2005-12-16
Good Morning Treasured Readers,
God treasures each of you, and so do I. Beginning one's day understanding God's attitude really helps to wipe away the sleepiness and bring reality's consciousness into a bright, cheery focus. This is true even in the face of adversity. That is why Paul wrote in PHIL 4: 11-13, "I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be. I know now how to live when things are difficult, and in particular, I have learned to the secret of facing either poverty or plenty! I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." The Good News version of the Bible states that last sentence quite descriptively as "I am ready through the strength of the One Who lives within me." To make this even more descriptive I must also cite 1 JN 4: 4, "But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit Who is in you I more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world." As believers, we don't ever have to feel that we face adversity alone. God gives us a number of avenues to interface with him, one of the most important being prayer.
You'll remember that last week I made the point that we have to quiet ourselves in preparation for prayer. That's because the human spirit, which is still connected to the world, gets frightened, angry, or has other emotions that are negative in response to adversity. The way the Holy Spirit can really impact our reactions is when we are willing to open our human spirits wide to His influence. Easier said than done, at times, but necessary! It's as if the devil and his cohorts are shouting, trying to be loud enough to drown out what God is saying. Amazingly, God has built into us a way to shut off the devil's lies, but we have to work hard at focusing on our loving Abba to do this. We can recognize the evil one's talk as lies, because we know this from studying God's word. Lies will never stand up against the Scriptures. This has been known since ancient times. Just look at IS 40: 6-8, "A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All men are like grass , and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.'" JN 6: 68, Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'" The "father of all lies" [JN 8: 44] can't stand up to anything like this.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ made it clear that we were to pray privately-to avoid any hypocrisy and to keep matters that need to be, private [MT 6: 6]. That is still very true. But, it is also quite appropriate to pray corporately too. A picture of our congregation saying the Lord's Prayer [MT 6: 9-13] each week floods into my mind. Our pastors must have thought of this too and made the decision last year to write a series of sermons on each phrase in this passage, so as to cause us not to take this wonderful lesson from the Lord on how to pray for granted. All too often, people say well-known words such as these by rote without letting them sink into real understanding and heartfelt feeling. Because I am also a Bible teacher in addition to being a writer, I will not be able to take these words for granted, because I have been made to understand the full impact of their meaning by those who taught me and my own experience with them. Don't worry, God still considers me a "hard work in progress." If I ever forget that, He'll find a way to remind me-big time!?
There are many places where God through the writers in the Bible reminds us "When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that God will hear them because their prayers are long [MT 6: 7]. I'm reminded here of a book, which shall remain nameless, that I was required to read in undergraduate school. The book actually had a lot to say that would have been interesting, except for its author's propensity for writing sentences which were a paragraph long. In view of my well-known struggles with the English language, I quickly developed a keen dislike for this assignment. Had I not gone to school before the days of Cliffs Notes, I might have been tempted to use them. Instead, I was forced to take three times longer than normal to read and decipher these long sentences. In the end, I got a "C" on the report I had to write and left that effort with the attitude of "good riddance!" I find the statement in MT 6: 9a nothing short of compelling, "Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him." Why compelling? The fact that God already knows our needs is a sharp reminder of His omniscience. So why pray? We pray both for the Father, to tell Him what is on our hearts, and for ourselves, so we can act on our acknowledgement that we are in dire need of Him at all times to live righteously. If our prayers are for wrong motives, the Father will know this. If they are for right motives, then the Father will listen and answer them in His own way and in His perfect time. Yes, Dear Readers, we never have to feel alone when we have deep and abiding faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: O Most High Lord, from the Scriptures [JOB 16: 19-21; HE 8: 1-2; HE 9: 12], You give us a picture of our Lord Jesus, who, as our Advocate and Intercessor, opened the heavenly Holy of Holies to all who believe when He died on the cross for us. The Holy Spirit joins in the work of transmitting our prayers, the ones we are unable to say in words, by "His groans words cannot express" [RO 8: 26-27]. Yes, Dearest Abba, You are aware of all our prayers. There are some of us who think that You are only interested in big issues. But, that is not the truth. You are interested in every detail of our lives, no matter how small and insignificant they seem to us. PS 37: 23-24 reminds of us this. "The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord hold them by the hand." You sent us a High Priest to plead on our behalf who has suffered pain as we do and has endured every temptation that we do [HE 4 :15]. He has empathy that goes far beyond that of any ordinary person. You and Your Son love us so much that You both want a relationship with us that is real and personal. You want to be a part of everything that goes on in our lives. This is not just to judge us, although that day will eventually come, but it is also to offer us love, compassion, patience, peace, consolation, encouragement, direction, and sometimes even a rebuke. You are not trying to defeat us, but just the opposite. You want to give us mid-course corrections for one reason alone: You love us enough that You want us to be perfected, so that one day we can be glorified and brought back to Your side for a blissful life eternal with You and all others who believe. That supernatural bond that You forge between each true believer, Yourself, and all other true believers is wonderful for us. And so, Dear Father, we dedicate ourselves to offering You our lives, our labor, our values, our relationships, our hearts and our souls to Your glory. In an attitude of worship, praise, and thanksgiving, we pray in Christ's holy name. Amen.
Next week, I have been given more to say about preparing ourselves for prayer and its purpose in our lives. I stand in awe that God, Who has so much responsibility, listens to the prayers of lowly, prayers on subjects that some think unimportant, prayers asking for protection from enemies, prayers asking for forgiveness, prayers asked in times of trouble, and prayers of every kind from all kinds of people. Here are some verses to support this assertion. PS 10: 17, "You will listen, O Lord, to the prayers of the lowly; You will give them courage." PS 18: 3, "I call to the Lord, and He saves me from my enemies. Praise the Lord!" PS 86: 5, 7, "You are good to us and forgiving, full of constant love for all who pray to You...I call to You in times of trouble, because You answer my prayers." Just in case we ever get the idea that as believers we are alone [a lie the adversary wants to tell us which we should reject], assimilate the words of PS 145: 18. "He is near to those who call to Him, who call with sincerity." These are such seemingly simple statements, but think of the impact they have on our lives as believers. And imagine, this is hardly all that God has to say about prayer! I have often said that we are a truly blessed people. That is an under-statement! Our God loves each and every one of us, and He is vitally interested in everything that goes on in our lives. From first-hand experience, I can witness to the fact that the sacrifice of His only begotten Son and the gift of the Holy Spirit given to us are only the beginning. When we struggle and suffer, He is battling the evil one right beside us, giving us guidance and encouragement to go on to victory in Christ's name. Our task is to quiet down, so we can listen for Him and offer up our prayers, confident that He is listening for them.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn