Category Archives: Prayer

Daily Struggles of Life, Divorce, Healing, Marriage, Prayer, Reconciliation, Repentance, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, Struggles

Holding the Ropes

Posted by admin on August 21, 2010 at 10:34 am.

And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ (Eph 1:9).

 

                Some friends of mine are struggling in their marriage, and there is a possibility of divorce. It is a stain upon the God that we believe in and Who revealed Himself in Christ that Christian people get divorced. Just like the four men that lowered their paralytic friend to Jesus in Mark 2, I am going to “hold the ropes” for my friends and call upon God to bring real healing and reconciliation. After all, the whole purpose that He came was to reconcile men to God and each other (Eph 2:14-18). To that end, I am praying through the book of Ephesians for them, confident that since the Scriptures are His revealed Truth, He is more likely to answer prayers based upon them than those that are based just simply on my own ideas.

 

                The verse above guides my prayer today. First, I want God to reveal “the mystery of His will” to them. While He has made it known in some ways, my friends haven’t fully grasped that His will is reconciled relationships. The reconciliation that we enjoy with God through Christ is to be extended to human relationships as well. Just as we necessarily must be humble in our dealings with God the Father, so we must exhibit humility in our human relationships as well. When there is the threat of divorce, someone, at least, is allowing pride and self to govern their lives.

 

                The second aspect of my prayer is that they would realize the purpose God has for their lives. He brought them together; they recognized that it was His will that they marry; and they vowed before Him to stay together through all of life’s troubles. Now they think they want to renege on that vow. Is God’s purpose for our lives something that changes with every whim of emotion? Certainly not, but their children might think so if Satan wins this and they divorce.

 

                Now, divorce is not the ultimate or unforgivable sin. But it is a concession to our weakness and not His perfect plan. And since it is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His Church, Satan delights to step in and suggest that our Lord is not Who He claims to be when He can’t keep His own children together in a covenant of marriage.

 

                I have no guarantee that these friends won’t divorce, but I can’t let Satan win without a fight. Perhaps a key to their reconciliation will be when they realize His larger plan and purpose for their lives. Tomorrow, I’ll read further in Ephesians and pray about the ideas that are included in the next few verses of the text. Perhaps you would join me…  

Bewilderment, Daily Struggles of Life, Doubt, God's care, God's goodness, Humility, Perseverance, Prayer, Psalms, Scripture, Struggles, Suffering, hardship

The Trust Fund

Posted by admin on August 18, 2010 at 4:06 pm.

 

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you (Ps 31:19).

 

                Unanswered prayer is the grief of many Christians today. There are usually no answers to the questions of “Why does He delay to answer me? Doesn’t He see how much I am suffering?”

 

                As one who has wrestled with these questions many times, I have taken great comfort in Psalm 31:19. It seems that the Lord has a “savings account” of His goodness toward me that I will one day be able to cash in. Perhaps a better illustration would be a “trust fund,” because it is an account that cannot be drawn from whenever I would like. Someone else determines when I will receive it.

 

                To access this “trust fund” of God’s goodness to me I must exercise the same kind of faith that a child with a financial trust fund would exercise. It is only a matter of time before I will receive my store of God’s blessing. I must trust that the Word of the One that is managing this fund is true. The only difference is that the time for me is uncertain while the child will know when his inheritance will be given to him.

 

                While I am waiting for the display of His goodness the verse tells me the two things I must continue to do: fear Him and take refuge in Him. These are not passive, but active verbs. “Fear” carries the idea of seeking Him wholeheartedly, rather than in just a perfunctory way. “Taking refuge in Him” is an admission of our own weakness and inadequacy.

 

                Some believe that this verse suggests that the display of God’s goodness to us will be apparent to all at the Judgment, but my opinion is that the phrase, “in the sight of men,” is that it will be here on earth, just at a later time. David had earlier stated, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Ps 27:13).

