Sometimes it is Hard to Pray

Saints,

Let’s be real. There are times when it is hard to pray.

I love the Pixar movie Up. I can relate to Doug the dog. Doug has a gadget on his neck which translates his thoughts into human language—he can speak Mandarin, French, Spanish, or English all at a turn of the dial. It is fun to hear him speak “dog thoughts.” In one scene he is speaking about how loyal he is and how much he loves his master etc. Then, he suddenly turns his head and shouts, “Squirrel!” The dog completely interrupted himself. He was distracted. I can relate. Can you? Yes, especially when it comes to prayer.

This is one tactic I believe the enemy seeks to use in our lives—distraction. He may not be able to push us to give up on Jesus or keep us from speaking about our Savior. Even so, he may seek to fill our time with anything but prayer. It’s as if, the enemy’s mantra is, “Just keep them from praying!”

One timed I asked a missionary friend who was serving in Asia, (we are all on mission by the way—yes!) what role prayer played in her work? She stopped to think and then answered, “Prayer is the work.” She shared how she learned how to not say Amen… Her prayer was constant. She had grown more aware of the spiritual battle around her. She sensed the need for constant connection with the Father.

If we love Jesus, then our purpose is to worship and enjoy our Savior and be a conduit of God’s love to others—Jesus declares this in Mark 12:28-31. It is God’s battle. It is God’s plan. It is God’s purpose. It is God’s glory. It is God’s power. It is God’s results. If we think otherwise, if we think we can do it all on our own, then we deceive ourselves to believe that we can influence this eternal spiritual battle through mere advertising, marketing, project management, and business savvy—in short, by man’s effort.

So what are we to do? The answer is really more about “be” than “do.”

Though these words were written long before Jesus walked the earth, they still carry great truth.

Hosea 6:3,

“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” (NASB)

Hosea uses an action word in this passage which paints the picture of “hunting” or “chasing after” God. You might be thinking that this sounds like a lot of hard work. Well, yes and no. No, it is not hard work in that we can’t work ourselves into connection with God—Jesus did this. And yes, in that, as Jesus said on the cross about His own work, “It is finished.” Jesus did the hard work. So what do we do? It's as if we cooperate with the Spirit as He drives us to chase after more intimacy with the Father.

Brothers and sisters may I suggest that we take time to come to our father in undistracted prayer and say like Daniel said in Daniel 9:3,

Father, here I am. You have done the work to enable me to be here in your presence. You first loved me--now I love you. Just like Daniel, I now "turn my attention to You." Lord, show me how to pray. Please lead this prayer time.


Father, You began the work and You are faithful to complete it. We surrender. We offer ourselves as intercessors. Please fill us with your Spirit of intercession—lead us to pray as You will. Help us to pray--we choose to press in.

Desperate for more of God, Steve

What Do We Bring to the Word of God?

Saints,

 

We are greatly impacted by the culture (let’s define culture as a combination of our national and family heritage) we live in. It is only natural for us to view the Word of God through our cultural lenses. For example, we could ask ourselves…

 

Where was I raised?

What type of religion have I experienced?

What kind of world-view do I embrace?

What work ethic do I follow?

Who do I model my life after?

 

What is interesting to me is the incredible diversity each of us would answer these questions. How would my Iranian friend Babak answer them? How about Tim raised in Arizona? What about “Maria” from Russia or “Gustavo” from Brazil, Bic from Viet Nam, "Mo" from Saudi Arabia, or Luke who was raised in Cameron? How about you and your friends—how would they answer these questions?

 

Just in case we’re thinking that our cultural bent doesn’t really make a difference, let me share an example which would help at least American culture readers see how we might view God’s Word with a cultural bent. If you are not from America, please try to think of a similar situation in your culture. This is an example from Grasping God’s Word by Duvall and Hays, p 92-93.

 

First, carefully read Romans 13:1-7, then read the following excerpt from Duvall and Hays.

 

With this passage in mind would it have been wrong for you to participate in the Boston Tea Party of 1773? In protest to a new tax on tea, American “patriots” dumped tons of someone else’s tea into the Boston Harbor. Was that a Christian thing to do? Or suppose you were one of the Minutemen on the route between Concorde and Boston on April 19, 1775. Should a Christian aim, fire, and kill the soldiers that represent the government? Does this not conflict with Romans 13? Or perhaps the larger question should be asked: Was the American Revolution undertaken in disobedience to Romans 13:1-7? Keep in mind that the revolution was more about economics than religious freedom. Remember too that when Paul wrote Romans, the government in Rome was much more oppressive and tyrannical than the British government under King George III ever was. What do you think?

 

If you are like me, your American heart is “stirred” by words like these. Even so, I share this only to illustrate that we bring as Duvall and Hays call it, “Preunderstanding” to God’s Word.

 

So, take a deep breath and please continue reading—there is a point today. I believe the rugged individualistic mentality embedded in the “Western-culture” psyche can lead us to approach our faith in Christ along these lines:

 

1)     I am a sinner, I need Jesus’ blood to wash away my sins

2)     I receive the forgiveness of Jesus and my sins our forgiven

3)     Now, out of gratitude and love I will serve Jesus and seek to improve myself

4)     Thank you God for helping me to be a better person, I will now do my best to serve and love you

 

At first glance this may seem logical, but there is a problem. Notice the emphasis on “I” and “me.” This line of thinking might reduce our Lord Jesus to merely some kind of “self-improvement” method. The truth is, however, there is nothing in our self—our flesh which pleases God (Romans 6:23). In the beginning, yes God saw that His creation was good. Even so, After Adam and Eve chose self and pride and consequently “set” us all on the same path of pride. We all became broken. We all need to be fixed.

 

As part of this fixing, the death of Christ washes away our sin—please see Romans 6: 1-11. However, a deeper truth follows. The cross of Christ kills our old self. We cannot come to Jesus and in our hearts say, “Thank you Jesus for cleansing me from sin—for clearing my record, for helping me out. I’ll take it from here. I got it.” No, Jesus’ work is so much better—it is complete.

 

These are very “churchy” words. What do they really mean? Well, if you are like me, you see that the father wants to take you deeper in knowing and following Christ. Yes, a walk that begins with a cleansing from sin, but then a deeper walk—a life of truly living in Christ, not living absorbed with self. We become new creatures—Christ-infused, love-propelled, Spirit-driven, Bible-absorbing, people-loving, God’s kingdom-obsessed worshipers. The problem is that we cannot make this change, the Father does.  The Father implants both the desire and the power to live this way—in Him, in His Holy Spirit (Gal 2:20).

 

Let’s look at this truth another way. As we read the Old Testament, we understand God is faithful and we are not. As we read the New Testament, we understand that yes, God is faithful, however, we have become new--faithful in and through Jesus Christ. This change is illustrated in the life of Peter. Peter as a determined man of action, pledged not to deny Christ. But, he denied Jesus three times as he struggled to follow Jesus empowered by self. Even so, see the difference in Peter in Acts 2—the old Peter “died on the cross” with Jesus and the new Peter was infused with the power of the Holy Spirit. The new Peter preaches a powerful sermon--God saves thousands. The new Peter cures a crippled man in the name of Jesus.

 

So what do we do? Dear friends it is time for us to ask the Father to take us deeper. The disciples lived for Christ. So now, we live for Christ. It is time for a true Holy Spirit empowered
Western-culture church to rise up and follow Jesus. We live for His kingdom, not our own.

 

Let’s consider this line of thinking instead…

 

1)     I am a sinner I need Jesus blood to wash away my sins

2)     I receive the forgiveness of Jesus and my sins are forgiven

3)     Jesus now completely transforms me into a new person—He lives in me

4)     Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in Christ who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

5)     Romans 6: 6-8, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” 

 

In other words, we need God. We need Jesus. Let’s pray for ourselves and one another—for the faith-family of Christ…

 

Father, take us deeper. Forgive us for our self-oriented approach to serving you. Forgive us for in essence saying to you, “Thank you for helping me a little, I’ll take it from here.” Help us to understand true consecration—that yes our sin is washed away, but also along with that, You took away our nature of sin. We are new in Jesus. We want to live in complete surrender to this truth. Spirit, live in us, and truly take over. Jesus, have your way--Your will lived out in us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

 

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve          

If Jesus Prayed…?

Saints,

If Jesus was fully man and fully God when he walked this earth, why did He spend so much time alone with the heavenly Father? Why did He make time for prayer? Wasn’t He already “very connected” to the Father? Wasn’t He already one with the heavenly Father? Why would He pray all night?

Please review the following passages which describe Jesus’ prayer life while He was on earth.

Hebrews 5:7 (ESV) “ In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”

John 17:20-21(ESV) “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Luke 6:12 (ESV) “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.”

Luke 9:18 (ESV) “Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?””

Mark 1:35 (ESV) “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”

The truth is that Jesus went to a mountain for an entire evening to pray. He slipped away from the crowd and His disciples to pray. He got up early to spend time with His Father. Jesus needed and desired time alone with the heavenly Father.

So, at this point we could review these Bible passages which describe Jesus’ desire for the Father and His prayer life and put ourselves on a shameful guilt trip—or worse, we could point our fingers at others and try to shame them for their prayerlessness.

I don’t believe this is the best response to these truths.

Yes, Jesus spent much time alone with God the father. Yes, if we are truly honest with ourselves—we would have to admit that we don’t spend the kind of time alone with God the Father that Jesus did when He walked this earth. But saints, our response is not to shame ourselves or others to pray more. No, the best response to this apparent “prayer-discrepancy” is to ask the Father for the same desire that Jesus had to intimately connect with Him. Whatever compelled, or drew, or pushed, or encouraged Jesus to seek undistracted time with God alone—that is what we want. That is what we need.

Let’s pray for ourselves and one another…

Father, please give us the same desire to be with You that Jesus had. If Jesus needed time with you, we need time with you. Help us to want you more. Help us to want to be with you as much as you want to be with us. We ask this from You so that your name would be more glorified and Your kingdom would be more impacted in and through us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve

Who is Doing the Work, God or Us?

Saints,

Before you dismiss this question as too easy to answer or as too theologically deep to worry about, let this question sink in a little--if for no other reason, to help you understand more clearly what you really think about this topic.

Is God doing the work or do we do the work?

Let’s imagine placing our answer on a continuum with God doing all the work on one end and ourselves on the other end.

God does the work---------------------------------------------------------------------------------We do the work

The goal however is not simply to answer this question as much as it is to help us see our own orientation about this question.

So, dear friend what thoughts came to mind as you read the above question? God’s Word is clear that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). We also see in the Bible that as followers of Jesus, Jesus’ Spirit--the Holy Spirit empowers us (Acts 1:8, 4:31).

Remember that even after spending much time with Jesus Himself, Peter failed. Before he received the Holy Spirit he betrayed Jesus. He denied knowing Him three times. However, after he received the Holy Spirit, then through God’s power, he preached a church-growing sermon--God’s power in action. God enabled him to live differently.

So what about us? It seems that as we continue to work in a church or ministry, it is possible for the idea that we are doing the work to settle into our thinking. We can begin to believe that somehow we are the agent of change for our church or ministry. We can cause revival--us.

We know in our heart that this is not really true. Even so, we can let “self” take over. If we are not careful, we begin to really believe that we are doing the work—as if “our efforts” caused closer intimacy with Jesus in ourselves and others.

So what is the natural result of our “wrong thinking?”  As you can imagine, we try harder. We pray more. We strain more. We try to pray late at night and more in the morning because after-all, “If we don’t do it, then, who will?”

To be sure, we do something--we surrender. We align with God. We align with God through prayer. I know this sounds simplistic, but Jesus is the answer. Jesus is always the answer.

So, friends, where do we find ourselves on our continuum? Are we convinced that God does the work? Or, do we believe we are doing the work? We must be careful on this. We know from the Bible that God resists pride (James 4:6).

Let me share two quotes to help us get our minds around this topic.

Joey Letourneau describes this pride issue well through his allegorical character, a “Christ-follower.” This “Christ-follower” speaks directly with Abraham in his book, “Revolutionary Freedom,” pg. 131. This is what Abraham says,

 “You and your generation can seek to have a great impact and do great things, but you will only be building a tower. To build with God, you must see His potential rather than your own, and you must build toward what you cannot yet see. This role affords no notoriety, it demands perseverance and will require you to live in daily trust and surrender. But it is the greatest of callings. You will be serving His upcoming generation, in whom you will see His greatest promises fulfilled. You and that generation need one another.”

Andrew Murray shares penetrating ideas about humility in his book by that title, “Humility,” pg. 69, 

“The highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility. Oh that every Christian who seeks to advance in holiness may remember this well! There may be intense consecration and fervent zeal and heavenly experience, and yet, if it is not prevented by very special dealings of the Lord, there may be an unconscious self-exaltation with it all. Let us learn the lesson: the highest holiness is the deepest humility. Let us remember that comes not of itself, but only as it is made a matter of special dealing on the part of our faithful Lord and His faithful servant.”

As a reminder to us,

Psalms 127:1

“Unless the Lord builds the house,

    the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

    the guards stand watch in vain.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

^“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Hosea 6:3

“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.”

So what is our role? What do we do? Our role is always the same. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Trust Him. Follow—don’t lead—follow Him. Believe Him. Receive from Him. Depend on Him.

Father, please help us. We need you. We admit it. We surrender to you. We desire your plan, your kingdom-not ours. We love you. Please help our hearts be completely focused on Jesus. Fill us with you. Amen

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve

God Gives Grace to Obey

Precious beloved saints and fellow heirs of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Let’s look at what might be a “stronghold” of the enemy in Jesus’ church. You may think to yourself, “How can the enemy have a stronghold in God’s church?” The answer is we allow him to. 

We will start from the beginning with a brief review. God, The Most high Creator/sustainer made everything and placed man and woman—Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden. Adam and Eve were created dependent on God. They did not know “good from evil”—they only knew God. God was their all. They both chose to be self-dependent—they chose to know “good from evil” on their own, separate from God. They ate the fruit they were instructed not to eat. The Bible describes Adam and Eve’s--our condition through these words,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

This condition means we are separate from God. At first, they both enjoyed God’s presence, but after they chose to depend on self—separation from God resulted.

Let’s see how the Father chose to fix this problem. The Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, fully God who became fully man to express His love for us. He chose to become man—the ultimate expression of humility.

So, the Father sent Jesus for us. He lived a perfect life. He died as an evil-doer—a man. Then, He rose again to life. Jesus became God in a receivable form for us.

Actually, the Bible says more about our condition,

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Ephesians 2:1-2

The Bible describes our condition of separation from God as dead. The Bible also says that not only are we dead, but the enemy intentionally seeks to keep us dead.

“And even if the gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

According to God’s word, we are dead and incapable of seeing the truth of Christ in our self-dependence and the enemy intentionally seeks to keep us in this condition. The question is, “Can we, in our condition of death, cause ourselves to become alive and open our own eyes to see the truth of Jesus?” Clearly, we see the answer…”No, we cannot.”

God, through His love and grace and mercy and power, chooses to “draw” us to Jesus. How does this happen? This happens by the power of God, not man. So, we—the dead are drawn to Jesus. We then see the truth of His love. We respond to His grace. We receive God in His receivable form—Jesus. Then Jesus gives His Holy Spirit to live in us.

Unfortunately, after the Father has awakened us to truth and brought eternal life into our lives and hearts, and poured His Holy Spirit in us, we can stumble back into Adam and Eve’s choice—we return to self, to self-dependence. It’s as if we say to our gracious loving God, “Thank you Father for opening our eyes and unlocking our ears to the truth of Jesus. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit. Even so, we will take it from here.” In other words, we attempt to “add” our own effort to God’s work to save us. Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “There is no way I am doing that.”  

I thought the same thing until the father graciously opened my eyes to my pride. You see, to me, ministry and “working for God” became my identity. I sought to “please” God through my works—my effort. Here is the truth: we have received every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). In Christ, we are righteous before God.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

In Christ, we stand “fully pleasing” before God. Let this truth sink in. We cannot “do” anything for God in our energy. It is He who works in and through us. Our role is to surrender in humility—returning to the utter dependence Adam had in the beginning. Only now in Christ, we have the added blessing of God living in us. Adam walked with God in the cool of the evening. Better yet, we walk in God and Him in us. Praise God!

So what is the “stronghold” of the enemy in Jesus’ church? It is believing the lie that we can work in and through our self-dependence to somehow please God or even cover our sin. Jesus made this clear, when it comes to pleasing God, “It is finished.” Whatever was required for us to please God was done by Jesus. He did the work we could not and cannot do. Now, we humbly surrender every moment to Jesus. Jesus is life. His grace empowers us to live--to obey. To put it another way, Jesus Himself defined life as fully knowing the Father and Himself.

 “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou sent.” John 3:17

I have been convicted by God of offering “crumbs” of my own pride and effort to people—all the while believing that this was God’s plan. People do not need our white-knuckling, try-harder, self-dependent efforts—that is not genuine Christianity, it is merely religion. No, people need (we need and His church needs) the living water and bread of life which is Jesus.

Father, we ask you to fill us with the humility of Jesus Christ to fully live in a deep love relationship with you through utter dependence on your Holy Spirit that we may offer Jesus to this world, not the crumbs of self-dependence. Thank you for life. Thank you for Jesus. 

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve

A Call to Intimacy with Jesus

Saints,

Please allow me to share what I pray would be life-giving and encouraging words with you. If you would rather not receive these devotionals, please respond to this email and let me know.

Our Father is so faithful. I know this more now than I did a year ago. I have experienced a deep depression this year—apathy, anger, hopelessness, desiring to wallow alone in my misery, and convinced that God betrayed me. This pit was a place of listening solely to my wavering feelings and not trusting God. Maybe you have been there as well? Even so, God has shown Himself to be healer, anchor, pursuer, enabler and passionately in love with me—with us. Rest assured--our Savior desires us more than we desire Him. Please allow John 17:3 to soak into your hearts.

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.

As we have seen before, Jesus modeled oneness with His Father. Please be careful here dear saint—not oneness as merely a “to-do” or obedience accomplished by our own power, but oneness as intimacy and connection to our Heavenly Father who makes this intimacy possible by His Son’s blood and by the power of His grace. It is impossible for us to “try-harder” in ourselves to connect with God. I am convinced more than ever that this oneness with the Father which Jesus modeled is the heart of a life as a Christ-follower/worshiper.

Please embrace the grace and the power of the Spirit to BE in Christ—to do, to live. We cannot overcome depression or trials in our own strength, but Jesus carries us through our trials or sufferings. The end result is kingdom impact and our God's name being glorified. 

Let’s look at prayer as intimacy with Jesus. Prayer is not duty. Prayer is not an item on our to-do list. Prayer is deep connection with the true source of life—the Most High God. Let’s look at one example.

Luke 22:39-46 (ESV)
³⁹ And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.
⁴⁰ And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
⁴¹ And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
⁴² saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
⁴³ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
⁴⁴ And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
⁴⁵ And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,
⁴⁶ and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

 Please read these words by Gary Wilkerson from his book, The Divine Intercessor, p 50.

“The event recorded in Luke 22 occurred just before the last days of Jesus’ life. He could have been addressing a thousand issues, teaching in vital places, or meeting with future leaders of the church, but He wasn’t. Instead, Jesus was giving His time, passion and energy to prayer. We tend to think prayer is an attachment to our many demands and agendas—but to Jesus prayer was His agenda. Nothing drew His heart like communion with the Father and He wanted his disciples to follow His lead.”

Father, help us to pray in true communion with You. Holy spirit, please help us pray as Jesus did. May we commune with You and so be filled with love and grace which will spill out all over this hurting world.

Desperate for more of God, Steve 

A Lesson from Kauai--We Need the Holy Spirit: Part 2

Saints,

In the previous devotional we looked at our need for the Holy Spirit. We reviewed how Peter failed to remain faithful to Christ in his own power, but after receiving the power of God through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he preached powerfully and many lives were changed. He was changed. He was empowered. He was set free from himself. Today, I hope that we will fully embrace our need for the Holy Spirit not only individually, but also corporately. Let’s begin with a lesson from my family vacation.

My family recently received a gift from our relatives—a timeshare unit in Kauai for two weeks. Yes, the trip was amazing. We stayed on the North shore which is well known for its lush, tropical characteristics. This rain forest-like quality is the reason Kauai is known as the Garden Isle. We enjoyed God’s creation. As we basked in the tropical sun, one image impressed me. I saw a waterfall flowing down a mountainside. Please know that the mountains in Kauai are very different than the mountains in Colorado where I live. First of all, many of the Colorado mountain peaks top out at 13,000 and 14,000 feet altitudes. In Kauai the highest point is about 5,500. Also, the streams and rivers in Colorado flow down from melting snow. The waterfall in Kauai was not fed by melting snow, it was fed by rain—almost all the streams and rivers in Kauai have are fed by rain.

Let me share one more fact about the island we visited. The highest point in Kauai receives 420+ inches of rainfall per year. This makes it one of the rainiest spots on earth. So what? This struck me because the entire tropical area of Kauai is fed by consistent, daily rainfall. So the plants below are lush and very green, which in turns feeds the animals and insects—life everywhere.

As I looked at my favorite waterfall every day during our visit, I began to realize that just as this lush tropical well-watered island is fed by the daily rain, so I need daily “rain” from God--His grace. We need God’s grace. We need His Spirit. We cannot live for Him with our energy. It does not work that way.

You may be thinking, well that is really obvious. Yes, most of us would agree that we know about these truths…we need God, He is our redeemer, He is our sustainer, He is our savior. But, if you are like me you may know about these truths without really living them. You may know them, but not receive them deep in your soul.

Let me give you an example from the Bible. Abraham was given a promise from God that he would have a son. Even so, at some point Abraham decided to not live by the fact that God is faithful and that God would keep His promises. He chose to help God out with his own energy. He caused an "Ishmael" in his life—a lesser blessing than what God intended. Just like Abraham, we can approach living for God by thanking God for taking our sin penalty away and then in essence say to God, “Thanks God for the help, we can take it from here.” What would this look like? How would this reliance on self play out in our lives? This might look like keeping a personal mental account of our good works in contrast to our sins. We decide to engage in a kind of “sin management.” As long as we perceive that our sin column is lower than our good works column, then we our okay—life is good. But, when the sin column gets too high, we our alarmed and decide to double our efforts to get balanced again. Do you see how much of “self” is in this approach? In reality, only Jesus is qualified to "manage our sin."

Of course all of this is poor thinking—not Biblical. But, I submit to you that we sometimes live like this. This approach to living the Christian life is basically a self-righteousness based approach. We decide the level of sin which is alright for us. We determine how much effort is required to fix our own sin problem.  

Over the past few months, I have been through a struggle—one which allowed me to see more clearly this process play out in my own life. So, I began to approach this problem by increasing my effort to solve it and fix it. I only made it worse. Fortunately, God has patiently shown me that I cannot fix my problem. In fact I can do nothing before Him. He is God. I am not. I am to submit and trust. He leads, redeems, loves, heals, and fixes problems.

So, I need God. I absolutely need God. Without His grace, I sin. I ruin relationships. Without complete dependence on God with confidence, I cannot live in or through or for God. Without His grace, His name is not honored in life. Without His grace and the power of His Spirit, His kingdom is not benefited through my life--others do not experience His love in me.

This complete reliance on God and our deep need is mentioned by the author of Hebrews in 4:16,

Hebrews 4:16 (NASB)
¹⁶ Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I submit to you that our time of need is all the time.

As we saw in Peter, we need God. We need His grace. We need His Spirit. Not merely to help us live our lives, but to live at all, we need God. This is the truth God has helped me see more clearly that just as Kauai needs that consistent rain, so we need consistent grace to rain done on us. Yes, we all need this. Let’s admit it.

Again, as we saw in the last devotional, Peter failed without God’s power. Like peter, we need the Spirit of God. Just as we individually need the Spirit of God, the church also needs the Spirit—to corporately unite in her need for the Spirit. No, I am not making this up—remember the early church and the day of Pentecost. Just as we individually need the power of God, we corporately need the power of God. Our part in this is to agree with God. Believe Him. He is right and true. His plan is the only one. We need God’s power in our lives and in His church.

In closing, please answer this question, “Do I live my life with a complete dependence on God with confidence in God?” Let the Holy Spirit guide your answer, lest you be too hasty to say “yes!”

I write this because His love compels me to. His grace is sufficient. I pray that these words encourage you toward deeper dependence on God and intimacy with Him.

Completely dependent on His grace, Steve