Four Types of Answers to Prayer

Over the years, I’ve often read and heard things like “God didn’t hear my prayer,” or “God didn’t answer my prayer.” These statements betray a singular focus on one aspect of prayer, that being requests. There is so much more to prayer than requests, including confession, praise/adoration, and thanksgiving.

Regarding sin and confession, here’s what Psalm 66:18-19 says: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.” These two verses get at something that may often be missing in our prayers: confession. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Regarding thanksgiving, here’s what Philippians 4:6 says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (emphasis mine)

First of all, then, let us examine ourselves to see if there is sin we are “cherishing” (loving, holding on to, protecting). Then let’s make our requests to the Lord with thanksgiving. We can be sure that He will hear and answer us. We also need to pray according to His will, just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:42: “Not my will, but yours be done.” The question then becomes: What will the Lord’s answer be?

This week, we had a guest speaker at my church: Dr. Ravi Jayakaran, President of Medical Ambassadors International. He gave a powerful message about prayer, including four types of answers to prayer. (The following examples from Scripture are different from those he mentioned.)

  1. Direct. This is when the Lord gives us a direct “yes” answer to prayer. The Bible is full of such examples. In 2 Chronicles 20:5-12, godly King Jehoshaphat asks the Lord to judge three enemy armies that have risen up against Israel. Here’s what happened a few verses later, in 2 Chronicles 20:21-23: “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:  “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”  As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.  The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.” (emphasis mine) In my own life, I can think of times when the Lord has given me a very direct answer; for example, we used to have various neighbors who sometimes had late-night parties. Without fail, every time I went outside to talk to them, they quickly toned it down, without any expression of anger on either side.
  2. Delayed. Sometimes the Lord gives us what we have asked for, but not immediately. In 1 Samuel 1, for example, you can read how year after year, Hannah would go to the house of the Lord to worship, sacrifice, and ask the Lord for a son. Eventually, the Lord did just that; her son became the godly prophet Samuel. Then in 1 Samuel 2:21, we read, “And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters.” These five children were in addition to Samuel, who Hannah had dedicated to serve at the house of the Lord! One very significant example in my own life that comes to mind is my father-in-law, who came to faith in the Lord at the age of 91; my wife and I, as well as others, had prayed for him for many years. I should add that in the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18, we are told that the Lord is not like the unjust judge, who gets tired of the widow bothering him and thus responds to her request for justice. Instead, the Lord will see that His chosen ones “get justice, and quickly.” (verse 8) From our perspective, it sometimes doesn’t seem quickly, but that’s because we’re impatient and can’t see the big picture.
  3. Denied. This is a hard answer to hear to a prayer request, but we have examples in the Bible to help and encourage us. Earlier, I referred to Jesus Himself, who asked the Father to keep Him from having to be crucified, but the Father denied Jesus’ request. That answer to prayer is our salvation! Another example is the Apostle Paul, who had “a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9) When I graduated from college, I had planned to combine my love of astronomy and the English language to be a writer and/or copy-editor at an astronomy magazine. I had two interviews, but the answer was No. (More about this below.)
  4. Different. Sometimes the Lord gives a different answer than we expect or hope for. In the Bible, I think of the Jews of Jesus’ time, being crushed under the heel of the Roman empire. Much has been written about how the Jews were expecting a political Savior who would liberate them from their oppressors. While I suppose this expectation was understandable, it was in spite of Biblical passages like Isaiah 53, which speaks of the Messiah as One who will be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” (verse 3) God’s plan was to give all people who believed from all countries, for all time, salvation from sin. In my own life, it took me over a year of floundering a bit regarding my career hopes, but one day I saw a poster for a nascent organization which had started to send teachers to a Third World country that had recently “opened.” Somehow I knew immediately that was for me. It took me a year and a half to get my M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages); along the way, I met the beautiful, godly woman who was to become my wife; and I spent 32 years (the first five overseas) teaching ESL. I still love astronomy, but it’s easy to see now that the Lord had something very different–and much better!–for me.

