MARINATED IN HIS WILL

 

You may be familiar with the word about praying in the will of God in 1John 5:14-15.

“And this is the confidence that we have towards him, 

that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, 

we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

I remember a time when I showed my spiritual immaturity thinking this verse takes away the entire point of prayer. I can receive what I pray for, if I pray for what God wants me to pray. As we grow in Him, we begin to see more clearly that the best that can happen through prayer and in our lives is for God’s will to be done. God transforms our hearts to desire what will truly satisfy. Growing in Him teaches us to seek and pray for things that are His will, but will not come about until we ask Him. 

John 15:7-8 effectively applies 1 John 5:14-16. John 15:7,8 reads,

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, 

ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 

By this my Father is glorified, 

that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

Intermittently in the next few weeks I intend to post blogs on the keys to prayer in this passage. It is important to see this in the entire context of John 15. Verses 4 and 5 set the stage for this passage. Jesus said,

“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, 

unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, 

bears much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.”

The first word in John 15:7 is, “If you abide in me.” This is a call to plant our lives in Him. We can live in continual fellowship with Jesus. We depend upon Him like branches depend on a vine. As we do this God begins to think His thoughts in us, and to love and work through us. The second clause in the sentence is, (if) “my words abide in you.” These two phrases are connected. We cannot do either one of these without the other. Prayer and fellowship with God are anchored to His word. Do you read God’s word everyday? Do you memorize Scripture? We should memorize from God’s word everyday. This leads to meditating on His word and His will. 

Many years ago we moved to a farming community in Texas. The most influential man in that community had recently died. I lived and pastored the only church in the area for years. And I never stopped seeing positive effects from that man’s life. His widow once told me a regular practice of his. Every morning as he read his Bible he would choose something in scripture to run through his mind all that day. What God did in that man's heart affected the whole community.

As we saturate our lives in God through His word, we set the stage for powerful petition.

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PRAYING FOR LOVE

I fear the greatest reason for the hostility being expressed in politics, social media and nearly every area of society is the absence of love. We who know the Lord and believe the Bible can know something more complex about love than most people. There were several words for love in the original language of the New Testament. The one I want to focus on is agape, the word explained in 1 Corthians 13. This kind of love is not easy to produce in our lives, especially in these days. In Matthew 24:12 Jesus prophesied that the time will come when the love of many will grow cold because of the wickedness around us. There is an urgency in our time for God’s people to pray for God to work supernaturally to set our lives on fire with His love. Let me give you an idea of the characteristics of the love that we need to pray for God to produce in us. 

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus said the greatest commandment in the law was to love God with all our hearts. The second was to love our neighbor as ourselves. This was not a command, as some of us have said, to love ourselves. Loving ourselves is assumed in these words. And this cannot be a command to always like or feel good about others. I often don’t like myself. This is a command to treat others like we treat ourselves.

Love your enemy.

Let’s get right to the most difficult thing Jesus said about love. He told us to love our enemies. This again does not tell us to approve of the words or actions of our enemy. But we can pray for God to give grace to those we fear or whose behavior we hate? We need to struggle with this one. I think you may see most clearly here that the Love the Bible calls for demands that we humble ourselves and cry out for God to work in our hearts and minds.

Love is patient.

1 Corinthians 13 says a host of things about agape love. This kind of love is patient and kind. Are you kind to people you come in contact with? Are you patient with those closest to you at work or at home?

Love does not envy or boast.

Again, 1 Corinthians 13 says the kind of love God produces in us is not self centered. With it we will not focus on ourselves. We sometimes think being humble means continually admitting how lowly we are. That attitude is just as self focused as boasting. Love is so focused on others that we seldom notice ourselves.

Love is not arrogant or rude.

Have you called political figures that you dislike or fear by bitter or mean spirited names? Do you make or laugh at jokes that would hurt or embarrass others? Pray for God to change your attitudes to His love. Those people are made in the image of God. Mocking or speaking evil of them dishonors God.

Can you see the point of view of people you do not agree with? Are you working at it? Do you pray for it? Sometimes this is the key to persuading them. Even if it does not persuade, it is right. It is what God requires. 

Love does not insist on its own way.

Love is willing to compromise. This is a foundation of our type of government. It is getting more and more difficult for this to be public policy. But we believe God can change people when we pray, when He is at work in their lives. We can allow others to be wrong on many issues that those who believe in forcing people to change cannot.

Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing or revenge.

