Time with Jesus

  

Yesterday the seniors in our church went on a field trip to our city’s spectacular main library. I qualify by age but knew I could not tour a library. I’d find a book and a chair to curl up in and read. Besides, Thursday is prayer day with several others. I knew they would be at the library, but I went to our little prayer room at the church and spent the time praying alone.

But not alone. It was a special time with Jesus and I had so many things on my heart. Friends whose family has fallen into sin, other friends whose relationships are broken, an amazing ministry being attacked by civil authorities, a long list of prodigals and others caught by Satan’s schemes, Christians who are confused about the role of ‘works’ in their walk with Jesus, unsaved family and friends, resistance all over the world to the will of God… and more.

What a delight to freely talk to Him about all these things and return home much later and feeling lighter. I pray at home but not as long and sometimes not as focused.

Readings today offered thoughts of the delight of being with God because of despair, and knowing that He is with me:

In the midst of the awfulness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. The right hand not of restraint nor of correction nor of chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it is ineffable peace and comfort, the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms,” full of sustaining and comfort and strength. When once His touch comes, nothing at all can cast you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, and to say—“Fear not.” His tenderness is ineffably sweet.

At the end of this prayer time, the sense of awfulness that began it was lifted. I also read Psalms and felt free of the burdens that brought me to that prayer place. How delightful to sense the support that only Jesus can give. In those psalms, phrases jumped out to bless me:

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. (Psalm 22:2–5)

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 82:3–4)

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed… For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. (Psalm 112:1–8)

Today’s usual reading speaks of spiritual growth in which God changes His people. Meekness and quietness of spirit characterize daily life in a submissive acceptance of His will. Hourly events reveal pliability in His hands. There is sweetness under provocation; calmness in the midst of turmoil and bustle; a listening to the wishes of others, an insensibility to slights and affronts; absence of worry or anxiety; deliverance from care and fear.

I’m not always there, yet easily see how spending time with Jesus makes a huge difference in spiritual development.

PRAY: Jesus, thank You that in You I can become more serene, more heavenly minded, more transformed, less troubled by the bombardment of burdens. Thank You for allowing me to talk with You. When we are together, my burdens are not so heavy and You are continually saying, “I got this” giving me reassurance of Your amazing love and support. Praise Your holy name!

Cooperation requires surrender

Imagine two oxen yoked together. One is strong, experienced, able to bear the yoke and go in the right direction. The other is young, untrained, and full of its own ideas. It chafes under the yoke and constantly tries to do its own thing. However, the older one steadily moves on in the process of getting the job done, even training the other one to work alongside in unity.

Prayer is like that; cooperation with God but also surrender. When Jesus was praying, He taught the disciples a similar lesson. He asked them who the crowds thought He was and they gave various answers. Then Peter declared his answer, that Jesus is “the Christ of God.” At this, Jesus told them He would suffer and die, then rise on the third day. He said if “anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:18–27)

He challenge their values concerning personal gain that does not last compared to values that bring eternal gain . . . “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” He also warned them that a change to eternal values would affect their lives in the present.

After Jesus died, rose again, and ascended into heaven, these men were tested many times and the fact of their total surrender was made evident in response to those tests. Very early, “as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody . . .”

This was a test. Even as “many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand” the disciples were interrogated by the high priest and his cohorts. They demanded to know who gave them the authority to teach people about Jesus. How would they respond?

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered that they were doing what they did “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead . . .” And Jesus was the cornerstone they had rejected. They boldly declared that in Jesus “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Their boldness, and the fact they were uneducated, common men, astonished these who wanted to stop them. These religious leaders could see that the disciples had been with Jesus. They also could see the evidence of God’s work in their lives. They ordered them to stop, but Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

They further threatened them, but had to let them go, finding no way to punish them and fearful of the crowds who were praising God for what had happened. (Acts 4:1–22) They passed this test and many others.

Anytime I am challenged to stop following Jesus, remembering answers to prayer have encouraged me. I think of Hannah who prayed for a child and, “the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.” (1 Samuel 1:27) and of Jesus when He came to the tomb of Lazarus and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” Then He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out” and this man who had died rose from the dead. (John 11:38–46)

I’ve wondered if small prayers are not answered because we should be praying bigger prayers, prayers that honor our great and almighty God? As I read these verses and my devotional book, I’m wondering if the problem is less about the requests and more about being willing to say to God, “Lord, here is the problem . . . You take care of it, and I want not my own way, but Your will to be done.” What might my prayer life be like with a heart fully surrendered to whatever God might do and fully surrendered to what He wants me to do?

I can take a lesson from the psalmist who thought this way . . .

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:6–8)

Like the young ox, when I pull against the Lord who steadfastly leads me, all I get from it is a sore back and frustration. Surrender changes all that. By cooperation, I can take part in getting the job done.

Prayer and Sweat

My dad’s work ethic often annoyed me, even though it deeply affected my life and that of my siblings. I never thought of this before, but prayer requires a good work ethic. Suddenly I am thankful.

If my prayers were only “God bless this food . . .” and “Now I lay me down to sleep . . .” then I would not know about the work of prayer. I’d have no experience with the battles against unseen spiritual enemies, the need to uphold other Christians as they serve God, my own need for strength in all of life, or the delight of having a two-way conversation with the Creator of the universe.

The Bible talks about the work of prayer. Jesus told His disciples a parable “to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

This parable was about an unrighteous judge who was repeatedly asked for “justice against my adversary” by a widow. “For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.”

Jesus pointed out that if an unrighteous judge can give justice, “Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.” (Luke 18:1–8)

However, Jesus immediately adds two important truths that concern prayer. He asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” which tells me that the work of prayer is fueled by faith. If I don’t believe that God hears and answers, I may not even ask and certainly will not persist in asking.

The second truth is in the next parable “for those who trust themselves.” From my experience, when I am thinking that way, I am not praying, or at least not asking God for His help . . .  

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18:9–14)

Persistent prayer is an expression of need. It knows that without the power of God, I am helpless, as are others who serve Him. This is why Paul appealed, “By our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints . . .” (Romans 15:30–32) and why he “did not cease to pray for” others, “asking that they may be filled with the knowledge of (God’s) will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9).

Persistent prayer happens when I know I am needy, but it is also an expression of love for others, and of making God’s plans a priority in my life . . .

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. (Colossians 4:12)

God teaches me that through prayer my life and the lives of others are brought into line with the will of God and are equipped to do His will in His power. Short and sweet prayers have their place, but effective prayer almost always involves more than a few words and those words are fervent and mingled with sweat.

Delighting in God

Sometimes when I am praying, songs bubble up from my heart. It seems that this also is part of what it means to…

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Stephen Charnock says that delight in God will also mean a delight in the things that I ask for. When God is my chief joy, then the things of God are delightful too. Some might get excited about praying for worldly goods or temporary things, yet there is a greater delight in asking for the light of God’s face and for things in the spiritual realm.

I cannot feel dull of heart when I am praying for heavenly mercies and eternal well-being. Just as sunshine and blue sky never become tiresome (at least in my part of the world), neither do I get tired of spiritual blessings. Even though God blesses me countless times, I cannot get enough and long for more. I will repeat some requests for many years, experiencing joy in the asking just as I anticipate joy in the answering. As Charnock says, I can delight in those desires that God has set in my heart and put in my prayers.

Another delight is being overjoyed when I tell God the desires of my heart. I can go through a prayer list and become tired of the routine and repetition, but when I speak from the heart, my emotions are lifted, sometimes so much that I start singing. Charnock says, “The soul desires not only to speak to God, but to make melody to God; the heart is the instrument, but grace is the strings, and prayer is touching them, and therefore the soul is more displeased with the flagging of grace than with missing an answer.”

He is right. I can delight in God’s gifts to me and to others. I can delight in my devotion to Him, but exercising the spiritual life He gives in communion with Him is a more lasting delight. When I return from prayer to my other responsibilities, His delight lingers with me. It gives me peace, strength for the day and keeps my heart focused on spiritual matters and on the Lord.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

Delighting in God is an expression of trust. I cannot enjoy Him when filled with doubt or frustration at His decisions in my life. I can enjoy Him when my heart is convinced by His Word that He is good and that He loves me and wants the very best for me.