In my own life, I have learned that whether answers to my prayer requests are direct, delayed, denied, or different, my heavenly Father always knows what’s best. If you are one of God’s people, you can rest assured that He knows what’s best for you as well; if you are not, that can change today!

Hypocrisy vs. Integrity

I don’t know how much you follow the news, but it seems to me that hypocrisy has gotten worse since COVID first hit nearly three years ago. Even though the COVID threat has largely abated, however, the hypocrisy continues. Two recent examples (not COVID-related) have especially caught my attention.

The first one was in November, when somewhere between 100 and 400 private jets, depending on the news source, flew delegates to the latest United Nations climate conference in Egypt. To be fair, the vast majority of the 33,000 participants did not get there by private jet. However, you would think that any public figure who is truly concerned about climate change–and attending such a conference!–would not take a private jet, for obvious reasons. John Kerry, who is “the first United States special presidential envoy for climate,” learned his lesson and flew commercial this time; in 2019, he was widely mocked for flying to Iceland by private jet to accept a–wait for it–climate change leadership award called the Arctic Circle Award. At the time, Kerry had defended himself, saying, “If you offset your carbon, it’s the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.” This only increased the mockery. 100-400 other delegates to the Egypt conference two months ago haven’t learned John Kerry’s lesson.

The second example of hypocrisy, still ongoing, has to do with classified documents. You may recall that in August of last year, the FBI raided President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home to get back some classified government documents that were stored there. One question was whether Trump had declassified them, which is unclear because there is not a clear process for declassification. Regardless, the heavily redacted affidavit that was used to justify the raid reveals neither criminal intent nor evidence of obstruction on Trump’s part. In fact, “The FBI acknowledges the return of 15 boxes of materials and ongoing communications with Trump’s lawyers attempting to resolve any outstanding disputes regarding which, if any, remaining documents ought to be turned over. This would appear to provide evidence of cooperation with authorities, rather than obstruction.” This is according to Brett L. Tolman, a former U.S. attorney with a criminal justice career that spans decades. However, this didn’t keep historian Michael Beschloss from suggesting that Trump be executed; former CIA director Michael Hayden agreed.

Compare what happened at Mar-a-Lago with the discovery two months ago of classified government documents taken by then-Vice President Joe Biden and stored at the Penn Biden Center for over half a decade. The investigation is ongoing, but at least two things already stand out to me. First of all, the documents were in an insecure setting for more than five years. Second, these documents were taken by Biden when he was Vice-President. Only the President has the right to declassify government documents and thus take them. Leftist pundits in the news media had already tried to defend Biden’s taking of these classified documents by saying, among other things, that the documents are “a small number,” especially compared with the 300+ found at Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago. Oh, but wait, another box of classified documents taken by Biden appeared just hours ago at a “second location.” It’s obvious that we can expect more such documents to be found.

When I think about hypocrisy, I also think about its opposite, integrity. In its most basic sense, integrity means “wholeness.” I decided to Google “integrity,” and while most of the sites that came up were only about integrity in the workplace, a couple of them had a broader focus. Here are a few examples of integrity (with my brief commentary) taken from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-integrity.html

  • Keep your promises, even if it takes extra effort. While I don’t use the word “promise,” (will you believe me if sometimes I say “I promise..” but at other times I don’t?), but I do use phrases like “I will” and “I can’t.” I want people to believe me when I say I will or can’t do something.
  • Inform the cashier he gave you too much change back. In today’s world, this is increasingly unlikely to happen; on the other hand, I often see older people pay with cash. I usually pay by credit, but in my life, there have been a couple times where I’ve done this. I’ve also informed the cashier when I didn’t get enough change!
  • Do not gossip or talk badly about someone. Gossip means that you have the desire to hurt someone. “Talking badly” about someone is something I have sometimes done with my kids (I have two grown “kids”) because I think it’s important for us to learn from negative examples. If there was a name attached, it was usually someone that I had talked to either directly or indirectly (e.g. to a parent of the person).
  • Ignore someone’s advice on how to cheat on your taxes and not get caught. This is not an area that I have ever struggled with, but I know some have.
  • Do not let someone else take the blame for something you did. I’m sorry to say that as a child, I did not adhere to this one at least once that I remember. However, I have confessed it to the Lord and been forgiven.
  • If someone gives you confidential information, never tell anyone what you know. This one has been hard for me at times, but I really try to adhere to it. It’s usually something personal, and sometimes I have been given permission to share it with my wife; at other times, I have shared something from longer ago without giving a name. However, for the deepest confidentiality with a friend, I have not shared it; I am honored when someone chooses to share something that deep with me.

