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Sabbath, September 25, 2004 Pastor Tom Hughes
Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church

“DOING WORSE WHEN WE PRAY”

Job 1:6-12…

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
7 The LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it."
8 The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil."
9 Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing?
10 "Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 "But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face."
12 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.” NASB New American Standard Bible

Why do things go worse when we pray?

Well, when you decide to quit just being a “pew sitter” and a church member and start really seeking a deeper spiritual relationship with God, sometimes you will find out that things will actually go worse. It may be a surprising fact to discover that there are people other than ourselves, in fact, many people who have often wondered why it is that when we finally begin to pray, when we finally begin to read our Bible, we finally begin to have our devotions, things actually go worse for us, and we actually live worse when we start praying.

There are some who think that as soon as they begin to read their Bible and pray their lives are instantly going to get better, they’re going to become more spiritual, more holy and they’re going to start living more holy lives. The reason for this is because they tend to base their Christian experience on their behavior. The behaviorist has a very difficult time with the fact that sometimes when you read your Bible and pray, your life actually gets worse and you actually start to sin more than less. But there’s a reason for this.

It is possible to experience a worse life in terms of performance and behavior when one prays, and this enigma has caused many people to become discouraged, to stumble, to give up seeking that deeper spiritual life, because our usual expectation is that as soon as we pray, a glorious reunion with Christ will occur, and everything is going to improve.

In order to grasp the basic concept, we need to look at the book of Job and think about the scripture that was just read. Now, what did you see when you read that scripture passage? I’ll tell you what I see, I see a devil who is challenging God. Basically, the challenge of the devil is this: Satan say to God, “I’m in charge down here, God, and everyone is following me.” But God says, “You have forgotten Job, devil.”
And the devil says, “The only reason it appears that Job is following You is because he gets so much from You. If You accept my challenge and let me get to him, I’ll prove his apparent interest and love for You is simply that—apparent.”

Now God wouldn’t have to accept this challenge any more than He had to let Satan live after he started this whole problem in the first place. But because of God’s plan of Salvation and because He is a fair and just God, He had to accept the challenge.

You remember the story. The devil went out of the presence of God, and Job lost everything he had except his wife (and in my opinion, she should have been first to go!). Well, maybe I’m being a little hard on her – she did lose her entire family and, I imagine, that could shake your faith. So maybe I’m being too tough on her, but she certainly did switch sides, didn’t she? Even though she had a terrible trial and a reason, maybe, for her feelings she did go over on the other side and begin to tell Job to curse God and die!

Now sometimes your spouse be it your husband or wife may not help you in your Christian experience. And just because your spouse decides to abuse you or divorce you or treat you like dirt, does that give you any reason or excuse to not serve God? Absolutely not.

What about Eve? She certainly wasn’t a very good influence on Adam, was she?
What about Lot? Why does the Bible say, “Remember Lot’s wife”? Because Lot’s wife was greedy, she was a money-grubber, all she cared about was what she had or what she could get, and when they left Sodom, her heart was still back there with all the possessions that she loved more than God. And so God says to us, “Remember Lot’s wife, don’t make the same mistake Lot’s wife did. Don’t be lookin’ back at the possessions of this world.”

What’s gonna happen to that $150,000 house or that $250,000 house, or the quarter million dollar house, or that Harley, or that Jaquar, or that, yes, even…Honda (!)? What’s gonna happen to it when Jesus comes? It’s gonna be firewood for the Second Coming of Christ! Even my Harley! Yes, it’s gonna burn! It’s gonna disappear! It’s gonna turn into vapor!

And so we need to remember: when Job’s wife lost everything she had, her response was to curse God (!) and turn to Job and tell him to curse God.

After the devil had finished with Job, he came again to the council. And “The members of the court of heaven took their places in the presence of the Lord, and Satan was there among them. The Lord asked him where he had been. He said, ‘Ranging over the earth from end to end.’ And the Lord asked Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? You will find no one like him on earth, a man blameless and upright in life who fears God and sets his face against wrongdoing. You ruined him without cause…! But, his integrity is still unshaken.’ And so the devil says to God, ‘skin for skin. There is nothing a man would grudge to save himself. Stretch out Your hand and touch his bone and flesh and see if he does not curse You to Your face.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘So be it. He is in your hands, but spare his life.’ And Satan left the Lord’s presence and smote Job from head to foot.’

Do you wonder why Islama fascists will cut people’s heads off and shoot little children in the back as they run out the door? What happens the second God removes His protection? What does the devil do? He runs out and he smotes Job from head to foot. Satan is the one behind a religion that kills and maims the innocent. There’s nothing religious about these thugs and killers. And the only thing some of them will ever understand is the justice of God someday.

To use religion as an excuse to beat women; to torture and abuse little children, is the lowest form of twisting religion that there is on the earth. And may God protect our people and watch over America as we fight this war against these kind of people because we are gonna need God’s help and protection; because we’re dealing with Satanic forces, people. We’re not fighting flesh and blood, we’re fighting Satan – Satanism.

And in this verse, we can see that when God removes His protection, the devil will attack and he will rip and tear. I blame the devil for every evil thing that happens; I don’t blame God. Even if somebody says, “I’m a Christian,” and they do something evil, or “I’m a Muslim,” and they do something evil. I blame Satan for the evil they do; I don’t blame God for it.
I give God the credit for everything good and I give the devil the blame for everything bad.

“Are you still unshaken in your faith, Job? Why don’t you curse God and die?’ Satan went back to his imps and looked at ‘em and smiled and said, “We’ve got to Job’s wife. It’s just a matter of time until we get Job. We’ve got it made!”

Well, God has the power to take care of and protect His own, doesn’t He? He’s big enough to do that. But the constant challenge from the enemy of God and man is whether or not they are really His own children. That’s the challenge. “You think this person really loves You, God! It’s not true, and I’ll prove it.” And God says, “Go ahead. Prove it.” Because in this great plan of Salvation, God pledged Himself to never overstep Himself in the Great Controversy until the whole story is finished in the relationship to the enemy. In fact, you almost get the feeling that God never exerts His power unless He gives Satan the same opportunity and option. Even in the closing scenes of this world’s history – as there are storms everywhere, and violence and unrest everywhere – when everything is apparently completely out of control and when Satan seems to be in charge, then God is going to be free to pour out His power and strength and Spirit in greater measure – matching good with evil in its impact with the world.

So even though you see all these storms and all this chaos in the world, that gives the God the opportunity to match Satan blow for blow, and God will rise up sometime very soon and subdue this planet.

Now the only way we can understand this problem of why we often do worse when we pray is to see this in the Great Controversy setting. That’s what’s going on right now. Christ and Satan are in a battle. God and Lucifer are fighting in a war, and the contest is going on over your soul. As far as Job was concerned, the Great Controversy was settled. Job was tested and tried, and he proved faithful. And so God could do for Job what He’d never been able to do before: He restored everything to Job double. God could do it without any question because Job had passed the test.

Let’s transfer this simple story of Job to the conflict that goes on in every person who seeks a deeper spiritual life. This conflict may not be obvious to the average church member. In fact, the church member or “good Christian,” the good, typical Christian, is very acceptable to Satan because this person is indifferent and is not concerned whether they’re hot or cold.

The question, “Why do things go worse when I pray?” really doesn’t affect that person very much because they’re not really praying. They’re not really having their worship, they’re just coming to church, they’re occupying a pew, they’re not really having a personal relationship with God, they feel very pious, and holy, and acceptable because they go to church.

But they don’ really talk to God everyday, they don’t really read their Bible’s, have worship or pray, they’re just your typical bored nominal Christian. They never ask questions like “Why do things go worse when I pray?” because they’re not praying.

But one who has taken steps away from the church member role, away from the pew sitter role, and begins probing into the deeper spiritual life – the one who desires something more than simply being pious. If you’ve never have gone beyond “Jesus loves me, this I know,” you probably think this question is irrelevant and meaningless.

If you’ve never lost money, cars, land – whatever else matters most to you, if you’ve never reached some crisis in your life, if you’ve never had a battle with the demons of alcohol or drugs or sexual addiction, if you’ve never had problems in your marriage or in your home, if you never wondered what was the use in living, this whole discussion probably has little bearing on your life. But if you’ve ever made a break in the status quo of just sitting in the church pew each week and if you’ve ever tried to find God for yourself – then you have inevitably come up against this question. If you have succumbed to the enemy’s purpose for you and have become discouraged because every time you try to pray and serve God, your whole life falls apart, don’t give up, there’s hope – I’ve got good news for you today.

“Well,” you say, “What happens?” Essentially, this is it: You wake up to the realization that the Christian experience and salvation are not based on your performance or your behavior. They are based on your relationship with God. That’s the first step away from status quo religion. Christianity is based on who you know, and not on what you do.

This point is very difficult to convey to people, whether they’re young or old. “Oh, come now,” you say, “Don’t tell me performance doesn’t count. What about the Ten Commandments?”

Yes, performance does count from God’s standpoint in the judgment. The problem is that we are crippled by this idea of continually measuring the Christianity in our lives and whether we are saved by our behavior. We do not get away from this concept very readily even after we begin seeking a deeper spiritual life. Now don’t go to the other extreme. Behavior is important but it’s not as a cause of our salvation or Christian experience; it’s only important as the result of it.

“Oh, but that’s the whole problem,” you say. “Just when I begin to seek the experience with God you’re talking about, when I start reading the Bible and praying each day, that’s when I behave the worst and everything goes haywire.”

This, of course, proves one thing: even when we seek God, we’re still going to measure how we’re succeeding by our behavior and by our performance. This proves how hard it is to pull away from this crippling idea. We even start to take pride in the fact that we are reading our Bibles and praying every day and patting ourselves on the back and telling ourselves we’re really being successful Christians now (!) because we’re reading our Bible and praying each day.

Behavior is important, but the Savior is more important than the behavior.

Okay, so I begin a relationship with God. I want to learn to know Him as my personal Friend – and everything goes wrong. I know He heard me. I know my prayers went higher than the ceiling. I know that because of His promise that if we seek Him with all of our hearts, we’ll find Him. He promised to be there. Then the roof caves in.

So the first thing a person does if he doesn’t understand what’s happening is conclude: “Well, I guess that didn’t work. Looking for God certainly didn’t do anything for me. I had a bad day, I lost my temper, and I feel miserable.”

And that evening, you say to yourself: “Sleep in tomorrow. It’s not important, this devotional thing. It just doesn’t work.”

Judging again by performance, the decision is made. The next day, of all things, you have a good day. Everything goes great. No problems, no hassles, and you fell like a million. It was beautiful. So that evening you think, “I guess that proves it, after all. This religious life they talk about is a joke. These devotions don’t really work.”

And you pat yourself on the back – and guess who else is behind you patting you on the back as well?

Here’s when happens: the devil looks down on the church pew and sees that I’m becoming disgusted with my dishrag religion. He sees the Holy Spirit prompting me to look for something better. He sees me getting on my knees and studying my Bible. He sees me coming to prayer meeting, he sees me getting up early to read the Book. Right then and there he calls a “way and means” committee with his imps. But it has nothing to do with money. It’s a “ways and means” to keep me from pursuing God, and Satan devises a scaled down version of the “Job” treatment.

Now Job was a mighty man of faith and what it took to shake Job was an awful lot, but Satan knows he doesn’t have to go to such extremes with me. That’s where another of God’s promises comes in: He’ll never let Satan tempt us above what we’re able. We don’t have to sweat about what Job went through unless we’ve got the kind of faith Job had, and can take it. The devil says to God, “You know this person loves you, you think, but he really doesn’t. The only reason he’s seeking You is for what he can get. He wants something, he needs help with a problem, he wants you to give him a good job, he wants you to give him a raise.” This is Satan’s challenge – the same one that took place with Job.

God could just as easily have banished Satan from the scene in the beginning as now. But God in His fairness wants us to choose. If God destroyed Satan, everyone would believe the devil’s lie: “God is unfair, if you don’t serve Him, He’ll just get rid of you.”

So Satan challenges, and says “God, Prove your point.” Satan says, “Let me at him” and God says, “Okay, but spare his life.”

The whole thing bothers me a lot. I used to spend a lot of time wondering why God let good people suffer, why bad things happen to good people. But the longer I looked, the more I began to see God’s love for me in the process.

So the devil comes at me with his full artillery, and everything goes haywire. And I live worse than ever before. I lose my temper. I yell at the kids. I kick the dog, and at the end of the day, the decision between the two contending forces in the universe is mine: Is God right? Does he love me? It’s my choice. If I say, “It’s not worth it,” and I say “Forget it,” who won? By the way, I don’t have a dog!

If I say, “It’s not worth it, forget it,” I have just cast my vote on the enemy’s side. Satan and his crew have a celebration in the regions where they live and the next day they see me neglecting my spiritual needs. If you were Satan, what would you do? You don’t have to be very smart to figure that out. The smallest child can tell you. “We’ve succeeded. He’s not looking for God today. Stay away from him. Give him a good day.” And they do. Do you think Satan’s going to hit you in the head with a brick? If he did, we’d probably run to God real fast. So he does the opposite. He stands back and he says, “Very good!”

Now what did you think? When you start to read your Bible, and you start to pray, and you start to really seek a close relationship with God? Did you think the devil was going to stand there and go, “Oh! Very good! That’s wonderful!”? Of course not! He hates you and he hates God.

The strange thing about this whole process, this whole experience I just described to you is that this can go on for weeks or even months. On again, off again, and the person doesn’t even realize that the devil’s playing with them. This proves to me that there is a devil in the universe and, in fact, I think a lot of people believe in Satan that don’t believe in God because they can see all the evil in the world.

I’ve always been thankful I didn’t have to take credit for all the dumb things I did. I can blame him for some of ‘em. He does have a part in some of the dumb things we do, doesn’t he? And he will pay for it.

Once I realize what’s going on, how should this knowledge affect my spiritual life? I’ll tell you how it should affect your spiritual life: If I mess up, I don’t give up. If I fall down, I don’t stay down. If I blow it, I don’t quit. If I sin and commit horrible sins that I know are wrong and I feel horrible, I don’t avoid God, I go right back to God. If I mess up, I don’t give up. I go back to God each day and what does the devil say? He says, “You can’t do that because a person who has done what you’ve done cannot be accepted by God for fellowship. You can’t go back to God! Look what you’ve done!”

Just say to him, “You’re a liar! I can too go back to God and I’m goin’ right now!” Don’t listen to his lies.

A person who does everything wrong today can go right back to God tomorrow! He can go back to God today! A person doesn’t have wait weeks for God to cool off. Isn’t that normal though? We think we have to rack up fourteen good days of good behavior so that we can “deserve” God’s fellowship. That is a dead end street. The person who blows his cool, fights with his wife, cusses the guy next door, goes right back to God on his knees for fellowship. AND GOD ACCEPTS HIM IF HE REPENTS OF HIS SIN!

This is where I’m afraid I’ll lose those behavior-minded people. The behaviorist finds this very difficult to understand and accept. But, my behaviorist friend, let me ask you: If I’m on such a level as just described, is my staying away from God going to make me a better person? If you’re sick, should you avoid seeing a doctor so you can get well?

I get right back on my knees. I ask God to help me know Him better. I ask Him to purify my motives in seeking Him. Don’t expect your motives to be right at first. We have to ask for this. Our basic nature is selfish, so we need help for this.

If you think of God as a great, big vending machine in the sky where you put this quarter called “Prayer” in, pull the lever, and get whatever you want, you’ve got a sad concept of God! If you think God is like Santa Claus who’s just going to give you whatever you want, you are misinformed about the character of God.

When I shift gears from simply behavior to a relationship with a loving God, and I stop looking at Him as some “sugar daddy” in the sky who’s gonna give me everything I want, then I can experience what Job did. I finally decide the Great Controversy. I decide to seek God, not for what I can get out of Him, but just for Himself. Because of what He did for me on the Cross, now I seek Him consistently, every day, so I can get closer to Him. I’ve quit judging by appearances or by a performance and I keep on persisting in my relationship no matter how badly things go.

