Posted on

When You Pray

Read: Matthew 6

“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.”  (Matthew 6:5, NLT)

In Jesus’ day, prayer had been hijacked.  The culprits were the religious leaders and the Pharisee—Jesus called them “hypocrites”. They had turned the simple and wonderful practice of talking to God into a ritualized, formalized, mechanized and stylized event. As a result, something meant to connect people with God had turned into a intimidating, joyless experience since few people were eloquent enough to pull off the impressive public prayers demanded by the spiritual elite.

This misuse and abuse of prayer disgusted Jesus, the master of prayer. So in a teaching moment that was both scathing, yet soothing at the same time, he sat the record straight as to what the kind of prayer that truly pleases God really looked like.

First of all, Jesus taught that God-pleasing prayer is authentic.  Jesus said in verse 5, “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.” The hypocrites—the Pharisees and religious leaders—were pretentious. Their motive for praying was to impress the crowds, but they were anything but real. God wasn’t, and isn’t, impressed by the style or the content of our prayers. He’s moved by our honesty—even if it is not too articulate and especially when it is heartfelt.  Jesus is saying that God wants his children to just “get real” before him.

Secondly, Jesus taught that God-pleasing prayer is intimate.  Verse 6 says, “when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.” The use of the name “Father” isn’t a mistake.  Jesus is painting an altogether different picture of what God intended prayer to be than what man had turned it into. Jesus is referring to a childlike quality and posture that payer is to take before the Father. That’s because God-pleasing prayer is really a parent-child exchange. It is simply being with a Father who longs to be close to his kids.

Finally, Jesus taught that God-pleasing prayer is simple.  He said in verse 7, “don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.” I can’t help but think if Jesus was here today to teach us about prayer, he would instruct us in the KISS method:  Keep it simple, sweetheart! 

Jesus is calling us out of the legalistic, joyless, intimidation of misunderstood and malpracticed prayer to an authentic, intimate, simple day-by-day, moment-by-moment practice of the presence of God. That is the kind of prayer that pleases God more than anything. “When you pray” like that, the Father opens up all of heaven to you!

“Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.” ~Billy Graham

What If God Took Over?

Practice brutally real, child-to-Father, very simple prayers throughout the day.  You will please God more than you know!

Posted on

Practice Being God

Read: Matthew 5

“God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7, NLT)

When a Christian really understands and then begins to organically live as a mercy giver, he or she “practices being God”.   Now don’t worry, this is not some new-age theology that I am promoting; it is simply an apt description for what biblical mercy is, and how biblical mercy acts.

That description, “practices being God”, was first used by Clement of Alexandria, a third century leader in the early church and one of its most notable thinkers.  It really is an apt description because to be merciful means to have the same attitude God has toward people, to think as God thinks about people, to feel as God feels for people, and to act as God acts toward people.

In other words, we are never more like God than when rivers of mercy are springing up from within and freely flowing out of our lives, drenching others in the same deep, healing, inexhaustible love and kindness of God that once flooded our lives.

Keep in mind that mercy goes beyond emotional waves of pity and compassion and sorrow for others in their weakness. Rather, mercy means getting right into the skin of another in order to see things through their eyes, think things through their mind, feel things with their feelings—and then, to act accordingly in redemptive kindness. Mercy is proactive, personal, practical loving-kindness that immerses us in the weakness, sin, and suffering of others in order to lift them out of it.

That is the very same kind of mercy that God extended to us through Jesus when he crawled into human skin and lived as one of us.  Jesus took on our flesh, experienced our weakness, knew what it was like to be tempted, disappointed, rejected, betrayed and to suffer as we do. He experienced what we were like so that we could experience what God was like. He became the Son of man so that we could become the sons of God.  He endured life on earth so that we could experience heaven on earth, and some day, heaven in heaven for all eternity.

In other words, mercy is simply acting in ways that brings God close to people in order to bring people close to God. That is how showing mercy becomes our call to practice being God.

So just remember, you are never more like God than when demonstrating God’s mercy.  You are practicing being God.  And Jesus says you will be blessed!

“Mercy saves the sinner, not in spite of, but by means of, the very judgment that came upon his sin.” ~Andrew Murray

What If God Took Over?

Here are three suggestions for the practice of being God this week:

First, practice being more understanding.

That will require you to be more patient, to listen more carefully, and to be more tolerant and less condemning of weaknesses. That’s what crawling into another person’s skin will do for you, as opposed to getting under their skin!

Second, practice being more redemptive.

That will require you to be more forgiving and sacrificially committed to reconciling with those who’ve hurt, disappointed, disagreed with or angered you.

Third, practice being more generous.

That will require you to open up your life—your time, your home, and yes, your resources—to be ridiculously open-handed with others.

Posted on

Ruthless Trust

Read: Matthew 4

During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” (Matthew 4:1-3, NLT)

From the Word of God in general, from human experience—mine and other people I’ve witnessed over the years—and from this story in particular, I could make a pretty strong case that doubt is the number one strategy Satan uses in our lives to disrupt, weaken and ultimately destroy our faith in God.  If he can get us to question the goodness and sufficiency of God and his Word, then our spirituality will be dead in the water.

Every time the devil came at Jesus with a temptation, the very first word was “if” — “if you are the Son of God…if you will kneel and worship me…” (Matthew 4:3,5,9) Behind Satan’s enticements was the goal of getting Jesus to question God’s care and competence as well as his identity as the cherished Son of God.

That is exactly what Satan will do to you—most likely even today.  He will cause a question to arise in your mind as to the reliability of God’s Word, the dependability of God’s love, the sufficiency of God’s supply, and the truthfulness of your unmovable place as a cherished child of God.  Just like clockwork, the “if” question will be sown as a seed of doubt in your spirit before the day is out.

The number one defense against Satan’s strategy to destroy your faith is trust—ruthless trust.  Each occasion in which Jesus was hit with the big “if” was met with a return to what was unquestionable, unshakable and immovable—the Word of God.  Jesus’ answer to the assault on his faith?  “Scripture says…” (Matthew 4:4,7,10)  Jesus stood on the promises of Scripture, knowing that obedience to it was the only way to God’s provision (“man shall not live by bread alone”), true spiritual muscle (“jump off” and prove your divine power), and ceaseless kingdom authority (“all the kingdoms of the world will be yours”).

Trust—ruthless trust. No assault from the enemy can penetrate it, and no temptation, regardless of the power of its enticement, can hold a candle against it.  So no matter what, lean into God’s Word today—there is nothing in all creation as reliable.  Trust in God’s character—his care and competence have never been proven impotent.  Wait patiently for his provision—it will never lack the satisfaction you truly need.

And by the way, when you respond to temptation with ruthless trust, not only do you punch Satan in the nose, but you give a priceless gift to God. I love what Brennan Manning says in his book, Ruthless Trust,

“The splendor of a human heart which trusts that it is loved gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, the sight of ten thousand butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom.  Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.”

So throughout the day today, look up, smile, and trust!

“Unwavering trust is a rare and precious thing because it often demands a degree of courage that borders on the heroic.” ~Brennan Manning

What If God Took Over?

Analyze the things that are tempting you today.  Find out how they are assaulting your trust in the reliability of God’s Word, the sufficiency of God’s provision and the immutability of your position as a cherished child of God.  Once you do that, you will see what temptation promises as nothing more than a false infinite—something that in the light of day cannot hold a candle to what God has in store for those who ruthlessly trust him.

Posted on

So Much More!

Read: Matthew 3

“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11, NLT)

Some people get stuck at pardon and never move beyond it. God wants us to move forward in power and join him in the great reclamation project of redeeming mankind and restoring creation to his rule.

Now don’t get me wrong, forgiveness is a wonderful thing.  What a gift of mercy and grace to be cleansed from sin and pardoned from guilt, but that is just the beginning!  God wants to do so much more in us and through our lives than just forgive us and remove our guilt.

Unfortunately, some Christian’s don’t get that and are content to live just righteously enough to stay out of hell. In a sense, they live on the edge of the promised land of power in the holding pen of pardon.  What low expectations!

John the Baptist’s work in preparation for the arrival of Jesus was simply to call people to repentance of sins.  To prove their willingness and demonstrate their obedience, John baptized them in water.  That was a very significant marker in the life of the believer; a public statement to the initial commitment they had made in response to God’s invitation to salvation.  So important was this act that Jesus himself submitted to it (Matthew 3:15, NLT), and then told his disciples that their commission was to lead other people into it (Matthew 28:19, NLT).

But John didn’t stop with baptism unto repentance. He preached that Jesus would take people to the next step; Jesus would take them way beyond by baptizing them with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  In other words, Jesus would baptize his followers with the very same power that enabled him to be the Agent of creation, the Lord of life, the Savior of the world, the Master over sin, sickness, death, all the powers of the unseen realm and all of the physical elements of the seen world, and the King of Kings for all eternity.  Yes, Jesus would impart to all who would follow him that very same power in the Person of the Holy Spirit.

It would be through the person of the Holy Spirit, fully dwelling in the believer that Jesus would empower his followers to do the same works he performed and proclaim the same words he preached, calling the rest of un-redeemed mankind to repentance and restoration as God’s very own children.  Furthermore, through the same empowering of the Spirit, Jesus would baptize with fire. Fire represented cleansing, purity and judgment in the Bible.  The baptism of fire that Jesus would bring would purify God’s people to be his very own family, and would bring those who refused under the righteous judgment of God at the proper time.

Now isn’t that so much more than just forgiveness?  Isn’t that far better than simply living in the holding pen of pardon?  Jesus has a life of purpose for you far beyond what your university degree or your current career or your bank account or anything else can give you.  Through the Holy Spirit, he will empower you to do God’s work on Planet Earth!

That sounds so much more exciting to me than merely living my life just so I avoid hell.  I don’t know about you, but I want Jesus to baptize me again today in the Holy Spirit’s power and fire.  I want to be emboldened and purified to do God’s work for him  today on this planet.

How about you?

“There is no better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.” ~D.L. Moody

What If God Took Over:

Jesus said in Luke 11:13, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Why don’t you ask for a fresh baptism today—Jesus the baptizer is ready to inundate you with the Holy Spirit!

Posted on

What God Has Birthed In You

Today’s Reflection:

After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” (Matthew 2:13, NLT)

The renowned 19th century Bible expositor J. C. Ryle said, “The rulers of this world are seldom friendly to the cause of God.”

How true!  And nowhere is that truth more evident than in Matthew 2 when King Herod tried to kill God’s greatest cause, the infant Jesus. This is the original story of the real Grinch who didn’t just try to steal Christmas, he tried to kill Christmas.

It’s a bizarre story when you think about it; it doesn’t seem to belong in the Christmas account. I’ll bet you won’t get a card next Christmas depicting Herod killing the babies of Bethlehem. While you might see the “Nutcracker Suite”, you’re not likely to attend the “Slaughter of the Innocents”. Your music director will likely lead the congregation to sing “Away In A Manger”, but not “Away With the Baby Jesus!”

It is a part of the story we would just as soon forget, but there it is, tucked into the Christmas story by God’s design for our benefit and encouragement. I think it’s there, in part, because Herod was just the first of a long line of Grinches right up to this day that are always trying to kill our Christmas and steal our joy and destroy the incarnational plan of God in our lives.  Jesus, who was obviously and personally familiar with “the Grinch”, said in John 10:10,

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Here is one of the things I believe the Holy Spirit, who inspired Matthew’s account, wanted you to know from this story: Back then, Herod couldn’t destroy Jesus, and right now, no ruler, no person, no force, no circumstance, no disappointment can stop the cause that God has birthed in you! God is committed to giving you “a rich and satisfying life”, both now and for all eternity!

What cause has God birthed in you?  Has some real life Grinch in the form of a person or a circumstance tried to steal it from you?  Take your concern to God and trust.  Memorize and pray back Psalm 138:8 to God all week long:

“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me!”

Something To Think About

“Walk boldly and wisely…There is a hand above that will help you on.” ~Philip James Bailey

 

 

Posted on

Delayed, Not Denied

Read: Matthew 1

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. (Matthew 1:1-2, KJV)

Back in the day when I was growing up, you had two choices in Bible versions: The King James or the King James.  And the King James used the word “begat” when listing the genealogies of the Bible, as is the case in this chapter.  To read through these seemingly unending lists of mostly boring and meaningless names in the genealogical records took real commitment.  Matthew 1 is a case in point: “Judah begat Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram…” and so forth.

Perhaps you were tempted to skip over this chapter today, or maybe just to just read through these names a little faster than normal. That’s what we tend to do with genealogies—the “begats”. If we read them at all, we just breeze through them.  They’re to be endured, not enjoyed; tolerated, not celebrated.  That’s understandable. The names are hard to pronounce. We don’t have any historical context for most of these people. Reading these names is akin of reading from the phone book.

Yet we believe the inspired Word of God, inerrant in all it affirms, the only authoritative and infallible rule of faith and conduct.  That means every chapter, every verse and every line is God’s perfect Word for us—even  the genealogies. They are not here by mistake; they are not here just as filler. They are here by God’s design for our benefit. So, in a sense, these genealogies are truly “Designer genes”.

If you have ever researched your genealogy by looking up your family tree, you know that what you are looking at is the historical thumbprint that provides context to the ongoing story of your life. That’s why God spent valuable ink in His Word passing these genealogies to us. And this genealogy in Matthew is important because these names not only remind us how Jesus got here. They tell us the story of who God is.  And since God is our Father, the stories behind these names reveal the “Designer genes” that make us, spiritually speaking, who we are.

This particular genealogy tells a wonderful story—a very important story that you and I really need to know: It tells the story that God is the God of promise.

The very first line in Matthew 1:1 says, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The birth of Jesus was the result of a Divine promise made thousands of years before his birth.  The God of the Bible is a God who makes promises—and is faithful to keep them—every one! The Bible contains about 7,000 promises, and two of them stand head and shoulders above the rest: The Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants.  Abraham and David are two significant Old Testament characters.  God made promises to them in response to their faithfulness.

To David, God made the promise of an everlasting throne I Chronicles 17:11-14, “When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom…I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son…I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.”

But God not only promised David an enduring throne, he promised Abraham a universal seed. God told Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 that through his genealogy the whole world would be blessed. That didn’t happen for Abraham through Isaac, or Jacob, or Judah. It didn’t even happen for David through Solomon. The enduring throne and the universal blessing were revealed and fulfilled hundreds of years later through Jesus Christ.

The point is that in this genealogy, we see that God always keeps his promises.  They may be so slow in coming, but they are never late. God’s promises may seem delayed, but they are never denied. And every time you read this genealogy, or any Bible genealogy for that matter, you are seeing how the God of history, in his sovereign timing, fulfills what he has promised.

And the God who made 7,000 promises in his Word, many of them direct promises to you, will fulfill them all in his sovereign time!  It doesn’t matter when he fulfills them or how…it only matters that he will.

And he will, because he’s the God who fulfills!

“God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises…leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.”  ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What If God Took Over?

If there are over 7,000 promises that God has made to his people in the Bible, shouldn’t you be claiming one or two of them for yourself?  Look up a couple of promises in God’s Word, memorize them and pray them back to God every day this week.

Posted on

Mind Your Own Business

Read: John 21

Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” (John 21:22, NLT)

Mind your own business!  That’s the gist of what Jesus was saying to Peter.

Jesus had been drilling down to some issues that needed to be resolved in this rough fisherman-turned disciple. It was a difficult conversation that needed to happen before Peter could become the apostle Jesus had in mind, and Peter did what so many of us do: When the spotlight got focused on him a little too brightly, he tried to shed some light on John’s flaws.

Jesus kept the focus right where it needed to be: “Peter, quit worrying about what will happen to John and just focus on what I’ve called you to do. If I allow him stay alive until I return, that is none of your business. You’ve got enough to worry about just taking care of your own junk let alone John’s. Just take care of you and you’ll be fine!”

Not bad advice! Wouldn’t we save ourselves a whole lot of wasted energy by just minding our own spiritual business? I know that’s true for me.  The time and emotional drain I spend worrying whether someone else is walking with Jesus the way I think they should takes away from the spiritual energy that could be focused on growing me up in Christ.

Now that is not to say that we should never express loving concern for another believer’s spiritual progress. Sometimes the people we care deeply about frankly need to step it up in their growth as a disciple of Jesus—and we need to call them out on that. However, since spiritual formation is an ongoing process that will not conclude until the day we die and reach heaven, you and I need to remember that we, too, need to step it up!

So the next time you have an urge to voice a “concern” about what another sister has said or how another brother is living or what another local shepherd is doing or the kind of theology a prominent Tele-evangelist is espousing, just remember what Jesus said to Peter: “What is that to you? Just worry about you and make sure you are following me!”

You see, those people you are worried about will have to answer to God for their lives one day, but so will you. And since it is highly unlikely that you will be able to change them one bit by all the energy you spend worrying about their spiritual condition anyway, try devoting that same energy to your own obedience. Besides, if you really want to see them change, the better focus of your efforts would be to pray for them. Spend at least as much time bringing them before the Father in prayer as you do thinking and talking about how upsetting they are to you.

Do that and change will happen all right—but it will be you that changes! So mind our own business today—it is not such a bad thing to do!

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” ~Carl Gustav Jung

What If God Took Over?

Offer this prayer today:  “Lord, there is so much work yet to do in me, so keep me focused on my own spiritual development.  Help me to mind my own business, working on the things that I can change and leaving the things I can’t change up to you.”