Monthly Archives: June 2024

FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

Devotion, ,

“For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:13,14

COMMENT

This is a good place to start.  Contrary to what the evolutionists would like us to believe, the Bible tells us that God was there, expertly crafting you into exactly what He wanted you to be while you were still in your mother’s womb.  You are no accident or happenstance, regardless of the circumstances of your conception and birth.  God is so passionate about you that He personally fashioned you and knit you together in your mother’s womb, not only your physical form but who YOU are in every detail, your personality, your gifts and all the potential He put inside you to fulfil your destiny in His kingdom on this earth.

PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

In your own words, thank God for being your Creator and for making you exactly who you are. Take time to appreciate your uniqueness.  Think of all the gifts and talents He has built into you.  Think about your desires, hopes and dreams. Give yourself to Him to fulfil all His purposes for you.

PRAYING GOD’S WAY – 24

Prayer, ,

PRAY FOR GOD’S MESSENGERS

‭Ephesians 6:19 NLT‬
[19] “And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike.”

Perhaps we should conclude our thoughts about prayer with a focus on those whom God has called to sow the seeds of His Word all over the world, in cities, towns, villages, and remote areas everywhere, to the ends of the earth.

Paul was acutely aware of his own weaknesses as well as the enormity of the task God had entrusted to him. He was commissioned to take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles but he was up against relentless opposition from Jews and Gentiles as well as living and travelling in the dangerous world of his day.

He constantly entreated his fellow believers to pray for him. He was as human as they were, subject to the conflicting emotions stirred up by his circumstances.

He speaks of fear, anger, tears, anguish as he struggled with ex-pagans who were raw and new in their faith and walk with the Lord, and with Jewish believers who were still powerfully influenced by the demands of their Jewish religion.

His life was constantly in danger and once almost extinguished by over-zealous pagans who wanted to worship him and his companions as gods.

‭Acts of the Apostles 14:11 NLT‬
[11]”When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!”

Paul was aware that he faced opposition from two sources, from without and from within. His old nature stirred up attitudes and reactions to his opposition that desired revenge, but the new nature required submission to God’s will no matter what it cost him.

‭2 Corinthians 11:24-29 NLT‬
[24] “Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. [25] Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. [26] I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. [27] I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. [28] Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. [29] Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?”

These hardships were like a thorn in Paul’s flesh, constantly goading him to react.

‭2 Corinthians 12:8 NLT‬
[8]”Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away…”

Is it any wonder that he needed the prayer support of Christian family to help him through his daily struggles! So, he constantly urged them to pray for him.

‭Philippians 1:19-20 NLT‬
[19] “For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance. [20] For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die.”

In the midst of all these obstacles, Paul had one all-consuming desire, to be faithful to his calling and to fulfill his commission with courage and boldness. He needed to convey his message with clarity so that those who heard him would understand it and believe.

How much more do God’s fellow workers need the same boldness, courage, and clarity to declare the same message today! The threats to those who proclaim the gospel are ever-icreasing from a hostile world of people and governments that hate, oppose and suppress the truth by their wickedness.
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God promised that His Word will always accomplish its purpose but He does not guarantee a trouble-free journey for all of us. In fact, Jesus made it clear that the opposite will happen. Trouble will always be just around the corner.

‭John 16:33 NLT‬
[33] “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

What of those who in some way, walk in Paul’s shoes? Their struggles are no less real than his were.

So, let us be faithful in our prayers for God’s messengers; for safety, deliverance, and faithfulness to God’s Word and to their calling; for strength to stand firm in trials and tests; for courage, boldness, and clarity to declare the whole gospel; and for integrity and godliness that confirm their calling.

PRAYING GOD’S WAY – 23

Prayer, ,

HOLY AND BLAMELESS

‭1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NLT‬
[23] “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. [24] God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”

What a benediction for a happy church! After commending them for their faith, hope, and love, and encouraging them to do what they were doing even more, Paul prays for them to be holy and to be preserved blameless for the entire course of their lives until Jesus returns.

A few words in this prayer need clarification.

Paul, first, calls on ‘the God of peace’. Three attitudes pervade the atmosphere of God’s presence… love, joy, and peace. This is who He is. In a sin-soaked world of chaos and confusion, God’s peace is an oasis of tranquility and serenity, a priceless gift to those who trust Him, not only His peace but His presence soaked in His peace.

