Always room for improvement . . .

 

The title of today’s devotional is convicting. After some success in computer problems and a few other frustrations put behind me, my emotions picked up a bit, then this: “Your prayers reveal the level of your spiritual maturity.”

I’d decided early this week to pray three times a day. Ha! It happened Monday, then the wheels fell off. This week was filled with appointments, odd interruptions, and too many entries on that bothersome to-do list. I prayed, but felt it was not enough and not with the focus prayer should have. Even more distressing is that I’ve had a couple months of amazing answers to prayer that should motivate me to pray, but must admit that many days I’m not only distracted but don’t feel like praying.

I’ve apologized to God, beat myself up, made more prayer lists, and blamed Satan for trying to stop me — only to discover that my attitude remains on resistance instead of eagerness. Then I read this:

“Scripture gives many other commands to pray, but the true test of your spirituality is your compulsion to pray, not simply your obedience to commands. As a Christian you exist in a spiritual realm in which prayer is as natural as breathing is in the natural realm. Just as atmospheric pressure exerts force on your lungs, compelling you to breathe, so your spiritual environment compels you to pray. Resisting either brings devastating results.”

This is one of those days when I feel like I need a heart transplant. Paul had the right compulsion . . .

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9–11)

Jesus told a parable to the effect that (we) ought always to pray and not lose heart. (Luke 18:1) Paul tells me to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–19) Peter warns that “The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” (1 Peter 4:7)

I know these things, and that nothing can be accomplished without prayer. I know also that the needs are great, and that many Christians do not pray much at all. But knowing is not enough.

MacArthur writes, “The more you see life through God’s eyes, the more you are driven to pray. In that sense your prayers reveal the level of your spiritual maturity. Paul prayed with urgency day and night because he shared God’s love for His people and His concern for their spiritual maturity.”

I thought I did, or at least have grown in that way, but JM urges to examine my prayers. Are they from a sense of duty? Or compulsion? Infrequent? Brief? He asks about their content, and I do pray for world concerns, other Christians and spiritual maturity, also temporary needs, but not with the consistency or urgency that is required. The world is a mess. Christians struggle to stand for Christ. Prayer is needed.

Lord Jesus, I thank You for the privilege of talking with You and for the answers You give. I want to be the ‘prayer warrior’ that some think I am but confess to not having that ‘holy urgency’ that this daily devotional speaks about. Sometimes I say, “I know God hears and He will take care of it” and now wonder if that is a strong faith or just an excuse for not praying more. You know. If I need a greater sense of urgency to pray, then please give it to me, especially on those days that are filled with so many distractions. I need You all the time, and so do others. May my prayers please You, and not quench the work of the Holy Spirit by their absence.

THINK ABOUT: Daniel 6:1–28. What was Daniel’s pattern of prayer? What accusation did the political leaders bring against him and what was the king’s attitude toward him? How did God honor Daniel’s faith?

 

 

Praise and thanksgiving ALL the time

A popular call-in radio program host, Dave Ramsey, continually reminds himself and his listeners of a basic theological truth: when asked how he is, he says, “Better than I deserve.”

These are pity-party destroying words. I need to hear and say them more days than I care to admit. It is easy to praise God when things go my way, when I’m comfortable, when prayers are answered, problems are solved, and I win rather than lose. The Bible is filled with examples of that kind of praise:

“The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, who brought me out from my enemies; you exalted me above those who rose against me; you delivered me from men of violence. For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.” (2 Samuel 22:47–51)

But what about praising God when suffering, or when prayers seem unheard, or problems remain and I am losing not winning? Isn’t this what happened to Jesus when He was crucified? It feels good to identify with Him in His victories, but what about in His suffering?

“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hebrews 13:12–16)

God is to be praised when life is good, but also when praise is difficult, when it seems like a sacrifice. This is made easier by realizing that no matter what happens to me, I am not receiving what my sins deserve. The wages of sin is death so the fact of being alive and breathing is something for which to be thankful, to praise God for as a mercy and a grace.

Tozer says that all good and beneficial things are gifts of Almighty God and come to us out of His lovingkindness, including His grace in atonement, revelation, redemption, mercy, the gift of eternal life and in the indwelling Spirit. For all this and everything else we are in debt to God forever. We can never repay our heavenly Father for the least of His mercies.

Yet God in His wisdom has not made earth a ‘heaven’ where life is perfect. In this place, we experience the whiplash of sin, our own and others. Life is not perfect and the pain of its imperfection is a classroom in the kingdom of God. Can I be thankful when my shelves are bare and my health is failing? Can I be thankful when life is lemons, pain is the norm, and answered prayer is rare?

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–19)

It is the works of the Holy Spirit to produce gratitude, no matter what is happening. As already said, no matter what goes contrary to my desires, there is always something to be thankful for and many reasons for which I can praise God. He isn’t asking me to be thankful for the unpleasant things but it is His will that I am thankful, not griping or complaining.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, it is good to make a gratitude list now and then, even every day. It is also good to review Your goodness, Your attributes, all those things that are true of You and worthy of praise. Feeling sorry for myself is too easy and evidence of the ‘spoiled brat’ that I am. Today is a good day to fill with praise. Thank You for the power of the Holy Spirit and for making praise easy because You are totally worthy.

Distraction can be a positive thing…

Yesterday was particularly challenging for me, but far more for my husband. When he came home from work, we both were glad the day was over. He asked me to pray at suppertime and I recall trying to give thanks for all that happened, knowing that God is sovereign still and that our trials are under His command. It was not easy to pray like that while feeling so distracted from the day’s crazy events.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–19)

This morning’s devotional reading is profoundly lovely. I’d like to reproduce it verbatim, but instead will point to bits that explain how we can pray without ceasing, even in the middle and muddle of life. The author of this reading is Fraņois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, and it comes from Volume 2 of a section called “The Saints Converse with God,” in The World’s Great Sermons. It was published by the dictionary people, Funk & Wagnalls, in 1908.

This man with the long name starts out with a short sentence. He says, “It is not necessary to pronounce many words.” 

Jesus said the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount.

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. (Matthew 6:7)

Praying without ceasing is not about blabbering on and on to God. Instead, it is about having that attitude of heart that can say, “Let your will be done” when life goes contrary to my will. It is raising my heart to God asking for His guidance with my actions, grace with my words, help for my weakness, forgiveness for my frequent disobediences and focus when I am terribly distracted. 

Such prayer is not about method or even calculated lists. It does not require me to quit what I am doing. Instead, this is a simple movement of my heart toward my Creator with the desire that whatever I am doing I might do to His glory. “The best of all prayers is to act with a pure intention and with a continual reference to the will of God. It depends much on ourselves whether our prayers are effective. It is not by a miracle but by a movement of the heart that we are benefited, by a submissive spirit.” 

Prayer is also meditation on eternal matters. It is taking moments, or hours and days if possible, to get away from a world that speaks and acts as if there is no God and “approach the source of all virtue, that we may revive our declining faith” and the goodness that flows from it. Prayer is the “remedy for our weakness, the rectifier of our faults. He who was without sin prayed constantly; how much more ought we, who are sinners, to be faithful in prayer!”

Knowing that God will bless my work is another powerful motive to prayer, particularly when all else proves useless and my tiny faith knows that I need His blessing to succeed. Saying “help me” when I sit down to write or stand up to put my words into action is part of “praying without ceasing.”

The reading points out that such prayer must be with attention for “God listens to the voice of the heart, not to that of the lips” and my “whole heart must be engaged in prayer” with “every human object” vanished from my mind. He asks, “To whom should we speak with attention if not to God?”

While this preacher says “such attention to prayer may be practiced with less difficulty than we imagine,” I am not there yet. My ADD scattered mind suffers from more than “occasional involuntary distractions” and “these unbidden wanderings of the mind” do trouble me. I find I must walk to keep my mind on praying. Even then, I’m easily distracted, yet there is hope. 

The reading says that such distractions “may promote our perfection even more than the most sublime and affecting prayers, if we strive to overcome them and submit with humility to this experience of our infirmity.”

 

I’m not completely certain of what he means, but it seems that God wants me to take even my distractions to Him in unceasing prayer and by doing so, I can turn this enemy of my prayers into another motivation for praying.