Encouragement

Abiding in God as our Habitation

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On last Friday’s podcast, I read a Facebook post by Graham Cooke, which a good friend in Calgary shared with me. Since that aired, many have requested a copy of what I read. It’s not easy to find Graham’s original post on his Facebook, so I am reposting it here.

If we could get this one reality to settle in our hearts, it would decisively change how we embrace God’s presence in us and set us free from the need to seek tricked-up encounters that fade away without transforming our hearts inside his love.

You’re not trying to get into God’s presence—you’re practicing His presence that never leaves. Abiding isn’t visiting Him occasionally; it’s recognizing He’s made His home in you permanently.

This completely transforms how you approach spiritual life. Instead of seeking encounters, you’re acknowledging habitation. Instead of trying to feel His presence, you’re trusting His promise: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Abiding is habitational, not visitational. You don’t abide by working harder to connect with God. You abide by resting in the connection that already exists. He lives in you permanently—not sometimes, not when you’re spiritual enough, but always.

Kingdom routine: Habitation – When blessings feel temporary or His presence seems distant, practice abiding by making His presence your permanent habitation. This isn’t about feeling Him constantly; it’s about knowing He’s constantly with you, whether you feel it or not.

Here’s what changes when you understand abiding:

  •  You stop chasing what you already have
  • You rest in relationship instead of working for relationship
  • You practice awareness of existing presence instead of creating encounters
  •  You live from His promise, not your feelings
  • You make His presence your dwelling place, not your occasional destination

Abiding isn’t a spiritual discipline you perform—it’s a reality you acknowledge. You don’t have to maintain His presence; you simply recognize it. You don’t have to earn His dwelling; you just accept it.

The goal isn’t constant feeling but confident knowing. Some days you’ll sense His presence strongly. Other days you won’t feel anything. But abiding means your spiritual stability comes from His faithfulness, not your feelings.

You are His permanent address. He is your permanent habitation. That’s not something you achieve through spiritual effort—it’s something you receive through His love.

—Graham Cooke

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Voices from the Road

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Sara and I have arrived in Seattle for a brief stop, then we’re on to Portland for the weekend. After that, we’ll be taking a pretty direct route through California to our home. It is time to return and see what Father has for us there.

The conversations I have with people on the road are rarely recorded, but our time with UChurch in Calgary on September 21, 2025, was. So, if you want to listen, here are the links, and how they described the sessions on their website:

 

We were so glad to welcome Wayne Jacobsen to UChurch. In this first part of his time with us, Wayne talks with Brant Reding about what it means to live loved by God instead of striving to earn His approval. He shares from his own life about betrayal, illness, and seasons of uncertainty, showing how God’s love brings trust and freedom even when circumstances are painful.

The conversation also touches on:

  • How God gently unravels illusions and old religious habits.
  • Why authentic community grows out of love rather than programs.
  • Honest questions from the UChurch family about family conflict, friendships, work life, and being real with neighbors.

This episode invites us to rethink faith as a daily trust in God’s love, not a performance.  >>>>>Listen Here

In Part 2, Wayne is joined by his wife, Sara, to share their deeply personal journey of walking through trauma, separation, and healing. Together they tell the story of how Sara’s hidden childhood trauma surfaced decades into their marriage, leading to a season of distance, grief, and struggle. What could have ended their story became the place where they discovered what Wayne calls “the deepest love in the darkest place.”

They talk about:

  • How trauma shaped Sarah’s life and the long road of healing they’ve been walking together.
  • Why God doesn’t stand at a distance but meets us in the middle of our darkest places.
  • The role of safe community, patience, and tenderness when walking with someone through pain.
  • How God’s love reshapes even the most broken parts of our lives.

This conversation is raw and courageous, offering hope that no darkness is beyond God’s reach.  >>>>>Listen Here

 

As much as we have enjoyed the incredible beauty of nature on this trip, we’ve also enjoyed how God is taking shape in so many of his children. We’ve been with a lot of people who have lived in the darkness of legalism, trying to make sense of how their hard work was not meeting their desire to know Jesus. I cannot believe how widely they have opened their hearts to us. What we share has to be light-years from what they have known, and yet they have listened and processed their journey in light of the love that legalism only gave lip service to.

