d weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three year old bull, and an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh; and the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, ‘My lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he shall live, he is given to the Lord.’ She left him there for the Lord.

My friend you and I serve a good God. He honours those who honour Him. It distresses me so greatly when I see people travelling through these difficult times of life … people who earnestly believe in Jesus … but they struggle so much to make it through. And so I ask them, ‘Tell me about your prayer life right now. Tell me about your Bible reading right now.’

And they say to me, ‘I don’t pray, it’s too hard. I don’t read my Bible.’ These two things are so simple. These two things that open the way for the Lord to pour His Spirit and His peace and His power and His confidence into your heart. God wants to bring peace and confidence and courage into your heart, He really does. Let me encourage you to pour your heart out to God in your times of trial, in your times of distress. Get before God, pour your heart out to God, give thanks to God, and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s when someone upsets my apple cart. I have a plan to do this, to achieve this, and someone comes along and forces a change in my plans. Ooh, I hate that.

Change of Plan – The Holy Spirit

So, what do you have planned for today? For tomorrow? The next day? The next week? The next month? We all have hopes and dreams and plans. How we see the future, what we have to look forward to, plays a pretty important part in how much we enjoy our lives today.

This morning I got up, I looked at my diary, and for a change, things were pretty clear. Normally I have lots of things in my diary. The reason is, I plan ahead. So, preparing radio-programs, I normally have several pretty solid blocks of time during each week blocked out to do just that. Time in the studio, meetings, admin stuff at the office, perhaps the odd catch-up with a friend, men’s group Friday mornings, but this morning it was pretty clear.

So, after a time with the Lord, I sat down to start putting together some thoughts for another radio-program, but yesterday – man! Yesterday, I had this list of twenty-seven items to get through. I got through about half of them, which really isn’t too bad, but in the middle of some really important stuff, off goes Skype on my desktop. It was one of our team from Africa calling. Now I hadn’t spoken to Joseph for I guess a couple of weeks; I really wanted to talk to him, but part of me was … well … not so much annoyed but agitated, ‘cos I had all these things planned for today, and yet I was being interrupted. Of course, I chatted with Joseph. It was great, but it’s that reaction of having my plans interrupted that’s the really interesting bit.

I’m sure you’ve experienced it too: Really good plans, and then someone comes along and interrupts them. It happens in the small day-to-day things, and it happens too in the bigger things of life: The plan to get married; to have children; to find somewhere to live; perhaps to buy a house. The plans we have in our minds for our finances and for our careers, for our children, for our families … Time and time and time again, those plans get turned on their head as other things, other people, demand that they be changed. How do you react when that happens?

We’ve been chatting over these past few weeks about the idea of following Jesus with confidence. There are plenty of things that come along to shake our confidence in Him day-to-day, and one of those is when our plans (good and Godly though they may have been) are turned on their heads. We kind of react with this shock. ‘Hang on! What’s going on? I had things all planned out, and now this? Really? That can’t be right. Maybe I was heading the wrong direction in the first place’, and that sense of maybe I had it wrong shakes our confidence a bit.

Would it surprise you to know that you’re not the only one who’s ever been in that place? Have a listen to this. It’s out of the book of Acts (in the New Testament) 16:6. It’s about the apostle Paul’s ministry journey:

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to cross over into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went through to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision. There stood a man of Macedonia, pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’. When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

Now did you notice in there that twice, not once but twice, we’re told that God Himself stopped Paul and his team from following through on their plans. I’m sure they’d sat down and they’d thought about it and they’d prayed about it … They’d been convinced to go and proclaim the good news of Jesus in Asia and yet they couldn’t, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia.

Now, we don’t find out how that happened. Perhaps Paul had a really sharp dream in the night. Perhaps one of their team with the spiritual gift of prophecy stood up and said so. Perhaps they’d been praying together and all of a sudden, a few of them just got that really sharp check in the Spirit, telling them not to go there.

Whatever it was, the Holy Spirit forbade them to go there, contrary to their initial plans, and the second time they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Was there some physical obstacle? Was it a sense of spiritual discernment? We’re not told, but again, the Holy Spirit blocked their way.

I was reading a great blog-post – Finding my Keys by a guy called Luke Collings, where he writes this: The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian is often portrayed as overwhelmingly positive – that is, the Spirit enables the Christian to live in a manner of which they were incapable while they were still under sin. They can be obedient by the Spirit (Romans 8:4), they can understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:12), they can overcome the desires of the body (Galatians 5:16). I could go on and on. The contemporary word to describe the effect of the Spirit on the Christian’s life is empowerment.

