the mind

God’s saving acts allow me to pray and praise

 

It is because of what God has done in my life already that I can pray today, no matter what my circumstances, knowing that He will once again bring a change for good in my life.

To you alone, O Lord, to you alone,
    and not to us, must glory be given
    because of your constant love and faithfulness. – Psalm 115:1 GNT

This prayer from Isaiah has this kind of motivation behind it.

Wake up, Lord, and help us!
Use your power and save us;
    use it as you did in ancient times.
It was you that cut the sea monster Rahab[a] to pieces.
It was you also who dried up the sea
    and made a path through the water,
    so that those you were saving could cross.
Those whom you have rescued
    will reach Jerusalem with gladness,
    singing and shouting for joy.
They will be happy forever,
    for

The Lord says,

“I am the one who strengthens you.
    Why should you fear mortals,
    who are no more enduring than grass?
Have you forgotten the Lord who made you,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the earth’s foundations?
Why should you live in constant fear
    of the fury of those who oppress you,
    of those who are ready to destroy you?
Their fury can no longer touch you.
Those who are prisoners will soon be set free;
    they will live a long life“

I am the Lord your God;

“I am the Lord your God;
    I stir up the sea
    and make its waves roar.
My name is the Lord Almighty!
I stretched out[b] the heavens
    and laid the earth’s foundations;
I say to Jerusalem, ‘You are my people!
    I have given you my teaching,
    and I protect you with my hand.’” – Isaiah 51:9-16  GNT

 

Here is a prayer that would invite God to become involved in my life. He is wide awake when it comes to engaging with me as I pray.

I am encouraged to plead with Him as I recall precedents, and experiences of those who had already experienced God in their lives. I am encouraged to recall as many experiences as necessary for they build up my faith and my hope as I continue in prayer.

I love God’s answer. The prayer was for God to act and He shares with me His grace – therein lies His power.

It is no surprise when reading about the new creation in Revelation 21 that God will make us all pure.

I posted the video above – it is a song that Charles Wesley wrote that parallel’s this chapter in Revelation. Here is the verse that catches my ear and my eye.

Come, Almighty to deliver, Let us all Thy life receive; Suddenly return and never, Never more Thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing, Serve Thee as Thy hosts above, Pray and praise Thee without ceasing, Glory in Thy perfect love.

The spiritual intense fixation of the mind, by contemplation on God in
Christ, until the soul be as it were swallowed up in admiration and
delight, and being brought unto an utter loss, through the infiniteness of
those excellencies which it doth admire and adore, it returns again to its
own abasements, out of a sense of its infinite distance from what it would
absolutely and eternally embrace, and withal, the inexpressible rest and
satisfaction which the will and affections receive in their approaches
unto the eternal Fountain of goodness, are things to be aimed at in
prayer, and which, through the riches of divine condescension, are
frequently enjoyed. The soul is hereby raised and ravished, not into
ecstacies or unaccountable raptures, not acted into motions above the
power of its own understanding and will; but in all the faculties and
affections of it, through the effectual workings of the Spirit of grace and
the lively impressions of divine love, with intimations of the relations and
kindness of God, is filled with rest, in JOY unspeakable and full of
glory. – John Owen

 

 

 

Answered true prayer

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Praying in confidence, believing that I will receive from God whatever I ask, allows me to experience a daily adventure of answered prayer. The excitement of actually seeing God working in my life and in the lives of those I am in contact with is something that gives me daily stimulation. This is what seems to be the norm for walking with Jesus and how He intended for us to experience every day.

And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God’s presence. We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us. Those who obey God’s commands live in union with God and God lives in union with them. And because of the Spirit that God has given us we know that God lives in union with us. – 1 John 3:21-24 GNT

Unfortunately I run into so many who believe that following Jesus is boring or at least a mediocre experience. Young adults have lost hope in the promises of God. They do not understand what transformation even looks like. Most do not know what it means to have a relationship with God where they have an adventure of seeing a living God at work, answering prayer. Prayer is the most characteristic and must fundamental part of my relationship with God. Prayer is my expression of dependence on a loving God.

The spirit of prayer is about courage when coming into God’s presence. It implies a close relationship and a feeling of belonging or having the right to be there. In other words, there is no fear of being rebuked.

Three things may be distinguished in the great duty of being spiritually minded, under which notion it is here recommended unto us:—

(1.) The actual exercise of the mind, in its thoughts, meditations, and desires, about things spiritual and heavenly. So is it expressed in the verse foregoing: “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,” — they think on them, their contrivances are about them, and their desires after them; “but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” They mind them by fixing their thoughts and meditations upon them.

(2.) The inclination, disposition, and frame of the mind, in all its affections, whereby it adheres and cleaves unto spiritual things. This “minding of the Spirit” resides habitually in the affections. Wherefore, the φρόνημα of the Spirit, or the mind as renewed and acted by a spiritual principle of light and life, is the exercise of its thoughts, meditations, and desires, on spiritual things, proceeding from the love and delight of its affections in them and engagement unto them.

(3.) A complacency of mind, from that gust, relish, and savour, which it finds in spiritual things, from their suitableness unto its constitution, inclinations, and desires. There is a salt in spiritual things, whereby they are condited and made savoury unto a renewed mind; though to others they are as the white of an egg, that hath no taste or savour in it. In this gust and relish lies the sweetness and satisfaction of spiritual life. Speculative notions about spiritual things, when they are alone, are dry, sapless, and barren. In this gust we taste by experience that God is gracious, and that the love of Christ is better than wine, or whatever else hath the most grateful relish unto a sensual appetite. This is the proper foundation of that “joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.” – John Owen