One of the greatest characteristics of a Christian is the inward joy that doesn’t depend upon the circumstances we may find ourselves facing. Whereas happiness is the agreeable result of what happens to us, joy springs from a much deeper place inside of us…a place that may confound the world as they look at our circumstances and wonder how we can find any joy within it. This rejoicing in the midst of suffering may confuse the world, but to the Believer, it’s the bedrock of our faith. For it’s when we take our eyes off our circumstances and onto the Lord we can truly rejoice in His salvation & blessing… all the while acknowledging our dependance on Him as our ever present source of strength.
The Greek word in the New Testament for prayer is most interesting. It literally means “to be like a dog” before someone. Now this sounds strange when speaking of a Child of God approaching his Heavenly Father…but if we remember that most people of that time worked in Agriculture – tending and herding flocks and herds, it makes sense. Dogs did much of the work for their masters tending the flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle. These well trained dogs were always at their master’s side, waiting for commands…depending on their master for all their needs, submitting to his authority, and obeying his words. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, they weren’t saying, “Teach us to say our prayers.” Instead, they were asking Him to “Teach us all that’s involved in depending on God as our Master in the same way a faithful dog depends on the shepherd…willfully submitting to Him and trusting in His wisdom to give us only the best.
Jesus was referring to the Pharisees as the hypocrites in these verses. Instead of praying in the quiet confines of the Temple in order to commune with God the Father, they would go out into the loud hubbub of the public market place. There, they would raise their hands to heaven, showcasing their piety, and pray…not addressing God, but attempting to attract attention of the people passing by. Their words were self-seeking, empty phrases that sought to impress others with their self-importance as they conspicuously stood on the street corner. Jesus said that their prayers were empty and nothing more would come from them…for prayer is meant to be sweet close fellowship between a Believer and God, not some spectacle to impress others with words.
Turning water into wine was the first of seven miracles Jesus performed in the Book of John. They were the fingerprints of God…valuable not so much for what happened, but for the spiritual end and purpose of manifesting God’s power and might. And with all of these miracles, Jesus supplemented them with His words. As we read through the Book of John, we see that after each miracle Jesus would explain, give application, and/or interpret the significance in light of making God known. Pointing not so much to the miracle itself, but to the reason behind it, the interpretation of why it happened, and the instruction that must be followed because of it. His words became light… making God the Father known to His disciples that they might put their faith and trust in Him.
Out of the vast riches of God’s mercy our response to Him must be to offer the only thing we can give Him…the right to ourselves. We can’t dedicate our gifts to Him, for they’re not ours to give in the first place. Likewise, we can give Him our natural talents, but again they didn’t originate from us. The only thing we can sacrifice on the Altar is our will for His. For it tells us in I Corinthians 6 that our bodies are meant for the Lord, and that Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives is in us. We come to the Lord with nothing…empty-handed, a beggar looking for bread…and the Lord’s mercy fills us to the top…so why shouldn’t we then give Him the only gift we can?
We’re told in this short verse there are three things we are to do…ask, seek, and knock, but this is where our true motives come to the surface. Are we asking for things from a worldly viewpoint or from a Godly one? Are we asking God out of selfish self-fulfillment, pride, and ambition, or desiring only the good things within God’s Will? James 4:3 tells us that when we ask but don’t receive it’s because we’ve asked with wrong motives (which means bad intent and/or selfish reasons). The next directive is to seek…not seeking after self-glory but after God’s best for our life. For the more we seek to fulfill ourselves, the less we are seeking God. Finally, there’s knocking…but at the correct door. That means not pounding on a boarded-over door that God firmly shut in the past…and you know it’s the wrong door, but you still jiggle the lock every once in a while just to make sure God hasn’t changed His mind. In our lifetime we’ll knock at many doors, some good, some bad…but it’s only the Lord that will open the right one so we might enter.
It was the Sabbath, and Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue. Way against the back wall, standing in the deep shadows was a woman, crippled for the last eighteen years. Her contorted posture so bent over that she couldn’t straighten up…her meager life consisting only of excruciating pain both physically, mentally, and spiritually. Though the trip to the Synagogue had been exhausting, with people gawking and pointing her out, she was eager to hear Jesus speak…wanting nothing more than to get a glimpse of this Man of God everyone was talking about. She came with no expectations of being healed…on the contrary, she was resigned to the fact that this was her hopeless life. But Jesus had other ideas. He picked her out of the shadows and called her forward to the very front of the Synagogue. You could hear the murmurings of the crowd as she slowly made her way up front…”Why is she here? Who allowed her to come in? What is He going to do?” Jesus then bent down in order to look into the woman’s eyes and compassionately said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” He then carefully and lovingly placed His hands on her and it says she immediately straightened up and stood erect. Her reaction to this healing was to praise God, because for the very first time in eighteen years this woman could look ahead as she walked and not at the ground. How many of us are walking through life today bent over…burdened with unspeakable pain that has us bent over with shame, condemnation, and hopelessness? Jesus wants to take that burden that’s weighing you down and has you looking at the ground…He’s saying to you, “Come to Me.”
Most of us don’t like to ask for help, directions, or answers to questions we have. It goes against our stubborn, willful, independent heart & nature. The same goes for making a request before the Lord. It’s usually after we’ve tried everything ourselves that we finally come to Him for help. So why is it so hard to take our supplications and petitions to God? Are we afraid He’ll refuse us, revile us, Or belittle us? Maybe we’re just mad at ourselves for not being able to figure the problem out and are then forced to ask for help? Perhaps in the past we’ve pleaded to the Lord for something…only to have the opposite happen, and now we’re not sure if we want to try it again. In God’s limitless vision for us, He can do only good, and our asking isn’t nearly as important as how we ask. I John 3 & 5 tell us that we can have confidence to receive from God anything we ask if we obey His commands, do what pleases Him, and ask according to His Will.
There’s thousands of really good Christian books out there today…books that tell you about God. And granted, though they come by human writing, many, (but certainly not all), come as a divine message that work in Believers through the Holy Spirit. But we also know that God can take the most trivial & frivolous book and speak directly to our hearts if He wants to. Yes, there are some really great books out there, and we could read our way through them until Jesus returns, but they will never measure up to opening the Bible and searching it for ourselves. When was the last time you sat down with your Bible and just enjoyed reading it for sheer pleasure? All the Christian books on earth can only tell you about God…for it’s only when you read God’s Word for yourself can its active power enable you to receive it…taking it from just head knowledge to heart knowledge… where you can then embrace and allow it to work in your life.
As a Christian we look at the world and its needs and can become overwhelmed with all the volunteer opportunities available. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all good service projects coming from legitimate needs in the community…but the problem is, we think we can do them all! And very soon our time is spread so thin doing all this good we’re not giving any of them our full attention. This also includes volunteer positions we been doing for years and years. Yes, they’re comfortable and enjoyable projects… and because we’ve been there so long we’re honored and esteemed by others…but is that the only reason we continue volunteering there? If you think about all the service projects you’ve done throughout the years…all the times you’ve said Yes to volunteering somewhere, I dare say most, if not all, were something that you were comfortable with, caused no inconvenience, and fit into your schedule. But God wants to challenge you today…or as Oswald Chambers wrote, “Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.”
Safetypinlove 