‭Philippians 4:6-7, 9 NLT‬
[6] “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. [7] Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus….
[9] Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

It’s this God to whom we entrust everything about our lives that will escort us to the heavenly haven of rest in His eternal presence. It’s this God who promises to keep us safe in every storm and deliver us from every threat and danger until we leave ‘down here ‘ for ‘up there’.

What could be more secure than this, especially when Paul assures us that

“God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”

So, what will God do while we are here?

  1. He will make you holy.

Since God demands holiness as the qualification for seeing Him, and seeing how impossible it is for us to be holy without Him, we need this assurance that, just as salvation is His work in us, so is holiness.

‭Hebrews 9:12 NLT‬
[12] “With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.”

‭Hebrews 10:14 NLT‬
[14] “For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.”

What is holiness? Holiness is God’s attitude to sin. God is holy. He is utterly separate from sin. He cannot sin; He hates sin; He calls for the judgment and death of the sinner but.. He also dealt with sin by punishing His own Son in our place.

For us, holiness has two parts…
Simply put, we are to be separate from sin and separated to God.

Part one – belonging

The essence of this separation is belonging. Holiness does not mean we must be morally as perfect as God is. In this life, we are still plagued by our old sin nature. Holiness means that we must live according to the one to whom we belong. He bought us. We belong to Him. He wants us to show that belongingness by the way we live… not perfectly but purposefully, remembering that we have an Advocate who represents us when we mess up.

‭1 John 2:1-2 NLT‬
[1] “My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. [2] He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”

‭1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT‬
[19] “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, [20] for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

God bought us from the slave-market and dominion of sin,

‭1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT‬
[18]” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. [19] It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

We belong to Him, body, soul, and spirit. We are called to live out that belongingness by being separate from everything that contradicts who He is.

Part two – living

‭1 Peter 1:14-16 NLT‬
[14]” So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. [15] But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. [16] For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

So, living by the standards of the one to whom we belong is an important part of being holy.

How is this possible?

  1. He will preserve you blameless.

We have another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who lives in us. He provides the power, by God’s grace, to obey God’s Word when we trust and obey Him.

‭Romans 8:11-14 NLT‬
[11] “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. [12] Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. [13] For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. [14] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

The Holy Spirit in us guarantees that we belong to God and that He will finish what He started.

‭Ephesians 1:14 NLT‬
[14]” The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”

Since we belong to God and since He is working in us by His Spirit to separate us from sin and to Himself, will God answer Paul’s prayer?

A resounding” YES!” because God is faithful and He will make it happen!

PRAYING GOD’S WAY – 22

Prayer, ,

EVEN MORE!

‭1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 NLT‬
[12] “And may the Lord make your LOVE for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. [13] May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.“

Such a happy letter! Paul has much to commend the people in the Thessalonian church. They responded to his message, believed the truth and lived it out among the pagans in their city.

Unlike the people in some churches, Thessalonians believers didn’t drag their pagan lifestyle with them into their new lives. Their love for one another was powerful evidence of God’s work of grace in them.

All through the ages, the ‘wheat’ and the ‘weeds’ in the world are left to grow together. When harvest time comes, Jesus said, the wheat and weeds will be separated according to their fruit. The true and the false may be difficult to differentiate as they grow but their fruit will eventually give them away.

So, Paul prays, whatever the Thessalonians believers were doing, do it even more. In this way, when harvest time comes, there will be no doubt about their identity and to whom they belong.

‭1 Thessalonians 4:1 NLT‬
[1] “Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more.”

Paul’s prayer for the Philippians Church enshrines this thought.

‭Philippians 1:11 NLT‬
[11] “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

There is a particular fragrance, an aroma, about those who belong to Jesus, like the fragrance of freshly-picked fruit that identifies its kind.

‭2 Corinthians 2:15 NLT‬
[15]”Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.”

As we read through Paul’s letters of correction, instruction, and encouragement to different groups of people, qualities and characteristics begin to emerge that typify true believers.

‭1 Thessalonians 1:3 NLT‬
[3]”As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your FAITHFUL WORK , your LOVING DEEDS , and the ENDURING HOPE you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭Romans 1:8 NLT‬
[8] “Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your FAITH in him is being talked about all over the world.”

‭Colossians 1:4-5 NLT‬
[4] “For we have heard of your FAITH in Christ Jesus and your LOVE for all of God’s people, [5] which come from your confident HOPE of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.”

‭1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT‬
[13]”Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

Faith, love, hope… the core qualities of believers in Jesus, evidence of the new life in Him, emerge from Paul’s writings. These are the fruit of our salvation.

The fragrance of these fruits pervade the atmosphere around us like sweet perfume. O, that the Lord would fill His people with the fruits of our salvation!

We have Paul’s example to follow as we obey his instruction to pray for all believers everywhere.

‭Ephesians 6:18 NLT‬
[18] “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”

Whatever believers are doing that shows their true life in Jesus, pray that they will do it even more. There are spinoffs when we channel our energies into faith, hope and love,

“May he, as a result, make your hearts STRONG , BLAMELESS , and HOLY as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people.”

“… for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

Isn’t this, after all, what we desire above all else, as God’s beloved children, to be strong, blameless, and holy when we stand before God, and to bring much praise and glory to Him? Our prayers will contribute to the quality of the fruit God’s children bear all over the world that make this possible.

PRAYING GOD’S WAY – 21

Prayer,

THE “DO’S AND DON’TS” OF PRAYER

As much as there are do’s and don’ts on every level of life that help or hinder us, so too with prayer. Jesus made it clear to His disciples that do’s and don’ts are of great importance when we approach the Father. If we ignore the don’ts, we ignore the wrong attitudes that hinder our prayers. If we do the do’s, we enhance our prayer lives by praying God’s way.

The first ‘don’t’ is one we easily miss because we are dominated by our self-consciousness.

‭Matthew 6:5 NLT‬
[5] “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get….”

This ‘don’t’ is especially applicable when we pray in a group. We like the affirmation of those who admire our use of words. So, we plan our words while others are praying! Conversely, we listen to others pray and bemoan the fact that we can’t pray as ‘beautifully’ as someone else! All the while, we forget that prayer is about conversing with God, not speaking to people.

Our self-consciousness (and pride) are always there to intrude in what should be an intimate time with the Father. If recognition is our subconscious motive when we pray, our prayers may bounce off the ceiling. They don’t impress God.

The second ‘don’t’ is equally a trap into which we easily fall, closely tied to our desire to impress. Words!

‭Matthew 6:7 NLT‬
[7] “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again…“

Oh, how we babble! To babble means to mutter, repeating the same words or, often, in our case, giving God lengthy explanations, instructions, advice, and requests. We subconsciously treat God exactly as the ‘Gentiles’ treat their pagan gods, either hard of hearing or, worse, lacking in understanding, when we babble!

Jesus said that prayer is NOT about people or words. He gave us two ways to counteract our don’ts by changing our doing.

We can neutralise our self-awareness by praying in secret. Then our words won’t matter. Jesus specifically said that the Father ‘sees’, not ‘hears’, our secret prayers. We express our intention when we pray in secret. We want the Father, not people, to hear us so, we go aside and pray alone.

Babbling means that words spew out of our mouths like water from a fountain. God is not impressed by our carefully chosen and many words. He listens to the heart. He knows us. He knows our needs before we ask Him. He doesn’t need our words to explain or instruct.

That’s the reason for transparency when we pray because prayer is about intimacy, and intimacy and honesty go together.

God has given us a simple way to overcome our babbling. He told us just to say “Amen” to His promises.

‭2 Peter 1:4 NLT‬
[4] “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

‭2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT‬
[20] “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”

A simple “Amen” to whatever promise God gives us in time of need will cut off the flow of babbling and quieten our hearts to have confidence in His intention.

Instead of babbling, let’s listen. God has a word of reassurance… that He knows and He has a plan in everything for our good and His glory.

Read these matchless words of James Montgomery (1818). Perhaps, we can catch a glimpse of the enormity of true prayer that needs not words but heart to reach the heart of God.

“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air;
His watchword at the gates of death,
He enters heav’n with prayer

Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, “Behold! He prays!”

Nor prayer is made on earth alone
The Holy Spirit pleads,
And Jesus at the Father’s throne
For sinners intercedes.

O thou by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer thyself hast trod
Lord, teach us how to pray.”

Source: Musixmatch