The Task at Hand

[Jesus] replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven?"
Acts 1:7-11a NLT

We have been deceptively lulled into complacency. We go to work, we eat, we sleep, a little screen time, pay bills, go to church. We may even serve in some capacity, but when was the last time we told someone about Jesus and His Good News?  When was the last time God's light shone so bright within us that people wanted what we have? Matthew 24:14 NKJV reads, [Jesus speaking], And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

What was the last thing He spoke to us while on this planet? And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 

Are we about doing the task at hand or are we standing around staring into Heaven?

Prayer:

Father,

           Please forgive us for not being about Your business. You certainly are about ours - always - and we are SO grateful! Breathe new life and energy into our spirits, set us free from the deception of complacency so we may fulfill The Great Commission as You commanded. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

For a Time

However, he [Yeshua] made a practice of withdrawing to remote places in order to pray.
Luke 5:16 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

Today, I had a fully illustrated sermonette of this Scripture. I chose to go to the office today to catch up on a task that required concentrated time alone - without interruption. Without distractions. Without noise. Without others... A task I have tried to complete in full for 59 days. I haven't been lazy about it. I've just been busy. 

Twice in the last few months, we've packed and unpacked our entire office for a complete remodel. There was much that went into that. Just to give you the gist, we'd been in the building for 15 years. You can accumulate a lot of stuff... But the day-to-day still needed to be done, etc, and on it goes. 

However, today being Saturday of a holiday weekend, no one else was in the office. I went with the express purpose of completing this task that has been such a stressor, always needing to be done. And it was in the quietness of the afternoon that I realized why Jesus withdrew to remote places to pray. Without interruption. Without distractions. Without noise. Without others...  for a time.

Isaiah 30:15 ESV, reads, For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,  Isaiah 55:6-7 NKJV, Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 

Prayer:

Father,

          O, that we would heed all of Your Word! Oftentimes, we are unwilling to be in quietness and trust; please forgive us. We recognize it is only in our time alone with You that our strength is renewed. Only when we purposely put away the distractions - the cares of this world, are we able to find peace and clarity of thought. Help us, Holy Spirit, to stay focused on God's Truths, so we can quickly recognize deceptive distractions. Change our hearts to want more of You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Serve with Gladness

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100:1-5 NKJV

When we stop to think of all the Lord has done for us... Taking our every sin upon Himself. Going to the Cross in our place. Freely paying the price - His death - to redeem us and to purchase our redemption. We have to ask ourselves, Is there any other way to serve the Lord God than with gladness and gratitude?

Prayer:

Father, 

            Thank You for all that we are empowered to do in Your Name and for Your kingdom, and it's all because of You. Keep us ever mindful of that. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Praying with Perseverance

Day 10 of 10 sharing The Christian's Armor devotional by Alistair Begg. Today's devotional is titled Praying with Perseverance.
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Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:18

Almost every Christian finds prayer hard at some time (or most of the time). Why is that?

One of the reasons why we’re tempted to give up on prayer is that we don’t always receive an immediate response from God. In a world that so highly exalts instant gratification, this is a real difficulty. It’s the same issue as in trying to maintain a proper exercise regimen or diet: we want to see results now, today. If our new approach does not quickly show its benefits, most of us are unlikely to persevere.

Our tendency to lack endurance is one reason that Jesus told the parable about the persistent widow, who was relentless in seeking out justice from the judge. Luke makes the editorial comment that Jesus was encouraging his listeners to understand that they “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). In other words, Jesus wants us to pray—and then to keep on praying.

When Paul tells us to “keep alert” and to pray “with all perseverance,” he is echoing Jesus’ words to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He died: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Paul spoke similarly to the Ephesian elders, telling them to “be alert” (Acts 20:31). In a world embroiled in a cosmic spiritual battle, the stakes are too high to give up on prayer.

As we keep coming to God with prayer and supplication, we will all have to learn to be content with trusting that God will answer us in His good timing, and we will all need to remember that Satan would love to persuade us that prayer makes no difference and that God does not listen or act. You may not see an answer to a desperate prayer on this side of eternity. Sometimes persistence may appear to be met with silence. But in due time, God will show you that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises” (2 Peter 3:9). He answers all your prayers exactly when He knows it is right to and in precisely the manner that is always best for you. God is always doing far more than we can ask or even imagine. Sometimes we can glimpse some of His purposes, but sometimes we are asked to live by faith, not by sight.

Are there people or situations that you have given up praying for because you have had no clear and positive response? Remember, you have not had such a response yet. One day, you will see what God was doing in directing matters differently than how you would have chosen. Until that day, you can persevere in prayer, because it is what He commands and because He has promised to work for the good of His people. Why not begin today to pray with perseverance for something you have quit speaking to God about?

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Prayer of All Kinds - Alistair Begg

Promise for Today - Day 9 of 10 sharing The Christian's Armor devotional by Alistair Begg. Today's devotional is titled, Prayer of All Kinds

… Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Ephesians 6:18

Prayer should never become a routine experience any more than it should be a rare occurrence. There is never a circumstance in which we are not called to pray. Scripture shows us that sometimes we cry out to God from the darkness (for instance, Psalm 88); at other times we pour out to God our joyful praise over the resplendent majesty of Christ (for instance, Revelation 5:12-14)—and oftentimes we find ourselves somewhere in between.

In Ephesians 6:18, Paul encourages us to come to God (as the NIV puts it) “with all kinds of prayers and requests.” We do not always need to say everything, but it is wise not always to say the same thing. So, what might it look like in practice to speak to our Father about “all kinds” of things? The acronym ACTS serves as a simple and useful memory aid for remembering different kinds of prayer:

A — Adoration: We can come to God and just revel in His greatness. “Magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Psalm 34:3). There are an infinite number of reasons to praise God, not only or primarily for what He has done but also for who He is. God is perfect in every way, and so God is worthy of our adoration.

C — Confession: We should recognize in prayer that, as Martin Luther said, repentance is not something that should only be triggered by particular instances of sin but rather should be a daily experience: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”[1] “I am a man [or woman] of unclean lips,” we might confess with Isaiah, “and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). God is worthy of our honest confession.

T — Thanksgiving: The real test for our hearts is what we say and pray when there doesn’t appear to be much to be thankful for. Paul exhorts us, “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, emphasis added)—including those we would never have chosen. We are not called to thank Him for all things, but we are to remember that there are always reasons to thank Him, even in the hardest of times.

S — Supplication: It is right to express our needs to our heavenly Father, from whom “every good gift and every perfect gift” comes (James 1:17) and who knows exactly what His children need (Matthew 6:8). We ask, seek, and knock (7:7)—sometimes for big things, sometimes for small ones. Whatever we ask for, God is worthy of our supplication.

Scripture encourages us and guides us to pray in all manner of ways. And when, among all these options, we can’t seem to find the right words, we have no cause for despair. Whatever kinds of prayers and requests we can muster—or can’t—the Spirit of our Lord Jesus always “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). God is eager to hear you. So pray! 

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT

 How is God calling me to think differently?

 How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Our Greatest Motivation to Pray - Alistair Begg

Promise for Today - Day 8 of 10 sharing The Christian's Armor devotional by Alistair Begg. Today's devotional is titled, Our Greatest Motivation to Pray

… Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Ephesians 6:18

The Bible is replete with commands like this, urging us to pray without pause. This might sound like an overwhelming expectation, and we may wonder whether we could ever meet it, or even desire to. But perhaps if we see our need more clearly, we will be motivated to pray more consistently.

Our need for prayer becomes most obvious when we understand that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself believed in the absolute necessity of prayer. At the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, we have this account of Jesus: “Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). Even for the Son of God, prayer was important enough business to attend to early and not to allow the demands of the day to intrude upon.

Jesus knew that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed” (Matthew 16:21). Even so, in the Garden of Gethsemane we overhear Him praying for the cup of God’s wrath to pass from Him if it is His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42). The Son of God clearly knew that He needed to go before His Father. The writer to the Hebrews summarizes it perfectly for us: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7).

Surely it cannot be that prayer was a necessity for Jesus and yet is simply optional for us. If anything, it must be the very reverse! If the Son of God Himself needed to spend time concentrated on prayer to His Father, then how much more does the one who follows after Christ! Prayer is simply too great a privilege for any Christian to ignore and too great a necessity for any of us to neglect. So, ask His Spirit to show you the wonder of prayer and to help you enter into it. When you recognize that there is no end to God’s capacity to help or His willingness to do so, and that there is no moment in which you do not need His help, you will find yourself “praying at all times.”

 QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

The Mystery of Prayer = Alistair Begg

Promise for Today - Day 7 of 10 sharing The Christian's Armor devotional by Alistair Begg. Today's devotional is titled, The Mystery of Prayer.
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Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Ephesians 6:18

If God has already determined what He is going to do, why bother to pray? What possible difference can prayer make? Can we change God’s mind in our prayers? Nearly all of us will have voiced or at least given thought to questions like these. We think like finite creatures, and we naturally project our own perception of reality onto God. Even the Bible regularly personifies God in human categories. But though the Bible itself sometimes portrays God in ways that represent Him with human characteristics—as if He were changeable, for instance (1 Samuel 15:10-11, 35)—the full testimony of Scripture causes us to conclude that God does not change His mind.

James puts it plainly for us: in God “there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). And the Old Testament agrees with the New: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19). When it appears that God changes His mind, then, it is in actual fact circumstances or human behavior that has changed, and God is responding differently than He had done but still entirely consistently with His character. So, if God never changes His mind and yet He repeatedly calls His people to pray, then we are led to this conclusion: in His sovereignty, God has ordained both the ends and the means to those ends, and we will not reach God’s intended ends without His foreordained means. (If that sounds like a mystery, that’s because it is!)

Think of God’s eternal ends as found in Revelation 7:9-10: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Now, is God simply going to bring that innumerable company before His throne, irrespective of anything anyone says or does? No! Otherwise, why would Jesus have said to His followers, “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38)? In God’s plans, the prayers of His people are the means by which He raises up servants who herald His word. And men and women receiving the word of God from those heralds (Romans 10:17) are the God-appointed means for fulfilling His purpose from all eternity: to have a people that are His very own.

Ultimately, how the sovereign God uses the prayers of His people in His plans remains a mystery. We won’t have all the answers to all our questions about prayer, at least not for now. And that’s okay because we can be confident that God ordains means such as prayer for His eternal purposes. And knowing that is enough to bring us to our knees so that we might enjoy the privilege of knowing in all eternity that our prayers were used as part of His sovereign purposes to save His people.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT

 
How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?