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.

The Importance of God's Word

This is the verse my morning meditation was on.

Deuteronomy 17:18-20 

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

In its historical context, it is God speaking through Moses in respect to the king God will choose to rule over them. But certainly, we have a spiritual application that speaks to us today.

First, we would be much better off, if we elected men who put God’s Word up as the standard by which they would govern. Realistically though, this is not a Christian nation and that probably isn’t going to happen. Yet, when Christians vote, we must look to this principle when we elect leaders.

There is a second principle that is more personal for us. It is the principle of reading God’s word. Why do we need to read, study, and prioritize God’s word? Let Moses answer that.

“That [you] may learn to fear the LORD [your] God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that [your] heart may not be lifted up above [your] brothers, and that [you] may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that [your] may continue long in [your life], [you] and [your] children.”

God has given us the way to do life. We have a map. It is called the Bible. We cannot know God’s Will unless we listen to Him. And He speaks. He speaks through His Word. 

Colossians 3:16 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The Commands of God - Live by Faith

Today I begin a new journey, or at least, a different path to the same place. Over the last several months I walked through the Gospels with the goal of pulling out the things Jesus commanded us to do as He walked the earth in the years of His incarnation. The overall object of this journey is to find out what it is God commands us to do. For Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I want to love Jesus. To do that, I must know what he asks of me. 

The writers of scripture wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When they speak in the Bible, it is God speaking. Today we begin in the Book of Romans.

Paul doesn’t waste much time in giving us the first commandment of this letter to the Romans.

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The righteous shall live by faith. 

This is not an option. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists…”

Faith means believing without seeing. It means trusting in God and in His plan, without necessarily understanding it. It means when things happen that we do not like, or that bring suffering and pain, we do not fall apart. We don’t get mad at God. We don’t give up. No, we walk in faith, trusting that the Word of God is true. Believing that Romans 8:28 is true; And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.

The righteous shall live by faith. May we live this out each and every day.

Looking Upon Jesus

This morning in my time with God, He spoke to me through this passage.

Numbers 21:4-9 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

There is so much packed in here for us to take away, as we read this story.

First, notice how so often we behave like Israel did. Like them, we have been given God’s Word, He has promised us all things we need to survive our journey through this life. Yet, we expect God to make things easy and we, too, get impatient with Him as we wait on Him to fulfill all our prayers. I’m not sure we really grasp how often we complain against Him. Or how often we simply do not do things as He calls us to. 

Then notice God’s response to their disobedience and their lack of faith. That’s what it is by the way; a lack of faith. We lack the faith to trust in God and in the way upon which He calls us to walk. God, being our Father, then brings discipline to us, just as we see here in God’s having brought fiery serpents. Our discipline may not come in that form, but just maybe things like a virus, might possibly be God moving in discipline. 

Then notice the people’s response, because it needs to be our response. The people come to Moses in confession and repentance and Moses prays for God to respond to their recognition of their sin. 

God responds by providing them a way to live, even in the midst of the judgment of their sin. 

This is a beautiful picture of Jesus. We celebrate Christmas because in response to our sin and its cost of judgment through death, if we will do as they were called to, and look to Jesus, when we see Him, we will live. The bronze serpent was a picture of Christ. 

Every time we sin against God, we can look to Jesus, at His death and resurrection by which He paid the cost of our sin, and by faith in Him, we can live. 

Let us look upon Jesus and live.

Giving Thanks

It's really easy to preach things the Bible says and since as far as I know, almost all of my friends here on Facebook lay claim to being Christian. that's what I try and do. I'm going to throw a scripture out this morning that I know is really hard to do, especially when circumstances are not what we hope for. 

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I am struggling this morning to do this and I bet many of you are as well. But the Bible is clear; this is God's will for us.

We cannot say we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and then choose to not seek His will in our lives.

So, today I am going to be thankful. Truth is, I have way more to be thankful for than I can even remember. 

Yet, I know this is hard. I keep a prayer journal and when any of you express prayer needs or sometimes I just see them in your lives, I write them down and try most days to lift them up to our God. This morning as I prayed it became clear, my problems are small and not all that bad compared to the many difficult trials many of you are in right now. Yet, the same call is upon you. be thankful in those circumstances. This is God's will for you.

It has been oft said that there is no safer place, no better place than to be in God's will. So, I encourage each of you, take a few moments to thank God for where He has you today.

How can you do that? 

By faith in him. Don't just believe in Him, believe Him. Open up your Bible and you will see that He is sovereign over all things, even your situation. He i working in them. Hos Word says that, "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 

It says even if we don't know what to pray the Spirit does. 

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. Romans 8:26-27 

Psalms 34:17-22 tells us this,

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.Many are the afflictions of the righteous,but the LORD delivers him out of them all.He keeps all his bones;not one of them is broken.Affliction will slay the wicked,and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.The LORD redeems the life of his servants;none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Whatever you face today and tomorrow, God knows, He is working in it and in the right time He will deliver you out of it. 

This might not happen today. Or tomorrow. But we can know for sure that He will deliver us from all this mess and there will come a day when He will wipe away our tears and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

We must live by faith, not by sight. 

This is how we give thanks in all circumstances. 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.            Proverbs 3:5-6