Category: Uncategorized (Page 7 of 35)

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3-7

I once heard a wise saying that brings the perspective of distractions into focus for me. “Whatever is not your assignment is your distraction.” I used to talk to my athletes a lot about this, especially on game day. I would say that during the game your assignment must be primary. If the guy across the line gets you thinking about him and the way he is holding you on every play or starts talking about your mother or even tells midget jokes about your head coach, you cannot let your mind go to those things. They are merely distractions that interfere with your assignment.

A distraction is anything that divides the attention, prevents concentration, diverts, or entertains. Wow, is that almost our entire world! Television, radio, video games, smart phones, sports, hobbies, are all available at a moments notice, and these are only a few of the hundreds of activities that are ready and willing to take up our time. How do we discern between distractions of the world and assignments of God? How do we stay on task in a world that provides so many play things.

Most of us welcome distractions into our lives. They divert our attention from those more mundane things that can close in on us at times. Unfortunately, if we are not careful the distractions become our lives. Distractions in and of themselves are not necessarily bad, but when they interfere with more important assignments with regularity, it is time to reevaluate. Our spiritual life is important. When it becomes a rather small part of our day as opposed to other activities, it is probably time to do a distraction check.

One of the devil’s greatest weapons against Christians is our own ignorance. If he can deceive us, he can beat us. But do we allow our distractions to keep us from the assignment of knowing God? The Apostle Paul said, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.” (Colossians 2:4) If we put all our energy into things that don’t strengthen our spiritual lives, we will remain ignorant and thus vulnerable. God warns us in Hosea that, “My people perish for a lack of understanding.” (Hosea 4:6) So to keep from being deceived and to keep from perishing, we need to know God better. To know God better, we cannot be live in a state of distraction from Him.

We can gain better understanding by reading the Word, listening to Christian music or sermons, fellowshipping with other Christians, praying, serving… well, you know the drill. If we were to draw a line in the sand and wrote all our time commitments that do not include God on one side and wrote down all the things that increase our spiritual understanding on the other, what would those lists look like? No matter how spiritual we are, the spiritual list will be shorter. We all have jobs, some of us have children, some of us have wonderful hobbies and all of us have a multitude of activities. It is not whether the spiritual list is shorter, it is whether it exists at all.

In Colossians 2:4 Paul attempts to expose the things that would keep us from growing in spiritual wisdom. The verse reads, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you.” But his actual meaning is, “I am saying this so that no one will distract you.” The original language in Colossians 2:4 uses the word “beguile” which is a synonym for distraction and deception. What Paul is trying to say is “be aware.” Knowing that we cannot be in church 24-7 and knowing that there are many activities in our life, we must be careful that we do not involve ourselves in the world to the detriment of the things of God. Paul says in Romans, “I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:19-20). If we don’t allow distractions to keep us from knowing God, Satan will be crushed by God. If we allow distractions to keep us from knowing God, it is us vs Satan and we are sorely overmatched.

We need to test our distractions. How do we do that? God told us in Philippians 4:8 when he said, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable–if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise–dwell on these things.” If our distractions don’t include these things, we may want to find some other distractions to be involved in. If they do, that probably means that we have Christ where he should be in our lives- at the center.

“Lord, in the morning you will hear me; in the morning I will present my case to you and then wait expectantly for an answer.”  Psalm 5:3

Over the past couple of weeks, I have shared about some of the difficulties I have faced in developing an effective prayer life.  I realize now that part of my problem was setting aside the role of the Holy Spirit in my prayers. I tried to take over the process on my own. It is really the work of the Holy Spirit to make my prayers effective, and it is my job to stay out of the way and let Him direct my prayers. As Paul tells us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)  I think that too often we become hinderances to our own prayers with our attitudes and approaches. What I have tried to do in recent years is give the Holy Spirit more freedom to direct my prayer life.  John tells us in John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your memory all that I said to you.”  If the Holy Spirit, who is as real as God the Father and Jesus the Son, dwells within us, we should probably allow Him to be teacher He is supposed to be.  Our prayer life is not our own, but is by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.  Although there is only one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, our access to Jesus is because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  We can never forget that…yet, we do.

