Christ followers — Faith — Stylin' Granny Mama

Last week I started a short series revolving around a number of verses in I Corinthians 1. In the first part we looked at verses 18-25. This week I want to continue by directing our thoughts to verses 26-31.

“26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
29 so that no man may boast before God.
30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.””

— I Corinthians 1:26-31 (NASB 1995)

Let’s work our way through these verses by statements.

For consider your calling…

Paul wants the recipients of this letter to think about their calling. Why is this important? I think we need to remember when, and how God called each of us into a personal relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. I was raised in a Bible teaching church by believing parents, but it was at age 12 that I stepped into the promised land. I recognized my sin, my inability to live life without Jesus, and gave my life to Him. God called me, not like some through a lightening bolt, but more a continuous soft whisper. Everyone’s calling is different. What was yours like? It is good to remember where we came from and what God called us out of.

This is also a challenge to those who have been called to remember, “according to the flesh” there were, “not many wise…not many mighty…not many noble….” In other words we weren’t all that. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden we have been fighting a battle against the truth. The truth of God says we are nothing without Him. The truth of God says all our righteous works are as filthy rags. The truth of God says that man’s wisdom will never rise above the wisdom of God. In fact, as we look at the next few verses we are struck, once again, it is all about Him.

But God has chosen…

Did you get that? God has chosen. It wasn’t our abilities, or beauty, or wisdom, or might, or power that God chose. Indeed, He is a beautiful study in contrasts. The almighty God chose the foolish things, the weak things, the base things, the despised, and the things that are not. Why did He do this? He could have chosen the best of the best; the bright and beautiful; the pure and holy; the pretty and clean; the popular and well liked, but He chose everything that was not in order to nullify the things that are. He chose the foolish to shame the wise. He chose the weak to shame the strong. He chose the things that were not shiny and perfect - SO THAT - no man may boast before God.

“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB 1995)

But by His doing…

Here’s the good news…You are in Christ Jesus! Of course, you had to make the choice to believe who God is, who God says we are and who Jesus is, but it has always been God working behind the scenes wooing, drawing, orchestrating, working, sometimes tripping you up and other times washing over you with His lavish love and undeserved mercy. It has always, is always and always will be an act of God that we come to embrace His boundless grace.

In addition, the beautiful perk to this astounding gift is Jesus becomes to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; all of which come from God through His Son. We do not have to worry if we are not wise. We cannot sanctify or redeem ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous. All of these things come to us freely when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Why?

So That….

“Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

We are going to dive back into Romans chapter 8. This next section of the chapter is labeled “Our Victory in Christ.” I’m thinking this is something we all need to hear right now, especially in the midst of our current situation. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know I am daily struggling with the flesh; feeling extremely tired, discouraged and unmotivated.

I found an article that I would like to share that makes a lot of sense. The main point of the article is that we are all grieving. We often think that grief is only something felt when someone dies, but the reality is that every change we go through can proffer some sort of grief, even the good changes. The last few months have been fraught with changes. Many have lost their jobs. All of us have lost the normal routines we had of children going to school and taking ourselves to work or to college. We can’t go shopping or thrifting, to movies or sporting events. We can’t even get together with our families and friends. Every Sunday, churches stand empty. We can’t even go to the grocery store without wondering if we will too will become another statistic. All these changes have put each one of us into a place of grief. For more details read this article by Robert Weiss, PhD, MSW titled, COVID-19 and the Grief Process.

Let’s take a look at the next two verses of Romans 8.

“26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

— Romans 8:26-27 (NASB)

In the same way…

We have to pause for a moment and ask ourselves what this phrase is referring to. Looking at Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary gives some insight. He says that this refers to the previous privileges Christians were given, that of being an heir or being adopted by God and that of being redeemed by God. What follows are several more privileges we have.

…the Spirit also helps our weaknesses…

Obviously we have many weaknesses. As I spoke of in the preceding paragraphs, we are dealing with our flesh and this idea of grief on a regular basis. These particular verses are referring to our weaknesses in prayer. Who, as a Christ follower, doesn’t struggle with prayer? Whether it is actually doing it at all, or doing it regularly, or spending very much time doing it, we all struggle to have a regular, consistent prayer life. From these verses, it would appear that even a pillar of the faith like Paul struggled with prayer. What is this weakness we struggle with?

…for we do not know how to pray as we should…

Do you have this problem? I sure do. I can’t tell you how often I feel like I need to pray, but then, when I actually start praying I am at a loss for words. I don’t know how to pray for certain situations, or people, not for a lack of understanding, but for a lack of vocabulary. How do I tell God I want this person I love so much to come to Him? I don’t even know where to begin or how to pray, except to acknowledge they need Him. In our current circumstances of course we want to pray for the safety of family and friends; for health care workers and other essential people like the clerks at the grocery stores, but where do we even begin.

My spouse has this prayer that we now laugh about, but in reality it makes a lot of sense. When we were going through an especially difficult time with our younger daughter we would pray together. While I would launch into several minutes of beseeching the Lord and praying scripture, my husband would just pray, “Clean up in Aisle 7, Lord!” It was his true, heart felt prayer and probably just as meaningful to God as my own wordy prayer.

The point is, we often don’t know how to pray, but this is the beautiful part; we don’t have to.

…but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings to deep for words…

This is an amazing truth. If we are in Christ, and we have His Spirit in us, He is praying for us. I don’t know how that makes you feel, but it is an overwhelming idea to me. This almighty, all powerful being, who created us from the dust of the earth prays for us. But, that is not all. He prays for us with such depth of feeling that it turns into actual groanings, rather than words.

…and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is…

Who is the one who searches our hearts? God, the Father. He is the one searching to see what our desires are and where are prayers are coming from. He also is the one who knows what the mind of the Spirit is. It is the Spirit who is sorting out our prayers. He is the one who filters our requests showing what is in accordance with God’s will and what is from our will. He is like the farmer on the threshing floor, winnowing the grain to separate the wheat from the chaff. The Father trusts the Spirit, knowing that His mind is in accord with His own.

…because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We need to face reality here. Our prayers are not always pure. We are not always operating with God’s interests in mind. I know that many of my prayers have been wrought out of my own selfish desire to not have trouble or difficulties in my life. I also know that I often pray that others, the objects of my prayers, will not suffer too much, because I also don’t want to suffer. The problem with that is, I may not be praying for God’s will in their lives. I might want them to be saved, but I don’t want it to hurt. I might want them to suffer, but not so much that I suffer as well. I believe the Holy Spirit is essential in making our prayers, God worthy.

I am not saying that we have to pray a certain way. As I shared earlier a prayer like, “Clean up in Aisle 7,” is just as pure and viable as the prayer that is filled with scripture and heart felt tears. What I think is important is that we approach prayer with the knowledge the Holy Spirit is going to be involved, so why not just be honest. God can handle our honesty.

The Holy Spirit is going to intercede for us, according to the will of God, not according to our will. While I think it is important to be “real” when we are praying, I also think we need to get to the point where we really do want God’s will more than anything. This is not an easy place to get to, but true, life changing prayer is going to revolve around the statement Jesus made in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“...Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

— Luke 22:42 (NASB)

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 2

My Prayers, His Groanings