Well-put, Luke. In our contemporary context of individualism and self, it’s easy to get only half the view of the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, almost as though the Spirit is there to serve us rather than the other way round. Of course God is our Helper, but He’s also our King. Of course Jesus is our Saviour, but He’s also our Lord, and it’s that second part of the equation that we miss at our peril.

Luke Collings goes on to say this: What we see instead is that the Holy Spirit is more than just ministry rocket-fuel. The Spirit is the One who opens and closes doors for the gospel to spread. The Spirit doesn’t just empower us, but directs us and enables us. Those engaged in the preaching of Jesus learn from Acts 16 that they are not the captain or navigator of their own course; those jobs are firmly in God’s hands. 

So next time God slams the door shut in your face, this wouldn’t be a bad thing to remember. At the end of the day it’s not my plan or yours that are the important things; it’s God’s plans because He sees the whole picture.

Notice with Paul, both times God slams the door shut, God leads them in a different direction – the direction that He would have them go, to speak the gospel to the people He would have them speak to. As well as the no’s, there’s a strong positive yes:

During the night Paul had a vision. There stood a man of Macedonia, pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’. When Paul had seen that vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

God leads us in all sorts of different ways: Sometimes by closing this door, and a little while later flinging open some other door that you or I would never have dreamed of even knocking on. That change of plan – sure; our natural reaction is to wonder why; our natural reaction is to have our confidence shaken, but the whole point of what we’re talking about today on the program is learning to follow Jesus with confidence. The next time a door slams unexpectedly shut in your face, may the Holy Spirit dust this little chat of ours off, and bring it to your recollection. The change of plans doesn’t always mean that something’s gone wrong. God’s still on His throne, and He really does know what He’s doing.

Change of Plan – Satan

Now before the break, we chatted about the fact that sometimes God changes our plans. We’re chugging along. We have plans for today and the rest of the week and in fact, for the rest of our lives if the truth be known, and yet sometimes God comes along and completely changes things. You know you’d think, wouldn’t you, that if it’s God, hey; we’d be all for it. ‘Go for it, Jesus.’ Mmm, sure.

Sometimes we come to that conclusion eventually, and yet other times it’s like God has to drag us kicking and screaming in the direction that He’s planned for us. Have a listen to this from the missionary journey of the apostle Paul, in case you missed it just before the break. It’s out of the book of Acts (in the New Testament) chapter 16:

Then they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia. Having come to opposite Mysia, they attempted to cross over into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus didn’t allow them to. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision. There stood a man of Macedonia, pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’. When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

So, there you have it. Twice Paul was prevented from going where he planned – once to Asia, the second time to Bithynia, and yet God has a positive alternative plan for him. The initial shock and horror that we experience when someone changes our plans, in this case when God changes our plans, which clearly He does sometimes, shouldn’t rock our confidence. Think about it. Sometimes a two-year-old might have a really, really good plan to cross that busy freeway, but fortunately Dad has an alternate plan. It’s the same with God, but what about when it’s not God who changes our plans, but Satan himself? What then?

Well, for most of us, that really rocks us to the core. There have been times when I’ve had some really good and Godly plans – really good stuff to bless other people, and something terrible happens. An argument breaks out in the ministry team. Someone undermines you. Perhaps someone makes false accusations against you, and this good and Godly plan that you had just goes up in a puff of smoke. If you’ve ever had that happen to you, you’ll know that it’s just the most painful thing. It knocks the stuffing out of you because … well … doesn’t the Bible tell us to put our confidence in Jesus? Doesn’t it speak of God’s power and compassion and His victory over the devil and over evil? How is it, then, that evil can win the day when the Bible says (Deuteronomy 20:1-4):

When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people, and shall say to them: ‘Hear, o Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart grow faint. Do not fear or do not panic or do not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory’.

That’s not an isolated quote. The Bible is replete, over and over again, about God giving us victory over our enemies and over Satan. James 4:7:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

So what happens when the devil doesn’t flee? What happens when he seems to have the upper hand? What happens when the wicked people around us seem to win, against the good and Godly plans and intentions that we have? Then what?

Well, if that’s ever happened to you, then you’re not alone. Have a listen to this. Again, it’s from the experience of the apostle Paul in ministry. This time he writes about it in his first letter to the Thessalonians (2:17-20):

As for us, brothers and sisters, when for a short time we were made orphans by being separated from you (in person, not in heart), we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face, for we wanted to come to come to you (certainly I, Paul, wanted to come to you) again and again, but Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus at His coming? Isn’t it you? Yes! You are our glory and our joy.

Who or what prevented the apostle Paul from going to see these friends in Thessalonica? Satan did. Satan blocked Paul’s way. Now, does Paul seem fazed by that? Does he seem surprised or shocked or horrified? Not at all! He goes right on and talks about the glory of God. It’s almost as though he sees this as a normal part of doing business in the kingdom of God. And what about Jesus? When He was nailed there on that cross, didn’t it look as though the enemy had won? Didn’t Jesus look like the vanquished and Satan like the victor? And yet the Bible says this of that brutal love-transaction on the cross (Colossians 2:13-15):

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him, when He forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities, and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

In other words, what appeared to be a great loss was in fact a great victory – so great that Jesus disarmed the rulers and the authorities, Satan and his armies, and made a public spectacle of them, and triumphed over them on the cross.

Do you recall the thorn that Paul had in his flesh? The one that he asked God to remove three times, but God wouldn’t. Do you remember what he called that thorn? 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:

Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’, so I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Over and over again in Scripture, we see situations and circumstances where Satan seems to get the upper hand. He thinks he has the upper hand, and yet God’s always in control. God’s grace is always sufficient for you and me in the situation. And if it was true back then, it’s true now. Just because Satan appears to have the upper hand in a particular situation or skirmish, it doesn’t mean that God’s lost the plot. It doesn’t mean that Satan’s winning. It doesn’t mean that God’s grace isn’t sufficient for you in that place.

Look at Paul’s reaction to the fact that he is going to have to live with this messenger of Satan in his flesh:

So I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, I am strong.

Hallelujah! Satan is purely a tool in God’s hands – nothing more, nothing less. He is as subject to the sovereign power of God as you or I, or any other creature in creation, and as the wise old King Solomon writes (Proverbs 24:19-20):

Don’t fret because of evildoers. Don’t envy the wicked, for the evil have no future, and the lamp of the wicked will go out.

See, your God is in control. Your King reigns. Your future is bright and nothing, no deception that Satan could conjure up, will ever change that – nothing. That’s why we call it the good news.

The Most Important Thing

The plans that you and I have for ourselves, for our lives, for our families, for our jobs and our careers, they appear to us to be good plans. I mean, do you ever plan or hope for something bad to happen? Do you ever hope that you’ll be in a place of loss or confusion or pain or distress? Do you plan to lose your job? Do you plan for someone you love to die, or someone you trust to betray you? Well, the answer is pretty much blindingly, glimpsingly obvious. Of course you don’t! Nor do I.

We plan for a promotion at work; an improvement in our circumstances; a happy family dinner tonight; that holiday we’re going on next week. We plan for good things – for happy things, and if we had our way, our lives would be like one long sugar-coated candy. Right? That’s pretty much it, but before we get all carried-away here planning that we’ll spend the rest of our lives floating around on cloud nine, let’s just get a grip on reality.

First up, life simply isn’t like that (you know it, and I know it), and secondly, God just isn’t like that either. God’s plan for you isn’t like that. God’s plan includes some dark threads in there with the gold and silver ones, as He weaves the tapestry of your life, your character, as you serve Him. Those are the facts of the matter. Just have a listen to how the apostle Paul puts it. Romans 8:18-30:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now, and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption – the redemption of our bodies, for in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen isn’t hope, for who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the human heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, and who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified.

See, sufferings, pain, weaknesses … Are those things in your plan for your life? No, me neither, but they’re going to happen. Right? Because God has decided that that’s the way the world should be. And what’s the most important thing that Paul is telling us to remember here? That we should know that it doesn’t matter what comes our way; it doesn’t matter how bad it looks; it doesn’t matter how confusing it is; it doesn’t matter how hurtful it is; all things work together for good for those who love God, and who are called according to His purpose.

See, God’s ultimate plan in all of this is to bring us into glory with Him. And even though we’re groaning sometimes, waiting for the adoption, waiting for the redemption of our bodies, hoping against all hope that something good’s going to happen, even though we’re in that place, God has a plan to bring us into glory with Him.

Now, the Bible says that Jesus learned obedience through what He had to suffer, and He had to suffer rather a lot more than you and me. If you and I had a choice, would we plan a life for ourselves like His? Not on your Nelly! And yet without His life and death, there would be no life for you and me.

