Today is the inauguration day for our newly elected president. We are commanded in Scripture to pray for our leaders and to submit to their authority, although we remember that we are citizens of heaven, foreigners in this world. President Obama has asked Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration. Since Obama's stated goal of choosing Warren was to be inclusive to all people (he also chose Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson to participate), there is fear from many that Warren will not pray for godly repentance for this nation and for the president to lead us by the truth of God's Word. While it would be extraordinarily challenging to speak bold truth in front of millions, I pray that Pastor Warren will offer a faithful, repentant prayer for our president and our nation, even if it costs him his popularity.
As I was searching the internet, I found a few people who offered prayers for our nation and it's new president on his inauguration day:
John Frame
Chris Brauns
Dan Phillips
Albert Mohler
Mark Altrogge
J.D. Hatfield
Nicholas Jackson
What will you pray for this nation. Pray that Rick Warren will be bold as he approaches the throne of God for our nation and remember to pray often for our new president; first that his name is written in the Lamb's book of life and that he leads this country into godliness.
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The Truth About Prayer
Prayer malfunctions in the hands of Christians when we seek selfish desires instead of fruit-bearing in the mission of advancing the Gospel. John 15:7 tells us that if the words of Jesus abide in us, we will pray with power and effectiveness, both for our good and God’s glory. Four truths about prayer come from meditating on this Scripture in its wider context.
Fruit Bearing
God designed prayer to give His disciples the joy of bearing fruit while God Himself gets the glory. Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:7-8).In verse 16. Jesus says to His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you.”
The logical connection between the two parts of this verse is important. Jesus says, in effect, “I have given you a fruit-bearing mission in order that your prayers might be answered! ”You would expect His words to be just the reverse: God will give you what you ask in order that you might have a fruit-bearing mission. But Jesus says it the other way around: I give you a fruit-bearing mission in order that the Father might answer your prayers. The point: Prayer malfunctions when it is not used in fruit-bearing. Therefore, since I want you to pray and to get answers to your prayers, I chose you and I appointed you to go and bear fruit. If you are not devoted to fruit-bearing, you have no warrant for expecting answers to prayer.
Kingdom Desires
Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And what could be more natural than the desire to eat? There are dozens of instances in the Bible of people praying for desires—for protection from enemies, escape from danger, success in vocation, fertility in marriage, recovery from sickness. It’s not that those desires are wrong, but they should always be subordinate to spiritual desires; Kingdom desires; fruit-bearing desires; Gospel-spreading, God-centered desires; Christ-exalting, God-glorifying desires. And when our natural desires are felt as a means to these greater desires, then they become the proper subject of prayer. Just before Jesus said to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He said, “Make it your heart’s desire that God would hallow His name and that the Kingdom would come and that the will of God would be done on earth.” When your heart is caught up with these great desires, then having something to eat is not merely a natural desire, but a means to some great God-centered end. And then it is the proper subject of prayer.
Used for His Ends
If prayer is not for gratifying natural desires but for bearing fruit for God, the major challenge of prayer is to become the kind of people who are not dominated by natural desires, the kind of people who do not use God for their own ends but are utterly devoted to being used for His ends.
This is why Jesus says, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” The words of Jesus abiding in us make us those kind of people.
Here are a few examples that show this in John’s writings:
In 1 John 1:10 he says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” If the words of Jesus were abiding in us, we would have known ourselves better—that we have sinned. The words of Jesus abiding in us is the key to a true and humble assessment of ourselves that keeps us in line with God’s purposes.
In 1 John 2:14 John says, “I write to you, young men, because … the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” So the words of Jesus abiding in us triumph over Satan and free us from the deceptions that would put us at odds with God and make natural desires dominate our lives.
In John 14:24 Jesus says, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” So if we keep the words of Jesus—if they abide in us—they will define for us the path of love, precisely the path where prayer was designed to bear fruit.
The abiding Word of Jesus puts us in tune with the fruit-bearing purposes of God to glorify Himself.
Saturated by His Words
So the fourth and final truth about prayer is that the more we are saturated by the words of Jesus, the more our prayers will be answered.
The challenge of prayer in the year ahead is the challenge to become the kind of people who do not live at the level of mere natural desire, but who live to bear fruit for God—to hallow His Name, seek His Kingdom and do His will.
The key to becoming that kind of person is letting the words of Jesus—the Word of God (John 3:34, 14:10, 17:8) —abide in us. Being filled and saturated by the words of Scripture brings us so close to the mind of God that we pray in tune with His purposes and receive whatever we ask.
John Piper is pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn.All Scripture quotations are taken by permission from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Adapted from the sermon “Ask Whatever You Wish.” ©John Piper
from the January 2008 issue of “Decision” magazine
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Good, the Right, and the Difference
As I knelt to pray this morning, I found myself praying, "Not Your will, Father, but mine be done." Of course, I wasn't that overt, and had the Spirit not chided me otherwise, I would have felt perfectly justified in my prayer. You see, I wasn't praying for anything consummately selfish, or self-satisfying. Rather, I was praying "good" things, and therein lies the rub, as they say.
So often, we pray for, hope for, desire, and effect the "good" that we presume must be God's will. How many of us would have prayed for young Joseph to have gone through all that he did (Genesis 37-40), only to have it later undermined by his own statement, "you (my brothers) meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). How true it is that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).
Are your groanings your own? I fear mine often are. How can I pray anything less than the Lord's will as expressed in Scripture, and think that my desires and my good intentions are somehow superlative to His?
I would challenge you, then, to check yourself as you pray, and not to be so hasty to pray for the easing of pain, the eradication of tragedy, or the erasure of all that seems uncomfortable and inconvenient. Think about it: While you and I may enjoy a certain discernment between what is right and wrong, can we honestly say, in our sinful depravity, that we best know what should be done in such situations? Can we presume upon God's omni-everything, and pray assuredly for all to be well? I dare say not!
I leave you with two quotes from men brighter than I:
"Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by
unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected
things, ‘above all that we ask or think'" (Andrew Murray).
"We are urgent about the body; He is about the soul. We call for present
comforts; He considers our everlasting rest. And therefore when He sends not
the very things we ask, He hears us by sending greater than we can ask or think" (Richard Cecil).
So often, we pray for, hope for, desire, and effect the "good" that we presume must be God's will. How many of us would have prayed for young Joseph to have gone through all that he did (Genesis 37-40), only to have it later undermined by his own statement, "you (my brothers) meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). How true it is that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).
Are your groanings your own? I fear mine often are. How can I pray anything less than the Lord's will as expressed in Scripture, and think that my desires and my good intentions are somehow superlative to His?
I would challenge you, then, to check yourself as you pray, and not to be so hasty to pray for the easing of pain, the eradication of tragedy, or the erasure of all that seems uncomfortable and inconvenient. Think about it: While you and I may enjoy a certain discernment between what is right and wrong, can we honestly say, in our sinful depravity, that we best know what should be done in such situations? Can we presume upon God's omni-everything, and pray assuredly for all to be well? I dare say not!
I leave you with two quotes from men brighter than I:
"Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by
unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected
things, ‘above all that we ask or think'" (Andrew Murray).
"We are urgent about the body; He is about the soul. We call for present
comforts; He considers our everlasting rest. And therefore when He sends not
the very things we ask, He hears us by sending greater than we can ask or think" (Richard Cecil).
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
How to Pray: The Final Chapter
This is a lengthy portion of the work, as he lists the various hindrances to our prayers. Here goes!
1. (I LOVE this!!) The true purpose in prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer. If we ask any petition merely that we may receive something to use in our pleasures or in our own gratification in one way or another, we "ask amiss" (James 4:3).
Torrey lists a few examples of this, but the most poignant is this: The wife of an unbelieving husband may "pray amiss" that her husband might be saved, for the fear that he "might die and be lost forever." Her true desire should be his salvation because she can't bear the thought that "God the Father should be dishonored by her husband trampling underfoot the Son of God." WOW!! That's radical!
2. Another hindrance to our prayers may be that some sin in the present is cherished, and is very likely not even looked upon as sin. In Torrey's own experience, he remembers confessing, "If this is wrong, I will give it up," when he knew full well that it was wrong. It is no wonder, then, that he received no answer, even though it seemed to him that he must have his request or God would be dishonored. When at last he said, "This is wrong. I have sinned. I will give it up," he found peace, and an assurance of his request having been answered.
For this reason, "anyone who would have power in prayer must be merciless in dealing with his own sins." If there be "any controversy with God," we cannot expect Him to heed our prayers.
3. Perhaps of even more hindrance than this is how idolatrous we so easily become, a point to which Ezekiel 14:3 speaks: "Son of man (speaking to the prophet), these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?" asks the Lord. We all know that idols are not simply of stone or wood, and there certainly are not remnants of the past; nevertheless, we often overlook our own idolatries in this present age, presuming them justified. Ezekiel 14:3 applies as much today as then.
4. Yet another hindrance to our prayers, so often overlooked, is that of a lack of generosity. I'll allow the Word to speak for itself: Luke 6:38 says "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Certainly God answers our requests with an eye to those we have answered around us. Again, 1 John 3:21-22: "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. Consider the context, as it is made in "direct connection with generosity toward the needy." Finally, consider that "my God shall fulfill every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). This, too, was made in direct reference to the generosity of the Philippian church.
