Tag Archives: imitate

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO SAY “AMEN”? – 3

Prayer, ,

In our previous meditations, we have set aside some misconceptions about prayer, especially those ideas that we must have special qualifications or that we must do certain things to get answers to our prayers.

Prayer is for all God’s children. God answers us because He is our Father. We don’t need to struggle to get answers, fighting off the devil and subduing God’s reluctance to answer us.

There is no need for us to pray long, wordy prayers because the Father knows our needs before we ask Him.

However, prayer does have some conditions that help us to understand the reasons for what we think is unanswered prayer.

Does God give us everything we pray for? If not, why not?

What are the conditions for answered prayer?

Hebrews 6:12 outlines two requirements that qualify us to inherit what His has promised…faith and patience. God tests our faith and patience by delaying answers to legitimate requests.

12] “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

God does not answer us according to our timetable. He is painting on a much bigger canvas, and He is also working on our character through tests and delays.

God also answers our prayers according to His will, not because we “wrestle” an answer out of Him.

1 John 5:14-15 NIV
[14] “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Now, let’s get back to the heart of New Covenant prayer. God has provided all the promises we need to cover every situation in life, and to provide for all our needs for godly living…physical, material, and spiritual. Jesus has done everything for us… to deal with our sin, to restore us to the Father, and to act as the mediator between us and the Father. He has also authorised every promise God has ever made so that we are fully equipped to live this life of union with God despite the ungodly world around us.

Did you get that? We live our entire lives as God’s children on God’s promises. Let that sink in! God’s promises are the “fuel” that drives the “engine” of our lives. There is a promise, a declaration, a statement of God’s will to cover every situation, in detail or in principle.

2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
[3] “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Peter summed up God’s will for us in one simple goal…

“…so that through them (His very great and precious promises), you may participate in the divine nature…”

… and one simple condition…

“… having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Everthing we are, do, and become, hangs on this one truth…what we do with God’s promises.

If we trust God, if we are willing to wait for His timing, and if we ask according to His will, prayer becomes very simple. If all of our lives are controlled by and lived out of God’s promises, and if God’s promises cover every detail of our lives, what us left for us to do?

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.

Did you get that?

God has simplified prayer to just one word… “AMEN!” He doesn’t need anything more than that! You see, the answers to all our prayers depend on what God has promised, not on our energy or efforts to persuade Him.

The rest of our time with God is about praise, thanksgiving, and worship!

So, when we really understand God’s strategy, how long does it take to say “AMEN”? You answer that question.

The Unchanging Jesus

Bible Study, , , ,

THE UNCHANGING JESUS

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so (Heb. 13: 7-9).

“Oldies” love to speak of the “good old days”. Some of the old days were good. Children and young people could walk in the streets without fear. We did not have to lock ourselves in behind electric fences and security gates while criminals had free range of the streets. We were not plagued by or addicted to the big “Cs” – cell phones, computers, credit cards and cash loans! Living in debt was not the fashion as it is today.  We paid cash for what we bought and went without what we could not afford. We had less than we have to today but we were content.

Yes, we have the advantage of the technological age which makes life much easier – and much faster – in many ways. Yet it has brought with it all kinds of evil and many trends that are unstoppable – like an avalanche plunging down a mountain. Our youth are addicted to its trinkets; video games, cell phones, the social media, and television to the extent that they are losing the art of socialising face-to-face.

Everyone’s business is splashed across the internet so that they no longer have private lives. Information technology is the name of the game – some of it useful and much of it damaging and dangerous. Life is no longer about honesty, integrity, loyalty and faithfulness but about information, and how to use it to get the better of others; how to take advantage of others or get the best deal out of others. Unscrupulous people outdo themselves in outsmarting the unsuspecting public.

The one constant in a changing world is the unchanging Jesus. Our writer did not have to contend with all the temptations we are faced with today, but his generation certainly had its fair share of what hell had to offer. Jesus is unchanging and so are the standards of His word and the benefits of His salvation. The motto of those who belong to the world could be: “I want it and I want it now!” The motto of the people of God’s kingdom, on the other hand, must always be: “Jesus is Lord.”

How vital it is to be anchored to Him and planted on His Word! If there were “all kinds of strange teachings” circulating in the writer’s day without the written Bible, there are just as many today with the Word of God freely available to us. Peter spoke of ignorant and unstable people in his day who distorted the writings of Paul as they did the other Scriptures to their own destruction (2 Peter 3: 16).

Self-proclaimed apostles, prophets and teachers fabricate doctrines and garner a following of gullible people who have not taken the trouble to test what they preach and teach against the truth of God’s word. We ignore that responsibility to our own peril.

What is the antidote? Jesus is the constant to whom we must be secured. His word is the truth of who He is – not what we want it to say but what it does say – clear and simple. He has authorised leaders who, first of all imitate Him, and then who blaze the trail for others to follow. How do we know that they are trustworthy? Consider the outcome of their way. Scrutinise their fruit which cannot lie. Their fruit will reveal the root of their lives and their teaching.

How can we test the validity of teaching? Which motto are the teachers modelling – the world’s or the kingdom’s; self-gratification or self-sacrifice? It’s the heart that counts, not the flesh. There is no value in putting ceremonial food into the stomach but ignoring the condition of the heart. Grace is what God supplies to overcome the pull of the old evil nature with its ever-present demand for self-gratification.

All the rituals and ceremonies of their old way did nothing to change their hearts or alter their disposition towards selfishness. Death was the only solution – death to the old life through the death of Jesus and a resurrection to a new life that was powered by grace. All the doctrines and practices in the world that are good but do not change the heart and lead to submission and obedience to Jesus as Lord, are no more than hot air, filling the pages of thousands of books but making not one iota of difference to a single heart.

It all boils down to one thing – who or what rules your heart?

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.

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