I asked a couple after one session how they think through what they’ve heard. Does it resonate with them, or is it so foreign they are tempted to discard it?

The husband responded, “No, it resonates. When I hear you talk about relaxing into God’s love, I know that somewhere deep inside, I already knew that. I didn’t realize it until you put it in words. That allowed me to recognize what I already knew.”

I love it when people say stuff like that. It confirms to me what a work of the Spirit his truth is. It doesn’t hit us out of the blue, but comes as a recognition of what he has already been seeding deep inside our hearts. I am so honored to have such conversations with people like I’ve met on this trip, and watch the eyes of their hearts pop open as his truth rises in their hearts.

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On Our Way to Calgary and Coeur d’Alene

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Having traveled from California to Denver, Rapid City, SD, Sheridan, WY, Bozeman, MT, we have arrived on the doorstep of Glacier National Park to spend a few days together. We are in the most magnificent RV Park we’ve ever seen.

Last weekend we were in Yellowstone National Park, and yesterday we drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road (see above) through the heart of Glacier National Park. Such beauty is hard to contain, and we have felt wonderfully detached from all the political fear and animosity driving our world to deeper conflict and anguish. It truly is time for those who are at rest in the love of Jesus to be revealed in the way they treat others, especially those who are lost in darkness.

We saw breathtaking views around every bend and have reflected on the immensity of our Creator. It’s also quite a contrast between the beauty of what he made and the constant conflict among humanity that despoils his work.

We got into an interesting discussion in Bozeman, MT. Helping people discern between true and false ministries, we talked about the difference between those who give you the agency to follow Jesus and those who rob you of the freedom to do so. Misguided leaders would rather tell you what to do—what you can read, who you can associate with, what meetings you must go to, and even what to wear, or even what to eat. In Colossians 2, Paul warned us that those who tell you what to do have lost connection with the Head. Since they are no longer following him, they don’t think you can either, so they make you dependent on their rules.

One of the major causes of embedded trauma is that the person did not have the agency to manage the tragic events happening to them. They didn’t have the internal resources to deal with the pain, nor did they have someone to turn to for help. Those who represent Jesus will in the world help others find their agency by equipping others to discern and follow the heart of Jesus. They are not troubled by your mistakes, but encourage you to think and listen for yourself. (In this week’s podcast, Kyle and I will discuss how Scripture in the hands of a bully can weaponize passages that were meant for our healing and freedom, and how that devastates people. It will air this Friday.)

Tomorrow, we head north to Canada. This weekend, we will be with the folks of UChurch in Calgary, AB. They are meeting at a community center in a park at 10:00 am and again at 2:00 pm, with a lunch break in between. They are providing hot dogs and burgers, and asking everyone else to bring side dishes to be shared.  8551 Bowness Road NW  •  Calgary, T3B 0H8. If you live nearby come and join us.

Next week, will visit Banff National Park before we head back to the U.S.

Our first stop when we are stateside again will be Coeur d’Alene, the weekend of September 27-28. We are hosting a meet-up on Saturday, outside Coeur d’Alene, in Liberty Lake, WA.  Saturday, September 27, from 1 pm to 5 pm. We’ve had a lot of interest, so please RSVP and get more details by signing up here.

 

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Caught More Than Taught

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I am in Boise, ID this weekend sharing some of what it means to live loved through some of the brutal crises of life. We have some people here hurt from their association with a religious group that was overtly legalistic and has a significant number of their leadership involved in sexual predation of children. It’s horrific, but the people who are finding freedom from that that group are amazing people with hearts still leaning toward the love of God through all that pain.

There are others here as well who are just readers of my books or listeners to The God Journey. This is my first trip without Sara in three years. It feels weird, but we both felt this trip was something God wanted, while Sara stayed home to enjoy a visit from her college roommate.