 

                The Lord has His goodness in store for those who trust Him. We don’t always understand why He tells us that we must wait, and it sometimes distresses us when people around us are looking for external evidence of His reality, but He has His purposes, and those purposes are perfect.

 

                Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;

                Stoop to my weakness mighty as Thou art, And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

 

                Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh; Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear:

                To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh, Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

(George Croly, 1780-1860)

Daily Struggles of Life, Discipleship, Faith, Maturity, Power, Prayer, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, fasting

Spiritual Warfare

Posted by admin on June 23, 2010 at 2:53 pm.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12).

                Apparently my life is too entrenched in the physical world that surrounds me, because this verse always strikes a chord with me. Reading this, along with Ephesians 3:9-10, I am reminded that there is an unseen spiritual presence that somehow impacts the affairs of men that I can see. What the connection is between the spiritual world of “principalities and powers” and our physical world of personal survival, caring and rearing our families, standing for Truth in the political world and promoting Christ is impossible to understand. Perhaps one day when this life is over, we will understand it.

                In the verses that follow Ephesians 6:12, Paul speaks about the spiritual armor that we are to don as believers in this battle, but there is another passage that speaks about the weapons that we are to use. That passage is II Cor. 10:4-5 which tells us that our weapons are spiritual and can pull down the strongholds (in the spiritual world) that are impossible if we only see this as a world of space and time. The weapons to which Paul refers are, of course, prayer and fasting. Some might include giving since Jesus included this in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6).

                These “means of grace” (to use the term employed by the Reformers) are mysteries to most of us. Why does God need us to pray when He already knows what He wants done and has the power to accomplish it? Why did the ancients consider fasting to be a way “to make your voice heard on high”? Isn’t that what prayer itself does? If our Lord owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” and “the wealth of every mine,” why does He command us to give?

                The answers to these are bound up in the reality that “our warfare is not against flesh and blood…” Somehow, what we do when we pray, fast and give impacts the spiritual world in ways that we will never completely understand while we are in this life. Certainly the practice of these disciplines creates a growth component for our lives here that will be satisfying while we remain on this side, but God’s purpose is much greater even than that. Somehow we make a difference in the unseen world, and the unseen world affects what happens around us. That’s why Psalm 149 can say that it is the glory of God’s people to pray and to impact the political world in far-away places (see vss. 6-9).

                These spiritual disciplines can become wearisome to us at times, but we must continually feed on the Scripture to keep the truth before us that even if we cannot see visible results from these disciplines, they are effective in the unseen world.

Daily Struggles of Life, Prayer, Purpose, Scripture, Struggles, hardship

Prayer’s Content

Posted by admin on June 3, 2010 at 10:18 am.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph 3:16-19).

                Prior to almost any group session of prayer, it is the usual custom to ask the group for specific requests that should be prayed for. Typically these requests include a relative’s minor physical ailment or an acquaintance or family member that has become involved with a vice of some sort. There is nothing wrong with praying for these things. God is concerned for every care that weighs down our hearts.

                But when we read the New Testament we see a completely different content to Paul’s prayers than ours. The prayer quoted above (and it is representative of many others) is not concerned with relieving the temporal physical needs of individuals. Paul seemed to know that if his Ephesian friends understood how great is the God we serve, the minor physical needs would take care of themselves. The goal of his prayer seems to be closer to the formation of the likeness of Christ in his friends than it is to the relief of some physical pain.

                Now we all understand that there are times when a physical malady inhibits our service to Christ, so it is appropriate to pray about that physical malady. But why not rather make the focus of our prayer to be the restoration to fruitful service or to the accomplishment of the internal qualities that God may be seeking to develop rather than simply the relief from physical suffering?  An outsider might properly get the impression that our first and foremost concern is freedom from pain and difficulty. This was not the kind of prayer that Paul modeled for us in the New Testament.

                Here’s a challenge: identify an individual for whom you regularly pray. Then find a passage of Scripture that describes what you think God wants to accomplish in that person’s life. For example, since I want my son to take the Truth he has been taught and apply it more fervently to his life, I pray “that the eyes of his heart be enlightened that he may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18-19).

Each day as you pray for him/her, remind God of His own Word. By the end of a week you will have accomplished two things: (1) you will have prayed for your friend about what God Himself says He wants accomplished, and (2) you will have memorized a passage of Scripture.

Daily Struggles of Life, Maturity, Pain, Perseverance, Prayer, Purpose, Struggles, hardship

Never Give up

Posted by admin on March 8, 2010 at 9:08 am.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1

                One of the most famous speeches that Winston Churchill ever delivered was given, as I understand it, after WWII. Churchill was the Prime Minister of England who stood up to Adolf Hitler, instead of giving in to the “peace in our time” policy of his predecessor. In this famous speech, he came to the podium and simply said, “Never… Never… Never give up.” Then he sat down.

Whether my memory of this speech is exactly accurate or not, it is the same theme that Jesus had in His parable in Luke 18. I admit to you that I don’t understand why prayer often seems to go unanswered, but the reason is not the apathy of the God we serve. Neither is it that He is too busy or that He has forgotten us. As best I can understand, it has something to do with the work He is trying to accomplish in me.

Unlike parents whose job it is to give their children “roots and wings,” maturity in Christ involves an increasing dependence upon Him for every need we have. The more we are conscious of our need, the greater will be the glory He will receive when He answers our prayer. It was not a failure on God’s part that Abraham and Sarah were barren up to her 90th birthday; it was not an oversight that Moses found himself between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army; it wasn’t because God didn’t care that Jehoshaphat the king found himself threatened by a vast army; and it wasn’t because God had overlooked something that Hezekiah faced impending destruction at the hands of the Assyrian army. Each of these events – and many more – became an occasion for the Sovereign King to show the glory of His power before a watching world. Each of the human characters found himself in an acutely uncomfortable position, but they had surrendered themselves to His purposes and to live for His honor.

This is what Jesus tells us we need to do as well – never give up. We are to recognize that unless He delivers us, we are lost; unless He intervenes, we have no hope. Though this position is exceedingly uncomfortable, our comfort is not His primary concern, and should not be ours either. We are here to glorify God – to demonstrate the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His light. And if we die in the process – either figuratively or literally – our reward will be that much greater.

Christ, Disciples, Prayer, Scripture

More on Prayer

Posted by admin on February 23, 2010 at 4:31 pm.

As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9:29). Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” (Luke 9:18). He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Luke 10:2).

                It would appear that God is trying to speak. As I have been reading through the Gospel of Luke recently, I have begun to notice the number of times Jesus is either praying or encouraging others to pray. Although I have read this Gospel many times, some of the references have startled me this time.

                For example, Luke is the only one of the Gospel writers to describe the Transfiguration with the words “As He was praying…” (9:29). Luke is also the only Gospel writer to introduce the story of Peter’s Confession with the phrase, “When Jesus was praying…” (9:18). The second verse of the next chapter includes Jesus’ command to pray that “the Lord of the Harvest [would] send out workers into His harvest field.” And the chapter closes with Jesus’ praise of Mary’s devotional heart over Martha’s constant activity.

                I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand prayer. I cannot explain why the omniscient Father needs for me to ask Him to do what He wants to do. But for some reason He does.

               It probably is wrapped up in the idea of relationship. We often compare the communication between God and His people with the communication between a couple who are dating. This communication goes beyond words in that as their love develops and matures, they begin to understand what makes the other “tick” – what  his/her values are, what makes them angry, how he/she responds in times of stress and struggle. This illustration breaks down in that neither of the dating couple has infinite knowledge and wisdom, but the illustration still describes what a combination of prayer and the Scripture will do for us. We’ll get to know His character, especially the infinite nature of His love for men made in His image.

                      Far more than our service, God our Father wants us. He desires the fellowship of His worshipping people, and in the process of that fellowship, He longs for us to acquire the heart He has for a rebellious world of His image-bearers. We may never fully understand why He longs for His people to pray; we may never fully understand why Jesus’ example of prayer is so pervasive in Luke’s Gospel; but we can understand that it is this process of communication – back and forth, prayer and Scripture – that infuses His values into our hearts. Perhaps I should say, “It is ONLY this process…”

Eternal Son of God, Jesus, Prayer, Struggles

Prayer – Just do It

Posted by admin on February 19, 2010 at 5:12 pm.

Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

                With the possible exception of evangelism, few topics elicit guilt in Christians like the call to pray. We all know we should and we have a plethora of examples showing why it is important, but still we don’t. My purpose is not to make us feel more guilty, but simply to observe the occasion of Jesus’ prayer – He prayed all night while deciding who would be His Twelve closest followers.

                Now, it wasn’t like these were established positions. There was no Bylaw that said He had to have twelve. He could have chosen 10 or even 15. Certainly twelve was a Biblical number, but  He wasn’t filling a quota; He was looking for men whose hearts were right deep down, because they would carry on His ministry after He had gone to heaven. They would be called upon to suffer hardship and trial, eventually even martyrdom, and if their hearts were compromised, they wouldn’t last.

                We don’t know what transpired between Father and Son that night, but somehow, He heard from the Father about which of the multitude He should call to “be with Him.” Those hours of prayer helped Him peer into the hearts of these men and understand who would last and who wouldn’t. I suspect that as the night wore on, Jesus saw how they would respond to His message and His purpose for their lives. I suspect also that there was some wrestling over the appointment of Judas Iscariot!

                This passage doesn’t give us great insight into how prayer works or what methodology we should use to find the answers to our questions and struggles. But it does point out the importance that Jesus placed upon prayer prior to major decisions, and it is an example of how we also should approach decisions in our own lives. If prayer was necessary for Jesus before decisions, how much more is it necessary for us.

                I don’t believe there as anything “magical” about spending all night in prayer, any more than any other discipline. But the main point of this brief statement in Luke’s Gospel is that we need to pray – even if it’s just a brief cry for help. It doesn’t matter how long or how big the decision, when it comes to prayer, just do it.

Christian, Church, Church Today, Hearts, Missionary Alliance, Missionary Alliance Church, New Testament Church, Oak Ridge, Prayer, Psalms, Sovereign Lord

He moves the hearts of His people to pray

Posted by admin on February 6, 2010 at 11:29 pm.

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)

                A while back I read a tract which asked the provocative question, “Does God do anything in this world apart from prayer?” At first it was tempting to observe the lack of prayer in the churches of America today and conclude that He must –otherwise He would be doing precious little! But the more that question marinates in my mind, the more I am inclined to believe that He does not. He moves the hearts of His people to pray, prompting His actions.

                As much as it grieves me to say it, this could be the answer to the decline of the Church in America today. The attraction of most churches today has less to do with the solid exposition of the Scriptures (and obedience to it) than it does with the entertainment brought by contemporary bands and “worship teams.” This entertainment has replaced the activity of God in the lives of people, because it is so much easier to entertain than it is to feed them with the Word. Feeding them requires prayer; entertaining them does not.

                The verse quoted above seems to confirm that the answer to this question should be, “No, He does nothing apart from prayer.”This is not to say that He is not a sovereign God or that we command Him rather than be commanded by Him. He prompts His people to pray; then He acts. (And, as with Rhoda in Acts 12, we then are usually surprised!) It is no wonder then that the Psalmist calls our prayers, “the glory of all His saints” (Psalm 149:9).

We at the Oak Ridge Alliace Church believe in the power of prayer and have chosen to meet together for prayer several times a week. We meet Monday thru Friday mornings at 6:30 am and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm for prayer. We encourage you to go forth with us in prayer.  For more information on the Missionary Alliance Church meeting in Oak Ridge Tennessee please call us at 865-483-0606.  We are looking forward to praying with you.