doubt

5 Reasons God Wants You to Stop Being Anxious (Matt. 6:25-34)

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

Anxiety

On the website for the Anxiety Disorder Association of America (ADAA), the following statistics are reported:

  • Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older (18.1% of U.S. population).
  • Anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year, almost one-third of the country’s $148 billion total mental health bill.
  • More than $22.84 billion of those costs are associated with the repeated use of health care services; people with anxiety disorders seek relief for symptoms that mimic physical illnesses.
  • People with an anxiety disorder are three to five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than those who do not suffer from anxiety disorders.[http://www.adaa.org/AboutADAA/PressRoom/Stats&Facts.asp; accessed 3/20/09]

Anxiety is not merely a problem from Bible times that we don’t understand. Anxiety lives in our town, our street, and probably even in our own homes. Anxiety comes in all shapes and sizes, and for all sorts of reason. Some elderly folks worry about having living too long so that their money runs out or about who will take care of them when they are no longer able to. But the young are not immune to anxiety either. I currently know of at least five young men and women who are worried that they will never get married and that maybe God has chosen them for a life of celibacy (we should get them all together!).

So, money and food, and clothes aren’t the only things that we are anxious about. Jobs, kids, bills, cars, relationships, health, all of these things and more give us plenty of reason to worry. But God says something different.

Five Reasons God Wants You To Stop Being Anxious

1. Anxiety Clouds Your Real Mission on Earth (vv. 25, 33)

Jesus asks a serious question that we forget when we are in a state of anxiety. It is found at the end of verse 25, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” God wants our lives to be more about getting stuff and keeping it. If all we do is chase after the latest and greatest, then we prove ourselves to be serving the false god mammon, and not the Lord Jesus Christ. The correct focus that every true child of God ought to have is found in verse 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” You see, we can spend all of our time worrying about temporal things, and we shall find that when we get to heaven, we missed the boat completely. Our eyes were on the wrong prize. Our true mission is to see the kingdom of God grow and for the individual members of the church to grow in the likeness of Christ in holiness. That is our mission—priority one. The church has become weak and diluted because it has lost its mission and has begun chasing after lesser things.

2. Anxiety Causes You to Doubt God’s Love for You (vv. 26, 28-30)

Jesus goes on to give us two illustrations of God’s loving care and concern over his creation: birds and lilies of the field. First, Jesus shows that although birds work very hard daily to care for their needs by feathering their nests, hunting down worms and other insects, they don’t worry about storing up food for the winter. They let God be God and trust him to supply their needs tomorrow.

Second, Jesus directed his disciples’ attention to the wildflowers growing around them on the mount they were gathered on. These flowers were adorned beautifully by God himself, all without worrying.
Jesus’ main point is this, and don’t miss it—God cares more for you than he does for any animal, even these little birds. He loves you more than the temporary grasses and flowers that last only a few days and then wither up and die. If he cares enough to attend to their needs, how much more does he care about you?

Rom. 8:32 reminds us, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Did Christ die for sparrows? Did he give his life for flowers? Did God send his only begotten Son to save your soul, only to leave you to die naked and starving? It is when we are anxious that we imply these things. We imply by our anxiety that God doesn’t love us enough to take care of us and supply us with every need, whether physical, spiritual or emotional.

3. Anxiety is a Waste of Energy (v. 27)

This reason is probably the most pragmatic of the five reason. It asks, what does worrying change? How has anything ever been accomplished by anxiety? Stress and panic, sleepless nights and tearful fretting all accomplish nothing. They cannot bring a solution to the table, and in the end, they usually make us feel worse.

4. Anxiety is a Mark of Small Faith (vv. 30a-32)

Jesus doesn’t say that if you are anxious that you have no faith, but he does say that you have little faith. I don’t think I know of a Christian who wants small faith. You may have small faith, but you want to grow in your trust of the Savior. Jesus is setting before us an opportunity to do just that. But how?

