Prayer of Submitting to God

Because of all You have done for me, I present my body to You as a living sacrifice for this day. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, affirming that Your will for me is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

We cannot have spiritual growth apart from prayer. The key to any quality relationship is time spent in communication with each other. How much of our time is spent in the most important of all relationships - our personal relationship with our heavenly Father? May we speak to Him frequently in our prayers and listen to His voice from the inspired Scriptures. 

Attention all Pastors and Teachers!

As preachers and teachers all over the world continue to prepare the message from God's Word. May we remember that we too need to cultivate our own souls and pray and allow the Holy Spirit to internalize the message in our own hearts. The crucible matters from which the Master and message is poured. 

Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your  conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. Remember that God, and not man, must have the  glory. If the veil of the world's machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in answer to the prayers of God's children.
                                                      - Robert Murry McCheyne

 "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3)

A Poem: In Christ

I'm reading a book by C.H. Spurgeon titled: The Pastor in Prayer.  In that book was this poem that I thought I would share with you.  The Lord is working this pastor over as it relates to how little we - how little I pray.  May God through the Spirit of God continue to convict me and drive me to my knees.  May I stay there until I am no longer driven but ever present at the mercy-seat in the throne room in the New Jerusalem.

Spurgeon was familiar with this mercy-seat, he sought for heavenly guidance and found in the exercise of prayer a well-spring of joy, and the inspiration for his ministry.  Things not seen and eternal ever lay within the range of his soul’s vision, and he lived as one who had business with eternity.  I too want that and have access to it being in Christ.  Enjoy...


In Christ I feel the heart of God

Throbbing from heaven through earth:

Life stirs again within the clod:

Renewed in beauteous birth,

The soul springs up, a flower of prayer,

Breathing his breath out on the air.

In Christ I touch the hand of God,

From His pure height reached down,

By blessed ways before untrod,

To lift us to our crown;—

Victory that only perfect is

Through loving sacrifice, like His.

Holding His hand, my steadied feet

May walk the air, the seas;

On life and death His smile falls sweet,—

Lights up all mysteries:

Stranger nor exile can I be

In new worlds where He leadeth me.

Not my Christ only: He is ours;

Humanity’s close bond;

Key to its vast unopened powers,

Dream of our dreams beyond.—

What yet we shall be, none can tell;

Now are we His, and all is well.

                                                                                      - Lucy Larcom.

Prayer

Read a great quote this morning on prayer.

The principle cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to an unaccountable backwardness to pray. I can write or read or converse or hear with a ready heart; but prayer is more spiritual and inward than any of these, and the more spiritual any duty is the more my carnal heart is apt to start from it. Prayer and patience and faith are never disappointed. I have long since learned that if ever I was to be a minister faith and prayer must make me one. When I can find my heart in frame and liberty for prayer, everything else is comparitively easy.

- Richard Newton (1813-1887)

Pray, then Prayer, then finish up by Praying

Spurgeon says: "Of course the preacher is above all others distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians, else he were disqualified for the office he has undertaken. If you as ministers are not very prayerful, you are to be pitied. If you become lax in sacred devotion, not only will you need to be pitied but your people also, and the day cometh in which you shall be ashamed and confounded. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our closets. Our seasons of fasting and prayer at the Tabernacle have been high days indeed; never has heaven's gate stood wider; never have our hearts been nearer the central Glory."

Is prayer of primary concern for us who handle the Word of God? I'm finding that prayer must be entered into first and foremost and that the message is then refreshed by the breath of God. How we must labor in the Word but first we must begin in prayer, continue in prayer and to finish in prayer. 

Edward Payson was an American Congregational preacher in the early 19th century and said this in regards to prayer: "Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, pray."

I recently got together with some pastors and the conversation went to the Wednesday night prayer service. The question was asked "what do you do in your prayer service?" Of course, most there said they did all kinds of things but prayer was certainly not the emphasis and what was done most in those services. One minister said that he used it to pray. He followed that up with, however, you might as well know that you won't have a well attended service.

In my last church I was given the Wednesday night prayer service. However, I changed the name to the Mid-week service because the name certainly did not describe what we were doing at those service. Another one of my minister friends told me that they indeed pray and it's the highlight of the service. But he also told me that he struggled with the idea that his people would think that he was just coping out and too lazy to put together a sermon.

Wow. What does that say about our attitude towards prayer. What does that say about the reality that we really don't pray. We can talk the talk but when it comes down to the rubber hitting the road, we do very little work on bended knee.

For me, one of the hardest disciplines to do, is to pray. I believe it's difficult because Satan knows that it's the most needed discipline for you and I and, of course, the church. That is if we're going to be lead by the Father, and to have His mind, direction, and power in our lives.

We see all kinds of examples of this in Scripture. Jesus, the very Son of God, often got alone to be with God to pray.  "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35).  The Psalmist said: "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and and glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary" (Ps. 63:1-2).  

When was the last time you prayed? Have you prayed yet today? We are living in a dry and thirsty land and yet we forgo entering into his sanctuary - the New Jerusalem to see and spend time with our heavenly Father. To see his power and glory and to be empowered by his holiness. To be encouraged by his grace. To take a drink of the living water that only can quench our thirst and give us a greater thirst for him.

Let's pray.

My House Shall Be a House of Prayer

I have, as of late, been deeply convicted about prayer. Prayer not only for me and individuals but also for the church.  Jesus said himself, "My house shall be called a house of prayer" (Matt 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).  What exactly does that mean? 

In context we know that this was when Jesus came into the temple to cleanse it. His indignation was directed toward those who had changed the character of the temple from a place of prayer into a place of corrupt commercialism. The Temple was to be a place of worship, quiet meditation, contemplation, praise, and devotion, a place where God's people could draw close to Him in worship, sacrifice, offerings and could seek His will and blessing.

I don't think that has changed for us in the New Testament. Yet how often do we gather together and fail to worship our heavenly Father?  When was the last time you came to church and prayed without being lead by someone else?  When was the last time you came early or stayed late to pray and worship the King of kings?  When was the last time you bent your knee at an altar to pray for a lost loved one?  When was the last time you came to church and lifted up your hands in prayer and adoration to the Lord of lords?   When was the last time you came to church and you prayed for God to work in your heart and mind to see the holiness of God?  When was the last time you came and prayed that God through His Word and Spirit would speak to you? 

Most of us don't pray and we gather together, maybe not for commercialism but what about consumerism?  We come to see what we can "get" from the preacher.  Can he bless me?  Will he make me laugh, or cry or stroke my emotions?  Do they have the right kind of music?  What kind of ministries do they have for my kids?  Do they have a sports program?  How about a singing group for my little one? 

I believe with all my heart that we gather together for Him!  Our gathering together in worship is to give honor and praise to the One that is worthy of all our praise, honor and attention.  I would submit to that if we would come to worship service in an attitude of prayer and worship we would see Him and His holiness.  In seeing His holiness, we would see our sin and we would fall on our faces before Him.

The problem is we have not stood before "the throne high and lifted up" (Isa. 6:1) never "come unto Mt Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels" (Heb. 12:22).   

Nope. When we go to the Church, we are looking to get the most bang for our buck.  Prayer and praise is stifled; worship is dead.  And we'll stay for awhile or at least until we can find a better show or where we can get a little more for our money.  Oh yea, we really aren't doing that either. 

God help us to pray!  May we be known as a people on bended knee, coming frequently and reverently before our King, Master, and Lord.  

Oh, How we Need to Pray

This morning as I check my email, I find again it full of new church grown methods, plans to advance the church and enlarge our congregations. However, I never find in any of these methods, plans, and ideas the need for and dependance on the LORD. 

From my understanding of Scripture and in looking at the 1st century church, it's the LORD who advances and adds to the church.  Luke said, "...And the LORD added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47).  What I also find in this chapter is a model - a Scriptural model that should be followed as cloesely as possible in the 21st century. 

Within that model in Acts, I find that God used people.  The church today has tended to lose sight of the man God uses for His plan.  Preachers today are not so concerned about themselves as they are about what new method to adopt that will guarantee their success. 

However, E.M. Bounds states that "God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looing for better men" (Bounds, "Power Through Prayer).  God is looking throughout the whole earth to show himself strong, however these people are to have a heart for God and His glory and not their own (see 1 Chron. 16:9). 

This means that the man matters to God.  The character of the preacher matters to God.  Again, Bonds states in a very convincing and convicting matter, "It is not great talents nor great learning nor great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God - men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it" (Bonds, p12). "And every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3).

So how is our churces going to grow?  God is going to add to the church and he is going to do it through men who are active in the sanctification process, allowing the Holy Spirit of God to mold them into the image of his Son Jesus Christ.  That means I must be dependent upon Him and the best way to know if you or I are dependent upon God is how often we are on bended knee. 

Misemployment of time is injurious to the mind. In illness I have looked back with self-reproach on days spent in my study; I was wading through history and poetry and monthly journals, but I was in my study! Another man's trifling is notorious to all observers, but what am I doing? Nothing, perhaps, that has reference to the spiritual good of my congregation. Be much in retirement and prayer. Study the honor and glory of your Master."
                                       - Richard Cecil