Real Things.

I’ve heard it said that every word we speak is a prayer. Well, if that’s true, we’ve all got some pretty screwed up prayers. Like what, you ask? Like when we size up someone’s entire life with a few words. We never do this to the person sitting next to us, or the one we work with, or someone in our family.

They get a second chance.

But what about the guy with a long list of mistakes, some seasons of foolishness, and an unlikely comeback story, and, oh yeah… fame? It’s too far-fetched. Right?

Enter Mike Tyson. Yeah, I linked his Wikipedia because everyone knows you are the sum total of everything found about you online. But, what if you’re not. What if there are scenes between edits, paragraphs handwritten in the margins, measures unplayed?

You would want everyone to know there’s more to you than that, wouldn’t you? You’re more than an icon of failure. There was a then, but there is most certainly a now.

My prayer for the now season of Mike’s life is blessing. I pray he is blessed with hope and courage to live toward his destiny – something he, with all of his accomplishments and failures, has yet to fully realize.

I pray, most of all, for his hope to come from Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus, there is a between-the-lines hope for all who believe in Him.

Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God. This happened through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory. We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience. And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us. When we were unable to help ourselves, at the moment of our need, Christ died for us, although we were living against God. Romans 5:1-6 NCV

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Read more posts from the POTSC #NeverBeyond Poster Series.

“From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” Galatians 6:17

I was going to tweet this scripture and say after it, “So… whatever doesn’t kill you makes you more like Jesus, right?” Wow! I am amazed at how quickly and without thought I can validate myself next to scripture – as though I bear on my body the marks of Jesus in full and can boast of it. How stupid of me! For the sake of a cute tweet, I would ridicule those who are truly suffering and bearing the marks of Jesus today?

Instead, I tweeted, “Praying for those who bear the same marks right now in our world…” I’m thankful for the Holy Spirit – he is grieved by arrogance and self-promotion in his presence – instead of allowing me to use this verse as a personal “bumper-sticker” he led me to pray for those who suffer under persecution today.

And so, this is what I’m praying for people suffering persecution today because of their faith in Jesus – whether it be because of their profession of faith or because they’ve committed crimes against their oppressors in order to serve Christ above all other gods.

• for them to have courage that comes from their faith in Jesus
• for them to praise Him in the middle of their situation (Acts 16:25)
• for their healing physically
• for their preservation emotionally and mentally
• that they love their captors – not in a “Stockholm Syndrome” kind of way but as Jesus loved those who persecuted him when he said, “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
• for freedom for those in persecution in the timing God has in mind.
• and (again) for their hope to be in Christ completely.

Galatians 6:9 is for them…

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”