What does the Bible say about hypocrisy? The Lord God has very harsh words to say to hypocritical religious leaders. This is especially clear in the words of Jesus, Who said, for example, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:13-15) As for political leaders, Romans 13:1 tells us, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” First of all, as Christians we are expected to obey those in political leadership. (There are exceptions, of course.) Second, because those authorities have been established by God, those individuals in leadership are accountable to Him. I have written more about religious and political hypocrisy; click here if you’re interested: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2020/11/12/religious-and-political-hypocrisy/

On the other hand, lest we believers who are neither religious leaders nor political leaders think that we are off the hook, here’s what James 1:22 says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Let us all strive to be men and women of integrity, of wholeness and consistency, whose actions match our words.

More Keys to a Successful Marriage

A few months ago, I came across an article (written in April of this year) by Matt Christensen, offering marital advice from 25 people who have been married 25+ years. As my wife and I are just three days away from our 34th wedding anniversary, I thought now would be a good time to write about this.

Here is a quote from the first paragraph of this article: “We recently asked 25 people who have been married for 25 plus years about what makes their relationship work. Clichés didn’t enter the equation. Instead, their answers reflected a simple truth: long-term relationships are both easy and hard, but made better by honesty, fun, and a shared sense of unity.”

Rather than list all 25 pieces of advice, I’m going to mention what I think are the most important ones, with a quote and brief commentary on each. I will then add a couple of my own. I’m sequencing them not in terms of their importance, but rather in the order in which they appear in the article, which you can access here: https://www.fatherly.com/life/marriage-advice-from-couples-married-25-plus-years

  1. Imagine life without your partner. Jerry, age 56, who’s been married 30 years, says, “Life would be possible without each other, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun, special, or full of great moments.” Enough said!
  2. Do the work. Monte, age 64, has been married 40 years, and he says, “Opposites can create a great deal of conflict over time if you don’t learn how to accept them. It can be a difficult process, but it’s necessary to stay happily married long term.” Interestingly, my wife and I both came out with the same personality type on the Myers Briggs personality test many years ago, but scored very differently on the Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis. Regardless, we are very different in some ways, and yes, marriage requires work! That’s true whether you and your spouse are very similar or not.
  3. Bite your tongue. Romy, 52 and married 26 years, says, “My rule is: bite your tongue for at least 24-48 hours after before speaking when tensions are high. If you are overly emotional and/or upset about something, doing so gives you time to cool off and then reflect on the situation with greater space, perspective, calmness, and clarity. If you still want to talk about it, schedule a mutually agreed upon time to do so.” One thing I would add along the same lines is tiredness: Sometimes my wife and I have scheduled a time to talk, especially if one or the other of us is too tired at the moment.
  4. Ask for space when you need it. Curt, 64 and married 36 years, says, “We’re not shy with each other when we need a breather. Sometimes it’s just a few hours with a good book. Other times, one of us wants to get a coffee and run errands on a Saturday.” For a few years when our kids were growing up, my wife would take them somewhere overnight (usually to her parents’ place) to give me my annual “day off,” or as we like to joke about it: a day for me to accept passivity and reject responsibility! If you’ve read my manhood posts, you’ll understand this better.
  5. Learn each other’s love language. Gene, who’s 54 and has been married 28 years, says, “You can take the tests and stuff to figure out what each other’s love language is. That’s easy. The more fun part is finding out how you can try to speak to your partner using them every day.” My wife’s top two love languages and my top two are very different. Understanding these differences, and especially “speaking” them to each other, have significantly enhanced our marriage.
  6. Never assume. Christine, 51 and married 26 years, says, “No matter how connected you both may be, you’re not mind-readers. You need to communicate as clearly as possible, and as frequently as possible.” Had my wife and I understood this principle better early in our marriage, we would have had less conflict later.
  7. Nurture the friendship. William, 57 and married 30 years, says, “Not every conversation you have should be about life decisions, finances, or being married. I love my marital relationship with my wife, but I’d dare say I love our friendship more.” At a church we used to be a part of, one of our pastors (now in heaven) spent almost all of his time counseling. One very important distinction he made was between communication and conversation. The former is about decisions, schedules, and the like; the latter is about fun stuff! Any successful marriage needs both.
  8. Stay intimate. Natalie, 60 and married 35 years, says, “Intimacy is more than sex. And, as you get older, that’s a great thing to realize.” She gives the examples of holding each other’s hands and kissing. My wife and I agree!
  9. Show gratitude. Robin, who’s 60 and has been married 34 years, says a few words about how she and her husband are “overthankers.” While my wife and I do not “overthank,” we definitely thank each other! Yesterday, for example, after I drove us and three others back home for two and a half hours through rain and fog, my wife thanked me.
  10. Learn how to apologize. Robert, 63 and married 33 years, says, “Apologizing doesn’t necessarily mean you concede or believe what you did was wrong. It means that the situation resulted in something — like hurt feelings or miscommunications — that made your partner feel bad.” While I agree, I have to say that there are times when couples do and say things to each other that are just wrong; at those times, a heartfelt apology is necessary, and asking for forgiveness takes it a step further. For my wife and me, the best times of apology have been when the Holy Spirit has brought conviction and we haven’t even had to confront each other.

