A Saint Goes Home

A Saint Goes Home

      Psalm 116:15 ESV 

Precious in the sight of the LORD 

      is the death of his saints.

Precious here means something of great value, a treasure, something desirable, pleasing to the eye.

The death of God’s saints is obviously different from God’s vantage point than from ours.

The death of a saint is the saint’s final act of surrender to God’s will. No less a person than our Lord Jesus modeled such surrender for us, when He said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.”

Jesus asked for the cup to pass over Him. God said, “No!” So Jesus drank from that particular cup and was baptized with a particular baptism.

Papa Lewis desired to live up to 100 years. 

He asked for and we joined him in praying for 100 years. To his desire, and to our prayers, God said “No!”

From a human perspective, it would have been a good thing, a nice neat and romantic story if Papa Lewis had  drawn his last breath one day after his 100th birthday. Except that God in His wisdom He said, “No!” 

Certainly, God knows something we don’t.

Isaiah 57:1-2 ESV

The righteous man perishes, 

 and no one lays it to heart; 

 devout men are taken away, 

  while no one understands. 

  For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; 

 2   he enters into peace; 

     they rest in their beds 

We who mourn our loss are also invited to surrender to God’s will. 

We do so by accepting His executive decision, His Divine fiat. We honor His greater wisdom. What we would have wanted, what we would have preferred, we tell God in prayer. But just as Jesus demonstrated for us, true prayer is a two-way conversation between a lesser and a greater. The lesser presents his desires in the form of requests to the greater. The greater has the prerogative to grant the request or to deny the request. Whatever God, who is the greater says, the only proper response from us, the lesser should be, “Yes, they will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

God knows our heart. 

Before we even begin to pray, He knows when we are ready to say yes to His will, whatever that will may be. He also knows when we are only interested in getting Him to agree with us, and simply do what we want. 

If we are not ready to say Yes, what we are doing is not prayer. It is rather an attempt at manipulation. We manipulate when we try to bend people to our will by means of clever and often unscrupulous means. 

“Unanswered Prayers.” 

Let us reexamine what we mean when we use the phrase, “Unanswered Prayers.” 

Jeremiah 33:3 ESV

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known

God promised to answer us when we pray. Faithful is He who has promised who also will do it. Since God is faithful, how then can we say some prayers go unanswered? Could it simply be the case that we say when we do not like the answers we get? When we would have preferred a”Yes” from God, He said “No!”

When God says, “Yes,” we praise Him. The fact is that we don’t praise Him enough when He says “Yes.” so Little wonder then that we don't know how to respond appropriately when He says “No!”

The gift of faith and the gift of sight.

When God says Yes, it is an amazing gift. We received what we asked for, we got what we had faith for. It used to be a hope, but no more. Now we can see it and so say “It is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.” It is a gift of sight. We are pleased.

 The gift of sight is a great gift. But when God says No, it is an even greater gift. He presents us with the glorious opportunity to have faith in Him at a much higher level. We had faith in Him while we prayed, while we hope, while we expected. But after He has responded and His answer is not what we hoped for, our faith now has to be more substantial. Faith is the substance. Faith is not what we hope for, but rather the substance upon which we place our hope. That substance is none less than the character of God. God who cannot lie. God who is so loving and righteous He can never do wrong, the only wise God who can never make any mistake. When He denies us what we hope for, He offers us Himself. When we hold on to Him, we show faith in Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God. When we get what we want, we are pleased. But when we place our faith in God, He is pleased. We show that we trust His wisdom in denying us what we want. We trust His care for us even when all evidence points to the contrary. We show that we trust His character, and He is pleased. 

Is that not the whole point of our relationship with God?

God made everything for His pleasure. Sin came in when Adam placed His own pleasure above that of God. Redemption came when Jesus put God’s pleasure above His own, when He said, “Nevertheless, not My will but Your be done.” A lot goes on before nevertheless. WHatever comes after nevertheless is a negation of the preceding. 

Jesus wanted the cup to pass Him over, nevertheless…
Papa Lewis wanted 100 years, nevertheless…

We pray for many things, nevertheless, yes, we say, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. 

Comfort One Another With These Words

 1 Th 4:13–18 ESV

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.