Why do I pray?

 

Lately I’m noticing how many prayers are motivated by a desire for personal comfort. Heal sickness so pain and discomfort go away. Fix relationships so we are happy in them. Save my loved one and remove my worries for that person. Show the world Your goodness so I do not experience or even deal with evil.

Yesterday I saw two NT passages that say joy comes not in spite of trouble but because of trouble. Yet even the devotional writer put that joy at the end of doubts and struggles rather than while the trials were being experienced.

In another reading, Stephen Charnock, a Puritan Presbyterian pastor in the 1600s, adds another dimension to this thought. He says that a person “without doubts is without testimonies. Doubts are to testimonies what the mortise is to the tenon, the lock to the key, the enigma to the solution.”

The Lord says, “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4) yet that delight does not come to us apart from at first not having that delight. In other words, problems unlock or open my heart to the work of the Holy Spirit. For instance, without recognition and conviction of sin and a deep sense of guilt that leads to confession, I would never experience delight in knowing forgiveness and cleansing from sin.

After God does His work, He wants me to battle sin for it blinds my eyes to the wonder of God. Not only that, sin steals my delight as quickly as a pickpocket lifts a wallet. Be filled and stay filled with God’s Spirit, remembering that all flames die without the fuel that feeds them.

Again, the Bible tells me to delight in prayer. That is easy when God has answered. “Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:2) However, such a delight reveals that its source is more likely the good life rather that in talking to my Creator. He wants that delight in Him and being with Him in prayer, no matter what is going on in my world.

Charnock says, “A Christian’s heart is — in secret — transported into heaven. There is a delight in coming near God and warming the soul by the fire of his love.” He points to angels cheerful in praise; their work is their glory. Holy souls should delight in prayer not so we think it a good day without some communion with God but because we delight in Him. When in trials, I can delight in God’s comforting presence rather than His sanctifying presence. It can be a delight to pray to God as a storehouse, but not as a refiner’s fire to purge away my dross.

Heavenly cheerfulness is mostly in heavenly things. Much asking concerns worldly goods; even less is for the glory of God. Charnock says, “The saints have redoubled and repeated their petitions and redoubled the Amen at the end of prayer, to show the great affections to those things they have asked. The soul loves to think of those things the heart is set on, and frequent thoughts express a delight.”

Is that how I pray? Reading this man’s words shows me that my soul must desire not only to speak to God, but to make melody to Him, and be more displeased when that attitude is missing than I am when God does not answer me. True delight is in exercising the grace of God in reliance and humility, desiring the preparation of my own heart as well as answers to my prayers.

Other writers says the same: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3) Therefore, “It is neither talent, nor power, nor gifts that do the work of God, but it is that which lies within the power of the humblest; it is the simple, earnest life hid with Christ in God.”

Whatever gives glory to God is the vital thing, not what brings me joy or any kind of reward. The testing of my faith is to make it genuine, “more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire” so it “results in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7) not so that it makes me more comfortable or more anything. This is about Jesus, not me.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

PRAY: I know You reward us according to our works and give life to those who seek Your glory. I also know that as part of Your Body, I am a fellow worker and part of what You are doing, but I also know that You alone are “worthy of praise, glory, and honor” and my reward is You, not glory for myself. You promise to sustain me and keep me in Your care. For all that, I am grateful. May my focus be on You, not on personal comfort or the joy of how You make me feel, but the joy of seeing Your glory magnified and made known, both in trials and in good times. May I rejoice and be glad when Your glory is revealed. Amen.

 

 

Tested and Approved

 

 

These days people have major conversations about Covid vaccine testing and some protest that this vaccine could be more harmful than good. Statistics are answering that concern as ICU in hospitals are filling with unvaccinated people, with many of them seemingly more afraid of the vaccination than the virus it was created to combat.

A similar fear exists in the spiritual realm. The enemy is not a virus but sin. The God-given solution to its threat is not a vaccination but faith in Jesus Christ. The protest is similar in that it is based on lack of knowledge, fear and the idea that faith is harmful rather than good. As with Covid, all sorts of ideas fly around about Christianity and what becoming a Christian will do to a person.

Instead of looking at oddball samples of people whose ‘faith’ is associated with weirdness, I’m looking at what the Word of God says about being APPROVED by God. His approval is not based on anything we do, but on what His Son did for us at Calvary. Because He died in our place to pay our penalty for sin, those who believe are approved by God — in Christ, not in our efforts to gain God’s favor. Protest: “I am a good person” with a denial of personal sin and the need for a Savior. Sadly, without this ‘vaccination’ the outcome is eternal separation from God.

However, once faith happens, it gets tested in various ways with God looking for results — because salvation includes receiving Christ — and when He comes into our lives, there will be a reaction and all of it is good. Wonderful is a better word! Some examples:

James 1:3 says this testing produces “steadfastness” (the ability to withstand hardship and stress) and 1 Peter 1:7 says genuine faith is “more precious than gold” as it results “in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (instead of always wanting myself to be honored).

Being tested for God’s approval concerns obedience in everything (2 Corinthians 2:9) and enables those who pass those tests to also have the ability to “approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless when Christ comes, holding fast to what is good” (Philippians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:21). so that I may “approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” rather than fearful of death and dying.

This entire process is not about judgment over sin but about my behavior — my sin has already been forgiven and God has already “accepted me in the Beloved.” Instead, testing is to chip away all that does not conform to the image of Jesus Christ. I must avoid the mistakes made by some who turn spiritual practices and rule-keeping into my reason for salvation because the kingdom of God is not about that, but about “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men” (Romans 14:16–18). A godly life is favored by most people.

Any notion of making what I do more important than what Christ has done is rooted in pride. Instead, 2 Corinthians 10:17–18 says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

God approves His people and entrusts us with the gospel, not to please people but to please Him. We are not to argue over words but learn to interpret Scripture correctly, avoiding false notions that confuse and turn others away from the truth (just as the false notions about vaccines can turn others away from getting them and wind up putting them in danger of death).

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Being approved by God in Christ produces great peace, joy even in trials, and access to the wisdom of God rather then struggling with the confusion in this world. I did not earn or deserve His approval; Jesus earned it for me by being willing to die for me, accepting me as His child — an amazing and wonderful grace!