See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
[1 John 3:1a ESV]
There are 2 things I love about this verse that I would like to discuss.
Firstly we are not just called God's children, that would be miracle enough, but we actually are his adopted children as the bible says:
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5]
I don't have any children of my own but there are a few young people in different parts of the world, mostly Africa, who call me Mum. I'm even a grandma. We aren't related in any biological sense but we care about each other like family. I have a Mum and Dad of my own who aren't biologically related to me, actually I have 2 mums as well as my natural mother. I separate the families in my mind by calling them my natural family and my other family.
My point is, God could just choose to call us his children but he goes one step further and actually adopts us into his own family through Jesus Christ. You know the saying you can pick your friends but you can't pick your relations? Well god picked us, the unlovely, the sinful, those who have rejected him and hurt him and disobeyed him and ignored him. he still picked us. I think if I were God and wanted to add to my family I'd pick the angels because, apart from the third of them who joined Lucifer's side, the angels are obedient to his every word and they don't sin. God didn't do that though, he chose to love us even though he knew exactly what our lives would be like and all the good and bad things we would do. the bible says:
This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins.
[1 John 4:10
God wanted to show his love and he chose to do that by loving and saving us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. we are god's children.
the second thing I love about our verse from 1 john 3 is it talks about god's love, which we have spoken about already. God's love is not like our love, it doesn't fluctuate, it isn't less when we mess up and it doesn't increase when we do good although he is pleased when we do good. There is no force on heaven or earth that can stop God from loving us ... except if we ourselves reject God and totally turn away from him and
even then he will try to draw us back to him until the end of our lives.
this is incredibly comforting. I can't lose God's love unless I reject him. When I sin I may wonder why God puts up with me but I know he doesn't stop loving me. There was a time a few years ago when I strayed away from god and got into some stuff that I regret very much now. When I came back to god he didn't say "I'm not taking you back, my love for you has died because of your actions". no no no! He took me back, cleaned me up and put me back on the pathway to walk with him. If he did that for me he will do that for you, whatever you have done. If he could forgive and use the Apostle Paul, who persecuted the Church of /god in Jerusalem, then he can forgive anyone who asks him. Isn't that great news! How awesome God's love for us is!
This is what the Apostle Paul says about god's love:
I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can't be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.
We need to realise that even if we don't feel that God loves us, he really does. In times like this we have to choose to believe what we know is true rather than relying on our own feelings or knowledge.
A point to remember is thatGod doesn't love us sparingly but willingly, lavishly, more than we can ever imagine. He doesn't accept us into his family grudgingly but welcomes us and loves us and works in our lives because he wants us to be the best we can be and he wants us to glorify him.
It does us good to reflect on these things. today I spent a few minutes thinking about who God is and reflecting on his great and awesome love. i came away from that feeling very grateful and deeply loved. I was thinking about the verse:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
[John 3:16]
I only got as far as "for god so loved the world" but there will be other times to reflect on the rest of it. I'm glad I took the time to do it today, I often get too busy and caught up with things but we all need to take more time to read god's word and think about what it says and how we can apply God's word to our lives. It draws us closer to god and helps us to learn more about god, or ourselves, or whatever we have been reading or reflecting on. I hope you will take some time soon to reflect on the verse at the top of this message, or on any verse you find that talks of god's love. We really need to know and believe that god does love us and that he showed it by sending Jesus
"who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2:20c.
Prayer:
God we thank you for your amazing, unfailing, steadfast love. thank you that you did adopt us into your family through Jesus. thank you that he did give himself for us. Lord help us to reflect on your great love so that we will have a deeper understanding of it and so that we will truly believe that you do love us, despite what the enemy may tell us.
we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. Amen.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
[1 John 3:1a ESV]
There are 2 things I love about this verse that I would like to discuss.
Firstly we are not just called God's children, that would be miracle enough, but we actually are his adopted children as the bible says:
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5]
I don't have any children of my own but there are a few young people in different parts of the world, mostly Africa, who call me Mum. I'm even a grandma. We aren't related in any biological sense but we care about each other like family. I have a Mum and Dad of my own who aren't biologically related to me, actually I have 2 mums as well as my natural mother. I separate the families in my mind by calling them my natural family and my other family.
My point is, God could just choose to call us his children but he goes one step further and actually adopts us into his own family through Jesus Christ. You know the saying you can pick your friends but you can't pick your relations? Well god picked us, the unlovely, the sinful, those who have rejected him and hurt him and disobeyed him and ignored him. he still picked us. I think if I were God and wanted to add to my family I'd pick the angels because, apart from the third of them who joined Lucifer's side, the angels are obedient to his every word and they don't sin. God didn't do that though, he chose to love us even though he knew exactly what our lives would be like and all the good and bad things we would do. the bible says:
This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins.
[1 John 4:10
God wanted to show his love and he chose to do that by loving and saving us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. we are god's children.
the second thing I love about our verse from 1 john 3 is it talks about god's love, which we have spoken about already. God's love is not like our love, it doesn't fluctuate, it isn't less when we mess up and it doesn't increase when we do good although he is pleased when we do good. There is no force on heaven or earth that can stop God from loving us ... except if we ourselves reject God and totally turn away from him and
even then he will try to draw us back to him until the end of our lives.
this is incredibly comforting. I can't lose God's love unless I reject him. When I sin I may wonder why God puts up with me but I know he doesn't stop loving me. There was a time a few years ago when I strayed away from god and got into some stuff that I regret very much now. When I came back to god he didn't say "I'm not taking you back, my love for you has died because of your actions". no no no! He took me back, cleaned me up and put me back on the pathway to walk with him. If he did that for me he will do that for you, whatever you have done. If he could forgive and use the Apostle Paul, who persecuted the Church of /god in Jerusalem, then he can forgive anyone who asks him. Isn't that great news! How awesome God's love for us is!
This is what the Apostle Paul says about god's love:
I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can't be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.
We need to realise that even if we don't feel that God loves us, he really does. In times like this we have to choose to believe what we know is true rather than relying on our own feelings or knowledge.
A point to remember is thatGod doesn't love us sparingly but willingly, lavishly, more than we can ever imagine. He doesn't accept us into his family grudgingly but welcomes us and loves us and works in our lives because he wants us to be the best we can be and he wants us to glorify him.
It does us good to reflect on these things. today I spent a few minutes thinking about who God is and reflecting on his great and awesome love. i came away from that feeling very grateful and deeply loved. I was thinking about the verse:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
[John 3:16]
I only got as far as "for god so loved the world" but there will be other times to reflect on the rest of it. I'm glad I took the time to do it today, I often get too busy and caught up with things but we all need to take more time to read god's word and think about what it says and how we can apply God's word to our lives. It draws us closer to god and helps us to learn more about god, or ourselves, or whatever we have been reading or reflecting on. I hope you will take some time soon to reflect on the verse at the top of this message, or on any verse you find that talks of god's love. We really need to know and believe that god does love us and that he showed it by sending Jesus
"who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2:20c.
Prayer:
God we thank you for your amazing, unfailing, steadfast love. thank you that you did adopt us into your family through Jesus. thank you that he did give himself for us. Lord help us to reflect on your great love so that we will have a deeper understanding of it and so that we will truly believe that you do love us, despite what the enemy may tell us.
we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. Amen.
Thursday 1 September 2011
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Prayer, study 1
Today I want to share some thoughts with you about prayer. there is so much I want to say about it that it will probably end up being more than one study.
Prayer is, very simply, talking to god. When my dad was alive and I wanted to ask him for something or even just to spend time with him I didn't drag myself into his room on my knees and grovel at his feet and say something like "O most noble father I beseech thee that in thy mercy I may make a request of thee, unworthy wretch that I am,..." I would walk into his room and say "Hey dad can I talk to you about something?" Now it is true that god is absolutely worthy of respect and we should thank him for the privilege of prayer, but because of what Jesus has done for us we have every right to come into the presence of our Heavenly Father as i had the right to come into my earthly father's room and talk to him. The bible says:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[Hebrews 4:16]
We are god's children, the bible says;
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5 GWT]
god chose to make us his children and he wants us to come and spend time with him, just like earthly parents are happy when their children just want to spend time with them. It is true that we are sinners and we don't deserve the kindness and mercy god has lavished on us, it is true that we do so many things that god does not approve of, yet he doesn't' turn away from us. He forgives us and cleanses us and restores us to fellowship with him.
So prayer is spending time with god; sometimes talking to him, sometimes listening to him, sometimes just being silent in his presence. God wants us to pray to him, he wants to fellowship with us.
If I had a child who came to me every day and repeated the same words and phrases each and every day, i would get frustrated after a while. god wants us to pray to him from our heart, telling him the things that are on our minds. We have seen already that we can talk to God like we would talk to an earthly father, respectfully but naturally. god knows our needs before we voice them so we don't need to repeat prayers or even use the same words every day when we pray. If someone wants to pray but doesn't know what to say to god then they might benefit from saying a prayer that some other Christian has written, it might give them a place to start from and give them ideas to pray about. I have some prayers written by others that on occasion I use to guide my praying but on the whole I think it's best to pray from our hearts.
I would also encourage those who don't know how to pray or what to pray for to turn to the book of Psalms which is basically the bible's prayer book as well as being the songbook of the scriptures. there are other prayers in the bible such as the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, or Paul's prayers scattered throughout his writings. These prayers are divinely inspired as all the word of god is divinely inspired. I plan to do a study on using the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide but that's for another time.
Also I think we should try to avoid using the same words whenever we pray for something. sometimes we find words that express so well the things we feel that we put those words in our minds and the next time we pray we use the same words to pray for the same thing. Our prayers can become just something we say by rote if we do that. If we make the effort to find new ways to pray for the same things each time we pray then we are more involved in our praying.
For an example, a person might say grace every time using these words:
"Father thank you for this food, bless it to me in Jesus' name amen." After a while it becomes just a routine to say those words before eating. those words are fine but if the person made an effort and used different words such as
"Lord I'm so blessed that I have this good food to eat, thank you for giving it to me lord and thank you for the good it is going to do to me. I pray in the name of Jesus, amen."
then he or she would be more involved in their praying and it would remind them to be truly grateful to god for the blessings they have received.
There are formulas for prayer such as STAR [Sorry, thanks, adoration and requests] which might help some people in their praying but they need to be careful it doesn't become just a routine of repeated words.
When we pray we pray in the name of Jesus. What that means is that we know on our own merits we don't have the right to pray or expect god to hear us, but because of what Jesus has done for us we are able confidently to enter god's presence and we know our prayers are heard and will be answered in his way and timing. The bible says:
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
[1 John 5:14-15].
Let's talk for a bit about answered prayer. Sometimes we can pray and pray about something and nothing happens. It can be discouraging but we must never give up.
When we pray, god will give us one of 3 answers: yes, no or wait.
sometimes he will say "yes" and we will receive the thing we asked for. sometimes he will say "No" and we need to accept that he has good and sufficient reasons for saying that. Other times he will tell us to wait. Waiting on God produces patience and trust in him and also produces perseverance which is important.
We don't know how to pray as we ought, sometimes all we can do is tell god what's on our hearts and ask his help. The bible says;
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.
[Romans 8:27]
so if you have a situation and you find it hard to pray about, remember that the Holy spirit is praying to God for you.
It can be nice having friends or Church Members praying for you if there is some need in your life. there is power in united prayer. The bible says
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
[Matthew 18:19-20]
I meet every week with a little group of people and we have a prayer meeting. I'm always inspired by them. They pray for anything from world governments to members of the website who are unwell or anything else.
I think something like that is a real blessing because we agree with each other's prayers and pray for each other. It might be beneficial for you to find a little group and make a time to pray together online or offline.
The bible says:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
the Pastor at my church makes time in our prayer times during the Church service to pray for those who are ill or need surgery. He and one or two deacons will come and lay their hand on the person and the pastor will anoint them with oil, just a little cross on the forehead, and they will pray for the person. This doesn't mean that the Pastor's prayers are more effective than the sick person's prayer, god is not a respecter of persons, it's just that they are praying for the sick person in agreement with what James says in the bible passage above.
We can pray to god anywhere at any time but it's a good idea to have a special place and time set aside for prayer. I pray in my room, when I first wake up in the morning, at some point in the afternoon and just whenever throughout the day.
Prayer Problems:
1. The biggest pitfall to prayer is our lack of faith. The bible says:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[James 1:6-8]
and Jesus has this to say:
And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
[Mark 11:22-24]
And the writer of the book of Hebrews warns us:
And without faith it is impossible to please him [god], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[Hebrews 11:6]\
2. I don't know about you but whenever I go to pray my mind comes up with a whole stack of things I need to do now and if i persist in prayer all kinds of stray thoughts cross my mind to distract me. We can get around that by asking god's help to control our straying thoughts. He will help us if we sincerely ask him.
3. sometimes when things happen we think "O, I need to pray about this." but when we get to our prayer time we have forgotten what we wanted to pray for. We need to keep a list of things and people we are praying for. I have a file on my computer and I've divided the things I'm praying for into groups like financial needs, healing, missionaries and ministries, prayer needs from my friends, prayer needs for me, etc. During my prayer time I might say "Right I"m going to pray for financial needs today" so I will go down the list and pray over each need. It really helps me to have that file and know what I need to pray for. We need to be guided by God about what things he wants us to pray about. We might be praying for one thing and God will tell us we nee to pray for something else, then we need to drop what we are doing and pray for what God has revealed to us.
I'm sure I will have more to say about prayer at a later time but I'm going to finish this for now.
Questions:
These are just questions to ponder or talk about with God.
1. Why do you think prayer is so important in the Christian life?
2. What are the problems you have in praying ?
3. Have you created a prayer list with all the things you are praying for. If yes, do you find it helpful.
4. what are the problems in prayer that you have experienced?
Prayer is, very simply, talking to god. When my dad was alive and I wanted to ask him for something or even just to spend time with him I didn't drag myself into his room on my knees and grovel at his feet and say something like "O most noble father I beseech thee that in thy mercy I may make a request of thee, unworthy wretch that I am,..." I would walk into his room and say "Hey dad can I talk to you about something?" Now it is true that god is absolutely worthy of respect and we should thank him for the privilege of prayer, but because of what Jesus has done for us we have every right to come into the presence of our Heavenly Father as i had the right to come into my earthly father's room and talk to him. The bible says:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[Hebrews 4:16]
We are god's children, the bible says;
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5 GWT]
god chose to make us his children and he wants us to come and spend time with him, just like earthly parents are happy when their children just want to spend time with them. It is true that we are sinners and we don't deserve the kindness and mercy god has lavished on us, it is true that we do so many things that god does not approve of, yet he doesn't' turn away from us. He forgives us and cleanses us and restores us to fellowship with him.
So prayer is spending time with god; sometimes talking to him, sometimes listening to him, sometimes just being silent in his presence. God wants us to pray to him, he wants to fellowship with us.
If I had a child who came to me every day and repeated the same words and phrases each and every day, i would get frustrated after a while. god wants us to pray to him from our heart, telling him the things that are on our minds. We have seen already that we can talk to God like we would talk to an earthly father, respectfully but naturally. god knows our needs before we voice them so we don't need to repeat prayers or even use the same words every day when we pray. If someone wants to pray but doesn't know what to say to god then they might benefit from saying a prayer that some other Christian has written, it might give them a place to start from and give them ideas to pray about. I have some prayers written by others that on occasion I use to guide my praying but on the whole I think it's best to pray from our hearts.
I would also encourage those who don't know how to pray or what to pray for to turn to the book of Psalms which is basically the bible's prayer book as well as being the songbook of the scriptures. there are other prayers in the bible such as the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, or Paul's prayers scattered throughout his writings. These prayers are divinely inspired as all the word of god is divinely inspired. I plan to do a study on using the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide but that's for another time.
Also I think we should try to avoid using the same words whenever we pray for something. sometimes we find words that express so well the things we feel that we put those words in our minds and the next time we pray we use the same words to pray for the same thing. Our prayers can become just something we say by rote if we do that. If we make the effort to find new ways to pray for the same things each time we pray then we are more involved in our praying.
