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.

True Light and Peace

Coming to the end of a year, a question often arises. Do we look back before looking forward, or do we face only the future closing the door on the past? To answer that question, we must ask another. Is the fear of pain from the past too great to consider when thinking about the new year? Let’s conjecture that looking back helps prepare us for the future and helps us see and experience both joyful and hard times with balance, with peace. How can these be?

Consider what John said in John 1:10. He spoke of Jesus, the “true Light,” when he said, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” The Son existed before He created the world, and yet the world did not know Him. Still, God did not count that against humanity completely. He desired to have a relationship with each person, who though sinful was loved by Him. God’s desire for a relationship led Him to plan a way for each person to receive complete cleansing from sins and renewing of a right relationship with Him. This plan is God’s provision of salvation from sin’s penalty by the pure sin sacrifice of Jesus, His Son, the Light John spoke of in John 1.

John said more in verse ten. He said, “The world did not know Him.” This word “know” comes from the Greek word ginosko. It means to realize something through personal experience. If you recall meeting a person unfamiliar to you, first you may have seen the person, but not known the person’s name. Next you would have heard the name of the person, but not met the person. The following step in an experiential relationship of knowing a person was being introduced to the person or meeting and introducing one’s self to the person. The next step of knowing this new person was to look purposefully for the person where you expected him or her to be, like at school or the shop. The following step would be to call the person to get to know him or her better. Later you may have planned together to go jointly somewhere. As you spent more time together, you learned of the person’s likes and dislikes. You strove to give him or her what he or she liked. Finally, you committed with your heart, mind, body, and soul to be best friends, husband and wife, or some other close relationship. This is what ginosko means. It means a gradual, experiential knowing someone.

Moses taught this same understanding of our verb “to know” to the Hebrews when he returned to Egypt and led them from Egypt to the Promised Land. The word he used was yada. Yada has the same meaning. Moses showed the Hebrews the power of his God when he proclaimed the plagues over Egypt. Next, he showed them the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night telling them it was God’s presence protecting and guiding them. The Hebrews learned to recognize and expect God in those ways. As Moses set up a tent of tabernacle wherever they encamped, the people learned that meeting with God is real. He is as near as your own being and as far away as the heavens. They saw Moses’ face glowing from being in the presence of God’s glory. Moses continued to make God known to the Israelites throughout His forty years as their leader. By the time the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they knew God and covenanted with Him that He would be their sole God and they would be His people. The Israelites came to know God experientially, too.

This understanding of “knowing” is what John meant when he said, “The world did not know Him (Jesus).” Through the Old Testament period, the Jews had the commandments of God, which were to lead them to Him to have a relationship with Him. Still, the Jews often strayed from a relationship with God. They sinned, and He disciplined them. The Israelites enemies captured, scattered, and/or took some of them into captivity. Their national land size decreased. The Israelites worshiped other gods. Finally, during the 400 years before Christ’s birth, silence reigned over the land when no prophets of God spoke for Him to the Israelites. “The world did not know Him.” John was right. Even the Jews did not know Jesus. “Jesus came to His own (the Jews), and they did not know Him,” John said in verse eleven.

We each need to consider our first question and answer it for ourselves. Do we look back before looking forward, or do we face only the future closing the door on the past? Knowing God is not just an intellectual action. It is a response of faith and acceptance of Christ, the One who made God known. When we consider our first question, we must decide if we know God through Jesus Christ. Can you hear His questions?

“Did you know Me when happiness came to you this year? Did you seek Me to thank Me for what I did for you and for being in a relationship with you? Did you seek to use the blessing I gave you for My purposes or did you withhold it?”

“Did you know Me when the dark abyss knocked at your door? Did you seek Me and My will or did you turn your back on Me doubting My love for you?”

In each of these situations, you can do God’s will. What is His will? That we know Him, love Him, and show our love of Him by our obedience to Him. That we glorify Him, not ourselves or what we own, will do, or will become. Oswald Chambers surmised that if we follow God’s will and experience pain, then we are being pulled by other things and God. We are torn in two. Chambers says that comes from lack of trusting God to take care of us. Pain, also, comes to grow us. God allows pain to occur. Sometimes we grow more when walking through pain. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water in the storm, he immediately climbed from the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. While he kept his eyes on Jesus and not the storm-tossed waves, he walked. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he sank. (Matthew 14:22-33)

God allows storms to grow us. We have a choice in how we will approach each storm. Will we trust God and walk while keeping our eyes on Him, or will we take our eyes off God and flounder? How well we know God, ginosko, determines the answer to this question. If you only know God when someone points out what He did, then you might succumb to the storm. If you know God as your personal Savior and have a deep, personal relationship with Him through regular Bible reading and studying, praying, and listening to Bible teaching and preaching, then you will grow stronger in the Lord as you walk with Him. A close relationship with God includes loving Him and doing His will. Paul said in Romans 8:28, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” From this close relationship with Him, trust grows. When trust grows, then the peace of God, given through Christ becomes part of a person’s life through the joys and trials. Jesus spoke of this peace He offers in John 14:27 when he told the disciples He would soon go prepare a place for them. He said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

As we consider the new year coming, we return to our first question. Do we look back before looking forward, or do we face only the future while closing the door on the past? Are you afraid to look back at this year when looking ahead to 2019? Do you only consider the future and slam the door on the past because you don’t want to face it again? If you know God, you do not have to fear the past or the future. You do not have to make resolutions to ensure the upcoming new year is better than this year. Instead, trust God to take care of your new year and your pain from this year. Allow yourself not to be self-sufficient, but to trust in God. How do you do this? How do you trust God with your year and your life? Get to know Him, really know Him. Knowing God starts as an intellectual exercise, but it must go beyond the mind to the heart and soul. Oswald Chambers said, “Belief is a deliberate act of my will, not an intellectual act, where I deliberately commit myself to God and obedience to Him.” (My Utmost for His Highest, December 22^nd) Truly knowing God is a deliberate act of your will. Jesus told us to love the Lord with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Once you begin truly knowing God through seeking Him with your whole being and through belief in Jesus as your Savior, then you trust Him more and receive the peace He gives to every believer.

When you get to the start of the new year, looking back helps you recall where you walked with your eyes on Jesus and where you did not. It helps you gauge your relationship with God so you can grow closer to Him with each day of the new year. Looking back at the last year helps you see where you had peace because of knowing God.  It helps you see where you did not have peace because you tried to manage in your own strength. You can experience peace in the new year when life is stormy and when calm. Knowing and trusting God through Jesus Christ gives peace for all situations.

Are you ready to slam the door on this year thinking next year has to be better? The new year can be better if you seek the Lord to know Him with your heart, soul, and mind, and obey Him. Knowing and trusting God does not mean you will not experience storms. It means you can live with peace during the storms.

Knowing God grows trust and gives peace.

Cake Mix

When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He went to different places, sought different people, and told them to come and follow Him. He ate with people of difference occupations and beliefs, and to all of them He spoke about being in a relationship with the Father. For each of those people whom He met, Jesus explained the great love of God, that He wanted none of them to be lost forever, but to have an eternal relationship with Him. He explained this depth of relationship with the most astonishing verse ever written in the Bible. Jesus said, “God loved the people of the world so much, that He gave His only Son (Jesus), so that whoever believes in Him will not perish forever from a relationship with Him, but will have eternal life with Him” (John 3:16, my paraphrase). God wants no one to be lost to sin and death.

This being the case, that God loves us, you, so much that He sent Jesus to die for you, we realize Jesus’ earthly ministry was very important. Jesus didn’t go to a person and say God loves you, then go away. No, Jesus spent time with the people, especially His disciples. He taught them about having new life. Jesus taught the followers about having a relationship with God. He used His relationship as an example for the people. Jesus prayed the believers would be one, just as He and the Father are one. John recorded this prayer in John 17:21, but please read that whole chapter; it’s important. To be “one,” means to be in a relationship, but not just any kind of relationship. It means to be in a close, life-altering relationship. It requires work on your part. Let’s consider two examples to help us understand the degree of this closeness.

