Category Archives: Christian Life

THE LORD’S PRAYER – A PATTERN TO COPY

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THE LORD’S PRAYER – A PATTERN TO COPY

“This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9.

We have looked, first of all, at what prayer is not. It’s not about words or needs; it’s about awareness. Now we need to examine what prayer is.

As we are discovering, prayer is more about awareness than about asking. What we are asking comes into line with a greater awareness of God, who He is and what His focus, His heart and concerns are rather than ours.  Because it is natural for us to be absorbed with ourselves and our needs, it is necessary for us to have a pattern that shows us how God envisions prayer rather than what we think it is or should be.

Prayer is not unique to the Christian faith. It is an inborn need in every human being, no matter what god people believe in, worship, and serve. However, those who worship anything or anyone other than the true and living God are unsure of the attitude of that god towards them and do not know how to get his attention or how to please him. Our priority, therefore, is to identify who we are becoming aware of.

To train ourselves to become aware of God is not enough because “God” can be anything we have created for ourselves from our life experience, our environment, and the influence of other people. Since prayer is about changing our awareness, we must find out who this God is, not from our perspective but from what the Bible says. God is, first, our Father, our life-source, our Creator, the one who breathed His own life into us and to whom our spirits are fused by faith, through the Holy Spirit, so that we are one with Him. He is the one on whom we are dependant for life and everything that our life involves (2 Peter 1: 3ff).

He is the only true God, the one who described Himself as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness, forgiving sin…” (Exodus 34:6) He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not to be confused with any other god. Hebrews 11:6 – Those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

To address God as “Father” is to differentiate between Him and all other gods. Since we are His offspring, we are bound to Him by an unbreakable union. Our rebellion in Adam has broken our fellowship with the Father but not our connection with Him as His children. We cannot be “unborn” but we need to be “born again” into the realm where He reigns and where we have come back under submission to His rule.

To pray, “Our Father” is to become aware of the God in whom we live, and to whom we are fused by faith so that our lives are indissolubly joined to Him, our Source.

PRAY UNTIL PEACE COMES

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PRAY UNTIL PEACE COMES

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything 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.

The peace of God is the referee in our hearts (Colossians 3:15), the faithful and accurate measure of the open channel between us and the Father. When our peace has been disturbed, we know that we are out of sync with Him. The question is, “How do we get back to having His peace rule in our hearts?”

Anxiety is a peace-destroyer and can show up in many guises; fear, insecurity, anger, and jealousy are all shades of anxiety at the heart of which is mistrust of God. Whatever the emotion, it is rooted in the unbelief which blocks the channel and disturbs our peace.

Paul’s prescription for restoring our peace begins with a “do not”. Anxiety is not something we can switch on and off like a light switch. Anxiety will only go when it is identified, its source uncovered, and it is replaced with peace since two opposite emotions cannot exist side-by-side in our hearts.

The first step to restoring peace is to acknowledge the anxiety that disturbed it in the first place. Until we allow ourselves to feel and acknowledge that anxiety, we will not be ready to admit our unbelief. Praying about an issue without uncovering the root of our anxiety will not be a solution nor will it receive an answer since the answer will be blocked by unbelief.

The second step is to recognise that our problem is not the issue but the fear that the issue has raised, for example, you have a financial deadline to meet and no money to meet it. You think that the lack of money is your problem. If you had the money to pay your debt, you would have no anxiety. However, the next time a similar situation happens, the anxiety will return which means that the anxiety has not been dealt with. It is still hanging around, waiting to surface again the next time a financial need arises.

The third step is to identify and admit that it is your unwillingness to trust God that triggered your anxiety. God’s peace is only in your heart when you trust in Him and it is His peace that lifts you above your circumstances so that, no matter what happens, His peace stands guard over your heart and shuts out the unwelcome intrusion of fear, anxiety, insecurity etc.

Paul concludes by telling us how to maintain that peace along the bumpy road of life’s adversities. Anxiety begins in the mind when we are uncertain of God’s love for us. To counteract that, we need to fill our minds with the truths that assure us of His love. Think on the good things with gratitude. Then He will stand guard over our hearts and champion us in every circumstance.

PEBBLES IN THE POND

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PEBBLES IN THE POND

“The prudent see danger and take refuge but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” Proverbs 27:12

I heard definitions of the wise and foolish person recently or, as above, the prudent and simple, which made sense to me.

A wise person is one who understands that all of life is connected. Whatever our choices, there are always results or consequences. Our present is connected to our past, and our future is connected to our present. But we are also connected to the people around us, family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and their choices also impact us in various ways. To be wise is to acknowledge our connectedness, and to live in a way that impacts positively, not negatively, on ourselves and others.

By contrast, the fool lives for himself, makes foolish decisions and doesn’t care how his choices impact on others. When things go wrong, he cops out, blames God or other people, and takes no responsibility for the mess he is in. Perhaps the greatest tragedy for the fool is that he does not learn from his mistakes. He simply goes on making the same mistakes over and over and messing up his own and other people’s lives in the process.

Take, for example, the married man or woman who keeps having affairs, knowing what it does to spouse and family and yet doing it anyway and never learning from the consequences. He or she keeps making the same choices but believes that the outcome will be different.

It’s a bit like dropping a pebble in a pond, making waves that move outward in ever-widening circles. The impact doesn’t stop with the first wave but eventually makes waves that cover the entire surface of the pond. So are our choices to do both good and evil.

