God

God helps

Here are two scripture verses I started out praying today for those who need God’s help.

This is the list of the descendants of Adam. (When God created human beings, he made them like himself.  He spent his life in fellowship with God, and then he disappeared, because God took him away. – Genesis 5:5,24 GNT

Genesis 5:1    May ______ know that he/she is made in the likeness of You, God.

Genesis 5:24    May ______ walk with You, God, just as Enoch did

When we spend our lives talking with God and spending time with Him, it means that we really are not doing all of that while kneeling or standing or even with our eyes closed. We are working, eating, exercising, and even relaxing.

I have met Christians who, after reading the Bible, go out and walk around their neighbourhood. They note anything they sense the Holy Spirit is saying as they pray. It is like – talk as you walk.

Then there are times when we need God’s help with a very specific desire to be more like Him. One for me was loving my enemies.

But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. – Matthew 5:44 GNT

Praying for my enemies has to be one of the deepest forms of love because it means that I really want something good to happen to them.

It may be for their conversion. It may be for their repentance. It may be that they would be awakened to the enmity in their hearts. It may be that they will be stopped in their downward spiral of sin, even if it takes disease or calamity to do it. But the prayer Jesus has in mind here is always for their good.

Ezra confirms how God steps in when He has to. He sends prophets to move the work again.

At that time two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, began to speak in the name of the God of Israel to the Jews who lived in Judah and Jerusalem. 2 When Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak heard their messages, they began to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and the two prophets helped them. – Ezra 5:1-2 GNT

When God needs work to be done, it is supported by prayer. At the end of the day I need to make a choice. I pray that my choice will be to obey God regardless of what others may have to say. 

The simple thing is the greatest thing… As for the will of the “Father in heaven”, it is always clear and transparent, simple and intelligible to the simple heart… It is the will of all those in heaven who share his will, all who, together, enter into the Father’s loving will in all its concrete dimensions… People are only rarely aware of this when they pray. Unless they are rare mystics who actually encounter heaven’s inhabitants – angels, saints, the Mother of the Lord, or the Son himself – they are inclined to act as if they were encountering God in a solitude which is total on both sides, God’s and theirs; as if they were alone in approaching God, alone in trying to come to grips with his word and law. This is wrong in both respects. – Hans Urs von Balthasar

How shall I pray?

When did prayer become an exercise? It happened when people on earth started to multiply. It would seem that Cain’s offspring had a monopoly on every part of life. They were the ones who were involved and pioneering the building and owning of cities, ruling over and killing others, marrying the way they wanted, running all the businesses, military and entertainment places.

Where were the people who were following after God, who were the ones involved with the one dimension not mentioned above, the one they left untouched?

Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. It was then that people began using the Lord’s holy name in worship. – Genesis 4:26 GNT

That makes it prayer, for worship is a form of prayer. This is the first mention of a kind of public and private, corporate and personal, scheduled and as needed call on the Lord.

Jesus shared the same experience for a prayer of deliverance not only requires attitude but demands action. Jesus faced temptation on several occasions and with a submissive attitude, acted in obedience to God. In a prayer of deliverance, we are affirming that God truly is our Deliverer from all forms of evil.

Look at what Ezra had to face, do you think he could have faced these without prayer.

Work on the Temple had been stopped and had remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Emperor Darius of Persia. – Ezra 4:24 GNT

What a great reminder to pray for those in authority and for those under their authority. All the quietness and peaceableness of our lives depend very much upon the integrity and wisdom of inferior leaders as well as those who are above them. There are consequences of poor leadership, but we are called to pray through them.

What about those early Christians? Did they not pray for boldness?

And now, Lord, take notice of the threats they have made, and allow us, your servants, to speak your message with all boldness. – Acts 4:29 GNT

Do not be fooled in thinking this was done in ignorance because they had just come out of a situation – they knew what it meant when they prayed and the cost of that prayer. However, the mission did not change, neither had the source of their power. Look at the amazing example of how to pray.

When the believers heard it, they all joined together in prayer to God: “Master and Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is in them!  By means of the Holy Spirit you spoke through our ancestor David, your servant, when he said,

‘Why were the Gentiles furious;
    why did people make their useless plots?
 The kings of the earth prepared themselves,
    and the rulers met together
    against the Lord and his Messiah.’

 For indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together in this city with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Jesus, your holy Servant, whom you made Messiah.  They gathered to do everything that you by your power and will had already decided would happen.  And now, Lord, take notice of the threats they have made, and allow us, your servants, to speak your message with all boldness.  Reach out your hand to heal, and grant that wonders and miracles may be performed through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”

It is marvelous in its simplicity and its comprehension of the Person and purposes of God.

God’s kingdom must include prayer to know God Himself. The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that our purpose is to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” In this famous sentence we see reflected both kingdom prayer and communion prayer. – Timothy Keller