2009-08-21
Good Morning God’s Treasures,
We have been examining the vertical aspects of righteousness from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, concerning making judgments. Today, let’s look at the comparison between MT 7: 7-11 [the passage about ask, seek, and knock] and LK 11: 5-13 [Christ’s teaching on prayer from Luke]. There are many similarities between these two passages, but we can gain a better understanding by looking at them carefully. LK 11: 5-13, begins with the example of going to a friend’s home at midnight and asking him to let you borrow three loaves of bread. You tell him another friend who is on a trip has just come to visit, and you are short of bread. If your friend with the bread says, ‘Go away and don’t bother me,’ well, what then? Even so, because he is your friend, he may give in, if you persist, and give you everything you need. Why? Because you were not ashamed to ask! LK 11: 9, “And so I [the Lord Jesus] say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you…” Then, another example is given. This time it deals with what you would give to your child. LK 11: 13, “As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for Him!”
A lot of questions occur. For example, why do we have these special relationships with other believers that are called friendships? The reason is surely not to produce opportunities to take advantage of each other. That’s would be something the devil might do, but not God. I think the real reason is so that we can care for each other, help spiritually mature each other, and to enjoy the company of each other. Now, those are things that would come from our Lord! Are we our brother’s keepers? You bet we are, and I mean this in the most emotionally and spiritually healthy way it can be. How do we judge what’s healthy? By the model that our Lord Jesus sets for us. Let’s turn to one more question. If a real friend needed something, would we hold back from helping him get what he needs? Of course not! Our real friendships involve setting a comfort zone in which your friend would not be ashamed to ask for your help. After all, the way to have good friends is to be a good friend. Seeking God’s wisdom in providing the help requested of us really matters. JER 29: 12-13, “Then you will call to Me. You will come and pray to Me, and I will answer you . You will seek Me, and you will find Me because you will seek Me with all your heart.” Yes, God is not hiding from us and is pleased when we have the sense to ask for His advice. We can pray PS 51: 6, “Sincerity and truth are what You require; fill my mind with wisdom.” That way, we will be directed to the best way to help our friend in need.
God knows our hearts, so He knows when we are being genuine. We know from the experience of the Psalmist in PS 116: 1 that “God hears our prayers and answers them.” Let me share my own experience from being the leader of a large prayer chain. The Lord really keeps His promises from JN 15: 7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it.” I’ve joined our prayer servants in asking for some pretty huge things. Two people I know had been diagnosed with Amyelogenous Leukemia. This is a nasty form of this blood cancer, and believe me, not all people given this diagnosis survive. Over as long as a year or more, we followed these two people’s progress, as they went through chemotherapy and all the adverse side effects it produces. We prayed to the Holy Spirit- a really good thing to do- and both of them survived. I can’t say that all our prayers get answered in the way we would like. There are indeed times when a person is being called home to heaven, that God makes that so. And when this happens, we always have the assurance that God’s decisions are righteous and in the best eternal interests of the person involved.
In such a case, the human believer, not even a doctor, makes the decision. God does, and He does it out of His unparalleled goodness! PS 31: 19, “How wonderful are the good things You keep for those who honor You. Everyone knows how good You are, how securely You protect those who trust You.” We must never take for granted that God is the Source of all good on this earth. He is generous and loving toward those who have reverence for Him. After all, He gave His only Son to suffer on the cross and die, because of our sins. Then, He resurrected Him as the “first among many brothers” [RO 8: 29], so that we who believe can be saved from spiritual death [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. There is a lesson for us in minding the boarders God has set up for judgments-learning when it’s His right only or the times when He wants us to make godly judgments ourselves. Our Lord Jesus has more lessons in MT 7: 7-11 and LK 11: 5-13: 1) Seek Him out first in prayer; 2) be persistent [EPH 6: 18]; 3) do not be ashamed to persist in prayers with godly motives; 4) understand that God is amazingly generous [PS 24: 1]. It might not hurt to be reminded that “nothing is impossible for God” [MK 10: 27]. Always remember He loves us-each and every one.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You in humble reverence to acknowledge Your great deeds and attributes. You are a loving, wise, and compassionate God, One Who is supremely generous with us. We acknowledge that whatever good there is on earth, it comes from You alone. PS 16: 2, “I said to the Lord, ‘Your are my Lord. Every good thing I have comes from You.’” Your Son, Jesus Christ, showed us during His ministry on earth what humility, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and righteousness are, by His example. We seek You for the help we need to make wise, godly judgments as He did and for setting His example in our own lives. You have not given up on patience or help when we have been sinful. You wait until the perfect time that will produce the maximum impact on us in giving us Your mid-course corrections that we need. You have told us, in JN 6: 39-40, that Christ’s first priority is our redemption. You have told us it is Your mission too, in EPH 1: 4-5. A friend shared this acronym, one You may appreciate. GRACE = God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Your generosity can’t be missed, if we keep our eyes on You. You make us a blessed people when we put Your agenda first in our lives and live by the example Christ has set. With hands raised, we will “cry to the God of heaven Who does such wonders for me” [PS 57: 2]. Once again, Dearest Abba, we ask for Your intervention in answer to our prayers, when we must make a difficult judgment concerning our relationships and other matters. Help us to understand the lessons that Your Son has for us in these passages being compared today. We promise to return to them in different contexts, because we recognize that supernatural trait of the Bible, which is that you can return to the same verses over and over again, and there will be new lessons for us in them every time. To You alone and not to any other person, do we offer up praise and thanks for Your amazing availability and superior wisdom! You are a loving, compassionate, and supreme God! In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Next week, I am led to continue with more amazing lessons for us from MT 7: 7-11 and LK 11: 5-13. In the meanwhile, we need to examine our own habits when needing to make judgments. Many of us understand the importance of having a very active, dynamic prayer life. We also have to stand up to people who wrongfully judge us for this habit. God has promised each of us that we have the same strength to battle in spiritual warfare that He used to raise Christ from death to eternal life [EPH 1:18-20]. That is tremendous strength that believers often forget they have been given. We should learn to “speak the truth in love” as Christ’s “ambassadors” [EPH 4: 15; 2 COR 5: 20]. But we must stick to our guns in our response to opposition and insults that might come our way. We must also realize that faith, truth, salvation, righteousness, readiness to witness, the word of God, and prayer-God’s whole armor [EPH 6: 10-18] are always here for us to do battle with in the face of these trying times. These are part of God’s blessings to us, given at the time we accepted His Son, Jesus Christ, as our personal Savior and repented of our sins. So, we don’t stand alone in our trials, because we are essentially on God’s team, the one that wins in the end. Be comforted, consoled, and pleased by this. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn