Category Archives: Faith

Let Christ Be Our Life

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Coloss 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Coloss 3:4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Christ wants to be our Life.  We seem to want to let Christ be our life when we need help or we are in trouble.  But He (that is Christ) wants to be the “life” that lives in us.  So He initiates, He moves, and we just follow.

It seems we live most of our life independent from Him, and then use Him when we are in trouble or our emotions are low.   Let us let Him live and move in us.

Amen

Someone Help Me Pray – the Spirit

Someone help me pray when I don’t know how to pray.  I need words, but I only have a few feelings.  What do I say, what do I pray.  Sometimes the best and most honest prayer is to put ourselves before God just as we are, just the way we feel. And then just count on the hidden Spirit of God to come to the rescue.  Let the Spirit figure out what to pray. He knows.  When words appear cold and feeble we need to just count on the hidden and quiet Spirit of God working in our human spirit.  He has words, He has accurate words.

Now that I have said all this, look at these two passages in the Bible.

Zechariah 12:10 “ And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for [his] only [son,] and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. He, that is the Spirit of God gives us a Spirit of grace and supplication, that is gives us “prayer”.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Amen

Why Pray when God Already Knows

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches us to pray “Let Your will (God’s will) be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

A great mystery is right here, why should we pray when God already knows what we need?   God is ready to fulfill his will and purpose, but waits for His people to cooperate with Him in prayer.   God will not move until somebody prays.

With the example of Elijah in 1 Kings 18, God wanted someone to show to the unbelieving world that He, the Lord is God.  It took the obedience and prayers of Elijah to fulfill this.  God could easily have shown the world who He is, but He, that is God, waits for a man on the earth to cooperate with Him.  God loves to work with men in the fulfillment of his will and purpose.

Thy Words Were Heard – Answered Prayer

Daniel 10:12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to humble thyself before thy God, thy words were heard: and I am come for thy words’ sake. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me: and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Look at answered prayer here, a humble prayer from Daniel yields results from God in spite of opposition from the enemy.   The enemy may slow prayer, but he cannot stop the answers.  God is God, He created the earth and the universe, eventually He will in every place in the universe be the LORD.  So don’t worry about a tiny little spot in the universe called earth where the enemy appears to have some temporary victory, eventually God will win.  At the end of the Bible God is on the throne and fully rulling in the universe and on this tiny earth.

Don’t ever forget in Psalms 24:1 The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein.   2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods.

Prayer is Faith and Speaking

Matthew 21:21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” 23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”

Again the Lord Jesus emphasis is on speaking (say to this mountain, ask in prayer) and faith (believing).   Notice the action verbs “say”, “ask”, and “believing”.  There is always action in prayer, but not some outward doing, but just faith and speaking.

Prayer – God’s Schedule

Acts 16:13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Its seems that pray always works on God’s timetable.  We have our schedule, and God has His schedule. In this verse in Acts, prayer had been going on some time, look at the phrase “where prayer was customarily made“.

At the God moment, the God time, God acts and prayer is answered.  Trying to change God’s clock does not seem to work.  Just waiting for God does work.

 

Prayer – Abraham Strengthened In Faith

These verses on Abraham are packed with faith and encouragement.

Romans 4:17 …  God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;   18who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”   19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.   20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,   21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

Consider the seven sections of these verses that add encouragement and faith to our daily experience of prayer.

1. gives life to the dead – what is not working, God can make it work.

2. calls those things which do not exist as though they did – what we cannot find or do or does not seem to be there, God can create out of nothing.

3.  in hope believed – this is compounded faith, in the middle of hope there is also more  faith.

4. not being weak in faith – Abraham’s faith was very strong just because God spoke to Him. God’s speaking was enough to trigger faith and belief in Abraham.

5.  did not waver at the promise of God – because his faith was strong there was not a shadow of doubt or consideration that God could not fulfill the very thing God promised to Abraham and Sarah – a baby boy, a son – Isaac.

6. strengthened in faith – Abraham’s faith got even more strengthened every day while he did not see the fulfillment, but just believed God according to what God had spoken.

7. being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform – Where did Abraham get all this faith and belief in God that what God had spoken, He, that is God, could and would do.