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- Welcome to CBN's Week of Prayer.

This week, it's beenour honor and privilege

to pray for you, and ifyou have prayer requests

and would like us to pray for you,

all you have to do is call us.

1-800-700-7000, and you can be part

of this Week of Prayer.

We also have a place onthe website, on CBN.com,

where you can write in your prayers.

You can also write usa letter at CBN Center,

Virginia Beach, Virginia,23463 is the address.

And if you have prayer requests,

we want to answer them.

So there's the address on the screen.

You can still be a part of it.

We still want to prayfor you, and we're here

for you, and we're herefor you 24 hours a day,

seven days a week,

not just in Week of Prayer.

Week of Prayer is when weget the entire CBN staff

to pray for people, and then we, in turn,

ask our audience to pray for CBN,

to pray for the worldwideoutreach of the Gospel.

And in these times of COVID-19,

it's easy to say we'repreaching the Gospel,

but it's hard to do.

We've had struggles in India and Manila

and other places, just maintainingthe broadcast schedule.

So, pray for us, prayfor the ministry of CBN,

pray that God would send His angels

and send us wisdom in how to do it

and how to navigate.

Well, today, we have a Jewish prayer

that may help you.

The Nishmat is traditionally recited

on the Sabbath, and again at Passover.

And this prayer focuses on praising God,

especially in times of trouble:

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The soul of every livingbeing shall bless Your name,

oh Lord, our God.

You are God, and other than You,

we have no king, redeemer, or savior.

He who liberates, rescues, and sustains,

answers, and is mercifulin every time of distress

and anguish, who guidesHis world with kindness,

and His creatures with mercy.

To You, alone, we give thanks.

In famine, You nourishedus, and in plenty,

You sustained us.

From sword, You saved us.

From plague, You let us escape.

And from severe and enduringdiseases, You spared us.

Until now, Your mercy has helped us,

and Your kindness has not forsaken us.

Do not abandon us, ohLord, our God, forever.

By the mouth of the upright,

You shall be exalted.

By the lips of the righteous,You shall be blessed.

By the tongue of the devout,You shall be sanctified.

And amid the holy, shall You be lauded.

We're gonna take time now to pray

for some specific prayer requests,

but let's keep that prayer in mind.

"Let the soul of every living being

"bless the Lord, our God."

Here's a prayer request, asking for,

"My sister to be healedof autoimmune hepatitis,

"while waiting for a liver transplant.

"She was diagnosed withStage I breast cancer,

"so they've removed herfrom the transplant list."

"Healing for my husbandwith gallbladder cancer."

Here's one, "Healed of the pain,

"itching, hurting of shingles."

Here's another one, "Prayer formy 15-year-old granddaughter

"who tried to commit suicidelast year by taking pills.

"She's built up a lot of anger, rebellion,

"and now she's getting into trouble,

"even having to go to court."

Here's one for deliverance,"To be delivered

"from anger, bitterness in my soul,

"and to be free of lust,pornography, and prostitution."

Let's lift these prayer needs to the Lord

and let's lift you to the Lord.

Join with us.

Don't just watch us pray,but join in a great circle

of prayer, and realize,God answers prayer,

and He responds to every living soul.

So let's do that.

Lord God Almighty, we come to You.

And Lord, we come withthanksgiving on our lips.

We come to You, acknowledgingthat You were the one

that gave us breath.

You were the one thatmade us into living souls.

And so, with our breath, we praise You

and we bless Your name.

Now Lord, for these requests, for the one

with hepatitis and cancer,

for the one with shingles,for the granddaughter

who's rebelled, tried to commit suicide,

confusion in her mind.

For the one who needs deliverancefrom anger, from lust,

from desire, Lord God Almighty,

we ask that You wouldanswer these prayers.

We ask that You would answer everyone

who has called in, everyonewho has written in.

Be their Lord, be theirGod, be almighty for them.

For with You, all things are possible.

And for all who are watching right now,

grant their petitions.

Fulfill all theirpurpose, and deliver them

from fear and anxiety.

Be with us now.

Comfort and protect us.

For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Again, if you need prayer,we're here for you.

All you have to do is pickup the phone and call us.

1-800-700-7000.

Well, in just a matter of weeks, our lives

have been radicallyupended by the Coronavirus.

And with no end in sight,how do we continue to cope?

Dr. David Ireland is the founding pastor

of Christ Church in New Jersey,

located in one of our nation'shot spots for the virus.

And David has a clear message for us

in this chaotic time.

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- It's a joy to talk to the CBN family.

And I consider myself a family member.

I graduated from Regent University

with my PhD in OrganizationalLeadership in 2002,

so I'm one of you.

Thank you for theopportunity to serve you,

to come alongside of you,and to encourage you.

Before I teach, I like to pray.

Father, thank You forthe awesome privilege

to serve my family andthe global community

with the message of Jesus.

Bless this time in the Word.

In Christ's name, Amen.

I wanna talk with youabout a topic I titled,

"Dealing with Life's Tensions."

We're facing a global pandemic,

and it's creating a lot of tension,

a lot of paradox, a lot of questions.

We feel the sense of hope anduncertainty at the same time.

We feel safe andvulnerable simultaneously.

And the Bible is notunsympathetic towards this feeling

of tension, becausethroughout the Scripture,

it teaches about tension.

Jesus says that we're in the world,

but we're not of the world.

Tension, paradox.

We're told that we're lions and lambs.

Paradox, tension.

In fact, our HeavenlyFather describes Himself

in this paradoxical language when He says

that He's the Alpha and the Omega.

The first and the last.

The beginning and the end.

Scripture is filled with tension,

and it's telling us,tension is very normative.

I wanna take you to 2Corinthians, chapter 12

and introduce to youPaul, and how he struggled

with feelings of tensionin what he had to do.

In fact, let me set it up.

The Apostle is telling usthat he's being buffeted.

There's a thorn in his flesh, in his side.

Some scholars say that that thorn

was an eye disease.

Others say it was an earachethat wouldn't go away.

Other scholars give their opinion

that it was a headachethat was just unceasing.

Regardless of this problemthe Apostle was facing,

we can be certain of this.

He had to learn how todeal with life's tensions.

Let's look at 2 Corinthians,chapter 12 and verse eight.

Paul says:

Three times I prayedto the Lord about this

and asked Him to take it away.

But His answer was, "Mygrace is all you need,

"for My power is greatestwhen you're weak."

I am most happy, then to be proud

of my weaknesses, in orderto feel the protection

of Christ's power over me.

Could you imagine the great Apostle Paul,

praying once, twice, God is silent?

And then after the third time, God speaks?

I wonder how long itwas between the silence

and the speaking.

It tells me, then, that Paulwrestled with this tension

of God feeling far andnear at the same time.

Maybe you're goingthrough the same scenario,

where you're feeling as if God,the heavens seem like brass.

I've not heard Your voicein such a long time.

I don't sense Your nearness to me.

And so, when Paul may have felt the fact

that God felt so faraway, like often times,

we feel that way, it doesn't reflect

that God is unkind or is uncaring

or is unsympathetic towards who we are

and what we're going through.

Let's not mistake the silence of God

for those kinds of things.

I love what the great English preacher,

Charles Spurgeon, said.

"God is too good to be unkind

"and He's too wise to be mistaken.

"And when we cannot trace His hand,

"we must trust His heart."

Paul, he prayed a third time.

And then he heard the voice of God.

"Paul, My grace is sufficient for you.

"For when you are weak, I'm strong."

And so Paul, he gets this revelation

that tension is not a bad thing.

Tension is a good thing.

And tension means that you arematuring when you understand

that tension is part of life.

It's how I function, it's how I must live.

There are things that are paradoxical

and create questions, and it makes me feel

as if I'm living in a conflicted way.

Paul is telling us, tension is normative,

and tension makes me mature.

How?

It makes me stop looking inward,

judging whether or not I'm right with God

or I'm right with myself or my perspective

is accurate or inaccurate.

It pushes away all those things,

and it helps me to realize,I'm on the right track.

I'm on the right path.

God is still with me,though I may feel at times

He feels far and near, butyet, He's there with me.

Tension says, David, grow up.

Be mature.

When I look at verse 10, Paul continues.

He says, "I'm content with weaknesses,

"insults, hardships, persecutions,

"and difficulties for Christ's sake.

"For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I mean, look at this paradox.

Paul is now saying, wait a second.

I'm content.

I've learned to be at peace,

even though I have theseuncertainties around me.

Even though I'm weak.

Here comes a second tensionemerging from Scripture.

Weak and strong at the same time.

That seems weird, it seems unusual,

it seems foreign, it seems odd.

But yet, it's Scriptural.

The Apostle is saying that, I'm weak.

I'm impotent to bring change.

That's how we are.

And even as a pastor, asI'm serving my congregation,

and some have contracted COVID-19,

others have not, and I'mwalking through the ideas of,

God, I feel so weak.

All I have to offer is my prayers,

my words of encouragement.

And it's not that thosethings are unimportant.

They're very important.

But in the same sense, I must confess,

like Paul, I'm weak.

And then Paul says, I'm strong.

How is he strong?

Strong is because he's dependent on God.

Strong is that hisreliance is not on himself,

his gifts, his experience.

It's not on his intellect.

As brilliant of a man as he was,

the Apostle Paul is saying,I am strong in God's grace,

I'm strong in my trust towards the Lord,

I'm strong because of who God is

and not because of who I am.

And Paul is helping us understand.

And so, CBN, I want you to know.

All of the great things you've done

over the years, the decades,

to serve the globalcommunity, stay encouraged.

Though you're living in tension,

though you feel powerlessto affect change,

you must be able to come to this place

of admitting this reality.

Though I'm weak, I'm strong.

Take this time, like I'veencouraged my congregation,

Christ Church in New Jersey,

I've encourage 'em, take this time

and let the Coronavirus catapult you

into greater Christian ministry.

You may say, how do you do that?

Tertullian, one of theChurch fathers, said,

during the days when Christians

were thrown to wildbeasts in the Colosseums

and made sport of, Tertullian said,

"The blood of theChristians, or the martyrs,

"is the seed of the Church.