As The God Journey approaches our 1,000th episode since its inception in 2005, we have asked listeners to share with us what the podcast has meant to them. We are going to read some of them on that podcast as Brad and Kyle both join in to celebrate the journey.  This morning, I woke up to this email.  It touched me deeply, encouraging my heart with gracious words, but more importantly how it shows that the life of Jesus is something we catch through a variety of inputs, rather than following a prescribed program from a seminar or book. That’s why we’ve put out so many different tools here, and why I’ve traveled to Boise this weekend, to help people see facets of a life born of love, so that they can discover more clearly how Jesus is making himself known in them.

I love this email, from someone in Austria enmeshed in a legalistic religious group, finding her freedom in the life of Jesus:

As an enthusiastic podcast listener from Austria, I am pleased to be able to speak up. A few years ago I read your book He Loves Me. It had appealed to me, but my heart was still so caught up in legalism that the truths could not fall on prepared ground. Seven years ago, after many years of legalism and serious but desperate discipleship, I found myself in a desert. I was totally burned out, taken out of the race and I just had to capitulate.

There, I had only one question: “Who am I?” Over the course of several years, Jesus took me by the hand and taught me step by step who Heavenly Father was and who I was. I came across the book: Finding Church and was shocked. It accurately described my situation and that of my very legal church. Suddenly I noticed that this book was by the same author as the book He Loves Me and So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore.

My curiosity was aroused and went online in search of sermons from you, Wayne. That’s when I came across Transition and I was totally moved. These lectures helped me so much. And then I searched your website and came across The God Journey. I was so hungry for these truths and wanted to know about people who lived what you had talked about in the talk. I didn’t know any Christians around me, and I was so grateful to see you, Wayne and Kyle, who talked about it and lived it in their lives. I then listened to your podcasts and soaked up everything that tasted like life and freedom – and there was a lot of it!!!

It was my provisions and my comfort in my legalistic environment!!

I have been able to learn so much through and from you in the last few years. I experienced your crises and victories a bit and you were role models for me! THANK YOU!!!

And what was one of the most exciting things for me: not only did I experience change, but I was able to experience “live” in the podcast how you changed under the loving gaze of the Father. I felt how you, Wayne, just in your brokenness due to your marital crisis, became softer and gentler. I think you can even see that in your voice and in your warmth. And you Kyle, through the years that I “follow” you, you have learned so many valuable insights and above all pastoral help yourself and passed it on to me/us.

Without your podcast, my life would be a lot poorer and more joyless. Every Friday I look forward to the new episode and often listen to it more often until the new one is broadcast again. I am fascinated by the fact that God can connect hearts with each other over so many kilometers and from such different cultures. But that’s what the Bible says. What a privilege that I can experience it in my life.

I thank you and I am happy that you have such a big heart for brothers and sisters who have also set out on the God journey!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

 

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When God Is Silent

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I probably get the question in various forms two or three times per month. “Why is God silent?”

I understand, having had that same question in my younger years. I cried out in excruciating pain to hear anything from God and felt like I was all alone in the universe. Why is he sometimes silent, especially when we’re most desperate to hear him? Even the Psalmist complains about how long God will hold his silence.

All that angst, however, is sorely misplaced. Just because we can’t hear him doesn’t mean he is silent, and if you think he is, that will become self-fulfilling. Over the last few decades of learning to live loved, I have concluded that he is never quiet, and Jesus seemed to say the same thing when he said his Father is always working (John 5:17).

When he seems silent, it’s because our perception is off. He’s speaking; it’s just that we’re not tuned to the frequency he’s using. Something about how we view our circumstances is making it difficult for us to recognize him.

Last week, I was conversing with a friend. We were talking about the mob mentality that can form among a group of Christians when they give themselves to an agenda to change the world that doesn’t include his love. “I have been on the road they are on. And I have met that god and it bears no resemblance to Jesus.”

Having received an email yesterday about God’s silence, I saw a connection with my friend’s words. If we look for the voice of the religious god in our crisis, that god will be silent. That’s a good thing; he would come with blame and condemnation. When we look for the fairy godmother to fix all our frustrations, that god will be silent because she doesn’t exist. Instead of believing the true God is silent, re-tune your heart to him.

How do you do that? Remember how much you are loved, and let your heart go to him. In his love, surrender to whatever God might have in mind for you. Trying to force God to give you your desired outcome or to meet your expectations will limit your ability to hear him. Find that place of rest and trust where you can seek him with an open heart. And if you’re having trouble finding that place, invite a loving and wise friend alongside. Getting a perspective outside of your emotions can make all the difference.

When you find that place of trusting surrender, you’ll be able to hear what he’s been saying to you all along.

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For Such a King

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This quote popped in my inbox this morning from The Plough, taken from an article by Kelsi Folsom:

I am ignited with my own litany of longings: For a king whose miracles aren’t only for those who can afford them. For a king who will shut down hospitals because our healed bodies don’t need them. A king who will stabilize energy grids, food supply, and erratic weather systems. A king whose beauty and bounty dismantle the appeal of terrorist organizations and boundary demarcating. A king under whose rule no innocent would perish. A king whose everlasting peace marks the end of evil.  For such a king, I too have waited all my life.

That quote made me want to shout, “Me too!” I await a king just like that who does these things and so many more. Isn’t this what Isaiah meant when he said the government would be on his shoulders?

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

We are celebrating the very season where that King has already come to this earth—as an infant, a young man of tremendous power and wisdom, then offering himself as a sacrifice to win us into Father’s love against all the lies and lures of darkness, as the Resurrected Savior who can live inside each of us, and the soon-coming King who will subdue the evil in this world and make the kingdoms of this world his own. I have pledged my life, my honor, and all I possess to such a king.

For now, we can each allow that King to win this place in our hearts. He can have his way in our bodies, guide us through the horrors that the chaos of this age brings us,  draw us to himself with such beauty that no other earthly affiliation holds sway over our hearts, and lead us to rescue any innocent around us that our generosity and love might aid. In short, he can give us his Life internally, even amid the chaos of this age.

Soon, he will return to take the governance of his Creation on his shoulders, and those things we most long for will be true for all the world.

And the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”

 

__________________________

The artwork above is from Wayne’s book, A Man Like No Other, in collaboration with Brad Cummings and Murry Whiteman. It is our featured book this week at Lifestream this week, so if you’d like to get it at a unique discount, look here.

Kyle and I will have a new podcast entitled Survival Mode and Redefining Salvation tomorrow morning at The God Journey.

Medical update:  I had a great day yesterday and some good news on all fronts. My back continues to feel better every day. I can now walk a mile daily, which surprises my doctors. My oncologist is “very happy” with my numbers as we are halfway through the intense part of my chemo. I have two new book projects that have captured my heart, and I can work on them for 4-5 hours per day without growing weary. I still have a long way to go, and a hundred things could go wrong, but at the moment, everything looks very good, and Sara and I are grateful. Thanks for all your love, concern, and prayers.

I can also do almost everything to care for my own needs, so the load is growing lighter on Sara. She is exhausted, however, from the very demanding last two months. I pray for God to restore her strength and joy and get her back on her own track for healing from the trauma she suffered. Our neighbors have also blessed us tremendously. Even though we have only lived here for 17 months, the neighborhood is one of our communities. They keep an eye out for us, cheer me on toward greater healing, and come by to offer some delightful conversations that distract us from the challenges and renew us with words of love and joy.

 

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I Will Miss You, Tony

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Tony Campolo passed away last week, and though I’m a bit late, I want to acknowledge his powerful contribution to Christian thought around the world and to my own life personally.

I never had the chance to meet him or hear him speak in person, but decades ago, his books and recordings challenged and inspired me. If you’ve never heard It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming (the whole thing is sermon is powerful, but the story I’m referring to begins at 50:20) or The Kingdom of God Is a Party, don’t wait any longer. Any of his books are a great treat as well.

As you’ll see, Tony Campolo was among the most humorous speakers ever. Inside that humor was a constant challenge to be mindful of the poor and to realize that our calling as followers of Jesus is to lay down our lives for the needs of others. Many evangelicals didn’t like him, calling him a “liberal” as a way to dismiss his message. Indeed, I didn’t agree with everything he taught, but that’s true of most people. I have no problem enjoying the chicken and spitting out the bones. He coined the term, Red Letter Christians, to help Jesus followers take seriously the words of Jesus in the Gospels about visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, and reaching out to those in prison.

Since we’ve been talking about the focus of justice and righteousness on The God Journey before we had to take a hiatus, I’m freshly aware of the link between the Kingdom of God with God’s kind of redemptive justice for the broken, the marginalized, and the wounded and how skewed our preoccupation with personal holiness rather than the injustice in a fallen world.

I know no better illustration of that than how Tony Campolo addressed many chapels at Christian universities. He would often begin his talk with a statistic about how many children died the night before from malnutrition and related diseases around the world, numbering in the thousands.  Letting it sink in, he would then add, “And most of you don’t give a sh*t.”

Of course, the room would be scandalized at such a coarse word in their imagined holy place.

When the room settled, he would point to the heart of the problem. “What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ‘sh*t’ than the fact that thousands of kids died last night.”

He wasn’t always invited back. In my more legalistic days, I would have been more concerned about his use of a bad word than I would have been about a hunger problem that seems too large for me to fix. That wouldn’t be true today. Justice is holding a bigger heart for the poor and deprived. Policing the word ‘sh*t’ is just a misplaced, legalistic preoccupation with righteousness.

Of course, we can care about injustice at the same time we watch our mouths, but Tony was making a point here.  I hope you don’t miss the larger issue as well. People concerned with their piety are often disengaged from how their lives impact others. That’s why they can profess Jesus while viciously fighting a culture war with a moral superiority that leaves no room to love their “enemies.”  It’s why some can think of themselves as holy; they don’t use “bad words,” but they still gossip about others to destroy relationships.

That’s why I’ve come to see, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice…” (Matthew 6:33) as a better translation than the word righteousness. We can seek righteousness and not always get to justice, but you can’t seek relational justice and not become more godly. Treating others the way we would want them to treat us is where the kingdom of God advances in the world. Of course, they are not unrelated, but one fixates on our good, and the other focuses on the fulfillment of God’s heart by being a beacon of his compassion in a broken world.

Tony, we will miss you here, and yet the joy I’m sure you’re finding there is beyond compare. Rest in peace, my friend. You served him well in this world.

______________________

As for a personal update, my back continues to heal from fusion surgery, and though I still have to be careful while it heals, I’m almost pain-free there. I’ve been on a lower dose of chemo the last two weeks, so I have some really good days of late, but next week, they are going to be ramping up the dosage, and I’m not sure how I’ll be doing then.

Sara joins me on today’s episode of The God Journey podcast to share how our current challenge has also affected her journey. It’s called Expectations, Disappointment, and Hope.

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Featured Book: He Loves Me

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As we approach the end of the calendar year we thought it would be good to highlight a few of Wayne’s books available here through Lifestream, and we’re offering a couple ways to save a little bit, too. Over the next few weeks we’ll highlight a couple books per week, and offer bulk discounts on each of those, and a coupon for a 25% discount on any order over $75.

Today we’re featuring He Loves Me! Learning to live in the Father’s affection. Originally published almost 25 years ago, this book has drawn so many around the world into a deeper, more full understanding of the Father’s affection for them. For the next week, this book will be 25% off, or you can order in bulk, and save even more (Box of 10, or Box of 20). In addition, through the end of the year, use the coupon code 25off75 when you checkout to save 25% off any order over $75. Merry Christmas early from Lifestream!

Ordering Options:

Other purchasing options such as Amazon, Kindle, Apple Books (all without special pricing), are available on any of those linked pages above. And if you’d like to order more than the Box of 20 option, email us your order and we’ll get you a custom price.

He loves me!He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen
He loves me not!

Do you find yourself picking through circumstances like children plucking daisy petals attempting to figure out whether or not God loves you? If you find yourself least certain of his love in those critical moments when you most need to trust him, there is hope for you.

Where? At the one event in human history that forever secured your place in the Father’s heart-the cross where Jesus allowed sin and shame to be consumed in his own body so that you could freely embrace a relationship with his Father. There you will discover that what he always wanted was not the fearful subservience of slaves, but the loving affection of sons and daughters.

If your spiritual life feels more like performance than freedom, like an empty ritual rather than a joyful journey, let Wayne help you discover:

  • A Father who loves you more than anyone on this planet ever has or ever will.
  • A growing confidence in his affection for you through whatever circumstances you face.
  • A vibrant relationship with him that will free you from the torment of shame while it transforms you to live as his child in the earth.

Last week we asked for you to share something Wayne has written or said that has been particularly meaningful to you, and we’d post here. Today’s thoughts come from Katelyn, who wrote:

Thanks for this email! I wanted to share what has most helped me from Wayne’s book, He Loves Me. So far I have read parts of He Loves Me, parts of Finding Church and all of So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore? I am also listening to the podcast more regularly and just received the 365 reflections book you all promoted last week… but this is the quote that stands out the most to me:

“There is no one God does not love with all that He is. His love reaches beyond every sin and failure, hoping that at some moment every person will come to know just how loved he or she is. There is nothing more important for you to know.”

The reason why it stands out the most is that I just feel like it underlines the truth that “apart from love, you can do nothing.” And not in a “duty” type of way but really, I just want to live in His love and flow from that place with the rest of my life and that is becoming the desire of my heart. Therefore I’m really grateful for Wayne and his stuff and the way God’s using it to transform me 🤍

If you have something you’d like to share, please reply to this email, or email me directly at webmaster@lifestream.org.

This post was written by Greg Campbell for Wayne Jacobsen and Lifestream.

Hi, I’m Greg Campbell. Wayne often calls me “[his] Web Guy” probably because I have been helping him with all his “web things” for about 20 years now. While Wayne is recuperating from his recent surgery and taking chemo, we thought it might be a good use of this space to remind people of some of the amazing resources Wayne has made available through Lifestream. Would you like to help? Perhaps something Wayne has written or said has been particularly meaningful in your own life. Would you be willing to share it as a way to encourage others who might be in a similar place in their journey. Perhaps there is a blog series, book, podcast, or audio recording (e.g. Transitions or Engage) that Jesus used to help you on your journey. Here’s the request: Would you mind writing a paragraph or two about it? We’ll make it available here on the Lifestream website. Thanks!

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An Angel at My Door

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If you haven’t heard the podcast from last week or read this blog, you may not appreciate all that’s happening here. I’m currently battling bone cancer that destroyed vertebrae in my back, causing me to have surgery there.

But yesterday, I think I caught an angel on my Ring camera.

I had been battling nausea for three days, so I could barely eat or drink enough to maintain momentum. I was physically weak and tired of the fight. Sara reminded me that we take one day at a time.

Soon, I settled in my chair, and Sara took the dogs out for a walk. A few moments later, my phone told me someone was at the front door.  I turned to look, but no one was there. I hadn’t heard anyone out there. So, I checked the feed from our Ring camera, and sure enough, a woman came around the corner from our driveway and dropped a small package at the front door.  It was not someone I recognized because the light was so intense behind her that her facial features washed out.

As she walked away, she paused at the end of our porch, raised both hands to her lips, and blew a kiss back at our house. Then she extended her hands as if praying for Sara and me. I was undone the first time I saw it; it was such an act of tenderness and love. God’s Spirit washed over me, and I felt her extended arms, conveying her prayer and the prayers of many people I know who are holding space before God for us.  It felt like an angel had come to my door.

When Sara got home, she recovered the package from the front door, and it was a small gift from a woman we have been sharing a journey with over the past few years. She’s become a very close friend and cares for us deeply. Did the fact that she was someone we knew change my view that an angel was outside my door? It didn’t. Sometimes, angels are the closest people to us, and God works through them similarly. And I know what I felt when she was there.  It was all the richer knowing it was someone who loved us.

Call it a coincidence if you want, but later that day, we met with our oncologist, and things changed dramatically. He made adjustments to my medications due to my symptoms, and I came home from that appointment a changed man. I’ve not had nausea since and have even looked forward to meals. It’s quite a change.  I’ve felt stronger and could even do a 6/10 mile walk this morning.

And then there was this: the doctor told us that the marker in my blood they are using to track the power of the cancer has decreased 97.5% in the four weeks I’ve had treatment. He said that drop is highly unusual and indicates they may get this in remission sooner than they hoped. Another great piece of news, though we have no idea yet what twists and turns lie ahead.  We are assured, however, that we are not alone on this journey and that he is faithful.

The last twenty-four hours are the best I’ve had in weeks, and we are so grateful.

And the lady doing a simple act of love toward us had no idea at the time how powerfully God was using it.  Remember, a simple cup of cold water in his name can yield incredible fruit. Don’t despise the small acts of caring or minor expressions of love; the impact is often more significant than we understood then.

Maybe Jesus has someone on your heart to love today by simply expressing your love and caring for them.

 

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The Prayers of a Just Person

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Most of you will be familiar with James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

What springs to mind when you think of this Scripture? Doesn’t it seem that our sinlessness is a pre-condition to having an effective prayer life? But that doesn’t make any sense if the process of transforming us is a lifetime adventure.

What if it said instead, “The prayer of a just person is powerful and effective.” If so, it is no longer about how good I’ve been but whether or not my heart is united with God’s purpose to restore justice on the earth. In other words, am I just praying for myself, or are my prayers inclusive of the needs of others? Am I praying for my benefit at someone else’s expense or in an attempt to co-opt their will?

If you’re following this blog or the series of podcasts titled This Changes Everything at the God Journey, you know I’ve been drawing down a rabbit hole of biblical proportions. A newfound friend from South Africa, Tobie van der Westhuizen, sent me some of his research on how the word ‘righteousness’ does not appear in Scripture. Oh, it’s in our English translation, but he argues it’s a mistranslation. The Greek word is ‘justice’ or ‘justness.’ By focusing that word on personal piety, devotion, and discipline instead, we gutted the gospel of its purpose. God didn’t want to just declare us “righteous” in Christ but to populate the world with a company of just men and women who have been converted from the narcissism of self to the joy of others-focused loving.

Sara and I have been taking this thought for a test drive in our Bible reading together. What a difference it makes if he is right, and I am quickly becoming settled that he is. This verse from James has begun to reshape my prayer life with a different tone as I think more about his justice and purpose. Why would our prayers be more effective there? Because they wouldn’t be tainted by your personal comfort or privilege but looking out for others as well. That’s where you’ll sense his heart better and engage him inside his larger purpose for all humanity.

That’s what God’s love does when it takes residence in our hearts. By filling us with the life of God, we don’t have to draw life from other people or manipulate circumstances for our survival, but to embrace kindness, fairness, justness, and generosity. Could that be what it means when Jesus wanted to justify us? He didn’t just want to declare us righteous; he wanted to transform us and make us the kind of men and women who can influence the world through the power of love. And that’s the only way this works—we experience love, then live out of that love to others. This is where the fullness of life in Christ exists in the flow of his love to us and through us.

This Saturday, we are hosting a God Journey After-Show with Tobie so others can ask questions about this. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link. The room is getting pretty full, so I’m sure not everyone will get their questions in, but we can use it as a beginning.

Finally, we are nearing our goal of completing work on rescuing the orphanage we built fifteen years ago from torrential rains. In the photo at left, a government inspector checks the repairs already made and is pleased with the progress.

Thanks to all who have generously contributed to this project. We still need a few thousand more if this is on your heart. If you can help us, please see our Donation Page at Lifestream. As always, every dollar you send goes directly to Kenya. We do not take out any administration or transfer fees for Lifestream. Just designate “Kenya” in the options or email us and let us know your gift is for Kenya. You can also Venmo contributions to “@LifestreamMinistries” or mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or, if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Let’s see if we can find the full amount they need.  Thank you for your consideration.

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