Tag Archives: prayer

Pray For Us

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PRAY FOR US

Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should (Col. 4: 1-4).

Paul completed his prescription for household harmony with a word to masters – be the kind of master your Master is to you. Always remember to whom you are accountable and how He treats you.

The point of Paul’s instructions is – at whatever level you exercise power and authority over others, do it with the same attitude as Jesus has towards you. Treat everyone with dignity and respect, be it your husband, wife, child, servant or master. This rule of thumb is absolutely viral for interpersonal relationships at every level of society. What a difference it would make to our world if this basic rule were followed! It’s up to us as followers of Jesus to set the standard wherever we are.

Paul’s next instruction was equally vital in his world gone crazy just as it is in ours. Stay in touch with your heavenly Father because you are surrounded and bombarded non-stop with stresses and tests. Jesus stated categorically, on the eve of His departure, ‘Apart from me you can do nothing.’ Keeping in close contact with our Father will enable us to draw from His wisdom and strength as we navigate a world system that is anti-God and self-sufficient.

In the busyness and pressures of our everyday lives it is easy to forget that we have a Father to whom we are accountable for the daily choices and decisions we make and  their consequences, whether we like them or not. We live in a world system that is based on selfishness and greed. It’s everyone for himself in a dog-eat-dog society.

How can we guard against being a part of the way the world lives? Paul’s prescription: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Devote – bend all your energies towards . . . Prayer is not to be a hurried, five-minute, conscience-appeasing, ‘Good morning, God. Please look after me and my family today, and meet all our needs’  kind of greeting.

What is prayer? Prayer is the intercourse of a son with his Father, recognising, valuing and appreciating who the Father is, and opening the heart to His presence, His authority and His will. It is the awareness that wherever I am and whatever I do, He is always there, always good and always in charge – and I am accountable to Him for every word and action.

Prayer is also the expression of dependence on the Father as my life source. Everything I am and have comes from Him and is for Him. I cannot even draw a breath without Him. Prayer is allowing Him to live His life though me, fuelling and fulfilling my desires as His desires become mine.

What was Paul’s desire? To proclaim the mystery of Christ clearly wherever he was able to go. What was God’s desire for him? To do exactly as he desired. Prayer’s highest purpose is to become one with the Father so that His will becomes ours and His will is done on earth through us as it is done in heaven.

It did not matter to Paul whether he was free to move about anywhere in the Roman Empire or incarcerated in jail. As long as there were people around him with whom to share the message of Christ, his desire was to speak it freely and with clarity so that his hearers would understand and believe. God knew his desire but it was necessary for Paul to express it to Him. In that way his heart was bonded to the heart of the Father.

God knows your desires but, to share your heart with Him strengthens your union with Him. Out of that union comes the power to fulfil your desires and bring glory to Him as His kingdom overrides the ungodly kingdoms of this world wherever His people are.

The atmosphere of prayer is always: awareness that I am vulnerable because I still have my old nature lurking inside and awaiting every opportunity to trip me up; and thankful because I have a Saviour who rescues me from my destructive self-will, the Holy Spirit who energised me to walk in God’s ways; and a heavenly Father who passionately loves me as His child and provides everything I need to live a godly life.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

One In The Bond Of Love

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ONE IN THE BOND OF LOVE

“It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:7-11.

That’s quite a mouthful, Paul!

Paul made some powerful statements in his greeting to the Philippian church. He obviously had great affection for these people. They were his first converts in Greece. They loved him; they supported him in every possible way; unlike the Galatian church, they were steadfast in their faith in Jesus and they brought great joy to Paul. He could not help but tell them how much they meant to him in the midst of the trials and persecution he faced. At that very moment he was in prison for the gospel of Christ.

Paul thought about them constantly, as he did the many other small groups scattered all over Europe and Asia who had come to Christ through his preaching and teaching. In spite of his apostolic role, he didn’t lord it over them. They had an equal share in God’s grace with him. He needed grace to endure the suffering and humiliation of persecution and imprisonment for preaching the gospel. They needed grace to be faithful to Jesus in the face of opposition, accusation and misunderstanding and the ever-present danger of betrayal to the authorities, even by friends or family.

God’s grace was very real to Paul. On one occasion he was so traumatised by constant persecution that he pleaded with God to remove the “thorn” of angry persecutors that dogged him wherever he went and the hardships he faced as a travelling apostle. God’s response was not to remove the thorn but to give him strength and grace to endure. The same grace that supported him was available to every Philippian child of God for their daily struggles.

Paul’s written prayers give us deep insight into true prayer. He was more concerned about forming their godly characters than he was about their outward circumstances. As long as they were in this life they would face trouble. It was not his place to pray them out of it, since God was using the very adversities they faced to mould them into the image of Christ. In his prayers he affirmed God’s purpose to grow them in righteousness and godliness as a witness to His grace and power in the face of human wickedness in the society around them.

His greeting was “grace and peace,” his prayer for the increase of love and the fruit of righteousness so that their lives would be blameless, not sinless, and pure, not mixed with the ungodly practices of the pagans all around them. Their righteousness was the outflow of Christ’s righteousness which covered them as they lived in a sinful world, surrounded by pressure and temptation to conform in order to evade the inevitable suffering for Jesus’ sake.

Why the increase of love? Love is the very essence of who God is. His love motivates and permeates His every thought and action. Everything He does is for our good and He spares nothing, not even His own Son, to ensure our rescue and our freedom from the ravages of sin. The love of God that motivates us, heals and restores us as much as it ministers to others. The more we love, the greater our resemblance to our heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus.

The more we give of ourselves and our resources to meet the needs of others, the more we grow in our understanding of what the right thing is to do in every circumstance. What better desire could Paul express for these dear people who meant so much to him? They were an oasis in the desert of idolatry and wickedness. They were a breath of fresh air in the putrid atmosphere of ungodliness. They were a fountain of living water springing up out of the barren earth.

We can learn from Paul to view life from a different perspective. God is about changing hearts, not circumstances. The very struggles we hate are the things God uses to refine our faith and purify our hearts of our fleshly and selfish appetites so that we can feast on Him and become like Him to shine in the darkness of sin and unbelief.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

 

Another Lesson Learned

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ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED

“When they came down off the mountain the next day, a big crowd was there to meet them. A man called from out of the crowd, ‘Please, please, Teacher, take a look at my son. He’s my only child. Suddenly he’s screaming, thrown into convulsions, his mouth foaming. And then it beats him black-and-blue before it leaves. I asked your disciples to deliver him but they couldn’t.'” Luke 9:37-40 (The Message).

This is strange. Not long before this, the disciples went out on a preaching tour, authorised by Jesus, and were very successful. They did everything He sent them to do including casting out demons. Why were they incapable of evicting this one?

The description of this demon’s vicious activity in the boy seems to indicate that it was a particularly nasty and tenacious spirit that had hold of him. It was not about to give way easily and made its intentions known. The disciples were obviously intimidated by its resistance and perhaps believed that it was more powerful than they were, and they gave up.

The boy’s father was relieved to see Jesus and wasted no time in pleading for His help. Jesus’ reaction to His disciples’ failure revealed His exasperation with them. They had been with Him long enough to know how to deal with the opposition from the dominion of darkness.

“Jesus said. ’What a generation! No sense of God! No focus in your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring your son here.'” Luke 9:41 (The Message).

Thisparaphrase captures the essence of the disciples’ failure and Jesus’ frustration. He perpetually lived in the environment of God’s presence. His God-awareness kept Him from being intimidated by apparently uncontrollable circumstances and enabled Him to restore to wholeness what the evil one was using to destroy people. Demons were part of the devil’s arsenal of destructive weapons against people whom they had overpowered but Jesus easily overpowered them because He, not the devil, is Lord.

Jesus knew that the power of God and the kingdom of God were greater than Satan’s power and in that awareness and environment He ordered demons to leave. The disciples, on the other hand, were yet to live in the mind-set of God’s presence and power. They had not yet grasped the authority that they had in Him.

“While he was coming, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into convulsions. Jesus stepped in, ordered the vile spirit gone, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. They all shook their heads in wonder, astonished at God’s greatness, God’s majestic greatness.” Luke 9:41-42 (The Message).

This demon was a show-off! He had to have his last fling before he left. But leave he had to, because he knew who had authority over him. In Mark’s version of the story, after this final thrashing, the boy seemed to be dead but Jesus had him up on his feet, healed and delivered, and handed him back to his relieved father.

The disciples were puzzled, according to Mark (Mark 9:28-29). Why did they have no power over this demon? Jesus’ reply is equally puzzling. The implication of His response seems to be that, before they could cast out the demon, they had to spend time in prayer. But that was not practical.

Prayer is essentially not about getting our needs met. Jesus said that that was the Father’s responsibility. Prayer is about developing a God-awareness that places us, like Jesus, in the environment of God’s presence and power.

Circumstances overwhelm us because they are more real to us than God. The more time we spend engaging with God and opening our spirits to His Spirit, the more real He becomes to us in the difficult circumstances of our lives. This is the essence of faith — and the outcome is God’s intervention to bring us a step closer to wholeness.

God is as real and powerful to us as we want Him to be.

Prayer: Lesson 7 – Problems With Prayer

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LESSON 7

PROBLEMS WITH PRAYER

INTRODUCTION

Prayer has many facets to it. Both the Old and the New Testaments are full of examples of people’s prayers. Unfortunately the Bible is not a manual for prayer. We have to glean our understanding from people’s experiences and God’s responses.

It is easy to misunderstand prayer because, as human beings, we do not find it easy to understand how and why we should communicate with Someone we cannot see and who does not communicate with us in an audible voice.

We tend to think of prayer as communicating with God on the same level as we communicate with one another. We have probably been taught that prayer is talking to God – in a sort of one-way monologue that does not expect a response and doe not understand how to interpret the responses we may get from Him.

Prayer is a learned experience

Even Jesus’ disciples, having watched and listened to Him praying many times, asked Him to teach them to pray. Listening and speaking to God takes practice. If you find it difficult in the beginning, don’t give up. Learning to communicate with God is worth the time and effort you put into it.

We can’t possibly deal with all the problems we encounter in prayer. We can only highlight a few of the main ones under the following categories:

1. PROBLEMS WITH OURSELVES

Speaking to an unseen Being

Until we get used to the idea that God is real and He is as near to us as our breath, speaking to someone we can’t see feels foolish. It takes practice to become God-conscious. Proverbs 3:6 is good counsel to help us develop an awareness of God.

“In all your ways acknowledge Him…”

Hearing the sound of your voice

Praying aloud will help you with the problem of a wandering mind. It may be difficult to do in the beginning because you may feel silly talking aloud when there is no other visible person there.

Praying the Psalms aloud will help you get used to hearing your own voice.

Dealing with a wandering mind

Reading Scripture, especially the Psalms, as well as verbalising your thoughts will help you to concentrate.

It is good to have a notebook and pen with you to write down anything that is taking your attention away from God that you can deal with later.

Being selfish and self-centred

Discipline yourself to start with setting your mind on God. No matter how pressing your need might be, keep in mind that God is with you, that He is good and that He is in charge. There is no situation outside of His control and care.

Go back to Jesus’ pattern prayer. Begin with “Our Father…”

Humility and honesty

Humility is not about feeling like a worm before God. It is about taking your rightful place before Him. You are both a created being and a son.

Don’t tell God what you think He wants to hear. Be honest. Tell Him how you feel, what you think and what you believe. He can work with that.

Prayer is more about changing you than changing your circumstances. Your circumstances change and your needs are met as you are being formed into the image of Jesus.

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect (contemplate) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit .“ 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV).

Question: Discuss some of the problems you face with prayer relating to yourself as a human being.

2. PROBLEMS WITH GOD

Praying to the wrong god

It is possible to pray to the wrong god if our concept of God comes from our imagination and not from the Bible.

The God of the Bible is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God Jesus mirrored in His life.

Use the Scriptures to develop your understanding of who God is. Read passages like Ezekiel 1; Isaiah 6; And Revelation 1:12-18; 4:1-11

Having a wrong expectation of God

We can become disappointed and disillusioned with God if our expectations are shaped by what we learn from others and not by what the Bible teaches. Too much of our “faith” is trusting God “for” something instead of trusting God, full stop.

Be careful of the faith teachings that take Scripture out of context and expect God to do what you demand because you try to hold God to His word. That is manipulation, not faith.

Having a wrong perspective about God’s will

God has a plan for you but His plan is subject to His bigger plan for His kingdom to be established on earth. His will for you is much more about shaping your character than about making you comfortable.

Being a son means being in submission and obedient to Him regardless of what you want.

Question: Explore the possibility that your unanswered prayers relate to your wrong concepts of God and His will.

3. PROBLEMS WITH PRAYER

We can pray sinful prayers

If our prayers arise out of the consequences of our disobedience.

“The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Stand up! What are you doing on your face? Israel has sinned.’” Joshua 10:10,11a

God had instructed the Israelites to destroy everything in Jericho. Achan disobeyed and brought disaster on the whole nation. Joshua’s praying was unacceptable to God. The solution to the problem was to get rid of the offender.

We can pray presumptuous prayers

Job prayed many presumptuous prayers. It was the philosophy of his day that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Because his experience did not fit his philosophy, he challenged God because he believed he was righteous and therefore his suffering was unjust.

God responded by answering him, not in quiet, sympathetic voice, but in a whirlwind and storm, challenging him to be God.

“The Lord said to Job, ‘Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who accuses God answer Him.’” Job 40:1,2 (NIV).

