The Importance of Private Prayer

Secret prayer.  This is a spiritual discipline that I need much work in, and I venture to say that most Christians would say the same.  Who of us is ready to claim in pride that we have arrived at a satisfactory level of prayer and communion with God ?   When speaking of the faithful servant and praying Christian, Thomas Brooks makes some profound statements regarding this in his book ‘The Secret Key to Heaven, the Vital Importance of Private Prayer’.   Listen to these words that fall from the pen of this Puritan writer:

“God may very well expect better and greater things from [gracious servants] than from all other servants in the world.  God may very well expect that they should do singular things for his glory, who has done such singular things for their good.  Certainly, God expects that gracious servants should be blessing him, when other servants are blaspheming him;  that they should be magnifying him when other servants are debasing him;  that they should be redeeming precious time when other servants are trifling, fooling, playing or sinning away precious time;  that they should be weeping in a corner when other servants are playing sports and making themselves merry among their jovial companions; that they should be mourning in secret when other servants are sinning in secret; and that they should be at their private devotion when other servants are sleeping and snoring.”    Can't I just hit the snooze button on the alarm just one more time?

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.  - Matthew 6:6

But...

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. - I Cor. 16:17

But...

He has risen, just as He said. - Matthew 28:6!!

For the Joy Set Before Him...

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. - Matthew 27:27-31

Persistent Prayer

“Ask and it shall be given to you…” - Matthew 7:7

Dr. John MacArthur states, “Persistent prayer is the prayer that moves mountains, because it is truly believing prayer.” So I wonder, do we keep going to God for our concerns because we don’t believe he’d answer?! Of course not. We see his track record. We see how he answers our prayers of fervency. And we run back to the well that never goes dry. MacArthur continues: “When the church is impotent, as so much of it is today, it is because so many Christians are impotent. And Christians are impotent because they are not persistent in praying for what God wants, believing he will provide it".

A.W. Tozer in ‘The Gaze of the Soul’ chapter in his classic work, The Pursuit of God says: “the man seeking mercy looks straight at the God of mercy and never takes his eyes away from Him till He grants mercy”. Wow! We need to thrust ourselves into the presence of God with the force of persistent and fervent prayer – asking, seeking, knocking – until we have experienced all the blessings he has waiting for us. But really this is not for us ultimately – we surge into the presence of God so that HE is the one that receives every bit of the glory that he so richly deserves. God’s glory should be the underlying motivating force in all that we do, including our persistent praying.

Mark

If Your Eye is Clear...

Happy New Year! May your vision for 2009 be clear. May you have single-minded devotion to Christ. May your worship and service to the Lord be pure and undistracted.

The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. - Matthew 6:22

Too Much to Ask?

A few short days ago we lavished gifts on our kids. It was a special time! Any parent should get great joy out of giving gifts to their children... especially gifts they had really wanted and asked for.
This morning as I read through a passage in the Sermon on the Mount, it struck a chord with me in relation to this gift-giving to our children on Christmas day. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!"

So, shouldn't we be spending time at the feet of the Father? Shouldn't we, with faith like a child, be asking him for those things we need? He doesn't lavish His own gifts upon us because He's a kill-joy. Quite the contrary... He takes great joy in meeting our needs. Bowing our knee to spend a few minutes to ask... is not too much to ask. Is it?

Compassion

"But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." - Matthew 9:13

Jesus had just called Matthew to "Follow Me", a tax-collector of all people. In the ensuing scene, Matthew’s fellow tax-collectors and fellow sinners are enjoying dinner with Jesus and His newest disciple. The Pharisees are of course immediately irate. "Why is Jesus eating with the despised tax-collector and sinners?", they wanted to know. This is not simple curiosity, but rather a rhetorical question revealing their ugly self-righteousness. Jesus responds with the obvious: the healthy do not need a physician but rather those who are sick.

Then comes the rebuke: "go and learn what this means". This phrase was commonly used to rebuke someone for something they should have already known. The verse Jesus is referring to is found in the Old Testament book of Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6 (For I delight in loyalty, rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings).

The Greek word in this verse for ‘compassion’ is pronounced 'eleos' and means mercy or pity. What Jesus was after here was typical in His approach to the Pharisees: He wanted them to know that tenderhearted mercy and undeserved pity toward others was to be desired over the self-righteous, judgmental, looking-down-the-nose attitude that prevailed in their hearts.

That Jesus would quote this verse from Hosea is of particular interest. Faithful Hosea was married to the adulterous Gomer. Hosea’s response is a beautiful picture of God’s faithful love for the stubborn and adulterous nation of Israel.

What response would God require of us? Go and learn what this means.