One piece of advice I would like to add is simply to laugh together. That’s easy because my wife and I both read and hear things that are just funny! We also like to reminisce, with each other and our kids, about fun and wacky experiences. Additionally, I like to tease my wife; for example, she sometimes parks too far to the front of the garage, making it hard to access the washer and dryer there, so I ask, “Can you park closer to the washer and dryer next time?” You have to know your spouse, however, because although this question invariably makes my wife laugh, it might infuriate your own wife or husband! One time when we were eating out during our first few months of marriage, I carefully removed one end of the paper covering the straw and then blew on the open end, shooting the paper at her. My friends and I used to have fun doing that to each other, but my wife let me know that she didn’t think it was funny!

As a Christian, the other piece of advice that I have is to grow together spiritually. Ways to do this in my own marriage have included attending church together; praying together; serving others together; and discussing the Bible and Christian books together.

A couple of notes about the title of this post. First of all, you may have noticed the word “successful” as it pertains to marriage. By this I mean not just staying married but enjoying each other’s presence. (I have been with couples who have been married a long time but who don’t enjoy being together.) A final note, in regard to the word “more” in the title: two years ago, I wrote a similar post, based on a different article that I had come across; it was based on interviews with couples who had been married at least 10 years. If you’re interested, you can check that out here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2020/12/29/keys-to-a-successful-marriage/

If you have any more keys to a successful marriage, and/or thoughts on which key you think is most important, I would be very interested in reading them!

The “Foolishness” of Christmas

When I was a young Christian many years ago at a Christian college, one of my professors brought in an article for us to read; I believe it was called “Such Foolishness.” The author looked at 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and wrote about the “foolishness” of the Gospel, meaning that from the perspective of an unbeliever, the message of Christianity is indeed foolish; however, to believers, Jesus’ death and resurrection are our salvation. Verse 18 sums it up well: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I don’t remember many of the specifics, but that concept has stuck with me all of these years.

Gore Vidal, who was an American writer, said back in 1992, “Christianity is such a silly religion.” Much more recently, in 2015, podcaster Joe Rogan ranted for 6+ minutes against Christianity, saying, “Christianity at the end of the day with no proof–everything is mythology.” In the same podcast, he said, “The whole thing is so stupid.” Both Vidal and Rogan exemplify the first part of 1 Corinthians 1:18, which is that Christianity’s message is foolish to unbelievers.

