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Walking in the light

January 9, 2012 in Fellowship, Prayer, sin with 0 Comments

The First Letter of John

1 John 1:5-10 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

One of the things that can most negatively affect our relationship with God and with other people is unconfessed sin.  If we hold onto the idea that we’ve done nothing wrong when in reality we’ve offended God with our thoughts and actions, we’re putting a barrier between Him and ourselves.  The same is true when we act as though we’ve not wronged others.  We can’t have true fellowship when we’re walking in a lie.

But if we confess our sins to the Lord, He’s not standing by waiting to strike us down with lightning; He’s ready to forgive us and to cleanse us.  When we’ve been cleansed by God, we’re then enabled to walk in the light.  If we have fellowship with God, we can’t be in the darkness, so it’s also fair to say that if we’re walking in darkness we’re not in fellowship with God.

Where are you right now? Are you walking in the light?  Are your relationships reflective of God’s work in you?  Or are you in broken relationships with other people and a broken fellowship with God?  The good news is that at any time we can turn to Him and admit our sins.  He’ll wash us clean with the blood of Christ, just like He took a big eraser and wiped out all of our wrongdoing to give us a fresh start.  He wants to do that for us.  The Good News is for believers too.

How to give thanks

November 24, 2011 in Prayer, Thanksgiving with 0 Comments

Thanksgiving

Ephesians 5:20  giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

How should we give thanks to a God that gives us far more than we can imagine to ask for?  How can we ever give Him thanks for all He’s done and all He is?  Well, we never can.  But the point isn’t to make things up to God with our gratitude.  The point is that we should be grateful for everything and at all times.

We give thanks by praising Him.  Just telling Him, literally, thank you for what you’ve given me, for what you’ve done, and for who you are.  Express in words your thankfulness.

We give thanks by responding.  God has done so much for us all, we can show Him we’re thankful by carrying out what He’s called us to do.  We can show Him we’re grateful for what we have by sharing it with others, by taking care of what we’ve been given, and by being content.

We give thanks by trusting.  When we’re in hard times and it seems as though God has forgotten about us, we can be thankful to Him for what He’s done in the past by trusting Him with the present.  Sometimes just praying, knowing that God has provided in the past, and believing that He can do it again, is a great way to thank Him.

Why to give thanks…II

November 23, 2011 in Prayer, Thanksgiving with 0 Comments

Thanksgiving

1 Chronicles 29:12-13  Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

Not only should we give thanks to God for who He is, but we should be ever so grateful for all that He’s done.  He’s able to do far more than we can even imagine, and He even sometimes responds to prayer better than we thought He would.  Not only is He good, but He provides.

All of the good we have in our lives is from the Lord.  We owe Him our thanks because nothing we have here is our own.  It’s all His and He allows us to be temporary caregivers to His things.  He provides our physical needs, but think of all the other wonderful blessings He gives that have nothing to do with “things” at all.  The intangible blessings are usually the most satisfying.

Imagine, the Lord of all things created, in heaven and on earth, giving up His Son for the sake of mankind, that we might be reconciled to Him.  Even if He never gave us another single thing in this life, that’s a sufficient reason to give praise and thanks for the rest of eternity.  We give thanks because of who His is, and because of what He’s done.

When to give thanks

November 21, 2011 in Prayer, Thanksgiving with 0 Comments

Thanksgiving

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

There’s never a bad time to give thanks to God.  In America we set aside a specific day to celebrate what God has done, calling it Thanksgiving, but if it’s the only day of the year that we’re grateful to our Lord, then we’re suffering from a lack of humility.

Whether we’re in good times of prosperity or bad times of suffering and need, we can be thankful because God is good.  If we’re lacking something right now it’s not because God is unaware of our need; it’s rather because He has a purpose and we get to be a part of it.  He will provide as only He can and we should thank Him everyday for doing so.

The difference between thanksgiving and praise is the purpose behind it.  Thanks is given for what God has done, but praise is given for who He is, even when we don’t feel He’s done anything lately.  Praise isn’t a response to God’s provision, but a celebration of all that He is and all that we know He can do.  Thanksgiving and praise go hand-in-hand and they ought to be on our lips constantly, whether we’re currently receiving blessings or not.

 

Pray like Jesus

September 23, 2011 in Discipleship, Prayer with 0 Comments

A disciple

Matthew 26:39  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ”My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

A genuine disciple of Jesus Christ follows His example and walks as closely to Him as possible.  When praying, the disciple prays as Jesus would.  But how did Jesus pray?  What does our example to follow look like?

We all know the Lord’s Prayer, when Jesus taught the apostles how to pray, but when Jesus was alone His prayers looked different from those famous lines.  When He prayed to the Father, His heartfelt desires were lifted up to heaven.  But notice that He doesn’t stop at asking.  Jesus, having been sent by the Father to do His perfect will, knew that the Father’s purpose was more important that His own desires.  Can we pray like Jesus prayed?

In His greatest hour of pain, during betrayal, fear, and impending death, Jesus was able to put aside His own wishes for those of the Father.  Did Jesus really desire for the pain and suffering of the cross to be taken out of the plan?  Was He really praying that the very mission for which He had come to earth would be aborted?  Or was He showing us how to pray in great times of sorrow?  Was He modeling for us what it’s like to give up our own will in submission to the Father’s?  This is what it looks like.  This is our daily calling as disciples – to give up our own will in exchange for the perfect will of God.

Prayer as a means to fellowship

September 1, 2011 in Fellowship, Prayer with 0 Comments

Fellowship

John 16:24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

How do we connect with God?  We hear from Him in the Bible, learn who He is and what His will is, and gain fellowship with Him.  But what about our side of the conversation?  How does God hear from us?

Prayer is our way of speaking to the Lord and a big part of fellowship with Him.  We mainly pray in one of several fashions.  Confession is where we own up to our sins before God and receive the forgiveness He’s given in Christ.  Petition is the time to ask for our needs to be met (“Give us this day our daily bread”), while intercession is asking for the needs of others to be met.  Thanksgiving and praise are vital to fellowship as well.  Giving thanks to God for all He’s done puts our hearts in a humble place where we’re more capable of experiencing Him and praising Him.

Without prayer, fellowship with God falters because we can’t even carry on a human relationship without speaking to the other person, let alone a close relationship with the Creator of all things.  We wants our attention, our time, our devotion.  Talking the time to speak to God serves a key role in our spiritual well-being.

The High Priestly prayer

April 15, 2011 in Easter, Prayer with 0 Comments

Passage:  John 17:1-26

Key verse:  John 17:1:24  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Before the world was created, Jesus was.  Before time began, Jesus was.  And then, the Eternal One who holds all things in balance did something extraordinary – He stepped into time and took on human flesh.  He gave up all the glory of heaven so that we could know God.  He gave up many of His rights as God, but one thing He did not give up – His love for us.

While on this earth, Jesus loved His own just as He loved them in heaven.  In His last hours, He prayed a beautiful prayer, first for His close followers and then for you and me.  He knew He was betrayed, He knew He would die, and He knew that you and I would sin against Him.  But He prayed a high priestly prayer for our joy in Him, our unity in Him, our sanctification in Him.

Then Jesus gave us an idea of what salvation is all about.  He died that we might be where He is, that we may see His glory and therefore glorify the Father.  This was the plan before time began.  He’s always loved us, before we even existed.  And though we have sinned against Him, He chose to die in our place, taking our sins onto Himself, so that we can experience eternal life with Him.  Oh what love He has for us.

Ask, seek, knock

March 4, 2011 in Prayer with 0 Comments

Luke 11:9-10  And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

After Jesus had taught His disciples how they should pray (v.2-4), and that they should pray with perseverance (v.5-8), He tells them that if they ask of God they will receive.

If our earthly fathers know how to give us good things, how much more does our heavenly Father know exactly what we need and how to give it to us?  We never have to worry when we pray because the Lord is good and He is capable of providing anything and everything.

Luke’s account of this story does not say that God will give “good things” like Matthew’s (Matthew 7:7-11), but rather that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.  What better gift could we ever receive from God but the gift of Himself?  He is more than we could ever imagine or think to ask for.

The Lord loves to bless His people.  He wants us to ask for all that He has in store for us.  In the end, it brings Him glory.

———-  Reflecting on what you’ve learned about prayer, what can you do differently in your approach to God?

He hears us

March 3, 2011 in Prayer with 0 Comments

1 John 5:14-15  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.

Joshua prayed with confidence because he knew that God would hear his prayers.  God had told him earlier that He was on Joshua’s side.  The apostle John also knew the value of approaching God in prayer with confidence.

If we know that He hears us, we know He’ll grant us all that we ask accordingly with His will.  To pray according to His will though, we must be daily in His Word, seeking Him.  When we’re in close communion with our heavenly Father, we’ll know what we can ask for and expect to be heard.  With that, we can ask with confidence.

Knowing that our Father loves us and cares for us makes a world of difference as we approach Him.  Thankful hearts, knowing that He hears us, make it all the more likely that we’ll ask according to His will.

———-  What are you asking God for right now?

 

Find Strength

March 2, 2011 in Prayer with 1 Comment

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

No matter where you find yourself, you’re not too far away for God to find you.  No matter what your circumstances, He can walk you through.  He is good, and you can trust Him in good times and bad times.

As followers of Christ, we would benefit from following the example of Paul, learning how to be content in all situations.  A heart that’s truly fixed on God will not let events determine faith.  Focus on the nature of God and know that no matter what, no matter how good or how bad, you can trust Him.

You can do all things through Him who strengthens you.  Pray in all things and rely on Him to provide.  He is more than able to be your everything.

———-  Where are you trying to find your strength?  Is it in God or in the things of this world that don’t live up to their promises?

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