Prayer That Hits the Target

There are so many things that we pray for.  We pray for the interview to go well.  We pray just to get called for an interview, when we turn in a job application.  We pray for the neighbor’s dog to stop barking.  We pray for the money to pay the bills.  We pray for the cute boy across the room to look our way.  We pray for our teenagers to listen to us and be safe on the road.  We pray for our sick friend to be made well.  None of these prayers are bad in themselves.  There is a prayer however that is probably one of the most important prayers we could ever pray for ourselves or someone else.  It is is the type of prayer that is on target.   It is something we should earnestly and fervently seek in our lives and in our Christian brother’s and sister’s lives.  The prayer for God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding should be one of our top priorities in our prayer lives.  Paul knew this to be very important.  Read Colossians 1:9 –

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,”

No matter whether there is good or bad going on in our lives God’s Will in all wisdom will greatly benefit us.  To have spiritual understanding will help us to get through life.  The reasons why things are going the way they are going will make much more sense with knowledge of God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.  These things will help us to stay on target in our walk with the Lord.

I Can’t See Your Eyes!

I have seen some commercials for some of the modern day Poker competitions.  They show some of the various players sitting around the Poker table.  When you look at each player you notice that many of them have figured out ways to hide their eyes.  One man is wearing a baseball cap and the bill is slanted downwards over his face.  Another player is wearing sunglasses.  The woman player has long bangs.  The other player holds their cards up high in front of their face.  There is an important reason they are hiding their eyes.  That old saying, “Your eyes are the windows to your soul”, is pretty accurate.  You can tell a lot when you look in to someone’s eyes or even just watch their movement while they talk to you.  According to an Ezinearticles.com article “The Eyes Don’t Lie”, you can learn what a person might be thinking by the position of their eyes: 

• ·         Eyes in the Upper Right (1st person upper-left) – When someone moves their eyes up and right it means that they are accessing the visual part of their memory. In this person’s head they are visualizing objects, colors, movements, and other visual information that pertains to your conversation.
• ·         Eyes to the Middle Right (1st person left) – Moving the eyes directly to the right is a sign that they are accessing the auditory part of their memory. The person could be remembering a song, the sound of a voice, or a particular noise.
• ·         Eyes Down and Right (1st person down-left) – Someone that is talking to themselves or thinking about what they are about to say next will look down and to the right. Ask someone how a conversation went and they will look down and to the right.
• ·         Eyes Up and Left (1st person up-right) – Looking up and to the left allows someone to access the visual part of their imagination. This person is constructing a picture in their head. If you ask someone to imagine a green sky with red clouds they should look up and to the left.
• ·         Eyes to the Middle Left (1st person right) – A person looking directly to the left is constructing sounds in their head. They may be imagining what an unheard voice sounds like, or putting together a new melody. Ask someone to image the sound of a car horn underwater and they will likely look to the left.
• ·         Eyes Down and Left (1st person down-right) – When thinking about their feelings someone will look down and left. Often when people say “I feel…” They will glance down and left, and you can know they are actually thinking about how they feel.

Where we position our eyes is also important for our spiritual well-being.  The Apostle Paul gives us some excellent instructions about where our eyes should be focused in Hebrews 12: 1-2.

¹ Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, ² keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.

Sometimes when we are walking with the Lord we have a tendency to start looking at people around us and how they are behaving or we look at the circumstances in our life.  This can be disastrous for our walk.  We start filling our visual field and therefore, our mind, with negativity, doubts, fears and garbage.  Remember when your mom might have told you, “I can’t see your eyes!”?  Well, Jesus might be saying the same thing to you now, if you take your eyes off of Him and put them on everything but Him.  We need to follow Paul’s instructions and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.  When we do that, we will run the race He sets before us, no matter what obstacles come on to our path.

Can You Imagine?

How many books or movies when you were a kid opened up your imagination?  I use to feel like I was right there in the book.  I somehow became one or the characters or was in whatever place they were describing.  Sometimes I might imagine I had some kind of special power or ability.  Sometimes I would imagine that a series a doors were in front of me and each one could take me to some place different.  Sometimes I would imagine I could wish for whatever I wanted and it would appear.   Can you imagine how great as adults  it would be if we could do that now? As Christians, the good news is, that we do have the ability to ask for things from our Heavenly Father who loves us.  He never yells at us when we ask for something outside of His Will, instead he lovingly gives us what is best for us.  How could you not want what is best for you?  To actual receive the best answer to our question, is far better most of the time than what we could have ever asked for. Read Matthew 7:7 -8.

 ⁷ “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

As we learned in previous devotions the key is persistence.  Keep asking, seeking and knocking.  We also learned that it is 100% guaranteed that we will get an answer.  We could write the President of the U.S. and ask him a question and there is no guarantee we would even get an answer.  So that is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father will guarantee to answer us.  He will open the door when we knock.  He won’t hide out in the dark behind closed drapes and wait for us to give up and leave.  He will come to the door and open it.  He will help us find what we are looking for.  He will give to those who ask.  I find these verses very encouraging.  I can depend on God.  I know He will answer my prayers in the best possible way.  These verses encourage me to be persistent and encourage me to wait for the best answer from God.  I will remember that my requests might not be the best for me and that they are merely suggestions to God.  I will let His genius figure out what is best for me. 

Keep On Keeping On

It’s interesting to read different translations of the Bible.  Reading different translations can help you gain different perspectives or insights in to a verse.  However, you have to be careful there are translations that are inaccurate.  To really get an accurate translation and deeper insight in to the Word it is always better to go back to the Greek or Hebrew and do a word study.  Some translations are accurate, but they may only get across a concept or basic meaning.  Other translations may pull out more of the correct tense and definition of the words.  For example, take a look at the verse we looked at yesterday, Matthew 7: 7-8.

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (NIV 2011)

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (New King James)

⁷ “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (NIV 1984)

 ⁷ “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

 All four versions are basically ok, but two, NIV 2011 and New King James, give us the concept and two, NIV 1984 and Holman, give us the original intended tense.  The original Greek wording and tense deepens the instruction being taught in this verse.  We aren’t just to ask, we are to keep asking.  We aren’t just to seek/search, we are to keep seeking/searching.  We aren’t just to knock once, we are to keep knocking.  As the old saying goes, we are to “Keep on keeping on”.  Be persistent.  Be like the persistent widow in the parable in Luke 18: 1-8.

Act Like An Animal

Going to the zoo can be a fun experience.  The bigger the zoo the more animals there are to look at.  You can go to the zoo to study animal habits and see animals you have never seen in person before.  Visiting the zoo is one of the simple pleasures in life.  When you go to the zoo you tend to look for the pandas, bears, lions, giraffes, etc.  They seem like more interesting or exotic animals to watch and learn about.  Throughout history man has used animal characteristics they have learned about to describe characteristics in man.  This can be a very good visual effect.  You find it in artwork, stories, mythology and even the Bible.  Jesus many times tried to explain things to his disciples and the people with things from their everyday lives.  In Matthew 10:16 -20 Jesus uses 4 different animals (some of which you wouldn’t necessarily go to the zoo to learn from) to make some very important points to the disciples:

16 “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves. 17 Because people will hand you over to sanhedrins and flog you in their synagogues, beware of them. 18 You will even be brought before governors and kings because of Me, to bear witness to them and to the nations. 19 But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you should speak. For you will be given what to say at that hour, 20 because you are not speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you.

Jesus uses these animals to give us some very important instructions.  In this passage he tells us to “be shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves”.  You can find many places throughout history where serpents have been used to symbolize wisdom or evil.  Serpents are known for being sneaky.  You sometimes don’t even know they are there.  They are known for their slow and deliberate preparation for attack.  They are known for the speed of their attack.  They are known for the deadliness of their attack.  You can’t see their fangs until they attack.  We need to understand that those who are of the world and not a part of the Christian family will not go out of their way to make life easy for us.  They will most likely seek ways to attack.  We need to understand that they can be dangerous and can quickly and successfully attack us.  We need to know they will find ways to sneak up on us and strike when they are ready.  We need to use our knowledge about how serpents work to protect ourselves and our testimony.  Be aware that you might have a serpent sneaking up on you and waiting to attack.  Don’t let yourself walk in to traps.  Be wise.  Don’t let your testimony slip for one moment or it might be used against you.  We are also instructed to be gentle or righteous as a dove.  When you think of the two animals, you tend to think that most people would kill a serpent first and would leave the dove unharmed.  After all they are just a gentle bird and a serpent can kill you.  So if we are righteous in our actions or gentle in our actions people will be more likely to listen to us or leave us unharmed.  They will have less ammunition to attack us with.  The soft cooing of a dove will get us further than the hiss of the snake when it comes to our words.

Take time to study the four animals Jesus used in this passage to see what Jesus was trying to teach you about your walk with Him through this world.  Take His instructions serious.

Who You Gonna Call?

I think whether you have watched the movie or not you remember the theme song from Ghostbusters “Who You Gonna Call?”.  Seem to be one of those catchy sayings that everybody still is saying 27 years later.  The beginning of the song goes, “If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS. If there’s something weird and it don’t look good, Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS.”  We have something better than 3 weird Ghostbuster guys to take care of protecting us when things look strange, weird or scary in our lives.  We have Jesus.  Sometimes we seem to forget He is right there in our lives waiting to help.  We start to panic and worry and try to figure things out on our own.  God doesn’t want us independent and trying to take care of everything ourselves.  He wants us to remember who He is and call on Him.  Read Luke 8: 22-25.

22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. 24 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

The disciples entered a storm that scared them so much they began to panic and fear for their lives.  Some of them were experienced fisherman and knew what a storm could do at sea.  They probably had good reason to fear.  Can you imagine how the tax collector felt out there in the boat?  Talk about unsure territory for him.  Jesus was asleep and why shouldn’t He be.  After all He is God.  He knows about everything and has control of everything.  Nothing is a problem for Him.  Thankfully the disciples had enough belief in who Jesus was to call on Him and wake Him up and let Him know about their fears.  Maybe they shouldn’t have been afraid in the first place with Jesus in the boat, but they seem to instinctively know He was the answer to their problem.

For us we too should have enough common sense is to call on the Master when we are in the storm.  Wait for Him to take care of it.  Remember who He is and that He will protect us.  If Jesus should choose not to answer the way we would like Him to, we still shouldn’t be afraid and unhappy.  After all He is going to do what is best for us, even if it means physically dying.  What could be better than to go to Heaven anyway?  What are we afraid of?  So who you gonna call?

In the Habit of Trusting

Sometimes we can feel like everything is going wrong, or nothing is working out, or our plans and hopes will not come to pass, or our service to the Lord is not being blessed.  We may be being chased down by physical enemies or spiritual enemies in this life, but we always have God covering our back.  Unfortunately the circumstances can wear on our emotions.  Our heart becomes saddened and we might even become angry at God.  We just cannot understand what is going on.  We may even say, “Why isn’t God helping us?”

David had many bad things happen to him during his life.  When he wrote Psalm 63 he was on the run from King Saul and was hiding in the desert/wilderness.  What a difficult place to be.  He was in an ugly and uncomfortable environment.  He, his men and their families were at risk of death from Saul or lack of supplies.  They were tired and probably could have begun feeling that being faithful to God had not been worth it.  After all they could have eliminated King Saul and taken over the throne back when they were holding Saul’s own spear and were standing over him while he slept or when Saul had come in to the cave and they were hiding in the back of it.  Yet David did not raise up his hand against the King and honored God.  Read what David wrote in Psalm 63: 9-11,

“9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him shall glory; But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.”

All throughout David’s life we see an underlying theme.  David trusted in the Lord to take care of situations like he was in over and over again.  He was in the habit of trusting the Lord.  He trusted God so much that he didn’t even worry about if God took care of the person in this life or after the person had died.  Yes, as you can see by his writing, he hoped God would take care of his enemy now, but he also wrote about the person going down to the lower parts of the earth.  He knew God would be the person’s judge and would take care of it.  He knew one way or another that God will stop the mouths of the ones who lie.  He also stated, “Everyone who swears by Him shall glory.” What an interesting perspective.  Here David is in a bad situation and he knows that if he trusts in God that he shall still receive glory.  In other words, God will honor us for our faithfulness, whether it is now or in our life to come.  Our problem is that we just naturally want to receive physical blessings now or see our enemies taken care of now.  We have to accept that the physical blessings might not happen right now.  Just like when a parent knows when to reward their child for their behavior, we have to trust that God will reward us when the time is right.

It just makes common sense to be in the habit of trusting the Lord.  Remember trust the Lord no matter what is going on in your life.

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.

Prayer That Hits the Target

There are so many things that we pray for.  We pray for the interview to go well.  We pray just to get called for an interview, when we turn in a job application.  We pray for the neighbor’s dog to stop barking.  We pray for the money to pay the bills.  We pray for the cute boy across the room to look our way.  We pray for our teenagers to listen to us and be safe on the road.  We pray for our sick friend to be made well.  None of these prayers are bad in themselves.  There is a prayer however that is probably one of the most important prayers we could ever pray for ourselves or someone else.  It is is the type of prayer that is on target.   It is something we should earnestly and fervently seek in our lives and in our Christian brother’s and sister’s lives.  The prayer for God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding should be one of our top priorities in our prayer lives.  Paul knew this to be very important.  Read Colossians 1:9 –

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,”

No matter whether there is good or bad going on in our lives God’s Will in all wisdom will greatly benefit us.  To have spiritual understanding will help us to get through life.  The reasons why things are going the way they are going will make much more sense with knowledge of God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.  These things will help us to stay on target in our walk with the Lord.

The Lavishing of Love

What a wonderful set of encouragements that can be found in I John 3:1-3

 ¹ How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

First we are reminded that God lavished His love on us.  Lavish is defined as:  1. prolific, abundant, or profuse 2. generous; unstinting; liberal 3. extravagant; prodigal; wasteful.  God generously, abudantly, liberally, extravagantly loved us.  He loved us so much that we next are reminded that He even called us His children when we didn’t deserve it.  Lastly we are encouraged when we are told that we will be like Him.  How marvelous and wonderful is that.  No longer to be in this sin ridden body and lifestyle full of imperfections, but to be the perfect children of God that are like Him.  It is not just a possibility.  It is definite.  We will be like Him.  What a great set of encouragements to think on.