In 1991 I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease. The doctors said that my kidneys would fail but I couldn’t accept that. I asked for prayer and even had the elders of out church anoint me with oil and pray over me. I know, some of you will call me charismatic but I was desperate.“It” didn’t work.

I prayed continually and asked God to heal me but no healing came. Then there came a certain day. I was standing in my study and God spoke.  Not to my ear and not so that anyone else could hear, but to my heart. He spoke through 2 Corinthians 12:8-9. It is Paul’s account of his prayer for relief from his thorn in the flesh. “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. …” When I read that I heard deep in my heart the Lord say, “My grace is sufficient for you as well. I will give you grace for whatever you have to go through.”

After a period of time on dialysis my wife gave me a kidney. That was nearly 20 years ago and God’s grace was sufficient then and it is sufficient now.

The basic prayer of the Christian is the glory of God. We want our God to receive the glory that this world denies Him. He deserves glory. When God denies specific prayers, in my case for healing, then we must assume that He has something in mind that will bring Him more glory. In Paul’s case, and in mine, it was an experience of grace so that the strength of God could be seen in our weaknesses.

It is so often that way. We pray and do not get the answer we want and then we feel forsaken or dispirited. The enemy comes to accuse our God to us and to tell us that He doesn’t care. He does care! He cares enough to give grace so that He will receive glory from us…which is our basic prayer anyway. And He cares enough that He demonstrates His strength through broken and weak men.

In our Western culture we are too quick to take the culture’s view. We look at young, healthy, men in the ministry who have it all together. If they are ever sick, no one knows. If they ever misspeak it is never recorded. They are the epitomes of success and strength. Many preachers, those battling sickness, getting older or just plain plain in their presentations get discouraged. Don’t be. It might be that your situation is designed to do what you really want anyway; To bring God glory and for Him to show His strength in you and through you.  Leave the scoring of success up to the Lord and know, it is God’s grace that is sufficient, not your strength. And it is God’s glory that is at stake, not the immediate answer to your prayer.  Trust Him. His grace IS sufficient for you and more.

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The church I am privileged to serve as pastor is not the perfect church.  It is not a large church nor a rich church. There have been times when we struggled to meet budget and there have been times when attendance was discouraging. If I listened to the church gurus I would have fled this part of the world years ago. And yet God wants a church here. She is the apple of His eye. He loves her with all of His great heart. He loved her enough to shed His own blood for her. He has answered her prayers and used her testimony for well over two hundred years.

As we met last Lord’s Day afternoon I was struck again by the turn the meeting took. We prayed, sang a song and someone testified to God’s mercy in saving them (Yes…I mean spoke right up and thanked God for saving mercy). Others joined in and for about an hour, we exhorted one another and shared with each other what God was doing in our lives.  One man spoke about how God was delivering him from bitterness. Another told about the joy he was having teaching his children about Christ. Others shared prayer needs and we prayed together.  This was interspersed with the singing of songs suggested by the people. It was a real worship/exhortation time. And then the Lord allowed me to preach from 1 Timothy 1 for about forty minutes.  About an hour after the meeting the last of our people left for home. This kind of thing is not foreign or unusual among the people of Union Baptist Church. It even happens this way on many Sunday Mornings. The New Testament validates that kind of activity when God’s people meet (1Cor.14:26; Eph. 5:18-20; Col. 3:16.)

UBC is a missionary church. The Lord has allowed this little group to touch lives literally all over the world. They have taken on a worldwide internet ministry, support missionaries on the field, are constantly involved in special mission projects and, without hesitation, supply everything needed for me and others to preach the Gospel anywhere God opens the door.

Now, I am not saying these things to boast in men. I do boast in the grace of our God who has blessed us so wonderfully.  But I was thinking. Many people would be terribly  uncomfortable at UBC. You see…

1. We do not have drums.

2.  I can’t remember the last time we had “special” music.

3.  We do not have a screen where we project the words to the songs we sing.

4.  We do not have a guitars.

5.  We do not cater to a special age group.

6.  We are not Reformed (though we do hold to the same doctrines of grace our forefathers believed).

7. We are not emerging.

8.  We do not have concerts.

9.  We do not have multiple campuses.

Now, I want you to understand.  I AM NOT SAYING ANY OF THESE THINGS ARE WRONG. I am not even saying that they will never be a part of the meetings of UBC  (well…we aren’t tempted to be emergent but that is another story!). Everyone of the things listed above might be perfectly acceptable, even the direct will of God, in some cases. But what I am saying is that contrary to popular belief, they are not NECESSARY components of God’s church. The necessary components of God’s church are these: The  Presence of God working among a called out, obedient, covenanting people who make Christ the very center of their meetings and their lives;  A people who observe the ordinances as given in the New Testament and who believe the Bible to be the word of God;  A people who practice church discipline and lovingly watch over each other and pray for one another;  A people who exhort and encourage one another and even rebuke one another on occasion; A people who have the world on their hearts and do their best to spread the Gospel far and wide. In other words, the Lord’s Church may not have much more  than the Lord and one another other, but that is enough.  It is so much enough.

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How a Professor of Religion (and you and I) Can Miss the Mark in Biblical Interpretation!

Phil. 3:10. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

A few years ago I was attending the chapel service of a well known seminary. One of the faculty members was speaking that morning and his text was Philippians 3:10 and following. I sat there in amazement as this learned man interpreted that passage in a way that supported his view of the perseverance of the saints. Simply put it was that Paul was striving to obtain a glorious resurrection. His perseverance in knowing Christ and fellowshipping with Him in His sufferings and becoming conformable to His death was so that he, Paul, might attain a glorious resurrection from the dead with Christ.

I was amazed because the passage will NOT bear that interpretation on its very surface. Here is what I mean. If Paul is speaking of a glorious resurrection after this present life he would not have followed his statement up with “Not as though I had already attained, either were already made perfect, but I follow after, if I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus (v12).”

Following the professor’s interpretation the passage would have to be understood as something like this… “Not as though I had already died and have now been resurrected, either were already glorified, but I follow after Christ so that I can share in the resurrection of Christ.” Is Paul actually informing these Philippians that he has not yet died physically? Isn’t that obvious? And is Paul telling this church that he has not yet attained his resurrection body? Again, is that not obvious? Isn’t it baffling how blind “we” can be when “we”are trying to defend a pet doctrine or teaching? (I put “we” in quotes because I am acknowledging that “we “all do this at times.)

Paul is not speaking about bodily resurrection here at all, as the context clearly shows. He is talking about an intimate knowledge of Christ as the Resurrected One, and Christ as the Sufferer, and Christ as the Dying One (v10). He is talking about living in his daily life the resurrection power of Christ (v11). He is disavowing that he achieved perfection in this experience ,(v12) but he declares he is pursuing that perfection as he pursues Christ (v 12b).

Again, the context is compelling. “13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

If Paul is talking about a bodily resurrection it is really strange that he would feel compelled to inform his readers that he had not yet attained it. But if Paul is talking about his progress in appropriating the power of a resurrected life as he lives his personal life in Christ, then it all makes sense.

The good man giving the lecture had pristine motives I am sure. His goal was to inspire his audience to live holy lives in order to attain a glorious resurrection. The problem is that an exposition of the passage, taking the context in consideration, would have accomplished the same thing and would have had the added advantage of greatly encouraging the hearers. If Paul is saying that we must persevere in a certain lifestyle in order to attain a glorious resurrection with Christ, (that is, finally be saved) then I and everyone I know is doomed. (The perseverance of the saints is an honest pursuit of Christ by faith which will no doubt result in a certain kind of lifestyle, but no lifestyle merits a glorious resurrection and if you think it does you have missed grace altogether.) But if, as I think to be the case, Paul is saying that there is a victory that results in experiencing Christ’s resurrection life now…in this life, then I have hope. Especially since Paul himself affirms that he has not yet attained all that is to be had in Christ.

If Paul is saying that he has a goal to experience the benefits of Christ’s resurrection to the fullest, in his earthly life, and that it is possible to do so, and that he is not yet there, but he is pressing on toward that goal, then I too can experience that same victory and I too can press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Here is what I took away from that chapel service.

1. I don’t ever want get so entrenched in a particular view or pet doctrine that I see it everywhere in the Bible, whether it is there or not.

2. I don’t need to question someone else’s motives when I catch them in this slip. I am very susceptible to the same mistake.

3. The old saying “Context is king” is true. Especially in Scripture interpretation.

And as an aside, if Paul the Apostle experienced walking in the Resurrected Christ as a daily pressing toward the mark, so that he might attain a more perfect walk with God, then the whole idea that there is one experience that finally makes me perfectly holy now, in my daily life, is patently false. Paul’s words are intended to encourage us to press on in the battle with the blessed assurance that we are not what we can be. He is encouraging us to know Christ more and more in His resurrection, in His suffering and His dying, and to keep that as our daily goal until we do breath our last breaths here. Someday we will rise with all the saints in that last day. When that happens we shall finally and forever be like Him for we shall see Him as He is (1John 3:2)! Hallelujah, what a great encouragement to pursuing Christ now.

But until then; Until that day of full resurrection: “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (mature), be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you (Philippians 3:15).

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As I was reading early this morning, the Lord slipped quietly up to me and gently nailed my heart to the wall.

I was reading a book by D. A. Carson entitled, “A Call to Spiritual Reformation.”  Dr. Carson was talking about Paul’s prayers for the people he ministered to and he highlighted the fact that Paul was consumed with being a blessing to those people. (So far I am doing good. I agree that Paul sure wanted to be a blessing to people.)

Then Dr. Carson wrote:  “As someone who has taught seminary students for more than fifteen years, I worry about the rising number of seminarians who, when asked where and how they think they might best serve, respond with something like this: ‘Well, I think I would like to teach somewhere. Every time I have taught, people have told me I have done a pretty good job. I get a tremendous sense of fulfillment out of teaching the Bible. I think I could be satisfied teaching Scripture.’  How pathetic.” “In any Christian view of life, self-fulfillment must never be permitted to become the controlling issue. The issue is service. The question is ‘How can I be most useful?,not ‘How can I feel most useful? The goal is, How can I most glorify God by serving the people?, not How can I feel most comfortable and appreciated while engaging in some acceptable form of Christian ministry?”

The thought was sudden but sharp. How often do I do ministry…visit…pray with folks…preach, (especially preach) because I get satisfaction out of it…because it makes me feel good? How much of my ministry is based on my love for God and those I minister too, and how much of it is based on how it makes me feel?

I will share with you what I wrote in my journal.

“How ashamed I feel as my heart is opened up and I see the seep of self-centeredness there. Oh, God forgive me and cleanse me.”

“So, what will I do, by the grace of God, to change? (I have learned that confession is worthless unless there is the intent and plan to change.)

1. I will put a reminder on my wall and in the fly leaf of my Bible to remind me that Christian ministry is for God’s glory and the help of His people and not for my self-gratification.

2. I will make this a matter of specific prayer and meditate upon men of God in the Bible and history who fulfilled their ministries to God’s glory.

3. As God opens doors for ministry I will think of the people I am to minister to as God’s possession, and remember that I am to be a helper of their faith. My feelings don’t really matter.

Just in case your are interested, here is what I placed on my wall and in the fly leaf of my Bible.

 Why do I Preach and Teach?

 1. For God’s glory. He called me to it. It is a way He has ordained for me to glorify Him.

2. For the help of people. God has given me the blessing of helping His people. I must cultivate the joy of helping God’s people experience Christ. I must cultivate a love for God’s people because God loves them.

3. He has NOT called me to the ministry to satisfy my need for acceptance or to gratify my fleshly need for self-worth. My true self-worth comes from Christ alone.

I am sure that I am not the only preacher who has fallen into this vanity trap and so I hope my confession to you has not been in vain.

May the Lord give us all a love for His people that is rooted in His love for them and not in our love for ourselves!

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The Kingdom of God is the sovereign, almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, active rule of God, all around us, all the time. The ever present God reigns over the affairs of men (Dan. 4:17-35). The fabric of reality is held together by the word of Christ (Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:3). Adam was created as part of that kingdom and as long as he was in fellowship with God everything worked in harmony as it should.

Then Adam sinned. A great disruption was the result, and Adam and his seed were alienated from God. The physical universe endured the explosion but the curse fell like a shroud over all of physical creation. That curse means that men come into mortal life with no concept of God’s reign and no appreciation for, or interest in, God’s participation in their lives.

Many human beings are born into this world, pass through their living existence, and never know the God in whom they live and move and have their being (Acts 17:28). Some of them hear something about Him. Most of them are subjected to a grotesque caricature of Him, but few of them ever have any consciousness of Him as a real Person.

Something beyond nature must happen to them in the inner most being. Before a person can know God, and consciously live under His gracious reign, he must be born again, born from above, regenerated. He must have God’s very life come in and fill that grave of lostness that is at the center of his natural human heart. Jeremiah and Paul called it a circumcised heart (Jer. 4:4; Col. 2:11). It is referred to as a resurrection and a new creation (Eph. 2:1-5; 2Cor. 5:17). When it happens, fellowship with God is established. The Father, Son and Spirit move into the innermost being of the converted and he begins to live in a realm of reality that he did not know existed before (John 14:23; 1Cor. 6:19).

The problem is that modern evangelicalism has forsaken these truths. We mouth the words but they seem to convey a wholly different meaning from that intended. Much of what passes for preaching on the new birth nowadays is either the recommendation of an emotional experience or a solicitation for mental assent concerning certain facts that are termed “the gospel.” One’s conversion may very well contain these elements but neither one alone, or both together, constitute what the Bible means when it speaks of the new birth.

The new birth is being born out of our deadness into God’s life (Col. 2:13). In the new birth one passes from the laws and customs of one kingdom into another kingdom with other laws and customs (Col. 1:13). To be born again is to pass from blindness to sight and from darkness to light. It is to move miraculously from chains to freedom, and from the dark dungeon into a green flowering meadow. To be born again is to receive eternal life, that is, “life into the ages.” This includes “heaven when you die” but it primarily denotes heaven in the heart while you live. It guarantees continued existence in that same heavenly life after you die, (into the ages) but that is not it’s focus. Its point is that the God-life (into the ages kind of life) begins in the believer now.

The kingdom of God is that realm where God rules, which is above us, below us and in every direction around us as far as, and farther than, the mind can imagine. When one is saved, born again, truly converted, he enters that kingdom as a servant and citizen and begins to live a supernatural life in personal fellowship with the King. It means a radical change in the innermost being of the person converted, and that is what is missing today. Millions profess Christ as savior who show no change at all in their daily lives. Someone might protest, “But I thought that the gospel was mainly about the imputed righteousness of Christ and that when we believe in Him we are then prepared for heaven.” That is true as far as it goes. It just doesn’t go far enough. The imputed righteousness of Christ so satisfies the justice of God that He is now able to own us and work inside of us. It puts the believer into the position of being changed from the inside out. And God’s work in us is relentless. Thus, any gospel that just commends the life and death and resurrection of Christ as a means to a satisfied after-life, and does not include the good news of the progressive nature of a heavenly inner life that spills over into, and eventually dominates, our outer life, is only half a gospel.

In a mad, western-cultured craving for ministry validation through numbers, we have settled for a gospel that at best leaves true converts without a knowledge of their birthright blessings now, and at worse deceives multitudes into a false security that virtually guarantees their entrance into hell.

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The shallow evangelism of the West puts an abundant emphasis on “Where will you go when you die?” One famous soul winning opener is, “When you die, what reason can you give for why God should let you into His heaven?” The whole emphasis seems to be on preparing people to die. It is as if we have an obsession with death.

Now aside from being morbid on the surface there seems to me to be a deeper problem. The “What will happen when you die?” approach is not scriptural. The concern of the Bible is not with death, or even where people go when they die. The emphasis of the New Testament is life.

Our Lord reminded his questioners that God was not the God of the dead but of the living (Mat.22:32; Mk.12:27; Luke 20:38).  In Matthew 7 Jesus spoke of the narrow way that leads to life. In John 10:10 Jesus said that He came that men might have life…and that more abundant. The rich young ruler came to Christ asking about eternal life and Jesus answer was, if you will enter into life, keep the commandments. Now we know that Jesus brought up the commandments to bring the man to conviction but the point I am making is that, he was seeking eternal life and Christ talked to him about life.

I think the tendency to equate the term “eternal life” with “heaven when we die” is a mistake. Those who come into Christ come into eternal life now. They are transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. When Christ instructed Nicodemus about the Kingdom of God, He told him that he had to be born into it. He did not deal with him about where he would go when he died but about a new life before he died.

Though there will be a physical coming of Christ back to this earth in the future, and at that time His Kingdom will be expressed visibly upon the earth, yet all of us who are saved are now in His Kingdom. We have a new kind of life now and live according to new principles. Those principles are codified in the 10 Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. The moral directions of the Old Testament, and the teachings of Christ and His apostles in the New Testament, are a harmonious revelation of life in God’s Kingdom. The Bible teaches redeemed people how to live as redeemed people now.

I am grateful for the strength and encouragement that thinking about heaven brings. But I am also thankful for the Presence of Christ in my life now, loving me and leading me, so that I can make my way through this world while I actually live in another one. When my time comes to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I plan to lock arms with my heavenly escorts and keep on living in Christ. But I don’t have to wait until I die to enjoy that. It started for me over 40 years ago.

