Humbleness and Prayer

2 Chronicles 7:14 – and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

This is one of those verses that is quoted often and sometimes I fee like we miss what it has to say to us.  Keep in mind that the same God who made this promise in 2 Chronicles to Israel still reigns.  This God who made this promise will still respond to His people humbly praying.

This verse tells us that as the people of God humble themselves, pray and seek the face of God, they must also turn from their wicked ways. It is not enough to merely turn your heart to God; you must also turn your life to God. God simply promises to hear His humble, prayerful, seeking, repentant people. He will bring forgiveness to His people and healing to their land.

I do not know about you but I need this kind of healing and forgiveness in my own life.  I believe that we need this kind of healing and forgiveness in our churches.  I think we need this kind of healing and forgiveness in nation.  It is only going to come if we (God’s People who are called by His Name) are seeking God – truly seeking him with a humble heart.

I encourage you today to look closely at yourself and your life.  What are your thoughts?

 

Prayerlessness

Daniel9:13-14 “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought  the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. “Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

Daniel has been confessing all kinds of sins that he and Israel have committed and he comes to the sin of prayerlessness. What we see here is that even when Israel faced great trial and calamity, they did not make prayers before the LORD. When we sense trial or difficulty it should drive us immediately to prayer – when we are not so driven it should be a wake-up call to the coldness of our heart.

Do you tell people you are praying for them and you really are not?  Do you know that you should stop and pray but you quench the Holy Spirit prompting you and you do not?  Do you have a prayer list and yet you do nothing with it?  Do you have a cold heart when it comes to prayer?  Is the sin of prayerlessness prevalent in your life and do you need to confess it today?

Prayerlessness is something I struggled with in the past a lot and still have my days where it is a struggle.  I have worked hard at praying for people as soon as they ask for prayer.  I fight hard to not quench the Spirit and stop and pray with people.  I try to pray go through a prayer list but it is a struggle – I more pray through it in burst throughout my day.  I do not see a cold heart to prayer in my own life.  What about you?  How you handle prayer and prayerlessness?

Confessing in Prayer

Daniel 9:7-8 - “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day–to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all  the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. “Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

Daniel here he could had a laundry list with a bunch of complaint about God from Israel because God was too hard on them.  The thing is, that was not how Daniel did things because Daniel knew that God was not too hard on Israel as Israel though He was.  Daniel knew God was completely righteous and any failure was on Israel’s side.  The same is true for us – any failures we have – gossiping, lying, angry outburst, poor attitude, disobedience, rebellion, ect. – are not God’s fault and not the way God made us but they are sin and they need to be confessed and not complained about.

What we see here with Daniel is that he is not complaining, Daniel is confessing. I read the following while studying:  During times of great revival among God’s people, the Holy Spirit always brings a deep conviction and awareness of sin. When that is responded to rightly, confession is appropriately made. J. Edwin Orr gives a good principle to govern confession: “If you sin secretly, confess secretly, admitting publicly that you need the victory but keeping details to yourself. If you sin openly confess openly to remove stumbling blocks from those whom you have hindered. If you have sinned spiritually such as prayerlessness, lovelessness, or unbelief as well as their offspring, criticism, etc. then confess to the church that you have been a hindrance.”

It continues:  Genuine, appropriate confession will be sincere, specific, and thorough. Orr describes how in the 1952 revival in Brazil a woman in a crowded church confessed, “Please pray for me, I need to love people more.” The leader told her gently, “That is not a confession, sister. Anyone could have said it.” Later in the service the lady stood again and said, “Please pray for me. What I should have said is that my sharp tongue has caused a lot of trouble in this congregation.” The pastor leaned over to Orr and whispered “Now she is talking!”

What we have here in confession is humility in prayer and a key to an effective prayer life.

Do you have some secret confessions to make today?  How about public confessions?  What about spiritual confessions? Do you have any thoughts on this?

 

A Strong Base for Prayer

Daniel 9:3 - So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

I love this verse because it give the basis for the great prayer of Daniel in chapter 9.  The first thing we see is where Daniel’s attention goes.  Where does Daniel’s attention go?  Does it go on the people?  Does it go on himself?  It does not go to either place but it goes on God, right where it needs to be – on God.  Many times I believe that we have unanswered prayers because we only talking to each other or to ourselves in prayer and we are not putting our attention on God.  God is the only one who can answer prayer and He is where our attention needs to be.

What we see with this word attention that it implies determination in prayer. Daniel had an objective to achieve in prayer, and he approached God as a man who would not be denied. He did this because he was rightly convinced that his prayer was in the will of God, and knew it was not motivated by any selfish desire.  How often do you check your motivations and desires in prayer?  How about in general in life?  I urge you today to have a gut check on your motivations and desires in prayer and in life.

We see here with the word supplication that Daniel wasn’t passive as God’s prophetic plan unfolded before him. In his approach to God, he made a request, asking God to perform His promise in the way that Daniel thought would bring God the most glory.  Again, this was all about God and not about him or what he wanted.

Then we see this in the verse, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I posted a lot about fasting last year and we learned that we do not impress God with fasting and that is not the intent of it.  It was a practical way for Daniel to spend more time in prayer but also this reflects Daniel’s humble heart in approaching God.  Fasting, sackcloth, and ashes are emblems of humiliation and mourning.  They show the proper perspective when coming before God- that is with a humble heart.  Having the right heart is an important part of an effective prayer life.  The opposite of humble is selfish – selfish prayers are powerless and humble prayers are powerful – which prayers do you pray?

To sum up: a strong base in prayer comes from having our attention directly on God.  It comes from determination and pure motives.  A strong base comes in a focus on God and away from us. It comes from having a humble heart and proper perspective.

Daniel’s great prayer of confession is built upon these truths as we see in this verse.  We need to make sure we have a strong base when it comes to our prayer lives.

So what do you think?  Do these things constitute a strong base for prayer?

The Weekend – Tiring but Good

As I write this on Sunday night – I am dog tired but I look back on good weekend.  Let me today just give you a small glimpse into my world this weekend.  My weekend started nice and slow- I started my weekend watching the new “Alice in Wonderland” with my family.  We enjoyed it and has my family talking about futterwacken and wondering why a raven and a writing desk are alike.  The slow start to the weekend was nice but things quickly sped up.

I got up Saturday morning and myself  and two others guys drove with a friend the about 3 hours to the Northern Neck of Virginia to get furniture.  We stopped just about 10 miles from the house and picked up a twenty six foot U-Haul.  The four of us then went to house and in three and half hours filled the U-Haul and the back of a pick and the back of my Explorer.  We then made the nearly 3 hour trip back.  Once we got to the house the family (and those of us who packed the furniture) were blessed with about 15 people from the church showing up to unload the truck.  It was a good and long day of helping friends and seeing them blessed by the generosity of the church.  I then had to spend some time going over Sunday Mornings message and actually began nodding off while doing it (not that the message was boring – I think was not …..)

I was glad to go to bed and I was looking forward to getting that extra hour of sleep on Saturday Night.  I should have been able to get that extra hour of sleep but our smoke alarm went off at 2:30 AM and so we searched the hour for why and found nothing.  I did not sleep too well after that.  It made for a long rest of the night.

I got up on Sunday Morning to go and enjoy an early morning breakfast with the Men of the church.  The breakfast was great as always and then on to the Sunday School hour which I used to study and pray before the worship service.  Then into the Worship Service and I preached my heart out – Daniel 9:1-19 – you will probably read some thoughts from that this week.  I went home after the service for about twenty minutes and ate a few crackers before making the forty five minute plus drive to do a wedding rehearsal.  My wife and I then hung out for an hour and half  before the start of the wedding and then I performed the wedding.  It was a great time and as a Pastor, one of my favorite things to do.  I had a great time doing the wedding and hanging out talking with the family and the church family that was there.  I finally made it home about 12 hours later – minus the few minutes I was here eating crackers earlier in the day.  As I look back on this day I would have to say all in all it was a very good day and a very good albeit busy weekend.

Now I would say that I am going to take Monday and rest but I can’t do that even though it is my day off.  I have somethings to get done early before getting a tooth pulled.  Hopefully after I get the tooth pulled I can rest and relax.

So this is just a small glimpse into my life this past weekend. In all this I want to live a life that speaks Jesus and I pray this weekend did speak of how much I love Jesus and his people.  I think this verse shows my goal in going through this busy weekend: 1 Corinthians 10:31 (New International Version) - So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. In all the busyness I pray it was never about me but about Christ and Him getting the glory!

So what did you do this weekend?  How were services at your church?  What is one thing that Christ taught you this weekend?

Are you a Victor?

Joshua 10:8 – “The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you.”

The end of this verse  says, “for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you.” Joshua is told not to fear because God has given them into his hand.  God is showing Joshua that he need not fear because he is going to win.  He says that same thing to you.

