Categories
Worship

Learning to Pray in God’s Will

Do you ever wonder if we have been taught to pray incorrectly?

Have we tried to use God as our genie? Or maybe we’ve thought of Him more like Santa Claus – hoping that if we are “good enough” that He will give us the things on our wishlist.

Our prayers often seem to lean in that direction. But God is not a genie we can manipulate when we feel like it, nor is He a jolly spy in a red suit who is “always watching” so as to put you on the gift-getting list when you meet his “good enough” standard. (Which is kinda creepy when you think about it!)

But God IS always at work and wants us to be working with Him. He wants us to talk to Him about things that He cares about. And what He most cares about is the spiritual condition of people. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. He didn’t go to the cross to fulfill my my desires of more stuff, and though He cares about my physical condition, that’s not why He went to the cross, either. No, He went for my spiritual situation to be changed from death… to life! So if God is most concerned with spiritual matters, then what should we focus our prayers on?

However, we do not spend time praying about spiritual things near as much as we do for physical things. In the Bible, we see prayers about confession of sins for individuals and the nations, we see prayers that go on and on about adoring and worshiping God’s characteristics and His laws, we see prayers about bringing glory to God, we see prayers about revival and turning people’s hearts back to Him, we see prayers about lost people coming into His kingdom.

In the Bible we see prayers that are focused on God’s will, and yet we often do not pray that way. We spend more time praying for the increased comfort of those who are already saved (us and our family and friends) than we do praying for the eternal destination of those who have no relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps we need a change. Perhaps we need to use the model of the Bible more than whatever model taught us to pray about the physical.

If we want to receive God’s blessings and have our prayers answered, I believe that we must ask, seek, and knock with prayers that are in-line with God’s will. He is not going to give us every one of our heart’s desires until every one of our heart’s desires are exactly in line with His will. But if we ask where He is at work and how we should pray, He will show us and we will be more blessed than ever before.

What do you think are some of the things He most cares about that we need to include in our prayers for today?

Categories
Jesus

Wanting Jesus To Grant My Three Wishes

Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock. He says that whatever I ask in His Name, I will receive.
Awesome! All I have to do is tell Him what I want from Him, throw in the phrase “In Jesus’ Name” at the end of the prayer, and God will give me whatever I’m asking for… right? a genie's lamp that might be used to grant three wishes

OK, maybe not. But then, what did Jesus mean? Does His statement have something to do with my motives? What if I am asking for the wrong things or with the wrong motives? What if my wishes are not His wishes?

According to Jesus, God is ready to give us even greater gifts than our earthly fathers. But the example Jesus gives is a son asking for a loaf of bread or a fish – for nourishing, healthy food. I don’t remember too many times when I asked for nourishing food. Instead, I was always asking for an extra serving of dessert!

When a child asks a parent for good, beneficial, healthy things, parents are quick to say “Yes.” On the other hand, when we continued to ask for the wrong things we’d get Dad’s furrowed brow, Mom’s long “sighs,” and a “No, I am not going to get that for you.” And while a temper tantrum on the floor of the grocery store might work on some parents, it certainly didn’t work on mine and it certainly won’t work on God.

So maybe the asking, seeking, and knocking in His Name is not a description of how to force Jesus to do our bidding like some genie in a bottle. Maybe it has to do with right motives. Maybe it has to do with our maturity and knowing what God wants, and therefore knowing what is good and healthy for us and for others.

As we grow in maturity in our relationship with God, He wants to have us talk to Him about mature things. Parents love to talk to their children, but they expect as they age to have more mature conversations. God wants us to talk to Him about all things, but it really pleases Him when we talk to Him about the things that are in His will – spiritually focused things. Praying for the things that break His heart.

What are some of the things that you think are most near & dear to His heart?
What are some of the spiritually-focused things that we ought to be praying to Him about?

Categories
Relationships

Killing Hypocrisy To Bring Honor To God

I see a lot of people growing in a lot of ways – financially, successfully in the business world, in their status and power, but the question is – are you growing in the Lord?

After writing a few things about hypocrisy, I came across this passage during my morning prayer and Bible reading time – Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things (Romans 2:1). Jesus is telling us to avoid the “do as I say, not as I do” lifestyle and words.

Just like the people of Jesus’ day, many of us might say – I would never be hypocritical. And yet:
We condemn murderers; while we still hold onto hate & anger.
We condemn adulterers; while we allow our eyes to wander and provide us with lustful thoughts.
We condemn liars; though we are not fully truthful with many others, including our spouses/kids.
We condemn the greedy; but we are not giving a minimum of 10% of our income to the Lord.
We condemn those who talk about us behind our backs by gossiping about them to others.
We condemn law breakers and criminals; while we ourselves pick and choose which laws we will follow (such as disobeying traffic laws and speed limits; violating copyright laws for illegal music and movies; finding ways to get around tax laws; etc.)
We complain about those who aren’t as “good” as us morally or who are not as religious as us; yet we are not spending any significant time with God in prayer or reading His Word.
We complain about how church leaders & other members are serving; though we are not willing to roll up our sleeves and serve.
We hear what church leaders are saying to us; but we still aren’t telling others about God and His gospel.

And because of all this, we stand in judgmental condemnation (which Jesus condemns), rather than loving reconciliation (which Jesus desires). And though you probably don’t do all of these things, maybe you see one or two in that list above that describes some habit you need to remove from your life.

Paul tells us the problem is this – “you, therefore…who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? … You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written (Romans 2:21-24).

So the problem with hypocrisy in Christians is that those who don’t know the Lord will see such inconsistency in our lives, that they will not hold God in high esteem. This is why it is important that we change these patterns. Instead of His Name being blasphemed, we need His name to be honored because of us. So Jesus tells us to . . . let your light shine before others in such a way that they see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father because of your consistent, honest, moral lifestyle.

Let’s be willing to look inward, to be honest with ourselves, and to root out any inconsistency and hypocrisy that might be in our lives. We need to work on killing hypocrisy – making sure our lives bring honor and praise to the name of God in all that we say and do.

Categories
Christian Living

Integrity Means Letting Your Yes Be Yes

I have enjoyed my blogging experience thus far. As much as anything, writing helps me process my thoughts and learn to be a better communicator. And I was working on a few different posts, but I couldn’t seem to pull any together for a fully cohesive post. So at the end of last week, I just posted a short snippet from one I had been working on. When I started posting to facebook and blogging a few months ago, I did this pretty often. But then it seems that I forgot how!

Because I do enjoy getting more complete thoughts put together before posting, I found myself not able to post as often… making my postings sporadic. So I’m planning to send out more snippets and brief thoughts in the future to keep my posting more regular. And I think that may be better anyway! Even in our own experience of wanting to change the conversations, maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about saying something exactly right as much as we should just go ahead and speak about Him and let our “snippets” have great impact over time.

So here is a brief thought on us having integrity, character, and consistency. Jesus tells us to be people of honesty and consistency. That our ‘yes’ should mean ‘yes’ and that our ‘no’ should mean ‘no.’ That our integrity should be at the highest level. But a problem exists for many of us. We have fallen into the trap, that it is OK to be inconsistent, as long as it benefits us. And that leads to our misunderstanding of God’s word, to our misapplying God’s truth, and down the path toward hypocritical attitudes and beliefs.

For example, due to our lack of consistently living out the Bible, we have reversed a proper understanding of the “do not judge” passages in the Bible. A problem our neighbors and co-workers can have with Christians, is our harsh judgment toward others. Jesus had harsh judgment for only one group – the rigid religious leaders who had no compassion for others. But for those who were sinners without any real relationship to God, Jesus held out compassion and love, hoping to move them closer to God.

hammerGod calls us to “judge” the habitually sinful behavior of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. He tells us to do this so that we can sharpen one another and hold each other accountable. But God tells us to hold out love to those without faith to help them desire to come into our loving family. Our problem is that we flip these two and get them reversed.

And so not only do we judge the wrong group… too often, we not only want to judge, we want to condemn.
Are you swinging the hammer of condemnation toward those who need love?
Are you staying silent toward your fellow Christian brothers and sisters who need you to keep sharpening them?
Let’s flip it back to the biblical model, the model of Jesus!

Sharpen your Christian family with love, leading them toward more God-honoring behavior..
Hold out compassion and love to all others, leading them toward the kindness and salvation of God.
And don’t get the two mixed up!

Categories
Christian Living

The Hypocrites Motto

“Do what I say, not what I do.” The motto of a hypocrite, perhaps?

“I don’t go to church because there are so many hypocrites there.” You’ve heard it said. Maybe you’ve even said it. Maybe you still feel that way today. It has been said that “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable” (Brennan Manning).

The thing that bothers those neighbors of mine and the reason your coworkers make these types of comments… is that they see people who they know go to church every Sunday use the roughest, foulest language throughout the week; who leer at the opposite sex and make inappropriate comments about them later; who treat their spouse and kids poorly; who badmouth the boss behind his back; and who find sneaky ways to get around the rules and laws – of the workplace, of the school district, of the tax payments. They look at the attitudes, habits, & lifestyle of many Christians and think – “they don’t seem to be anything like the Jesus I’ve heard about.”

Cause most all of the folks around you know a little bit about Jesus, even if they aren’t a follower of Him.
At the very least, they know that He was about love. And they know that anyone who claims to follow Him should also be about love. They know that those who say they believe in God should live a consistent life that is faithful to the lifestyle that Jesus lived.

But too often, they see something different.

Does your life match up with your words? Let’s keep striving toward consistency – being people of the highest integrity and character.