Thoughts on Prayer and Its Necessity

 

The Bible is filled with hundreds of passages on prayer. Because communication is so important for any relationship and people were created for relationship, prayer is integral to our being and to being in a relationship with God. 

Without daily prayer, we are like a plant that has no source of nutrients. We wither, turn inwards on ourselves, die, and become dust tossed about by every wind.

Prayer is the source of our nutrients, a channel of food, that grows us upward in our relationship with God, inward in our estimation of ourselves, and outward in our relationship with other people. 

Without relationship with God grown through prayer, we gain no guidance in our purpose of being alive. 

Our redemption by Jesus comes from His relationship with the Father and His sacrifice to have relationship with us. 

Our hearing God’s voice and being saved comes because of prayer and through our prayer of acceptance and confession of sins.

If we don’t pray, we cut off that which Jesus gave His life for—relationship with Him, and we negate the meaning and method of our salvation. Then we die a martyr to this world and have an eternal destiny without God.

Prayer is vital to our lives as Christians.

Peace, Be Still

 

The dimming of one candle,

The sparkling of another.

Winds pass,

They caress and blow.

Yet the still, soft whisper speaks to me.

 

“Peace be still,

All is well.

By My voice, all things live and move.

By My plan, all things pass away.”

 

Pain may grip the heart for a day or more.

Soon replaced with the joy of life.

 

The winds pass over the waters.

A froth or wave may crest.

Still, the Lord’s voice,

His hand upon it rests.

 

No breath, no star, no night, or day

Bursts through except as the Lord ordains.

No sun, no storm, no awakening, or sleep

Erupts from its slumber, except as the Lord speaks.

 

Nothing passes or surprises God almighty.

He gives His peace in the storm and joy for each day.

Whether the dimming flicker of one candle or the sparkling of a new,

God is with us as we embrace the passing winds,

Whether flowing rambunctious or calm with life imbued.

 

“Peace be still,

All is well.

By My voice, all things live and move.

By My plan, all things pass away.”

Give it up to Get it All

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” Luke 14:28 [NASB]

Christ calls us to give up everything-family, friends, and possessions-and be built upon Him, our Foundation. We are to make Him our foundation and the spring from which we get everything we need to live and work as we answer His call, "Come follow Me."

Following Christ means giving up our right to ourselves. He gives us new life through the salvation He gives. When we have new life through Christ, we have all things we need because He is our fount of life. Jesus said I am the Living Water in John 4:10. His water never dries up. We can know we will always have enough of whatever we need.

Jesus is all we need. We can trust Him and build our lives upon Him as our foundation. We can give up everything including our right to ourselves because He is our All-in-All. We lack nothing when we answer Jesus' call to follow Him. Jesus gives us enough to finish every task to which He calls us when we give Him our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have nothing, yet possess all things because Jesus is our River of Living Water.

Jesus commanded Simeon and Andrew “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 [NASB]

Paul told the Corinthians, “Commending ourselves as servants of God…as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.” 2 Corinthians 6:4 & 10 [NASB]

Will you give up your life to get everything you will ever need?

Will you accept Jesus’ gift of salvation and let Him be your All-in-All?

Lord, I give my life to You, then when I run into a problem, I want to take it back. Lord, I often forget You are my foundation and my Living Water. You are enough and will provide for my needs. Forgive me my small faith and wanting to take control. Make me faithful. Remind me You are the Source of everything I need for life and ministry. You are my All-in-All. Thank You for Your patience and forgiveness.

Romans 5:20b - 6:14 A Devotion

5:20 Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. [NASB]

Points to consider from this passage –

1. God’s grace is greater than the amount of sin people commit. His grace abounds. He gives righteousness for every sinner to cover all their sin through Jesus Christ.

2. Does that mean we can keep on sinning because God’s grace will forgive us no matter what? It is your decision to live the life Jesus Christ died to put into you.

a.    If you continue to sin because you say grace will always cover you, you are making yourselves slaves to sin again instead of living the freedom Christ gives to you through His resurrection.

b.    When we accept God’s gift of grace, we accept forgiveness and salvation as well as newness of life – escape from the old life of sin, which entangled us in sin from which we could not escape on our own. This new life is united with Christ Jesus so we have the power of Christ to overcome temptations and sin to be free from the entanglements in which Satan wants to keep us.

c.    So we understand since Jesus Christ rose from the dead to which Satan thought he banished Him with crucifixion on the cross and since we have accepted His gift of grace and salvation which gives us new life, we know we, too, are raised from the dead and are no longer slaves to sin and the resultant death it brings to us.

d.    We have the power to beat Satan and His schemes. We are alive to God in Christ Jesus.

e.    So do not obey sin and its lust so that it continues to reign in your earthly bodies, but give yourselves to God as alive from the dead. With God, sin will not be master over you.

3. Then we can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God that though you [I was] were slaves of sin, you [I] became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you [I was] were committed [the teaching that enslaved you to sin], and having been freed from sin, you [I] became slaves of righteous [which is freedom and results in sanctification, the being made holy and pure by God].”

Considering this passage from Paul and knowing he spoke the truth as revealed by God and experienced by himself, will we continue to choose to sin after we have been freed from it, from its enslavement. Make no mistake, choosing to sin imprisons you. One step towards it leads to another and then another, then you become blinded to the truth of God by Satan’s deceptions. Do not make that mistake. Take on the new life Christ died to give you, the life of truth, grace, love, and life. Do not let sin entangle you, then you can give thanks to God as Paul gave thanks to God for the Roman Christians who gave their lives to Christ. The life Christ died to give you is the taking on of His freedom of sin and receipt of eternal life as well as His attributes. It is the becoming more life Christ with each day. We each have to choose whether we will accept this gift from God or if we will continue to walk in the blindness of Satan and sin still more.

What will you choose –

God’s love, grace, forgiveness, and eternal life through Jesus Christ, who gives freedom from sin

or

Continuing in your old life of sin, which leads to slavery to sin/Satan and death?

Choose life. Choose freedom from sin.

Choose to live the new life Christ died to give you.