I want you to know Lord never saved you for you to be defeated! When He saved you, He did so with the promise that you could walk in His victory.

1 Cor. 15:57 - but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom. 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

That doesn’t mean that every situation in life will work out the way you want it to, but it does mean that God will enable you to live above your circumstances and share in His victory over the world, the flesh and the devil!  We are conquers and victors in Christ Jesus!

Are you living like a conqueror and a victor or are you living in defeat?  If you are living in defeat, I want you to stand up today as believe what Paul tells us in Romans “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  and move forward.  We need to not only be living in victory but we need to showing others the way to victory and that comes through surrendering to Jesus Christ.

What are your thoughts on this?

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Does God have a Sore Arm?

I have been having a great time the past couple of evenings.  My son comes home from school and he always does his homework as soon as he comes through the door because otherwise he struggles to get it done.  When he has finished his homework the past couple of nights he has put his cleats on and said “Let’s throw the football Dad!”.  I get my cloths changed and out the door into our big back yard we go.  We throw the football and run plays until it is time to come in and eat dinner and then back out for the last few minutes of daylight.

The problem in all the fun we are having is this: he thinks I am superman and has been going out waaaaaaaay too long for passes, really further than I should try to throw but I have been throwing it or attempting to throw it that far.  After trying to throw too far for a while my arm has gotten really sore the past couple of day but especially last night.  It got so sore last night that I had to start throwing with my left hand.  Believe me when I say that it was quite a sight.  When I started trying to throw to him with my left hand, my son just fell to the ground laughing.  Every time I threw with my left hand he would just die laughing but when I tried with my right it just hurt too much.  (He wanted to take a check off my man card by the way)

I  was thinking about all this last night when I was reminded of these verses:

Jeremiah 32:17 - `Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,

Job 40:9 - ”Or do you have an arm like God, And can you thunder with a voice like His?”

For my son, his earthly father’s arm is sore and weak but his Heavenly Father’s arms are is strong.  This is not only true for my son but for all of us, we all have a Heavenly father who has nothing that is too difficult for Him and His outstretched arm.

Today’s  take away  - You can go waaaaaaaaay long and your Heavenly Father can get the ball to you without even trying and no matter how far or where you go.  His arms are forever strong and they are never weak or sore.

I know God wants me to go long and do great things for Him today and I know that if I am obedient in that, God will get me the ball.  What about you?

Listening: A Part of Prayer?

I started a new series yesterday on prayers from the Old Testament and I dealt with the prayer of Joshua in Joshua 10:6-14  but today I want to focus in on verse 8.

Joshua 10:8 – The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you.”

I want you to notice in the verse that the Lord is speaking to Joshua.  The Lord spoke and Joshua heard.  Why did Joshua hear?  Simply because he was listening.  When it comes to prayer we need to be listening to what God is saying.  For many though this becomes a real problem.  Our problem is that sometimes we are so busy reading God our list of things we want him to do like he is Santa that we never listen to what He has to say.  Imagine having a friend who only ever asked you to do this and do this and do this and you are so great and because of that would you do this and this.  That is many times how we must appear in prayer to God.

Sometimes we are so distracted by all the noise and activity that is all around us that we do not hear God.  We have ear buds in our ears,the radio on, the television on, or something playing on our computers.  Sometimes we are distracted by reading all the tweets, texts, cell phones ringing and facebook posts that we do not take time to listen to God.  These things are not bad in and of themselves but sometimes they are a distraction from listening to God or being able to hear God.

In life I believe that there needs to be time or maybe even several times throughout the day were we just stop and listen.  Be still and know he is God.  Listen for that still quiet voice.  Again in the verse above the Lord spoke to Joshua and he listened.

Let me as you some tough questions:  What is God saying to you today?  When was the last time you heard His voice?  Listening is a skill, have you developed it spiritually?

We will look more at verse 8 tomorrow – there are many interesting parts to it.

Leadership: A Title or Courage? (Braveheart)

Men don’t follow titles, they follow courage – Braveheart

This is one of those leadership quotes that is short but that speaks volumes to me.  It is one of those quotes that even when I am not watching Braveheart it will pop into my head.  In my life have seen okay leaders, good leaders, and great leaders as well as some of the poorest of poor leaders and I am sure you have too.  Those who fit into the good and great leadership areas that I have been involved with I would say are/were men and women of courage but I would also say that they were/are not into titles.  Now to  be honest, some of them did/do have titles and some did/do not have titles but it did/does not make a difference in their leadership, but their courage did/does.