Now let’s look at God and Satan. They’re face to face again. God says, “Where are you coming from?”

And Satan answers, “I’ve been ranging to and fro, from one end to the other.”

Man, he is a busy guy, isn’t he?

“Yes, I know. Have you considered my servant ________?” “Yes, I’ve been working her with everything I’ve got.”
“So I’ve been watching. But you’re losing though. He’s still searching for Me and communicating with heaven.”

Then the devil gets nervous and kicks his feet in the dirt. And God says, “Maybe they do love Me after all. Maybe they appreciate My Son. Maybe they appreciate that he died on the Cross for them. Maybe they’re responding from love, rather than for what they can get out of Me. Is this possible?” And the devil is already leaving the council.

Here’s a final illustration to bring it all home and down to our level. You tell you spouse, “Honey, I’m going on a short trip.”

And she says, “Aw, can I come?”

You say to yourself, “Sure!”

As you’re getting in the car, you think, “Wow! My wife wants to go with me!”

You’re overjoyed. Maybe, deep down inside, you’ve been a little worried about your marriage and your spouse isn’t as wildly enthusiastic as she was at first. So now you’re thinking, “Wow! She really loves me and wants to be with me.”

The next day, the two of you get in the car and start out. It’s a beautiful day. Everything goes well for the first few miles, and then your wife says, “You know, Honey, there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk with you about. You know, I need a brand new …blah, blah, blah blah.”

Suddenly, everything jumps together. Suddenly, the pieces all fall into place. It’s so clear. “She wanted to go me so that she…yep…uh, huh. Gimme, gimme, gimme, all right.”

From there, the conversation deteriorates. After you have words back and forth for a little while, the silence sets in, the day grows heavy; the trip is very long. You don’t look at her, she doesn’t look at you. You look out your side of the car and finally, you’re back home again. You both go to bed without even saying “Good night.” You stare at the ceiling and wonder why you ever got married in the first place.

Let’s change the scene. You start down the highway and everything is pleasant. You enjoy each other’s company, and communication is fluent. You talk about all kinds of things – things that are happening to her, your joys, and sorrows. The time flies by. The day ends. You come back home, it just seems like such a short day, you both feel closer to each other and warm inside. And a thought pops into your mind: “I wonder if she would like a brand new…”

Once we understand that the real reason for seeking God in the first place is our relationship with Him and not for what we can get out of Him, our spiritual experience can take on a whole new perspective. I need God today. I need God tomorrow, regardless of what comes. I need His love, His compassion, His guidance, His friendship. And I am making a decision today: As for me and my house, we will continue seeking Him because I want the thrill of communicating with someone who loves me, and I want to love Him in return.

Father in heaven, as our heads are bowed and are eyes are closed, if you would like to say with me, “God, I want to have a personal relationship with You whether things go good or whether they go bad, whether I become more holy and well behaved or worse, I want to meet with You and pray and read my Bible every day, and I want to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with You.

If you would like to have that relationship and you would like to love God simply because you want to be with Him and not for what you can get out of it but you realize you need God today and you want to have that relationship with him from now on, would you just raise your hand this morning?

Father, I thank You for every decision that was made here. And, for some, it was a hard one. Give them courage every day –
even when their life is difficult – to read their Bible, to pray and stay very, very close to you. Help them never to think that You’re frowning at them because they’re a sinner. Just because our day goes worse and we do things we shouldn’t do, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t come to You. We will only get well if we come to You and let You change us. You love us just the way we are but You love us too much to leave us that way. And if we’ll just come to You, You’ll change us and transform us into Your image.

We need to come just as we are without one plea, but that Thy blood was she for me.

Thank You for hearing our prayer. Help these folks, who have made a decision to have a revival in their devotional life and their relationship with You, to continue on that spiritual journey that will lead them through the Pearly Gates when Jesus comes. We pray in His name. Amen.


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All Scriptural References: King James/New King James Version

www.BibleGateway.com, and www.StudyLight.org

Ellen G. White References: www.whiteestate.org


Transcription: Wendy J. Riebel

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