With the Christmas season very much upon us, I’ve been thinking about this more specifically in terms of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. On the most fundamental level, Christmas is about the Incarnation, meaning that God became man. From a secular point of view, this sounds foolish. Why would God become man? Why would He leave His heavenly realm to live among mankind? Taking it a step further, why would God choose to be born as a helpless baby? Added to that, why would Jesus enter the world at a dangerous time, when He would be relentlessly pursued by a bloodthirsty, power-hungy king (Herod) who was so bent on killing Him that “he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under”? (Matthew 2:16)

Another aspect of Jesus’ birth that I’m sorry to say even some churchgoers have found hard to believe is the fact that Jesus was born to a virgin, both because it required a miracle and because of what people would naturally assume about a woman being pregnant before marriage. Unbelievers naturally regard this as additional foolishness: the Son of God born to either a “virgin” or a loose woman! I have a relative who for many years found this to be a major stumbling block before he (thankfully!) came to faith in Christ at a very advanced age. Some Biblical interpreters have tried to explain away the virgin birth by saying that a “virgin” can refer to just a young woman, not necessarily one who has never had sex. However, Matthew 1:25 is very clear: “But he [Joseph] had no union with her [Mary] until she gave birth to a son.”

Thinking about the place of Jesus’ birth, you might expect that the King of the universe would be born into a palace, but not so. Luke 2:7 tells us that after Jesus was born, Mary “wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” When we look at nativity scenes, they look very sanitized, but if you think about it, what is a manger? It’s a feeding trough for cattle and horses to eat from. Now, I would imagine that Joseph did his best to clean out the trough for his baby son to lie in, but regardless, I don’t imagine that it was very clean. There may have very well been such animals there, as well.

When the message first went out about Jesus’ birth, it came through an angel of the Lord, which is what we might expect. However, this mighty angel appeared to “shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” (Luke 2:8) Shepherds were not exactly the upper class of society; various writers have written descriptions such as their not being esteemed by society; others have written harsher things about them, such as their being despised by most people. They were usually treated as outsiders who were “almost never clean enough to worship with God’s people in God’s presence.” (Bill Sytsma) Like the place where He was born, this emphasizes our Lord’s humility, which again seems foolish to non-Christians. I should add, however, that in Matthew’s account, we are told in Chapter 2 that Magi from the east came to Bethlehem to visit Jesus; they were astrologers and/or astronomers. There are various ideas about who they were, but they may have been priests descended from the previous Medo-Persian empire. They were at the very least of a higher social class than the shepherds. Regardless of exactly who they were, God had revealed Himself to them and had shown them by “the star they had seen in the east” (Matthew 2:9) where to go to find Jesus. By this time, however, Jesus was probably at least a year old and was living in a “house” (Matthew 2:11) So, the Lord revealed Himself in the person of baby Jesus to the high and the low of society, but to the low first.

Beyond the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth, of course, many other things have been said and written about the “foolishness” of Christianity. The culmination of this, of course, is in the death of our Savior, the sinless Son of God, by crucifixion. Again, the first part of 1 Corinthians 1:18 comes to mind: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” And then, of course, there is the miracle of the glorious resurrection, which to Christians is, among other things, the promise of our own resurrection one day, but which to unbelievers is more foolishness.

So yes, from a secular point of view, there is so much foolishness regarding the true meaning of Christmas, and by extension, the entire Gospel. Here is another wonderful verse from that section of 1 Corinthians 1, this time verse 21: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” Yes, the Lord saves those who believe the “foolishness” of the Gospel!

If you are reading this and are not a Christian, I pray that this Christmas season will be the time that you come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!

(Two years ago, I made a quiz about Christmas that you may enjoy taking a look at; click here if you’re interested: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2020/12/16/a-christmas-quiz/)

Religious Observance in Western Europe and the U.S.

I recently came across an interesting article which was primarily about religious observance in western Europe, but which also compared that region with the United States. Even though this research is four years old, it’s still timely and points out some significant differences between these two geographical areas.

