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?
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Rishie's Ramblings 28 July-4 August
Thursday, July 28, 2011 11:27:40 PM
Today would have been my Father's 63rd birthday. He died when he was 57. It still hurts though the pain is dulled by time. Grief like that never goes away completely I guess, it just gets dulled by time. I'm a little sad but I know he's in heaven and I know he's happy.
11:29:35 PM
[ my reply to a prompt sent to one of my Christian journalling groups]
Are some of your friends so precious that you hold them to be as dear to you as family?
O definitely. I call them my online family. I won't list them all but there are several of them. I have some online sons, 2 online Mums, a few online sisters and quite a few online brothers as well as 1 online dad. I'm blessed.
11:57:46 PM
this quote was sent to one of my Christian journalling groups, here is the quote and my thoughts about it:
"Where your feet take you, that is who you are." Frederich Buechner
I like this quote it made me think about where I want my feet to take me, what I want to be and do with my life that god has given me.
My feet take me to my keyboard a few times a day to sing and praise God. I am passionate about singing, I would sing all day long if I didn't have other things to do. I have always loved to sing and I used to dream of being an opera singer. I would love to use the voice god gave me for some purpose. O Lord, show me what you want me to do and give me the strength and the willingness to do it. Amen.
Monday, August 01, 2011 9:12:52
A new month, what does it hold? sometimes I think it would be nice to look ahead an know what was coming and at other times I'm glad I don't know. At least I know that god knows exactly what is going to happen to me this month, he knew all about my life from before the world was created. I can trust him in good times and bad times because he sees the bigger picture. The bible says:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[Isaiah 55:9]
so i know he knows everything and how each situation will turn out. I find that thought very comforting. I hope this month will be a good one for all of us but if it isn't at least I know god has his hand on everything that happens and his way is always best.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 03:07:46 PM
Fear.
It claws at my gut and makes my heart race.
A hundred "What if" scenarios fill my mind,
my peace goes out the window.
"God, are you out there?"
but the noise in my mind makes it hard to hear him.
the world says "don't worry be happy".
what planet are you from?
Do you think its as easy as that?
the bible says "Fear not"
but Lord that is so hard!
Maybe if I did this or that
then maybe you would help me?
If I promised not to do ...
or if I promise I'll do ...
won't you help me then ?
The choice is ours.
will we worry and stress and fret?
or will we trust and have faith in god?
worrying, what good does it do us? What help does it give us? it only puts our blood pressure up and keeps us awake at night. Jesus has this to say about worry:
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
[Matthew 6:27]
I was confronted by this today when I got a call that my doctor wants to see me. I had a blood test last week and I guess he wants to discuss it with me. fear immediately seized me and hit me with a heap of reasons why the Doctor wants to see me, none of them good. I had to make the choice, do I give into fear or do I trust God? It's not easy, it's a moment by moment choice. Fear doesn't give up easily, it keeps coming back and trying to take control, so we must keep choosing to trust god and ask his help to deal with our fears. Meditating on scriptures like this will help:
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
[Isaiah 41:10]
god tells us several times in scripture to "fear not" so I guess he wants us to take it seriously.
God, give me strength to resist fear when it comes knocking. Help me to trust that you do know what you are doing and you know exactly what is going on with me. I give you praise because you said in your word:
"I will never leave you nor forsake you."
[Hebrews 13:5]
Help me to cling to promises like that when I am tempted to give into fear. Amen.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 1:33:03 AM
Well it's time again to upload this to my blog. It has certainly been an interesting week. i heard a Christian comedian describe the Christian life as interesting. I think I can agree with that. God doesn't want us to get caught in a rut of routine, he wants our life to be interesting, as we grow in maturity and know more about God and do what he says. It requires faith to live like that but god has given us the measure of faith.
well I will leave you with that thought and go and upload this. God bless you for reading.
Today would have been my Father's 63rd birthday. He died when he was 57. It still hurts though the pain is dulled by time. Grief like that never goes away completely I guess, it just gets dulled by time. I'm a little sad but I know he's in heaven and I know he's happy.
11:29:35 PM
[ my reply to a prompt sent to one of my Christian journalling groups]
Are some of your friends so precious that you hold them to be as dear to you as family?
O definitely. I call them my online family. I won't list them all but there are several of them. I have some online sons, 2 online Mums, a few online sisters and quite a few online brothers as well as 1 online dad. I'm blessed.
11:57:46 PM
this quote was sent to one of my Christian journalling groups, here is the quote and my thoughts about it:
"Where your feet take you, that is who you are." Frederich Buechner
I like this quote it made me think about where I want my feet to take me, what I want to be and do with my life that god has given me.
My feet take me to my keyboard a few times a day to sing and praise God. I am passionate about singing, I would sing all day long if I didn't have other things to do. I have always loved to sing and I used to dream of being an opera singer. I would love to use the voice god gave me for some purpose. O Lord, show me what you want me to do and give me the strength and the willingness to do it. Amen.
Monday, August 01, 2011 9:12:52
A new month, what does it hold? sometimes I think it would be nice to look ahead an know what was coming and at other times I'm glad I don't know. At least I know that god knows exactly what is going to happen to me this month, he knew all about my life from before the world was created. I can trust him in good times and bad times because he sees the bigger picture. The bible says:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[Isaiah 55:9]
so i know he knows everything and how each situation will turn out. I find that thought very comforting. I hope this month will be a good one for all of us but if it isn't at least I know god has his hand on everything that happens and his way is always best.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 03:07:46 PM
Fear.
It claws at my gut and makes my heart race.
A hundred "What if" scenarios fill my mind,
my peace goes out the window.
"God, are you out there?"
but the noise in my mind makes it hard to hear him.
the world says "don't worry be happy".
what planet are you from?
Do you think its as easy as that?
the bible says "Fear not"
but Lord that is so hard!
Maybe if I did this or that
then maybe you would help me?
If I promised not to do ...
or if I promise I'll do ...
won't you help me then ?
The choice is ours.
will we worry and stress and fret?
or will we trust and have faith in god?
worrying, what good does it do us? What help does it give us? it only puts our blood pressure up and keeps us awake at night. Jesus has this to say about worry:
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
[Matthew 6:27]
I was confronted by this today when I got a call that my doctor wants to see me. I had a blood test last week and I guess he wants to discuss it with me. fear immediately seized me and hit me with a heap of reasons why the Doctor wants to see me, none of them good. I had to make the choice, do I give into fear or do I trust God? It's not easy, it's a moment by moment choice. Fear doesn't give up easily, it keeps coming back and trying to take control, so we must keep choosing to trust god and ask his help to deal with our fears. Meditating on scriptures like this will help:
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
[Isaiah 41:10]
god tells us several times in scripture to "fear not" so I guess he wants us to take it seriously.
God, give me strength to resist fear when it comes knocking. Help me to trust that you do know what you are doing and you know exactly what is going on with me. I give you praise because you said in your word:
"I will never leave you nor forsake you."
[Hebrews 13:5]
Help me to cling to promises like that when I am tempted to give into fear. Amen.
Thursday, August 04, 2011 1:33:03 AM
Well it's time again to upload this to my blog. It has certainly been an interesting week. i heard a Christian comedian describe the Christian life as interesting. I think I can agree with that. God doesn't want us to get caught in a rut of routine, he wants our life to be interesting, as we grow in maturity and know more about God and do what he says. It requires faith to live like that but god has given us the measure of faith.
well I will leave you with that thought and go and upload this. God bless you for reading.
Monday, 1 August 2011
dressed for success
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
[col 3:12-14]
We recently did a study on the armour of god and this seems to be the logical next step to that. Remember we saw in that study that the bible sometimes uses imagery to explain spiritual truths. We don't go around clad in physical armour and we don't go around dressed in compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience either, I don't know what sort of clothes they would be, do you? But we are to let these characteristics define who we are, they are to become part of us, like our favourite piece of clothing, our favourite dress or skirt or shirt or pair of trousers, that we wear as often as we can get away with, until someone throws it out. The difference is, the more we put on these characteristics the better fitting and more comfortable an nicer they are.
So let's take a look at these characteristics and see how we can put them on:
Compassionate hearts::
We are all part of one family. if our brother or sister is going through hard times shouldn't we sympathise with them? Shouldn't we pray for them and try to help? Jesus wants us to love each other in this way. the bible says:
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
[1 Corinthians 12:25-26]
Just as if we have a pain in our physical bodies, like a headache or back pain, the whole body suffers because of it, so we should suffer with those who are suffering and do what we can to encourage them and support them. We can't sympathise and suffer with others if we are selfish and self-absorbed, we need to ask god to help us develop compassionate hearts.
When Jesus was on earth he showed compassion, there are so many instances of it but we are just going to look at one example.
Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue.
And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all
her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, "Who was it that touched me?" When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!" But Jesus said, "Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me." And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."
[Luke 8:40-48]
there is a lot I could say about this passage but I'll keep it brief. Jesus was on his way to heal a man's dying daughter and yet when this woman touched his garment he took the time to hear why she had touched him although he already knew.
. I used to wonder why he prodded her to tell her story of why she touched him but now i have a couple of ideas. Imagine if she had slipped away straight after the miracle and went home, she would have been happy for a while but after some time she may have felt guilty for touching him. She was unclean because of her illness and she deliberately touched this man whom the people considered a prophet, which most people would have condemned her for doing. The enemy would not have been able to let a bad guilt trip pass by, so she would have been deeply troubled. Jesus wanted to spare her that and let her know that what she did was ok. He even commended her because of her faith. He called her "daughter" the only person he said that to. his gentleness and compassion towards her makes me want to cry.
Isn't' there someone we can show compassion to today? Maybe being kind to someone who hurt us in the past? Maybe you know someone who recently lost a loved one, or someone who's going through a really hard time. We don't always have to do or say a lot, Just knowing that someone is with them praying for them and supporting them can be very comforting. When my father had a stroke a few years ago and there was not much hope of him living I was, as you can imagine, very upset and I had to try and pack some things to take away with me. My best friend came into my room and just sat with me, letting me talk and helping to keep me calm. She didn't say a lot but she was there and I really appreciated it. I hope I can help someone who is in need like she helped me that day. We should ask the Lord if there is someone to whom we can show compassion today. . There are so many lonely and hurting people out there in this world that need a hug or someone to talk to or some other help that we can give. We may never know how much a little compassion and kindness will do to help someone.
Kindness:
Kindness is an inner mercy and love for others put into action. We show kindness when we do something to help someone who is in need. here's an example of it: For the last few weeks the people I lived with were away from home. Every week during their absence the Pastor of my church came every Sunday evening to pick me up so I could attend evening service. He is a busy man yet he took the time to come and get me each week except for the week i was away. he called me up during the week to ask if everything was ok.
When we are kind we show the love of Jesus to people. god had mercy on us and because he wanted to save and help us he sent Jesus to this earth who died for us on the cross, which is the ultimate act of kindness! ! Jesus didn't just do nice things for people, he sincerely cared about them as well. The to aspects, caring for them and helping them, are the components of true kindness.
Humility:
Humility involves considering others as more important than ourselves and putting the needs of others above our own needs. those who are humble do their good works quietly and discreetly, not wanting to draw attention to themselves but wanting to glorify god.
Again Jesus is our example of humility and the best-known bible passage about this is Philippians 2:5-9.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every
name,
Jesus could have stayed up there in heaven but he chose to humble himself and come to earth as a baby, as a human being. He humbled himself so that he could save us, that is how great his love for us is!
We need to ask god to help us grow in humility. He is willing to help us.
Meekness:
Meekness is similar to humility. It is a quiet submission to the will of God. The meek person realise's that on their own they can do no good thing and they rely on God to help them do all that god wants them to do. They can see their friends being promoted or being praised without jealousy or envy. For an example of this, think of the story of David and Jonathan. Jonathan was the son of King Saul and he had every expectation of being the next king of Israel but he knew that God had taken the kingdom from his father's house and given it to David. The bible says this:
And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, "Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this." And the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.
[1 Samuel 23:16-18]
Jonathan loved god and knew it was God's will for David to be the next king. He deliberately came into the desert where David was and encouraged him. We should be able to do that to our friends, even if they get a promotion or they get praise or compliments we feel should be ours. Once we have found our own place in god and we know how much he loves us we will be able to support and encourage our friends instead of being jealous of them.
Meekness and humility walk hand in hand. A proud person can't be meek.
patience:
I've heard a patient person described as "one who has a very long fuse". We all know people who have a short fuse, they blow up at the slightest provocation. People like that are uncomfortable to be around because you never know when your head is going to be snapped off.
Patient people are able to bear with insults and unkindness without lashing out at the one hurting them. I have to admit that I'm not as patient as I'd like to be. If we have a short fuse we need to ask god's help to deal with that.
Patience is also one of the fruit of the spirit and God is willing to give it to us but we need to stay connected to the vine, that is, we need to stay connected with Jesus.
Forgiveness:
none of the other characteristics we are considering can be worn with an unforgiving heart, it's like throwing a dirty t-shirt on over a party dress, not a good look. Jesus gave us a parable about forgiveness that we are going to look at briefly here:\
"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and
said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant,
as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."
[Matthew 18:23-35]
think of the master as god and the fellow servants as fellow Christians. if God has forgiven us a debt that we can never hope to repay then shouldn't we forgive those who hurt us? If we do not forgive we will not be forgiven. It's a very sobering thought but one to keep in mind.
Love:
The type of love we are looking at here is brotherly love. If we have all these other traits and don't have love for each other we have failed. The bible says:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[1 Corinthians 13:1-3]
The book of 1 john tells us to love one another in a few places, here is one of those:
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
[1 John 4:19-20
the other traits we looked at spring from love. If we love we are compassionate, kind, gentle and patient and our love and gratitude to god keeps us humble. Love also gives these things meaning.
I hope that our study has been helpful to you. God bless you and thanks for reading.
Questions:
[these questions are just between you and god, they may help you reflect more on the subject we have discussed.]
1. why did Paul describe these characteristics as things that we put on?
2. a. Do you have any unforgiveness in your life? Search your heart carefully before answering.
B. How should we deal with unforgiveness in our lives?
C. Why is God angry with unforgiveness?
3. A. Are there any of these characteristics you are having problems putting on?
B. Are there any of them you are having some success with?
4. A. Why do you think it is impossible to put on these characteristics with an unforgiving heart?
B. why do you think that love is so necessary if we want to develop the other characteristics?
bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
[col 3:12-14]
We recently did a study on the armour of god and this seems to be the logical next step to that. Remember we saw in that study that the bible sometimes uses imagery to explain spiritual truths. We don't go around clad in physical armour and we don't go around dressed in compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience either, I don't know what sort of clothes they would be, do you? But we are to let these characteristics define who we are, they are to become part of us, like our favourite piece of clothing, our favourite dress or skirt or shirt or pair of trousers, that we wear as often as we can get away with, until someone throws it out. The difference is, the more we put on these characteristics the better fitting and more comfortable an nicer they are.
So let's take a look at these characteristics and see how we can put them on:
Compassionate hearts::
We are all part of one family. if our brother or sister is going through hard times shouldn't we sympathise with them? Shouldn't we pray for them and try to help? Jesus wants us to love each other in this way. the bible says:
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
[1 Corinthians 12:25-26]
Just as if we have a pain in our physical bodies, like a headache or back pain, the whole body suffers because of it, so we should suffer with those who are suffering and do what we can to encourage them and support them. We can't sympathise and suffer with others if we are selfish and self-absorbed, we need to ask god to help us develop compassionate hearts.
When Jesus was on earth he showed compassion, there are so many instances of it but we are just going to look at one example.
Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue.
And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all
her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, "Who was it that touched me?" When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!" But Jesus said, "Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me." And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."
[Luke 8:40-48]
there is a lot I could say about this passage but I'll keep it brief. Jesus was on his way to heal a man's dying daughter and yet when this woman touched his garment he took the time to hear why she had touched him although he already knew.
. I used to wonder why he prodded her to tell her story of why she touched him but now i have a couple of ideas. Imagine if she had slipped away straight after the miracle and went home, she would have been happy for a while but after some time she may have felt guilty for touching him. She was unclean because of her illness and she deliberately touched this man whom the people considered a prophet, which most people would have condemned her for doing. The enemy would not have been able to let a bad guilt trip pass by, so she would have been deeply troubled. Jesus wanted to spare her that and let her know that what she did was ok. He even commended her because of her faith. He called her "daughter" the only person he said that to. his gentleness and compassion towards her makes me want to cry.
Isn't' there someone we can show compassion to today? Maybe being kind to someone who hurt us in the past? Maybe you know someone who recently lost a loved one, or someone who's going through a really hard time. We don't always have to do or say a lot, Just knowing that someone is with them praying for them and supporting them can be very comforting. When my father had a stroke a few years ago and there was not much hope of him living I was, as you can imagine, very upset and I had to try and pack some things to take away with me. My best friend came into my room and just sat with me, letting me talk and helping to keep me calm. She didn't say a lot but she was there and I really appreciated it. I hope I can help someone who is in need like she helped me that day. We should ask the Lord if there is someone to whom we can show compassion today. . There are so many lonely and hurting people out there in this world that need a hug or someone to talk to or some other help that we can give. We may never know how much a little compassion and kindness will do to help someone.
Kindness:
Kindness is an inner mercy and love for others put into action. We show kindness when we do something to help someone who is in need. here's an example of it: For the last few weeks the people I lived with were away from home. Every week during their absence the Pastor of my church came every Sunday evening to pick me up so I could attend evening service. He is a busy man yet he took the time to come and get me each week except for the week i was away. he called me up during the week to ask if everything was ok.
When we are kind we show the love of Jesus to people. god had mercy on us and because he wanted to save and help us he sent Jesus to this earth who died for us on the cross, which is the ultimate act of kindness! ! Jesus didn't just do nice things for people, he sincerely cared about them as well. The to aspects, caring for them and helping them, are the components of true kindness.
Humility:
Humility involves considering others as more important than ourselves and putting the needs of others above our own needs. those who are humble do their good works quietly and discreetly, not wanting to draw attention to themselves but wanting to glorify god.
Again Jesus is our example of humility and the best-known bible passage about this is Philippians 2:5-9.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every
name,
Jesus could have stayed up there in heaven but he chose to humble himself and come to earth as a baby, as a human being. He humbled himself so that he could save us, that is how great his love for us is!
We need to ask god to help us grow in humility. He is willing to help us.
Meekness:
Meekness is similar to humility. It is a quiet submission to the will of God. The meek person realise's that on their own they can do no good thing and they rely on God to help them do all that god wants them to do. They can see their friends being promoted or being praised without jealousy or envy. For an example of this, think of the story of David and Jonathan. Jonathan was the son of King Saul and he had every expectation of being the next king of Israel but he knew that God had taken the kingdom from his father's house and given it to David. The bible says this:
And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, "Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this." And the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.
[1 Samuel 23:16-18]
Jonathan loved god and knew it was God's will for David to be the next king. He deliberately came into the desert where David was and encouraged him. We should be able to do that to our friends, even if they get a promotion or they get praise or compliments we feel should be ours. Once we have found our own place in god and we know how much he loves us we will be able to support and encourage our friends instead of being jealous of them.
Meekness and humility walk hand in hand. A proud person can't be meek.
patience:
I've heard a patient person described as "one who has a very long fuse". We all know people who have a short fuse, they blow up at the slightest provocation. People like that are uncomfortable to be around because you never know when your head is going to be snapped off.
Patient people are able to bear with insults and unkindness without lashing out at the one hurting them. I have to admit that I'm not as patient as I'd like to be. If we have a short fuse we need to ask god's help to deal with that.
Patience is also one of the fruit of the spirit and God is willing to give it to us but we need to stay connected to the vine, that is, we need to stay connected with Jesus.
Forgiveness:
none of the other characteristics we are considering can be worn with an unforgiving heart, it's like throwing a dirty t-shirt on over a party dress, not a good look. Jesus gave us a parable about forgiveness that we are going to look at briefly here:\
"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and
said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant,
as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."
[Matthew 18:23-35]
think of the master as god and the fellow servants as fellow Christians. if God has forgiven us a debt that we can never hope to repay then shouldn't we forgive those who hurt us? If we do not forgive we will not be forgiven. It's a very sobering thought but one to keep in mind.
Love:
The type of love we are looking at here is brotherly love. If we have all these other traits and don't have love for each other we have failed. The bible says:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[1 Corinthians 13:1-3]
The book of 1 john tells us to love one another in a few places, here is one of those:
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
[1 John 4:19-20
the other traits we looked at spring from love. If we love we are compassionate, kind, gentle and patient and our love and gratitude to god keeps us humble. Love also gives these things meaning.
I hope that our study has been helpful to you. God bless you and thanks for reading.
Questions:
[these questions are just between you and god, they may help you reflect more on the subject we have discussed.]
1. why did Paul describe these characteristics as things that we put on?
2. a. Do you have any unforgiveness in your life? Search your heart carefully before answering.
B. How should we deal with unforgiveness in our lives?
C. Why is God angry with unforgiveness?
3. A. Are there any of these characteristics you are having problems putting on?
B. Are there any of them you are having some success with?
4. A. Why do you think it is impossible to put on these characteristics with an unforgiving heart?
B. why do you think that love is so necessary if we want to develop the other characteristics?
Monday, 25 July 2011
rishie's rambblings, 18-26 July 2011
dear readers:
This is the first in a section of my blog I am calling "Rishie's Ramblings". It is my online journal of my thoughts, reflections and randomness. I will try to post it every week but if I notice it's getting too long I will post it early and then start a new one.
Monday, 18 July 2011
[In response to an email on one of my Christian journalling groups]
Hi!
I remember working with clay when I was in primary school, I really enjoyed doing it. when we started working with clay we took a slab of it and slapped it down on a table a few times then kneaded it to get rid of the air bubbles. Sometimes it feels like that's happening to us as well, we all have things we need to get rid of in our lives. Then we would form the pot or whatever we were making, we did it by hand. That reminds me that God is intimately involved in our development he doesn't just stand at a distance. If we made a mistake in what we were forming we could always start again. the clay had to be moist but not watery. Sometimes God will keep working at an area in our lives until he has it right. sometimes we can think we are doing ok in an area and then he takes us back to that area and fixes up the flaws and we see we didn't have it together after all. Then when the pot was ready it had to dry out, which reminds me that sometimes we need to wait on God if we wonder why things aren't happening, he has his own perfect timing for everything. then our work was put in the kiln to bake. Afterwards it was glazed and baked again before it was ready to be used. that reminds me that there is a period where God teaches us and readies us for service. Just some thoughts.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Frustration:
Aaaarrrgggghhhh! grrr! I was so frustrated I was willing to try what a taxi driver had once suggested to me, reboot the computer ... with my foot!
I was in class last night for my computer course and nothing was working the way it should have done. The thing that really frustrated me was the teacher could do what we were working on with just a few mouse clicks but because Renae and I are blind we are having to use screen reading software, which means we need to use menus and shortcut keys which is ok, but when the teacher, ross, clicked on something it brought one menu up and when we did it we got a completely different menu. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Later when thinking it over I said to God "I'm sure you have a lesson for me in all this, so help me to learn whatever it is." I think what he is teaching me is not to lose my cool when things are annoying me. That's a hard lesson to learn because I'm very impatient and when things don't work the way I want them to or the way I think they should I tend to throw up my hands and say I give up!"
god doesn't want us to give up though, he wants us to trust him and wait patiently for him to show us what he wants us to do. its something we need to learn because it's not our natural response, but with god's help we can do it.
I think we need to ask god if there is a lesson for us in any difficult situation we are facing. God has a reason for everything that happens to us, we just need to seek him and find out what that is.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 5:10:38 AM
it's cold here today. We even had a bit of snow and some more may have fallen during the night but as I can't see I can't tell. I'm really going to have to wrap up warmly when I go out today and I sure do wish those thermal spencers I have on laybuy were paid off, by the time i do that I wont' need them as much lol!
well at least I can thank God that I live in a relatively warm house and i have my little electric throw blanket over me. There is always something to thank god for if we look hard enough to find it.
I think I am going to make myself a cup of Milo and get a few hours sleep.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 3:06:38 AM
Well I'm just about to upload this. Looks like I need to prod myself to write more regularly. I've been working on another bible study and I'm making progress with it.
May God bless you all.
Rishie
fragrantlight@dodo.com.au
This is the first in a section of my blog I am calling "Rishie's Ramblings". It is my online journal of my thoughts, reflections and randomness. I will try to post it every week but if I notice it's getting too long I will post it early and then start a new one.
Monday, 18 July 2011
[In response to an email on one of my Christian journalling groups]
Hi!
I remember working with clay when I was in primary school, I really enjoyed doing it. when we started working with clay we took a slab of it and slapped it down on a table a few times then kneaded it to get rid of the air bubbles. Sometimes it feels like that's happening to us as well, we all have things we need to get rid of in our lives. Then we would form the pot or whatever we were making, we did it by hand. That reminds me that God is intimately involved in our development he doesn't just stand at a distance. If we made a mistake in what we were forming we could always start again. the clay had to be moist but not watery. Sometimes God will keep working at an area in our lives until he has it right. sometimes we can think we are doing ok in an area and then he takes us back to that area and fixes up the flaws and we see we didn't have it together after all. Then when the pot was ready it had to dry out, which reminds me that sometimes we need to wait on God if we wonder why things aren't happening, he has his own perfect timing for everything. then our work was put in the kiln to bake. Afterwards it was glazed and baked again before it was ready to be used. that reminds me that there is a period where God teaches us and readies us for service. Just some thoughts.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Frustration:
Aaaarrrgggghhhh! grrr! I was so frustrated I was willing to try what a taxi driver had once suggested to me, reboot the computer ... with my foot!
I was in class last night for my computer course and nothing was working the way it should have done. The thing that really frustrated me was the teacher could do what we were working on with just a few mouse clicks but because Renae and I are blind we are having to use screen reading software, which means we need to use menus and shortcut keys which is ok, but when the teacher, ross, clicked on something it brought one menu up and when we did it we got a completely different menu. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Later when thinking it over I said to God "I'm sure you have a lesson for me in all this, so help me to learn whatever it is." I think what he is teaching me is not to lose my cool when things are annoying me. That's a hard lesson to learn because I'm very impatient and when things don't work the way I want them to or the way I think they should I tend to throw up my hands and say I give up!"
god doesn't want us to give up though, he wants us to trust him and wait patiently for him to show us what he wants us to do. its something we need to learn because it's not our natural response, but with god's help we can do it.
I think we need to ask god if there is a lesson for us in any difficult situation we are facing. God has a reason for everything that happens to us, we just need to seek him and find out what that is.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 5:10:38 AM
it's cold here today. We even had a bit of snow and some more may have fallen during the night but as I can't see I can't tell. I'm really going to have to wrap up warmly when I go out today and I sure do wish those thermal spencers I have on laybuy were paid off, by the time i do that I wont' need them as much lol!
well at least I can thank God that I live in a relatively warm house and i have my little electric throw blanket over me. There is always something to thank god for if we look hard enough to find it.
I think I am going to make myself a cup of Milo and get a few hours sleep.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 3:06:38 AM
Well I'm just about to upload this. Looks like I need to prod myself to write more regularly. I've been working on another bible study and I'm making progress with it.
May God bless you all.
Rishie
fragrantlight@dodo.com.au
Thursday, 14 July 2011
The Armour of god part 2
e to our second study on the battlefield of the Christian life, this study focuses on the armour of god. when Paul wanted to help the Ephesian church to defend themselves he naturally thought of the roman soldiers who wore certain pieces of armour such as belt, breastplate etc. Of course it wasn't enough for the soldier to have his armour, he had to keep it clean and serviceable, and keep his sword sharp. The last thing the soldier needed to worry about in battle was whether his armour was in good condition, he needed to see to that beforehand. So do we.
In this study we are going to do something different from the usual way I do things, we are going to take the armour piece by piece. We'll have some bible verses that relate to the different pieces of armour that Paul mentions, as well as the verses from Ephesians 6 that deal with this. The verses marked v13 or v14 are from Ephesians, hopefully that won't confuse anyone.
Firstly though, let's review Ephesians 6 verses 10-13:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
You see, we must prepare, we can't just hope that we'll be able to stand when the battle starts, we need to do all to be ready before we are able to stand firm. let's take a look now at the armour of god in all it's parts. May God bless us as we study!
v14:
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,
bible verse:
"if you continue in my word then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
What truth should be our belt? The truth about who god is, what he has done for us and who we are in god, based on truths found in god's word. We have to continue in god's word for it to set us free.
One of the enemies most effective weapons that he uses against us is lies. If he can get us to believe lies like:
"god doesn't really love you"
or "You'll never be any good,"
Then he has won a battle against us. We find the truth in the Bible, and when we can tell the Devil what God says about us in his word, using the sword of the spirit against him, and not believing his lies, we win.
We need to know what the truth is before we can apply it. We need to know what god says about us in his word. That's why daily bible reading and study is so important, so that we know what is true and won't be deceived by satan's lies.
v14b:
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Bible verse:
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
[Isaiah 58:8b]
The breastplate keeps the heart safe. The righteousness referred to here is not our own efforts to be good, rather it is the righteousness given us by God. The bible says:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
When Jesus died on the cross for us, an exchange was made. He took our filthy dirty garments of sin and replaced them with robes of righteousness, his righteousness. That doesn't mean he is any less righteous, no, he is perfectly righteous, but he has enough to share with us. The bible says:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[2 Corinthians 5:21]
On our own we can't be righteous but in his power and by his help we can start to do good things and live rightly before god. We won't be perfect this side of heaven but if we can be free from habitual sin that's what God wants from us.
Don't let the Devil keep you down by reminding you of past sins, they are forgiven and God doesn't remember them anymore. When the enemy tries to make you feel bad for past mistakes, remind him that you are a born again, set apart child of god and you have had your heart sprinkled with the blood of the lamb and quote a scripture like this one:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
v15:
as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
Bible verse:
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those
who bring good news, who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
One of our jobs as Christians, in fact the most important job we have, is to tell others about Jesus, and what he has done for us. The enemy will do his best to stop us from doing this important work by telling us things like
"They'll think you're crazy"
"They won't want to be friends with you when they know what you believe"
"They'll laugh at you."
But if we are willing to obey God, he will help us.
He will help us by his Holy Spirit to find the right words to use and show us the right time to speak out and when to be silent and just let our lives be an example. Notice from our Isaiah verse some of the things we are to do, to bring good news and good tidings and to proclaim peace and salvation. God has given us a life of freedom and joy, we are to share the good news with those he brings into our lives.
v16:
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
bible verse:
Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.
[Hebrews 11:1 NCV]
In the old days soldiers would carry a shield which they would use to protect themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Our faith is in God and faith for Christians is vital because without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is believing and trusting
in what god says .and not believing the Devil's lies or our own feelings and emotions, or even our own circumstances. for example, if I have a headache and I pray for it to be healed I need to believe that if it's god's will he will do that and if the headache continues i still have to keep believing god will help. the bible talks about the faith of Abraham. god told him that he would have a son and years and years went past while Abraham kept believing although he didn't see the answer to his prayers. finally he got to the age where it was impossible for him to have a child and his wife was too old to bear one. He was 99 and she was 89 when god visited them one day and told them that the next year they would have a son. What was their reaction? They laughed at the unlikeliness of it but they kept believing anyway and a year later Sarah nursed a baby son, Isaac.
Faith helps us when we are under attack from our enemy. It is called defensive faith. some of the flaming darts he sends our way are lies. We must choose not to believe what he says about us, rather we must believe what god's word says about us, that's faith at work. there are other ways that the shield of faith protects us such as when the enemy tries to get us to doubt God's love or goodness and we choose to believe in what God's word says rather than giving into our own feelings or believing the enemy's lies.
The bible says:
So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).
[Romans 10:17 Amp]
Faith comes from hearing the word about Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us. That's why it's a good thing to red bible verses out aloud since faith comes by hearing. it's also good to go to church and listen to Christian teaching, this will also help to increase our faith. After all, we don't want any of those flaming arrows the enemy sends to hit their target, do we? Our shield of faith needs to be strong to prevent that.
v16b:
and take the helmet of salvation,
bible verse:
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
[Philippians 2:12b-13]
The helmet keeps the head safe. The enemy will try to make us doubt that we are really saved, that we will really spend forever with God, that our sins are truly forgiven and forgotten by god and other things like that. However, if we have asked Jesus into our hearts and if we believe in him, then we are saved, no matter what the devil tells us.
the helmet protects the mind. we need to be so careful about what thoughts we allow in our minds. Bad thoughts lea to bad speech and bad behaviour. We talked in our last study about taking every thought captive, that's something we need to do the moment we realise that a thought has entered our minds that doesn't line up with the truth of god's word. the Holy spirit will help us, if we ask him to.
v17b:
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
bible verse:
so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do]."
[Isaiah 55:11]
God's word is a very powerful weapon. When Jesus was tempted by the devil during his life on earth, he would always fight back using god's word,
like this:
Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. After this, he was very hungry. The devil came to Jesus to tempt him, saying, "If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread."
Jesus answered, "It is written in the Scriptures, 'A person lives not on bread alone, but by everything God says.' "
If we want a weapon that the enemy can't fight against, then we need god's word. It will really help us to memorise bible verses then when we are tempted, we can fight back in the same way Jesus did. The word of God is very powerful. the Bible says:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
[Hebrews 4:12]
v18:
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Bible verse:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
[James 5:16b]
we have seen before that one of the things that helps us in our battles is prayer. The bible says:
And this is the boldness we have in God's presence: that if we ask God for anything that agrees with what he wants, he hears us. If we know he hears us every time we ask him, we know we have what we ask from him.
[1 john 5:14-15]
The enemy will stop us from praying if he can,by distracting us when we try to pray, by reminding us of some important things we need to do or by convincing us that we aren't in a right frame of mind to pray and maybe tomorrow will be better so we should wait till then. we shouldn't let him have the victory over our prayer life. The Holy spirit is also called the Spirit of prayer and he will help us to pray to god effectively if we will let him.
We should pray for our friends and family to come to know Jesus; and we can pray and ask God for help at any time when we feel overwhelmed or when we are tempted or just when we feel like spending a quiet moment with the Father. it is also good to set aside some time each day for prayer and bible study.
Chuck Missler calls prayer our heavy artillery. Another pastor that I met once said that when we mention Jesus' name, he mentions our names. That is, when we pray in the name of Jesus and talk to God about what is on our hearts, Jesus intercedes for us to the Father. the Holy spirit also intercedes for us as the bible says:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I hope this study on the armour of god has been helpful to you. May God bless us as we apply the things we have learned to our lives. amen.
Questions:
These questions are just some things to think about, just between you and God.
1. Can you think of a time in the past when using the belt of truth would have helped you?
2. why do you think it's so important to deal with wrong thoughts as soon as we are aware of them?
3. Have you noticed how difficult it can be to keep your mind on your prayers when you are talking to god?
4. Who are the enemies we are fighting against?
5. What piece of the armour of God do you feel you need to work on and strengthen? If you don't know, why not ask god to show you?
In this study we are going to do something different from the usual way I do things, we are going to take the armour piece by piece. We'll have some bible verses that relate to the different pieces of armour that Paul mentions, as well as the verses from Ephesians 6 that deal with this. The verses marked v13 or v14 are from Ephesians, hopefully that won't confuse anyone.
Firstly though, let's review Ephesians 6 verses 10-13:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
You see, we must prepare, we can't just hope that we'll be able to stand when the battle starts, we need to do all to be ready before we are able to stand firm. let's take a look now at the armour of god in all it's parts. May God bless us as we study!
v14:
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,
bible verse:
"if you continue in my word then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
What truth should be our belt? The truth about who god is, what he has done for us and who we are in god, based on truths found in god's word. We have to continue in god's word for it to set us free.
One of the enemies most effective weapons that he uses against us is lies. If he can get us to believe lies like:
"god doesn't really love you"
or "You'll never be any good,"
Then he has won a battle against us. We find the truth in the Bible, and when we can tell the Devil what God says about us in his word, using the sword of the spirit against him, and not believing his lies, we win.
We need to know what the truth is before we can apply it. We need to know what god says about us in his word. That's why daily bible reading and study is so important, so that we know what is true and won't be deceived by satan's lies.
v14b:
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Bible verse:
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
[Isaiah 58:8b]
The breastplate keeps the heart safe. The righteousness referred to here is not our own efforts to be good, rather it is the righteousness given us by God. The bible says:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
When Jesus died on the cross for us, an exchange was made. He took our filthy dirty garments of sin and replaced them with robes of righteousness, his righteousness. That doesn't mean he is any less righteous, no, he is perfectly righteous, but he has enough to share with us. The bible says:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[2 Corinthians 5:21]
On our own we can't be righteous but in his power and by his help we can start to do good things and live rightly before god. We won't be perfect this side of heaven but if we can be free from habitual sin that's what God wants from us.
Don't let the Devil keep you down by reminding you of past sins, they are forgiven and God doesn't remember them anymore. When the enemy tries to make you feel bad for past mistakes, remind him that you are a born again, set apart child of god and you have had your heart sprinkled with the blood of the lamb and quote a scripture like this one:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
v15:
as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
Bible verse:
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those
who bring good news, who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
One of our jobs as Christians, in fact the most important job we have, is to tell others about Jesus, and what he has done for us. The enemy will do his best to stop us from doing this important work by telling us things like
"They'll think you're crazy"
"They won't want to be friends with you when they know what you believe"
"They'll laugh at you."
But if we are willing to obey God, he will help us.
He will help us by his Holy Spirit to find the right words to use and show us the right time to speak out and when to be silent and just let our lives be an example. Notice from our Isaiah verse some of the things we are to do, to bring good news and good tidings and to proclaim peace and salvation. God has given us a life of freedom and joy, we are to share the good news with those he brings into our lives.
v16:
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
bible verse:
Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.
[Hebrews 11:1 NCV]
In the old days soldiers would carry a shield which they would use to protect themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Our faith is in God and faith for Christians is vital because without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is believing and trusting
in what god says .and not believing the Devil's lies or our own feelings and emotions, or even our own circumstances. for example, if I have a headache and I pray for it to be healed I need to believe that if it's god's will he will do that and if the headache continues i still have to keep believing god will help. the bible talks about the faith of Abraham. god told him that he would have a son and years and years went past while Abraham kept believing although he didn't see the answer to his prayers. finally he got to the age where it was impossible for him to have a child and his wife was too old to bear one. He was 99 and she was 89 when god visited them one day and told them that the next year they would have a son. What was their reaction? They laughed at the unlikeliness of it but they kept believing anyway and a year later Sarah nursed a baby son, Isaac.
Faith helps us when we are under attack from our enemy. It is called defensive faith. some of the flaming darts he sends our way are lies. We must choose not to believe what he says about us, rather we must believe what god's word says about us, that's faith at work. there are other ways that the shield of faith protects us such as when the enemy tries to get us to doubt God's love or goodness and we choose to believe in what God's word says rather than giving into our own feelings or believing the enemy's lies.
The bible says:
So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).
[Romans 10:17 Amp]
Faith comes from hearing the word about Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us. That's why it's a good thing to red bible verses out aloud since faith comes by hearing. it's also good to go to church and listen to Christian teaching, this will also help to increase our faith. After all, we don't want any of those flaming arrows the enemy sends to hit their target, do we? Our shield of faith needs to be strong to prevent that.
v16b:
and take the helmet of salvation,
bible verse:
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
[Philippians 2:12b-13]
The helmet keeps the head safe. The enemy will try to make us doubt that we are really saved, that we will really spend forever with God, that our sins are truly forgiven and forgotten by god and other things like that. However, if we have asked Jesus into our hearts and if we believe in him, then we are saved, no matter what the devil tells us.
the helmet protects the mind. we need to be so careful about what thoughts we allow in our minds. Bad thoughts lea to bad speech and bad behaviour. We talked in our last study about taking every thought captive, that's something we need to do the moment we realise that a thought has entered our minds that doesn't line up with the truth of god's word. the Holy spirit will help us, if we ask him to.
v17b:
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
bible verse:
so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do]."
[Isaiah 55:11]
God's word is a very powerful weapon. When Jesus was tempted by the devil during his life on earth, he would always fight back using god's word,
like this:
Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. After this, he was very hungry. The devil came to Jesus to tempt him, saying, "If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread."
Jesus answered, "It is written in the Scriptures, 'A person lives not on bread alone, but by everything God says.' "
If we want a weapon that the enemy can't fight against, then we need god's word. It will really help us to memorise bible verses then when we are tempted, we can fight back in the same way Jesus did. The word of God is very powerful. the Bible says:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
[Hebrews 4:12]
v18:
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Bible verse:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
[James 5:16b]
we have seen before that one of the things that helps us in our battles is prayer. The bible says:
And this is the boldness we have in God's presence: that if we ask God for anything that agrees with what he wants, he hears us. If we know he hears us every time we ask him, we know we have what we ask from him.
[1 john 5:14-15]
The enemy will stop us from praying if he can,by distracting us when we try to pray, by reminding us of some important things we need to do or by convincing us that we aren't in a right frame of mind to pray and maybe tomorrow will be better so we should wait till then. we shouldn't let him have the victory over our prayer life. The Holy spirit is also called the Spirit of prayer and he will help us to pray to god effectively if we will let him.
We should pray for our friends and family to come to know Jesus; and we can pray and ask God for help at any time when we feel overwhelmed or when we are tempted or just when we feel like spending a quiet moment with the Father. it is also good to set aside some time each day for prayer and bible study.
Chuck Missler calls prayer our heavy artillery. Another pastor that I met once said that when we mention Jesus' name, he mentions our names. That is, when we pray in the name of Jesus and talk to God about what is on our hearts, Jesus intercedes for us to the Father. the Holy spirit also intercedes for us as the bible says:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I hope this study on the armour of god has been helpful to you. May God bless us as we apply the things we have learned to our lives. amen.
Questions:
These questions are just some things to think about, just between you and God.
1. Can you think of a time in the past when using the belt of truth would have helped you?
2. why do you think it's so important to deal with wrong thoughts as soon as we are aware of them?
3. Have you noticed how difficult it can be to keep your mind on your prayers when you are talking to god?
4. Who are the enemies we are fighting against?
5. What piece of the armour of God do you feel you need to work on and strengthen? If you don't know, why not ask god to show you?
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
The Armour of god, Study 1
We are starting a two part study today. I had meant these studies to just be about the Armour of god, and it will be about that, but it's also about the battle, the enemy, his tactics that he uses against us and a few suggestions on how we can be victorious over him. This will be the first part of the study, then in the second part we will look at the armour of god in detail.
Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 14a says:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm ..."
I guess the first question that needs to be asked is: why do we need armour in the first place? We're not at war are we? Yes, we are. Notice who our foes are:
".... against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." [v12]
wow! How can we possibly fight all those dark forces on our own? Well actually we don't. On our own and in our own strength we wouldn't have a hope, but Jesus is with us and god gives us the strength to fight the battles. it should also be remembered that our enemies have been defeated by Jesus when he died on the cross. if they are defeated why are they still so powerful that we need to defend against them? I have a couple of examples that might clarify this:
Imagine two children playing together. One of them points his finger at his playmate and says "bang bang! You're dead!" the other child doesn't move or react so her playmate says indignantly "You're supposed to be dead so why won't you fall down?"
The enemies are defeated and one day they will be judged and dealt with but for now although they are dead they haven't fallen down. here's another example I got from a bible study i was listening to:
when a country holds elections and a new party is voted in, the new leader doesn't take over straight away, there is usually a period of a few weeks before the old administration are out and the new leader is inaugurated. now, in this scenario Jesus is the new leader and Satan knows his time is short before Jesus takes over, so he is determined to do as much damage, to reek as much havoc as possible in the time that's left.
So we are at war with these dark forces but we are not left defenceless. Firstly, Jesus has already defeated them, secondly, we have the holy Spirit to help us and thirdly, God gives us a set of armour to put on, not physically but spiritually. Think of the old times when a knight would ride out to battle, he wouldn't even think of going without putting on some armour and taking his sword. We shouldn't think of trying to live the Christian life without taking up our armour and our sword.
Let's talk about the battle for a bit. You might be imagining an old-style war when each side would line up in battle array, facing each other. Our battle is not like that. Our enemy is much too subtle for that. His favourite tactic is to sneak up on us unawares and trap us, so we need to be warned, but we can take comfort, god's word says that:
he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
[1 John 4:4b]
But what is the cause of the battle? what is the objective? Human souls. Jesus would love nothing better than to see every single person on the earth come to salvation, the bible says:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
The enemy, on the other hand, wants to keep as many souls out of God's kingdom as possible. The bible says that:
the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
[1 Corinthians 4:4]
If we are saved then we have entered the battle and our enemy will do all he can to keep us from being all that we can be, from growing strong in our faith and being someone god can use. He loves to see us weak, lukewarm and indifferent. He is overjoyed if he can trap us into habitual sin. He wants us to abandon our faith and he will do all he can to achieve that end. We don't have to give into that though, God provides us with weapons and armour to defend ourselves and, besides that, Jesus is on our side, helping us. . The bible says:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
[2 Corinthians 10:3-5]
So how do we fight back against the Enemy's attacks?
1. Prayer. We should bring the whole situation to God in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to help and advise us, giving us strategies that will help us have the victory.
2. We need to ask god for the gift of discernment. The following quote is taken from wikipedia:
""Discernment of spirits" is the term given to the judgment whereby to determine from what spirit the impulses
of the soul emanate, and it is easy to understand the importance of this judgment both for self-direction and the direction of others. Now this judgment
may be formed in two ways. In the first case the discernment is made by means of an intuitive light which infallibly discovers the quality of the movement;
it is then a gift of God. 'Second, discernment of spirits may be obtained through studying of the Bible, dependence on God, and being sensitive to God’s
leading.' It is then not just an acquired human knowledge; it is a spiritual gift. It is procured, always, of course, through a right walking with God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discernment#Christianity
I think we can see how this would be helpful to us. if a voice is speaking in our mind we need to know if it's from God, from one of the Devil's minions, or from our flesh nature. when we ask god for help we need to be sure it's His voice we hear. Discernment will help us with that.
3. We will see in the second study that God's word is our sword, the sword of the Spirit. We need to memorise and meditate on scripture. If you're like me memorisation is a challenge. I can remember useless facts of trivia, I can remember scenes from books I read years ago but memorising Scripture? I found it so hard i gave up on it, you can tell that laziness is one of my faults can't you? Anyway the Lord is prodding me about it so it's something I am going to work at and I encourage you to as well. We should ask the Father that the Holy Spirit would empower us to be able to memorise and call to mind scriptures when we need them. The enemy wants us to forget what we have learned in the Word of god but the Holy Spirit will remind us and he will help us to learn.
4. we need to allow god to sanctify us through and through. What that means is that we let him into every area of our lives, our hearts, our minds, the hidden things we hoped noone would ever see. The bible says this:
And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and
may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you].
[1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 AMP]
We should allow god to shine his light into every area of our lives, remembering that he sees everything anyway, he knows us better than we know ourselves. We all have places where we are vulnerable, it might be our past or it might be a sin that we find hard to keep away from. If we let god into those areas he will build a wall around them so that the enemy can't get in and attack us in those areas. to know more about this i would thoroughly recommend a book from Beth Moore called "when godly people do ungodly things" she goes into a lot of detail about being sanctified through and through and how we can fortify our lives against the Enemy's wiles.
We have seen that we are at war but not against humans we are at war against principalities and powers in the kingdom of darkness. Jesus has defeated these dark forces and he will help us to get through our battles.
But where do these battles take place? How can we have a battle without a battleground? Well we do and it is called the human mind. People believe that the heart is stronger than the mind, sometimes feelings can be so hard to fight against! The thing is though, if we can fill our minds with the word of god and let those scriptures renew our mind , then that will change our feelings as well. if the enemy can develop strong holds in our mind then he can not only affect our mind but our hearts too. That is why we have to be so careful about what thoughts we allow in our minds. Remember the verse we looked at in 2 Corinthians 10??
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
[2 Corinthians 10:3-5]
If we want to have the victory we need to be diligent in dealing with bad thoughts. here’s an example.
A young man found a wallet on the floor of a shop and picked it up. Idly he opened it and flipped through it, there was a fair bit of money inside.
“How cool is that?” he thought, “finders keepers, this is mine now.” his conscience nudged him and said
“You know better than that, the bible says "you shall not steal,””
“I didn't’ steal it,” the young man argued, “i found it, it’s mine.”. The enemy whispers into his mind
“Go on take it, noone will know or care. You're a fool if you don't keep it. Maybe this is God’s way of helping you save the money to buy that bicycle you want.”
“no, god wouldn't want me to do that,” he realised, “Jesus wouldn't do it so i guess i shouldn't either.” so he went over to the check-out and handed it in .
That’s a fairly basic example but that’s the way the battle goes on, we are confronted with a situation and we have 2 options, we can do what we know is right or we can do what we know is wrong. the enemy wants us to do what is wrong of course and we know god wants us to do what is right. Even our minds can fight on the wrong side because we may really want to make the wrong decision, we justify ourselves that it’s not so bad after all. Sometimes it can be hard to be sure which way is the right way and we have to ask god and wait for him to show us. here's an example of that:
Mary was the only Christian in her family. She loved going to youth group and to Church on Sunday, where she sang in the choir. One Saturday night her mother said to her,
"Mary I don't want you to go to church tomorrow, your Aunt and Uncle are coming over and we are going for a picnic." Now Mary felt pulled in two directions, she knew the Bible teaches "honour your father and your mother", and besides she was excited at the thought of her Aunt an Uncle's visit. A picnic would be wonderful, but she would have to miss Church and that made her feel bad. What should she do? Didn't the bible say something about the importance of meeting together regularly? She was very confused.
Again a rather simple example, life can get very complicated and knowing what is right can be hard, we need to trust God and ask him to show us what he wants us to do. it can be hard to hear from god when the enemy and our own minds are demanding a certain course of action and our conscience is bothering us and prompting us to go another direction. That's when we need to spend a lot of time in prayer and even fasting so we can know the will of god.
But the question may be asked, why do we have to have battles at all? what is the purpose in them. if the devil is defeated why can't God stop him and his servants from attacking us?
well, of course god could stop it right now. The fact that he doesn't means his plans haven't been fulfilled yet - plans for us and our lives. Remember that god sees the bigger picture. He sees things clearer than we do. sometimes he will allow things that he would prefer not to allow because they will eventually be for our good and bring in the fulfillment of God's plans.
As we saw before, the enemy wants to stop us from being all that we can be, from growing in our faith and from being a person God can use to do his work. The moment we start witnessing to our friends about Jesus, or the moment we start trying to deal with a bad habit we have, or the moment we resolve to spend more time in prayer or anything that will make us stronger in our faith or bring us closer to God,then we are entering the battleground. We may not notice it straight away but if we continue in our forward progress we are likely to find opposition.
So why does god allow the enemy to attack us? because that causes us to rely on god instead of doing things on our own and because trials test our faith and make it stronger. god wants us to grow as much as possible here on earth and if things were easy all the time we would get complacent and we would stop making an effort. Trials are not fun, battles are not fun, but we can look back and see how God used this or that situation for good in our lives.
the enemy may think he is doing what he wants but God can use him to fulfill God's own plans. An example of that would be in 1 Samuel 16-17 where god allowed an evil spirit to attack king Saul who had been disobedient and had not done all that god wanted him to do. Because David was skillful at the harp and because it was determined that harp playing might sooth the King when the evil spirit came on him, David went from being an unknown shepherd in the wilderness to a person of importance at court. God was behind the whole thing. god brought David and Jonathan together in a close sincere friendship and Jonathan helped David on more than one occasion. There are other stories in the bible and I could say a lot more about this, maybe I will at another point. The thing we need to realise is that god doesn't allow anything to happen to us unless he has a good reason for allowing it, something we may not comprehend till heaven but we have to trust that he knows what is best for us. Like any parent he knows that discipline, though it may be unpleasant, will help the child to know what is right and wrong and will help them see that their choices have consequences. God lovingly disciplines us as well. .
Now to finish up this section of our study I would like to look at two scenes from the early chapters of the book of job. In each of these scenes god and the Devil have a conversation about Job. here's the first scene:
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
[Job 1:6-12]
God and his angels had a meeting and satan, the enemy, gate-crashed it. God allowed it because he had a purpose in mind. satan used to be an angel called Lucifer but he became proud and sinned against God, which is a discussion for another time, this is just a little background.
notice that God asked satan two questions:
1. From where have you come?
and
2. have you observed my servant Job?"
Of course God knew the answer to both of those questions. He also knew he was going to allow satan to test Job and prove his loyalty to god. Job would also learn some lessons along the way.
See how satan answers god? he basically says to god "Sure Job worships you why not? you have blessed everything he does and he has grown wealthy, anyone might trust you in those circumstances." satan had his own agenda here, he wanted to attack job but god had him protected so satan couldn't do much against him until God gave him permission,. this is very important: God allows satan a certain amount of leeway, but if he wants to go beyond that point he has to get God's permission and God will only give it if he sees it is in the best interests of the believer. god has full authority in the universe an if god had said no to satan, the book of Job would probably not have been written. i find this very comforting. My loving heavenly father is on the throne and he will only allow things to happen to me that are for my own good even if it may not seem so at the time.
the second scene from the book of job is found in chapter 2:
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason." Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."
[Job 2:1-6]
Notice the similarities between this passage and the other one we looked at. the angels gathered before the Lord again and there satan was among them. god asked him the same question and got the same answer. Then God speaks about Job, saying much the same things except that he adds this:
He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."
God wasn't too happy with satan can you tell?
what was satan's response?
"Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face."
he is at his old games again. Had Job actually cursed God then satan would be the first to accuse him before god.
then God gives satan his instructions and sets the boundaries:
"Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."
notice that satan still had to get god's permission to step up his attacks against job?
One more thing I want to point out here. Notice who wasn't present at these meetings ... Job himself. Job had no idea what was happening in the heavenly realm. He knew that very bad things were happening to him, he had lost everything and everyone that mattered, even his wife told him to curse god and die. He had his 3 friends but with friends like that who needs enemies? their idea was, all this bad stuff is happening to Job therefore Job must be guilty of some sin.
When we are tempted or face trials and battles we may not understand why god allows these things in our lives but we have to trust him because he knows what is best for us. god's word will not send us to where god's hand cannot protect us. If we are going through a battle, know that God knows exactly what is happening and he is working out his plan in this situation. Let us keep these things in mind!
Questions:
1. think of any spiritual battles you have faced lately.
a. do you know what the cause of the battle was?
B. How did you cope with the situation?
c. were you victorious in the battle? with god's help of course, or were you defeated?
d. how do you think you might handle things differently next time?
2. a. Have you found yourself in a situation where you weren't sure what god's will was and what you should do?
B. How do you think you might handle this differently next time?
I pray this study has helped you. Part two of the study will be uploaded soon. Thanks. god bless you.
Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 14a says:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm ..."
I guess the first question that needs to be asked is: why do we need armour in the first place? We're not at war are we? Yes, we are. Notice who our foes are:
".... against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." [v12]
wow! How can we possibly fight all those dark forces on our own? Well actually we don't. On our own and in our own strength we wouldn't have a hope, but Jesus is with us and god gives us the strength to fight the battles. it should also be remembered that our enemies have been defeated by Jesus when he died on the cross. if they are defeated why are they still so powerful that we need to defend against them? I have a couple of examples that might clarify this:
Imagine two children playing together. One of them points his finger at his playmate and says "bang bang! You're dead!" the other child doesn't move or react so her playmate says indignantly "You're supposed to be dead so why won't you fall down?"
The enemies are defeated and one day they will be judged and dealt with but for now although they are dead they haven't fallen down. here's another example I got from a bible study i was listening to:
when a country holds elections and a new party is voted in, the new leader doesn't take over straight away, there is usually a period of a few weeks before the old administration are out and the new leader is inaugurated. now, in this scenario Jesus is the new leader and Satan knows his time is short before Jesus takes over, so he is determined to do as much damage, to reek as much havoc as possible in the time that's left.
So we are at war with these dark forces but we are not left defenceless. Firstly, Jesus has already defeated them, secondly, we have the holy Spirit to help us and thirdly, God gives us a set of armour to put on, not physically but spiritually. Think of the old times when a knight would ride out to battle, he wouldn't even think of going without putting on some armour and taking his sword. We shouldn't think of trying to live the Christian life without taking up our armour and our sword.
Let's talk about the battle for a bit. You might be imagining an old-style war when each side would line up in battle array, facing each other. Our battle is not like that. Our enemy is much too subtle for that. His favourite tactic is to sneak up on us unawares and trap us, so we need to be warned, but we can take comfort, god's word says that:
he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
[1 John 4:4b]
But what is the cause of the battle? what is the objective? Human souls. Jesus would love nothing better than to see every single person on the earth come to salvation, the bible says:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
The enemy, on the other hand, wants to keep as many souls out of God's kingdom as possible. The bible says that:
the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
[1 Corinthians 4:4]
If we are saved then we have entered the battle and our enemy will do all he can to keep us from being all that we can be, from growing strong in our faith and being someone god can use. He loves to see us weak, lukewarm and indifferent. He is overjoyed if he can trap us into habitual sin. He wants us to abandon our faith and he will do all he can to achieve that end. We don't have to give into that though, God provides us with weapons and armour to defend ourselves and, besides that, Jesus is on our side, helping us. . The bible says:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
[2 Corinthians 10:3-5]
So how do we fight back against the Enemy's attacks?
1. Prayer. We should bring the whole situation to God in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to help and advise us, giving us strategies that will help us have the victory.
2. We need to ask god for the gift of discernment. The following quote is taken from wikipedia:
""Discernment of spirits" is the term given to the judgment whereby to determine from what spirit the impulses
of the soul emanate, and it is easy to understand the importance of this judgment both for self-direction and the direction of others. Now this judgment
may be formed in two ways. In the first case the discernment is made by means of an intuitive light which infallibly discovers the quality of the movement;
it is then a gift of God. 'Second, discernment of spirits may be obtained through studying of the Bible, dependence on God, and being sensitive to God’s
leading.' It is then not just an acquired human knowledge; it is a spiritual gift. It is procured, always, of course, through a right walking with God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discernment#Christianity
I think we can see how this would be helpful to us. if a voice is speaking in our mind we need to know if it's from God, from one of the Devil's minions, or from our flesh nature. when we ask god for help we need to be sure it's His voice we hear. Discernment will help us with that.
3. We will see in the second study that God's word is our sword, the sword of the Spirit. We need to memorise and meditate on scripture. If you're like me memorisation is a challenge. I can remember useless facts of trivia, I can remember scenes from books I read years ago but memorising Scripture? I found it so hard i gave up on it, you can tell that laziness is one of my faults can't you? Anyway the Lord is prodding me about it so it's something I am going to work at and I encourage you to as well. We should ask the Father that the Holy Spirit would empower us to be able to memorise and call to mind scriptures when we need them. The enemy wants us to forget what we have learned in the Word of god but the Holy Spirit will remind us and he will help us to learn.
4. we need to allow god to sanctify us through and through. What that means is that we let him into every area of our lives, our hearts, our minds, the hidden things we hoped noone would ever see. The bible says this:
And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and
may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you].
[1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 AMP]
We should allow god to shine his light into every area of our lives, remembering that he sees everything anyway, he knows us better than we know ourselves. We all have places where we are vulnerable, it might be our past or it might be a sin that we find hard to keep away from. If we let god into those areas he will build a wall around them so that the enemy can't get in and attack us in those areas. to know more about this i would thoroughly recommend a book from Beth Moore called "when godly people do ungodly things" she goes into a lot of detail about being sanctified through and through and how we can fortify our lives against the Enemy's wiles.
We have seen that we are at war but not against humans we are at war against principalities and powers in the kingdom of darkness. Jesus has defeated these dark forces and he will help us to get through our battles.
But where do these battles take place? How can we have a battle without a battleground? Well we do and it is called the human mind. People believe that the heart is stronger than the mind, sometimes feelings can be so hard to fight against! The thing is though, if we can fill our minds with the word of god and let those scriptures renew our mind , then that will change our feelings as well. if the enemy can develop strong holds in our mind then he can not only affect our mind but our hearts too. That is why we have to be so careful about what thoughts we allow in our minds. Remember the verse we looked at in 2 Corinthians 10??
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
[2 Corinthians 10:3-5]
If we want to have the victory we need to be diligent in dealing with bad thoughts. here’s an example.
A young man found a wallet on the floor of a shop and picked it up. Idly he opened it and flipped through it, there was a fair bit of money inside.
“How cool is that?” he thought, “finders keepers, this is mine now.” his conscience nudged him and said
“You know better than that, the bible says "you shall not steal,””
“I didn't’ steal it,” the young man argued, “i found it, it’s mine.”. The enemy whispers into his mind
“Go on take it, noone will know or care. You're a fool if you don't keep it. Maybe this is God’s way of helping you save the money to buy that bicycle you want.”
“no, god wouldn't want me to do that,” he realised, “Jesus wouldn't do it so i guess i shouldn't either.” so he went over to the check-out and handed it in .
That’s a fairly basic example but that’s the way the battle goes on, we are confronted with a situation and we have 2 options, we can do what we know is right or we can do what we know is wrong. the enemy wants us to do what is wrong of course and we know god wants us to do what is right. Even our minds can fight on the wrong side because we may really want to make the wrong decision, we justify ourselves that it’s not so bad after all. Sometimes it can be hard to be sure which way is the right way and we have to ask god and wait for him to show us. here's an example of that:
Mary was the only Christian in her family. She loved going to youth group and to Church on Sunday, where she sang in the choir. One Saturday night her mother said to her,
"Mary I don't want you to go to church tomorrow, your Aunt and Uncle are coming over and we are going for a picnic." Now Mary felt pulled in two directions, she knew the Bible teaches "honour your father and your mother", and besides she was excited at the thought of her Aunt an Uncle's visit. A picnic would be wonderful, but she would have to miss Church and that made her feel bad. What should she do? Didn't the bible say something about the importance of meeting together regularly? She was very confused.
Again a rather simple example, life can get very complicated and knowing what is right can be hard, we need to trust God and ask him to show us what he wants us to do. it can be hard to hear from god when the enemy and our own minds are demanding a certain course of action and our conscience is bothering us and prompting us to go another direction. That's when we need to spend a lot of time in prayer and even fasting so we can know the will of god.
But the question may be asked, why do we have to have battles at all? what is the purpose in them. if the devil is defeated why can't God stop him and his servants from attacking us?
well, of course god could stop it right now. The fact that he doesn't means his plans haven't been fulfilled yet - plans for us and our lives. Remember that god sees the bigger picture. He sees things clearer than we do. sometimes he will allow things that he would prefer not to allow because they will eventually be for our good and bring in the fulfillment of God's plans.
As we saw before, the enemy wants to stop us from being all that we can be, from growing in our faith and from being a person God can use to do his work. The moment we start witnessing to our friends about Jesus, or the moment we start trying to deal with a bad habit we have, or the moment we resolve to spend more time in prayer or anything that will make us stronger in our faith or bring us closer to God,then we are entering the battleground. We may not notice it straight away but if we continue in our forward progress we are likely to find opposition.
So why does god allow the enemy to attack us? because that causes us to rely on god instead of doing things on our own and because trials test our faith and make it stronger. god wants us to grow as much as possible here on earth and if things were easy all the time we would get complacent and we would stop making an effort. Trials are not fun, battles are not fun, but we can look back and see how God used this or that situation for good in our lives.
the enemy may think he is doing what he wants but God can use him to fulfill God's own plans. An example of that would be in 1 Samuel 16-17 where god allowed an evil spirit to attack king Saul who had been disobedient and had not done all that god wanted him to do. Because David was skillful at the harp and because it was determined that harp playing might sooth the King when the evil spirit came on him, David went from being an unknown shepherd in the wilderness to a person of importance at court. God was behind the whole thing. god brought David and Jonathan together in a close sincere friendship and Jonathan helped David on more than one occasion. There are other stories in the bible and I could say a lot more about this, maybe I will at another point. The thing we need to realise is that god doesn't allow anything to happen to us unless he has a good reason for allowing it, something we may not comprehend till heaven but we have to trust that he knows what is best for us. Like any parent he knows that discipline, though it may be unpleasant, will help the child to know what is right and wrong and will help them see that their choices have consequences. God lovingly disciplines us as well. .
Now to finish up this section of our study I would like to look at two scenes from the early chapters of the book of job. In each of these scenes god and the Devil have a conversation about Job. here's the first scene:
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
[Job 1:6-12]
God and his angels had a meeting and satan, the enemy, gate-crashed it. God allowed it because he had a purpose in mind. satan used to be an angel called Lucifer but he became proud and sinned against God, which is a discussion for another time, this is just a little background.
notice that God asked satan two questions:
1. From where have you come?
and
2. have you observed my servant Job?"
Of course God knew the answer to both of those questions. He also knew he was going to allow satan to test Job and prove his loyalty to god. Job would also learn some lessons along the way.
See how satan answers god? he basically says to god "Sure Job worships you why not? you have blessed everything he does and he has grown wealthy, anyone might trust you in those circumstances." satan had his own agenda here, he wanted to attack job but god had him protected so satan couldn't do much against him until God gave him permission,. this is very important: God allows satan a certain amount of leeway, but if he wants to go beyond that point he has to get God's permission and God will only give it if he sees it is in the best interests of the believer. god has full authority in the universe an if god had said no to satan, the book of Job would probably not have been written. i find this very comforting. My loving heavenly father is on the throne and he will only allow things to happen to me that are for my own good even if it may not seem so at the time.
the second scene from the book of job is found in chapter 2:
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason." Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."
[Job 2:1-6]
Notice the similarities between this passage and the other one we looked at. the angels gathered before the Lord again and there satan was among them. god asked him the same question and got the same answer. Then God speaks about Job, saying much the same things except that he adds this:
He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."
God wasn't too happy with satan can you tell?
what was satan's response?
"Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face."
he is at his old games again. Had Job actually cursed God then satan would be the first to accuse him before god.
then God gives satan his instructions and sets the boundaries:
"Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."
notice that satan still had to get god's permission to step up his attacks against job?
One more thing I want to point out here. Notice who wasn't present at these meetings ... Job himself. Job had no idea what was happening in the heavenly realm. He knew that very bad things were happening to him, he had lost everything and everyone that mattered, even his wife told him to curse god and die. He had his 3 friends but with friends like that who needs enemies? their idea was, all this bad stuff is happening to Job therefore Job must be guilty of some sin.
When we are tempted or face trials and battles we may not understand why god allows these things in our lives but we have to trust him because he knows what is best for us. god's word will not send us to where god's hand cannot protect us. If we are going through a battle, know that God knows exactly what is happening and he is working out his plan in this situation. Let us keep these things in mind!
Questions:
1. think of any spiritual battles you have faced lately.
a. do you know what the cause of the battle was?
B. How did you cope with the situation?
c. were you victorious in the battle? with god's help of course, or were you defeated?
d. how do you think you might handle things differently next time?
2. a. Have you found yourself in a situation where you weren't sure what god's will was and what you should do?
B. How do you think you might handle this differently next time?
I pray this study has helped you. Part two of the study will be uploaded soon. Thanks. god bless you.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Spending time with the Lorvr of our Souls, a devotional
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.
[Revelation 3:20]
On the face of it, that sounds like a great verse, it's very encouraging to know that God wants to have a relationship with us and that if only we will let him in he will come and fellowship with us. . When you look at where this verse is placed, however, it puts a slightly different slant on it.
Jesus is writing to the 7 Churches in Asia. Think about that, he is writing to a Church, where you would expect that he would be already in the hearts of at least some of the people and yet he says these words:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.
The trouble with this particular Church was they had become lukewarm. Noone likes lukewarm water do they? Hot water can be useful if you want to make a cup of tea and cold water is good to drink but lukewarm water tastes yucky!
Sometimes we can let things distract us from our relationship with God, worldly pleasures, sin, work, even work for God can distract us. The Ephesian Church, the first Church Jesus dictated a letter to, was a very active and doctrinally pure Church, but they had a problem and Jesus pointed it out to them:
But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].
[Revelation 2:4 AMP]
God has been teaching me something lately. He is more interested in having a relationship with us than in anything we can do for him. Isn't that an awesome thought? some people would be more interested in what we could do than in our own company but God's not like that. He wants us to know him, and that is the best and most important thing we can do even if we won't know him fully until we meet him face to face. Yes we must serve him and do good works but they come secondary to our relationship with God. That has to be our total focus. We shouldn't let anything, not worldly pleasures or sin or even working in the Church or reaching the lost be more important to us than our own personal love relationship with the lover of our souls. Jesus gave us a warning that I think we need to heed:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will
say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then
I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
[Matthew 7:21-23]
That shows me that all the good things we could do don't mean much if we don't have that personal love relationship with our Lord. When our relationship with God is going strong, other things will follow. He will give us work to do and he will help us do that and we will do it to please him and he will be pleased, as long as we don't let our love for him lapse.
So how do we focus on knowing God? Well, if you were in love with someone and they sent you a love letter wouldn't you want to read it? God's letter to us is called the bible. It is the word of God, the living and active word of the one who loves us. If we read his word with an open heart, he will show us things about himself and about ourselves in the pages of this awesome book. God isn't interested in a one-way conversation however, our part is called prayer. Prayer is not just presenting God with a list of things we need or even with things that others need, it is talking to our father and our God. Sometimes when I pray I imagine that Jesus is sitting right beside me and I think about what I would say if he was. Actually though he isn't sitting beside me he is listening to every prayer from you or I with his complete attention. In one of her books, Beth Moore gives us an image that I love, it is of the Father God leaning over the edge of heaven listening attentively to the prayer of his child. god isn't bound by time as we are so he can listen attentively to your prayer and mine though we may offer them at exactly the same moment.
when I pray, I usually start by confessing my sin which is a good idea and I am also reminded of a verse that says:
And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying:
‘By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.’”
So Aaron held his peace.
[Leviticus 10:3 NKJV]
Which teaches me that we need to treat God with reverence and respect as well as with love.
There is another thing that I do. I sit quietly and empty my mind of all thought, which takes practice and sometimes I still fail, and ask the Lord if there is anything he wants to say to me. Sometimes he will speak to me and I treasure those moments. We each have to find the ways of drawing close to God that work for us, some people might take a walk in a quiet place, some people might sing or play an instrument, others might read a devotional, or a good Christian book, whatever it is God makes a promise to us: "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. " [James 4:8a] If we make an effort to draw close to God then he will also draw near to us, isn't that great? I pray that all of us will make time for God today.
Father I pray you will help us all to learn this lesson. Knowing you and loving you is the most important thing of all, so help us to make more time to be in your presence, praying, studying your word and learning to love and know you More. Help us all to understand the importance of this. Bless all who read this I pray. I praise you Lord and thank you that you want us to have a relationship with you. To you belongs all the praise and glory and we honour you. Amen.
[Revelation 3:20]
On the face of it, that sounds like a great verse, it's very encouraging to know that God wants to have a relationship with us and that if only we will let him in he will come and fellowship with us. . When you look at where this verse is placed, however, it puts a slightly different slant on it.
Jesus is writing to the 7 Churches in Asia. Think about that, he is writing to a Church, where you would expect that he would be already in the hearts of at least some of the people and yet he says these words:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.
The trouble with this particular Church was they had become lukewarm. Noone likes lukewarm water do they? Hot water can be useful if you want to make a cup of tea and cold water is good to drink but lukewarm water tastes yucky!
Sometimes we can let things distract us from our relationship with God, worldly pleasures, sin, work, even work for God can distract us. The Ephesian Church, the first Church Jesus dictated a letter to, was a very active and doctrinally pure Church, but they had a problem and Jesus pointed it out to them:
But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].
[Revelation 2:4 AMP]
God has been teaching me something lately. He is more interested in having a relationship with us than in anything we can do for him. Isn't that an awesome thought? some people would be more interested in what we could do than in our own company but God's not like that. He wants us to know him, and that is the best and most important thing we can do even if we won't know him fully until we meet him face to face. Yes we must serve him and do good works but they come secondary to our relationship with God. That has to be our total focus. We shouldn't let anything, not worldly pleasures or sin or even working in the Church or reaching the lost be more important to us than our own personal love relationship with the lover of our souls. Jesus gave us a warning that I think we need to heed:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will
say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then
I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
[Matthew 7:21-23]
That shows me that all the good things we could do don't mean much if we don't have that personal love relationship with our Lord. When our relationship with God is going strong, other things will follow. He will give us work to do and he will help us do that and we will do it to please him and he will be pleased, as long as we don't let our love for him lapse.
So how do we focus on knowing God? Well, if you were in love with someone and they sent you a love letter wouldn't you want to read it? God's letter to us is called the bible. It is the word of God, the living and active word of the one who loves us. If we read his word with an open heart, he will show us things about himself and about ourselves in the pages of this awesome book. God isn't interested in a one-way conversation however, our part is called prayer. Prayer is not just presenting God with a list of things we need or even with things that others need, it is talking to our father and our God. Sometimes when I pray I imagine that Jesus is sitting right beside me and I think about what I would say if he was. Actually though he isn't sitting beside me he is listening to every prayer from you or I with his complete attention. In one of her books, Beth Moore gives us an image that I love, it is of the Father God leaning over the edge of heaven listening attentively to the prayer of his child. god isn't bound by time as we are so he can listen attentively to your prayer and mine though we may offer them at exactly the same moment.
when I pray, I usually start by confessing my sin which is a good idea and I am also reminded of a verse that says:
And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying:
‘By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.’”
So Aaron held his peace.
[Leviticus 10:3 NKJV]
Which teaches me that we need to treat God with reverence and respect as well as with love.
There is another thing that I do. I sit quietly and empty my mind of all thought, which takes practice and sometimes I still fail, and ask the Lord if there is anything he wants to say to me. Sometimes he will speak to me and I treasure those moments. We each have to find the ways of drawing close to God that work for us, some people might take a walk in a quiet place, some people might sing or play an instrument, others might read a devotional, or a good Christian book, whatever it is God makes a promise to us: "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. " [James 4:8a] If we make an effort to draw close to God then he will also draw near to us, isn't that great? I pray that all of us will make time for God today.
Father I pray you will help us all to learn this lesson. Knowing you and loving you is the most important thing of all, so help us to make more time to be in your presence, praying, studying your word and learning to love and know you More. Help us all to understand the importance of this. Bless all who read this I pray. I praise you Lord and thank you that you want us to have a relationship with you. To you belongs all the praise and glory and we honour you. Amen.
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