The most important thing for you and me to remember when our confidence is being shaken is that God has it all under control, and each and every thing that we experience (the good, the bad, the ugly), He will cause to work together for good in our lives. Come on.

You think about some of the tough places you’ve been in, just the last six months – the real trials. What did you learn about God’s faithfulness? What did you learn in that place about God’s power? What did you learn in that place about how to behave differently, in a more Godly way, in a more Christ-like way? It’s in those times that we do our greatest learning, under the power of the Holy Spirit, as we receive His Word; as the Spirit guides us; as the Spirit teaches us. It’s in those difficult places, when our plans have changed, when God changes our plans, when Satan changes our plans, we learn about the sovereignty of God. We learn about the faithfulness of God. God is in that place with you and He’s in that place with me, and that … That is what God wants us to remember.

Have you ever lost your way in life? Not in some major way. You’re just chugging along through life and then somehow you get the feeling that, hmm … maybe you’re not quite where you’re meant to be. Things just don’t make sense the way they used to.

The Fog of War

If you’ve ever had that nagging suspicion that things aren’t quite right in your life, then you’re not alone. It’s something that we all experience from time to time. Well, we don’t think about it, but in a very real sense, for most of us, life follows a pretty familiar, well–worn trail.

We’re born, we go to school, we become adults, we marry, we have kids, they go to school, they grow up, and eventually … we die. I know that’s a bit of an over–simplification. And I know that a good many people don’t follow every step of that path … and I know there are many twists and turns and variations on the theme, but for most of us, that pretty much describes it.

And along the way we go through some times of great joy, times of great sadness and long periods of the mundane same old, same old. Our emotions go up, they go down. Our fortunes they go up, they go down. But we’re born, we bring children into the world, most of us, and then we die. That’s the basic template on which the human race relies.

So you’re following along that path and at some stage, perhaps you encounter Jesus and you decide to walk the rest of your journey with Him, where He leads, according to His plans and His purposes for your life.

Some people find that notion pretty depressing. I used to, to tell you the truth. But these days it is singularly the most liberating thing about my life. To be able to live out the plans and the purposes for my life, that God Himself dreamed up before time began … I have to tell you, that’s just unreal!

But I, like the next person, sometimes get into those patches in life when I wonder … Am I actually in the right place? Am I doing what God made me to do? And is all this stuff going on around me making sense.

I wonder where you’re at right now? In an up … in a down … in one of those long periods boring mundaneness of life? Same day after day. Are you in a place of contentment, knowing you’re on the right path … or are you kind of wondering where it’s all headed?

In the army, I spent 10 years as a military officer. When we were training for war, they taught us about this concept, this idea called the ‘fog of war’. It’s this idea that when you’re fighting the battle, you’re enveloped in a kind of fog.

Part of the fog is that you don’t have all the information you need about your enemy – how strong he is, how many troops he has, how many tanks he has, how well-trained his soldiers are, what his morale is like, what his plans are, what his tactics are.

Part of it is that you’re tired, exhausted, often afraid, your morale is down. Your troops, their morale is up and then it’s down. And then when the bullets start flying and the shells start exploding around you … it’s like you’re in a fog, a stupor and making really good, well-informed, rational decisions becomes extremely difficult.

That’s what this idea ‘the fog of war’ is all about.

In a very real sense, we sometimes operate in a bit of a fog too. Our emotions are playing havoc with us. People are having a go and we don’t understand their motives and their intentions.

And God … well, what about Him? What exactly is He up to? Am I in the right place? Am I doing the things I am meant to be doing? Have I maybe taken a wrong turn?

And it’s in this fog that we can start questioning God’s faithfulness. It’s in this fog that we start second guessing God and ourselves. We’d like to think we have it all together. We’d like to know where life’s headed, but all too often, we either don’t have a clue, or we thought we did, but we’re really not that sure any more.

Do you relate to some of that? There seems to be a gap between our present circumstances and what we think the future might be about.

Right now, we’re in the last message in a series called Following Jesus with Confidence. The reason we’re talking about this stuff today, is that when we’re enveloped in this fog … it’s hard to be confident. The thing about this fog is that it limits your field of vision, so it’s easy, really easy, to end up taking a wrong step.

But I believe that God wants you to have confidence in Him, that He wants me to have confidence in Him, even when we’re in the middle of this ‘fog of war’ as I’ve called it. In fact, especially then.

When you think about it, it’s when things are unclear, when we’re tired, when our emotions aren’t functioning properly that we really need God, because His field of vision is never, ever limited by anything.