In Galatians Paul explains, “the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption  from the flesh,  but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” (Galatians 6:8) Paul is not only speaking for himself when he tells us in Romans 7:16 “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.”  So if there is no ability to do good, what hope do we have?  Paul reminds us of our hope in the next chapter when he says, “Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.”  (Romans 8:8-9)  It is apparent that the Holy Spirit must play the primary role in our prayers if our prayers are going to be in alignment with God.

With all of this in mind, I will tell you how I have tried to revamp my morning and afternoon prayer time.  I will start with the morning because it comes first almost every day. In the past I would read the Bible, do some other reading, pray my prayer list, and then do a little writing.  Often, I would have to rush so much to get through everything that I was not giving my prayer time the solemnity it deserved. On the other hand, I had so many prayers, that if I did not rush,
I would not get through them all and those on the end of my list were left out in cold.  The problem was me.  I was trying to do everything on my own by using a checklist of tasks.  I was sacrificing a true prayer to “get things done.”  I am hopeful that God looked beyond my overly-structured approach to prayer and  extended undeserved grace by answering some of my prayers.  I know there were answers, I am just not sure how much I had to do with it.

So I knew I had do something different.  Getting up early had never been a problem for me, it was using the time wisely that I had to address.  I have always had a special quiet place to pray, so that was not an issue either. So if I had the time and had the place, why wasn’t I getting a handle on these morning prayer times?  I needed to check my heart.  I knew I did not want to be ritualistic, but I did believe I needed to be disciplined.  What was the solution?

I have always been a reader and began reading every prayer book I could get my hands on. I read biographies about George Muller, Praying Hyde, Taylor Hudson and other great pray-ers.  I also read books such as The Kneeling Christian, The Hour That Changes the World, the Common Book of Prayer and studied authors like Andrew Murray and Leonard Ravenhill.  I even subscribed to prayer podcasts. I got good ideas from all of them, but there was still something missing. Then something I heard in a sermon that set me on another course. I realized that I was trying to do all the work on my own.  I had the One within me that moved upon the waters at creation, and I was trying to this on my own.  The sermon I listened to was on the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit tends to be the neglected person of the trinity. There are over 600 prayers in the Bible and over 400 known answers to prayer. The Holy Spirit played an instrumental part of those prayers, yet for every mention of God the Father and Christ the Son in the church today, the Holy Spirit falls into a sad third place. Consequently, I realized the the Holy Spirit was playing a sad third place in my life, as well.

I started to think that ignoring the power of the Holy Spirit in my life might have something to do with my inconsistent prayer life.  I started to make a connection between the reoccurring problems in my own and other’s prayer lives and my own and maybe others disconnect from the Holy Spirit. I talked to many people about prayer and one of the things seems to always come up was the “wandering mind” problem. Struggling to keep focused during prayer seemed to be somewhat universal.  I began praying aloud many years ago to combat those roving thoughts, but that only got me part way there.  I found out, after hearing the sermon, that it is better to allow the Holy Spirit to direct my wandering mind.  In other words, let my mind wander under the direction of the Spirit’s leading.  It is a wonderful thing.  It takes my prayers out of my head and puts in the hands of the Holy Spirit- where they need to be.  What is amazing is my mind no longer wanders to unrelated things, but to other prayer needs.  Instead of wasted thoughts, they are useful thoughts.

The way I involve the Holy Spirit is by Praying the Bible.  This method has been around for a long time, but I don’t think I understood it.  Although, I still keep a list, but I don’t use that list in the morning except for our kids and grandkids and immediate needs. Instead I pick a section of scripture (the Psalms are perfect for this) and pray that God will give me wisdom as I read it all the way through.  I ask God to bring things to my mind that I need to be brought to my mind.  I will then read the scripture again one phrase at a time, and I allow each phrase to take me somewhere.  Often that phrase might lead to a multitude of people or situations, and I just let it go there. What is amazing is that each part of the scripture will lead to new needs.  Sometimes the prayers I pray might not match up with the deeper meanings of the scripture, but will still remind me of a certain person or need.  My mind does not take off on useless adventures, but actual prayer paths.  Instead of being lost in thought, I stay focused.

Let’s see how this works.  Psalm 1:1 says “How blessed  is the one  who does not follow  the advice  of the wicked,  or stand in the pathway  with sinners, or sit in the assembly  of scoffers!” I will say one part of the verse aloud and without me thinking about it, prayers will come to my mind.  After reading the first sentence of the verse above, I might think of someone who is caught up in something wicked, or maybe someone who is fighting against wickedness in his own life, or leading the the fight against wickedness.   The whole planned parenthood disgrace might be brought to mind.  I might think of someone who is leading people into something wicked.  I might even think of something like the terrorists that are plaguing the world right now.  Often that prayer will lead to remembering someone or something else. Sometimes that one line will lead to five or six requests that actually may or may not be on my prayer list.  If I have studied the prayers on my list at all, it will not take much prompting from the Holy Spirit to bring them to mind.  On the other hand, there may be things I have not even thought of before that might be brought to mind.  I used to do the same thing in the past, but it was not requests that were brought to mind, but thoughts of things that directed me away from prayer.  This is much different.  With this method there is an endless supply of readings to stimulate daily prayer. There are enough Psalms (some longs ones can be divided into several days) for well over a year of prayer, and we can use many other books of the Bible, as well.

What this does is allows the Holy Spirit to prompt my prayers rather than having to  constantly be consulting a list.  Sometimes I don’t pray as long when I Pray the Bible (often with the list it was well over an hour), but I believe the prayers are more natural, more sincere, and more in line with God’s will.  I read the Word, thank God for it, and then use those same verses to bring needs to mind.  If ten of us were reading the same verses, we would probably have ten much different prayers that we would be uttering.  The unrestrained direction of the prayer allows the Holy Spirit to be a participant rather than a spectator.  It takes the pressure off me and reminds me that God has left a comforter with me.  I am comforted by His presence and instruction.

I believe this kind of prayer emphasizes quality over quantity.  I used to believe if I did not complete a long list of names, accompanied by several countries, and some worthy causes, my prayer time was a failure.  I now believe that Satan enjoyed the guilt I felt because I would sometimes allow these negative feelings to be an obstacle to prayer.

Praying through the Bible is a wonderful tool that puts the Word and Holy Spirit in charge of my prayer time.  It is a wonderful thing to feel my mind wander with purpose. I don’t think Satan is pleased with a mind that “wanders purposely” and anything he hates I love.  Praying through the Bible takes care of my morning devotion and prayer time, but what about my lists that I keep?  Do I just disregard them?  Not at all.  Next week I will share what I do with the prayers found on my prayer request list. Until tomorrow remember, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7)

Have a blessed day!

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”  (1 John 5:14)

Just a few devotions ago I wrote about how many of us struggle in our prayer life.  I went on to mention two types of praying that I think could be helpful for those who are hoping to have more consistent prayer lives.  I don’t think any “system” is the right one, nor do I think that these ideas are unique or necessarily for everyone.  I am just sharing what I think might work for some and part of that some might be you.

First of all, I think that most of the information we receive on prayer emphasizes organizing when it should probably emphasize agonizing.  Prayer, no matter how well organized will not be as effective if we don’t pray from a softened heart.  I think of the short, wonderful, heart-breaking, heart-felt prayer of Christ on the cross that was born of agony, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Not so much grace in so few words has ever been uttered.  Our concern for those around us should fill our hearts with a pain that only God can heal.  When we hurt for others, that hurt can only be relieved by our prayers for others. When we pray from pain our prayers will be real and no “system” is better than that.  With that in mind, there may be some things that we can do that will clear the table from encumbrances so that our prayers can come from the heart rather than the head.

A little history might be in order here.  I tend to organize (which might surprise those who have visited my garage). I am a list maker.  From my introduction to Christ in my early twenties to present day, I like to write down requests and try to refer to them often. Let me tell you how that obsession with listing has, in some ways, hurt my prayer life.  My routine has always been an early morning one.  I try to divide my list as I am sure many do, some prayers are daily, some every other day, some weekly, etc.  But even doing it this way, daily prayers (when you include national and global prayers), number close to fifty or more every day.  (For instance, I have nineteen immediate family members and another sixty or so extended family members on my list.)  I have another one hundred or so from our church, fifty from work, and multitudes of others from vagrants to presidents. Actually, when we look around us, there is probably no one that does not need prayer- so mine is a short list.

