In her powerful and poignant book, Beyond Ourselves, Catherine Marshal writes of an extremely challenging time in her life when her focus was on herself. Many months into her painful ordeal she found herself praying, as she phrased it, “the prayer of relingquishment”. She prayed the highest and best prayer that anyone can pray, “Lord, not my will, but thy will be done”.
Upon relinquishing her request for herself, she gave herself over to God who gave her more than she could have hoped for. Jesus did not want to go to the cross, but resurrection followed.
What kind of prayers do you pray? Do you name your need and then believe God for the answer? Or do you give up what you want and gladly look forward to what God has for you, realizing that his answer may be light years from what you personally hope for?
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
September 11, 2009 - Matthew 26:39
“I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Is there a better prayer to pray? When I reflect on this prayer all my other prayers pale in comparison. It is this prayer that cuts to the core of my selfishness and self-centeredness. It is this prayer that takes me out of the center of my galaxy where everything and everyone revolves around me and replaces me with the Son.
Do you fear such a prayer? Why? Is His eye not on the sparrow? Do you and I really think that the life we hold onto so tightly is so much better than the one God will offer?
I think comfort is way, way overrated.
Is there a better prayer to pray? When I reflect on this prayer all my other prayers pale in comparison. It is this prayer that cuts to the core of my selfishness and self-centeredness. It is this prayer that takes me out of the center of my galaxy where everything and everyone revolves around me and replaces me with the Son.
Do you fear such a prayer? Why? Is His eye not on the sparrow? Do you and I really think that the life we hold onto so tightly is so much better than the one God will offer?
I think comfort is way, way overrated.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
September 10, 2009 - John 7:17
“Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know”
I think this is the door that skeptics need to open. I suspect that many unbelievers aren’t so sure that they actually want to believe. It seems so ingrained in us to hang on and fight for beliefs that have grasped us through upbringing or friends or culture or education. Notice that most of what we believe did not come to us by honest, object inquiry, rather they have simply been placed in us. We take what’s put in us, feel intuitively that it’s right, then find logical arguments to support what we already believe.
Jesus gives us a way out of this mess. He asks, “are you really open to the possibility that there is a God and that doing God’s will is the best possible life?”. If not, you’ll probably never know. However, if you are genuinely open to the possibility that you’re a-priori assumptions about God could be wrong and consider the possibility of a new reality, then Jesus tells you how to pursue that possibility. Begin to follow and in doing so, do so with an openness to actually finding a new desire welling up from within, the possibility that not only your intellect can discover something currently off your radar, but also that your desires can be awakened.
I think this is the door that skeptics need to open. I suspect that many unbelievers aren’t so sure that they actually want to believe. It seems so ingrained in us to hang on and fight for beliefs that have grasped us through upbringing or friends or culture or education. Notice that most of what we believe did not come to us by honest, object inquiry, rather they have simply been placed in us. We take what’s put in us, feel intuitively that it’s right, then find logical arguments to support what we already believe.
Jesus gives us a way out of this mess. He asks, “are you really open to the possibility that there is a God and that doing God’s will is the best possible life?”. If not, you’ll probably never know. However, if you are genuinely open to the possibility that you’re a-priori assumptions about God could be wrong and consider the possibility of a new reality, then Jesus tells you how to pursue that possibility. Begin to follow and in doing so, do so with an openness to actually finding a new desire welling up from within, the possibility that not only your intellect can discover something currently off your radar, but also that your desires can be awakened.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
September 8, 2009
“Maranatha” , meaning “come Lord, come”, is a word in the Aramaic language, a dialect of Hebrew, the language that Jesus spoke. Although the New Testament was written in Greek, the language introduced to Europe and Asia Minor by Alexander the Great and then remained as the common language of the Roman Empire, it was still adaptable enough to incorporate “loan words” as needed.
In this conclusion to Paul’s letter he addresses what is probably incomprehensible to most modern people. He speaks a curse on some and extends love and grace to others.
What’s up with that?
We moderns have such a difficult time with the Holiness of God. Yet, God’s love and God’s judgment are two sides of the same coin. Just as it is the very same sun that melts butter and hardens clay, it is the very same God whose love is so blazingly strong that it drives each of us to a decision, either to reciprocate His Love or to reject it. Ultimately each of us makes a decision with our lives, we either love God back or we end up having rejected him.
Paul closes his letter with strong words for those who reject God’s Grace in Christ and, yes, for the apathetic.
There is simply too much at stake when each of us faces God at our death or at the return of Jesus. Better to be challenged to a decision now, than to face God unprepared. Not to make a decision means having made one already.
In this conclusion to Paul’s letter he addresses what is probably incomprehensible to most modern people. He speaks a curse on some and extends love and grace to others.
What’s up with that?
We moderns have such a difficult time with the Holiness of God. Yet, God’s love and God’s judgment are two sides of the same coin. Just as it is the very same sun that melts butter and hardens clay, it is the very same God whose love is so blazingly strong that it drives each of us to a decision, either to reciprocate His Love or to reject it. Ultimately each of us makes a decision with our lives, we either love God back or we end up having rejected him.
Paul closes his letter with strong words for those who reject God’s Grace in Christ and, yes, for the apathetic.
There is simply too much at stake when each of us faces God at our death or at the return of Jesus. Better to be challenged to a decision now, than to face God unprepared. Not to make a decision means having made one already.
Friday, September 4, 2009
September 4, 2009
“Keep your eyes open” . . . . . . never forget that God is at work where you are. Pay attention, look for his interventions, small though they may appear. Even if you cannot discern Him, forget not, He is at work.
“hold tight to your convictions” . . . . . . . .There will always, always, always be “guidance” coming your way which will seem expedient, wise, practical, and intelligent. But if it contradicts what you know from God’s Word, then you will need to focus on the truth you know and stand firm in it, probably doing so with the support of Godly friends. No believer was ever meant to stand alone.
“give it all you’ve got, be resolute” . . . . . . .. . . I have found that outside pressures, including those that would want to find me compromising my faith, tend to cause me to be more intentional and stronger in pursuing God’s purposes. Ask God for his strength to infuse you with resoluteness and strength, again, often through other believers (you really do need a “spiritual running partner”), so that you don’t waver and fall.
“love without stopping” . . . . . . . . . . This is how you know you’re following God and not your own stubborn resoluteness. The latter can be done out of stubbornness, bitterness and anger, but the former is done with humility, strength of character, love of God and love of others.
Praying these two verses is not a bad way to start your day.
“hold tight to your convictions” . . . . . . . .There will always, always, always be “guidance” coming your way which will seem expedient, wise, practical, and intelligent. But if it contradicts what you know from God’s Word, then you will need to focus on the truth you know and stand firm in it, probably doing so with the support of Godly friends. No believer was ever meant to stand alone.
“give it all you’ve got, be resolute” . . . . . . .. . . I have found that outside pressures, including those that would want to find me compromising my faith, tend to cause me to be more intentional and stronger in pursuing God’s purposes. Ask God for his strength to infuse you with resoluteness and strength, again, often through other believers (you really do need a “spiritual running partner”), so that you don’t waver and fall.
“love without stopping” . . . . . . . . . . This is how you know you’re following God and not your own stubborn resoluteness. The latter can be done out of stubbornness, bitterness and anger, but the former is done with humility, strength of character, love of God and love of others.
Praying these two verses is not a bad way to start your day.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
September 3, 2009
In Ecclessiastes 3, Solomon writes that there is a time for everything. In Acts 17:26 Paul preaches to the Athenians that it is God who determines the times and places of men’s lives. Throughout the entire Old Testament we see the Holy Spirit sovereignly coming upon people and just as sovereignly departing from them. In John 3, Jesus tells that the move of the Holy Spirit is like the wind, no one knows when or from where it comes, rather one must prepare to receive and when the Spirit does move.
The timing of our actions and decisions, therefore, requires attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Indeed that should be the first thing on our radar each day as we awaken. “Lord make me attentive. Make me aware of the gentle promptings of Your Spirit. I want to follow You. Lord, please prevent me from from ever, ever asking you to bless my plans. Help me live in the gift of your plans having becoming mine”.
Yes, timing matters. It’s a scary thing to contemplate the possibility of having “missed God”. It’s also a wonderful thing to grow in the ability to hear and follow God’s gentle whisper and then to be able to say, “wow, God really was in this!”.
How patient are you in waiting on God?
The timing of our actions and decisions, therefore, requires attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Indeed that should be the first thing on our radar each day as we awaken. “Lord make me attentive. Make me aware of the gentle promptings of Your Spirit. I want to follow You. Lord, please prevent me from from ever, ever asking you to bless my plans. Help me live in the gift of your plans having becoming mine”.
Yes, timing matters. It’s a scary thing to contemplate the possibility of having “missed God”. It’s also a wonderful thing to grow in the ability to hear and follow God’s gentle whisper and then to be able to say, “wow, God really was in this!”.
How patient are you in waiting on God?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
September 2, 2009
Jesus had left all believers with what is known as the Great Commission. The Great Commandment of Jesus was to Love God and love people (Matt 22:27-30), which sums up the entire Old Testament. The Great Commission, however, is to “Make Disciples (Matt. 28:19).
Making disciples is exactly what Paul did. He met Timothy in Lystra and the took him under his wing, meaning first and foremost that he simply spent time with him. He did the same with John, Mark, Silas, Aquila and Priscilla and others. Paul was doing what Jesus had told every believer to do in Jesus’ last words before his ascension. We are to make disciples.
This, I find, is one of the most difficult things for modern Christians to do. Many would rather share the salvation message, “get them saved”, and then move on. But Jesus told us to “disciple”. This requires time, and sharing one’s life with another. In a world that demands life lived at a frenetic pace, this is countercultural.
Can you imagine befriending someone who may be far from God and simply taking the time to share your life with them, not because they are your “project”, but because God has led you to love them?
Making disciples is exactly what Paul did. He met Timothy in Lystra and the took him under his wing, meaning first and foremost that he simply spent time with him. He did the same with John, Mark, Silas, Aquila and Priscilla and others. Paul was doing what Jesus had told every believer to do in Jesus’ last words before his ascension. We are to make disciples.
This, I find, is one of the most difficult things for modern Christians to do. Many would rather share the salvation message, “get them saved”, and then move on. But Jesus told us to “disciple”. This requires time, and sharing one’s life with another. In a world that demands life lived at a frenetic pace, this is countercultural.
Can you imagine befriending someone who may be far from God and simply taking the time to share your life with them, not because they are your “project”, but because God has led you to love them?
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