Love does not rejoice in evil. Love knows, even when our minds cannot, that repaying wrong only increases evil in society.

Love is powerful.

1 Corinthians 13 begins with these words,

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Of course this largely speaks to our position before God. That is more serious than how effective we are in the eyes of people. But these words can also apply to our effectiveness in this world. It often seems that strong greed works better at being successful and strong hate is more effective in changing people than love. But that is only in the short term. In the long run love carries with it the power of God Himself. I want to pray for God to produce it in me, in us, even when we are overwhelmed by what is happening around us.

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SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT

 

In John 7:25 Jesus said,

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.”

I am not addressing these remarks to everyone. But some of you will allow God to lead you deeper into His holiness.

1. Holy thinking begins by discerning your own heart.

We all need to allow God to show us our hearts to discern the vulnerability and flaws hiding there. In Psalm 139 David Prayed,

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

    Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting!

What words have you spoken, what opinions have you held, or attitudes have you indulged that are false or in any way ungodly? Holiness demands repentance. The Epistle of James warns against being the kind of person who looks into a mirror and forgets what you saw without washing your face or combing your hair. This may include admitting, with a little private irony, weaknesses in your own positions. If you cannot see them, you have not examined yourself closely enough.

2. This has to include examining your desires and motives.

Do you believe something because it is right or because it is comfortable? Do you think something is right because it benefits you? Does your opinion make you popular with your friends? Holiness seeks to please God and God alone. Jesus was clear about this. In John 7 He said His teaching was not His own but His Father’s. Verse 18 says,

“Anyone who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; 

but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, 

and in him there is no falsehood.”

3. Holy thinking calls us to examine our influences.

This must go deeper than searching for excuses for people who influence your thinking. All of these things that I am listing require supernatural help. They must be bathed in and directed by prayer. One of the most difficult things here is discerning if what you read or hear or have seen in any media is right and true. This will require constant prayer and the struggle of discernment. You will have to wrestle with these things in your heart. 

Let me remind you of something emphasized in John 6 and 7. Jesus was saying he had come from heaven. Some people said he couldn’t have come from heaven. They knew his parents. Others pointed out that he came from Galilee, and the Christ was to have been born in Bethlehem. You may know scriptures that answer these and other questions. But few people listening to him had any means of answering them. Those who believed had to say, in effect, that even though they could not answer all their questions, no one could do the miracles he did if he had not come from God. Jesus gave us a promise that will help in John 7:17.

 “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will,  

he will know whether the teaching is from God

or whether I am speaking on my own authority.”

Do you long for His will?

4. We must also consider the thinking of those who disagree with us.

This actually relates to examining our influences. In this world of polarizations, it is easy to be influenced by reaction, often over reaction, to those we do not agree with. It can be godly and sometimes persuasive to search for points of agreement between you and someone with whom you disagree. Can you see their point of view? Can you find areas where you can cooperate with them?

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RIGHT JUDGMENT

 

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.”

John 7:25

I am struck by the rendition of Philippians 4:5 in the e.s.v. It reads, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” Good reasoning is a spiritual discipline. In the early centuries of Christianity the church grew rapidly partly because of our fearless compassion shown in the plagues that swept the cities of Europe and the east. Now when our world is being ripped apart with strong and dangerous delusions, I pray we may touch hearts around us with our reasonable words and lives.

Make no mistake about it. This is a matter for serious and urgent prayer. I intend to give you some biblical reasoning in relation to this subject, but any effort in this direction will require God’s people to pray as we have begun to pray for many things in our day.

1. This needs to be a matter of prayer because the need for right judgment is so serious.

Our faithfulness to God depends on our godly perspective of the world around us. Many things that we see happening can be alarming. I referred to Philippians 4. The k.j.v. renders the word translated “reasonableness” in verse 5 as “moderation.” We are living in days of intransigent extremes and hateful perspectives. We can be reasonable because the Lord is near. The passage continues, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Our witness to the world will depend on our reasonableness being known to everyone around us. This must be a matter of earnest prayer.

2. This needs to be a matter of prayer because right judgment is difficult.

The confusion around us, like many things we are seeing today, was foretold in Scripture. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 says, “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.’”

God is sending “strong delusion” as righteous wrath upon our world. We must pray lest we be swept up in these things. And like the compassion shown by the early church, which we will also need in full measure, our witness to the world must reflect wise discernment.

3. This needs to be a matter of prayer because right judgment is spiritual.

In a warning that relates to this Jesus said in Matthew 24:24,

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

Right judgement in our lives must be a matter of prayer because it is developed from a vervent relationship with Christ.

I will write more about this next week. I am praying for wisdom for you and for myself in these days.

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BUT IF YOU DO NOT FORGIVE

Most of us have been troubled at one time or another by these words of Jesus. 

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Matthew 6:14-15

This morning I heard a marvelous testimony relating to this concept. I am still stirred by what I heard, but I need to be careful not to breach a confidence in sharing it. However, I know that most of you have had similar experiences, and can understand without my giving too many details.

A lady shared this in a prayer request for someone she knew. She had given this person a Bible several years ago, but she had not read it until now. When she came to these verses in Matthew 6, she was stumped. She said, “For God to forgive me, I have to forgive the man who raped me and ruined my life. I could never do that, so I can never be forgiven by God.”

The lady who was sharing with her told us that she understood, because she too was sexually abused as a young girl. And she told about being on a retreat of sorts, where in a very emotional prayer, God gave her the ability to forgive the man.

I told her she was the right person to share with the lady who was struggling with this. She felt she needed to forgive the man, so she could enter into the grace of God. But that is something only God can do in us. We come to Him in our weakness, admitting that we cannot change our hearts. And God, who is drawing us to Himself, transforms us, doing in us what we could never do.

Forgiveness is the sort of thing we will have to struggle with until the metamorphosis that God has begun in us is complete in His presence. And every victory that we have over our unforgiving hearts must be done in us by God.

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INCONSEQUENTIAL PRAYER

Do you ever find yourself praying, maybe even urgently, about things that really don't matter very much? Interestingly enough, we find some prayers like that in the Bible. In fact, Jesus began his supernatural ministry by answering a prayer for something that really didn't matter a great deal. In the second chapter of John Jesus performed his first public miracle. He turned water into wine at a wedding feast. No one was going to starve to death if he did not perform this miracle. Some people at a wedding party might have been embarrassed that they could not afford enough refreshments for all who came. It was not a crucial time in the plans of God. When Mary told Jesus about the need, He told her the timing was bad. And yet the Gospel says that Jesus manifested His glory and His disciples believed in him by answering this little prayer. This ought to encourage us to take the everyday things in our lives to our Lord in prayer.

I think of another miracle that Jesus did early in His ministry. He told fishermen who had fished all night without catching anything, to lower their nets in the day time. And they brought up enough fish that their partners in the other boat had to help them bring them into shore. I suspect those fishermen had a hard time selling that miraculous catch of fish. They might even have glutted the market for a week or so on the Sea of Galilee. As far as I can see the only goal of Jesus was to show those who would become his disciples that He was Lord in the everyday issues of life. Faith became something practical and fearful for His disciples. Peter came to him and said, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

God uses such prayer to reveal His glory and grow our faith in Him.

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GROWING NEARER

Are you growing nearer to God in prayer?



We are familiar with John 15 that says our Lord is the vine and we are His branches. Jesus applies that wonderful picture in the verses that follow.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

John 15:7,8

This morning I prayed, “Lord, help me find the remote control.” Many of our prayers are trivial. In fact from God's perspective most of our prayers are trivial. I am reading Munich Signature as I re-read The Zion Covenant series. In the book a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany wonders how her husband could have longed to have a radio, and how she could have wept that all five of their children needed shoes at the same time. Now they wept with thanksgiving that all of them were alive and together on the deck of a rusty steamer that left Hamberg without a destination. We will someday see that most of our prayers are less important than we once thought.

Many of our prayers are actually counterproductive. We pray, “Lord take me out of this difficult situation.” or “Make my life easier.” when God has appointed us to bear witness to people there who will come to Christ, or to minister to others who are hurting there. In another series by Bodie Thoene, the author of The Zion Covenant books, a black man in a dire situation wants to pray for God to let him die. His wife reminds him that he had prayed that way before. And now he could thank God for not answering that prayer.

James 1 advises us to give thanks for tribulation because that develops steadfastness in our lives. In Romans 5 Paul says we are to allow that growth in spiritual stability to become character and hope in God that will never disappoint.

But even when our prayers are shallow and misdirected, they are prayers. And God uses them to draw us nearer and nearer to Himself. By our continual praying we abide in Jesus. Through the power of His word and the trials of life our prayers grow us nearer and make us more like Him.

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