First of all, what is meant by “religious observance?” There were four measures of this in the study in terms of comparing western Europe and the U.S. Here they are, with percentages of professing Christians in western Europe (15 countries) and the United States who:

  • Say religion is very important in their lives: Western Europe 14%, U.S. 68%
  • Attend religious services at least monthly: Western Europe 31%, U.S. 64%
  • Pray daily: Western Europe 18%, U.S. 68%
  • Believe in God with absolute certainty: Western Europe 23%, U.S. 76%

It doesn’t take any rigorous statistical analysis to see the huge differences in religious observance between western Europe and the United States! Across the board, professing American Christians are significantly more religiously observant than professing western European Christians. The second stunning thing is that these are stats for professing Christians. A significant majority of professing American Christians, for example, pray daily (68%), while only a paltry 18% of professing western European Christians do the same. A word of caution is in order here, however; are American Christians praying to the one and only true God, the God Who has revealed Himself in Scripture? My fellow blogger and sister in Christ Ann, who goes by “Seeking Divine Perspective,” is in the process of writing a good series of posts entitled “Are You Praying to the Wrong Person?” Click here for the latest in her series: https://seekingdivineperspective.com/2022/11/25/are-you-praying-to-the-wrong-person-part-iv-fallen-angels/

Regarding the last stat mentioned above: Even the percentage of professing western European Christians who believe in God with absolute certainty is a paltry 23%, while in the U.S., the percentage is 76%. I should add that I would love to see corresponding stats for this question: “Do you read the Bible regularly?”

What does all of this mean? First of all, it’s very easy to say that you’re a Christian in the Western world; it is not easy if you live in a country with severe persecution. Second, these stats bring to mind what Charles Colson wrote and spoke about more than 30 years ago: that western Europe was post-Christian, meaning that it used to be largely Christian, but was not anymore. Now we can see that stark reality on display very clearly. Western Europeans who stopped identifying with a religion mentioned four primary reasons why:

  • Gradually drifting away from religion: 68%
  • Disagreeing with their religion’s positions on social issues: 58%
  • No longer believing in their religion’s teachings: 54%
  • Being unhappy about scandals involving religious institutions and leaders: 53%

I find the #1 reason especially enlightening; in so many cases, when people stop identifying with Christianity in the U.S., it’s because they have gradually drifted away; in other words, it’s not usually something that happens suddenly. (I mentioned this in a post in May about deconversion.) Regarding the second reason, you will not be surprised to learn that two social issues frequently mentioned were abortion and same-sex marriage. There are many other illuminating findings in this research study; I have only scratched the surface. If you’re interested in more, here’s the link: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/

Perhaps as American Christians, we are tempted to pat ourselves on the back in comparison to western Europe. We might even think that we are a majority-Christian nation. However, since the actual percentage of American Christians is only 7.5% (!), we have no reason to be smug, to put it mildly. You can either read John Dickerson’s The Great Evangelical Recession for the research regarding this number, or you can just read something I wrote in 2020: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2020/05/07/how-many-christians-are-there-in-the-united-states/ I read a few years ago that Spain’s population was less than 1% Christian; I have also read the same about Slovenia (which is not one of the 15 nations included in the Pew Research study which is the focus of this post). It is not hard to believe that further research such as Dickerson wrote about would reveal similar, astonishingly-low, percentages of true Christians in other western European countries.

These statistics about western Europe should serve as a warning to us. Regardless of what happens, we are called to stand firm in our faith by living in obedience to God’s Word. Speaking of: If we are going to live in that kind of obedience, we need, first of all, to be in God’s Word regularly! Ideally, that would be daily, while for some of us, perhaps a few times a week. Regardless, we should certainly not rely only on our pastors’ faithfully teaching us every Sunday. Second, however, we do need to be in close fellowship with other believers, and one place that can certainly happen is at church. Third, we should be praying daily; in fact, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray continually.” I like even better the way the King James Version puts it: “Pray without ceasing.” If we are in the Bible, in koinonia (close fellowship), and in prayer regularly, we will be much better equipped to live the kind of obedient lives that our Lord calls us to, regardless of the overall spiritual condition of our nation.