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.

 

 

Feeling Limited . . . ?

 

 

Festivals and forums are held to explore the question of human limitations. This includes “the morals we have imposed on ourselves” and realities such as the ability of robots to run faster that we can. Extremes exist. Some say the only limits we have are self-imposed. Others realize that limits exist and only fools push against them.

As a Christian, God is teaching me that He is in charge of how far I can go. Some of His LIMITS involve physical boundaries. This includes how far the oceans can invade the land, the extent of rain and even drought or whatever else happens in weather patterns and other ‘natural’ phenomena.

This also includes human restrictions. In Exodus 19, He called Moses up a mountain and “set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.’” Job realized his limitations also: “You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.” Acts 17:26 echoes this: “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place” setting these limits that we should seek God!

Some of His limits involve the knowledge of Himself. Job 11:7 asks, “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?” Job 15:8 asks, “Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?”

God also limits what we can do. Job 14:1–6. “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.”

I’m learning those limitations related to my own ambitions. I have the ability to carry out my plans but the Lord has other plans and changes the course of my life, including the use of any talents He gave me. His decision relates to verses like Psalm 119:96. “I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad.” This is a  contrast between the finitude of earthly things and the boundless nature of God’s commands. However, the words used here indicate that God limits my abilities so that I can be involved in doing His will. While His assignments may seem insignificant, they have eternal merit, a value that I am unable to discern. This makes small acts of obedience broader in scope than doing great things — according to my reasoning or any selfish ambition.

Romans 6:19 explains this even further. It says, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”

The phrase “natural limitations” is not about some kind of feebleness but the temptation Christians face through the impulses of the flesh. It is not related to weak impotence but the limitations of strong defiance, that ‘I will do it myself’ attitude toward God. That is, my greatest problem is not being ethically or intellectually weak or even being immature, but thinking my way will work rather than following God’s way — including whatever might seem to me like great limitations.

Paul had this figured out. He said, “But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. When God tells me to do what seems a small thing that runs contrary to my grand notions of being in His will, I must remember that His ‘limitations’ are based on His eternal plan and what will glorify Him. My plans are so easily based on selfish ambition. As James so vividly points out, that way of thinking is earthly, unspiritual, even demonic and in opposition to relying on God’s wisdom. I’m glad for His limits.