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March 19, 2010
Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
For today we will focus our thoughts on the coming of God's kingdom. Our Lord instructed us to pray for the coming of the kingdom of God but while he was here in the flesh he told his followers to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
How are we to pray for something that is at hand but not yet here? Are you confused yet? On the surface it seems as if these two statements are at odds with each other. This can never be the case with the Scriptures. Our job is to see how these two statements can be in agreement with each other as we consider the whole counsel of Scripture.
The verb used to describe how we are to pray for the kingdom of God to come is in the imperative mood. We are to pray in such a way that we earnestly desire to see the full realization of the kingdom of God on this earth. It should consume us as we pray for the reign of our Lord to be fully realized in this world.
When we walk through the streets of our cities and see the moral and spiritual pollution we should find our selves crying out to God for the return of his Son. When we look in the mirror of our own lives we should cry out for the return of our Sovereign Lord. When we see the nations that have yet to have access to the Gospel of Christ we should cry out for the return of our Lord.
This is not a defeatist mentality this is an offensive prayer that longs to see the overthrow of all that is false and wicked and to see the full realization of all that is divine and pure and holy.
In many ways you can read this verse in this manner, "Our Father who art in heaven we will not be satisfied until your kingdom is among us so we will continue to pray for the appearing of your kingdom and we will not stop until it is our present possession"
Let our prayers be filled with pleas for the return of our Savior for we cannot live without him. We have a growing homesickness that grows in our prayer as we look forward with growing anticipation of his return when we shall be without sin forever. Let us give ourselves to such praying..
God Bring your Kingdom among us and do it today, March 12, 2010
What Prayer is First and Foremost For
Matthew 6:7-8 (NIV)
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
As you grow in your walk with God it is important to note that it is not the words that you pray so much that God desires because he already knows what you need more than you do. Think with me about this for a moment, what is it that you really need more than anything else? Is it more money? More possessions? More understanding from those around you? Less confusion in your life?
This is where many go wrong in their walk with God. They spend all the time asking God for what they think they really need. God tells them they do not need to spend much time asking for what they think they need for God has already taken care of that.
Imagine for a moment being the presence of a sovereign king and spending all your time asking him for things that are not in the room where he is. What would that say to the king? "I am only here because I need something else that is not You from you?"
Could it be that the reason our prayers are so empty is we have been playing the role of an idolater even in the presence of the King? When he wants to be with us we spend all our time wishing for something else. Are you beginning to grasp this truth yet? God will take care of the things that you need, he only desires that you be with him and get to know him.
So perhaps today you might want to work on developing a heart of praise towards God as you spend the time alone with him. You may want to read through the Psalms or some other portion of Scripture and underline and make note of all the statements made about God and spend some time thinking on each one of those statements. There is enough there to take up several days. May God grant all of us a heart of true worship as we get alone with him.
Thinking less of stuff and more of God, March 11, 2010
Matthew 6:5-15 (NIV)
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
So what do you do when you get alone with God in the secret place? Do you go through a long list of asking for things you need? Do you read a lot from the Bible, or other prayer books? How do you organize your time? Does God care how you spend this time with Him? Has he given any instructions?
God is the best on this subject. He has not left us to fend for ourselves in this arena. Listen carefully to his directions here. When you get to your secret place just sit before him in silence for a few moments. You do not need to bring a large list of things to ask Him for He already knows what you need. Just learn to enjoy being in his presence. Rest in his sovereign care for you.
If you do not feel like praying, just be there. I suggest you plan at least fifteen minutes of being with the Father every day at first. Your prayer might go something like this, "Father I am here because I want to know you and enjoy your presence. I want to love to be with you more than anything. Would you please direct me as I spend each day apart with you. Direct my heart to grow in love towards you.
You may want to take a notebook with you and write down what you want to talk to God about. After you have your list then take a few moments to pray and offer your questions up to God and ask him to help you discover Him as you set about to find he answers.
Take a moment to confess your need of Him in your life today and ask his directions as you walk together.
God help us, we are barely crawling and we want to walk and perhaps someday we can even run with you, March 10, 2010
Matthew 6:5-15 (NIV)
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
For the next several days we will examine the role of prayer for the true child of God. I have been trying to walk with God for the past thirty five years. I say 'trying' because often times I find that even now I cannot do what I want to do as far as it comes to following Christ.
The first emphasis our Lord makes about prayer is that it is first and foremost an issue of the heart in secret. If your prayer life with God is not first built on much secret prayer your corporate prayer will have little effect.
Public prayer is still important but it is secondary to our private prayer closets. This is something that sets Christianity apart from all the other religions. All the other religions are first and foremost an outward display not an inward reality. But this is not the case with our relationship with God. Our first call is to the prayer closet where we commune with God in secret.
Why the secret place first and not in the open? It is only in the secret place where there are no other distractions that you can discover who God really is. In the secret place the noise of the world is stilled and the distractions are removed. Psalm 46:10 says it best, "Be still and know that I am God."
You may notice this in husbands and wives when they are out in public. You can tell the ones who enjoy each others company in private, they are the most joyful in public. If there is little time spent together in private there will be little joy demonstrated in public. Much private prayer makes for much public rejoicing.
Your Father in Heaven longs to reveal to you just who he really is and he can only get your undivided attention in secret away from all others. This secret time needs much cultivation. It first needs to be a habit and then after it becomes a habit it will grow to become a joy. Once your secret time with God becomes a joy then it will overflow into your public time and imagine what would happen if all of God's people had much private time with him and then at the end of the week they all came together to celebrate God publicly. I think our worship services would never be the same again.
Let us give ourselves to much private time alone with the Father so he would be rightly celebrated when we come together each Sunday.
Heading for the closet, March 9, 2010
Psalms 85:12-13 (NIV)
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.
Are you facing hard times in your family or job? Feeling stretched in every possible direction? Want to throw in the towel and quit? Take heart you are not alone. This thing called life is not all the positive talkers say it is. But also you must remember that living in this fallen world will not be your experience forever.
In this world you will have tribulation, our Lord promised as much in John 16:33 so this should not surprise you. The word for tribulation here means wine press. This life will bring you to the point of utter exhaustion often. You will find waves of despair that will sweep over you and you will find yourself on the brink of a bottomless pit often but you must not let these feelings mislead you.
This is not as it will be forever; it is only while you are in this flesh. The psalmist speaks of another day when the Lord will indeed give what is good. Everything that will add to your enjoyment of life will soon be yours for all eternity. It will come when you are least expecting it.
So are you to live with this state of constant despair while you are in this body? Not always. C. S. Lewis spoke of it in such words when he wrote that this life is not the mountain top that we desire. Often this life is the deep valley but ever so often our God breaks through the despair and gives us a brief glimpse of heaven. We find ourselves on top of the world thinking that we will never fail again to believe in God and to walk with him. We are so convinced of this that we deceive ourselves into thinking this life is going to be great with one thrill ride after another.
When we come down from the mountain we all too soon discover that is not the case. The ones we love do not see things the way we do and we are once again plunged into another battle with our sinful flesh and the cursed world in which we live. We begin to question ourselves, thinking we must have sinned somewhere for this to get as bad as it is.
This possibly could be the case but I suggest another possibility to consider, you live in a fallen world and what you are now experiencing is what the Lord said was tribulation. As you walk with God through the valley he develops within you a growing desire to be with him. The things of the world begin to lose their appeal and you find yourself beginning to live more in tune with Him and less in tune with the world.
What can you say to yourself in these times? Exactly what the psalmist did, "The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest." It does not matter how you feel or what you think presently, God is working for your good and his glory and he guarantees it with his word.
True revival happens when God's people lose their attraction for the things of this world and find their true enjoyment in God alone. O to be so caught up to be with the Lord would change our view of everything.
Lord, rend the heavens and come down and dwell in our midst while we wait eagerly for your return.
Praying and Longing for His return,
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Daily Devotions by
Devotions for your daily Bible readings written by Pastor Phil Nelson.
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