Here lies the problem.  With so many people, situations, needs, praises, and the like, prayer time can become mechanical.  Going through a list is time consuming and can become routine.  We can begin to pray the same things for the same people without really thinking of what we are saying.  Worse yet, we look at the almost impossible list and realize we need over an hour to make a dent, so if we don’t have that hour, we drop the whole thing.  The task looks overwhelming, so we surrender to avoidance.  In an attempt to pray for all things, we pray for no things.  We get discouraged and our prayer life suffers.  I have gone through all these struggles over the past years.  Because of these struggles I have begun to embrace the old adage, “Less is more.”  But it has not been an easy road.

My dilemma seemed overwhelming.  I did not feel like shorting the people who needed prayer, but I also did not want to bite off more than I could chew and choke on prayerlessness.  Too often I felt the guilt of hearing an update on someone I should have been praying for, but didn’t.  I always said a prayer of thankfulness for those who were faithful and praying in my stead, but it didn’t assuage the guilt.  I needed to find a satisfying middle ground between my need to list multitudes of requests and the ability to find time to discuss those requests with God.  I wanted a Spirit-filled prayer time that allowed me to intercede for others.  There had to be a way!

First of all, I had to commit to the necessity of prayer.  I think we often do not pray because we wonder if prayer really works.  If God is Sovereign and His will will be done, why pray?  I got over that hurdle theologically quite awhile back, but I got over it logically as well.  If God tells us that He is sovereign and if He also tells us we have free will, both of those must be true.  So even though God is in control, He is still moved by our prayers.  How can the mighty immoveable God of the universe be moved by the prayers of puny man?  I don’t know  how God reconciles these seemingly contradictory statements, but I know He does.  God would not call us to do something that was meaningless, so His call for our prayers must have meaning.

In Jeremiah we read, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”  (Jeremiah 29:12)  God is truth and would not say this if it was not true.  Our first step in a strong prayer life is faith in who God is.  Prayer is not important because of who we are and what we say, but because of who God is and what He says.

Today I did not give any helpful hints, I will begin that next week when I talk about something that has radically changed many people’s prayer lives.  Today’s emphasis is this: we need to believe prayer is important or we won’t find it important to pray.

”For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

These verses are two of my favorites, and you have probably figured this out,  since I have written about them quite a few times.  Well, they came to mind awhile back when I was talking to someone I knew while shopping for camping stuff.  Boy, did she get worked up about the condition of the country.  I remember specifically one thing that she said a couple of times.  She said, “People today want something for nothing.  They don’t feel like they need to work for anything.  They think they are entitled to everything.”

As I made my escape I thought to myself, “I couldn’t get a word in edgewise,”  (that very seldom happens, so I thought I would mention it), but right after that thought, I thought to myself that there is one situation when many people do just the opposite of what she is saying.  A time when they refuse a free gift and instead think they must work for it.  That is when it comes to their salvation.  Isn’t that funny?  Not funny ha-ha.  Funny strange.  I think that the lady I was speaking to was correct that many people believe that their everyday needs should be met for free.  I think that sentiment  is probably worse than ever and is just a sign of the times.

We have all heard the phrase “entitlement society” before, but the truth of the matter is when it comes to salvation we are the “unentitlement society.”  We are “unentitled” to salvation and it needs to be free, because we can never earn it.  Even if it only cost a tiny bit of what was worth, we could not afford it.  Even if our “worthiness” was added into the equation, we could not afford it.  Even if all our good works were counted toward the payment, we could not afford it.  No matter what, we could not afford it; yet, ironically, no matter what, many will not accept the gift of salvation without trying to pay for it.

In America, especially, there is a strange dichotomy.  Although many may want “freebies” they are also told  that working hard will give them more “good” things in life and that doing nothing will bring more “bad” things in life. They hear the message, but are left to decide how to use it.  Some sit and wait to receive things on the backs of others and others work hard and carry the load for themselves and others.  The burden of salvation is only carried on the back of one Man.  The cults and “isms” and even some “non-believers” all have the same mantra.  “If I do enough, maybe I will be accepted into eternity by god.”  Right now we have some zealots that believe they can “kill” their way into heaven.  What we all must understand is that we can’t work our way into heaven with good deeds, bad deeds, or any deeds.  Yes, indeed, there is only one deed that can pay the price for our salvation and that deed took place on a wooden cross over 2,000 years ago.

This will come a shock to many but the lines, “He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.  He knows if you’ve been bad or good.  So be good for goodness sake,” is not about God’s plan for salvation.  It is important to understand the grace of God so that we can experience it, and also so we can share Jesus accurately with non-Christians. There are two things to keep in mind when we are sharing Jesus with others.  One, we can never be good enough to earn salvation and we can never be bad enough to be ineligible for salvation.  This salvation is based on God’s grace and we can only receive it, “lest we should boast.”

