The conversation on prayer continued
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
This last area of prayer deals with making sure that you are praying to the God that is revealed in the Scriptures. We are in a situation within our churches in America were many times we find ourselves in prayer; but it is prayer that is directed toward many other things but the God that is revealed to us in Scripture. It isn't that we don't study the word, but that we tend to accept the image of God that is portrayed to us by the world around us. It becomes that image of God that sticks in our minds and appeals to the natural man. It is that image of God that we feel as men and women we can control.
We have been told now for a very long time through the ministry of various churches that man is the pinnacle of God's earthly creation. We did not achieve that position as some kind of evolutionary process that placed us on the highest pedestal of God's achievements, but we were created from our very beginning as Jesus had said to be much better than birds and sheep (MATTHEW 12:12. We have been created to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it. This is done by bringing its vast resources into submission. We have been created by God for a purpose
Today we tend to look on God as more of a kind gentle Santa Claus figure who dispenses good things with no sense of justice or truth, and that appeals to guilty sinners. When we look at the truth of the God of Scripture we can see the thunderings and the lightnings of Mount Sinai. We can gaze it Jesus as he hangs on the cross of Calvary; hanging there and unspeakable agony because of the justice of a holy God.
As much as anything else this speaks to me of the decision that we have been given this life to make concerning holding and cultivating the love of God with in our own heart. As Matthew 6:24 tells us "no man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon." When it comes to seeking after God we can only do that through searching the Scriptures to find the truth about his heart. Different people will see different things as they search God's word. Some will see the function of God's law at work through the conviction of their heart and their relationship with him. Others will see his kingdom, but Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 "but seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." Many of us today may well be seeking the kingdom of God without also seeking his righteousness, and then finding it difficult when we realize that we are still in need.We rarely tend to think about God's feelings about what we do render in seeking him and his righteousness. Think about how God must feel when he sees us spending so much more energy satisfying and gratifying self as we neglect our commitments to him. We spend so little time obeying God's commandment to love, or to warn sinners to flee from the wrath that is to come and when we consider what he has done for us, our excuses fall short. It is as though we seek first his kingdom is something that we have totally taken for granted that we understand; when all along it may well be one of the least understood parts of our relationship with him. I think we may have a false notion that we are children of God while we stay in a state of disobedience to his holy commandments. We not only need to come to Christ, and seek his face, but we need to stay centered in Christ for our lives to continue to bear fruit of the spirit. I pray that you will continue to join with me and prayed together all through this weekend about the things that we as a country are deciding this next week. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
This last area of prayer deals with making sure that you are praying to the God that is revealed in the Scriptures. We are in a situation within our churches in America were many times we find ourselves in prayer; but it is prayer that is directed toward many other things but the God that is revealed to us in Scripture. It isn't that we don't study the word, but that we tend to accept the image of God that is portrayed to us by the world around us. It becomes that image of God that sticks in our minds and appeals to the natural man. It is that image of God that we feel as men and women we can control.
We have been told now for a very long time through the ministry of various churches that man is the pinnacle of God's earthly creation. We did not achieve that position as some kind of evolutionary process that placed us on the highest pedestal of God's achievements, but we were created from our very beginning as Jesus had said to be much better than birds and sheep (MATTHEW 12:12. We have been created to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it. This is done by bringing its vast resources into submission. We have been created by God for a purpose
Today we tend to look on God as more of a kind gentle Santa Claus figure who dispenses good things with no sense of justice or truth, and that appeals to guilty sinners. When we look at the truth of the God of Scripture we can see the thunderings and the lightnings of Mount Sinai. We can gaze it Jesus as he hangs on the cross of Calvary; hanging there and unspeakable agony because of the justice of a holy God.
As much as anything else this speaks to me of the decision that we have been given this life to make concerning holding and cultivating the love of God with in our own heart. As Matthew 6:24 tells us "no man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon." When it comes to seeking after God we can only do that through searching the Scriptures to find the truth about his heart. Different people will see different things as they search God's word. Some will see the function of God's law at work through the conviction of their heart and their relationship with him. Others will see his kingdom, but Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 "but seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." Many of us today may well be seeking the kingdom of God without also seeking his righteousness, and then finding it difficult when we realize that we are still in need.We rarely tend to think about God's feelings about what we do render in seeking him and his righteousness. Think about how God must feel when he sees us spending so much more energy satisfying and gratifying self as we neglect our commitments to him. We spend so little time obeying God's commandment to love, or to warn sinners to flee from the wrath that is to come and when we consider what he has done for us, our excuses fall short. It is as though we seek first his kingdom is something that we have totally taken for granted that we understand; when all along it may well be one of the least understood parts of our relationship with him. I think we may have a false notion that we are children of God while we stay in a state of disobedience to his holy commandments. We not only need to come to Christ, and seek his face, but we need to stay centered in Christ for our lives to continue to bear fruit of the spirit. I pray that you will continue to join with me and prayed together all through this weekend about the things that we as a country are deciding this next week. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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