Monthly Archives: April 2023

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL EYE

Christian Life,

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL EYE

“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:13

According to our western way of thinking, the devil is our biggest problem. We attribute to him our struggles and our woes. It’s easy to blame him because it absolves us from taking responsibility for our own choices and behaviour. Instead, we say, “The devil made me do it!”

But according to Jesus, we ought to pray, “Save me from myself.”

Jesus ends this pattern prayer with the indication that He is aware of our biggest problem – not the Evil One but the evil eye – the “yetzer harah”. It is the greed, selfishness, self-absorption, and wickedness in our hearts more than the devil that is the cause of the mess man has created on earth. The devil may play on these things to lure us away from God’s best way to live, but Adam chose to go his own way in the beginning and his stubborn and rebellious nature was passed down to us from generation to generation.

If our biggest problem were the devil, we would be victims and God could not hold us responsible for our behaviour. However, together with God’s gift of free will comes the responsibility to choose His way and the consequences of the choices we make.

It is not in the devil’s power to make us do anything, but his capacity to deceive us is where we fall into His trap. James was fully aware of the evil desires within man that are attracted to the enticements of sin. He warned that we must not think it is God who tempts us. Our own evil desires drag us away, entice us to sin and lure us towards death (James 1:13-15).

As believers, God has given us His own nature; “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that, through them, you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3,4) and His indwelling presence to deliver us from the evil eye. Our problem is that we are subject to deception when we do not know the truth.

Hence, included in His pattern prayer is the request, “Give us today our daily bread.”  Without the diligent study of God’s word to reinforce our souls with God’s truth, we would easily be caught up in Satan’s deception and the bondage to our old nature which comes with it. 

Jesus urged us to pray that we will not be enticed toward greed and wickedness by following the dictates of our old nature but that, instead, our hearts will be drawn to God’s kingdom, to the will of God, which is good and perfect, so that we can enjoy living life His way.

THE LORD’S PRAYER – FORGIVE AS WE FORGIVE

Christian Life, ,

THE LORD’S PRAYER – FORGIVE AS WE FORGIVE

 “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors…” Matthew 6:12.

“Cancel the debt of sin I owe you in exactly the same way as I cancel the debts of those who have sinned against me.” This is the only part of the prayer on which Jesus comments. Apart from blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, unforgiveness is the only sin for which a believer will die unforgiven. This has serious implications.

Matthew 18 expands on this issue of forgiveness. Any sin, whether against God or another person, which is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4), incurs a debt which demands payment to be made by the debtor. Once payment has been made, the debt is written off and no-one can demand payment a second time. The king forgave the servant’s greater debt which should have fostered such gratitude that he would have shown mercy to his fellow servant. The fact that he did not have mercy showed that he had not understood his master’s generosity towards him.

Why do people find it so difficult to forgive those who have offended them?

Offenses often trigger emotions that resurface from old hurts which makes our struggle to forgive an emotional issue. We think that we must feel that we have forgiven before it is effective in the other person’s life. However, our painful emotions arise from the faulty beliefs we gather over years of misinterpreting our life experiences. Those emotions can only be replaced by God’s peace when we correctly understand and embrace God’s truth about the matter. We cannot change the way we feel about the other person until we have understood what is true rather that what we feel to be true because our feelings arise from what we believe.

Let’s examine some or our faulty thinking.

We do not understand the greatness of God’s mercy towards us.

We refuse to forgive because the other persons’ offense makes us think we are better than they. We consider ourselves above God because, although He has freely forgiven our sin because of Jesus, we are not obliged to forgive our debtor because we have been wronged and we think we have the right to hold on to our resentment or bitterness.  We become our own idols because we think we know better than God.

Refusal to forgive is a misunderstanding of God’s grace. Jesus’ death on the cross paid all the debt for all people for all time. Any debt that someone incurs by offending us has already been paid and refusal to forgive is an illegal demand for payment to be made again – to us.

Unforgiveness sabotages unity because it breaks relationships, disrupts fellowship, and fosters an attitude of bitterness which cuts us off from fellowship with God and people. 

Refusal to forgive is a reversal of all that God’s name means, which are the characteristics of kingdom citizens, humility, generosity, and mercy.

This prayer invites God to treat us in the same way as we treat others.

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD

Christian Life,

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD

“Give us today our daily bread…” Matthew 6:11

“Let your word feed and nourish me every day.” Again, we must read this in the context of Jesus’ whole teaching in Matthew 5-7. Prayer is not about needs, so what is this request all about?

The Hebrew mind would automatically connect this prayer with the concept of bread in the Torah. As the Israelites went through the desert into the Promised Land, there were two kinds of bread in their experience.  “Daily bread” referred to the manna which they gathered in the wilderness daily, while the second kind of bread was the “showbread” which was placed on the table in the Holy Place in the tabernacle and eaten weekly by the priests.

The manna which they gathered daily, except on the Sabbath, appeared on the ground as hard seed like coriander seed which had to be pounded or ground into flour before they could cook it. Grinding it would release both its palatability and its nourishment.

God’s word is like manna. Its value is locked within the seed and needs to be worked before it releases its flavour and nourishment. Jesus is God’s word made flesh (John 1:14). He is our nourishment – “I am the bread of life” John 6:35. We must take time to “assimilate” Him.

Like the hard work it took to gather and prepare the manna for a meal, so it takes effort to gather the manna of God’s word and process it until it becomes part of our thinking and experience. There is nothing “instant” about feeding on the Word of God. This prayer is a plea for grace to gather the “manna” and take it in so that the Holy Spirit can nourish and energise our hearts daily with the Word.

The second kind of bread, the “showbread”, was placed on the table of showbread in the Holy Place for a week after which it was eaten by the priests serving in the tabernacle. This bread symbolises the nourishment we receive weekly when we participate in the teaching which our “priest”, nourished by the Word of God, in turn, feeds us – breaking open God’s Word as he understands and imparts it.

What are we praying when we ask for daily bread? We are asking for revelation truth about Jesus, whom the Holy Spirit will reveal to us as we open our heart to Him. John 16:13-15.  Why do we need the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth about Jesus to us?  Colossians 2:2-3. God’s word is the manna which we must process through prayer and meditation until the Holy Spirit unlocks its truths to our hearts and gives us insight into God’s heart for us and for the world over which we have an influence for the kingdom of God.

Secondly, we pray for our pastors to be open to the truth of God’s Word so that we, in turn, may benefit from the revelation he has received.

YOUR KINGDOM COME – MAKE “UP THERE” COME “DOWN HERE”

Christian Life, ,

YOUR KINGDOM COME – MAKE “UP THERE” COME “DOWN HERE”

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

Somehow in the process of trying to understand Jesus and what He came to do, this part of His prayer has either been neglected or twisted so that we think it is only about the life to come. This prayer is not a vague hope for the future as much as it is a desire to be part of the future. In the unseen realm of the spirit, God governs perfectly. His will, which is the expression of who He is, is perfectly done, which means that there is nothing broken, or imperfect where He rules. Only here on earth, where sin has disrupted the perfection of God’s rule, is there need for restoration and renewal.

It is God’s design for us who are representatives of His kingdom on earth, to put His rule in place wherever we are as a foretaste of how His kingdom will ultimately replace all the corrupted kingdoms of this world.

God appointed Jesus to rule as king – Psalm 2:6 – “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill...” but He rules through us by His Spirit who lives in us.      

In Matthew 5, Jesus has already explained how His kingdom works in the ungodly world system. As kingdom people, we are not to conduct our lives the way the people in the world do. We are to live generously towards other people, treating them with love and mercy, not reacting but responding as our heavenly Father would respond. To be able to do this, we need God’s grace which He freely gives us as we choose to obey Him.

This request is another piece in the puzzle about prayer. Prayer is not about us as much as it is about our part in the bigger picture of God’s kingdom – Matthew 6:33 – “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” As we put the pieces together, we are beginning to see that prayer is about God’s re-establishing His rule on earth through His people. He does not act independently of us, His vice-regents, but we, in turn, must not rule independently of Him.

As we spend time in God’s presence, gazing at Him and listening to Him, we become aware of His love, mercy, and grace that touched and changed our lives and of His passion to touch others through us. Instead of acting and reacting out of selfishness and greed like the world does, He wants us to imitate the way Jesus responded to people in need, with mercy, compassion, and generosity so that we can make their lives better and to show them what God is really like.

God doesn’t need us to tell Him what to do. He needs us to listen to Him so that we can do things His way to show the world who He is. He wants us to make “up there” come “down here”!

THE LORD’S PRAYER – HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

Christian Life, ,

THE LORD’S PRAYER – HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” Matthew 6:9

In a world in which people everywhere show great disrespect for the name of God, often calling Him “the man upstairs” or using His name as an expletive to express surprise or annoyance, Jesus taught His disciples that the way into experiencing the presence of God is to
acknowledge, hallow, and become aware of His Name.

In Hebrew thought, a name was a prophetic utterance of character. Everything that God is, is encapsulated in His name. Therefore, the God of whose presence I must become aware, is not some vague, characterless being, but a God whose nature, character, values, standards, desires, intentions, plans, and purposes are all summed up in His name.

In the Old Testament, God’s name was revealed progressively to His people through His dealings with them and their experience of Him personally and nationally.

To Abraham He was El Shaddai – God Almighty, the God who was more powerful than the sun and moon gods that Abram worshipped by day and by night as a Chaldean living in Ur. The problem with worshipping two gods was that Abram didn’t really know which one was in charge. God revealed to him that He, God Almighty, is the one in charge.

To Moses and the people of Israel, God was JHWH – I AM – the intimate covenant name of God. Individuals within God’s covenant people experienced Him in a variety of ways as He revealed Himself to them in their need, e.g., Jehovah Jireh (Yahweh provides), Jehovah Nissi (Yahweh is our victory), Jehovah Rapha (Yahweh heals), Jehovah Rohe, (Yahweh is my shepherd), Jehovah Shalom, (Yahweh is peace), Jehovah Tsidkenu, (Yahweh is our righteousness) and Jehovah Shammah, (Yahweh is there), etc.  

God revealed Himself most clearly in His Son. Jesus assured His disciples that to see Him was to see the Father, a perfect demonstration of His character and His ways. To watch and listen to Jesus through the gospels is to have a window into the character of God of whom Jesus was the perfect representative. “I have revealed your name….” John 17:6

In a way in which it is difficult for us to understand, God invested in and entrusted to Jesus everything of Himself in physical form and summed it up in His name. “Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” Philippians 2:9, 10.

Therefore, to acknowledge and become aware of God’s name is to become aware of the character of Jesus as He went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:28), putting God’s name on display by His words and actions.

First of all, then, prayer is about becoming aware of the person and character of the God to whom we pray. When we do that, our needs and problems will shrink to their correct significance in His presence.