Peter tells us in 1Pet. 5:6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

We need to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. We can’t be anxious and at the same time say we have placed our full trust in God. Matthew 6:32 tells us that the Gentiles, or pagan unbelieving world, chases after its own needs, feeling that if they don’t take care of #1, then nobody will. Should a follower of Jesus Christ have the same attitude? We need to be humble and put our full weight upon the Lord, and he will not fail us. Why? Because he cares for you!

5. Anxiety Tries to Get Ahead of God (v. 34)

Today has enough problems doesn’t it? God has wisely and sovereignly distributed the amount of blessings and troubles that we can handle. Like the manna in the wilderness, He has given us enough grace for today. But we can’t hoard it up for tomorrow. There is only enough for today and the worries of today. We need to trust the Lord in this. We can’t begin worrying about tomorrow. What a precious Savior, that he cares so much for us!

So, what can we hope to do when anxiety attacks our hearts? Here are some wise closing words of biblical instruction from A.W. Pink: “Be anxious for nothing” (Phil. 4:6). Worrying is as definitely forbidden as theft. This needs to be carefully pondered and definitely realized by us, so that we do not excuse it as an innocent “infirmity.”

The more we are convicted of the sinfulness of anxiety, the sooner are we likely to perceive that it is most dishonoring to God, and “strive against” it (Heb. 12:4). But how are we to “strive against” it? First, by begging the Holy Spirit to grant us a deeper conviction of its enormity. Second, by making it a subject of special and earnest prayer, that we may be delivered from this evil. Third, by watching its beginning, and as soon as we are conscious of harassment of mind, as soon as we detect the unbelieving thought, lift up our heart to God and ask Him for deliverance from it.

 

 

 

How to Pray, pt. 4 (Matt 6:10b)

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

In this post I am going to be looking at the third petition of the Lord’s prayer, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

The will of God is a difficult thing for many people. Sometimes we are unclear about God’s will. Other times, we are clear about his will, but we don’t want to obey it, and at still other times, we struggle to accept God’s will for our lives.

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The story is told of an old Scottish woman who went from home to home across the countryside selling thread, buttons, and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go in the direction the stick pointed when it landed. One day, however, she was seen tossing the stick up several times. “Why do you toss the stick more than once?” someone asked. “Because,” replied the woman, “it keeps pointing to the left, and I want to take the road on the right.” She then dutifully kept throwing the stick into the air until it pointed the way she wanted to go!

Similarly, many of us can find that when we are “seeking” the will of God, we are really seeking our own will…and have suffered the consequences of forcing our own way!

 Today, I want to briefly investigate this petition (“your will be done”), so that we can know how to pray for God’s will to be done.

First, you need to understand that there are two wills of God. One is his secret will and the other is his revealed will.

Theologians sometimes call these God’s decretive and preceptive will. Decretive because it deals with God’s sovereign decrees, and preceptive because it deals with God’s precepts or commands. We find these two wills side by side in Deut. 29:29:

The secret things [decrees] belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed [commands] belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Let’s start with God’s Secret Will. God’s secret will is made up of those desires of God that he has decreed will come to pass, although he has not necessarily made them known to us. To us they are secret, but to Him they are fully known. Some examples from Scriptures are found in:

  • Matt 24:35-36: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
  • Rom 1:9-10: For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. [Paul did not know whether he would get a chance to see the Christians in Rome.]
  • Also, compare 2Peter 3:9 with Rom 9:27: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Rom 9:27: And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, [God desires that all should reach repentance, but Rom 9:27 and many other passages tell us that this will not happen. Who will be saved? This too is God’s secret will, hidden from mankind.]

God’s secret will includes the answer to questions about how long you will live, how a new president will do in office, the state of our economy next year, and whether your neighbor will ever accept Jesus.

What are we to do, how are we to respond to God’s secret will if we don’t know it?

  • Trust God. -Matt 6:25-33 instructs us about worrying about serious needs (not wants, which are even less pressing). It says,

25Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

There is so much in this life that is unknown. And if we dwell on these things we can become paralyzed with fear. But the Lord tells his children not to be anxious. Yes, we should pray for our needs. He has revealed that he will take care of us and give us our needs. But instead we have “little faith” and begin to wonder how it is that he will care for us instead of just trusting him with a child-like faith.

  • Humbly submit to God’s will, for He is good-Ps 111 reminds us of this in a powerful way. It says:

1Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

2 Great are the works of the Lord,

studied by all who delight in them.

3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,

and his righteousness endures forever.

4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;

the Lord is gracious and merciful.

5 He provides food for those who fear him;

he remembers his covenant forever.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works,

in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;

all his precepts are trustworthy;

8 they are established forever and ever,

to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

9 He sent redemption to his people;

he has commanded his covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is his name!

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

all those who practice it have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever!

The Lord is great and greatly to be praised. Even when things become stormy around us, praise him anyway. When things grow dark, praise him anyway. And when you find yourself “walking through the valley of the shadow of death” don’t forget that our Good Shepherd is with us every step of the way. You may not see the terror by night coming, but you do need to remember that our God is good and he has a perfect plan that goes far beyond our own understanding.

Secondly, there is God’s Revealed Will, or his Preceptive Will.

This is the will of God shown to us in the pages of Scriptures. The revealed will of God is God’s desire for us to obey Him. Here is another distinction between his secret will and his revealed will. His secret will is always accomplished. Job 42:2 says,  I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. However, God’s revealed will, is often disobeyed. God says we shall not bear false witness—but we do. This is never to be taken that God approves of our disobedience. But it does show that God passively permits us to sin, and yet we will be held responsible and those who refuse to cast themselves at God’s mercy will be punished in eternal fire.

Some examples of God’s revealed will include:

  •  Eph 5:15-17: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
  •  1Thess. 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
  • 1Thess 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Of course, the Bible reveals much more of what God requires of us.

Back in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

This will of God is to be obeyed. After all, what king makes a decree and does not expect his subjects to obey him? How do the angels respond to God’s commands in heaven?

  • Ps. 103:20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!
  • Matt. 13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
  • Matt. 24:31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Let me ask you, does God expect any less from us? The psalmist prayed as all of God’s children should pray, Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! (Ps. 143:10).

What about if we don’t walk in the ways of the Lord? What then? Jesus foretold of a future day when he will speak to those who had that attitude.

  • Matt. 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

 We really are without excuse in obeying God’s will because God has told us so clearly in his Word what he expects from us. Therefore, when we pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying that God would align our hearts and our lives with the divine commands of God in the Bible.  We are praying that God would help us to live as he calls us to live. We are praying that we desire that God would make our lives a living Bible, that people can see our daily walk, witness our speech and our conduct and from that discern what God wants them to be.

A tall order? Yes! But that is why we pray for God to do this in our lives. It cannot be done otherwise.

Praying Persistently

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

Praying Persistently

In one region of Africa, the first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying. In fact, the believers each had their own special place outside the village where they went to pray in solitude. The villagers reached these “prayer rooms” by using their own private footpaths through the brush. When grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much. Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. Whenever anyone noticed an overgrown “Prayer path,” he or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, “Friend, there’s grass on your path!

I suspect that we all have struggled at times to be consistent in our prayer times. Our paths begin to grow grass. In Matthew 7:7-11, we find ourselves in the middle of Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount. In chapter six, the Lord gave an amazing lesson on prayer. But as you listen to what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount the more you see that radical dependence that you and I need in prayer.

  • We need prayer because he calls us to forgive our enemies (6:14-15)
  • We need prayer because he says when we fast, it is to be with a humble heart (6:16-18)
  • We need prayer because he warns us of the lure of material possessions and how they can steal away our affection for the Lord (6:19-24)
  • We need prayer because Jesus told us that we aren’t supposed to get anxious, that he would provide for all of our needs (6:25-34)
  • We need prayer because we aren’t supposed to unfairly judge others, but rather we need to examine our own hearts to find healing and forgiveness for our own sins first (7:1-5).
  • We need prayer because we need to discern when those we preach the gospel to are so hard-hearted or against our efforts that we need to move on, all while keeping our own hearts tender and hoping that they will come to repentance (7:6).

Can you start to see why we need prayer? What the Lord is calling us to be and do is impossible without God. We can’t even hope to begin fulfilling these things without him, and that was only the last half of the Sermon!

At this point, those who were listening to Jesus’ message must have been feeling overwhelmed, wondering how they could be obedient. We can often feel this way and be tempted to give up. But I want us to see that we can’t give up. We need to wrestle with God in persistent prayer.

In my last post (here) we saw the power of God demonstrated to us in what he has done in his awesome works, including our salvation and forgiveness. From there we were able to see that we need to ask God with greater faith that he will provide for our needs. We need to develop that idea of asking God in dependence and with persistence. It is here that Jesus instructs them how—Ask, Seek, Knock. Let’s look at each on in order to find out how we can become more dependent upon the Lord.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:7-11, ESV)

“Ask” your heavenly Father

Every one of these five verses speaks about asking, and all of them point to the fact that if we ask our heavenly Father, he will answer our needs. Implied in asking is the need for humility. We ask when we do not have. We are in need. It is what we see in Matt 5:3–the poor in spirit know they have nothing in themselves and they need to receive everything from God. Jesus assures us that when we acknowledge our need to him, we shall receive. Jesus illustrates this with the child who goes to his earthly father for something to eat. The staple diet of most people in Jesus’ time was bread and fish. Jesus says that just like a little child comes in dependence to her father for her food, so our infinitely kinder, gentler and more loving heavenly Father will give us all we need with great delight and joy! But we need to remember that we must come asking humbly and dependence upon him.

 “Seek” the Father’s will

This reminds us of Matt. 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The desire to be dependent upon God progresses from asking God in humble dependence to growing in prayer while seeking God’s will. Seeking gives us a visual picture of looking for something that is not clearly before us.

It’s like a person looking for their eyeglasses. When I don’t have my glasses on, I can see enough to avoid running into a dresser or a door, but not well enough to find my glasses if they have fallen on the ground off of my night stand. A couple of times I put them somewhere to take a shower and I couldn’t find them. (Maybe my wife moved them for fun!). I need to keep on seeking them until I find them. I don’t sit down and say to myself, “Oh, well. I lost them. I hope I make it to work okay.”

Jesus is telling us, we need to keep on asking, but beyond asking, we need to be seeking—going to his throne and calling out to him with our needs. And if they include any steps of faith on our part, then we need to take them—seeking God’s will as we pray. So what needs should we pray for? Here I wrote about personal needs. We know about those, so I’ll move on to Kingdom needs. Remember that I said that personal needs are important. But think about this for a second. All of those personal needs will be fulfilled and vanish in the Kingdom. Not one will remain.

The needs of the Kingdom are eternally important. They will have an eternal impact. Souls will be changed forever because of these needs. Because of this we need to spend more time and energy seeking God for these types of needs. Listen to two men who knew the needs of heaven far better than most of us today. They were both pastors.

Richard Baxter put a sharp focus on what the Church has been called by our Master to do:

“We are seeking to uphold the world, to save it from the curse of God, to protect the creation, to attain the ends of Christ’s death, to save ourselves and others from damnation, to overcome the devil, and demolish his kingdom, to set up the kingdom of Christ, and to attain and help others to the kingdom of glory. And are these works to be done with a careless mind or lazy hand? O, see, then, that this work be done with all your might!”[1]

Jonathan Edwards likewise understood the great need of the Church in carrying out its mission. He said,

“Those that are about to undertake this work should do it with the greatest seriousness and consideration of the vast importance of the work, how great a thing it is to have the care of precious souls committed to them, and with a suitable concern upon their minds, considering the great difficulties, dangers, and temptations that do accompany it. It is compared to going to warfare.[2]

So how will we carry out this mission beyond our own personal needs? It will come with prayerful seeking the Lord’s face. It will come with a persistence in calling out to God for souls to be saved and for obstacles to be brought down. It will come as we pray for sinners to come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and Jesus to be magnified in our lives in the face of trials and tribulation. If we were about to go out to war, we would pray and seek God’s help. Pick up your armor and sword. We are at war!

“Knock” with perseverance

The verbs in verse 7, “ask”, “seek” and “knock” are all present imperatives. That means that they are commands that we are to continue to do. Not just once, but persistently. That is why “knocking” is such a good picture of our need to be persistent. Jesus calls us to knock on prayer’s door persistently. Some of us pray like I knocked on doors to sell vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias (do they do that anymore?). We pray once and then we walk away, yet we expect for God to bless us richly. God still gives us good gifts, but he delights to give even more, especially if we would only ask him. James 4:2 says, in part, “You do not have because you do not ask.” We pray for the salvation of a friend, but we stop after a week. Or we pray for the church to grow, but our prayers are hit-and-miss. Jesus told the story of two people who were persistent in prayer in Luke 11 & 18. One was a man who wouldn’t go away until his friend loaned him some food for a visiting guest. The other was an old women who pestered a judge until he gave her justice.

When asking and seeking have not yielded God’s answer, DON’T STOP PRAYING! Be persistent. Keep on knocking on heaven’s door. The Lord who is good, and loves you more than anyone else on this earth will answer your prayer!

Some of you might ask “why?” If God hears our prayers, and we pray once, why doesn’t he just answer? Why does he make us pray so many times? It isn’t because he didn’t hear us the first time, or that he isn’t able to answer us the first time. He often doesn’t answer immediately for our benefit. Really? Yes! Here are a few reasons why God might not answer you immediately (assuming that you are not living in sin):

  1. By praying persistently, God teaches us dependence. A person who prays once or twice and then tries to fix it themselves shows that they do not depend upon God. Delayed answers cause us to grow in dependence.
  2. By praying persistently, God teaches us to seek his will and not our own. Sometimes we pray selfish prayers. When we pray over and over, we are forced to think about whether what we are praying for is truly God’s will. If not, we may change our prayers, or we may humble ourselves and submit to God’s will even if it is not ours.
  3. By praying persistently, God teaches us patience. God is not on our clock and his timing is perfect. He hears us, but the timing of our answer to prayer is not so important to him as teaching us patient dependence upon him.
  4. Persistent prayer requires a greater faith and a focused sense of need. It also requires that we depend upon God’s resources and not our own feeble efforts done in our own strength.

Have you found that your prayers are short-lived? Is it because you move on to do it in your own strength? Do you see how often that has made matters worse? Commit yourself to go to the Lord for all your needs, waiting patiently for him to answer you. Maybe you have found that your prayers are short-sighted. You pray, but not for the great things God has called us all to do. You haven’t prayed for a great harvest of souls. You haven’t prayed for the salvation of your family member who you believe would never get saved. You haven’t prayed for that obstacle to faith to be removed. You’ve prayed short-range, short-sighted, “safe” prayers. My friend—we have a big God. Pray big prayers. Don’t lose sight of what is eternal. Can I add a few more personal needs?

 Maybe God has been tugging at your heart about serving him in a greater way. Perhaps it has been in sharing Christ more. But you are afraid. You are unsure about stepping out of your comfort zone. Pray for the Lord to give you courage. Keep praying daily, even hourly. And then do it—share Christ in faith, trusting that he is with you and will help you speak.

Maybe God has been speaking about something more serious. Maybe its been about serving on the mission field or in full time ministry. Don’t think that you can’t do it. God is with you and if he calls you he will equip and strengthen you. Pray and ask others to pray. Then step out in faith!

Maybe God has been convicting you of something else that you have pushed aside and thought that it was impossible. Pray about it! And I don’t mean that as a throw-away statement meant to be an excuse to do nothing. I mean really pray about God’s will for your life. When we open that door it is exhilarating and exciting. Anything is possible!

When you get right down to it, if God is your God, then he is your Master. If you yield to his will, who knows how he will use you. Pray persistently and watch what he will do!

[1] Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p. 12.

[2] Jonathan Edwards, The Salvation of Souls, 51-52.

