Pray as you go . . .

 

1 Samuel 5–6; Psalm 19; Jeremiah 43; Romans 5

Before reading today’s Scriptures, I sang two songs that both are prayers asking to see Jesus. His answer was a deeper understanding of how He intercedes for us. Each passage guided me in prayer . . .

1 Samuel tells of how the Philistines captured the Ark of God and from there, their victories went sour. They put the Ark in the house of Dagon beside their god only to find the next morning that their idol had fallen on its face before the ark. They put it back but the next morning was the same only this time its head and hands were broken off.

I prayed for the people I know whose worship of idols has kept them from worshiping God. I prayed that God would cause those idols to fall and the thinking and doing that comes from worshiping them would be cut off. I also prayed that instead of trying to send the presence of God away, like the Philistines did, that they would realize the idols were worthless and God is the only one worthy of their worship.

Psalm 19 shows how creation declares the glory of God and how His truths are perfect and will meet every one of our needs. They also warn us about our errors so we can walk with integrity before the Lord. The psalm ends with:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

This is an often request for me. I prayed first for many to see Jesus and His glory in the world He created, in His Word and by His Spirit. Then I prayed these words for me too. What a difference God’s thoughts make to my day. Thank You!

The prophet Jeremiah is in Israel with the others who were left behind and not exiled to Babylon. They want to go to Egypt (a symbol of the old life) and while God warned not to do this, they went taking Jeremiah with them. The Word of the Lord to him is the same as it was before — God will strike down that place:

I shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive. And he shall clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace. He shall break the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.’ ” (Jeremiah 43:12–13)

There is no escaping idolatry by fleeing to another set of idols. As I read this chapter, I prayed for all those caught in idolatry that has ruined their lives only to be attracted to another form of idolatry. I asked God to speak to them and deliver them, turning them back to the only One who can deliver them from their fears.

Romans 5 was a surprise. I’ve often read this description of a progression in faith, but today can see it more clearly because of the events in my own life:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1–5)

Of course justification and peace with God is the first thing and I began that walk of faith by rejoicing in the hope He gives. Learning how to rejoice in suffering took much longer. Hindsight shows the value of trials, but even hindsight is not an easy lesson for a negative thinking person. A Pollyanna I am not! Yet years of surviving varying trials, I can now see how God used them to teach me endurance — from a Greek word that means: the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances. It always boiled down to a choice: bear it or go crazy. It was in those trials that I learned the wisdom of my mother’s oft-repeated platitude: “We must need it or we wouldn’t be getting it.” When I get to heaven, I will thank her profusely for saying it so much!

Yet the classroom does not close with endurance. God uses it to develop character — from a Greek word meaning  to learn the genuineness of something by examination and testing, often through actual use. In other words, endurance is to make me dependable, able to continue to do what I am supposed to do even when all else presses me to do otherwise. At the bottom line, it is about trusting God rather than trusting myself. The negative side is realizing that while He is dependable, I am not. I prayed about that too, for myself and for the family of God, that we would all realize it and have a depending character that produces hope — true hope in God, not in idols, dreams, wishes, and certainly not in myself.

APPLY: Quilters have a technique called ‘quilt as you go’ and today I experienced Bible reading with a similar technique — ‘pray as you go’ — bringing deeper significance to my union with Christ. Thank You, Jesus.