Praying Dependently!

In Matthew 6:11, our Lord teaches us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. It is interesting that at no time does He indicate that we should pray for our monthly needs, annual budget, retirement to be vested; but for our daily ones. Many people are finding that there is more month at the end of their pay check during these times of recession. Throughout biblical history, there is an emphasis upon daily dependence upon the Lord for our provisions. The children of Israel tried to store the manna provided for them for multiple days only to find that it spoiled. It was as if its built-in obsolescence was for 24 hours only. This required the followers in the wilderness to trust that the Provider would not forget them tomorrow. This fact prompted the words, His mercies are new every morning! No need to eat leftover mercies when His are new every morning. However, that requires us to trust Him! By the way, my wife refuses to ask the blessing over leftovers. She says they have already been blessed.
It is also interesting that He never suggests that we pray for our daily steak and potatoes. But we are taught to pray for our needs to be met, not our luxuries and wants to be satisfied. My dear bride and I will soon celebrate forty-one years of marital bliss. But when we first married, there were some rocky times. She is the baby and I am the oldest. We had many discussions about what is a necessity and what is a luxury. For instance, if you have seen a recent picture of me, you would know that I consider all hair brushes to be a luxury that I can see no need for.
Philippians 4:19 reads, And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Pray dependently!

Praying Submissively!

There is a beautiful couplet in the Model Prayer in Matthew 6:10 that reads, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This is a statement of fact, Thy kingdom come, followed by a statement of amplification or description as to what that statement might look like, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. The Scripture teaches that the kingdom of God is not territorial. In other words, you cannot say it is here or there, but it is in you. In short, the kingdom of God is in your life when you let Him be the King of your life. When He is King in your life, you will do His will. Surely if there is any place where the will of God is done, it is in heaven. This verse says that His kingdom becomes reality in us when we obey Him as is true in heaven.
Mr. Hughes, a fine deacon who served in the FBC, Central, (near Baton Rouge, LA) once told me that so often in his life when he reached the end of his rope, he just tied a knot in the rope and kept hanging on. He went on to say that he really only lived in obedience when he turned lose of the rope and fell into the loving arms of our Lord. You cannot submit to His will as long as you are still nursing your own will. Except a person die, he cannot live again!
When we pray, we do not seek to have Him submit to our will, but we submit to His! Pray submissively!

Praying Reverently!

While the first element of the Model Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13, "Our Father who is in heaven..." teaches us to pray confidently. This familiarity does not need to be to the exclusion of reverence. The same Jesus who said "Abba, Father" (which is translated, Daddy) also taught us to pray, "Hallowed be Your Name" . No matter how intimate our relationship with Christ, we need never forget that He is not like us. He is not just at the top of the list of humans, He is on a totally separate list. "His name is above every other name." Philippians 2:9 It seems that we either reverence other things than His Name in this country or we don't reverence anything at all. We are to come boldly before His throne of grace, but never to take this access to the Almighty for granted in any way. It is a unique privilege to approach the King of Kings in such a way. This is why I could never refer to Jesus Christ our Lord as the "Man Upstairs". Let us pray with confidence and reverence!

Praying Confidently!

Looking at the Model Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 gives us insight into seven elements that should be prominent in our prayer life. Notice that I do not refer to this prayer as the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is recorded in John 17. However this passage is an answer to the question as to how we should pray. Therefore, this is the Model Prayer. The first element of prayer is confidence. In 1975, I became pastor of the Jerusalem Baptist Chruch in Pumpkin (most often pronounced "punkin") Center, Louisiana. Our daughter, Cheri, was two years old at the time. She often accompanied me as we visited the homes of the families in the community. Her usual spot was standing on the front seat of my pick-up truck immediately behind my right shoulder. (Please note that this was long before child restraint seats or seat belt laws) She had so much confidence in her Dad until I could have told her that the cows in the pasture were snakes and she would have believed it. Or that the horses were dragons. Or.... Well, you get the idea. I believe that may be something of what our Lord had in mind when He said, Except you become as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom... Do you have that kind of confidence in your Lord when you pray? Simon said they had toiled all night and caught nothing, but nevertheless at your word...Luke 5:5 Do you take Him at his word?

Ultimate Love!

Today we conclude the series of thoughts highlighting How To Guarantee a Productive and Effective Life from II Peter 1:5-11. The pivoltal verse in this paragraph of Scripture is verse 8 which reads, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have looked at these qualities: 1. Faith is the foundation for all things, You must be born again! 2. Add to your faith virtue involves Taking Out the Trash! 3. Add to your virtue knowlege, which we called Christianity for Dummies Like Me! 4. Add to your knowlege self-control, which we called Living a Balanced Life! 5. Add to self-control perseverance, Keeping On Even When It Hurts! 6. Add to perseverance godliness, You Must Say 'Yes' Before You Hear the Question! 7. Add to godliness brotherly kindness. 8. Add to brotherly kindness love, which we are calling Ultimate Love! Romans 5:8 reads, But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You can never say that no one cares about you again. Once and for all, the Lord has demonstrated his love for you and that's unquestionable. Someone has said they they asked Jesus how much he loved us and he stretched out his arms and died for us. Wow! No one ever loved like that! When I was younger, I often took up for other folk in school, on the bus, in the neighborhood. Those whom I took up for and often fought for knew that I loved them. However, on occasion, I got whooped! It's not all about just taking up someone's cause, but it's also about winning. Jesus took up for us and in a few weeks, we will celebrate Resurrection Day, which was his vindication that he won! You and I had no hope of ever paying the debt for our sins that we owed. Jesus owed no debt for he had no sin. However, he demonstrated his love for us in that he paid a debt he did not owe for you and me, who had no hope of ever paying our own debt. This is ultimate love! Agape means to lose sight of meeting my own needs in the meeting of the needs of the object of our love. Reminder: You are guaranteed a productive and effective life if these qualities are in you and increasing!

Brotherly Kindness

We are continuing our series of thoughts on, "How to Guarantee a Productive and Effective Life" from II Peter 1:5-11. Verse seven tells us to add to your godliness, brotherly kindness. The word used here is phileo. This is the term used in the transliteration of the city of Philadelphia. You may recall that this city is known as the "city of brotherly love". This quality is best understood in the passage often referred to as the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
There are three lifestyles in this world:
1. What is yours is mine and all I have to do is take it. This lifestyle is represented by the robbers who beat the traveler and left him half dead by the side of the road. Those who exhibit this lifestyle are takers and never givers.
2. What is yours is yours and what is mine is mine and never shall the two meet. The priest and the Levite who came by where the traveler lay but rationalized that they could not be bothered. Admittedly, they had some good reasons not to get involved. If they had touched the wounded man and he had died they would be unclean and have to go through a purification process before they could resume their religious duties. Do you know the names of your closest neighbors and what really makes them tick?
3. What is mine is yours and all you have to do is need it. The Samaritan represented this lifestyle. He went out of his way to help a stranger, not because of what he was hoping to get out of it, but just because the traveler needed him. Jesus asked the lawyer who was neighbor to the traveler and his reply was the Samaritan. Do you go out of your way to help others?

You Must Say "Yes" Before You Hear the Question!

Godliness is exactly what it sounds like...being like God. Perhaps a better way of saying it is to be Christ-like. The Scripture says,
"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you." II Peter 1:5-11
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is a great example of godliness. Upon hearing the news that she would bear a son who would be Jesus Christ, her response was, "Behold the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." Luke 1:38
Notice that God has a five year plan for your life, but He is not going to give you the details up front. Godliness is totally counter intuitive. Our normally accepted practice is to examine all the implications and decide to go one way or another. We weigh the pros and cons and see whether to take the job, make the move, etc. However, God did not spell out all the details to Mary as to what she'd have to go through (such as the crucifixion of her son), but she said yes to God even without knowing the whole picture. Do you trust God enough to say yes to Him before you see the whole picture? I would have cheated myself a thousand times if I had not said yes to Him early in my life. On the other hand, I have been blessed a thousand times as much because I said yes to Him. Do you trust Him enough to say yes without seeing the full picture?