How often do we read the Bible and think to ourselves, "What are these people thinking, don't they know better by now!?" True while there are some particularly stubborn people in the Bible, most of the time we are no better than the people who frustrate us the most in the Bible. Excuse me, I can only speak for myself here, I am no better than the people who frustrate me the most in the Bible. No one gets me so frustrated as the Israelites of old. You know the ones who wondered the desert for forty years. They experienced some of the greatest miracles of any generation in the history of man yet they were so quick to forget about who God really was and what He was capable of.
I was reminded of this when I was reading Psalm chapter 78. If you have never read it I recommend you do. It is a great summation of the entire book of Exodus. In this chapter there was one sentence that stuck out like a sore thumb to me. It reads, "For they did not believe God or trust him to care for them." Psalm 78:22. Recently, I have undergone some financial hardship. My wife runs an in home daycare and at the moment is only watching one child. We have tried to find other children for her to care for but just when it seems like something is going to work out, it doesn't. On top of this we just had to fork out $400 to repair our car plus there is a pending cost for the ticket that my wife was given during the car accident. My truck has stopped working properly and it is also in the shop. In the next couple of months all my school loans will be out of the grace period and that will cost us a couple hundred dollars a month. We want to be a family that has enough surplus to give plentifully to others, but honestly we are barely scraping by.
All this at once caused me to go in a panic nearly and sent my frustration over the top that I have not yet been able to land the job that I feel I am ready for. I have worked my tail off for the past couple of years to become a school administrator. But getting to the point, it bothers me immensely that my first reaction to all this struggle is to take matters into my own hand and push God out of the equation. The truth is if I were to lay my life out on a time line I would have moments one after another of how God has provided for all my needs plus more. There are several things about our human nature that combat our service to God but none greater, in my opinion, than that of our memory. Our memory can remind us of who God is but it can also fail us when we need it most. We forget how reliable God is and how much He really loves us. Our memory can be crystal clear when times are good but murky and inaccurate when we are pressed. The Israelites are prime examples of this.
I pray that my memory will serve to keep me close to God even in the most trying times. Part of the function of this blog is to record God's doing and revelations so that I will always be reminded. However, this is not enough. This is a matter of prayer. I need to pray for a godly memory and constantly remind myself of who God is and what He has done in prayer so that I will never forget that my God truly is an awesome God! Lord, I believe in you and trust you to take care of me.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
A History of Obedience and Prayer
Recently my church gave a series of lessons on prayer. The series stressed the importance of prayer and the lack of it in today's churches. I pray everyday but I was seriously convicted by this message. My prayers are routine and lack creativity and passion. There are several points I want to bring forth. 1) My pastor said we we as men were meant to pray aggressively and passionately to fight against the sin of this world. I am usually so focused on repenting for my sins I fail to pray for the bigger picture. 2) There is a direct link between how much you know God and how much you pray. I want to know God way more than the amount of prayer that I have currently in my life. If we do not know God we do not obey Him. Rather, we do what comes naturally to us, sin. 3) If there is something that you are waiting for and it has not happened then pray! There are many things in my life that I am waiting for. A promotion, stable finances, a fulfillment of a calling. Yet, I find myself praying very little for these things.
Why do we not pray? Laziness and an unwillingness not to surrender our time. Lack of belief that our prayers will actually do anything. A belief that God has it covered already and through His sovereign power he will take care of all we need. While there is some truth in the statement of God's sovereignty there is also some falsehood. Throughout scripture God moved or acted in direct response to someone's prayer. God wants our prayers! Why? Check out Daniel. Daniel 9: 2-3, "I Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and fasting." Daniel 9: 21-23, "As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me. He explained to me, "Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God." Now we can read this and acknowledge and move on or we can take it to heart and believe the same applies to us. Our prayers can move God to act and give commands because we are very precious to Him.
Daniel serves as a model for us as a man of prayer. We all know of Daniel and the miracle in the lion's den. Daniel's miracle came as a result of his daily prayers, and his knowledge of God. He made time every day to pray and he was a man that called out to God for his people. Daniel was surrounded by sin and a people whose ways defiled God much like we are today. Yet Daniel was able to be obedient and know God and even intercede for others. I want to be a Daniel for God. It all starts with prayer. I want my family to have a legacy of obedience like the Recabites in Jeremiah chapter 35:18-19, "This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: You have obeyed your ancestor Jehonadab in every respect, following all his instructions. Therefore, Jehonadab son of Recab will always have descendants who serve me." Those who pray know God. Those who know God fall in love with Him and obey Him. Out of obedience we experience all the goodness of God.
Why do we not pray? Laziness and an unwillingness not to surrender our time. Lack of belief that our prayers will actually do anything. A belief that God has it covered already and through His sovereign power he will take care of all we need. While there is some truth in the statement of God's sovereignty there is also some falsehood. Throughout scripture God moved or acted in direct response to someone's prayer. God wants our prayers! Why? Check out Daniel. Daniel 9: 2-3, "I Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and fasting." Daniel 9: 21-23, "As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me. He explained to me, "Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God." Now we can read this and acknowledge and move on or we can take it to heart and believe the same applies to us. Our prayers can move God to act and give commands because we are very precious to Him.
Daniel serves as a model for us as a man of prayer. We all know of Daniel and the miracle in the lion's den. Daniel's miracle came as a result of his daily prayers, and his knowledge of God. He made time every day to pray and he was a man that called out to God for his people. Daniel was surrounded by sin and a people whose ways defiled God much like we are today. Yet Daniel was able to be obedient and know God and even intercede for others. I want to be a Daniel for God. It all starts with prayer. I want my family to have a legacy of obedience like the Recabites in Jeremiah chapter 35:18-19, "This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: You have obeyed your ancestor Jehonadab in every respect, following all his instructions. Therefore, Jehonadab son of Recab will always have descendants who serve me." Those who pray know God. Those who know God fall in love with Him and obey Him. Out of obedience we experience all the goodness of God.
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