The first thing we need to know when we’re wandering through a bit of a fog in life, is that God is faithful. He’s not angry, He’s not disappointed. He’s like a loving father, keen to see His child learn, keen to help His child through the fog. His love, in that fog, His faithfulness in that fog, are rock solid. King David had more enemies than most of us. He went through many trials in his life, and so many of the Psalms that he wrote, he’s pouring his heart out to God in the midst of the ‘fog of war’. Psalm chapter 86, verses 1–7:

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all day long. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me.

And towards the end of that Psalm, based on his past experiences, David concludes this, Psalm chapter 86, verses 14–17:

O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; show me a sign of your favour, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

I know there are people going through one of those times in their lives right now. When it’s hard to follow Jesus with any sort of confidence. And I know there are people today for whom such a time is just around the corner.

Your God is merciful and gracious. Your God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That’s just who He is. So if you know that you’ve turned your back on Him, turn back now, tell Him you’re sorry, ask Him to forgive you in Jesus’ name … and it’s a done deal. You’re forgiven. You stand before Him as clean and as pure as Jesus Himself.

Because that’s why Jesus died for you. That’s why Jesus did what He did … to give you a fresh start with the slate wiped clean. And now as you draw close to Him, you can take each step with Him being completely certain that when you need to turn to the left or to the right, He’ll let you know. When you need to stop and wait for a while, or move a bit more quickly … He’ll let you know. That’s the deal. That’s the promise. John chapter 15, verse 15:

I do not call you servants any longer, (said Jesus to His disciples) because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

My friend wherever you find yourself along your journey right now, the answer … the answer is Jesus.

A Slave Mentality

One of the great tragedies I see in people’s lives is that they’ve become slaves to their circumstances, their passions, the ways of this world. Slaves to a whole bunch of things that promised so much, and yet have left their lives empty and hollow, bereft of meaning and purpose.

You and I can go through many trials in life. Things tear at our flesh and our emotions. But when you stop and think about it, we were made to be at peace. We were made to experience perfect peace and satisfaction and contentment.

How do I know that? Because when I look back to see how God created us from the beginning, that’s exactly what I see. Adam and Eve were in a beautiful garden, living the perfect life … until they turned their backs on God. Genesis chapter 2 gives us the most beautiful picture of the perfect life that God has planned for us.

But of course humanity, you and me included, turned our backs on God, and so sickness and trial and temptation and consequences of rebelling against God, they all entered the world.

That’s why we have to suffer, as Shakespeare calls it, the slings and arrows of apparently outrageous fortunes. That’s why things happen to us that we would never choose for ourselves. That’s why we end up doing things to other people, that really, we wish we hadn’t. And that’s why we’re so powerless to save ourselves from continuing in a life that falls so far short of that beautiful, perfect ideal that God has planned for us.

So people, you and me included, carry all this baggage around through life. Baggage that gets heavier and heavier as the years pass, and whether we realise it or not, we become slaves to sin. We may not call it that, but all that weight on our shoulders becomes the norm. It drains the life out of us.

And so we live as though this is the norm. We live as though slavery to sin and all its consequences is a normal state. Well, I’m here to tell you … wake up! … because it’s not normal. It’s anything but normal. Sin may be common, but it’s not normal. All too many are slaves without even realising it. Have a listen to this discussion that Jesus had with some Jews, God’s chosen people as they were, John chapter 8, verses 31–36:

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?’

Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’

You see, they didn’t even realise they were slaves. They saw themselves as God’s chosen people, not as slaves. Slaves were those people they had at home, the gentiles for the most part, who served them. They themselves were free, they were God’s chosen people.

But Jesus, as He has a habit of doing, goes straight to the heart of the reality. Whoever commits sin, is a slave to sin.

And here’s the thing, if we’re living in some sin that we’re holding out on in our relationship with God, that slavery has terrible consequences. You can never have a deep, wonderful, intimate relationship with God. You can’t live your life in confidence in Jesus, because every moment of every day that guilt that your conscience is so sensitive to, robs you of that ability.

Think about it, a man is cheating on his wife. I had a letter just recently from a man who is seeing a prostitute, he’s cheating on his wife, and he asked me what the Bible said. Come on, can he truly have a deep, wonderful, intimate, perfect relationship with his wife, while he’s cheating on her behind her back? He can pretend to. He can deceive his wife, although eventually she’ll figure it out, but deep in his heart, he cannot know the bliss of an intimate exclusive relationship with his wife, because his conscience is condemning him.

God gave us a conscience for a very good reason indeed. He gave us a sense of touch so that when we touch something hot, it’ll hurt and we can pull away from it before we really injure ourselves badly. Your conscience and mine serve exactly the same purpose.

When we stubbornly refuse to yield one particular area of our lives to Jesus, our conscience robs us of that peace and the joy that we’re meant to be living in. And the purpose of that, the reason it works that way, is to get us to turn away from that thing, before it seriously hurts us.

I have met people who’ve been seeking the sort of relationship with Jesus that we’ve been talking about in this series. The sort where no matter what comes their way, God gives them this quiet confidence in Him, confidence in Jesus.

And yet they continue on as slaves in sin. Living with a slave mentality that will always, in 100% of cases, rob them of the very thing they are looking for. Let me ask you kindly but plainly today – are you one of those people?

Because if you are, if you’re yearning for that confidence and peace and joy in Christ Jesus, but your sin has been robbing you of that, then I have the answer for you today. It comes directly from God’s Word, Romans chapter 6, verses 1–14, and this Word from Him is the power to set you free; to utterly transform your life:

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

My friend, Jesus came to set you free. If you’ve put your trust in Him, then two things have happened. Firstly you have died to your sin, it no longer has power over you because Jesus quashed it on the Cross. That’s an historical, judicial, forensic fact.

And secondly, because He rose again from the dead, He has brought you the power to be free from sin. Do you believe in Jesus? Then you have the power to overcome your sin. A power that none of us has in and of ourselves, it’s a gift from God this power. It’s His power. It’s the only power that there is, that will actually set you free.

You are free. And so now, you can choose not to let sin have dominion over your body anymore. It’ll be a battle by battle struggle, but it’s a war that you’ve already won.

And my friend, as you yield yourself completely to Jesus, you will, I guarantee this, you will be filled with peace, with joy and with confidence in Him. How do I know? Because that’s just how it works. If you don’t believe me, give it a spin.

Just One More Thing

Well, before the break I made the point that your conscience is a lot like your sense of touch. Your conscience and mine serve exactly the same purpose.

When we stubbornly refuse to yield one particular area of our life to Jesus, our conscience robs us of the peace and the joy that we’re meant to be living in. And the purpose of that is to get us to turn away from that thing, before it seriously hurts us.

Jesus said this, Matthew chapter 7, verses 21–23:

‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Faith translates into works … the works don’t save us, but they are evidence of a genuine faith, they’re the fulfilment of our faith, if you will. And without them, the Bible tells us, James chapter 2, verse 20:

Without them our faith is dead.

People who stubbornly continue in sin, are going to get a rude shock when it comes to their day of judgement, Galatians chapter 5, verses 19–21:

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So if you want to follow Jesus with confidence, don’t expect to be able to do that, if you stubbornly refuse to turn away from your sin and turn back to God. The bottom line, the executive summary of all this, the outcomes of our rebellion comes in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26–27. You may not like this verse, but we are going to read it anyway:

For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

The alternative is keeping short accounts with God. 1 John chapter 1, verses 8-10:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

What I’ve noticed is this. The longer I take to go to God and ask Him for His forgiveness, the worse my life is. Can I say that again? The longer I take to go to God and ask Him for His forgiveness, the worse my life is. The less confidence I have in Him, the less peace I have, the less joy I have. But, the quicker I am to go to Him and be honest with Him and admit my mistake or my rebellion or whatever the case may be, the more confidence I have in Him, the more peace I have, the more joy I have.

We learn by our mistakes, and hanging onto my sin, I’ve learned, is never, ever, ever worth it in the end. Because the longer I hang on to it, the more stubborn I become over it and then I’m putting my eternal life in peril.

Why does God want you and me to be honest with ourselves and with him about our sin? Because our sin, our rebellion against God, robs us of life itself. It robs us of peace and confidence in order that we would come to our senses.

You and I were made to live in perfect peace, perfect joy and perfect contentment. Even though we go through many trials, that’s how we were made to live. That’s why God takes your sin and my sin so incredibly seriously, because it robs us of that perfect peace and that joy and that contentment that God has for us. He takes it so seriously that He allowed Jesus to come and be nailed to a cross to remove the power and the devastating effects of sin from your life and mine.

Do you truly want to follow Jesus with confidence? Then my friend, keep short accounts with God. Ask for His forgiveness, turn away from your sins, repent and turn back to God. Let me tell you, it is an absolute game changer. And the reason it’s a game changer, is that’s always how it was meant to be.