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This page is dedicated to bringing encouragement and insight to God's people and reaching the lost for Christ.
I have a favorite Old Testament verse that many will probably find odd: "Man that is born of woman is of a few days full of trouble. Job 14:1 The reason it is my favorite is because it helps to explain why there is so much suffering in my life and in the world. It can be my favorite bible verse because of my favorite New Testament verse: " In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 Be certain that troubles will continue. But we can be more certain that when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus, we are able to overcome the troubles and trials and tribulations of this life.
Life of Faith Scriptures
Life of Faith Scriptures
Continuing my thoughts on Scriptures from the final pages of Chapter 2 of Mrs. C. Nazum's book
February 19, 2024
Page 16 of The Life of Faith,
Mrs. Nazum quotes:
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. KJV
Mrs. Nazum concludes chapter 2 (In Him Is Redemption) noting that God himself works on behalf of those who abide in him. It is not merely taking the name of Christ that assures us that God will be our strength and help.
We must be diligent to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. We must walk in obedience to the very Word of God. In so doing God himself is our strength. We do not need to rely upon our own abilities. In fact, we should rather reject our own attempts to resolve or deal with the curse of sin upon our lives.
We must be diligent to daily yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives to be free from the sin curse of this life. Too often we have some success in our walk of faith, and we begin to be confident in our own abilities. Be not deceived. This can lead to a haughty spirit which will draw us away from the abiding life where we willingly submit our lives to God’s leading through his Word and the Holy Spirit. It is when we recognize that in our weakness God’s power is made perfect that we are at our most God-centered. Selah
We operate in the strength of the Word of God and the promises that God has given us. It is not by our own natural abilities that we should have confidence. We must rather realize that without the Lord we “can do nothing” John 15:5
I think it wise to note the context from which Paul’s declaration (Philippians 4:13) comes from. Paul was a missionary who relied completely upon the provisions of the Lord. He was not sponsored by any corporation or mega church. In fact, it is noted in scripture that Paul was determined to meet his own needs and those of the people with him by his own labors. However, in his letter to the church in Philippi he does explain that his purpose for encouraging the church toward generosity is not because of his own lack or need. Paul says, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content”. (4:11) Paul needed the church to know that his reliance was not upon them or even his own ability to meet his needs. But rather he has learned to find contentment whether in time of plenty or in times of leanness. This should remind us of Jesus himself. Jesus once turned to one of his prospective disciples and said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Luke 9:58 Paul goes on to explain to the church in Philippi, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4: 12.
This is significant because in this life there are so many uncertainties. Will we allow want to draw us away from our faith? Or will we grow in our faith as we continue to rely upon the provisions of the Lord. It is not just a matter of being faithful to the Word of God in the face of life’s challenges and adversities. It is being resolved that whatever the circumstances of our lives we will put our confidence in our God who is our strength and our help. Selah
March 7, 2024
From a heart of love and compassion share the gospel
From a heart of love and compassion share the gospel
Your Christian life may be the only Gospel they will know
Pray and put the results of your sharing in God's hands
Pray and put the results of your sharing in God's hands
As the wind blows we cannot see where it goes, so is the working of the Spirit of the Living God
Prayer Releasing Faith
Prayer Releasing Faith
Saturday March 16, 2024
I heard a message this morning from Pastor Charles Tapp entitled The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.
Two items from his message struck me as being extremely significant.
#1. Prayer is God’s act of Grace.
#2. Prayer is verbal release of faith.
Pastor Tapp also noted in his message that prayer meeting is the least attended service in the church. He further noted that men are absent from church services due to a long-held belief that church is for women.
I began to contemplate the two statements about prayer particularly. I realized that this is a significant truth that I needed to delve into a lot more on my own. I realized that it will be of great importance to new believers, in particular. Therefore, it is something I need to spend some time both investigating and developing a clearer explanation or exhortation.
I believe I will begin with the less difficult assertion that Pastor Tapp made regarding the lack of attendance during prayer meeting. If you are a church going individual, you can testify to the validity of his statement. We do not need to consult a study or recent poll to confirm for ourselves the truth of this statement.
Folk will line up at the door of the church for many special occasions like Easter, Christmas, Baby Dedications, Weddings, Funerals and the like. But it is a sad truth that when it comes to attendance during prayer meetings, many of these services are scarcely celebrated. Too often in congregations where a prayer service is weekly held very few are attending and the majority of attendees are women.
Women are by nature more nurturers than men. Men are molded in the image of the hunter provider. Their mindset is developed to take action. Men must be physical in their response to the world around them. While men may be extremely inventive and creative their natural bent is not toward deep contemplation.
Prayer requires a significant amount of contemplation. Prayer requires introspection. Prayer requires a submission to a higher authority.
When I say that prayer requires contemplation and introspection it is because any other form of prayer is subject to a number of failings. We may be unintentionally calling upon the Lord to do that which is contrary to his will. At which point our prayers are probably going to be in vain. There are a few instances in scripture where God granted a prayer that was not according to his own will. Those often led to even greater misery. I am reminded of the ill-advised vow that Jephtha made in his zeal to have God intervene on his behalf.
The Website GotQuestions.org sums it up much more succinctly than I could: “In Judges 11:30-31, Jephthah, a judge of Israel, made a foolish vow that if God gave him victory in the upcoming battle, he would sacrifice whatever first came out of his door when he came home. Jephthah was victorious in the battle against the Ammonites (Judges 11:32-33). When Jephthah returned home after the battle, his daughter came to greet him (Judges 11:34). Jephthah was devastated and stated that he had made a vow to the Lord that he could not break (Judges 11:35). Jephthah’s daughter asked for a two month “reprieve,” and Jephthah granted her request (Judges 11:36-38). The passage then states that Jephthah “did to her as he had vowed” (Judges 11:39). Read the Story: Judges 11:30- 39Men with a hunter provider mindset will struggle to submit to anyone other than a higher authority.
This only partially addresses why there are so few men in attendance when the prayer services roll around.
It is very interesting to me that prayer meetings are typically attended by deacons, women of the church, mission-oriented women and men, and at times officers of the church. The image is that of someone who has a responsibility in the church who must demonstrate a commitment to the work of the church. Now this may seem pessimistic or overstated but nonetheless the image of a devoted believer who recognizes the power and worth of prayer is not seen in many congregational prayer meetings. It will be a faithful few who will attend and keep the fires burning.
If you are a member of a congregation where your prayer meetings are the polar opposite of this image thank God and pray that the fire continue to burn brightly. I might add pray for the many congregations where prayer meeting is not as highly esteemed.
Pastor Tapp pointed out that too often our prayers are prayers of last resort. When all else has failed then we pray.
Even our approach in prayer is one of ‘last resort’. ‘I do not know what else to do’. ‘I do not know where else I can go with this problem’. ‘I do not see any way out of this’.
This is not to say that only women are able to take their cares to the Lord right away. Women have the same reluctance to relinquish control of their lives and their circumstances.
It is a part of our DNA as members of the fallen race of human beings; from Adam and Eve down through the ions we struggle to give up control. There is something in our nature that propels us to profess and hold fast to control of our lives and our surroundings.
We struggle to humble ourselves under the hand of God.
This in part is what prayer is. We are acknowledging that there is someone greater than myself who has to help me.
Prayer is recognizing God is mightier than myself, but it is also acknowledging that God is mightier than my problems.
Prayer is relinquishing control of the answer to what I am facing and allowing God to take over.
Prayer is the verbal act of surrendering control and activating faith in God to do what we cannot do.
If you find yourself even slightly recoiling to this statement, it is because you have not come to a full and complete dependency upon God. There are still vestiges of the hunter provider instinct that makes you recoil from the concept of giving control over to another even if he is God. Or there is still that inward struggle to do it myself. To do it my way. Whether you are impacted by your need to be in control as the care giver nurturer or the hunter provider, until you come to the place of recognizing your own dependency on God for all aspects of your life you will struggle to enter into that intimate relationship of prayer that God desires for you.
Prayer a Verbal Releasing of Faith in God
Prayer is the verbal act of surrendering control and activating faith in God to do what we cannot do.
We must have an explicit trust that God wants what is best for us and we must have the same implicit trust that God knows what is best for us.
We begin from the point where God is God, and I am not. It is not a shameful thing to give him the respect and place of honor that is due to him. He has created us! He has created all that we can see, touch, hear and feel.
He is God even when we do not acknowledge him as such.
I really like how the Psalmist puts it, “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.” Psalm 115:3 (NKV)
When we pray, we are acknowledging that he is God, and we need him to do for us what we have not been able to do for ourselves. In the verbal act of prayer, we are also implicitly acknowledging that we trust that he can do what he says he can do.
More than likely in the first time that you cry out to the Lord for help, you are not sure yet that he can do what he says but you are desperate for someone to help.
But, as one of my favorite secular quotes puts it, “everyone can grow and change through application and experience.” (C DwecK)
We learn (by application and experience) that we can trust him and that he can do what he says he can do, and we grow in our trust and Faith in God. We release our Faith in God to do what he says he can do when we pray.
March 30, 2024
Prayer is God's Act of Grace
Some have pictured God as like an ancient clock maker who created the world and the universe, wound the whole thing up and went home to take a nap.
How then can you put faith in such a God?
But the scriptures picture God as all-wise. Omnipotent in his power. Omnipresent. Intimately involved in the affairs of men.
The Psalmist proclaims the presence of God in his life this way:
1O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3You comprehend my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4For there is not a word on my tongue,
but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
5You have hedged me behind and before,
and laid Your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:1-6 New King James
Another writer of the scriptures tells us that, “he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
David the shepherd boy who grew up to be the greatest King Israel produced also declared,
7Where can I go from Your Spirit?
or where can I flee from Your presence?
8If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9If I take the wings of the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10Even there Your hand shall lead me,
and Your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10 New King James
The omnipresence of God explains how he is able to be by the side of every child of God who calls upon him. It explains how he can be in attendance at every gathering of believers where he promises to be in our midst where two or more are gathered together.
The scriptures are filled with inspiring imagery of what God is like. Jesus proclaimed him as a loving heavenly father who hears his children when they call to him.
With all of the awesomeness that these scriptures invoke we could very easily wonder why does such an all powerful God even care about us? Why does he care for us?
God is. Yes!
God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, Yes!
God is omnipotent in his power. Yes!
God is omnipresent (everywhere at once). Yes!
God is our Father in heaven who loves us and cares about us. Yes!
For the same reason that God created mankind in the very beginning. He created us to have fellowship with him. He created us to choose to commune with him.
In the beginning God came and walked with Adam in the cool of the evening.
As much as Jesus was in the moment with his disciples when he was on this earth, he also took time to be alone with God our heavenly Father. That is how he was able to say “I always do those things that please Him.”
How then do we develop this same relationship with an invisible almighty God?
Prayer is God’s act of Grace!
Prayer God's Act of Grace
Prayer God's Act of Grace
Even though he knows our intimate thoughts completely, he still wants communion with us, as we of our own volition come to him.
God is able to dispatch legions of angels to do his bidding. But he seeks from us a more intimate relationship.
God so loved the world that he gave his only son as an atonement for the sins of the world. But it is by the grace of God that we ever come to the realization of this wonderful truth. It is only by the grace of God that we are called to regain that walk in the cool of the evening that was lost in the Garden of Eden.
There is a view of God as a harsh task master who looks for opportunity to punish unbelievers.
Rather that recognizing God’s grace and goodness in the 10 Commandments many see God as controlling and manipulative.
But since Adam and Eve’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden God has been speaking to mankind to draw us back in a state of righteousness that he can indeed commune with us once again.
I like this thought, “The sins of human beings had to be paid for, not because the Father is vindictive but because his human children matter to him.” GospelCoalition.org
Prayer is God’s act of grace drawing us into daily communion, daily dialogue with him.
What we learn to do in this life will be perfected in eternity with Christ because of the grace of God.
Let us then have faith in God. Let us come to him trusting in his wisdom and power. Let us grow intimately closer to the God of grace who loves us with an everlasting love that never can be exhausted.
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Father, I thank you for the timelessness of your Word and your Promises. I pray you will use these words to encourage your children as they grow in their relationship with you. I pray that you will work in the heart of every person who does not know you as Lord to bring them to yourself, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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