So in conclusion (yes, I can reach a conclusion) , we can never be good enough for salvation. The book of James (2:10-11) tells us if we break any one of God’s laws that we are guilty of breaking all of them and Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 that even if we only think sin, we are guilty of sin.  We cannot be perfect, yet God’s righteousness demands perfection. Since we are in the middle of baseball, let me put it this way.  We have to hit 1000% to get into heaven.  We can’t.  But there is designated hitter that will go to the plate for us who does hit 1000%.  Even if we hit .300 or .500 or .700, we will always fall short unless we use this designated hitter. Let’s encourage others to step out of the batter’s box and accept Substitute who has never failed.

There is a saying that says, “Nothing in life is free,” and what that means is that somewhere somebody has paid for it.  That is true.  And in the case of salvation it has been bought and paid for at great cost.  What a shame if it is not accepted.   The greatest thing that we can do is not try to earn salvation, but to say, “I give up. Christ, I accept what you did.”  That is what Ephesians is telling us.  The bases are loaded.  It’s the bottom of the ninth.  We are behind.  No one should allow pride to keep them in the batter’s box.  Here is a guarantee- we will all strike out.  Only Jesus who has already come through, will come through.  Go back to the dugout and watch Him do His thing, then come out and enjoy the win.

“Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not”   Jeremiah 33:3

God encourages us to pray. Many say that prayer is a pious exercise which has no influence except upon the mind engaged in it. That it is an act of obedience that really has minimal worth.  That a sovereign God will not respond to puny requests by mere mortals.  That, as it says in Julius Caesar, “our fate lies in the stars,” and we are just puppets and God is the puppet master.  But we know better. The Word refutes this idea a hundred times over.   In the passage above, Jehovah, the living God, distinctly promises to answer the prayers of His servant. Why would we think otherwise?

In Philippians we are told, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)  How can we receive peace from prayer if it is without power? How can an act of futility give us peace in the midst of difficulty?
If prayer is of no consequence, then why pray?  Is it a mere command like we use to give our faithful pet Buddy?  We told him to sit and he did, but he gets nothing out of it but the dog knowledge that he has obeyed us?  It would be the equivalent of us teaching him to bark for a treat, but he never gets a treat.  We just tell him, in our best dog language, that his reward is in obedience alone and we will just continue to have him bark and remain treatless. Of course, making any comparisons between God and us and a pooch is pretty futile, but the idea is similar.

Some people neglect prayer because they are not convinced of its authenticity.  Sadly it seems that prayer ebbs and flows in our life maybe more than any other Christian discipline.  The old saying, “Seven days without prayer makes one weak,” has more truth than not.  Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, “Brother, the grass grows on your path.”  Unfortunately, too few of us have a well-worn path or a good friend to remind us if we  neglect it.

God says He will answer prayer and I believe Him.  He says He is totally sovereign and I believe Him.  He says we have free will and I believe Him.  That I can’t rectify some of this in my limited mind is not a reflection on Him, but on the vast gap between God’s thinking and my own.  Buddy understood me more than I understand God and Buddy didn’t understand me at all.  Even though Buddy didn’t understand me, he believed me.  If I touched a leash, he went  crazy knowing we were going for a walk.  How sad it would be, if I would just touch the leash and then walk away over and over.  My broken promise of a walk would finally weigh on him and he would stop believing me. Would God promise in His word that prayer is meaningful and then just walk away over and over? That does not fit the character of God

Let’s call upon God and admit no doubt that he always hears our prayers and that they are meaningful to Him.  Would He that made the ear, not hear?  Would He that gave parents a love for their children, not listen to the cries of His own children, as well!God will answer us in our anguish. He has wonders in store for us. What we have never seen, heard of, or dreamed of, He will do for us.

He will invent new blessings if need be.  He will ransack sea and land to feed us: He will send out angels from heaven to save us if our distress requires it. He will astound us with His grace and make us feel that it was never before done in this fashion. All He asks of us is that we will call upon Him. He cannot ask less of us, but he does not ask more.  We can know that we can call on Him and He will hear our cries and do great and mighty things.  Wear out your prayer path and see what He can do.