Emails to God

²⁴ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. ²⁵ Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. ²⁶ But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. ²⁷ When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

Matthew 7:24-29

Dear God, so if I listen to your teaching and follow it then I will have a house that doesn’t have storms? No, that’s not what you said. You said that I will have storms, but the house will stand. My life will stand. I wonder how this might change how I pray for others who are going through storms. Should I focus more on their relationship with you and how they follow what Jesus taught in this sermon? I know a couple who is going through a difficult health situation for the wife. I’ve been praying for her. I’ve been praying for his strength as her caregiver. I’ve been praying for their peace. Should I also be focusing more on how this will drive them closer to you and following your teachings.

My wife and I have had some storms over the last 15 years. I’ve mentioned the constant sorrow in our lives. I think I can say that I am closer (although not as close as I want to be) to following your teaching now than I was 15 years ago. My foundation is closer to the bedrock. A lot of the sand has washed away. Maybe one of the things that the storms do is wash away the sand to reveal the rock. If there’s no rock there then the whole house comes tumbling down. But if there is rock beneath the sand then the act of the sand being washed away will be painful, but, like the chaff being burned out of my life or the dross being removed from my soul, it will leave something more pure and closer to you.

And then there is the life that is built completely on sand. The life that does not truly worship you or love its neighbors. The life that calls your Lord, but you do not know them. That life can look very messy–especially when the rains fall. I’ve seen a lot of those lives.

Father, help me to have a vision for how to continuously knock the sand away from my foundation. Help me have a life that is built completely on your rock. Help me to know how to love you, love my wife, love my children, love my family, love my friends, and love others. Help me to know how to represent you to the world. Help me to know exactly what you want me to do when you want me to do it. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. And keep me mindful of what Jesus taught me. Let it ring in my ears. Continuously. Do it for your glory. Do it for your kingdom’s sake. Do it so that you might be able to use me in any way you see fit regardless of the storms life might bring.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. ¹⁶ You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. ¹⁹ So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

Matthew 7:15-20

Dear God, it’s interesting that these are Jesus’s words in the middle of this sermon on how to act. He’s telling everyone what to do and how to do it in order to live an effective life, a peaceful life in your presence. But he takes a moment to tell them to stop and look at the people around them in their lives. Don’t convince yourself someone is good even though they are doing bad things. On the one hand, this advice seem obvious. But maybe there are times when I want to believe someone who is powerful is good so I overlook their faults so I can take advantage of them. I know it can happen in politics, but it can also happen within my immediate sphere of my world.

Then that leads me to my own heart and the fruit that I produce. How am I doing? Am I the kind of person people can trust to produce good fruit regardless of the situation? What am I doing to attach my branch to your vine so that my fruit my continue to grow in an unending supply? Am I loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, good, kind, gentle, faithful, and able to control myself? Or am I sexually immoral, impure and lustful? Am I idolatrous, hateful, argumentative, jealous, selfishly ambitious, rageful, divisive?

Father, grow good fruit in me. I have a heaviness in my heart this morning. It’s about work and some relationships among staff. I pray your Spirit over us all. I pray that this weekend might have brought some healing and joy. I pray that you will make the pain of the weekend count for everyone involved. Please be glorified in all of this. Glorify yourself through my life and through the lives of all who call you our God. Help me to do what you need me to do. Not do what you need me to not do. Bring healing and make us all stronger in you and in our faith in you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹² “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12

Dear God, this is a little like verse 6. It just feels a little thrown in there and incongruous with what comes before it or goes after it. It’s good. It’s important. It’s one of the core commandments we are supposed to follow. But it is preceded by you being a good father to us and then followed by the narrow gate. Maybe it fits more as the lead-in to the narrow gate story than it does as a closing to the part about you being a good father, even though the NIV actually puts verse 12 in the same paragraph as the father stuff (which is weird because the New American Standard 1995 and the New Living Translation give that verse its own paragraph.

So, do to others what I would have them do to me. That sums up the law? Let me just recap the Sermon up to this point and see how this command fits into each one:

• Beatitudes: Yes, those are about showing mercy and being a peacemaker. That fits.
• Salt and light: Yes, that fits.
• “You have heard it said, but I say…”: Yes, all of those, from divorce to adultery to hate fit.
• Turn the other cheek: That fits.
• Love your enemies and pray for them: Check.
• Give to others. Yep.
• Be earnest in your love for God and don’t seek public acclaim: Okay. Kind of, but it doesn’t contradict it. In fact, I suppose if I follow this it, at the very least, makes me an easier person for my neighbors to be around.
• Forgiveness critical part of the Lord’s Prayer: Yeah, that’s important for this all-encompassing commandment.
• Money is a dangerous potential idol: That’s important when it comes to making money a priority over other things. This can fit.
• Worry is a lack of faith: Kind of a fit, but maybe more of a way for me to evaluate how I am doing with you than how I am doing loving others.
• Do not judge others: Obviously, this fits perfectly.
• Bring requests to my good father: Well, not a perfect fit for this concept, but certainly part of worshipping you and developing my relationship with you.
• The Narrow Gate: Yes, the narrow gate obviously calls me to follow this command.
• The fruit of others: This helps me to know how to love them.
• Wise and foolish builder: If I follow these things I will find myself at peace in the middle of the storm.

Father, I guess when we get so worked up about how hard it is to follow the Sermon on the Mount, we can just zero in on Jesus’s top-two commands: Love you with everything we have and love our neighbors. If in doubt, lean into that. Help me to do that today. Help me to do that tomorrow. Help me to do that in this moment.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Matthew 7:7-11

Dear God, I was listening to a podcast this morning where the two men were discussing some of the things in the political news lately including the admonishment some people have felt about feeling judged for not having children or enough children. One of the arguments one of the men made for having children didn’t fit into the two main things we are being fed politically. His reasoning on the importance of having children is how it impacts us as parents. We understand love and sacrificial love in a new way when we are responsible for caring for a defenseless child. We also get a glimpse of how you feel about us in a new way.

I remember when my children were young and I first started to get that insight into how you must see me after realizing how much I loved my children. And, as Jesus says here, if I being sinful know how to love my children, how much more do you love me and want to give me the things that are good for me. Of course, you also want to withhold things that are bad for me. So this passage from Jesus isn’t a blank check you’ve given us to fill in. Jesus knows that if our child asked for a stone to eat we would deny their request and give them bread instead. And there are times when I am too ignorant to know what you are doing in a given situation so I will ask without demanding. I guess the other side of it is that sometimes I can ask too little because I do not want to be greedy or selfish.

Father, I want to show my children as much love as possible while not hurting them with the love I have for them by giving them the wrong things. I know you want to do the same for me. So help me to be exactly what you need me to be for them. And teach me how to be the man you need me to be through them. Mold me through them. Shape me. Convict me. Thank you for loving me.

I offer this to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen