Prayer (part 1)

Matthew 6:5-8

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:5%20-%208&version=NIV)

Prayer is a very sacred and precious time with the Lord.  I love to pray and have sweet communion with my Lord but I haven’t always wanted to pray out loud.  I believe these verses are the reason why I sometimes hesitate.  I have found that if I am more nervous about the people around me than I am about going to the throne of Grace, I probably should just pray silently.   We should pray because that is what God expects of us not because of what people expect of us. 

Have you ever visited with someone who talks on and on and never gives you a chance to say anything?  Dentist are really good at this, they put their fingers in your mouth and then start talking!  You can’t say a word but just sit and listen and then they ask you a question, now how are you going to answer?  Sometimes I feel that is what we do with God, we sit and talk and talk and talk, all the while we have our fingers in His mouth and He can only listen.  Do we take the time to sit and listen to what He has to say?  You say, how can I do that, I have never heard His audible voice?  One way is to read His word.  So many times when I am seeking Him I pick up my Bible and His words are right there for me.  I don’t believe it is a coincidence, I don’t believe in them.  I believe the Lord directs me to the scripture that I need to read.  I have found that sometimes you can pick up a hymnal and start reading the words to those wonderful hymns of old and God can speak to you.  I believe the key is seeking Him, not just talking to Him.

Our Father in Heaven loves for us to come to Him alone, not for show but to be genuine with Him.  Take a close look at verse 8, He already knows what we need.  If He already knows what we need why should we pray?  That is a simple answer because He loves for us to commune with Him.  God is a God of relationships, He wants us to seek Him and put our trust in Him and Him alone.   

Next time you pray, go to Him in secret.  Ask Him to reveal His words to you.  Then, take the time to stop, look, and listen for He has something to tell you.  Seek Him and He will draw near to you.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila

A Perfect Example of a Peacemaker

Matthew 5:9

                “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

As we have been looking at the beatitudes we have seen that Jesus was a perfect example of how we should be living our lives.  There is not a single beatitude listed that He did not demonstrate to us during His short life that He spent on earth in human form. 

There was time that Jesus exerted His authority in the temple where it was being used as a trading place rather than a place of prayer.  Matthew 21:12-13

“Jesus entered the temple are and drove out all who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  (13) “It is written, He said, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’” 

At first glance you may say that was not being a peacemaker because He overturned tables but at a closer look you can see that it was being a peacemaker.  These men were cheating people and taking their focus off of the purpose for being at the temple.  They were supposed to be there praying.  Prayer gives me more peace than anything else in this world.  By distracting the people from the purpose of being at the temple they were distracting them from prayer and thus no peace.  What distracts you when you go into the house of God?  What is your purpose for being there?

Another example of Christ exerting His power of peacemaking can be found in Matthew 26, the account of Jesus arrest.  Matthew 26:49-52

“Going at once to Jesus, Judas aid, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed Him.  (50) “Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.” 

First of all notice that He called Judas ‘friend’.  I don’t know that I would particularly want to call him friend at this point!  Have you ever been betrayed by a friend, someone you trusted?  It is very difficult for me to regain that trust with that person and even more difficult to call that person ‘friend’.  Yet, Jesus, knowing what was happening, and knowing what was to come, still called Judas, ‘friend’.  That alone displays to me someone who was being a peacemaker.  But it gets even more amazing in the following verses. 

(50b)“Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested Him.  (51) With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword drew it our and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.”

 In Luke 22: 51 we read:

“But Jesus answered, ‘No more of this!’” And He touched the man’s ear and healed him.” 

Wow, He healed a man who was about to take Jesus to be sentenced to death.  Let’s read on in Matthew 26:52

“Put your sword back in place, Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”   

You may also want to note that Jesus mentions His peacemaking tactics to the crowd in Matthew 26:55

“At that time Jesus said to the crowd, ‘Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?  Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me.  (56)But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.  Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.” 

Do you notice what might happen when we are peacemakers?  Others may desert us.  We may be left standing alone.  We need to be careful that our tactics are truly to give God the glory and praise.  If we are deserted, how do we react?  When that happens to me I have a difficult time accepting those people back into my life but Jesus seeks them out after He has risen and draws them back to Him, yet another example of being a peacemaker.

Today, as you seek Him with all your heart, ask Him to give you the ability to draw men unto Him by being a peacemaker.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila

Responding to Our Enemies

Today our society has become tolerant to all religions and that is disconcerting to me.  Jesus is clear in Matthew 12:30 where He says to the Pharisees, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”   Now I am not talking about different churches, we all have a worship style that meets our needs.  A church that professes Jesus Christ as Lord, has not added to the scriptures, and does not lead people astray is great.  There have been cults that have drawn people in and deceived them, TV preachers who have done the same.  We always need to be cautious and aware of the scriptures so we do not get drawn in to false ways.  The Holy Spirit will guide and direct us in the right way as we seek out scriptures and ask for His guidance.  What I am talking about today are those religions that are totally against the Lord.  The Bible is full of examples of this where they worshipped Baal and other gods.  In Deuteronomy 12:2 the instructions to the Israelites as they entered their promised land was “Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.  Break down the altars, smash their sacred stones and burn the Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.  God makes it clear that there is only one true God to worship and all others will be destroyed.  That is why it is so disconcerting to me when I see all religions, those who worship God to those who worship gods meeting together and praying together.

As I did a little research  on the Muslim Brotherhood I went to the Jewish Virtual Library where I found the motto for the Muslim Brotherhood “Allah is our objective.  The Prophet is our leader.  Qur’an is our law.  Jihad is our way.  Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”  Does that sound like they are for God?  Do you hear anything about Jesus who says in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me..” ? Yet we can hold prayer meetings with a group that wants to destroy any Western influences.  I hope you will continue reading as now it is time to talk about how we should react to our enemies.

If you read Lamentations 3 we find the way that we generally respond to our enemies.  We want the Lord to take care of them and we want to see it happen “now” rather than “later” but how does Christ instruct us to treat our enemies.  Matthew 5:44 - 45a “But I tell  you:  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”  Love does not mean that we accept their ways which often times I believe our society is doing.  It means that we love them so much that we want their eyes to be opened to the one true God.  We do not want them to suffer eternally.  “Pray for them” does not mean that we meet together with them as they pray to their god and we pray to our God.  It means that we pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them and their eyes will be opened.

Lamentations 3:25 - 26  The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him; (26) it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  As you seek Him and find Him pray for those who are your enemies, those who do not know the Lord.

Worship The One True God as you listen to this song by Mark Harris, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtPKRMmttU

Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila

Rules

Rules, rules were made for a reason. Have you ever heard that? Have you always liked hearing that? Maybe you have said it a time or two yourself. Have you ever broken those rules? Have you always agreed with the rule maker? When was the last time you complained about rules? Maybe when you were driving down the highway and wanting to get somewhere a little faster than the rules said you could get there? Maybe when someone changed the rules mid-stream and caught you off guard? Have you ever been accused of bending the rules? What exactly does that mean? Driving 66 in a 65 would that be bending the rules?

When was the first rule broken? If you said in Genesis, you are correct. Adam was instructed by God to not eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9 and 16-17). The scripture goes on to say that God then decided to make a helper for Adam which He did and her name was Eve. Now I am sure that Adam must have instructed her not to even touch the tree as you see she is talking with the serpent who is tempting her in Genesis 3:3b “and you must not touch it, or you will die.” I figure that Adam had probably decided that he should tell her not to touch it because if she did touch it she would want to eat it. Back to children, have you ever told one not to even go near the cookie jar? Don’t touch it or you will be tempted to eat? Maybe you have told yourself that. Anyway, she touched and noting happened so she took it to Adam and served it to him and he, knowing what God had told him ate it anyway. Even in a perfect world, the Garden of Eden, there was a rule, and even in that setting, the one and only rule was broken and so mankind was broken.

Since the beginning of time there were rules. Rules help us maintain order, they are there for a reason and sometimes the reason is very good and other times the reasons are selfish and unrighteous but what does God say about the rulers placed before us. Looking in Nehemiah 9:37 - 38 we discover that God placed rulers over the Israelites and that these Kings gathered an abundant harvest due to the sins of the Israelites. In verse 34 it says “Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.” All of this while the Israelites are enslaved. Why do you think God blessed those who were against Him? It is rather simple but complex. Verse 37 says it was because of the sins of the Israelites. God wanted to draw them back to Himself but He first had do show them where they were wrong. It doesn’t seem fair that others are reaping the goodness of God when His chosen people are suffering but that is exactly what was happening. All of this in order to bring them back to Him and it did change their hearts. Their sin was revealed and they made an oath to follow the Laws of God (verse 29) which didn’t last as long as it should have. Have you made a promise to God that didn’t last long? They did have a leader though in Nehemiah who called them on their shortcomings, you can read about that in Nehemiah 13.

At this time our country is struggling. Everyone is blaming the other person, we all seem to think we have the right answer and know just what we need to do. God’s word tells us exactly what we should do, it can be found in II Chronicles 7:14 “if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” Although this was originally written for the Israelites we need to remember that we are His people now too. If you are called by His Name you are His. Our country is going rapidly downhill because we are not humbling ourselves, we are not seeking His face, we, not as a country but as followers of Christ. If we can’t even humble ourselves within our churches how do we expect that God will heal our land? If we don’t take the time to seek His face why do we expect Him to take care of our country? What are our sins that are causing our county to go in a spiral downhill? I trust you will seek Him and find Him and will humble yourselves and pray because He will forgive our sins and heal our land.


Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila