Tag: prayer

Spiritual Inventory – September 19, 2022

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Spiritual Inventory

Are you on cruise control, or are you building yourself up in your most holy faith? Do you take your relationship with Jesus for granted, or are you actively investing in your walk with Him?

Are you going through the motions of everyday life, or are you praying in the Holy Spirit? Are you repeating rote prayers, or are you allowing the Spirit of God to direct what you bring to the Lord?

Is your receiving of the love of God something you think of as past tense, or are you carefully guarding the love of God in your life? Do you treasure it and grow in it?

Finally, are you stuck in thoughts of the here and now, or are you eagerly awaiting the greatest of mercy of Jesus Christ that we shall ever receive – the entrance into sinless and everlasting life? Do you crave the day of full redemption when we shall stand in glorified bodies with the King?

The above is a real checklist for those who claim to be Christians, for the Word of God bears forth the reality of believers. Hear it in the tiny book of Jude:

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” (Jude 1:20-21)

– Shelli Prindle

Are Christians Praying Humanist Prayers?

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Paradigm shifts. They are often necessary. In the case of much prayer within the church, it is time for a paradigm shift. Our consumer-driven, self-absorbed culture has pushed prayer into a veritable humanist corner. Humanism claims that the reasoning of humans is to be valued above any divine thinking or supposed supernatural working. Although most Christians do not intend to function from a worldview antithetical to biblical Christianity, we may be doing so by default. As with any practice, prayer must be measured against God’s holy Word. We must do what Romans 12:2 commands us and ensure that our patterns of thinking do not simply flow with the culture at large, but rather press upstream against ungodly currents.

While recently teaching a Bible class, I was suddenly struck with a reality to which I had not previously paid much attention. We were considering the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:7 (ESV) about Jesus’ amazing condescension from Heaven to earth two thousand years ago, “But [Jesus] made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” We honed in on the fact that Jesus made a willful decision to serve His Father even though Jesus is Himself fully God. Jesus chose not to grasp at His own rights (Philippians 2:6), but He elected rather to do the Father’s will . . . no matter the cost. In doing so, He demonstrates to us the proper attitude for genuine Christian living (Philippians 2:5).

What hit me the hardest was Jesus’ approach to His Father’s will; Jesus always submitted Himself to the Father’s plan and glory. Though fully God, Christ worked the blueprint of the Father in order that the perfect will of the blessed Trinity be accomplished. Most notably, we remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of His arrest as He contemplates the degree of suffering He is facing. Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39, ESV).

Wow! Jesus was God in the flesh, and He actually says that He would rather have the Father’s will accomplished than gain what the humanity of Him desired – to escape suffering. Hence, the dramatic difference between Jesus’ prayer and Peter’s “prayer.” Peter had not wanted Jesus to suffer either, but he allowed no room for God’s mysterious will and thus boldly declared about Jesus’ explanation of His own future crucifixion, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You” (Matthew 16:22, NASB). No sooner had Peter uttered His disgust with the plan of God than Jesus turned to Peter and proclaimed, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23, ESV).

Notice the underlying similarity but weighty and stark difference between the petition of Peter and Jesus. Both Peter and Jesus were troubled by the thought of the Son of God suffering so horrendously. However, the difference is critical. While Peter acted completely out of human flesh and thinking without giving room for God’s unfathomable will, Jesus submitted His pain and reluctance to His Father in order that God would get His way – which is the best way by infinite measure!

When I thought about the prayer of Jesus in the Garden, I pondered my own prayer life. So often we Christians begin prayers like this, “Dear God, I ask you to . . .” And then follows a list of items we present to God – things or circumstances we desire. We often give no thought to whether these things are God’s will, sometimes even foolishly believing God intends to spare us from all pain. We ask for relief as we see it and expect it. Instead, we ought to express our sorrow and anxious thoughts to God, and then we need to ask God to dominate any plan of ours with His perfect and mysterious will. If the Son of God prayed that God’s plan would override the desires of His humanity when the two were in disagreement, then we certainly should as well!

When Jesus instructed His disciples on prayer, He expressed at the outset in definitive terms that three things are priority for sure: God’s name is great above all and to be held in highest honor, God’s eternal kingdom is to come and take priority over human plans, and God’s will is to be done on this earth where our feet tread each day (see Matthew 6:9-10). We are not taught by Jesus to pray for human passions unless these longings glorify God’s name and press His kingdom forward in a world of much darkness. Prioritized over all is the ongoing will of God.

We must ask ourselves a difficult but essential question, “Am I praying for the glory and will of God or for the avoidance of anything my flesh deems difficult? Humanists place people above any supernatural being. Humanists trust in the thinking of people to solve our every dilemma. Christians place God above the will of humans. Christians trust in God’s sovereign plan to make life what it should be – even when pain is part of the picture. So I ask myself, “Am I praying as a humanist? Or as a Christian?”

The Theology Behind a Cell Phone in the Toilet

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Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. – Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV)

It happened. Out of my pocket and into the toilet it fell. My cell phone made a huge splash in the forbidden place – the depths of the porcelain bowl. And without one thought, I reached directly into the waters of the commode to retrieve the cherished item, my supposed lifeline to humanity. My arm lunged to rescue my phone from the toilet as quickly as I would act in any true emergency. I even let out a scream when I saw the shiny, metallic blue piece of technology hit the water and roll over. So distraught was I, and I don’t even have a touch screen phone!

As soon as I had pulled the phone from the toilet, I ran to my blow-dryer and began my feeble attempt to save my phone from death. Carefully extracting tiny screws, I dried the inner parts and surfaces; but I did so to no avail. My cell phone recovered only slightly and remained inoperable.

After replacing the phone the next day at the store, I quietly asked myself, “Why all the fuss?” I knew the answer. Cell phones have become a critical part of communication. How would I stay in touch with “my people”? What about calls and the esteemed texts? Without my cell phone, I would feel cut off from society as we have come to know it.

Then my mind went to a chapter of the Bible on which I had preached many years before, Isaiah 59. My seemingly desperate experience with the submerged phone directed me to ponder a truly desperate situation – that in which we cannot communicate rightly with God. The prophet proclaims in Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV), “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (emphasis mine). Just as the commode water stole from me a source of my communication with family and friends, so does my sin swipe my intimacy with my God.

I was instantly convicted of a great truth: I should be immeasurably more horrified by my heart’s plunge into sin than my cell phone’s nose-dive into the toilet! A submerged phone is a temporary glitch in one of the flows of human communication, but my heart’s sinfulness breaks my honest talking with God Almighty. My sin stops God from answering my prayer. Though His ear is not “too dull to hear,” my iniquity causes Him to refuse to hear. While stained with guilt, there remains a block between me and my Lord.

The question, then, becomes, “How quickly do I jump to remove myself from the waters of sinfulness?” I wonder if we are more outraged at the flood of wrong we have fallen into than the plunging of a piece of sensitive technology into water. How apt am I to quickly repent? Does my sin against God cause my spirit to shriek with disgust? Do I genuinely fear lost communication with God? How much does a block in my fellowship with Him bother me? Rightly, God’s refusal to hear us while we willfully sin against Him should spur us to resolve the matter. Much more than I need humans to hear me, I need God to intervene on my behalf.

Have you lately felt a terrible distance between you and God? Do you go through the motions of prayer, but God is not answering? Perhaps we must heed the warning that “[Our] sins have hidden his face from [us]” (Isaiah 59:2, NIV). And in observing this warning we will find a solution much better than vainly blow-drying a thoroughly soaked cell phone. Yes, the heart can be dried of sin by God Himself. When our Lord sees us lying there in the mess of sin, He decides to wash us when we simply and honestly repent. Isaiah 59:16 (NIV) declares, “[God] saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him.” God knows we are hopeless when it comes to “drying” ourselves of sin. So He takes matters into His own hands. By His own sacrifice and His own blood He saves us! Jesus is God in the flesh, having appeared to “work salvation” for us. All we need do is repent. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins” (Isaiah 59:20, NIV, emphasis mine).

Do you see your fellowship with God submerged in the waters of your sin? What is it in your life that is displeasing Him? React quickly. Tell Him you want to be right and do right. Tell Him you want communication to flow once again. He will then listen, for “His ear is [not] to dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1, NIV). Get that divine cell phone out of the depths; talk to God again!

The Operative Word

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Christian, do you pray as much as you should? Are there situations left untouched and quandaries floating about because you refuse to pray as God desires? Prayer is necessary. God works mightily through prayer. For the child of God, prayer is not an option or a task resorted to when things look bleak. Prayer is powerful, delivering answers derived in a world currently unseen to us.

Luke, the disciple, was a physician in his day. He clearly understood, however, that health of spirit, emotion, and body comes ultimately through God. In Luke 18:1 (NASB), he instructs, “Now [Jesus] was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” Luke reminds us that God is unequivocal in His demand that we pray. In a culture of “quick fixes,” shallow relationships, and mitigated perseverance; God desires that we press into His heart by prayer. How does that sit with you? Does your heart respond, “Yes! I know the experience and wonder of pouring myself into prayer!” Or, does your heart answer, “No. I am not there. My prayer life is quite flat, and I realize my need to heed the call.”

The apostle James proclaims in James 5:16 (NASB), “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” The Greek root here behind the words effective and accomplish is a word that means “to be operative.” It is the same Greek root behind the word works in this glorious verse, “Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11, NASB). Imagine, the power of God working in our prayer life is related to the power of God working everything in the universe for His purpose! When we truly pour ourselves into seeking and petitioning our Lord, God operates on our behalf. He accomplishes things. No longer dormant lie the possibilities. Prayer is the “operative word”!

Unique about prayer is the inherent relationship between the physical and spiritual realms. When I speak to God with my voice (using the physical body and brain He has given me), I am functioning in the spiritual realm with God. He, in turn, may produce results back in the physical world. It is the intersection of Heaven and Earth, if you will. Prayer is the place where we are instructed to lay hold of heavenly things and blessed to see outcomes of both a spiritual and material nature.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prayed to God in Heaven, and God answered by protecting their physical bodies from seemingly inevitable consumption by fire. Prayer wrought tangible results. Of course! This is God’s will – that His children pray! Do you set aside with marked intention minutes and hours of your days for intense seeking of your God? Is your heart rising to Him on a regular, deliberate, and serious basis? Is He hearing you petitions? There is not shortcut to the effects only prayer can bring. It is God’s will. We must pray.

Inverting the Flow of Life

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We have things a bit turned around in our world, inverting the proper flow of life. It seems some of us Christians seek to accumulate earthly goods, access many avenues of entertainment, secure successful career paths, and fill our families’ lives with countless activities which are meant to lead to healthy self-esteem and proper socialization. These pursuits appear to come first, followed by the occasional or regular prayer to invoke the blessing of God on the myriad endeavors. We, as good Christians, seek the Lord to bless our fast-paced, culture-driven lives.

Starkly contrasted to this rhythm, the heart of the endeared apostle Paul streamed in the opposite direction. He spoke clearly in Colossians 4:2 (NIV), “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Paul endured the gloom of Roman imprisonment when he penned this directive, and his heart was sure of one fact – all of life and its activities follow after a soul fixed on God’s ideals. We ought to have a permanent bent in our attitude. We ought not to jump from one pursuit to the next event without knowing our very heart is stayed on God. Do we arise in the morning clearly cognizant of His Lordship and His promises? Are we determined to know His Word in such a way as it boldly jumps to the forefront in our moments of rest and moments of work?

Lips moving and words spoken are one way to pray – and a pivotal one. However, prayer is also a state of mind. The God of all reality should be the most important consideration in all things. Am I devoted to prayer, or am I devoted to an “acceptable life”? Am I devoted to prayer, or am I devoted to “success”? Am I devoted to prayer, or am I devoted to busyness? Am I devoted to prayer, or am I devoted to the escape from boredom? Am I devoted to prayer, or am I devoted to me?

Without basic freedom and suffering for His faith in Jesus, Paul pronounces that prayer is to be coupled with watchfulness and thankfulness (note again Colossians 4:2 . . . “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful”). Even while jailed, Paul recognizes the need to be vigilant – to refuse to drift through life or allow circumstances to pull us along. Rather, we must remain alert, aware of the human tendency to drop to status quo – mediocrity. We are to be consciously aware of the condition of our heart and the spiritual realm surrounding. Life is so much more than what we eat and drink and watch on television. We are to be constantly asking, “What is God up to?” and “How are the spiritual forces of wickedness seeking to divert God’s work in my life”?

When Jesus’ own disciples fell asleep just hours before His arrest, Jesus told them, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41, NIV). As the disciples dozed, Jesus was getting ready to change eternity by His death and resurrection. Could they not stay alert? Realizing our bodies tend to spiral downward in devotion, Jesus emphasized the spirit’s dominance and agrees with Paul in declaring we need to watch and pray. Amazingly, Jesus is about to change eternity again by coming back to this earth to gather His own people to Himself and usher in His grand remaking of heaven and earth. When He returns, will we, too, be sleeping and resting? Are we so slothful and unaware of God’s working in the world? We have it backwards. Life is not about the filling of moments with our own plans and procedures, but a focus on God Almighty, whose plan overpowers all!

We notice Paul adds thankfulness to his watchful and prayerful demeanor. We note so little gratitude among people in today’s world – even believers. Perhaps we are not thankful because we are focusing on our own work rather than the mysterious work of God. My preoccupation does not make me thankful, but my meditation on the moment-by-moment, righteous working of God causes my heart to leap! Things may not always truly be as they appear. Yes, Paul was in prison, but God’s inexplicable joy and future hope pervaded Paul’s soul. The Gospel rang out loudly to innumerable people. We, too, may live in muddled times. The answer is not changed circumstances, but a heart devoted to prayer with watchfulness and thankfulness.