2017-09-29
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As promised, I’ll begin with discussing prayer, as I have been instructed to do by the Holy Spirit. There are many things that can go into our prayers, but all prayer should include: 1) Acknowledgement of God’s attributes and/or deeds; 2) praise and thanks; 3) Scripture; 4) open and honest confession or statement of one’s weakness. In addition, we should have our requests, but only after God has been accurately acknowledged. Some people use the ACTS formula, which is A = acknowledgement, C= confession, T= thanksgiving, and S = supplication, in this order. If a formula like this is used, it’s necessary for us to acknowledge God’s goodness and give thanks before we give Him our requests. That’s a matter of reverence. Believe it or not, every blessing we either have or receive is ultimately from God. Under the circumstances, He wants to know if we understand this or not. This is important enough to Him that the Lord Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer of MT 6: 9-13, which many believers have memorized. We are thus taught how to pray. Prayer said by rote without a genuine heart is not hidden from God. We know this from HE 4: 13, “There is nothing that can be hidden from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before His eyes. And it is to Him that will must give an account of ourselves.”
You’ll remember that I’ve written about the fact that Christ is our Advocate, the One Who presents our cases to the Father. He has also been given the authority to be the final Judge [DN 7: 13-14]. Since God is always righteous and never shirks His part of the Covenant of Grace, we are called upon to not shirk our part of it either. Because of our inherent sinfulness, we often disappoint God or don’t take the time to listen to His direction. He understands that only the Lord Jesus is perfect, and thus, gives us the opportunity to make improvements with His help in our thinking and our lives.
I debated if I should take the time to analyze the Lord’s Prayer, but realize this matters to the Lord. “Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” [MT 6: 9] The word, hallowed, means revered and worthy of our awe. “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done in heaven as on earth.” [MT 6: 10] This is our acknowledgement that eventually Jesus Christ will be the King of all creation. As IS 46: 9-10 teaches us, His Kingdom will come, and His will shall be done. He is the One and only God; there is no other. “Give us this day our daily bread, for forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” [MT 6: 11-12] We beseech God to fulfill our real needs. While it doesn’t say this, we must understand that wants and needs are two very different things. The issue of forgiveness doesn’t deserve short shrift. We must learn to be forgiving; after all, God forgave us. Holding grudges has never served a constructive purpose. Bitterness is sinful. We are reminded about this in COL 3: 13. Forgiving is so important that further teaching about not holding a grudge before presenting a gift to the Lord must be accomplished [MT 5: 23-24]. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…” [MT 6: 13] This sentence is self-explanatory, other than for me to say, the only way to know what is evil and what is not is by God’s opinion of that, not necessarily ours. The only way to find out His opinion is to learn the Scriptures. “Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” This prayer ends with a restatement of God’s authority and rights. Amen is simply another way to cap things off by saying “I believe.”
Of course, there are numerous formulae for prayers, but they should include the instruction He gives us. Read PS 23: 1-6 for yet another prayer that the Lord finds pleasing. Prayer is powerful and those who are offering them righteously know God is listening to them. God has one of three answers to our prayers, “yes,” “no,” or “maybe later.” Gosh how we hate the last two! J But God never gives these unless He always has a righteous reason for His reply. There are times when God will delay His answer, and those are times when, from His much wider perspective, He is waiting for the time to be perfect before granting our supplication, or He is trying to teach us something. He is sometimes willing to have a prayerful conversation with us when teaching us. An example of this came up just before Abraham rescued Lot from Sodom in GN 18: 16-33. God also teaches at times by raising questions for thought, for example, JOB 38: 1-39: 30. I urge you to take the time to read the citations given here with which you aren’t familiar.
PRAYER: O Lord, we stand before You with heads bowed in reverence to let You know we acknowledge Your great power, presence, and knowledge, all so much higher and more righteous than ours. [PR 9: 10] You are the One and only God, the God of our fathers and mothers. We recognize all Your great attributes and courageous deeds. We understand the unselfishness You displayed when You gave Your Son, Jesus, on the cross to bless us. Everything You do is done with wisdom and compassion. While we don’t deserve these blessings, we thank and praise You forever for them. Stay with us always, and guide us to learn by Christ’s example how to worship You, obey You, and establish good relationships with our fellow people. You are a good and generous God; lead us to where we will one day spend eternity with You in sweet fellowship. We offer this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m commanded to review COL 2, which includes some important basics of Christian belief, and then, to see how a prayer can be written from what is learned. As I look back on my own experience with prayer, I can see how the Lord broke through my own lack of experience with and understanding of it. At the beginning, I wasn’t convinced of its power or necessity in my life. I came to the church that I served for the ensuing 27 years, knowing how to write, but not knowing how to pray. I was literate and knew how to use a computer. They asked me to begin and lead a prayer chain! Step by step the Lord taught me how to do this, so requests were sent to me for dissemination to our chain. The church was at 2500 members at the time; as the next 15 years passed by, it grew to 4400. This method of doing this task meant sending out the requests seven days a week, and I was giving up more and more of my own time. Then the Lord led my husband to find “Prayer Engine”-wonderful software allowing people to post and pray on-line on a “pray wall” open to the entire church. This allowed me to gain back the time to knit and crochet for people in crises and to study Hebrew! It’s amazing what the Lord can do that we can’t! Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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