2003-03-14
Good Morning Treasured Ones,
Those of us who know that God is so powerful, supreme, sovereign, awesome, and mighty as He is might be quite intimidated by going into His presence when we pray. God gives us an important message, through Paul in EPH 3: 12, that helps us to put perspective on doing this and reveals God’s heart-attitude. Of course, we are always called upon to be reverent and to honor our Father [EX 20: 3-5, 12]. That is always the case. But, meditate on these words from Ephesians. “In union with Christ and through our faith in Him we have the boldness to go into God’s presence with all confidence.” Paul goes on to beg his readers not to be discouraged because of his suffering for them. If our Father wasn’t the loving Being that He is, He would have us shaking in our boots, scared to death to approach Him. But, this verse shows us that He wants to be accessible and open to our thanks, praise, confession, and supplications. Our God is a lovingly “hands-on” Father, Who will correct us when we need it, encourage us when we are about to do something difficult for us that He has commanded, and Who will put His arms around us when we are suffering or have experienced loss. Through His word, as in this case of how defensive prayer works that we’ve been examining this week, He gives us ample direction and guidance on why what He has asked us to do something or how we might better understand it. Once again, I must cite JN 15: 15-16 which really reveals the heart-attitude the Son (and the Father) have toward those who love them. “I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father. You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so, the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in My name.”
Let there be no mistake, the Father is still very much in charge of our lives, and still has given the Son authority to be the Judge at the time of our final judgment, but this is not a Deity Who despises His charges or Who abuses them. He will still demonstrate His righteousness [RO 3: 26], which is why He brings punishment upon wrongdoers, but this is never done without justice, fairness, and amazingly patient deliberation. Through Paul, He charges us with a great responsibility for our own good in EPH 3: 17-18. “And I pray that Christ will make His home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundations in love, so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love.” This goes right to the heart of that “koininea” bond that I have written about so often. That is the supernatural bond forged by God between the believer, all other believers, and Himself. Christ gives us the new commandment in JN 13: 34-35, “And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are My disciples.” We are truly transformed when Christ is in our hearts, we have closed our spirits to the influence of the forces of evil, and the Holy Spirit has come into our spirits to become the leaders of them. Then, our roots and foundations are in love, and we model the kind of love the Father has for us. Satan hates this, but that’s strictly his problem!
If the “koininea” bond was viewed under a spiritual microscope, it would be seen to be linked by love, trust, and obedience to the Father. EPH 3: 19 gives us further illumination. “Yes, may you come to know His love-fully known-and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.” This is huge! Remember Christ’s words in JN 14: 9 and 11? “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father…Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” Viewed against EPH 3: 19, we too, just as Christ has, are being given the opportunity to be filled with the very nature of God. What a privilege! When we are faithful, that “koininea” bond is so strong that there is no way Satan or any of his followers can break it apart. Because of this and Christ’s death on the cross at Calvary, Satan is so defeated, firmly and permanently. Is it no wonder that Satan is so angry and that he knows his time is limited [REV 12 :12]? We often walk around not realizing the power that Christ has given us to do good and to fend off Satan’s attempts to ruin our lives. Our power goes along with our understanding that God is our supreme and sovereign Father Who simply must be obeyed. However, we can have great confidence in the fact that He will never command us to do anything that isn’t in our best long-term interests. I’m forced to ask: So what if we don’t understand God’s timing at all times? What’s the difference if He asks us to do something that takes us out of our comfortable place? In the overall scheme of things, we must never forget that our Father’s greatest motivation is to bring us all back to Him through Christ. And for what? A life of eternal bliss, fellowship, and peace with Him and all other believers is what He wants for us. And, this life keeps us from suffering eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire and sulfur. Yes, Dear Ones, think about how God is holding You in the shadow of His wings today.
PRAYER: O Lord, we repeat the words of EPH 3: 20-21 to let You know what we recognize today. “To Him Who by means of His power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or ever even thing of: to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever! Amen.” You are an awesome God Who brings things into our lives that can come from no other source-love and goodness. This is what You created us to be, loving and good beings that were made in Your image [GN 1: 27]. Because of wrongdoing on Satan’s part and the parts of his followers, mankind was stained with the sin of the original sin. We had no choice but to sin. But, out of the goodness of Your heart, You extended the grace-gift to us of Your Son’s own suffering and death on the cross. You are omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing). So, You knew evil would happen, and before the creation of the world [COL 1: 19-20; 1 PET 1: 20-21], You decided to send Your Son to serve a public ministry on earth and then to die on the cross as the once-for-all perfect sin sacrifice [HE 10:10], so that we could be saved by coming to faith in Him. You showed us that His death at Calvary defeated Satan in all his attempts to thwart Your plan. Your word provided us with the direction, encouragement, and understanding that we needed to live our lives in Christ and to choose not to sin. Sin no longer holds us as slaves [RO 6: 11] once we are in union with Him. Prayer is our open channel of two-way communication with You, and You encourage us to use it often. You teach us to listen for Your wisdom and commands. You guide the hands of a surgeon, impart wisdom to people who are having problems, give us a better perspective on our lives than we would have, and carry out so many other righteous parental duties for Your children that we can’t count them. Your Holy Spirit lives within those who love You to be our Counselor and Your mouthpiece on earth. With all this in mind, a simple “thank You” seems hardly enough. You know the content of our hearts, and we humbly confess our sins and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
The Spirit leads me to write about what happens when our trust wavers and we allow our demons to keep us from turning to God. So far, we have seen that defensive prayer includes: 1) thanking God first; 2) praising God; 3) knowing God’s plan; 4) asking God for the Spirit’s power. There is more to this list. We can now add: 5) approaching God with confidence that comes from being in union with Christ; 6) having our roots and foundation in love. While we should always honor our Parent and have reverence for Him, we don’t have to feel afraid to go to Him with our burdens. Christ has told us in MT 11: 28-30 that He wants us to put our burdens on Him, and that “His yoke is easy and His burden is light.” The Father and the Son both know that Satan is taking pot-shots at us and is making our lives difficult. And yet, they have told us that even if we lose our physical lives (are martyred), that spiritual death will not be our fate [REV 6: 9-11]. The Good Shepherd doesn’t lose track of a single sheep. He is our Shepherd, and He knows our voices [JN 10: 14-15]. We must never forget that He loves us so much, that He was willing to give up His physical life for us. Remembering that Christ is the second personality of God. Thus, we are assured that this love is from both of them to each of us. Peter and I send each of you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn