2006-01-13
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Once again, I am led to write about making God-pleasing changes and in particular about what prayer does. Everyone needs direction in his life. That direction can come from many sources, but only one Source will led to righteousness. That ultimate Source is the Lord. Others may give us wise advice, but even that wisdom ultimately comes from the Lord. Otherwise no good can come of it. PS 16: 2 reflects an understanding of this. "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord. Every good thing I have comes from You." In considering direction, it would help us to understand it's importance in our lives by what happens to one's life without it. Sadly, I can write chapter and verse from my own experience. I grew up selfish in a family of selfish people. My father and later, even my own mother, were late in getting constructive direction in their lives. They both ended up with my father as well-liked military physician who retired to private practice after his years in the military. My mother was frustrated in her education, not being able to finish university and ending up working on medical insurances in his office. That left their angry and arrogantly selfish daughter to take care of our household of six [I have three older brothers], cooking, and doing other chores with resentment. I allowed my resentment to turn to running around with the wrong crowd, doing vandalism, and eventually doing an "overnight" in juvenile hall.
The kind of direction that everyone needs is the kind that comes from having faith in the Lord and establishing an active and dynamic communication with Him through study of His word and prayer- His favorite ways to reveal Himself. Once I did come to faith many years later, God wasted no time in blessing my life. A large part of that blessing was learning to look at the challenges of my life from a godly perspective-something totally opposite to that of the world [GA 5: 17]. When we make God's agenda our own, we accept His invitation for us to join Him in His work and we are richly blessed through our experience working with Him. It's nothing short of amazing that God loves us so much that we are created tailor-made for the tasks He will give us to do in our lives. I never tire of reading and considering EPH 2: 8-10, "For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do." Think about it; our awesome God has the power to create us for a task and fit us for it before we are ever born. For an example, look at what He says to a youthful Jeremiah at the time of his commissioning as a prophet. JER 1 :4-5, "The Lord said to me, 'I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.'" Jeremiah couldn't have heard what God said had he not been listening. I've often said about myself that I was totally unaware of the Lord's presence in the early part of my life. Why? Because I didn't know to look for Him or listen for Him. Nowhere in this discussion have I said our challenges will be easy, for the Lord doesn't promise us that. But, He does promise us that if we will trust in Him, we will come through them and be sanctified by them. Never forget 1 COR 10: 13, "Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps His promise, and He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, He will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out."
Another function of prayer is to let us focus on God alone at times. I've found a great need for that in my own life and think others make that discovery too. There have been some times when God has purposely allowed the rest of what is going on where I am to fade away, so as to direct my attention to what He wants to say to me. He has even awakened me in the middle of the night when He felt the occasion demanded it. His love for us is so great that we are told in PS 145: 14, 17-19, "The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who bow down...The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made; the Lord is near to all who call on Him. He fulfills the desires of all who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them." John expressed his confidence in God in 1 JN 5: 14, "The is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask for anything according to His will, He hears us." Paul tells us in RO 12: 12, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." When we pray we come to One Who delights 'To give what is good to those who ask Him' [MT 7: 11]. I can't in all conscience end today's message without including this essential information God imparts to us: 1 TIM 2: 1-4, "I urge you then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone-for kings an all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God, our Savior, Who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." The truth He wants us to know is that we can look forward to a blissful eternity of proximity to Him and sweet fellowship if we will choose to center our lives around Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, You sent Your Son to us to serve a ministry on earth and to give us the wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount. This was done as one of many acts to express Your love for us and to help us to face the challenges of our lives doing things that please You. EPH 1: 4-5, "Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be His through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without guilt before Him. Because of His love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ He would make us His sons-this was His pleasure and His purpose. The best measure we can have of the depth of Your love for us is reiterated in EPH 1: 6-8, "Let us praise God for His glorious grace, for the free gift He gave us in His dear Son! For by the death of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, which He gave to us in such large measure!" Dearest Abba, You have allowed us to experience the depths of despair when we lose loved ones and watch people wither away from diseases like cancer. But, You have also given us mountain top highs when a child graduates from college, we get that long-awaited promotion on the job, or we are blessed by the service of a missionary bringing Your beloved Son to a place where He hasn't been welcomed before. Throughout all of this Your word endures. 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." We know from other things said in the Bible that this does not mean that our lives are unimportant to You. Instead, You have written our names in the palms of Your hands [IS 49: 16]. You have redeemed us and summoned us by name, calling us Your own children [IS 43 :1b-3; RO 8: 14-16]. We are indeed Yours, Lord, and we worship, adore, thank, and praise You forever. In Christ's holy name, we pray. Amen.
Before yawning and thinking "Oh, not again," the Holy Spirit is leading me to begin a new discussion next week on the Lord's Prayer. MT 6: 9-13 is one of the clearest and most important lessons on how to pray that the Father gives us through the Son in the Sermon on the Mount. My personal promise is to look at this from a different context than the last discussion, one that will allow us to have a deeper drink into this marvelous passage with which to quench our spiritual thirst. It is my hope that none of us will ever recite these words learned by rote again without being deeply moved by the lessons they teach. If each of us is incapable of feeling the warmth of God's love so evident in His love letter to us, the Bible, we are becoming jaded by the world. His love is so evident that it's palpable. Nowhere have any of us ever found another book which can have such supernaturally transforming ability. I've spent the last 40 years going back over and over again through its pages, and each time I return to a verse or passage, I learn something new from it. God compounds this transforming experience through prayer. Even this "hard nut to crack" has become acutely aware and comforted by God's interest in every detail of our lives and the warmth of His constant and loving presence. He and He alone can take us from anger, resentment, and arrogant destructiveness to a life of peace and salvation. That is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, my Yeshua HaMeshiah Adonai [His name in Hebrew], Who pulls us out of the darkness of slavery to sin into His marvelous light [1 PET 2: 9].
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn