Saints, 4 Jun 2011
Let’s review what we covered last week. We looked at the critical mission of the church—God’s chosen vessel to spread the gospel all over the globe. We saw how that mission is accomplished in and through prayer. We talked about the very real spiritual battle which the enemy would rather have us unaware of. We looked at our tendency to be lulled into a comfort zone by the enemy—in order to keep us out of the battle for souls.
Please re-read the following paragraph from last week’s devotional:
“If you think you are not in a war—you’re duped. If you think prayer is not a necessity—that it is okay not to pray as a Christ follower—you’re duped. Jesus called the church at Sardis to “Wake Up” twice in the letter to this church in Revelation 3:1-3. Yes, this same message is for us today. Christian, “Wake up.” There is a battle. We are commissioned officers in this battle. We have weapons. We must use them. Remember the first thing Paul instructs us to do after putting on the spiritual armor is pray. We are called to witness. We are called to make disciples. We must pray.”
Today, I want to share some of my heart. My prayer is that in some way you will be drawn to more intimacy with Christ as a result of these words. I hope the Holy Spirit comes upon us mightily and draws us to deeper intercessory prayer. May God fill us with His heart for people. Without His love we will drift to a complacent, apathetic, self-absorbed existence. This is not God’s desire.
Saints, I am stuck between two driving passions. One passion is for more intimacy with God Himself. I want to know His presence. I want to see His face. I want more of Him—as I am sure you do as well. As Christ-followers we all have this desire—we want to know God. As we have discussed before, this is not merely a desire to know more about God. The demons know about God—they probably know more about God than you and me (James 2:19). No, knowledge is not enough. We want to know God as Jesus defines eternal life in John 17:3,
John 17:3 (ESV)
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
We desire to know His heart, His desires, His voice, His truth, His presence, His leading. This reminds me of the Navigators motto: “To know Christ and make Him known.” Yes, saints my first passion like yours is to know Christ more.
My second consuming passion is to see God do such a work in His church that she walks in the Spirit. She glorifies His name. She obeys Him. She loves God above all else. She treasures Him more than anything else.
As I understand it, the most impacting and strategic way to move further in the direction of these two passions is prayer--prayer led by the Holy Spirit, guided by God’s Word, directed toward God’s kingdom, and prayed by the character, desires, purposes, love and name of Jesus Christ. In other words—real prayer.
So, with these two passions, there is the struggle. I am sure many of you share this same struggle. We can become distraught to see more change. It kills me to see what looks like the enemy being successful. I can’t stand to see God’s called-out leaders, stumble or fall. I can’t stand to see saints living marginalized lives where Jesus is only one small percentage of their life. As if to say, “I will add a little of the God’s Word and a little Jesus to my life so that I can live a better, more productive, more joyful, more successful life. I’m sorry, but I don’t see the purpose of our life on earth as being centered on us. Jesus is not merely here for us—we are here for Him. Remember David’s words about a whole heart devoted to God in Psalm 86:11-12,
11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.
To make the way through this struggle clear, let me share Peter Lord’s words as he is quoted in Daniel Henderson’s latest book, Transforming Prayer. As Peter addressed aspiring ministry students,
“If God promised you two things: (1) You would go to heaven when you die, and (2) He will never use you in the ministry again—would you still pray?” p. 156
This question pierced my heart. It revealed how results driven I am. I wrestled with this. I am not sure that I am finished wrestling with it yet. Even so, shouldn’t we be very quick to answer yes to Peter Lord’s question? Aren’t we going to be blessed to be in the presence of God for all eternity? Shouldn’t Christ-followers be passionate about connecting with the Father more than merely desiring what He can give—His gifts, His stuff? These are not easy questions, I know. Even so, let’s ask ourselves these questions.
As to the best motive to pray—the most enduring motive to pray, Daniel Henderson describes so well, “The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is worthy to be sought.” I love this statement. It rings true. Even though I believe this, I do not really live it all the time. Oh, how we should give ourselves to seek after God, just like David did. David sought God’s heart. May we be compelled to seek after God this way!
We do tend to seek. But we tend not to seek God’s heart—we seek other things instead, like success at work, decent education for our kids, a nice income level, nice cars and homes, physical fitness, and even nice food or clothes.
To sum up, Saints, even though you may have a God-given “holy-discontent” or a God-given “passion,” don’t let that passion take the place of God in your heart. He is worthy to be sought. He alone is worthy of all our love, adoration and worship—our allegiance.
Oh God, please change our hearts!
May God grant us a compelling passion to know Him more—to go deeper with God in prayer.
Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve
Let’s review what we covered last week. We looked at the critical mission of the church—God’s chosen vessel to spread the gospel all over the globe. We saw how that mission is accomplished in and through prayer. We talked about the very real spiritual battle which the enemy would rather have us unaware of. We looked at our tendency to be lulled into a comfort zone by the enemy—in order to keep us out of the battle for souls.
Please re-read the following paragraph from last week’s devotional:
“If you think you are not in a war—you’re duped. If you think prayer is not a necessity—that it is okay not to pray as a Christ follower—you’re duped. Jesus called the church at Sardis to “Wake Up” twice in the letter to this church in Revelation 3:1-3. Yes, this same message is for us today. Christian, “Wake up.” There is a battle. We are commissioned officers in this battle. We have weapons. We must use them. Remember the first thing Paul instructs us to do after putting on the spiritual armor is pray. We are called to witness. We are called to make disciples. We must pray.”
Today, I want to share some of my heart. My prayer is that in some way you will be drawn to more intimacy with Christ as a result of these words. I hope the Holy Spirit comes upon us mightily and draws us to deeper intercessory prayer. May God fill us with His heart for people. Without His love we will drift to a complacent, apathetic, self-absorbed existence. This is not God’s desire.
Saints, I am stuck between two driving passions. One passion is for more intimacy with God Himself. I want to know His presence. I want to see His face. I want more of Him—as I am sure you do as well. As Christ-followers we all have this desire—we want to know God. As we have discussed before, this is not merely a desire to know more about God. The demons know about God—they probably know more about God than you and me (James 2:19). No, knowledge is not enough. We want to know God as Jesus defines eternal life in John 17:3,
John 17:3 (ESV)
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
We desire to know His heart, His desires, His voice, His truth, His presence, His leading. This reminds me of the Navigators motto: “To know Christ and make Him known.” Yes, saints my first passion like yours is to know Christ more.
My second consuming passion is to see God do such a work in His church that she walks in the Spirit. She glorifies His name. She obeys Him. She loves God above all else. She treasures Him more than anything else.
As I understand it, the most impacting and strategic way to move further in the direction of these two passions is prayer--prayer led by the Holy Spirit, guided by God’s Word, directed toward God’s kingdom, and prayed by the character, desires, purposes, love and name of Jesus Christ. In other words—real prayer.
So, with these two passions, there is the struggle. I am sure many of you share this same struggle. We can become distraught to see more change. It kills me to see what looks like the enemy being successful. I can’t stand to see God’s called-out leaders, stumble or fall. I can’t stand to see saints living marginalized lives where Jesus is only one small percentage of their life. As if to say, “I will add a little of the God’s Word and a little Jesus to my life so that I can live a better, more productive, more joyful, more successful life. I’m sorry, but I don’t see the purpose of our life on earth as being centered on us. Jesus is not merely here for us—we are here for Him. Remember David’s words about a whole heart devoted to God in Psalm 86:11-12,
11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.
To make the way through this struggle clear, let me share Peter Lord’s words as he is quoted in Daniel Henderson’s latest book, Transforming Prayer. As Peter addressed aspiring ministry students,
“If God promised you two things: (1) You would go to heaven when you die, and (2) He will never use you in the ministry again—would you still pray?” p. 156
This question pierced my heart. It revealed how results driven I am. I wrestled with this. I am not sure that I am finished wrestling with it yet. Even so, shouldn’t we be very quick to answer yes to Peter Lord’s question? Aren’t we going to be blessed to be in the presence of God for all eternity? Shouldn’t Christ-followers be passionate about connecting with the Father more than merely desiring what He can give—His gifts, His stuff? These are not easy questions, I know. Even so, let’s ask ourselves these questions.
As to the best motive to pray—the most enduring motive to pray, Daniel Henderson describes so well, “The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is worthy to be sought.” I love this statement. It rings true. Even though I believe this, I do not really live it all the time. Oh, how we should give ourselves to seek after God, just like David did. David sought God’s heart. May we be compelled to seek after God this way!
We do tend to seek. But we tend not to seek God’s heart—we seek other things instead, like success at work, decent education for our kids, a nice income level, nice cars and homes, physical fitness, and even nice food or clothes.
To sum up, Saints, even though you may have a God-given “holy-discontent” or a God-given “passion,” don’t let that passion take the place of God in your heart. He is worthy to be sought. He alone is worthy of all our love, adoration and worship—our allegiance.
Oh God, please change our hearts!
May God grant us a compelling passion to know Him more—to go deeper with God in prayer.
Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve
Fantastic Blog...Praise God..
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