Wanting To

But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Dt 4:29

As much as we like to call ourselves adults, we never really grow up. The same tantrums, demeanors we displayed when we were children, make their way into our adult selves – just under a more controlled circumstance. The way we behave toward people now, is a repeat of the way we interacted with other children when we were growing up. And, unfortunately the way we act toward God or choose to listen to what God has to say is the way we listened or didn't listen to our parents when we were small.  The truth? We listen when we want to.

You’re not going to hear God unless you really, really want to listen.   David wrote, “My God, I want to do what you want” and “What I want most of all and at all times is to honor your laws” (Psalm 40:8, Psalm 199:20).  David was passionate in his declaration that what he wanted most of all was to honor God. These things weren't options for him. He used words for seeking God (“I long for it,” “I crave it,” “I hunger for it,” and “I’m like a dear panting for water.”). The question is, is this what you hear in your own vocabulary?

A lot of people talk to God, but they never hear from God. Prayer is a monologue for most people, and monologues do not convey relationship. In a marriage, when only one spouse talks the marriage is dysfunctional because that’s not a relationship. Relationships require communication, and it is just as important as talking to God in prayer. Prayer is not just talking to God, but listening to God and letting Him talk to you. God doesn't tell his dream for your life if you want to debate it. God doesn't tell his vision for your life if you want to discuss it. God doesn't tell you what he put you on Earth to do just so you can say, “Let me think about It.” You've got to want it more than anything else.

David’s words have to become ours. We have to say, “I've got to know why. I've got to know what You want me to do with my life. I've got to hear Your voice. I've got to have Your vision.”

What is the thing you want most in life? Do you long for God’s voice?  Would you say that you are passionate for Christ in the same sense that when you are thirsty that you crave water? When you ask God or talk to God, what attitude do you talk with Him? Is it the three year old in you, or that part of you that realizes that God is everything? Are you prepared to respond in obedience?

Jim

Prayer Meetings and Groups WORK!

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

2 Cor 1:11 

Honestly, I don’t know how this works. I just know that it does, and there is not only example of it in the scripture, but testimony within the scripture of the answers to that prayer and how effective it was when employed. It is evident, that there is additional power in group prayer that is not there when you just pray by yourself. But another truth to this, is that you can’t do this without sharing both your needs as well as contribute in prayer for another’s.  

The Bible says, “If any two agree as touching anything it shall be done” and “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Mt.18:19,20). It is pride that keeps us from sharing, and fear. Pride inhibits us, deceiving us into believing that we can “handle it ourselves.” This is Satan’s old trump card, that we don’t need God. We don’t need to talk to God, ask God or even anyone else to handle our issues – we can do it ourselves.  Yet, this is not what Jesus teaches us. He teaches us …the more the better! But now, once we get past pride, we need to overcome fear. It is a sad thing, that people under the guise of calling themselves Christians have abused other Christians or abused their trust. People sharing burdens that they entrusted others with to ask for prayers, was spread throughout an entire town. People sharing burdens were told that they shouldn't do that it meant they were weak. And then the "coup de grace," we shouldn't share things and pray for one another because of what some hustler promised or did in the past.  If you KNOW God, then you know that any of the things we just mentioned is not from God but from Satan.

The truth?  You need that power of prayer and sharing with others, to get through what you’re going through. That’s why you need to ask others to pray for you.  Paul taught, in Gal.6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” What is the law of Christ? “Love your neighbor as yourself. (Mt.22:37-40)” When you pray for other people, you are practicing the commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself. When they pray for you, they are loving you as themselves.

Who are the people in your life you can go to with your prayer requests and trust that they will pray for you? For us here in our little town, it is our local family of God. It may be your small group, a support group you meet with, your personal family. What is important, is find someone that you can meet with, talk to and share with. There are always going to be abusers out there, but trusting God is better than anything that man can do to you.  God’s people are out there, and they want to welcome you into their family and want to pray with you and for you. You can start today, by helping by prayer. Like Paul, there will be many that will give thanks for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Jim

Hedges - There are Different Kinds!

Hedges - There are Different Kinds!

I came across a very interesting article by Jon Walker called  Prayer: The Hedge of Protection that inspired me for this post. We are all familiar with Job, where Satan accuses God of placing a "hedge of protection" around Job (Job.1:10,11).  This hedge, God allowed to be lifted, so that Job might prove that he was "a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil (vs.8)."   A similar type of thing happens to Peter. The removing of the hedge of protection, is implied in Peter’s life: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31 NIV). We shudder to think about this, yet, we are told that our faith will be tested and proven.  Either we will endure the evil and prove God's trust in us, or we will fail and have to endure the consequences of our choice.

Yet, have you considered that just as in life, there are different kinds of hedges?  Job's hedge was one of protection to keep things out. However, there is another kind of hedge that is designed to keep one in. In Hosea 2:6,7  "Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now."  We stated that we will either endure and prove God's trust, or we will fail and endure the consequences?  Well...here are the consequences.  Jonah found himself in a similar situation, as well as Pharaoh of the Exodus and many other characters in biblical history. 

We can ask God to hedge us, to find the right kind of friends but be protected from the wrong kind of influences. When Gomer, the Old Testament prophet Hosea’s wife, continued to chase after other lovers, God placed a hedge of thorns around her, keeping her from finding adulterous relationships and eventually driving her back to her husband. We should not be surprised, if the tall hedge of protection that we desire, turns into a hedge of thorns when we make the wrong choices.  We all want God's protection, and God gives this protection. Yet, we should not expect God to leave it in place all the time and He does not promise us to do so. 

Learn to be thankful (Col.1:12; 2:7; 3:17, Psa.100:4; 107:22; 116:17) and appreciate what God does for you, whether it is protecting you or letting you loose. There is always something to learn, and there is always something to appreciate.  Remember the Bible's teaching, that it is “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (Jas. 5:16)

Jim

Does God want us to cast our burdens on Him even if their burdens we have created?

Does God want us to cast our burdens on Him even if their burdens we have created?

The passage referred to is 1 Pet.5:7. Study of the context of the passage will tell us what we should know...

1Pe 5:6-8 Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up. Throw all your anxieties upon him, because he cares about you. Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

The first thing you notice, is the passage refers to humility. Defined, this is is the quality of being modest, reverential, even politely submissive, and never being arrogant, contemptuous. The passage beckons us to humble ourselves before God. So, in first response to your question, if the situation is one that I have created, it would depend upon my attitude. Is my attitude one of "Hey God - Guess what, I'm here again. Now get down here and help me out" -- then the answer to my prayer and behest of God is going to be a flat NO! Because until I learn humility, "God opposes the arrogant, but to the humble he gives grace." James 4:6

If my attitude is, "not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God! Have mercy on me, sinner that I am!' (Lke.1813), then the answer would be yes, God would look upon my anxiety and strive to help and be gracious.

The second part to this, is that God does care for us, even when we walk into the devil's jaws. He does not promise us that we will not be hurt, suffer consequences, or even have to wallow in the manure of sin for a while before we come to understand what God offers and that what He offers is not to be taken for granted (Lk.15:11-32)

Third - Notice vs.8. Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Sober here means just that - the opposite of drunk! Not drunk as in intoxicated, but to keep my mind clear at all times. To not allow my thinking to become mottled with intoxicants, life, sin, or anything else that will cause me to drop my guard. Because when I do, that is when Satan will attack and temptation will be least likely to be resisted. I am to stay alert so that I can see what is going on around me at all times, and so that I can see clearly the dangers in front of me and avoid them. It doesn't take too many times stubbing toes in the dark and running headlong into sharp cornered furniture in the dark to realize that it is better to navigate the room with the light on.

We are all prodigal sons at some point, gathered all together, and taking our journeys into a far country, and there wasted our substance and ourselves with riotous and reckless living. It is the HUMBLE, that come to their senses, realize what they have given up, what they have done, and returning to their Father. These are the ones that God seeks.