Today’s reading is Romans 11:1-12:21.

“Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 11:18).

Wow! That hit me where it hurts.

I’ve caught myself recently trying to barter with God. “God please do such and such so I will be better able to do such and such for You.” Now, I certainly think this is a valid approach to prayer when done from the proper motivation. Clearly, the psalmists prayed for God’s deliverance from death that they might continue to praise God among the living.

However, it is too easy for me to get into barter mode while trying to get the semantics to sound like the prayer is about God instead of me. I need to remember that God is the one supporting me and not vice versa. I need Him. He doesn’t need whatever it is I’m trying to offer Him. There is no room for manipulative ploys in praying.

Today, I’m going to check my motives in my praying. Am I asking because I want to better glorify God or because I want what I want and I’m hoping to make it sound like it’s about Him? That’s the question.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Luke 21:1-22:71.

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

For me, this should be the model prayer. I know I need to pray for my daily bread and for forgiveness, but at the heart of everything I do, I need this prayer. “Not my will but Yours be done.” I need a daily reminder that today is about God and not about me. A friend once shared a prayer he prays with me, “Lord, let me know your will for today and grant me the strength to do it.”

That’s really all I need for today. I need simply to do the next right thing. What does God want me to do next and may I surrender to God’s strength and power to accomplish it.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Luke 1:1-2:52.

“But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John’” (Luke 1:13).

How long has it been since Zechariah actually offered that prayer? Clearly, by his response, he didn’t think having children was possible at his age. He thought God had simply said, “No” and let it go at that. But now, in God’s good time, in the time that could most glorify God, He granted Zechariah’s request.

I’m so happy to read this today. I may think God is saying, “No,” when really He is simply saying, “In My time, not yours.” I have to learn to trust God’s judgment because He can see all ends and what will most glorify Him. Of course, what that means is today, I have to be more concerned about what will glorify Him in the long run than what I want in the moment.

I just hope I don’t have to be struck mute for 9 months to learn to trust God and His timing.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Philippians 3:1-4:23.

I’m glad to read Philippians 3:7-11 today. It reminds me of what is most important for me today. It is not most important that I make money today or that I sell any books today. It is not most important that I rub elbows with some important person today. It is not most important that I pass on some great knowledge and education to my children today. It is not most important that I solve some great problem facing our world. What is most important is that I get to know Jesus just a little bit better today. If that means I have to give up something else, then so be it. 

Only by knowing Jesus will I attain the resurrection and have my lowly body transformed to be like his glorious body. 

I think I’ll go spend a little bit more time reading His word and praying. Perhaps I should spend some time with His other brethren. I will probably also take some time to do some meditating on what I learn of Him through the word. All of these things can help me know Him better and draw me closer to Him. That is what is most important today. Maybe God will use me to do some other things today as well, but most importantly, I need to know Jesus.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Acts 1:1-2:47.

I wonder what the disciples must have been feeling between the time Jesus departed and the Spirit came. I imagine there was expectation, mingled with anxiety. There was the daily feeling of joy that today might be the day and the daily feeling of disappointment when it wasn’t. I imagine there was fear that they might be found out by the authorities who killed Jesus before the Spirit came. There was the excitement that they were about to be part of something new.  There was confusion because nothing had gone the way they expected and they still weren’t sure what was coming. There was the fear that they might not be up to the challenge.

How did they handle all of this? Acts 1:14 shows how. “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer…”

Two things are found in this passage.

1) With one accord: That is they didn’t try to face all this alone. They didn’t even make any falsely noble spiritual claims that they could face it alone with God. They seemed to understand that relying on God meant relying on each other. They were spending their time with each other.

2) Devoted to prayer: While spending time with each other, they were spending time with God. They walked in His presence. This is not merely offering up prayers prior to meals and as any of their “services” or “meetings” got started. This was a repeated, continual practice of praying. I’m sure it doesn’t mean they were in a prayer meeting 24 hours per day. But it does mean they took what they were feeling, whatever it was at the moment, to God. It does mean they took what they were thinking to God. It does mean they took their fears, their anxieties, their confusions, their joys, their expectations to God. They glorified Him. They petitioned Him. They confessed to Him. They were devoted to praying.

I need to do the same today. We live in crazy times. Not to mention, life can simply be hectic and personally crazy. Confusion, fear, expectation, joy, anxiety, stress, peace: emotions can run like roller coasters. If we stay with ourselves trying to handle these things, we’ll never make it. We need to spend time with each other and be devoted to prayer. God will be with us and carry us through.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Acts 11:1-12:25.

I’ve heard many people repudiate the Christians who were praying at Mary the mother of John Mark’s house for not having faith in God to answer their prayers. When they heard Rhoda’s report that Peter stood at the gate, they didn’t believe her. They said it must be his angel instead. I simply want to share two ideas here that are a little different from the norm. You can let me know what you think.

1). I try to give these people who were praying into the middle of the night a little more credit. I’ve usually found that people who don’t have faith in God to grant their prayers, don’t pray very much. I’m not so sure that they were praying but not expecting God to do anything. Rather, I think they were praying but weren’t expecting God to work in this way. They were expecting God to work in some way that Herod changed his mind and just let Peter go. They weren’t expecting God to send an angel to miraculously release Peter in the middle of the night. Therefore they were surprised.

What I learn from this is not to put God in a box. God can work however God wants. Usually, when I’m praying for something, I not only have the end result in mind but a method as well. I need to let God know my desires and leave the methods up to Him. He will not always do what I expect.

2). This is just kind of a side note. But in the past, when I’ve thought about the statement “It is his angel” in Acts 12:15, I’ve thought the people meant Peter must be dead and now is coming as an angel. Of course, there is no indication that dead saints become angels. So this would be their misunderstanding. However, what about this possibility. Since a spiritual being like an angel wouldn’t be kept outside by a locked gate, perhaps the Christians meant something entirely different. 

Remember that the word translated “angel” means messenger. Is it possible that what these folks meant was not that Peter was dead and coming to them as a spiritual being, but rather that he had sent a messenger to them. Tell me what you think about this possibility.

***Question: What are some things God has done that were unexpected to you?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Luke 21:1-22:71. 

We read Jesus’ most famous prayer in Luke 22:42. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”

We know from Matthew’s account that Jesus prayed this prayer for about an hour and then did so again two more times. The writers have whittled down the prayer to its main thrust and given it to us in encapsulated form, however, this brief description of the pray packs a punch.

In fact, it provides the key to having God say, “Yes” to all our prayers.

Sadly, some who have been attracted to this post by the title, aren’t going to like what they read. Too many people view prayer as the means to bend God to our will. They think prayer is treating God like a vending machine. Drop in a couple prayers and out pops our order. It is just not like that.

Prayer is actually about bending us to God’s will. If we want God to answer, “Yes,” to our prayers, we need to align our will with His. As we become more like Him, our wants and wishes will be more in line with His and He will grant our requests. Of course, there are those issues where we don’t know God’s specific will. That is where Jesus’ prayer is such a blessing. We can lay out our desires before God, but show our submission by pointing out that more than our will, we want God’s will. We know we are finite and do not see all the sides of every issue. We know God is wiser and will do what is right if we will only surrender to Him. 

We can pray as Jesus does, “Here is what I want, Father. But more than what I want, I want whatever it is that You want.” God will always say, “Yes,” to that and at that point, prayer will truly have worked its power in our lives–not because we got what we prayed for, but because we allowed prayer to make us more like God.

***Question: What do you do to help keep your prayer life on track?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Revelation 5:1-6:17.

In Revelation 6:9-11, the souls of martyred saints are seen beneath the altar of God. They want to know when God is going to take vengeance. They, no doubt, remember that God said, “Vengeance is mine.” They wonder when it will happen. God’s answer was, “Wait.” 

I struggle with that answer. Usually, if I pray and something doesn’t happen immediately, I think He just said, “No!” I need to learn patience. I need to learn that God’s timetable is not my timetable.

However, there is a deeper part of this “Wait.” God not only told them to wait, but during that period of waiting, some pretty dreadful things were going to happen. In fact, God was waiting until the dreadful things happened. He wasn’t going to take vengeance until more Christians died at the hands of their persecutors. 

This, of course, leads us into the questions about suffering and God. We have a tendency to think that if a loving God existed no one would suffer, especially not His followers. However, what we learn is life is not about our pleasure. Rather, God in His time is going to do what is best for us and what glorifies Him the most. Sadly, we have bought into the the temporal, materialistic, worldly mentality that what is best for us is a long life. That is only true if there is no resurrection. Once we accept the resurrection, we recognize there are better things than a long life. A resurrection that provides eternal joy and contentment tops that list. But that list may also include a death that glorifies God. 

I’m not saying we should go about seeking martyrdom in some sort of masochistic spirituality. I’m simply saying if that happens, it is not as bad as the world thinks it is. As Paul said in Philippians 1:19-26, death means to go be with Christ. What could be better than that when the time comes?

I have to learn, sometimes God says, “Wait.” Sometimes that means waiting through some very difficult trials. However, God will always do what is best. I need to trust Him.

Keep the faith and pass the word along,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Matthew 21:1-22:46. 

Perhaps because I’m getting to preach my prayer series again this week, the prayer passage jumped out at me. Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matthew 21:21-22).

This sounds like a pretty blank check as long as we believe enough. Some have taken this passage and acted as if I could pray for God to give me a million dollars and if I believed enough, He would do it. They make these promises on television, usually coupled with a plea for a seed of faith. That seed of faith is, of course, we send them some money to show that we really believe God is going to bless us. This, however, is not what the passage teaches. In fact, this demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of biblical faith.

The passage does say, if we have faith, we’ll get whatever we ask. However, what is this faith in the biblical context. According to Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Biblical faith is not just a personal conviction that something is a certain way or that something will happen. Biblical faith is a conviction that something is so based on the evidence of God’s word. Therefore, if I, based on God’s word can believe He really is going to give me a million dollars, then I can pray for that in faith and will get it. However, understand this, the faith is going to have to be built on something more than just I want it really badly.

Consider a great example of this kind of faith demonstrated through prayer.

In James 5:17-18, we read about Elijah who prayed fervently and the rain stopped and then prayed again fervently and the rain began again. Clearly here was a man who prayed in faith and God acted on his behalf. But from where did this faith come? Did Elijah just think it was a good idea to stop the rain? Absolutely not. Look at Deuteronomy 11:16-17.

Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will e kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.

Elijah had faith about the rain stopping because God had promised if the people went into idolatry, that is exactly what He would do. We can have this kind of absolutely certain faith in regard to our prayers only when we can base that faith on God’s word.

Now, please don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying we can only pray when we have that kind of certain faith. Consider Jesus’ prayer in the garden in Matthew 26:39. Consider Paul’s prayer in II Corinthians 12:8. Consider Paul’s prayer in Romans 10:1. These are all prayers offered expressing the desire of the prayer. God said, “No,” to each one. (Although, with Jesus’ prayer we do need to notice His greater point was that God’s will be done above His own. God did say, “Yes,” to that.) My point is God is not saying everything we ever pray for if we believe enough that God is going to do it, He is now forced to do so. Rather, when our prayer is backed by the full faith and credit of God’s word, we can have absolute assurance and certainty that God will do it. Of course, He only will, when we have that assurance. This, of course, is when I most often pray, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”

What is the final take away? Have assurance from God’s word. When we are praying for God’s will we can have the absolute faith that God will grant our request. We can pray for other things and God may grant or deny those requests for various reasons. 

Hope this was helpful.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get from today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Matthew 7:1-8:34.

I am struck by Matthew 7:11. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?”

It doesn’t say, “How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who want them?”

It doesn’t say, “How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who need them?”

It says, “How much more will you Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?”

How many of God’s blessings do we miss out on because we simply did not ask? Don’t worry, I understand God may say no to our requests. Asking God is not a blank check. However, I also understand God wants to bless us. He wants to give us good gifts. How many of them do we miss simply because we did not ask?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?