The trump card in Christianity

I frequently feel oddly defenseless about my faith. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I've encountered so many people throughout my life who are so intense about their own doubts, or even their faith that the answers must lie in anything but God, that I rarely feel confident that I could meet their confidence with my own passion and answer it well. Partly, I think this is just because it's so personal to me and I have rarely tried to articulate my fundamental belief in God to others. My parents raised me in the kind of Christian home where God's presence, His reality, was an assumption. We went to church, tried to live life according to God's purpose -- normal stuff a Christian home might do. But my parents had moved well beyond that and actually related to God in a personal way. They'd pray and expect answers. They'd sing worship songs on Sunday morning and it was like they were singing to someone they knew. As long as I can remember, my mom has been the kind of person who interacts with the Lord all the time.

So I know God is real. He has given me guidance in conversations, moments where I know this is what my heart and head are crying out to say to give someone insight, but I don't know where that idea came from, and when I say it to them it's like a bright, well-lit new avenue of insight into their own struggle has opened up and they see their issue in a new light. God speaks.

But how do you articulate that to someone who doesn't know God, or even to another Christian who's never experienced it? I constantly expect that people will take the idea that we can actually interact with our God, Yahweh, our very creator, as some kind of self-delusion. I know in my heart it is not, and I have experienced the truth and wonder of times where He is present, and times where He speaks to me to guide me or to speak to others. It's real and it happens, and it's way, way more than coincidence or lucky insight or some internal desire to experience the fantastic.

I wish I was able to explain that reality in a way that anybody could understand. Maybe I just need to try more.

I woke up this morning to some knock on my headboard -- maybe my hand smacked it in my sleep -- and I was lying there trying to fall back to sleep when I felt like God was telling me, "Draw near to me". Never a bad idea, so I hopped up, cleaned up a little, and then snuggled into my couch to read the Bible. Old notes and church bulletins slipped out, and I ended up between James and 1 Peter. My eyes fell at the end of James, 5:7 through the end, and I read it through. If you're interested, read that section, but here's the part that really drove God's point this morning home to me:

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him after anointing him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.

My brothers, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, he should know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his life from death and cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:13-19, HCSB)

So I read all that and the thing that really struck me is how real God is supposed to be to us. He's not just a happy solution to our life problems, or the end spot in a board game that leads to Heaven or Hell, or just a rote life habit for people who were raised to be "christian" so they check that box in surveys. He's so much more. We're supposed to pray and expect healing. We're supposed to sing His praises like He hears them and loves it, and like we're in love with Him and can't help it. We're supposed to confess our sins because sin matters and so does healing from it. "The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful." Wow. He's real and He listens. I know it; I've experienced it. James articulated it. Thanks so much, Lord, for giving us Your words through people who listened to You.