Discipleship Journal is a weekly blog dedicated to living out the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Standing Against Unrighteousness
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven. Matt. 6:10
God is
good. He has given us the privilege of prayer so that we can come to Him and
ask Him to meet our needs. Prayer is much more
than just asking for our needs. God desires that we pray His will be done. For a period of time, God in His sovereignty
has allowed man to follow his own course and rebel against His will. For example,
God’s perfect will does not include murder. The Bible says that God hates hands
that shed innocent blood (Prov. 6:17); however, God has allowed man to act on
his own fallen nature and take innocent lives, even those of the unborn. The
fact that there is unrighteousness does not mean that the righteous are to
stand idly by and accept it. God wants
us to pray that His good and perfect will happens here on earth just as it is
in heaven. Again, according to his sovereignty, God answers our prayer.
With
being said, we should ask ourselves, “Do our prayer lives include a time where
we ask that God’s will is done in our family, communities and country?” “Do we
have a time in our prayer that we stand against such things as abortion?”
Prayer does matter, and we are to believe that as individuals or corporately we
can make a difference to stand against unrighteousness by kneeling in prayer.
Take
some time to seek the Lord and see what He places on your heart. Make it part
of your prayer life to pray for some area of your family, community or country
that is not in line with God’s will.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Maranatha!
Your kingdom
come.
Matt 6:10
We
are spending some time going through what is known as the “The Lord’s Prayer”.
Actually a better title would be “The Disciple’s Prayer,” as this prayer is Jesus’s model for His
disciples to pray. The prayer is broken down into six requests. The last three
requests are in regards to our needs (i.e. give us this day our daily bread),
but the first three are in regards to God, His glory, and His kingdom. Today we
will look at the second request: “Your kingdom come.”
A
few days ago I heard another pastor explain that one of the reasons Christians
struggle today is because pastors have stopped preaching on Heaven. We have
made it all about your “ Your Best Life Now.” This is not in line with Biblical
doctrine. The Bible teaches that, though the Lord does bless us in this life,
the ultimate hope for the Christian lies in what is ahead. This is such the case that the Apostle Paul
wrote “19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
the most pitiable.” (1 Cor. 15:19) So how does removing the hope of Heaven from
our teaching cause Christians to struggle? Christians struggle with this
because in this life we face many hardships and even endure persecution for the
name of Christ. The motivation the Bible gives those Christ Jesus to press on
through these trials is ultimately the return of our King. If you take future glory out of view, and
make everything about the here and now, believers can get discouraged and have
trouble pressing on. The Apostle Paul was motivated to “run for the prize” That
prize was not a new Mercedes, it was an imperishable crown that he would
receive in Heaven (1 Cor. 9:24-27). If
we take away “kingdom come”, we take away the finish line and tell believers to
just run for the sake of running.
When
we pray “Your kingdom come”, we are praying come Lord Jesus come! When we pray this, we set our minds
attention and our hearts affection on the return of Jesus. As Christians, we
are supposed to be in anticipation of Christ’s return. It is interesting to
think that so much of our prayers solely focus on issues that will be
irrelevant when Jesus comes back.
As
Christians we should turn our thoughts back to the hope and anticipation of
Jesus’s return. Starting your prayer time by praying “Lord Jesus come back and
reign! or “Lord Jesus return for your bride!“
is a good way to direct your
heart and focus on His return. Again, this is the focus of the Book. If
you don’t believe me turn to the last page where the King says“20 “‘Surely
I am coming quickly.” (Rev. 22) Come Lord Jesus come!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Praying for the Glory of God
Hallowed be Your name Matt 6:9
“Hallowed be Your name” is the first prayer request in what we call The
Lord’s Prayer. It is the foundation of the entire prayer. We don’t often use
the word “hallowed”. When is the last time you used the word “hallowed” or
“hallow” in a sentence? You probably cannot remember. The word hallowed means revered.
So when you pray for God’s name to be hallowed, you are praying that, through
answering your requests God will be revered or glorified. It is also important
to know just what it means to pray that God’s name be glorified. Many times
when “name” is used in the Bible it means more than just a proper name; it
signifies the character and attributes of the one that is named. In God’s case,
His name represents His mercy, faithfulness, grace, power, love, knowledge and
so on. So for us to pray, “Hallowed
be Your name… give us this day our daily bread”, we
are praying that God would be glorified as the loving provider of our
needs. To pray, “Hallowed
be Your name…forgive us our debts” is to pray that God, in answering our prayer, is glorified
for His great mercy.
Starting our prayers by
praying that God’s name be glorified should be a hedge against asking amiss.
“God glorify Your name by ordaining that I win the lottery!” “God glorify your
name by making my enemies suffer.” “God glorify Your name by making the Bulldogs
win a championship. It’s been so long!” Good luck with these. A simple
guideline for a prayer request is the following: Does it glorify God?
Most people that have
followed Christ for a number of years are able to look back, and in hindsight
thank God for the prayers He did not answer. At the time, we wanted what we
thought was best. We never got it, years went by, and looking back we say
“Thank God He did not answer that prayer!” We see that He was wise in not
giving us what we wanted. Thus, God is even glorified for His wisdom and mercy
in unanswered prayer.
Begin your prayer time
asking God to glorify Himself through answering your prayers. In seeking that
above all God be glorified in our prayers, we are also seeking what is best for
us. That which glorifies God is ultimately best for us.
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