This makes me think of the life of Moses. Despite the Pharaoh’s decree to throw all the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile, his mother chose to weave a little waterproof basket and put him in the Nile, not to drown but to be rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter.

That decision had a ripple effect – Moses grew up in the royal palace and had inside experience about being a son of Pharaoh. As an adult he made a bad choice – to kill an Egyptian – and had to flee the wrath of Pharaoh as a murderer. But his bad choice also had a good outcome – he learned to survive in the desert, which knowledge he made good use of as leader of God’s people later. Moses’ life unfolded, ripple by ripple, as he learned God’s ways, obeyed His commands, and eventually became the greatest of all Israel’s leaders, taking the people of God from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to Canaan and being the mediator of God’s covenant with His people.

His mother’s decision to save him was the pebble in the pond, and here we are today, being a part of the ripples that still go outward on this pond of life.

JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

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JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites….And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans….this then is how you should pray.” Matthew 6:5,7,8.

Although Jesus gives specific teaching on prayer, the whole of the Sermon on the Mount is interwoven with principles which apply to our prayer lives e.g., unforgiveness blocks our fellowship with God, as does a critical and judgmental spirit, broken relationships with people, greed, worry etc. and even our attitude to Jesus’ teachings. Since most of us learn to pray by listening to and copying other people, we need a complete mind shift about prayer.

In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus clears the ground by using the illustration of two classes of people who had become role models for the ordinary people; religious people (whom He called “hypocrites”) and pagans (nationals or Gentiles).

Hypocrites (play actors) were people with more than one face, playing an assumed character to an audience. People who are praying to an audience are more aware of the people around them than of God. The antidote to people-awareness is solitude. Get away from people so that you can focus on God.

Gentiles were idol worshippers. Their problem was to get their gods to hear them. (e.g., Elijah and the prophets of Baal). Since their gods were deaf and dumb and without understanding, they had to use many words in their prayers.  Jesus called it “babbling” from the Greek word “to stutter”. We also easily fall into the trap of thinking that we must explain or repeat ourselves as though God were either deaf or retarded. Prayer is not about words. Prayer is about awareness.

Because we have the wrong idea about prayer, we think that the purpose for prayer is to make God aware of our needs. Words and needs are connected. We must use the right words to make sure God understands our needs. This concept of prayer is erroneous for two reasons. It ignores the fact the God is our Father, and it forgets that God knows our needs before we ask Him

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus teaches us how to view our needs. He said, “Take no thought…” This does not mean worry. It means do not allow thoughts to consume your mind to the exclusion of everything else. Your basic human needs are to be the concern of your Father, not yours.  You are of greater value than birds and flowers.  Let God fulfil His role as a true Father without your taking that from Him.

You are to have a different spirit from the Gentiles whose whole life is taken up with meeting their own needs. God’s way for us is to take care of the needs of others.  Then He will take care of our needs.

The first step in understanding what prayer is, is to recognise that prayer is not about words or needs but about becoming aware of God and moving into the environment of our Father’s knowledge and care of us. We should never approach our God in the same manner as the hypocrites or pagans who use their gods to suit their own ends. W come to our God one His terms as the great sovereign of the universe and we as His subjects.

JESUS’ SECOND TEST – TEST GOD

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JESUS’ SECOND TEST – TEST GOD

Then the devil took Him to the Holy City and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down….” Jesus answered him, “it is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:5-7.

The second test has a fairy-tale-like air about it. If the devil literally took Jesus to the highest point of the temple, how did He get up there? If it only happened in the spirit, what was the big deal?  The Bible does not indicate how it happened. We must take the Word at face value.

The first test was painfully real to Jesus because His hunger, after a 40-day fast, would have driven Him to do anything within His power, and do it immediately, to satisfy His desperate need.

The strength of the second test would have depended on the strength of the mission that was on His mind. “How am I going to get the people to believe in me and my message?” One supernatural act that would have fulfilled the people’s expectation, might have been enough to convince the crowds in the temple that He was their Messiah.  However, He did not want to be received because of a spectacular feat but because of an inner conviction that He was their Messiah.

Jesus did many miracles during His three-year ministry, but He was still rejected because He did not fit the image of Messiah in the minds of the people. They were looking for a Messiah who would make their lives more comfortable. They were okay with Him as long as He did stuff to relieve their misery, rather than self-denial and servanthood.

Jesus saw through the devil’s suggestion. God’s promises were not to be manipulated for His own ends. He could not force God to intervene miraculously to rescue Him. There could never be a shortcut to receiving the kingdom of God.

Jesus responded to this test immediately. He did not have to consider anything before He met the lies and countered them with truth. “The Message” puts His response very strongly. “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.” He was indignant at the very thought of challenging God’s word. Satan was trying to lure Him into a standoff with God by using the word of God to pit His will against God’s will. If God had wanted Him to get the people’s attention by doing something spectacular, He would have told Him, but that is not the way He works.

Satan got it wrong, and Jesus was quick to put him in his place. This was non-negotiable. He refused to manipulate God. He would obey God’s word, no matter what it took to fulfil His mission.

We do not live to test God. We live to co-operate with God, to find out what He is doing and to fit in with Him. We do not know what we really want. Unlike Jesus, we often “trust God” to do what we want in ways that are manipulative and arrogant.