Tag Archives: prayer

What Must I Do?

Bible Study, , , ,

WHAT MUST I DO?

“Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. ‘Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?’

He said, ‘What is written in God’s law? How do you interpret it?’
He said, ‘That you love the Lord your God with all you passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence – and your neighbour as yourself.’

‘Good answer!’ said Jesus. ‘Do it and you’ll live.’” Luke 10:25-27 (The Message)

An interesting way of answering a question – with a question. It makes the questioner think. In response to this religious leader’s question, Jesus replied, “You tell me.” Since he had probably been trained in the “Rabbi School”, he came up with the correct answer, also some-thing he had learned at his mother’s knee – the Shema.

The Message translation puts an interesting slant on these words – “passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence…” How and why should one love God with passion? Although love is essentially an action word, it is not without passion. How can one love God without passion? The very word God invites passion because God is about passion. What is passion? Passion implies fervour, energy, heat, enthusiasm, drive, vigour. Without passion, love is bland and colourless.

How can we love God with prayer? Prayer is essentially a shift in awareness, from self to God. To love God with prayer moves Him from the periphery to the centre of my thoughts. Before the Fall, God occupied the centre of Adam’s awareness, but his disobedience brought an immediate change, “I was afraid because I was naked.” Part of the process of being transformed is to restore the awareness of God to the centre of my life by training myself to think “God” instead of me.

Muscle? How do I love God with muscle? Is this a reference to obedience, to responding with action to the communication I receive through my God-consciousness? Muscle conveys the thought of prompt and energetic obedience to God’s will, as Abraham did when God told him to offer up Isaac.

This little cameo concludes with intelligence. How important this is in our interaction with God! We are not robots and He does not treat us as robots. That does not mean that we either question God or choose whether or not to obey, but it does mean that we function with understanding.

What Jesus is saying is that we are to love God totally, with our entire being and function, working with zeal and energy to grow our awareness of God and of the blessing and authority of being His sons and daughters. He is the centre of our lives and we live through Him and for Him.

Don’t Play Games with God

Christian Life, , ,

DON’T PLAY GAMES WITH GOD

“Here’s what I am saying:  Ask and you’ll get; seek and you’ll find; knock and the door will open. Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in.” Luke 11:9-10 (The Message}.

If this story is about the reason why we pray, it is also about our attitude in prayer – honesty. Because God is spirit who lives in the realm of the unseen, it is very easy to be artificial in prayer. The temptation is to think that, because I can’t see Him, therefore He can’t see me. If He can’t see me, then He can’t know what is in my heart and He is confined to hearing my words in order to know me and what I need.

How foolish is that! God is omniscient. He knows what I am thinking and why I am thinking it. True fellowship with God can only happen on the basis of transparency in my heart. God hears my heart more than my words. How much better to express what is in my heart, even if it not what I think God wants to hear.

How does this fit in with asking for what I think I need? As much as God has issued an invitation to me to come to Him honestly with my needs, knowing full well that I don’t always know what is good for me and, therefore my requests are always subject to His greater wisdom, He has given me the gift of His Spirit. He makes all the difference to the outcome of my praying. It is far more important for me to pray with open-hearted honesty that to get my requests or even my words right. The Apostle Paul assures me that, because I do not know what to pray, the Holy Spirit accurately interprets my prayers to the Father.

So what is Jesus saying? Don’t play games with God when you pray. Be honest. Be direct. State your request and leave the answer to God. He is a Father. He knows what you need and He will answer according to His wisdom. His reason for inviting you to come to Him with your needs is not because He does not know.

He desires fellowship with you. The awareness of need in your life is a reminder that you are as dependent on Him as a baby is on its mother. If you get that right, you will be making a huge stride towards the intimacy with the Father that He longs for you to initiate.