Prayer Requests
Be careful what you repeatedly ask of God. You can’t always judge a prayer by its answer. While it’s true that many times in his kindness God withholds granting what we foolishly or selfishly request (Jms.4:3), there are plenty of biblical examples where God eventually grants the persistent yet imprudent prayers of his people.
Consider Israel’s repeated cry for a king. “We want to be like every other nation!” they relentlessly sniveled. So at last God said, “Fine, here you go” (see 1 Sam.8– 9). God answered their prayer with exactly the type of leader they requested, but it certainly wasn’t in their best interest. We may think of God giving non-Christians over to their sin when they are obstinate in chasing what is wrong (Rom.1:24-28), but how often do we Christians doggedly pursue our own interests in our prayer lives without sincerely following Christ’s example of tempering every request with “…nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk.22:42)?
We need to learn to be flexible in our asking. We must be honest and humble about our limitations. We may not know what is actually best. We need to be less obstinate concerning our prayer requests and more trusting that God may have a different path or some creative means to accomplish his will in our lives. So pray, and be specific, but always end your prayers with a malleable heart, which believes that God knows best how to lead and direct his children.
Living Sacrifice
After an extended and detailed explanation of the amazing transaction that obliterates our debt before God, and graciously grants us the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, Paul calls for a simple yet profound response: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Rom.12:1). How strange and extreme it must have sounded…
Church Attendance
The Bible is very clear about God’s expectation regarding “church attendance” – to use our modern terminology. Christ commissioned the establishment of churches, the Holy Spirit inscribed instructions about how they operate, and God requires that our…
Forgetting the Past
The Apostle Paul’s mindset in his sanctification was to always be “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil.3:13). When we think about the advantage to our spiritual progress in “forgetting the past,” likely the first things that…
Generosity
We all love generosity—that is, when others are generous to us. Christians, of all people, should appreciate the value of generosity, being the recipients of the most extravagant and undeserved generosity from…
Payoff of Holiness
With so much in the Bible about our call as Christians to live holy lives, I find that we often focus on the challenge and the obligation, but forget to ponder the payoff. Even when we hear the word “payoff” our minds tend to…
Who’s a Pharisee?
When the modern Christian finds himself under conviction in a conversation that has turned into a disagreement, he can usually get quick relief from his Bible-quoting “opponent” and call checkmate on the whole dispute, simply by calling the other…
Shrewd Evangelism
One of the most important and timely observations concerning the record of Paul’s evangelism in first century Athens, is to take note of the distinctive way the gospel was presented. Unlike previous scenes in…
Live for Christ
Peter motivates his readers to pursue godliness and holiness by reminding them that the world’s enticing temptations are a part of a value system that God has promised to destroy. He poignantly describes the complete decimation of the current…
Cultural Pressure
Falling to the temptation to be “conformed to the world” (Rom.12:2) rarely had such an immediate judgment as it did when the newly inaugurated King Jehu set up a sting operation, and called together all those who wanted to continue in the status quo of worshipping the false god Baal. In his ruse…
Sacrificial Love
When we read the word “love” in the Bible we should always be careful to remind ourselves that it bears little resemblance to what passes for love in today’s world. When the people of our culture speak of “love” they are usually referring to something that impulsively springs from feelings of happiness, warmth, attraction, affection or pleasure. But the Bible uses the word…