Common Sense Prayer To Make Sense of it All

There are many things that can puzzle us in life.  Things just don’t make sense to us.  We don’t know why things are happening the way they are.  Yet, throughout the ages people have not used the common sense God gave them to figure it all out.  Isaiah 45:18 says,

“God, Creator of the heavens— he is, remember, God. Maker of earth— he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn’t go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This God says: “I am God, the one and only. I don’t just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, ‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’ I am God. I work out in the open, saying what’s right, setting things right. So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don’t seem to know much, do they— those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick? So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn’t I the one? God? It had to be me. I’m the only God there is— The only God who does things right and knows how to help. So turn to me and be helped—saved!— everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only. I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me, ‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”

In this verse we see people praying to their idols.  Their idols are blocks of wood that know nothing, do nothing and say nothing.  You can compare that to someone using cult religions, astrology, palm readers, psychologists, physicians, the internet, etc to find their answers to life’s dilemmas.  They think they can make sense of their lives and their futures through a wide variety of worldly methods.  God tells us in this scripture that God is the one that makes sense of things.  He created common sense and makes good sense.  He tells us His Word is good and promises true. He reminds us that every knee will bow before Him when it is time.  Therefore, why not start now.  Bow our knees now to Him and go to Him and make sense of our life with His knowledge, wisdom and guidance.  Get ahold of God’s common sense through prayer.

Limitless Energy

According to the X-journals, “Next year, 192 giant laser beams at the National Ignition Facility in California will target this pea-sized capsule, which contains hydrogen, in an effort to trigger the world’s first controlled nuclear fusion reaction. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)” Scientists goals with these experiments is to hopefully one day to lead to the taming of the sun’s energy and other sources like the sun to produce limitless energy.  I am always amazed at the new developments and experiments taking place in science.  It’s a wonderful thought to think that there could be limitless energy to use.  It would bring down our expenses, and probably have a whole ripple effect on the economy.  People who were previously without energy could now have energy.  Our cars could be fueled and the environment helped as a result.  It is going to take time though.  This is just the next step in the experiments.  For now we are going to have to make due with energy systems we have now.

There is good news now on the energy front though.  God has limitless energy.  Read Isaiah 40: 28 – 29.

“28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding. 29 He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless.”

There is only one way God could constantly be strengthening the powerless or helping the weary to not grow faint.  That is because He has limitless power.  Nothing will ever make His power grow dim.  No matter how many times humans may have to call on Him to regain their spiritual and physical strength, God will not run out of energy to provide them so they can revive.  What an encouragement to know our God is limitless in energy and so many other ways we could name.  So don’t be afraid to ask for help from God.  Why keep struggling along on your own God is there to help. Don’t think you will be a burden to Him.  He is limitless!

Encouragement For Those Times When You Deal With Mockers

So many Christians are going through their daily lives just trying to live good and upright lives and yet many will be attacked by those who don’t believe.  They are treated badly, ridiculed, teased, mocked and scoffed at for no real reason sometimes.  Other times the actions of a few mis-guided Christians cause the Christians who are on the right track to be bombarded because of their actions, such as in the case of those who were mistaken about the May 21st and soon to be the Oct 21st dates that they promote.  We have to learn to accept as followers of God that we will be mis-treated and mis-understood during our lives this life on Earth.  If Jesus was mis-understood and mis-treated, we will be too.  However, we can put our hope in God during those times.  We can learn from His Word that He does take care of those who mis-treat His children.  Their time of judgment is coming.  Read II Peter 3:3-7.