I am reminded of Christ who was/is a great leader and it did it without a title but with courage.  Jesus had the courage to follow through with the plan of the Father and it makes a real difference in my life.  Jesus had the courage to give His life for me.  Jesus had the courage to say the things that needed to be said and do the things that needed to be done.

I want to be a leader who is courageous for all the right reasons and one who does not worry about having any title in life.  Because in the end it is not about the title but about the results which come because of the courage that is shown.  Being Courageous for Jesus is always the right thing to be!  Being courageous for Jesus makes a real difference.  Being courageous for Jesus is not always the easiest thing to be but it is the best thing to be.

I want to be found as one who showed great courage throughout his life – that is the leadership I respect in others and that is the leadership  I want to live out in my life.  I am praying about where I can show the most courage today in my life.  What about you, where can you show courage today?

What about you – any thoughts on this?  Are you into titles or courage?

Speechless Praying in a Desperate Situation

“Is she breathing?” the nurse said to me frantically as I ran past her carrying my daughter’s limp and listless body.  “Yes, I think so”, I yelled back as my wife and I were sprinting through the hospital.  I handed our little girl off  to a nurse and we followed her and others into a hospital room.  We watched stunned as a team of about of nine doctors and nurses began hovering over our little girl and worked feverously.  We were both at the same time praying without ceasing and at the very same time we had no words to pray.

Romans 8:26 – 27 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We watched a team of doctors and nurses trying feverously to get an IV into our little girls arm.  The veins in the arm had collapsed because of sever dehydration.  Then one nurse told the others” to step aside” and she stepped up and found a vein where there seemingly was not one to find.  I truly and honestly believe that the Spirit heard the words we could not speak and interceded in this desperate situation. That nurse later told my wife that there was no vein there to hit that she believed “it was a miracle or angel was there or something”.   After a few days in the hospital our little girl was discharged and sent home but we never got any answers for what had happened too her.  We keep praying for answers and did not get any.

Fast forward 6 months – Our daughter has another episode and we again have to rush her to the hospital.  She has all the same symptoms as she did the first time and is very ill.  The doctors at this hospital in Lynchburg have no idea how to treat her, so they need to take her to a larger hospital.  I am at her bedside and Wendy is at home just a couple of minutes away gather some stuff for us for the night.  Wendy called and I had to tell her to come back quickly because they were going to Life Flight our little 5 year old girl.  She is sent by Life Flight to University of Virginia Medical Center, but they will not let Wendy or I fly with her.  We had to watch them load our little girl on an ambulance and then hear the helicopter take off.  Where we were we could not see the helicopter, we could just hear it taking off.  For our little girl, she would be to the hospital in about 15 minutes, but for Wendy and I it was a 45 minute to hour drive.  This drive was again a time when there were no words to pray, just us pleading without knowing what to say to God.  It was the longest and most agonizing time of our lives – things happened so fast we had no family or friends with us – we only had the Spirit.  We had the Spirit and Christ interceding for us as we were literally groaning during our drive to see our little girl.

Romans 8:34b Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Wendy’s heart and my heart were filled with prayers for our little girl.  Wendy and I slept in the hospital room at the University of Virginia Medical Center with her for five days, never leaving.  We watched her go through test after test.  We had a steady stream of doctors coming and going.  Mckayla had in terrible pain in one leg and being doctors they had to touch it and when she would be in pain, we would be in pain.  Her heart rate raced for days.  Her heart raced at 150 beats per minute or higher for about 3 days straight.  The brought an echocardiogram and checked her heart.  The doctor was checking her heart and she looked up at him and asked one of the most touching things, “do you see Jesus in there”.

After five days of being there she was discharged.  She was discharged and we had no answers.  They had done every type of testing you could imagine including genetic testing.  They could not find anything.  Every time after that she would get sick, we would live in fear that it was going to happen again.

A couple of months later we moved Baltimore.  We thought for sure that we would find answers from the medical staff at Johns Hopkins.  We again were brought to the point were we were left with no answers from anyone, anywhere – just their best guesses.  We have never got any real answers and praise God that our little girl has not had any episodes like this since.

But during that time, Wendy and I had no words to pray.  The doctors had no answers and nothing really to say. Our gratitude was and still is to the Spirit of God who expressed our daughter’s needs with groans to the Father when we could not get the words out.

Do you find comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are making intercession for you?

Find comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are praying even in those times when you can not get a word of a prayer off to God.

(There are many more details to this story but the post would be way too long to share all of it)