"The more we're moweddown, the more we grow."

I understand thatCOVID-19 is not martyrdom.

But it is a force that's challenging us.

And I'm saying to you, grow in influence,

grow in service, growin your determination

to be a force to be reckoned with,

as Christ-followers in the Earth.

And so, Paul did not weaken in the sense

of impotence in his Christian walk.

His malady, his challengethat he was facing,

though it createdtension, weak and strong,

Paul says, "I grew instrength 'cause I grew

"in the knowledge of the grace of God

"and in my ability to trust God."

When I read verse 10,it says, in weaknesses,

in distresses, in persecutions.

Paul is laying out thislaundry list of problems.

I don't want those kinds of problems.

I don't want anything tohave that kind of grip on me.

Paul was really talking about,

and then he qualified it,and said, look, I'm content.

How could you be content

when you have all of thesethings that are perplexing?

What I see, 'causecontentment speaks of peace.

And he's having this tension in the midst

of his pandemic, which isa third tension emerging

from the text, perplexity and peace.

Have you ever felt that?

Where you had no answers?

Where you didn't know where to turn?

At the same point, youare feeling perplexed,

you're having this emotional perplexity,

but at the same time,you're feeling peace,

this inordinate amount ofpeace, or trust in God.

The Apostle Paul wasfeeling simultaneously

this reality, perplexityand peace at the same time.

The Bible is very sympathetic

about how we human beings must be able

to function in this way.

And so, I wanna encourageyou that if you're feeling

this duality of emotions,this paradox of emotions

at the same time, thendon't beat yourself up.

Don't think that you areweakening in your faith.

Don't think that yourrelationship with God is fraying.

Just the opposite is occurring.

You are human, you are normal.

You are becoming more Biblically centered.

You're more Christocentric,like the Apostle Paul.

I'm experiencing perplexity,

at the same time, I'm experiencing peace.

And so, Paul is letting us understand

that when this paradox takes place in us,

it makes us no longer rely on ourselves.

The worst thing you cando during times of tension

is rely on yourself, your gifts,

your own feelings, your own experience,

your money, your wealth, your education.

Don't let those thingsbe what you rely on.

Trust in the Lord, and lean not

in your own understanding.

And in all your ways, acknowledge Him,

and He'll direct your path.

Perplexity, it's when you get a phone call

and the person on theother line tells you,

do you know Bob?

Do you remember Sue from work?

Or, do you remember Frank?

Do you know Mary?

They got COVID.

And before you're hanging up the phone,

the thought floods your mind.

Why did they get COVID, and it missed me?

And if you're not careful,

you'll find yourself in this paradox,

or this vortex, of questioning God.

The worst question you can ask is, God,

why did You let this happen to Mary?

Why did you let this happen to Frank?

Why Bob?

When you ask thatquestion, it's like a dog

chasing its tail, andyou never find answers.

Here's a better question.

God, what now?

Because life is filledwith these paradoxes.

In fact, it's almost akin,when you hear one person

gets COVID or another,it's akin to a person

who is in a storm.

Every other house wasdemolished, except for theirs.

And so there is theirhouse, standing strong,

untouched by the storm.

Why?

I have no idea.

I'm not going to get caught up

with that philosophical question.

If I'm the other homeowners around them,

and you maybe find God-fearing people,

and the person's house that was untouched

was the most heathenistic person.

And you're saying, God, why?

Here's another woman.

A storm happened, it demolished her house.

You can almost hear her words, just coming

right off the screen,yelling out, God, why?

Why me?

Why now?

Why this?

I can almost feel her pain.

And again, many times, theonly answer you can say,

because sometimes, you may say, well God,

why did that Godly person contract COVID,

and why does this ungodlyperson who lives so recklessly

never get it?

And then the answer to the question is,

I have no idea.

But one thing I do know is this.

Life has these tensionsand these paradoxes.

Perplexity and peace.

Job, chapter 35 in verse10, he tells us this,

that "God will give songs in the night."

Meaning that, when life is dark,

when things are uncertain,when there's paradoxes

and perplexities and conundrums,

expect God to give songs in the night.

Have you ever heard of thehymn, "God Leads His Children"?

It was written by George Young in 1903.

He was a carpenter and apreacher that was not well-known.

He and his family, very poor,

but they were able to build a small house.

And when George Young went away

on a speaking engagement, some hoodlums

in his community, they burneddown his house to the ground.

And people were looking to see, well,

what's George going to do?

Is he gonna lose his faith,

is he gonna get angry and curse God?

What's he gonna do?

And to the surprise ofthe greater community,

Job's words, God gave George Young a song

in the night season.

And that popular hymn,it has this refrain:

Some through the waters,

some through the flood.

Some through the fire,

but all through the blood.

Some through great sorrow,

but God gives a song.

In the night season and all the day long.

In other words, don't let life's tensions

weaken you in your walk with the Lord.

CBN family, thank you forgiving me the opportunity

to encourage you.

Stay strong in your walk with the Lord,

and stay strong in your ability

to influence the world for Christ.

God bless you.

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