5. Per Torrey, "When one thinks of the selfishness of the professing church today (circa 1904), how the orthodox churches of this land do not average one dollar per year per member for foreign missions, it is no wonder that the church has so little power in prayer." Can it be that dissimilar in our present day, if not worse?
6. Torrey further states that "an unforgiving spirit is one of the commonest hindrances to prayer," because, whether we like it or not, we get a certain "miserable gratification in hating somebody."
7. "Many a man who makes great pretensions to piety, and is very active in Christian work, but shows little consideration in his treatment of his wife" is hindering his prayers, according to 1 Peter 3:7. The same applies to "many a woman who is very devoted to the church, and very faithful in attendance upon all services, but treats her husband with the most unpardonable neglect, being cross and peevish toward him, and wounding him by the sharpness of her speech and ungovernable temper." Furthermore, "there is much of sin covered up under the holy name of marriage that is a cause of spiritual deadness."
8. The final hindrance listed is that of unbelief. God demands that we believe His Word absolutely. To question it is to make Him a liar. How many prayers are hindered by our wretched unbelief! (And so I find myself)
9. In Torrey's final chapter, he recounts when to pray, drawing from Christ's example.
a. "in the morning" (Mark 1:35) - More can be accomplished in prayer in the first hours of the day than at any other time during the day, so that the first thing we do each day should be to go alone with God and face the duties, the temptations, and the service of that day, and get strength from God for them all.
b. "in the night hours" (Luke 6:12) - In the night hours the world is hushed in slumber, and we can easily be alone with God and have undisturbed communion with Him.
c. "before great crisis" (Luke 3:21-22; 6:12-13; 9:18, 28-29; 22:39-46; mark 1:35-38). He found Himself in many crises, and prayed consistently over them. "He prepared for every important crisis by a protracted season of prayer."
d. "after great achievements and important crises" (Matthew 14:23; John 6:15) - Many and many a man in answer to prayer has been endued with power and thus has wrought great things in the name of the Lord, and when these great things were accomplished, instead of going alone with God and humbling himself before Him and giving Him all the glory for what was achieved, he has congratulated himself upon what has been accomplished, has become puffed up, and God has been obliged to lay him aside." A lot there, but very true.
e. "when life is busy" (Luke 5;15-16) - the more the work crowded, the more He prayed.
f. "before great temptations" (Matthew 26:36) - in Gethsemane, especially. "many of the temptations of life we can see approaching from the distance, and in such cases the victory should be won before the temptation really reaches us."
g. "without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18) - "There should be a constant upward looking of the soul to God."
1. (I LOVE this!!) The true purpose in prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer. If we ask any petition merely that we may receive something to use in our pleasures or in our own gratification in one way or another, we "ask amiss" (James 4:3).
Torrey lists a few examples of this, but the most poignant is this: The wife of an unbelieving husband may "pray amiss" that her husband might be saved, for the fear that he "might die and be lost forever." Her true desire should be his salvation because she can't bear the thought that "God the Father should be dishonored by her husband trampling underfoot the Son of God." WOW!! That's radical!
2. Another hindrance to our prayers may be that some sin in the present is cherished, and is very likely not even looked upon as sin. In Torrey's own experience, he remembers confessing, "If this is wrong, I will give it up," when he knew full well that it was wrong. It is no wonder, then, that he received no answer, even though it seemed to him that he must have his request or God would be dishonored. When at last he said, "This is wrong. I have sinned. I will give it up," he found peace, and an assurance of his request having been answered.
For this reason, "anyone who would have power in prayer must be merciless in dealing with his own sins." If there be "any controversy with God," we cannot expect Him to heed our prayers.
3. Perhaps of even more hindrance than this is how idolatrous we so easily become, a point to which Ezekiel 14:3 speaks: "Son of man (speaking to the prophet), these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?" asks the Lord. We all know that idols are not simply of stone or wood, and there certainly are not remnants of the past; nevertheless, we often overlook our own idolatries in this present age, presuming them justified. Ezekiel 14:3 applies as much today as then.
4. Yet another hindrance to our prayers, so often overlooked, is that of a lack of generosity. I'll allow the Word to speak for itself: Luke 6:38 says "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Certainly God answers our requests with an eye to those we have answered around us. Again, 1 John 3:21-22: "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. Consider the context, as it is made in "direct connection with generosity toward the needy." Finally, consider that "my God shall fulfill every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). This, too, was made in direct reference to the generosity of the Philippian church.
5. Per Torrey, "When one thinks of the selfishness of the professing church today (circa 1904), how the orthodox churches of this land do not average one dollar per year per member for foreign missions, it is no wonder that the church has so little power in prayer." Can it be that dissimilar in our present day, if not worse?
6. Torrey further states that "an unforgiving spirit is one of the commonest hindrances to prayer," because, whether we like it or not, we get a certain "miserable gratification in hating somebody."
7. "Many a man who makes great pretensions to piety, and is very active in Christian work, but shows little consideration in his treatment of his wife" is hindering his prayers, according to 1 Peter 3:7. The same applies to "many a woman who is very devoted to the church, and very faithful in attendance upon all services, but treats her husband with the most unpardonable neglect, being cross and peevish toward him, and wounding him by the sharpness of her speech and ungovernable temper." Furthermore, "there is much of sin covered up under the holy name of marriage that is a cause of spiritual deadness."
8. The final hindrance listed is that of unbelief. God demands that we believe His Word absolutely. To question it is to make Him a liar. How many prayers are hindered by our wretched unbelief! (And so I find myself)
9. In Torrey's final chapter, he recounts when to pray, drawing from Christ's example.
a. "in the morning" (Mark 1:35) - More can be accomplished in prayer in the first hours of the day than at any other time during the day, so that the first thing we do each day should be to go alone with God and face the duties, the temptations, and the service of that day, and get strength from God for them all.
b. "in the night hours" (Luke 6:12) - In the night hours the world is hushed in slumber, and we can easily be alone with God and have undisturbed communion with Him.
c. "before great crisis" (Luke 3:21-22; 6:12-13; 9:18, 28-29; 22:39-46; mark 1:35-38). He found Himself in many crises, and prayed consistently over them. "He prepared for every important crisis by a protracted season of prayer."
d. "after great achievements and important crises" (Matthew 14:23; John 6:15) - Many and many a man in answer to prayer has been endued with power and thus has wrought great things in the name of the Lord, and when these great things were accomplished, instead of going alone with God and humbling himself before Him and giving Him all the glory for what was achieved, he has congratulated himself upon what has been accomplished, has become puffed up, and God has been obliged to lay him aside." A lot there, but very true.
e. "when life is busy" (Luke 5;15-16) - the more the work crowded, the more He prayed.
f. "before great temptations" (Matthew 26:36) - in Gethsemane, especially. "many of the temptations of life we can see approaching from the distance, and in such cases the victory should be won before the temptation really reaches us."
g. "without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18) - "There should be a constant upward looking of the soul to God."
Monday, November 5, 2007
Prayer: Plain & Simple
If you're not already familiar with the writings of R.A. Torrey, I would say get familiar. His undeterred exposition of the Word serves him well, and results in a no-nonsense approach to the subject of "How to Pray," which serves as the title of his classical work on the subject. Perhaps Rosalie de Rosset says it best: "Deceptively simple, organized, and clear, Torrey's book, while addressing familiar concepts, is anything but cliched." I'll simply list some enumerated points Torrey makes regarding prayer, referring you to my church's blog for any further commentary (http://ebcrochester.blogsp
1. Ephesians 6:18 - "With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints."
--Paul realized the natural slothfulness of man, and especially his natural slothfulness in prayer.
2. Regarding James 4:2, the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the average Christian is the neglect of prayer.
3. "Praying is the principal thing Christ is doing in these days," after the ascension, as he ever liveth to make intercession, according to Hebrews 7:25. "That is the principal occupation at present of my risen Lord;" ergo, it shall be mine.
4. "The measure of our appropriation of grace is determined by the measure of our prayers," per the application of Hebrews 4:16.
5. "God delights to have us 'shameless' beggars," being constant and persistent in our asking, "for it shows our faith in Him, and He is mightily pleased with faith."
6. "When we ask something definite of God, and He gives it, how real God becomes!"
7. "There is no greater joy on earth or in heaven than communion with God, and prayer in the name of Jesus brings us into communion with Him."8. "Oh, the unutterable joy of those moments when in our prayers we really press into the presence of God!"
9. "Time spent in prayer is not wasted but time invested at big interest."
10. Per Luke 21:34-36, Torrey posits that "there is only one way in which we can be prepared for the coming of the Lord when He appears, that is, through much prayer."
11. "In very much of our prayer, there is really but little thought of God. Our mind is taken up with the thought of what we need, or our mind is wandering here and there throughout the world."
12. In approaching God in prayer, we must first wrestle with the immensity of His might and love, and "should not be in hasty in words."
13. Regarding "prayer without ceasing," it literally means to pray "stretched-out-ed-ly," with an earnest and intense desire. It is the same word that describes Christ's prayer in Luke 22:44, where "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood." That, then, is a "stretching out toward God in intense and agonizing desire."
14. Regarding Matthew 18:19, it speaks not simply of casual acquiescence, but rather of the instance "where there is real agreement, where the Spirit of God brings two believers into perfect harmony as concerning that which they may ask of God, where the Spirit lays the same burden on two hearts; in all such prayer there is absolutely irresistible power."
15. "Much prayer is insincere. People ask for things that they do not wish."
...more to come...
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