When you first met the person of your dreams, you didn’t go to them and say, “Let’s get married now.” No, you called the person, dated him or her. You spent time with the person and thought about that person often. You may have sent letters or emails, possibly left cards on his or her car or sent flowers. These were ways to deepen your relationship.

Let’s consider another example. When you crave cake, you think of the ingredients and decide which flavor you want to taste. You take the cocoa from the cabinet and put it in the bowl. You add flour, eggs, butter, baking soda, salt, and milk. Now, you have poured all these into the bowl and you step back. There’s still no cake. You might have the right ingredients for cake, but there was no personal effort to mix it so it can become (grow) into what you desire. That’s like going to church, hearing a sermon, listening to some songs, and giving a tithe, but not giving of yourself, putting no personal effort into it. Without applying what you know, like mixing the cake ingredients in the bowl which is adding yourself and effort, your ingredients won’t become a cake. This is the same as having a close relationship with God. You must apply yourself in the relationship-go to Him, read the Bible, worship Him at church, pray to Him regularly, take to heart the sermons and Bible studies you hear, and seek His will. Without your effort to seek God, your relationship with Him won’t grow. You would understand all the right things to do, but you wouldn’t have applied yourself to the effort. Your lack of effort to have a close relationship with God means you do not really love Him.

Jesus realized relationships required effort. He preached about it in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and keep on asking, and it will be given to you. Seek, and keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock, and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.” Jesus spoke about being in relationship with God while he walked with people on earth. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. It requires personal effort; it requires drive to want to have a relationship with God. If you just want to taste the individual ingredients, you are missing the party. The cake is so much better when you mix it and invite some friends. Mix the ingredients of your cake and taste the fruit of your rewards. The fruit of putting in the effort with God is a vital, personal relationship with Him.

Lord, please help us realize having a relationship with You is not about checking the boxes as if faith is a task. It is about being with You, seeking You, and talking to You. Help us add to our faith, hope and love, and with those a desire to be with You.

Philippians 3:1-11 A Devotional

Focal point – 3:7-8 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

Paul had a great love for the Philippians. He sent Timothy there to teach them after he left them. Paul sent Epaphroditus to the Philippian Christians when he was sick and they worried about him. Now, in this brief passage, Paul came to one of the main points of this letter. Impure men, the “dogs” Paul mentioned in verse two, told the Gentile Christians they had to be circumcised to become Christians. In essence, they had to follow the Law of God to become a Christian. Paul commanded the Philippian Christians to “beware of the evil workers.” He wanted them to understand about these impure men and to know something without doubt.

What did Paul want them to know? He told them works of the flesh, anything they did or could do, would not give them salvation. Those “dogs” taught a false circumcision because it was not needed for believers to receive salvation and become children of God. Paul said if anyone had worked and earned that right, it was he. In verses five and six. Paul had been a Jew among Jews. He was high-ranking and yet, his works did not give him salvation from his sins and the penalty of sins. His righteousness according the the Law was blameless. If anyone could have acquired salvation through the Law of God, Paul would have received it. He encountered Christ on the road to Damascus and learned his actions did and would not give him salvation(Acts 9) .

Paul learned he could not have confidence in the flesh to bring him salvation. He said in verse nine righteousness comes through faith in Christ and comes from God on the basis of faith. This means nothing we do can give us salvation from our sins and eternal life with God. When Paul heard and realized this, he counted everything he had ever done as loss. Nothing he owned, no status he acquired, no zealous legal act he did would make him pure and righteousness. Paul counted all these things before his encounter with Christ as loss – worth nothing. These actions could not make him righteous.

