Necessity of prayer

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I understand the concept of war, even spiritual warfare, but I can say that I have truly missed understood why war matters. When Joshua went to war against the people of Canaan, the people experienced and learned that real power was not in the multitude or in the bravery or in the skill of its fighting men. It was solely in the might of God. The tapping into that might, and the possession of that power only took place when they were faithful to Him. Once Joshua left the scene, here is what they faced.

So then, the Lord left some nations in the land to test the Israelites who had not been through the wars in Canaan. He did this only in order to teach each generation of Israelites about war, especially those who had never been in battle before. They were to be a test for Israel, to find out whether or not the Israelites would obey the commands that the Lord had given their ancestors through Moses. – Judges 3:1-2,4  GNT

There was a generation that did not understand war and the only way for them to understand it was for them to experience it. Necessity teaches me to pray. There was distress in the land with these foreign nations still living among them and God used that in order to bring them back to focussing on Him. If anyone is going to learn to war then at the same time they would be learning to keep the commandments of God. Both were necessary. Blessings come when I listen to the voice of the Lord. Conflicts come to purify my soul and to ensure the kingdom of God is shared and is growing here on earth.

We have three needs – the need for wisdom to know our own hearts and Savior Christ better… the need for watchfulness to even die rather than yield one step to sin… and the need to be ever at war. Not to acknowledge this is the height of madness. We are to be killing sin or sin will be killing us. Owen offers his readers the big picture – he was not merely interested in seeing the believer abstain from a particular sin (or sins); for him, the whole goal of the Christian life was one of Christlikeness, which is only possible by intimately knowing Christ as He is revealed in the gospel.

To mortify a sin is not to utterly kill, root it out, and destroy it, that it should have no more hold at all nor residence in our hearts. It is true this is that which is aimed at, but this is not (in this life) to be accomplished. There is no man that truly sets himself to mortify any sin, but he aims at, intends, desires its utter destruction, that it should leave neither root nor fruit in the heart or life. He would so kill it that it should never move nor stir any more, cry or call, seduce or tempt, to eternity. Its complete eradication is the thing aimed at. Though there may be a wonderful success and eminency of victory against any particular sin, so that a man may have almost constant triumph over it, yet an utter killing and destruct- tion of it, that it should no longer exist, is not a possible condition in this life – as such, we are to “fight to the end!” This Paul assures us of: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect” (Phil 3:12). He was a choice saint, a pattern  for believers in faith and love and all the fruits of the Spirit, yet he had not “attained,” nor was he “perfect” (v. 15), but was “following after” – he still had a vile body like we have, that will be fully changed by the great power of Christ on the last day (v. 21). – John Owen

 

Pattern of prayer that God will hear

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Charles Spurgeon preached a wonderful sermon on Judges 1:12-15 titled, Aschsah’s Asking, A Pattern of Prayer. Spurgeon showed how the request from a daughter (Aschsah) to a father (Caleb) gives us a “parable of prayer.”

 One of them, called Caleb, said, “I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who succeeds in capturing Kiriath Sepher.” Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz, captured the city, so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage. On the wedding day Othniel urged her[a] to ask her father for a field. She got down from her donkey, and Caleb asked her what she wanted. She answered, “I want some water holes. The land you have given me is in the dry country.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs. – Judges 1:12-15  GNT

She thought about what she wanted before she asked and was very definitive with her ask.

“Think what you are going to ask before you begin to pray, and then pray like business men. This woman does not say to her father, ‘Father, listen to me,’ and then utter some pretty little oration about nothing; but she knows what she is going to ask for, and why she is going to ask it.” – Spurgeon

She also asked for help when it came to her request.

“A friend, some time ago, said to me, ‘My dear pastor, whenever I cannot pray for myself, and there are times when I feel shut up about myself, I always take to praying for you: ‘God bless him, at any rate!’ and I have not long been praying for you before I begin to feel able to pray for myself.’ I should like to come in for many of those odd bits of prayer. Whenever any of you get stuck in the mud, do pray for me. It will do you good, and I shall get a blessing.” – Spurgeon

She was confident because it was her father that she was asking.

She went humbly, yet eagerly.

It was encouraging to her to have her father ask her what she wanted. God asks that too when we engage with him. That is why it is good to know what we want.

Asking is important – I would say it is one of God’s pleasures to hear me ask.

She simply came forward and she simply asked for a blessing.

There was an acknowledgement of gratitude for what was already given and that thankfulness was mingled with the ask.

So there was the past blessing which set up the openness to request more and she knew she needed more.

“What is the use of the hearers if there be not the power of the Holy Spirit going with the Word to bless them? Give me springs of water.” – Spurgeon

Obviously this is a great example because she received what she asked for and I believe she received more than what she asked for.

What I love most is that her father in no way offered criticism of her request and did not take it lightly in any way.

While Aschsah had her husband to walk with her during the ask, Jeremiah was stopped for doing the same thing for the people of Israel.

The Lord said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people. Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.” – Jeremiah 14:11-12  GNT

This is not the first time that Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the people. They may know the motions needed to look like they care about God but He knew how hard their hearts were and decided not to hear them. 

“O, how dreadful is the state of that people in reference to whom the Lord says to his ministers, Pray not for them; or, what amounts nearly to a prohibition, withholds from his ministers the spirit of prayer and intercession in behalf of the people!” – Clarke

The only way I believe God would hear their prayer would be if they all came together to repent, and to call upon His name.

“We begin by admitting the sin for what it is, but then secondly, we forsake it, rejecting and repudiating it. This is to adopt a right attitude towards both God and the sin itself.” John Stott

 

 

With no set prayer time, I will crowd it out of my life

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It could be very easy for me to crowd prayer out of my life and I would suffer as much as those I see do it every day. I did see prayer missing the same passion in Church life as activities, programs and service but am happy to say that has definitely been changing.

We ourselves, then, will give our full time to prayer and the work of preaching. – Acts 6:4  GNT

I have pointed out, in recent posts, two other times God telling Jeremiah not to pray on behalf of the people of Israel. I ran across this and the context took my by surprise as I applied it to my story of today.

Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out of my sight. – Jeremiah 15:1  GNT

How many times do we run to super Christians for prayer, especially when it comes to healing? Here God is calling out two super followers and saying that even their prayers could not save the people. God had decided what He had decided.

“Those two were famous in their generations for hearty love to, and prayers for, that rebellious people, and did much for them.” – Trapp

On a more encouraging note for Jeremiah, God was not saying that he was not a man of faith or prayer, for even if Moses and Samuel were to be present and pray, their prayers would not be more effective than his.

Do you want to read how Jeremiah prayed – it was quite heartfelt, contrite and God-honouring intercession (Jeremiah 14:19-22). There was no reason for God not to relent but God’s answer never changed. Sometimes I think, as I am praying, that if I pray a certain way, if I bring the most broken and God centred prayer, truly genuine and transparent, that God will give me the answer I hope for. Not so.

Here is what Jesus did and what I continually need to do.

Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of town to a lonely place, where he prayed. – Mark 1:35  GNT

Jesus’ public ministry was sustained by private prayer. Jesus needed to pray. Why does He need to pray? I believe that Jesus valued the relationship with His Father more than anything else. He delighted in talking with Him. They enjoyed conversing and being with each other. I believe that prayer was joy for Jesus. I believe that He prayed because He loved being in relationship.

I am challenged to keep creating a lifestyle of prayer. It is not something I do now and then.  There is something about having a set time to pray – like making an appointment with God that repeats every day. I believe that it could very well be in a certain place that this appointment is kept.

“This is all in Martin Luther’s first Wittenberg thesis. If we knew we are loved and accepted in spite of our sins,that makes it far easier to admit our flaws and faults. It gives us the deep spiritual and psychological security necessary to be quick to admit when we have been wrong. This softens almost all conflicts, since getting admissions of wrong is no longer like pulling teeth. This simplifies many personal problems, because when we have taken a wrong course of action, we are more readily able to see it and turn back. Most of all, we can more immediately and more often go to God with our sins, confess them, remember Jesus’ sacrificial death, and relive in miniature the joy of our salvation. While there always is some bitterness and grief in repentance, deepre realizations of sin liead to greater assurances of his grace. The more we know we are forgiven, the more we repent; the faster we grow and change, the deeper our humility and our joy.”  – Timothy Keller

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiring prayers are answered

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Acts 4:24-30 contains one of the most inspiring prayers in Scripture. The believers were living in dangerous circumstances. Peter and John had just been arrested after the healing of a crippled man.

When they prayed for boldness they knew what they were praying for. The mission the Lord had given them had not changed, and neither had the source of their power. The prayer recorded in this passage is marvelous in its simplicity and its comprehension of the Person and purposes of God.

Compare that to a person, maybe the one who knows about God but chooses each and every day to ignore Him.

He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor’s wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure? – Jeremiah 13:27  GNT

One thing is noted in both these cases – without God is is impossible to believe in the impossible. Can I be made pure? Though difficult, it is not impossible. When could I say that something is impossible? When my obstinate refusal of God’s grace renders it impossible. I cannot change myself, I need to come before God and pray for Him to do it and I do that through Jesus Christ. If I can pray and believe what I am praying, God’s power is available to me. If I do not, I will not survive.

Think about Jesus’ own words.

At about three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me? – Matthew 27:46  GNT

That was a difficult moment. I know that as a teenager I asked the question – where was God? I know now that He was in the same place He was yesterday, today and forever. My immediate response is – God show up now and deliver me now. In my spirit I know He will show up in His time. I have learned that when God is quiet, He is up to something. I am inspired to pray, which is an expression of my trust in God, and then wait for an answer. The answer will not be what I think it will be so I best be on the lookout and careful not to miss it.

Other inspiring prayers include Hezekiah who was so sick he was going to die. God called it out and told him so. He did not freak out and start to swear and curse God, he did not complain, pout, beg or go into a depression, and he did not feel that God was picking on him. What he did do was turn to God in prayer, remind Him that he had been serving Him since he was a young. He turned his face towards the wall and started praying.

As a result he was given another 15 years of life. Such was the strength of his prayer in the face of adversity and such was the importance of having a relationship with God where He can be trusted and who would come when needed.

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. – Martin Luther

 

Duty of praying

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Peter and John seemed to have made it a habit to go to the temple to attend to the duty of prayer. It would seem that keeping this duty was important but they could also have been using this opportunity to preach/teach Jesus as there would be a large number of people gathered.

One day Peter and John went to the Temple at three o’clock in the afternoon, the hour for prayer. – Acts 3:1  GNT

There is a technical side to prayer that I think needs to be talked about. The hour of prayer was the ninth hour – like 3:00pm. Judaism had four fixed hours for prayer. Some mentioned that they prayed seven times a day. The first century Church practiced both. In the time of Clement, at Alexandria it was noted and the seven hours became the “canonical hours” of Western Christendom first appearing in the Rule of St. Benedict. I mention this because I think some of us need this kind of structure to make prayer happen. I believe it is our belief that we should be praying always, but without structure to aid us we end up forgetting to pray.

When Peter and John went to the temple, I do not think that healing was on their mind or on their “to do”list. In fact, Peter called it an “act of kindness.” God was the one that made this event happen and it became a wonderful opportunity to reach many people.

One has to wonder, when life is going so wrong, how would one not turn to God when obviously they need Him. Why would one continue in life and not care?

They have made it a wasteland;
    it lies desolate before me.
The whole land has become a desert,
    and no one cares. – Jeremiah 12:11  GNT

I would hope that I could see my own desert experience and from that get a spark of wisdom that would find me on my knees asking God to forgive me for walking away from Him – that  would care. I would seek His favour to heal me and to restore me. Others seem to just keep adding up sin upon sin. If one does not attend to those sins they will be consumed and subdued.

“Only against the background of the Old Testament, and the great mystery of how God could fulfill his covenant with us, can we see the freeness of forgiveness and its astounding cost. It means that no sin can now bring us into condemnation, because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice. It also means that sin is so serious and grievous to God that Jesus had to die. We must recognize both of these aspects of God’s grace or we will lapse into one or the other of two fatal errors. Either we will think forgiveness is easy for God to give, or we will doubt the reality and thoroughness of our pardon.” – Timothy Keller