Daily Devotions - Entries from September 2009

 I Kings 17: 17-24  “After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

In this text and in the text from yesterday we see examples of prayers that were prayed in desperate circumstances.  I think I must correct one thing though, I do not think that Moses or Elijah were desperate in these circumstances.  They were not throwing up their hands and crying to God because they thought he would not hear, they were resorting to prayer because they knew this was their only true source of help.

Consider the case before us today in Elijah’s situation.  Elijah had just helped the widow woman and her son survive the drought by extending the life of the oil in the jars in her home.  Now she sees her son die and when Elijah comes for a visit she appears to blame him for this death.

Consider now how Elijah handles this situation.  He asks for the body of her dead son.  The mother surrenders the body of her son and Elijah takes the lifeless body into his private room and begins his intercession.  Elijah prays for a resurrection to take place.  The reader must understand that up until this time in the Bible there is no record of resurrections happening.  There is something in Elijah’s prayer that believes that nothing is impossible with God.  HE commences to pray and three times he stretches himself out over the body of boy who had died.  Why does he do this?  Because he believes in the God of the impossible and unthinkable. 

What is it that drives the power of Elijah’s prayer?  Notice the words he uses as he addresses God.  HE cries out to him with these words, “O LORD MY God.” (Emphasis added)  This is a cry to the God he knows.  This is not some pagan crying out to an unknown God but Elijah is in relationship with God and he knows God can do whatever is necessary to rescue.  So he cries out to his God, the only true God and continues to do so until the answer is acquired.

Why not be an Elijah in your prayer closet today.  Take the ones you know that are spiritually dead and cry out to your God who can do the impossible and unthinkable.  Ask God to set your friends free from their bondage to sin and corruption.  Seek the Lord on your face for your friends, who knows perhaps God will breather his life into them  as you pray and you find them converted in the near future.  Go ahead and invest in some floor time with your Father in heaven.

On the Floor for the those that are lost,

What does crying out to God do for the child of God many may ask.  The answer is found in this text.  As we make our heart cry to walk with God in this fallen world God will work out our deliverance in a way that will bring us great reason for rejoicing. Perhaps God has allowed your enemies to have a season of victory over you but this season will not be for long.  He is working even now to bring you deliverance.

You may feel like you are tottering on the edge of the abyss and find no place to hold on, but you need not worry for he who is your God has his grip on you and he will never let you go.  To be sure you may fall but you will not fall forever.  He will bring your soul up from the grave and you will once again rejoice before him with great joy.

To whom does the joy go?  It goes to those who cry out night and day for God to make his appearance in their lives. We desire nothing else but God.  We long for no one else but Him.  The material things of this world do not hold sway with us any longer for we have tasted and we have seen the God is good.  So we live our lives until the end with this cry on our lips, "Even so come Lord Jesus!"

Thanks be to God that we will not go down to the pit

Behold how much can change with a quick call to God for help.  Does He not command us to call to him and he will show us great and unsearchable things we do not yet know in Jeremiah 33:3?  Then why are we so slow to cry out to Him?  Perhaps we have been trained to restrain our desires for God so as not to look insufficient in ourselves.  How often do we see in our day prayer meetings that spring from our complete inability to accomplish anything for the glory of God unless He works in us? 

We go about our day, as Samson did after Delilah gave him a hair cut, not knowing that God had left him.  This was not King Asa in his early years.  He learned from somewhere that the best thing to do in any battle situation was to cry out to God for his protection and deliverance.

Behold what a mighty victory is won when Asa cried out to God.  Behold also how many victories are lost because of our failure to live our lives in a position of crying out to God.  Let us be among the criers who give Him no rest until he visits us with his glory and power.

Weeping for His Presence to be restored in our day,

So far this week we have read of Elijah a man just like us prevailed in prayer.  We have also heard that a wicked king in dire straits prays in humility and God hears his prayer.  Today we read of the Apostle Paul praying for something and not receiving any answer that he first desired.  Perhaps though we have much to learn from an apostle who does not get the answer he sought at first.

Paul wanted to be set free from the worries and frustrations of something that seemed to be never ending in his ministry.  He prayed often about it but no answer came. Finally God answered him but in a far deeper way than Paul could have imagined.  God told Paul that the answer he sought would not be granted but he would receive the grace necessary to live with it.

Is this the answer that Paul desired? Not at first but once he began to experience the grace of God being poured out in his life he would have it no other way.  Here was a man who rejoiced in unanswered prayers because this was where he found the grace of God to be most realized.

What about you today?  Do you have prayers that are not yet answered?  :Look for God’s grace to appear shortly.  Do you have serious concerns that seem to fall on deaf ears?  Then look for the grace of God to come your way soon.

His Grace is enough when my prayers are unanswered,

He is just like me!  Elijah, the mighty prophet of God is just like me.  He had his good days and he had his bad days.  He was inconsistent in his walk just like I am in mine.  There were times when he wanted to die and there were times when he was on top of the mountain.  There times when he could face down 450 false prophets and all their followers and there were times when just one evil woman chasing him scared him to death.

I wonder if you are busy trying to prove yourself worthy to have your prayers answered.  Have you been working over time trying to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s?  You don’t have to worry about all this, for now, just remember that Elijah was a man with the same problems you face every day. His sinful nature was just as active as yours.  But what do we know about Elijah and his prayer life?  He prayed earnestly and it did not rain.  And then three and half years later he prayed and it rain again.

So stop trying to get your life right before you pray just pray and ask God to take over and see if it might not rain again in your life. 

Praying for rain once again,

 O to ask without a doubt that God will answer, is such a prayer even possible?  How often have we prayed and afterwards signed off our prayers with the safe statement, “If it be thy will.”  Such statements are meant to be escape clauses often to cover ourselves just in case the prayer is not answered.  If this is how we are to pray then someone might dare to venture this question, “Then why pray?”

James puts to death this kind of praying by saying one must ask without doubting.  When you pray you must believe that you will receive what you are praying for.  If doubt even enters the picture, James tells us, then what we have asked for will not be procured.

We are not to be double-minded in our prayers.  We are to be single focused.  Our life must demonstrate that we are looking to Christ alone to be our life and everything else.  We are to go about our life with the single mindedness that Christ will bring to us all that we need as we lead lives of worship and service in his kingdom.  We are not to be about looking elsewhere for our source of contentment and supply.  So in our prayer life we must live in such a manner that we believe that all that we need will come to us from our Savior and redeemer.  If someone were to examine our lives they would find Jesus being sought after in every behavior, in every endeavor, in every step and thought of our lives.

If we are single focused in our prayer life and in our everyday life we will discover a new power in prayer that many never see.  For many in the church they live their lives as practical atheists.  They would never say they do not believe in God but they live their lives that way and so why should God answer their prayers, they have demonstrated they can get on in their life quite well without him.  Let us not be among their number.  Let us live lives that are aflame with desire to see and know the Lord Jesus in all of his radiant glory.  Let us become bright blazing flames pointing others to this glorious God who answers our payers in such a way that we break out with great shouts of joy and rejoicing.

Let Us pray until He comes,

James 1:2-4 (NIV)
² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Once again we will take on the subject of unanswered prayer.  How shall we go about this topic?  Many pray short brief prayers and do not receive an answer and they go on their way thinking that God has already answered by saying, “No.”  I want us to examine this text before us today and see if there may not be some other way to look at prayers that seem to be unanswered.

James tells us to consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds.  I suppose the greatest trial most of us ever face is the trial of unanswered prayer.  We pray for something that we believe to be God’s will and we base our prayers on the Scripture promises and yet after we have prayed for perhaps a few weeks we see nothing happening.  We somehow think that either we have prayed with wrong motives or we have already received our answer, but it is not the one we thought we should have received from Scripture.

For what possible reason do we find our prayers are unanswered?  James hints at it when he says perseverance must finish its work so that we may be mature and complete not lacking any anything.  So once again the question, “Why are our prayers unanswered?” 

It is God’s desires to bring us to full maturity.  What does full maturity look like?  It is when we are absolutely content with God alone.  It is when we find that if we have our Savior we need nothing else.  Perhaps it is God’s design to lead us to pray until we see that the only thing we ever really need is Him and him alone.  When we are at once content with God alone then he is free to answer our prayers because the very answer will not become an idol in our lives because we have found our true source of contentment in God, so nothing else could ever severe our hearts from him once this is true.

O God we thank you that you have not yet answered our prayers for we have often sought after you for all the other things that our prayers desire.  Today let us be content with the fact that You desire to give us what is best and that is You and You alone.  Help us to find you and in finding you find the answer to all of our prayers that we have prayed over the years..

Desiring God more now than ever,

So yesterday we trusted in Christ alone and perhaps thought that this magical speaking of the name of Jesus would solve everything and tomorrow we would wake up and it would all be over, like a dream that passes in the night.  Now we wake to discover the dream has not passed it has instead grown worse.

The multiplying of our prayers has not seemed to stir God to do anything.  We have prayed and now face an even colder and darker world.  God is not answering and the more we pray the more we find silence being returned.  You can just feel the pain in the heart of the psalmist who cries out to God and finds only silence. 

“Why should I go on praying when all I get is silence from God?” is the question of the day.  How can we continue to pray when all of our experience in prayer is only to receive silence from God.  Are we just ignorant believers trying to contact a God who is not there?  Are we just fulfilling our wishful thinking trying to believe in a God who answers prayers?  Perhaps Christopher Hitchins is correct when he argues that there is no God?

But as we read this text we discover there is something underneath these cries of desperation in the psalmist that still binds him to the work of intercession.  Even though God is presently silent and even though things have not improved there is something this psalmist knows about God that we must grasp.  What is it that he knows?

To be very Biblical I do not want to give an answer to this question just yet.  We have more need of prevailing in prayer than we have of receiving answers to our prayers for the moment.  There is much to be learned from unanswered prayers so we will pray on even though we do not yet have what we have sought God for.

Praying, seeking, knocking, still longing for God,

Are you still laboring under the weight of walking with Christ in this world?  Sure you have learned that Christ is interceding for you and that is all good and all but things still are not as they should be.  Is there anything else that you can do to win this battle with the flesh and the world?  Yes there is more you can avail yourself of to walk with God In this world.  The early church understood the power of prayer and knew its importance so they had many who labored in prayer for others often.

 In our text today we see that Epaphras was one such prayer warrior for others. Who do you have who is praying for you right now that you will walk with God?  It seems that the early church had some who spent their time in wrestling in prayer for the saints.  Take a moment and consider God’s call on your life to become some one’s intercessor in the church you belong to.  It may be your pastor or some staff member, it may be some young student just beginning their walk with Christ.  Why not decide today to get to know one young person in your church and then commit to prayerfully intercede for them that they would walk with God. 

When you see them at church ask them about their week and how you can pray for them./  Let them know you are praying for them and mentioning their name before God daily that they will walk with God.  You may ask, “What should I pray for them about?”  Once again our Scriptures demonstrate their complete sufficiency in providing all we need to know about life and godliness.  Here is your prayer request for those you decide to intercede for, “That they may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”

Praying for you to stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

Psalms 102:17 (NIV)
¹⁷ He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.

Revelation 3:16 (NIV)
¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

What is your spiritual temperature?  Your spiritual temperature determines how effective your prayers will be.  Let me take you through a series of questions to discover your spiritual temperature.  Are you struggling in your walk with God right now?  Do you find yourself saying it does not good to pray?  Are the messages you listen to just more words or more rules you have to live by?  Do you feel like what’s the use of praying because it has been so long since you received any answer? Are you close to walking out and not ever coming back?  If you have answered any of these in the affirmative then I want to tell you I have good news for you today.

The Good News is this,   “God responds to the prayer of the desperate. Feel like you are hanging on by a thread?  Go ahead and cry out to God because he delights in rescuing those who have no other place to turn.  The Church in Laodicea was useless because she thought she had all she needed.  She looked to be full of life and she played the part well.  No one knew that she was empty, not even her.

When we pray in a way that honors God we come with absolutely nothing to offer but our prayer.  We cannot pray with the thought that we have been good enough to deserve to be heard, for that is pharisaical hypocrisy.  To pray thinking we have been good enough to deserve to have our prayers answered is to waste our breath.  We pray because we need God more than anything else in this life.  We are desperate to know him in this fallen world so we make it our point to cry out to Him often throughout the day, not because we are good but because He is God.

Let us give up this self righteous thought that we have anything to offer to God.  All of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in his sight so let us lean hard on Christ and his cross and plead his blood as our means of securing the answers to our prayers, let us not again think we deserve to have any prayer of ours ever answered because we have been obedient to the Word as we should have been. The answers to our prayers lie in Christ alone and not in our own self efforts to be good enough to earn them.

Never going to be good enough so I will trust in His goodness,

Song of Songs 7:10 (NIV)
¹⁰ I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me.

What tremendous words of comfort to hear spoken about us in the pages of Holy Scripture.  "I belong to my lover and his desire is for me."  To think that there is something within us that captures the heart and desire of our great God is beyond imagination.  What could we possibly have that would warrant such attention?  King David spoke of it like this in Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

Today when you are tempted to think your life has no meaning or purpose or perhaps you have no one that thinks about you think again. Your Creator has such desire for you that he planned before you were even created to rescue you from your sin and draw you to himself.  It is true that his desire is for you.  This self sufficient God who needs nothing or no one has such a desire for you that he designed a way for you to come home even when you were powerless to do so.  It is called irresistible grace and we revel in this truth today.

If you have any desire for the things of God it is because you God desires you.  If you have any longing in your heart to live for the glory of God it is because your God has made you for himself.  Today when the desire for prayer rises within you run quickly to your father and find him waiting for you to reveal to you his grace and love.  Remember that you have one who knows you more than any one else in all the world and his desire is for you, he must know something about you that no one else does.  Revel in his grace today as you run to him with your prayers.

 I am desired by one who knows me best,

Here they are in prayer and it seems as if they can reach out and touch the Lord though he is not present I a physical sense any longer.  There is a collective awareness of the nearness of Christ by all who are gathered together.  Hear their prayer again,  “By stretching out your hand . .  .”

Have you ever been in a prayer meeting when you could feel the real sense of the presence of the Lord?  If you ever have you will never be content to be in any other meeting unless his presence is there.  I want to ask a few questions today about our text.  Why was Christ so clearly present to them while they prayed?  Why is it that He is not so real and present when we pray in our prayer times in our churches?  What can we do to correct this situation so that we too can have a realized sense of hte presence of Christ?

Why was Christ so real to them?  They approached their prayer with childlike faith.  They had heard the promises of Christ and they just believed them to be true and acted accordingly.  Their prayers were not about themselves or personal wishes but about the furthering of the gospel in the world.  They did not pray for the conversion of the lost, they prayed for the boldness to preach to those lost.  This is a completely different position to pray from.  We do not know who the Lord has called but we do know that He has called us to preach to every creature and for that we need boldness because many of will stand before wicked kings and immoral rulers and preach knowing it will cost us our lives and for that we need boldness.  Some of us are called to share Christ at our workplace and for that some of us will lose our jobs and for that we need boldness.  Some are called to preach to those who are dying and speak to warn them as they stand on the edge of eternity of their peril without Christ and for that we need boldness.  Others will be called to preach to the hardened reprobate who will never be convinced no matter what and for that we need boldness.

Why was Christ so real to them?  They lived to share and he always shows up where he is obeyed and worshipped.

Now the question, “Why is Christ not so realized in our present situation?”  Because the exact opposite is true about us.  Our prayers are more about our petty needs and problems that the declaration of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  When is the last time you prayed for an unreached people group in your church?  When is the last time you prayed as a family or an individual for the unreached people groups to have a chance to hear the gospel? How many lost are on your prayer list?  How many people have you told about Christ this past week, month or year? Have you faced any difficult situations this past year because of your sharing the gospel?  Experienced any hardship or persecution because of your life and testimony?

Perhaps the reason we do not realize the presence of God is because we really do not need him as much as they did.  Or maybe it should be put in a different way, perhaps we do not desire him as they did?  He will come where is desired and worshipped.

And to our last question, “What can we do to correct this situation?”  Take the step of faith and tell someone about Christ.  Spend a few moments learning about and praying for some unreached people groups.  (You can find the resources you need for this at www.imb.org.)  Begin praying for divine appointments with those that God is calling to himself and ask him for the boldness to open you r mouth when those times come.

If we will choose to obey Christ then when we ask him to stretch forth his hand to heal he will and we will find his presence to be real in our midst once again.

“God give us boldness and as we obey you stretch forth your hand so that we may experience in our midst once again.”

Sharing the Gospel because I want to know Him,

²⁵ Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
²⁶ The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
²⁷ For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
²⁸ For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

The prayer of the early church here indicates that they were well versed in Scripture.  They used the Scriptures often in their prayers.  They claimed promises and stood on the Scriptures whenever they prayed for anything.  Their prayers were not just words that came out of their mouths but they were words that came directly from the Spirit of the Lord.

“Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said . . .”  They had felt the power of he Word of the Lord before and they had learned from the apostles and the others who had been with Jesus that the best equipment they had to engage in any spiritual battle was the Word of God. They wielded it well as they prayed. 

They were unimpressed with the rulers of this world.  They had learned perhaps from Caleb and Joshua of old that the giants of this world are nothing to fear if the God of the Universe is with you.  Note the emphasis and the choice of words in this passage.  They speak of the rulers of this world standing against whom?  They were taking their stand against a little child named Jesus.  Can you imagine the humor in this statement.  The  rulers gathered together to stake their stand against a little child name Jesus.  No where before in history had a little child so terrified any ruler, let alone a number of rulers and caused them to quake in fear.

O but this child was not like the other children born into this world, this child was going to ruin their kingdoms.  Notice that as the church continues to pray they express their trust in the sovereign care of their God.  Their life was not in the hands of these wicked rulers, their life was in the hand of their God who would work out all things in accordance with his good pleasure. 

Take note of what now follows as they prayed.  They did not pray for God to change the minds of the rulers of this world.  They did not pray for things to go better for  them, nor did they pray that their culture change.  They prayed that God would work out his plan.  Some would say if this is true then what purpose are we even praying?  The answer is quite simple really, because our Lord has commanded us to pray and now we get to enjoy being part of his redemptive work in history, for as we pray he releases his purposes to reach those who need to receive Christ.

Here is what I know of prayer and the sovereignty of God so far.  When I pray according to God’s word and seek to share Christ everywhere I go I see God working.  When I do not pray and refuse to share the gospel I cannot see him anywhere.  So let us pray because he commands us and let us share so we may see his glory.

Praying and Sharing so I can see Him,

Acts 4:23-31 (KJV)
²³ And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
²⁴ And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
²⁵ Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
²⁶ The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
²⁷ For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
²⁸ For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
²⁹ And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
³⁰ By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
³¹ And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

For the next several days I want to go on a journey with you.  If we were to ask many believers what is the one discipline that you neglect most often what answer would we hear?  One of the most neglected disciplines of the church is this one thing we have been focusing on throughout these missiles, the discipline of real God honoring prayer and intercession.

The prayer meetings in our churches are no longer examples of God meeting his church in great wonder and miraculous intervention.  Many prayer meetings have become one more piece of evidence for the intellectual unbeliever.  He attends one of our prayer meetings and quickly sees the church bored at best, or worse yet, asleep in the pew while a few voice some prayer they have recited for years with little real passion expressed toward God or the lost.  After attendance in our prayer meeting the intellectual unbeliever leaves once more convinced that we are praying to a dead God who does not invade his people’s lives and offer anything more than, “Let me help you with you sore toe,” response

This was not the way it was when the church was birthed in Jerusalem. Let us investigate prayerfully for the next few days just how it was that the early church prayed and found her strength to persevere.

The text we will be considering these next few days in the following; Acts 4:23-31 (KJV)
²³ And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
²⁴ And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
²⁵ Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
²⁶ The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
²⁷ For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
²⁸ For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
²⁹ And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
³⁰ By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
³¹ And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Peter and John had just returned from the council of Jewish elders.  They had been told not to teach anymore in this name, Jesus.  They had been warned they would suffer significant pain if they continued.  So they returned to report to the church and shared their report.

The first response of the church was, “When they heard this they lifted up their voices to God in one accord. . .”  Prayer and reaching toward heaven was their immediate response.  They did not look for how they could save themselves from more trouble, they went immediately to their Father and sought his direction.

It is also interesting to note that we cannot find the early church in Acts ever praying to be delivered from hardship or persecution. Her focus was on the spreading of the gospel and she was most concerned about her message and not her comfort. Perhaps she understood if she was declaring the message, God would take care of her.  Someone once said, “If you make God’s business your business then he will make your business his business.  And who better to take care of your business than God?”

I think it would do us well to heed the example of this early church and not make our concern be our comfort, but let our concern be the declaration of the gospel and then let us watch to see how God will take care of need for comfort.  It is convicting that the church in America spends a large percentage of her time in building buildings and raising money to pay for these icons. But when it comes to intercession for the gospel proclamation it seems her voice is hardly heard in the heavens.

It is not about building and budgets, it is about the gospel and God’s glory.  Let us labor to be like the early church in this way.  Let us make prayer for our growing boldness our first response.

 Praying for more boldness for the Church,