2019-12-13
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I’m commanded to begin with citing COL 4: 1-4, [Paul writing], “Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God. At the same time pray also for us, so that God will give us a good opportunity to preach His message about the secret of Christ. For that is why I am now in prison. Pray, then, that I may speak as I should, in such a way as to make it clear. Be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone.” There are plenty of supporting Scriptures for these notions. For example, 1 PET 3: 15-17, God speaking through Paul, “But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor Him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you about the hope you have but do so with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are insulted, those who speak evil of your good conduct as followers of Christ will be ashamed at what they say. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if this is God’s will for them for doing evil.”
Before discussing persistent prayer, I must comment on how remarkable it is that a small 4-chapter book [Colossians] can have enough didactics (teaching) in it that it finds support all over the Scriptures and enough topics for discussion for me to write 195 devotions and counting! Now, let’s look at prayer’s importance to us. 1 THESS 4: 16-18 tells us, “Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.” 1 THESS 4: 23-24, “May the God Who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being -spirit, soul, and body- free from every fault in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you will do it, because He is faithful.” We see here the repetition of the message to pray persistently and for us to remain faithful to Christ’s teaching. These messages are combined with a reminder that God Himself is faithful in being there for us. I see prayer as our open channel to and from God, one that is open at all times for the believer and genuine seeker alike. God knows we have challenges and temptations throughout our earthly lives. He knows we need Him, so the question is: do we as individuals and congregations know that? If we are open and honest with God, He hears every prayer we offer. It is Christ, Who brings these supplications, praise, thanks, and assertions to the Father. He is our Advocate! It is the Father, Who decides what His response will be. Our task is to pray for our needs (as opposed to wants) and to listen for the many ways God might respond to them.
Let me share a short experience from my own life in how this has applied to it. When some of the girls in my middle school gym class realized I was Jewish, they decided to swipe my purse and push me to the floor when I tried to retrieve it. They hurled mean-spirited epithets at me. At the time, I hadn’t matured in the faith and believed there was no such thing as God. I came to the end of myself as one of the girls held me down and punched my face. By then, the gym teacher had heard the commotion and put the puncher off of me. She demanded the girls involved return my purse and stop this fighting immediately, and they obeyed her angry command. My nose was bleeding, and the teacher gave me my purse, told me to finish getting dressed, and sent me to the nurse’s office. I never had any satisfaction in hearing what she said to the girls involved in this anti-Semitic and violent behavior. The school nurse was able to show me how to stop my nose bleed and calmed me down, as I had been in tears. She told me I must not exact retribution in any way and should remain dignified and respectful. I was too young to realize that this lady was following the teachings of Jesus Christ. It was difficult to return to that gym class the next day, but I obeyed her very wise advice. Later, I realized that there is most definitely a God, One Who loves me! As I have mentioned before, I later came to know that the Lord has always had me in His sight. It took the first 25 years of my life to recognize He is with me and others around me. When I learned to pray, I rehearsed incidents from my past in which the Lord had intervened and how patiently He waited for me to wake up from the miasma of my unbelief.
For a number of years, I worked for “In Search of Shalom,” an organization based out of Toronto, Ontario which puts people with questions about God together with trained volunteers, who witness to their faith. I mention this, because I particularly wanted the seekers in the computer chats (in real time) to learn to get in the habit of praying. What a difference it made when a seeker appealed to God for faith in Yeshua [Jesus]! After all, He is the only One Who can bring a person to faith in the first place. My job was to lead the seekers to Him, not to act as if I could bring them faith. I used my working knowledge of the Scriptures to let Him answer their questions. Prayer is an essential to any witnessing we do.
PRAYER: Dearest Father, You have taught Your Son, Jesus, that You wouldn’t abandon Him permanently. This happened at the time He was arrested, put through a kangaroo court, scourged/humiliated, and went to the cross. While Your connection to Him was made distant for a time, You never abandoned Him or us. RO 8: 39, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither the world above or the world below.” You carry out Your plan of salvation for each believer and have even decided, according to RO 11: 25, that there will be a day when the stubbornness of the Jews will be over, that they too will recognize Your Son, Jesus, is the Messiah for Whom they have searched so long. Your desire is for us the place Your Son at the center of our lives, as a full-time Resident of our homes and congregations. There is such joy in knowing that any day of the year, any time of a day, we can pray to You, as we do now, and know that You really care about us and will listen. We ask You to retrain Your Spirit in our hearts and souls, to keep us motivated to overcome our sinful natures and learn to obey Your teaching. We are eager to listen for Your responses to our prayers and to come to You first when we are troubled or want to share a victory. We praise and thank You for blessings bestowed on us beyond expectation. We are dedicated to counting those blessings, rather than complain about our sorrows. There are times when we simply don’t understand Your big picture in making some of the decisions You do, and we hope You will explain what You can to us about those times. If You can’t, then give us the power to trust You then and always. This prayer is offered in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: There is more to share of what the Holy Spirit gives me about prayer and witnessing, and that will be in next week’s message. We’ll look at keeping alert, laboring in prayer, and the place prayer should have in our lives. If space permits, I am commanded to write about how sin is the enemy of “shalom” [peace]. Prayer is enormously helpful in calming us down amidst our challenges and losses. It reminds us that we are not alone, nor are we dependent on other humans, who are not always faithful in keeping their promises to us. We have a God, Who loves us extraordinarily and wants what is best for us eternally. I will end this devotion with a favorite passage of mine, PS 40: 1-3. “I waited patiently for the Lord’s help; then He listened to me and heard my cry. He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a Rock and made me secure. He taut me to sing a new song, a song of praise to our God. Many who see this will take warning and will put their trust in the Lord.” Indeed! Praise and thanks to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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