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“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

I love the doctrine of propitiation. The satisfaction and magnifying of God’s holiness through the cross of Jesus Christ is the beginning, center and end of every hope we have. “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe… .” It is true. But Christ did more than make satisfaction for my sin before God. He reconciled me to God. He made it proper for the Holy Spirit to regenerate me. By the application of the blood of Christ, I am made fit to enter and live acceptably in God’s Kingdom and I don’t believe that just means fit for heaven when I die.

That is where my burden is today. God brings us into His Kingdom to live under its principles.  Salvation is not just preparation for us to go to heaven when we die but it is the equipping us to live in the heavenlies while we live. Heaven when you die does not constitute the majority of Christ’s teaching. Living in the heavenlies… that is, in the Presence of God and in His Kingdom now, is His principle subject.

In all Christ’s parables about the Kingdom of God you have very little said about living in heaven after you die…or even getting there once you are dead. But there is continual teaching about the life that is lived now, in God’s Presence. It is so throughout the New Testament.

And please don’t misunderstand. I look forward to heaven. It’s just that heaven isn’t my goal. Living in Christ, for God’s glory, as He teaches us to live now, is my goal. I think achieving that makes the transition to heaven when I die a very easy and natural event.

Oh God, grant me grace to appropriate more grace and give me faith to receive more faith. Help me to say with Paul, “For me to live is Christ… .” Then I know that I’ll be living life…real life, right now, and that more abundantly.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

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“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever (1 John 2:15-17).

I was taught early on how wrong it is to be worldly. Worldly, in those days, meant drinking alcohol, dancing, short dresses on women, long hair on men, beards, beads and bad behavior. I wish it was really that simple. I have found that the worldliness is much more than those, relatively easy to avoid, things.

So, what is worldliness? As best I can figure this is it. The world is the set up of human interactions and self-gratification without God. Worldliness is love for any part of that, regardless of how harmful or harmless it might seem. You can be worldly singing in the choir and preaching a sermon. You can be worldly promoting missions or eating or singing worship hymns or cursing or praying.

The world is the organization of human desires without God. It is what we would term human culture aside from God.

The world has things in it. Those things become the object of desire in the human heart. They can include one’s self, another person, an inanimate object or a philosophy or a million, billion other things. It is life co-ordinated without the thought of God.

Thinking of worldliness in this way I would simply expound 1 John 2:15-17 this way.

1. Don’t love a life or culture that is put together without the thought of God or without His leadership.

2. Don’t love the things in life that are put together without the thought of God. If Christ isn’t the honored guest you might reconsider going to the party.

3. If your life consists in the system that exist in the world without a thought for God and hostile to Him, or if your life orbits around the things that the world has, without any thought of God, then you are not saved. You lose any claim to being a Christian.

4. The world, the culture, the system that is put together without a thought for God, consists of desires. Those desires are, the desires of the flesh, (the body of sin) the desires of the eyes as it sees and considers and develops a longing for the benefits of a culture without God; the pride of life…the pride of accomplishment in the system that never thinks of God.

5. None of these lusts are of the Father but rather have their origin in a culture, a system with no regard for God and is hotile to Him.

6. And this whole setup is passing away…it is dissolving…and someday it will burn. Go after the world and the things in the world and you will end up with nothing that is worth having and everything that will enhance your gnawing emptiness.

5. But the person who has his mind, his heart and his actions centered in doing the will of the Father (submitted to God and His kingdom)…will live through the destruction of the world (human culture organized without a thought for God) and will live forever because eternal life has already begun to reign in his heart.

Worldliness is whatever might be an object of desire in my life apart from God. God Himself must become the only real desire of my heart and everything else must either be arranged around Him and by Him or be forsaken altogether.

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I just watched a video of a man who claims that he died twice on the operating table and has lived to tell about the experience. He describes being in a place that he referred to as paradise. There were about 200 to 250 people there and they all welcomed him affectionately. Then he saw a man, whom he took to be Jesus, standing on a large mountain. He said this person was about 15 feet tall. ‘Jesus’ eyes were piercing but kind. Going up and down the road on the side of the mountain were multitudes of people.

This 15 foot ‘Jesus’ questioned our narrator about his life, year by year and the question was, “What have you done for your fellowman?” When he couldn’t think of anything in any particular year a wall in the side of the mountain would turn into a movie screen and that year would play out showing some good deed he had done during that time. Then a group of women began to chant calling for “Ebie” to be brought out. The man in our story took “Ebie” to be his mother Elizabeth, who had died earlier. The 15 foot ‘Jesus’ on the mountain kept saying no!

Then we get a couple of cut aways where we hear (supposedly) the doctor in the operating room, telling about reviving this man.

Now, other than the initial reaction of “I think I am going to be sick to my stomach,” I have several things to say.

1. I do not doubt this man’s experience. The depraved mind is capable of imagining all kinds of weird things.

2. Isn’t it interesting that we have had a rash of these stories lately, and some of them have turned a pretty penny?

3. Isn’t it also interesting that in the New Testament the few people who ever traveled to heaven and came back were loath to talk about it. When Elijah and Moses met Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration we are expressly told that they talked about Christ’s death (Luke 9:30-31). The Apostle Paul said that when he was caught up to paradise he heard inexpressible words that he was not permitted to utter (2Cor. 12: 3-4).

The only one who tells us much about it at all is the Apostle John.  Concerning his experience on the island of Patmos he reports having a vision of Jesus (Revelation 1) and a vision of the Lamb, as he had been slain, sitting on the throne of heaven (Revelation 5:6). The people that worshipped Him are said to have washed their garments and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14). Any vision of the after life that does not make the substitutionary death of Christ for His people the cornerstone of entrance into heaven is, at worst a delusion, and at best an outright lie.

4. Finally, I would ask one favor from those who have seen the pearly white city…who have floated over walls of jasper or talked to a 15 foot ‘Jesus.’ Would you please check the facts of your experience by the Bible, and if it doesn’t line up with that, would you please denounce it and forget about it as quickly as you can?

And those of you who are ready to believe this stuff just because someone tells it…would you memorize this verse? Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

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“To grow in grace is to become more understanding in prayer.” P. T. Forsyth

“The bane of so much theology, old and new, is that it has been denuded of prayer and prepared in a vacuum.” P. T. Forsyth

I claim no expertise when it comes to prayer. One of my greatest regrets, as I grow older, is that I haven’t prayed more and better.Here are a few things I have learned about prayer that are helping me.

Prayer is not meditation. Meditation has an important place but prayer is not just meditation. When I try to meditate on God before I have addressed Him, I find my mind drifting. But if I spend time consciously communing with Him before I try to meditate on Him, my thoughts sometimes spout wings and my heart is lifted into spheres of glory I had not imagined before.

Prayer is not recitation. One might use a plan for prayer but if it becomes rote, it is an actual evil. To recite the Lord’s Prayer for instance, without praying over its details, is no more than an exercise in memory. It gives the illusion of prayer without its reality.

Prayer is not imitation. It is easy to get caught up in the way someone else prays and having acquired their tones and expressions, think one’s self to have prayed when in realty it is only imitation.

Prayer is the soul of a man speaking to the God who is in the soul of that man. Heaven is translated from the etherial and non-material to a reality in the human heart. An audience with God is granted and the scepter is extended as I approach Him on the basis of Christ’s blood. I find it hard to speak to the God who lives in me without using words. So, I bring with me words. I go to the Word with words and He hears me.

There  is a problem. I find that there is much more to be prayed over than I am willing to commit to. If I start in adoration, where do I stop?  If I move on to praise how do I quit? If my heart is thankful, how can I thank him for each and every blessing…and yet that is how He gives them to me, one at a time. Then there is the ministry of intercession. Christ died to intercede and I am learning that I must die as well if I am to fellowship with Him in His work. Some men have spent their whole lives with this as their primary ministry. I think of Praying John Hyde and Daniel Nash.

Personal petitions? We are told to pray for ourselves.  “Give us this day our daily bread,” and “Lead us not into temptation,” and “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”  I think it would be a tremendous study to comb the New Testament to see what Christ, the Apostles and the early church prayed for and about. If we took them for our example it would change the way we pray. I could spend many words writing about claiming the promises of God and about praying for the Kingdom of Christ to appear, and about praying according to God’s word and will. No wonder Paul said, “Pray without ceasing.” Ceaseless prayer is the only thing that approaches the task.

I claim no expertise when it comes to prayer. But I am learning that I can’t let the enormity of the task overwhelm me. If I think to much about what I can’t do, I find myself not doing what I can do. I must pray. The Spirit will help me pray. It is the promise of God.

If you happen to think of me when you are before the throne, would you ask the Lord on my behalf, to help me pray better? We need each other’s prayers so that we all might pray better. We need to pray until we have prayed, and then we need to pray some more.

“Lord, teach us to pray, even as John taught his disciples to pray.”  Amen.

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