For an example, a person might say grace every time using these words:
"Father thank you for this food, bless it to me in Jesus' name amen." After a while it becomes just a routine to say those words before eating. those words are fine but if the person made an effort and used different words such as
"Lord I'm so blessed that I have this good food to eat, thank you for giving it to me lord and thank you for the good it is going to do to me. I pray in the name of Jesus, amen."
then he or she would be more involved in their praying and it would remind them to be truly grateful to god for the blessings they have received.
There are formulas for prayer such as STAR [Sorry, thanks, adoration and requests] which might help some people in their praying but they need to be careful it doesn't become just a routine of repeated words.
When we pray we pray in the name of Jesus. What that means is that we know on our own merits we don't have the right to pray or expect god to hear us, but because of what Jesus has done for us we are able confidently to enter god's presence and we know our prayers are heard and will be answered in his way and timing. The bible says:
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
[1 John 5:14-15].
Let's talk for a bit about answered prayer. Sometimes we can pray and pray about something and nothing happens. It can be discouraging but we must never give up.
When we pray, god will give us one of 3 answers: yes, no or wait.
sometimes he will say "yes" and we will receive the thing we asked for. sometimes he will say "No" and we need to accept that he has good and sufficient reasons for saying that. Other times he will tell us to wait. Waiting on God produces patience and trust in him and also produces perseverance which is important.
We don't know how to pray as we ought, sometimes all we can do is tell god what's on our hearts and ask his help. The bible says;
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.
[Romans 8:27]
so if you have a situation and you find it hard to pray about, remember that the Holy spirit is praying to God for you.
It can be nice having friends or Church Members praying for you if there is some need in your life. there is power in united prayer. The bible says
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
[Matthew 18:19-20]
I meet every week with a little group of people and we have a prayer meeting. I'm always inspired by them. They pray for anything from world governments to members of the website who are unwell or anything else.
I think something like that is a real blessing because we agree with each other's prayers and pray for each other. It might be beneficial for you to find a little group and make a time to pray together online or offline.
The bible says:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
the Pastor at my church makes time in our prayer times during the Church service to pray for those who are ill or need surgery. He and one or two deacons will come and lay their hand on the person and the pastor will anoint them with oil, just a little cross on the forehead, and they will pray for the person. This doesn't mean that the Pastor's prayers are more effective than the sick person's prayer, god is not a respecter of persons, it's just that they are praying for the sick person in agreement with what James says in the bible passage above.
We can pray to god anywhere at any time but it's a good idea to have a special place and time set aside for prayer. I pray in my room, when I first wake up in the morning, at some point in the afternoon and just whenever throughout the day.
Prayer Problems:
1. The biggest pitfall to prayer is our lack of faith. The bible says:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[James 1:6-8]
and Jesus has this to say:
And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
[Mark 11:22-24]
And the writer of the book of Hebrews warns us:
And without faith it is impossible to please him [god], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[Hebrews 11:6]\
2. I don't know about you but whenever I go to pray my mind comes up with a whole stack of things I need to do now and if i persist in prayer all kinds of stray thoughts cross my mind to distract me. We can get around that by asking god's help to control our straying thoughts. He will help us if we sincerely ask him.
3. sometimes when things happen we think "O, I need to pray about this." but when we get to our prayer time we have forgotten what we wanted to pray for. We need to keep a list of things and people we are praying for. I have a file on my computer and I've divided the things I'm praying for into groups like financial needs, healing, missionaries and ministries, prayer needs from my friends, prayer needs for me, etc. During my prayer time I might say "Right I"m going to pray for financial needs today" so I will go down the list and pray over each need. It really helps me to have that file and know what I need to pray for. We need to be guided by God about what things he wants us to pray about. We might be praying for one thing and God will tell us we nee to pray for something else, then we need to drop what we are doing and pray for what God has revealed to us.
I'm sure I will have more to say about prayer at a later time but I'm going to finish this for now.
Questions:
These are just questions to ponder or talk about with God.
1. Why do you think prayer is so important in the Christian life?
2. What are the problems you have in praying ?
3. Have you created a prayer list with all the things you are praying for. If yes, do you find it helpful.
4. what are the problems in prayer that you have experienced?
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