Real Conversations with God

Wow! I could just fill the blog today with quotes from this amazing, yet wonderfully simple book on prayer, Paul Miller's, The Praying Life. I will roll out a few today but start with this one on how we ask God for things.

" Christians rush to 'not my will, but yours be done' without first expressing their hearts [Luke 22:42]. They submit so quickly that they disappear. Overspiritualizing prayer suppresses our natural desire that our house not be burned. When we stop being ourselves with God, we are no longer in real conversations with God." Paul Miller, The Praying Life, 122

He then wraps up this discussion on asking by stating, "Desire and surrender are the perfect balance to praying."

Believing in the sovereignty of God can sometimes squash our desires in our prayer lives and as Miller points out, the result is that we don't have real conversations about what we want with God. Desire and surrender are the perfect balance, but let us not forget desire in the equation. Let us not think that if we honestly bring our needs and wants to God that we are being selfish. Because when we bring desires to God we are laying them down, placing them as His feet and then trusting that His way, His plan will be better than ours.

So today, what is something you want?

When you think of that, then think and act, how can I have a real conversation with God about that want, laying it down before Him, surrendering that real, honest want knowing that talking to Him is the act of surrender.

Our Sympathetic Saviour

The heart and mind and will of our Lord has been moulded - shall we not say forged? - in the furnace of temptation and suffering. And it was in virtue of what he had learned in that experience of temptation and suffering that he was able, at the climactic point fixed by the arrangements of infallible wisdom and everlasting love, to be obedient unto death, even the death on a cross. It was only as having learned obedience in the path of inerrant and sinless discharge of the Father's will that his heart and mind and will were framed to the point of being able freely and voluntarily to yield up his life in death upon the accursed tree." 

John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

Murray beautifully points out in explaining Hebrews 2:10-18 and 5:8-10, that as Jesus walked this earth in obedience to His father, withstanding temptations, He became more aware of in fact why He was called to die. In other words, when He saw our sinful state first hand, He embraced the call to the cross.
As Jesus walked this earth, He saw the temptations and suffering we face and the many sins we fall into and it was His perfect obedience in the midst of this that made Him the "all-sufficient and perfect Saviour."

Immanent in Suffering

Recently, in talking with some pastor friends about how to care for people in suffering. Particularly, we were discussing from a book one of them was reading about how to appropriately comfort people who are suffering with God's sovereignty and providence.
Though I agree that both of those provide comfort to those struggling and in trials, I can't explain it any other way other than saying it was perhaps a revelation of knowledge in the moment that the great help and support to the suffering saints around us first is God's immanence.
Yes it is comforting to know that God is in control and that all things happen for a reason and we can get to those things, but to know that God walks with us through every pain and in fact as Christians we can know that God walks in us by His diving presence of the Holy Spirit.
His promise to not leave us or forsake us [Deut. 31:6 and Heb. 13:5] is a great promise to cling to when cares, sins and pain can sometimes leave us wondering where God is in the midst of it all.
If you are struggling today, I pray this truth pours grace and help into your life and if we know of those around us in the midst of agony and hurt, may God use us to remind them of our immanent God.

The Remedy of Hope

"Neighbors ought to tell neighbors, if they have found an unfailing remedy in time of plague. Christians out to tell others that they have found medicine for their souls, if they see them ignorant and dying for want of it." JC Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark - from Mark 4:21-25

No matter how hard this life gets, no matter what trials we face, those who have come to trust in the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection have the sure hope of heaven that awaits them. This is the only real medicine for the soul because everything in this life will leave us empty in the end. Jobs, money and even earthly relationships will let us down. But to know that one day, we can stand face to face with the one who has purchased the blessing of eternal life, receiving bodies that never get sick and never die and to know that we can hope and trust in that day as a certain promise is news that can revive us in the midst of every struggle in this life.
Let us then listen and be aware of how and where we can administer this remedy to those around us. If I love those around me, sharing this medicine will be a demonstration of that love.

Love as the Fruit of Wisdom

"Let us see that our knowledge has a sanctifying influence on our affections and our lives. Let us not only know Christ but love Him, from a sense of actual benefit received from Him. Let us not only believe that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, but rejoice in Him, and cleave to Him with purpose of heart. Let us not only be acquainted with Him by the hearing of the ear, but by daily personal application to Him for mercy and grace." JC Ryle, Expository thoughts on Mark p.12

From this past week's sermon we learned from Ecclesiastes that mere knowledge does not bring peace and hope but wisdom from above points to God. Specifically today for Christians that wisdom is seen in the cross where salvation was and is revealed. But as we learn about Christ, I pray that it not be mere information about Him, but information that has a sanctifying effect on us, information that would change us. And that we would cleave to Him in the midst of all uncertainty knowing that He will give that daily mercy and grace.

The truth about Angels and Demons

If we are going to see Angels and Demons or have friends going to see it, Westminster Theological Seminary has set up a helpful website, responding to questions that might come up.

http://www.truthaboutangelsanddemons.com/

HT: Justin Taylor

Pointing to the Fruit of Grace

"A few grapes will show that the plant is a vine, and not a thorn." Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

I don't know about you, but there are times in life when I can be much more aware of failures than of victories. Falling to the same sin again, hurting someone with my words, looking at the end of our day and seeing areas where I wasn't faithful.
Richard Sibbes wisely points out that God is faithful to point out where grace is at work in our lives, even when we are unaware.
One of the primary ways that He does this is through the care and encouragement of others. There may be days in our lives when we are more aware of our sin, the struggles and cares of life and in those moments we can have a hard time pointing out the fruit growing in our lives. And it is the sweet words of a friend, reminding us of God's grace that can be oh, so helpful in those moments.
When we are struggling, we may not be aware of the growth happening in our lives, areas where we are obeying and reflecting God. And the encouragement from a friend can point us to where God is working and bearing fruit in our lives, reminding us of His faithful work in us.

Lord, use me as your vessel in pointing out the fruit you are bearing by grace in the lives of those around me, because Lord knows I need that reminder too.