The Everyday Prayer

It is a strange yet familiar story.  (Judges 4 and 5–this week’s FBC- read-every-day-for-God’s-blessing passage)  The people of God are in trouble because of sin.  In the presence of sin, His protection is removed.  The nation of Israel is conquered.  They cry out to God. (4:3)   Good move!  God responds to prayer by sending leaders ( first Deborah and then Barak) and by giving the people a heart to cooperate/volunteer.  Leadership and willing spirits are both gifts from God and answers to prayer.  Both are reasons for us to bless His name. (5:2)  Hmmmm. . .I wonder what troubles we are presently facing (in our nation, church, families and souls) that could be addressed and corrected by God-provided leadership and God-inspired followship.  “That the leaders led in Israel and the people volunteered, Bless the Lord!” (Judges 5:2)  May the Lord inspire us today as we cry out to Him in prayer.  I am praying with you and for you.  Pastor Don

In 1 Corinthians 14:15 Paul says “I will pray with my mind.” (sometimes translated “understanding”)  He says that the power of prayer is linked to our thoughts.  Prayer is not magic, words that have power apart from our understanding.  When the Lord taught his disciples to pray, He was shaping their thoughts.  Christians  are to think what Jesus thought, feel what Jesus felt.  When we speak of sins we should feel the tragedy.  When we speak of heaven we should feel the comfort. (John Piper)  Submission is required.  In order to think like the Lord, we must renounce our previous ideas.  To understand we must stand under the truth as God reveals it.  This week as we pray the Lord’s prayer, let us surrender to the truth he reveals to us about Himself, Heaven, History and the Human Race.  Are we teachable?  “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:7)

“For their sakes, I sanctify myself” (John 17:19)  Good morning, dear friends.  In a few hours we will gather for worship at FBCSA.  On this Father’s Day it will be our privilege to read/reflect on Joshua’s words “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”. (Joshua 24:15)  We will also consider his first words “Joshua said. . .’thus says the Lord’ “.  Amazing!  It is a great gift when a leader (Dad) prepares his heart so as to speak the word of the Lord to his family.  Not his own opinions.  Not his preferences. His words become, “the discipline and the admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4)  Gentlemen, will you consider the impact your relationship with God has on your family?  When we spend time with Christ in prayer, our words have authenticity and power.  Speaking with our Father prepares us to speak with our children. What great responsibility! He will help us.  I will see you in a few hours.

Do we see God’s GLORY?  When we pray, “for Thine is the GLORY” are these just words?  Tomorrow (Sunday) the First Baptist Family will gather around Joshua 24.  It is the farewell address of Joshua and largely consists of a retelling of God’s acts of mercy toward Israel.  In verses 2-13 Joshua tells God’s story, God’s accomplishments, God’s GLORY.  As I read I was convicted that my own heart is often unmoved by such a story.  As Henry Blackaby says, I do not “see what God is doing” or care too.  I fear it is because it is not about ME.  What sad evidence of my sinful heart!  As we move toward Sunday I will continue to reflect on this disturbing question.  Do we see God’s GLORY?  Do we care to?

When we say OUR Father, prayer stops being private.  Every morning as we pray, the Lord intends us to invite others into our prayer closet.  They join us.  They are in our minds as we speak with Him.  God so loved the WORLD.  Our prayers are to reflect the same love.  We are to have a “list of 10” people for whom we are praying salvation.  We are to think of our “enemies”, the people to whom we offer forgiveness even as we seek it for ourselves.  Hungry people should be there with us and people who need God’s guidance. Our church should be there.  Our nation too.  It’s a convention!  If saying FATHER is the end of fear and saying HEAVEN is the end of despair, saying OUR is the end of selfishness.  May the Lord open our hearts to a wide world of need.  May He teach us to love.  May He teach us to pray.

After we say “Father” Jesus teaches us to say “Heaven”.  He insists that we think about the place of God’s power and perfection and presence.    Father makes everything personal.  Heaven makes everything possible.  Isaiah “saw the Lord, high and lifted up”(Isaiah 6).  We are to do the same through the eyes of faith.  One of the worst side effects of sin is cynicism–a deep distrust that victory or purity or joy is even possible.  While faith doesn’t deny injustice or pain, it does deny that these are normal or permanent to those who belong to God.  Looking at Heaven is to remind us of the goodness and power of the God who reigns there.  It is to remind us of the beauty and order at the center of the universe.  To pray, “Our Father which art in Heaven” should be the everyday end of despair.  Theology is psychology.  What we believe should impact how we think and what we feel.

No one is suprised that Jesus called God “Father”.  Born of a virgin, conscious early of His relationship, it was logical.  The suprise is that He told us to do the same.  Like the prodigal son,(Luke 15) most of us have lost hope long ago that we belong to God in any meaningful way.  Our sins have been too real.  Our hearts still unreliable.  Our best thought is that we could return home and be a “slave”, a second-class citizen.   A son?  No way!  But God’s “Fatherhood” is a statement of His character not ours.  He is Father because He is the source of life.  He is Father because He is the savior of sinners. “God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one may not be cast out” (2 Samuel 14:14).  Today as you pray, don’t think about you.  Think about Him.  By faith, say “Father”.

True prayer is a circle.  It starts in heaven (Our Father, Thy kingdom, Thy will), descends to earth (give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us), and then rises back to heaven to rest at the throne (for Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory).  The last sentence is the permanent form of our fellowship.  A day will come when we no longer need to ask for bread or protection.  So the day when we need not ask for His kingdom to come.  There will never be a day, however, when we will not gladly shout, “blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.”  (Revelation 5:13)  Those who start with trust, end with joy.  Every day’s prayer is a picture of life and where it is going.  It ends at a glorious throne.

Yesterday at the close of the worship service, a woman I had never seen came to me and said, “You seem burdened for this church.  I am going to pray for you.  Maybe the Lord will do something.”  I know what she mean’t.  She, was trying not to presume on the Lord.  I also know that had we been in a spiritually revived service that she would have spoken with more boldness.  He will answer! (her confident heart would have proclaimed)  The end of the Lord’s prayer gives us a reminder of our confidence.  “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory”.  The ground of our confidence is the very character of God.  Nothing we ask is too difficult for Him.  Our confidence digs deep down to the rock. The kingdom is His, the power is His, the glory is His.  At the close of every prayer let us remember to whom we have spoken.   He is all the assurance we need.

It is a great gift when we are convicted of sin.  It is God’s love when we become conscious of the damage we have done to ourselves and to others by our deeds.  It is a painful but necessary moment.  Having found forgiveness, part of His gift is a holy horror of ever going back, a Spirit-given caution towards temptation. Sampson was arrogant with his powers. He did not fear temptation.   He trifled with sin and the Holy Spirit left him. (Judges 16)  We should fear lest this ever be said of us.  Having known the power of God, we forfeit it by drifting back into sin.  All of us will face temptation.  All of us will be tested, but we should never choose it!  We should move toward temptation only when it is the will of God for the battle to finally be faced.  Then it will be an opportunity for victory, not for failure.