What then is valuable? Paul answered this in verse eight. He said, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” He learned a relationship with Jesus Christ is more valuable than anything he could earn, attain, or do because none of them gave him righteousness – a right being, not just a status. Paul said he gave up all earthly things and ambitions for the sake of “knowing Him (Christ) and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death in order that I (he) may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil 3:10-11 [NASB]) All he had was of no value when compared to who Jesus Christ is and what He gives.

Can we say that? Is everything we have done to earn status in society and acquire value on earth worth nothing? Can we say that like Paul did? So many people live their lives to buy things – a new, flashier car or a bigger, grander house. People pursue more education or they attain to higher job positions to gain recognition in society. The challenge though comes where Christ met Paul.

Will you hear God tell you He has provided salvation for you? Do you let your heart respond to something you cannot give yourself, something that requires you to give up control? Paul in his high status and learned state could not give himself salvation. He could only attain to fulfilling his physical needs. Everything he did could not touch his spiritual need – relationship with God and salvation (saving) from his misdeeds/sin. When Christ confronted him, Paul recognized his spiritual need, a part of himself for which he could not provide. He recognized Jesus as the Messiah foretold and his spiritual void in the midst of his physical attainments. Paul realized his sinfulness and need to be made righteous. Only God could give him that. This Messiah, Paul understood, is God’s way of providing permanent redemption and cleansing from sin.

Will you recognize your sinfulness?

Will you recognize Jesus Christ as God’s way to redemption, purity, and relationship with Himself?

Will you count all your things and status in society as loss compared to knowing Jesus Christ as Paul did?

Today is your chance to learn about Jesus Christ,

      hear from His heart, and

           choose to be His disciple.

What will you choose?

Perfect Peace

I have told you these things so that in Me you may have perfect peace. In the world you have tribulation, trials, distress, and frustration, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world and deprived it of its power to harm you.   (John 16:33, AMP) 

These are a few of Jesus’ last words of encouragement before the soldiers took Him as a prisoner. Do we think they are only for those twelve disciples? They are for every one of Jesus’ followers of all time. Nothing Jesus said was just for that moment in time. As God is in control now, was in control in the past, and will always be in control, so Jesus’ words, as the Son of God, are for the past, present, and future. So what does this verse mean for us? Jesus said you will experience trials, distresses, frustrations, and tribulations. He did not say if you have them, but in the world, “you will have.” The world will  affect us. We are definitely going to flounder in this world. Yet, we do not have to go through them alone. Jesus, in verse 7 of this chapter, said He is sending a Comforter, a Helper. That knowledge should bring cheer to us each of us by itself; we retain God-sized help for our daily walk. Jesus said He gives more than this. We will possess cheer and peace, not just any peace but perfect peace. Peace and joy are not things we can find within the world or even within ourselves. They are only found in a relationship with Jesus. We might hold peace for a moment in ourselves when a calm night is with us and when we have completed necessary tasks and our needs are provided. We might say, what need have we for Jesus when we acquired this by our own hands. What about tomorrow, though, when peace is not relative with us, when things are out of your control? Do we possess peace in the midst of the troubles in which we find ourselves? Jesus gives peace for this situation, peace that comes because He has conquered the evil one, the one who is causing our troubles. Satan knows He is beaten; he is just hoping we have forgotten so he can steal our peace from our minds. We must remember we have Jesus as our conquering Savior; He is the provider of perfect peace. This is nothing new. The writers in the Old Testament testified to this peace many times, read Psalms and Proverbs again. Read about the Israelites’ travels to the Promised Land. Peace is here through Jesus, in the past, the present and for the future. We must never fail to remember and believe it comes through Jesus as Conqueror and Savior. Job did not fail to give praise to God and remember from whom his blessings had come in the past. He even went so far as to pray for his friends who appeared to have forgotten this fact and lost their peace. (Job 42:10).    

Now here is the question, are we remembering Jesus blessed us with perfect peace? Are we allowing Satan through his tricks to confound and blind us to the reality of God’s absolute sovereignty, blessing of victory, and perfect peace? Remember, as Isaiah said, “You will guard and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You” (Isaiah 26:3, AMP).