God had to strip Job down to nothing until he realised that, though he thought he knew God, he knew nothing.

“‘My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’” Job 42:5,6 (NIV).

We can pray selfish prayers

God is gracious and generous but He does not pamper us or encourage small-minded and selfish prayers. He wants us to learn to see beyond our own needs to the needs of those around us, to pray for one another and to what we can to meet other people’s needs so that others in turn can meet ours.

“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures .” James 4:2b,3 (NIV).

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests,. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:18 (NIV).

Question: In what ways do you pray prayers that God cannot answer?

CONCLUSION

1. Prayer is simple but it is not easy.

2. God deals with us as His sons and daughters.

3. Prayer is about putting God and His kingdom in their correct perspective.

4. Prayer is about getting God’s will done on earth so that His glory is put on display.

5. When we pray according to God’s will, He hears us.

6. When we are more concerned about God and others, He will take care of all our needs.

Prayer – Lesson 3: The Environment Of Prayer – God’s Presence

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LESSON THREE

THE ENVIRONMENT OF PRAYER – GOD’S PRESENCE

INTRODUCTION

Part of our concept of prayer is to get God to come into our realm and our situation and do something to change it or help us.

This is not Biblical prayer. Prayer is not about bringing God to where we are. Prayer is about changing our awareness from ourself-absorbed self-consciousness to a consciousness of God’s presence. He is Emanuel – God with us.

The first time prayer is mentioned in the Bible governs the meaning of prayer throughout the Bible – called the Law of First Mention.

“At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD,” Genesis 4:26 (NIV), the original Hebrew word for “call” suggests the idea of “turning the head to face the one who could bear the burden.” Turning the head implies changing one’s awareness.

1. GOD IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE

We cannot take or bring God anywhere. He is already here.

God’s presence fills heaven and earth. We are in His presence like a fish in water.

Solomon prayed: “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built.” 1 Kings 8:27 (NIV).

“‘Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 23:24 (NIV).

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” Psalm 139:7 (NIV).

We must begin by acknowledging God’s presence and worshipping Him for who He is, otherwise our problems will loom bigger than God and we will want to call Him in instead of realising that He is already here.

Question: If God is everywhere, where is heaven?

Heaven is not a place. It is the environment in which God dwells and rules.

Changing one’s awareness is not only about acknowledging God’s presence but also about recognising who He is.

Everyone has an idea of God that is shaped by our imagination. Our imagination is influenced by our culture, upbringing and environment.

These are all “images” and not reflections of the true God. We are to gain our understanding from revelation, not imagination.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 (NIV).

Question: Who is “He” in this verse?

He is the God who exists and who rewards those who earnestly seek Him. That means that He is the God of revelation, the God whom we meet in the Bible and who made Himself known primarily in His Son.

2. GOD IS PRESENT IN THE FULNESS OF WHO HE IS

In any human situation God is present with everything He is and everything He wants to and is able to do.

No matter what the crisis, there are three facts that never change:

God is here

God is functional (good

God is in charge

True prayer is engaging God on the basis of our motivation and the recognition of His presence. It’s not about getting our needs met. It’s about recognising who God is in our situation and giving Him the opportunity to act according to who He is so that He can put Himself on display.

Getting our needs met is His way of showing us who He is so that we can acknowledge His glory.

“Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him….When He saw them, He said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked Him – and he was a Samaritan.”  Luke 17:11-15 (NIV).

Question? Why does God not always answer our prayers?

There is no pat answer to this question. God is God. He is not obliged to give us any explanations or reasons. However, there are conditions to prayer. We shall discuss them in our final lesson.

1. We may have the wrong motivation.

2. We may be praying to the wrong god, the god of our imagination and not the God of revelation.

3. WE CANNOT WELCOME GOD INTO OUR PRESENCE

That is an arrogant misunderstanding of our relationship to God. We are not on the throne – He is. If we approach Him, it is on the basis of the blood of Christ and the mercy and grace of God.

It is His right to accept us and welcome us into His presence, otherwise we are doomed.

“Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened to us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22 (NIV).

Let us not become sloppy in our understanding of who God is.

He is our Father but we owe Him honour, reverence and holy fear because He is God. Since He fills heaven and earth, there is no place where He is not. It is our place to draw near to Him as He waits to receive our worship and adoration.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe , for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” Hebrews 12:26 (NIV).

CONCLUSION

1. Prayer is about changing our self-awareness to God-awareness.

2. We cannot “bring” God into our situation through prayer since God is everywhere.

3. God is present everywhere in His fulness.

4. It is a misunderstanding to welcome God into our presence. He is God and has made provision for us approach Him.