2003-02-28
Good Morning Cherished Ones,
Yesterday, I was led to write from my own personal experience with prayer. Today, we need to begin looking at what happens when prayer is neglected. The story from AC 6: 1-4 from the establishment of the early church illustrates the problem. There was no template for the early church to follow, so problems encountered had to be dealt with in the best way the leaders could with the Lord’s help. “Some time later, as the number of disciples kept growing, there was a quarrel between the Greek-speaking Jews and the native Jews. The Greek-speaking Jews claimed that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of funds. So the twelve apostles called the whole group of believers together and said, ‘It is not right for us to neglect the preaching of God’s word in order to handle finances. So then, brothers, choose seven men [deacons] among you who are know to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and we will put them in charge of this matter. We ourselves, then, will give our full time to prayer and the work of preaching.’” Had the apostles spent all their time on financial or other secular matters, would they have had the time to learn and follow God’s will in expanding the early church? Would it have been right to neglect the needs of the widows?
It was clear that both temporal and secular issues had to be faced. The same is true in our own lives. The apostles were faced with a similar problem to what Moses faced long before that in EX 18. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro the Midian priest, came to visit him in the desert, bringing Moses’ wife, Zipporah, and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, who had been left behind. EX 18: 14, “When Jethro saw everything that Moses had to do, he asked, ‘What is all this that you are doing for the people? Why are you doing this all alone, with the people standing here from morning till night to consult you?” Moses explained that he was settling the people’s disputes. From God’s point of view, imagine how that looked. It wasn’t that Moses wasn’t wise, but the problem was the use of his time. Jethro saw this immediately and offered his advise. EX 18: 21-22, “…You should choose some capable men and appoint them as leaders of the people: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They must be God-fearing men who can be trusted and who cannot be bribed. Let them serve as judges for the people on a permanent basis. They can bring all the difficult cases to you, but they themselves can decide all the smaller disputes. That will make it easier for you, as they will share your burden.’” Moses took Jethro’s advise, thus giving himself more time to communicate with God. An interesting question that arises is what would have happened had he not done this. Would Moses have been able to transmit the Law from God to the people later?
The bottom line in asking these questions points up our own need to cling to God and to find some way to balance our need to take care of temporal matters, such as making a living, with our need to remain able to listen for and obey God’s commands. The use of our time is indeed something that matters to God and us. God wants us to take the talents we have been given and apply them to our temporal lives, just as we are to apply them to serving him. But, we must be careful not to be serving two masters. MT 6 :24, “No one can be a slave of two masters; he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Even in the course of our temporal lives, we must serve God, if we are to survive the buffeting that Satan gives us. An important pipeline between ourselves and God is prayer, and it must never be neglected. My own poverty of spirit before I realized this has taught me the foolishness of doing so. At one point in my life, I had enough material gain to feel secure in the home Peter and I owned, able to travel, and without concern that we could put our son through college. Just when I thought my life was complete, a deep, gnawing hunger-one I was trying to ignore-wouldn’t go away. That hunger was for a relationship with my Lord, Jesus Christ, only, I didn’t know it. Overnight, all that material security disappeared. The material security I had felt was like the sins Isaiah speaks of in IS 64: 6. It blew away like “leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind.” I was left to face that profound need, the need for real, honest faith in the Lord, not lip service. Prayer was there for me, and the time had come for me to engage in it, in humility and on my knees.
Our loving Abba comes to the rescue, if we will seek Him out. He did this in sending wisdom to the apostles of the early church, so they would know their need for prayer and preaching, whilst others took care of financial matters in the early church. He did this when He sent Jethro to give Moses the advise to delegate authority to settle people’s smaller differences, so he would have the time to take care of the more serious ones and still have time to listen for His commands through prayer. And, he does this for us, when we have allowed our own lives to get out of balance, and we have not made sufficient time for a personal relationship with Him through prayer. We must examine our own lives to see where we stand about giving enough time for frequent prayer. We must never forget the example that Christ set for us in remaining in close contact with the Father.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You today so very imperfect and so much in need of Your wisdom. 1 COR 1: 21, 27-30 says it all. “For God in His wisdom made it impossible for people to know Him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe…God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and He chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful. He chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world thinks is important. This means that no one can boast in God’s presence. But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By Him we are put right with God; we become God’s holy people and are set free.” Dearest Abba, You sent the Son to serve a ministry on earth, to suffer and die on the cross, and to be resurrected to Your side in heaven. This was no empty gesture. He became our High Priest who could empathize with our troubles, could transmit Your wisdom to us through the Holy Spirit, and could open the heavenly Holy of Holies to us [HE 4: 15, 8: 1-2, & 9: 12]. He is our Advocate and Intercessor. HE 4: 16, “Let us be brave, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.” You know well what our imperfections are, and You allow Satan to present challenges to our faith, so that by working through them, we are able to mature and correct them. Nothing that Satan does is without Your ultimate, righteous, and compassionate limits. We are honored to be Your servants and to seek You out often in prayer for Your direction. In humility, we come to You with the confession of our sins and to offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and praise forever. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will begin to see how we cling to God in the course of spiritual warfare, using Paul’s pleas in EPH 6: 18-20 as an example. Several days ago, The Spirit led me to JAS 1: 5-8, a citation I’m led to repeat here which reveals God’s attitude about sharing His wisdom. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should pray to God, Who will give it to him; because God gives generously and graciously to all. But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blow about by the wind. A person like that, unable to make up his mind and undecided in all he does, must not think that he will receive anything from the Lord.” The One and Only God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob loves us so much that He has called us to prayer, so that He can encourage us that we have been empowered to fend off the doubts Satan sends us and that He is eager to share His wisdom with us. How much more love can there be than God’s love for His children? Peter and I send each of you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn