2009-08-14
Good Morning Dear Ones,
It fits like a glove to greet you as “Dear Ones,” because the Lord had brought us together in the sharing of our common faith and in adoption by Him as His children [RO 8: 14-16]. For the past few weeks, the Holy Spirit has directed me to write about the keys to righteousness. Now, I am led to go on to a short discussion of the language found in MT 7: 7-12. (This will be with the understanding that this is not my area of expertise, but it’s the Holy Spirit giving me the words to write). If we read MT 7: 7-8 we can focus on the tense used for a minute. “Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to him who knocks.” Here we are looking at a continuous or habitual action. In the Greek, this would be the aorist tense. The bottom line here is that living the Christian life is to be like this, a present, continuous action. It’s not asking you to dwell on the past, but instead to put the emphasis on what is within our power to influence-the present and the future. If we are obeying MT 7: 7-8, we are becoming totally dependant on the Lord. Easy to do-you bet not!
I’ve often brought up that tough subject of our need to submit to God. And, I must do so again here. This is not to nag, but to state the facts as the Holy Spirit presents them to me. Some humans are fiercely independent. The idea of asking for directions from another is not within their comfort zones. Other humans are just as dependant as these others are independent, but they are dependant on the influence and advice of other humans. Both conditions displease God. He wants us to depend on Him, and truthfully, that isn’t easy, nor is it considered “cool” by our society. I’ve been accused of “leaning on a crutch,” in practicing my faith in God, when I was seen depending on Him by the non-believers in my own family. In view of the truth of GAL 5:16-17, which speaks of the opposite nature of things of the flesh vs. things of the Spirit, we must realize that dependence on God means placing things of the Spirit FIRST over its opposite. This does not mean that if our child is ill, all we should do is to pray, as was the case with the parents of an infant with juvenile diabetes who died recently. We must remember that God has imbued certain highly trained individuals to be doctors [healers]. God wants us to be sensible and do what is humanly possible to do, and to pray to Him. The combination often produces remarkable results. On the other hand, we must always include God in every decision we make and everything we do. Total dependence on God in this healthy way leads to living “in Christ” and to being righteousness.
This brings us to one more look at LK 11: 5-13 [MT 6: 9-13, 7: 7-11], Christ’s teaching on prayer. The first part is the Lord’s Prayer, which I hope and pray that all of us have committed to memory by now. MT 7: 7-11 is what we have been looking at in this long, but necessary, discussion on judgment from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. We’ve been told in other places in the Bible, EPH 6: 18 for example, that we must be persistent in prayer for ALL of God’s children. So godly persistence in prayer is a part of this submission to God. The asking, seeking, and knocking of the door is included in that.
An example of a man who has unexpected company late in the evening is given. He then knocks on his friend’s door after bedtime for the loan of some of bread, as he is short of bread to feed his guests. In LK 11: 8, we see an example of that kind of persistence. [Christ speaking], “Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. This is followed by the repeat of MT 7: 7-8, ask, seek, and knock. Now the Lord here is not asking for persistence in everything, only in the things that are godly. Often it’s difficult. We don’t like to be persistent, out of fear of opposition, in helping others to see the errors of their ways. Sensitivity to the situation and the people involved are indeed a part of any persistence in which we should engage. God is not trying to make us meddlers or pests, only that whatever behavior we choose should be done with prayer FIRST and willingness to listen for and take God’s advice. Our consistency should be in godly principle no matter which way we approach being persistent. One more point should be made. It’s an example of what God means here. HE 12: 1-2, “Let us run with persistence the race marked out for us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” We should be persistent in never forgetting the great sacrifice that Christ made for us by taking on the world’s sins to the cross, being buried for three days, and being resurrected as the “first among many brothers” [RO 8: 29]. We can give Him credit for our very salvation! God will let us know if we are in line with Him, how far to go with our persistence, and how to adjust our strategy if that is needed. This is how we can depend on God in the most healthy way.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne with the confidence that You are willing to hear our prayers and answer them with Your everlasting compassion, patience, and wisdom [EPH 3: 12; PS 116:1]. We recognize these characteristics because we don’t have them with the same consistency that You do. And, we want to learn to have them more than we do. To do this, we recognize that we must depend on You. Our heads are bowed to You in reverence; our ears, eyes, and hearts are open to whatever wisdom You wish to impart. Dear Father, we need to know when and how to be persistent, how to make godly judgments in our lives, and how to rightly recognize why You have forged certain relationships between us and others for Your purpose of forwarding spiritual maturity and dependence on Yourself. Your availability to us in prayer and through study of Your word is unmatched by any human friend. You have blessed many people with bringing them into the physical and emotional presence of people who can, by their example, teach this how to depend more on You and to make godly judgments. PS 10: 17, “You will listen, O Lord, to the prayers of the lowly; You will give them courage.” PS 86: 1,5 contains a plea that demands our honesty. “Listen to me, Lord, and answer me, for I am helpless and weak…You are good to us and forgiving, full of constant love for all who pray to you.” PS 86: 7, “I call to You in times of trouble, because You answer my prayers.” In the Lord’s Prayer [MT 6: 9-13] and other places, You have much to teach us on how to pray. Some of this is by the example You set. You ask us to work to expunge sins from our lives. Then, You show us one [of many] benefits to us for that. PS 66: 17-19, “I cried to Him for help; I praised Him with songs. If I had ignored my sins, the Lord would not have listened to me. But God has indeed heard me; He has listened to my prayer.” Dearest Abba, You have a long history of never holding back Your blessings on us who love You, not even Your Son [GN 22: 13-17; JN 3: 16; HE 6: 13-14; 11: 12]. We thank and praise You every day. In Christ’s holy and mighty name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I am led to continue writing on the vertical aspect of righteousness, analyzing LK 11: 5-13 [MT 7: 7-11], from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Asking, seeking, and knocking on God’s door brings us much joy, but for that to happen we must pray to God with patience for Him to respond. That’s where persistence comes in and trust that He will answer our prayers. We also must have to have the discernment to see the answer when it comes. That’s because this answer is often subtle and/or in a form we didn’t expect. One of my joys took several years to come. I had a friend, who I felt was a very godly person. However, she belonged to a denomination which I felt was teaching her inaccurate theology. God kept this friend and I in close contact over a period of at least five years before one day she came to me and asked outright if I had been privately praying for her to see God’s truth. I was quite surprised by this, because I hadn’t said much to her about what I was doing. I told her the truth and then asked her why she was bringing this up. She told me that every time her church repeated the wrongful doctrine, she was having trouble accepting it. She was questioning it and even went to her clergy about it. Their answers didn’t really show her proof positive that the doctrine they believed was the truth. To my amazement, she asked me to continue praying that she would find the truth, and I agreed to do that. After about two more years, she came to me with stunning and totally unexpected news. She had decided to withdraw from the domination she had been raised in and had practiced all her life, and to join one that happened to agree with Biblical truth! I hadn’t prayed for that, only that she should know the truth. And yet, God was willing to go that far to see to it that my prayers and hers were answered. JN 8: 31b-32, “If you obey My teaching, you are really My disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn