Who will save me?

who will save me

Deuteronomy chapter seventeen presents an incredible apolgetic rationale against idol worship. There is no logic when it comes to a person worshipping something, especially if that something was made by another person and even more significantly off if that something was made by the worshipper. The Good News translation uses words and expressions like “stupid,” “hasn’t the wit or the sense,” “foolish,” “misled,” and even “beyond help.”

The rest of the wood he makes into an idol, and then he bows down and worships it. He prays to it and says, “You are my god—save me!” – Deuteronomy 17:17  GNT

If I am going to pray to anyone for help, it will be to God and here is a prayer that will invite God to come and save me.

Listen to me, Lord, and answer me,
    for I am helpless and weak.
Save me from death, because I am loyal to you;
    save me, for I am your servant and I trust in you.

You are my God, so be merciful to me;
    I pray to you all day long.
Make your servant glad, O Lord,
    because my prayers go up to you.
You are good to us and forgiving,
    full of constant love for all who pray to you.

Listen, Lord, to my prayer;
    hear my cries for help.
I call to you in times of trouble,
    because you answer my prayers.

There is no god like you, O Lord,
    not one has done what you have done.
All the nations that you have created
    will come and bow down to you;
    they will praise your greatness.
You are mighty and do wonderful things;
    you alone are God.

Teach me, Lord, what you want me to do,
and I will obey you faithfully;
teach me to serve you with complete devotion.
I will praise you with all my heart, O Lord my God;
I will proclaim your greatness forever.
How great is your constant love for me!
You have saved me from the grave itself.
Proud people are coming against me, O God;
a cruel gang is trying to kill me—
people who pay no attention to you.
But you, O Lord, are a merciful and loving God,
always patient, always kind and faithful.
Turn to me and have mercy on me;
strengthen me and save me,
because I serve you just as my mother did.
Show me proof of your goodness, Lord;
those who hate me will be ashamed
when they see that you have given me comfort and help. – Psalm, 86:1-17  GNT

 

When once Thou visitest the heart,
Then truth begins to shine ;
Then earthly vanities depart ;
Then kindles love divine.

I want to pray even when scared

boat-clouds-storm-pexels-johannes-plenio.1200w.tn

Being scared about seeing what God may be doing or could do with me or through me because I prayed is something that cannot stop me. I need to embrace the possibilities.

Long ago the Lord made a road through the sea,
    a path through the swirling waters.
He led a mighty army to destruction,
    an army of chariots and horses.
Down they fell, never to rise,
    snuffed out like the flame of a lamp!

But the Lord says,

“Do not cling to events of the past
    or dwell on what happened long ago.
Watch for the new thing I am going to do.
    It is happening already—you can see it now!
I will make a road through the wilderness
    and give you streams of water there.
Even the wild animals will honor me;
    jackals and ostriches will praise me
when I make rivers flow in the desert
    to give water to my chosen people.
They are the people I made for myself,
    and they will sing my praises!” – Isaiah 43:16-21  GNT

I do imagine, as I am praying, what God could do – but I never go this far – this is praying with the miraculous in mind. These are things that happen when I do not pray scared and as a result will be the testimony of people who have been prayed for and have experienced a divine intervention at that moment in their life.

I need to see God working in my life and the lives of those around me. It is possible that I need to see His hand reaching out with love and grace and thinking about what that could look like. Then extend His hand, through prayer, to those around me. This kind of prayer gives me special unforgettable moments of faith.

During times of challenges, this kind of prayer will sustain me. I imagine being in the end times where persecution is coming or living in an area of the world today where followers of Jesus are already persecuted every day. If I heard them pray, would they be scared? I have heard their prayers and they are ones of endurance and faith so that they may proclaim the Gospel even in the midst of persecution. That is a challenge to my faith.

“Listen, then, if you have ears! Whoever is meant to be captured will surely be captured; whoever is meant to be killed by the sword will surely be killed by the sword. This calls for endurance and faith on the part of God’s people.” – Revelation 13:9-10  GNT

This is a call to endure, when it is not easy. I want to pray, not being scared, for my life or for the lives of others around the world for God will do amazing things – more than I can imagine.

Thus there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can’t have the latter, unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. There is a wide difference between mere speculative, rational judging anything to be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness, and beauty. The former rests only in the head, speculation only is concerned in it; but the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is sweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that is excellent. – Jonathan Edwards

 

How I pray matters

The-Best-Bible-Reading-Advice-Ive-ever-received-

The dragon was furious with the woman and went off to fight against the rest of her descendants, all those who obey God’s commandments and are faithful to the truth revealed by Jesus. – Revelation 12:17  GNT

How does this affect how I pray? Have I been to my special place where I “flee” and pray?

“This may be where you are. You are in him. You are adopted into the Father’s family. You have the very divine life in you, the Holy Spirit. You are loved and accepted in Christ. You know about these things, and yet at aother level you don’t k   now them, you don’t grasp them. You are still dogged by your bad habits, often anxious or bored or discouraged or angry. You may have many specific problems and issues that need to be faced and dealt with through various specific means. Yet the root problems of them all is that you are rich in Christ but nevertheless living poor.” – Timothy Keller

Sincere prayer because I do not pray in vain

earnest prayer so we do not pray in vain

Deuteronomy 13 opens up with some very strong words about being a loyal follower of Jesus. Temptations can come from all arenas and they can come all at once and we are expected to remain in our relationship with Him – unmoved, unwavering and without a hint of feigned neutrality. It describes that it would be a very serious matter to find myself seduced. That is why I am called to sincerely pray so that my heart is kept faithful.

Moses and Aaron were his priests,
    and Samuel was one who prayed to him;
    they called to the Lord, and he answered them. – Psalm 99:6  GNT

Moses, Aaron and Samuel made it their life’s business to call on God in prayer and in so doing they not only found themselves in a place of blessing, but others were blessed too. Am I not called to go up the mountain with Moses – to enter into the most holy place with Aaron – to hear God call my name as He did with Samuel? If so, then my prayers are not in vain because my holy God is true to His promises and He hears me from a place of mercy. This testimony is here for my joy and for His glory. Holy men of old did not pray in vain.

One day, in the city of New York—oh, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name…. I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world—it would be small dust in the balance. (W. R. Moody, The Life of D. L. Moody, New York: 1900, p. 149)

 

 

Can I lock up my heart by prayer?

fran_labuschagne_love_locks_02

Clearly, if given a choice, I would not chose evil. For one thing, I know God hates evil and loves those who hate evil.

The Lord loves those who hate evil;[b]
    he protects the lives of his people;
    he rescues them from the power of the wicked. – Psalm 97:10  GNT

If I say I hate evil, what about hating the evil that is within me?

It weakens me. I cannot pray after committing sin. I know I cannot be anywhere near the passion I normally have. I have lost my power. In fact, I cut my prayer time short or leave it altogether. Prayer may actually cause me to stop sinning and maybe this one thing I do, I do not want to stop. Then as I engage in ministry, I cannot. An unholy man must be a useless one.

How it must grieve Jesus. All I need to do is get rid of my sin and while no law will help, my praying to Him will. If I can get as much light on it as possible, that would be best. While getting the light on my sin is good, I want to make sure that it is not the light of my own judgement but the light of the Holy Spirit that I allow to shine on my heart. He will detect my sin and that is one step towards my healing. The next is to confess it and my mind begins to enter a holy state to gauge sin appropriately for what it is. In some cases, I might just have to run from them for there is no other way. For if I am to keep away from sin, I will need a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit.

“Lock up your hearts by prayer every morning and give God the key, so that nothing can get in.” – Old Master Dyer

May I never palliate sin.

The year of grace 1654,

Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words. Amen. – Blaise Pascal