Learning to Pray

 Did you know that prayer is a taught discipline?

Luke 11:1

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

For some of us, prayer comes easy. For me, God has taught me to pray through the sorrows and struggles of my life. I cannot make it one hour without praying. 

But for others, prayer can be a struggle. The answer is simply to ask Jesus to teach you to pray.

Funny thing is, in order to ask Jesus to teach you to pray, you have to pray. So, start there. Pray that Jesus would teach you to pray. 

But anyone who ever took lessons to play an instrument or to hit a baseball or whatever, you know you have to practice to get better at what you are learning. 

So, pray. Pray about everything. Soon you will find yourself being completely dependent upon Jesus. Soon you will understand how it is possible to live out 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (which commands us to "pray without ceasing."

This will change everything.

There Are No Maverick Molecules

The world we live in continues to look as if it’s spinning out of control. War, inflation, crime, disease, and a wealth of other issues weigh heavily upon people. It even seems we have returned to a world where nuclear annihilation is once again a real possibility. People are anxious and fearful. 

Brothers and sisters of the Christian faith, this is not our calling. We are called to a life of faith that results in peace and contentment in the midst of the turmoil. Scripture is filled with statements such as do not be afraid or anxious. 

How is that possible you ask? 

The answer is simple; it is found in scripture. If you want to live a life free of worry and anxiety, you must learn who God is. You must understand His attributes. One key element of God you must understand, is that He is sovereign. This theological truth is stamped all over scripture. As you read the stories in scripture, start looking for who God is. The Bible is His revelation to you. In it you will learn about God and find out who He is and what he is like.

The sovereignty of God is clear but most of you have fallen into the trap of Satan, whose job is to deceive you. He does that by twisting the truth. He has many of you convinced that man is in control of the world. He is not and the Bible is clear about that. 

This morning I began the Book of Ezra. In the very beginning of Ezra, we see God moving the spirits of men to accomplish His will. 

Ezra 1:1-2 

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Cyrus was not a believer in God. He had no care about God’s house. He was in charge of those Jews being held in captivity in Babylon. But see what God does?

“…the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.” God moved the king of Persia to do His bidding. Even Cyrus understood who puts all authority in place.  “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.”

Stop reading your Bibles as if it were an assignment from your 8th grade literature teacher. Read it and meet God there. Start looking for Him in every story and what you will see, is that God is running the world. And if God is running it, then let Him and simply trust Him in it. 

Just a few sentences later we again see God moves the hearts of people. 

Ezra 1:5 

Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.

“Everyone whose spirit God had stirred.”

RC Sproul said this when teaching on God’s sovereignty. 

“I like to explain it this way: if there is one molecule in the universe running loose, outside of the control of God’s sovereignty, what I like to call “one maverick molecule,” then the practical implication for us as Christians is that we have no guarantee whatsoever that any future promise God has made to His people will come to pass.”

But there are no maverick molecules. Not one. Sproul goes on and adds this, “If we have one maverick molecule running loose out there, we have no assurance whatsoever that this single molecule may not be the grain of sand in the machinery of God’s eternal plan. It may be the thing that runs amuck and makes it impossible, ultimately, for Christ to return to this planet. It may be the thing that destroys any hope for the consummation of the kingdom of God, leaving all those promises of God unfulfilled. There are no maverick molecules in a universe where God is sovereign.”

God is sovereign. Open up you Bible and start learning who God is and you will find that God is in charge and nothing falls out of His sovereign hand. If He is God, then He has the power to stop everything that happens. If He doesn’t stop something, then it means He allows it. If He, in His infinite wisdom allows it, who are we to question it?

We don’t have to fear anything except Him, if we reject Him. We have no cause to worry or be anxious. This is the key to faith, believing who God is. And the Bible tells us who He is. 

Be A Doer of the Law

Today’s command from Paul finds itself imbedded within this passage.

Romans 2:12-13 

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

I want to reemphasize this point again and again. We are not saved by following God’s law. We are saved by grace and grace alone. That is the truth of the Gospel. But as Paul states here, that does not mean the law has no importance in our salvation. 

To be justified is to be saved. And Paul directly states that “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

If this seems confusing or contradictory, it is not. In order to fully understand scripture, you must interpret it by scripture. We must fall back to the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Then look at Hebrews 10:15-16

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds…”

That verse is a quote from Jeremiah 31:33 

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jesus fulfilled the law by writing it on our hearts. And what Paul is saying is that we are to obey the law God has placed within our hearts. We are to obey this law in our hearts because God, in His mercy, has sent Jesus to die on the cross for every single sin we have or we will commit. 

Has your heart been changed my friends? If it has, then your attitude about violating the laws of God, is different. This is what repentance is. A change of heart. 

Paul goes on to say this in the rest of this passage from Romans 2:14-16, 

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

My prayer for each of us today, is that we humble ourselves to the commands of God and let the Holy Spirit, who lives in the heart of all believers, lead us to a righteous life that brings glory to God by showing that the work of the law is written on our hearts.