Prayer and the Power of God

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

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“To know God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests, and yet not to approach or ask of him, were so far from availing us, that it were just as if one told of a treasure were to allow it to remain buried in the ground.” —John Calvin

The sinfulness of man requires the power of God to overcome our nature, bringing us to Christ and setting us free from our sins, removing us from the kingdom of darkness and placing us into the kingdom of God, adopting us as sons of God and joint heirs with Christ, establishing both our ability to stand before the righteous throne of Almighty God as well as establishing our right to do so by virtue of Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to our account. Therefore, our prayers are heard and answered upon this basis, seeing that God has opened up the doors of heaven, and by virtue of the cross of Jesus has welcomed us in.

In this post, I would like to briefly focus upon four prayer types: 1) Adoration and worship; 2) Thanksgiving; 3) Confession; and 4) Supplication and Petition. The first two I’ll merge together and only briefly touch on them. I want to focus more on Confession and Supplication/Petition as it relates to the Power of God in Prayer.

Adoration/Worship and Thanksgiving

The first two prayer types are prayers of response. When we pray with thanksgiving and adoration, we are responding to the acts of God which reflect his power to redeem, provide, create and sustain.

  • Adoration and Worship – Exodus 15
  • Thanksgiving – Psalm 138

In your life God has shown you his mighty power, whether it has been through salvation, provision, guidance, providential care, healing or some other way. Does your prayer life reflect this?

Confession

Confession is made with the belief that:

  • We have an omniscient God who knows our sin and we agree with him that we have transgressed his law. Prov. 5:21; Ps 51:3.
  • We have sinned against our holy God who cannot look upon sin and is just in punishing our iniquity. Ps 51:4, 11.
  • We have a merciful God who can remove the dark stain of sin through the blood of Christ’s substitutionary death upon the cross. Ps 51:7-10.

Some people, even Christians, live with the awful burden of past sins that they believe are unforgiven and unforgivable, even by God.

First Corinthians 6:9-11 is the hope of Christ and the power of God demonstrated to the worst of sinners. It says,

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Take your eyes off of your sin and put them on Christ!

Supplication and Petition

Supplications and petitions can be placed roughly into two categories:Personal prayer needs (for self and others) and Prayer for the Kingdom of God.

Biblical examples of personal prayers include:

  • For food (Matt 6:11)
  • For healing/trials (2Cor 12:7)
  • For persecution relief (Acts 12:6-19)
  • For pain and suffering (Psalms of David, Job)
  • For wisdom (James 1:5)

Prayer for the Work of the Kingdom, including:

  • For open doors of opportunity (Col 4:3)
  • For strength in times of persecution (Acts 4:29)
  • For boldness in the face of opposition (Acts 4:29)

In the area of supplications and petitions we can become reluctant to pray as we should. We need to answer the questions: Can he answer? and Will he answer? Consider the words of Jesus himself:

“And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mk 11:22-24)

“And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”” (Mk 9:23)

Do we use, “If the Lord wills” as an excuse for our lack of faith? Many things the Lord wills, but we often fail to ask (James 4:2). Sometimes we can be so afraid of falling into the error and heresy of prosperity gospel preachers that we fall short of a full dependence on God in prayer. We sanitize the words of Jesus and our prayer becomes anemic. Consider these verses:

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6)

“ And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matt 21:22)

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” (James 5:17-18)

Do these verses cause you to imagine what God could do? Do they set your heart racing? Or do you find yourself doubting, and adding exceptions? The ability for your prayers to be answered is not so much about who you are, as much as it is about who you believe God is!

Being About the Father’s Business (Repost)

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

Keep about your work. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil’s dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the devil’s rabbits. Do your work. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let the devil do his worst; but see to it nothing hinders you from fulfilling the work God has given you

He has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you to defend your character. He has not set you at work to contradict falsehood about yourself which Satan and his servants may start to peddle. If you do those things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself and not for the Lord

Keep at your work. Let your aim be as steady as a star. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded, and rejected; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised  and rejected of men. But see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being until at last you can say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.”–Author Unknown