“3 First, be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, 4 saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” 5 They willfully ignore this: long ago the heavens and the earth existed out of water and through water by the word of God. 6 Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded by water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

In Noah’s day there were scoffers that would not listen to Noah’s message that he preached to them warning them of the judgment that was to come to those who would not obey God.  He suffered through 120 years of hard physical work building the ark while he emotionally suffered through the mocking and scoffing of those who watched him.  In the end he saw God’s judgment come to pass and the mocking ended.  He saw his faith rewarded for his persistence and endurance during the mocking times.  Joshua and Caleb were others who also had great faith and endured others lack of faith.  In Numbers chapters 13 and 14 we read about the people of Israel reaching the edge of the promised land.  Moses sends out 12 men to spy out the land and come back give a report.  Only Joshua and Caleb give a good report and show faith that God will take them in to the land.  As a result the people get to the point where they are even going to stone Joshua and Caleb.  They scoffed at them.  God suddenly intervenes and the people stop while Moses goes and hears what God says.  The end result was that the people would not enter the land.  They were judged as despising God and would have to wonder in the wilderness until they died and then their children could go in.  Only Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to cross over.  They received the promise after enduring the mocking.  The others received judgment.

As we see in II Peter, all people will receive their judgment for their mocking and scoffing.  God will keep His word to us and see us safely to eternity, despite the mocking we may have to endure.  God will punish those who despise Him.  So cling to that hope and promise.  God’s promises found in His Word will serve as encouragement for those times when you deal with mockers.

 

Instructions For Dealing With Mockers

Most of us would agree that as each day passes we are drawing closer to the end times and the Lord’s return.  Many of us feel we are in the actual last days, of course, the Apostles felt the same way.  The Apostle Peter gave lots of great advice in I Peter Chapter 3 about dealing with mockers and scoffers.  First he foretold that in the last days we would experience a rise in the number of mockers and scoffers against God and our faith.  I think most of us would agree that we are already seeing that.  When things like the May 21 fiasco happen, it pushes a rise in the number of mockers and scoffers.  In chapter 3 verses 3 -7, Peter gives us some good instructions for when we deal with these people:

“3 First, be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, 4 saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” 5 They willfully ignore this: long ago the heavens and the earth existed out of water and through water by the word of God. 6 Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded by water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

Peter reminds us that this mocking and scoffing is nothing new.  He brings to mind the story of Noah.  Noah lived in a world of evil people and God had determined to bring judgment.  He told Noah to build the Ark and warn the people.  Noah preached for 120 years and only reached his own family.  While he preached all those years and built the Ark, he dealt with the people mocking and scoffing at him.  What persistence and faith Noah had to go on through all of that.  Inside this passage Peter reminds us that we need to look to God’s Word when people mock us or our faith.  Inside God’s Word we will find stories of God’s faithfulness to us and stories that show God is not slack in keeping His promises.

So when people come against you and question your faith, remember God’s Word.  Go to God’s Word and show them through God’s Word that when God says something will happen, it will in His own timing and His own way.  These are wise instructions from Peter.  Don’t depend on your own wisdom, reasoning and logic to explain to people what God is doing.  Use God’s Word to respond to mockers.  Just as Peter used the story of Noah to remind the people that God keeps His Word.

The Breath of Praise

God gave every living thing on Earth a very important and easy instruction in Psalm 150:

“1 Hallelujah! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. 2 Praise Him for His powerful acts; praise Him for His abundant greatness. 3 Praise Him with trumpet blast; praise Him with harp and lyre. 4 Praise Him with tambourine and dance; praise Him with flute and strings. 5 Praise Him with resounding cymbals; praise Him with clashing cymbals. 6 Let everything that breathes praise the LORD. Hallelujah!”

It is interesting to think about the fact that God expects every living thing that breathes to praise Him.  He expects all the creatures on this Earth to give Him honor verbally.  The birds that sing just might be singing to God.  The wolf that howls at the moon just might be praising God.

Some times as humans we get so caught up in ourselves that we forgot to remember who God is and how big He is compared to us.  We forget how wonderful and powerful He is.  We spend a lot of time using our breath to talk about ourselves and what we have accomplished.  For the small insignificant or grandiose things we might do with our time, we love to get a pat on our back.  Now think about our Almighty God who has done such mighty and magnificent things.  Doesn’t He deserve a pat on the back?  We need to make ourselves little “i”s instead of the big “I” that we usually try to make ourselves out to be.  We need and must use our breath to praise the Lord.

Next time you hear one of God’s animal kingdom creature’s making a noise for no apparent reason with their vocal chords, stop and think about what they could possibly be doing.  They could be praising the Lord.  Stop and praise the Lord with them.  Next time you are conscious of your breathing, stop and praise the Lord.  Just stop what you are doing and praise the Lord.

Common Sense Prayer To Make Sense of it All

There are many things that can puzzle us in life.  Things just don’t make sense to us.  We don’t know why things are happening the way they are.  Yet, throughout the ages people have not used the common sense God gave them to figure it all out.  Isaiah 45:18 says,

“God, Creator of the heavens— he is, remember, God. Maker of earth— he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn’t go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This God says: “I am God, the one and only. I don’t just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, ‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’ I am God. I work out in the open, saying what’s right, setting things right. So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don’t seem to know much, do they— those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick? So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn’t I the one? God? It had to be me. I’m the only God there is— The only God who does things right and knows how to help. So turn to me and be helped—saved!— everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only. I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me, ‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”

In this verse we see people praying to their idols.  Their idols are blocks of wood that know nothing, do nothing and say nothing.  You can compare that to someone using cult religions, astrology, palm readers, psychologists, physicians, the internet, etc to find their answers to life’s dilemmas.  They think they can make sense of their lives and their futures through a wide variety of worldly methods.  God tells us in this scripture that God is the one that makes sense of things.  He created common sense and makes good sense.  He tells us His Word is good and promises true. He reminds us that every knee will bow before Him when it is time.  Therefore, why not start now.  Bow our knees now to Him and go to Him and make sense of our life with His knowledge, wisdom and guidance.  Get ahold of God’s common sense through prayer.

It’s Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature

Did you ever see one of the Chiffon Margarine commercials from the 70′s?  Mother Nature would be sitting in the middle of nature with her little animals and someone would give her the new Chiffon Margarine and she would say it was butter and they would tell her no it was margarine.  She would then get angry and flash lightening and say, “You can’t fool Mother Nature!”  Well that is very true when it comes to God.  Nature knows who God is and that He is in control.  Read Job 12: 7-25 -

^7-12 “But ask the animals what they think—let them teach you;
   let the birds tell you what’s going on.
Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics.
   Listen—the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.
Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree
   that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand—
Every living soul, yes,
   every breathing creature?
Isn’t this all just common sense,
   as common as the sense of taste?
Do you think the elderly have a corner on wisdom,
   that you have to grow old before you understand life?

 ^13-25 “True wisdom and real power belong to God;
   from him we learn how to live,
   and also what to live for.
If he tears something down, it’s down for good;
   if he locks people up, they’re locked up for good.
If he holds back the rain, there’s a drought;
   if he lets it loose, there’s a flood.
Strength and success belong to God;
   both deceived and deceiver must answer to him.
He strips experts of their vaunted credentials,
   exposes judges as witless fools.
He divests kings of their royal garments,
   then ties a rag around their waists.
He strips priests of their robes,
   and fires high officials from their jobs.
He forces trusted sages to keep silence,
   deprives elders of their good sense and wisdom.
He dumps contempt on famous people,
   disarms the strong and mighty.
He shines a spotlight into caves of darkness,
   hauls deepest darkness into the noonday sun.
He makes nations rise and then fall,
   builds up some and abandons others.
He robs world leaders of their reason,
   and sends them off into no-man’s-land.
They grope in the dark without a clue,
   lurching and staggering like drunks.”

Job is responding to his critical friends in this passage.  They think they are so wise and know all the answers to his problems.  Job tells them that common sense will tell them what the animals and nature already know.  All they have to do is to ask the animals (examine nature) and they will show that God has all the power and is in control of everything.  There are other passages in the Bible that teach us the same concept.  Nature points to God.  We can’t fool nature with all our man made wisdom.  Take a look around and you too will see God’s hand in nature and you will grow to appreciated Him even more.  You will grow to understand how much God is in control of everything in our lives.