Prayer Focus - Friends
Day 7
Pray for:
One friend that you feel close to
One friend that has become distant and you would like to be closer to
One friend from long ago
One new friend
One friend that has hurt you
One friend that has always been there for you
One friend that you have lost touch with and have no idea where they are
Pray about:
Their physical needs
Their mental needs
Their emotional needs
Their spiritual needs
Dear Lord - Please open my ears to hear and grant me the strength to obey.
Psalms 51
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions." (vs. 1)
"Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge." (vs. 4)
"Surely You desire truth in the inner parts; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." (vs. 6 - 7)
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." (vs. 10 - 12)
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." (vs. 16 - 17)
In Your good pleasure make Zion prosper; Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight You; (vs. 18 -19a)
True religion is something totally different than what most of us think. Often we think of going to church and a bunch of dos and don'ts. Definitely there are things that should and shouldn't be done but it all seems to boil down to love. What is the greatest commandment? Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22:37-39). This is what Jesus said summed it all up - Love.
God is love. Do we remember this?
I think we forget. We think - God is a taskmaster. God is far away. God does not care. God is not fair. God is mean. God hates. God just wants me to obey. But is this really true? Does God want our sacrifices? Will our hard work save us? Can we ever be good enough?
The answer to all these types of questions are no. No, no, no. God is love. God wants truth. God wants integrity. God wants us to come back and say, "Thank You. Do not cast me away from You." God wants us broken and contrite. Ready to be something different. Ready to turn away from all the secrets within us. Bottom line, God wants us to be with Him and He knows what that will take.
I think when we look deep into ourselves, we know this as well. There is an aching part in us that just wants to be known, loved, and changed. I think we long for transformation. We long to be clean - to be free from what ever it is that is binding us and keeping us from life.
But even though we know this, there is a barrier to us reaching the healing we seek. I believe this barrier is sin. Sometimes we think we are so clever. We do things we know are wrong and think it will never be found out. We think no one can really see what is going on within us. Well, that is not really true is it? God sees everything. God already knows, and sooner or later everyone else usually finds out too.
When I was a child, I used to think it would be a great parenting tool to have cameras in every room so that a parent could see what was going on at all times. Now of course, that is possible now but it wasn't back in the 70's. I was grateful back then that nothing like that existed because I did a lot of things in secret that I didn't what anyone seeing. It was quite a revelation to me when I finally realized that God saw everything and that He had seen every single thing I had ever done in secret. I was quite ashamed and embarrassed.
So in order to be transformed and healed, and since all the things we have done have been seen anyway, we need to deal with them. We need to seek repentance. We have to get these secrets out into the open and get help. We need to stop doing wrong and start doing right. That is what I had to do.
I had to come to grips with the fact that God wanted me. He wants us, all of us, and He wants us to be true believers. He wants our hearts, not just our outward acquiescence. But I didn't know how to get from where I was to where I needed to be? This is where Psalm 51 is essential. It is the cry for forgiveness and restoration that we all need to cry.
When I was finally trying to get my life right with God, I had a mentor who was working with me in my life. He knew just about everything about me and he gave me a key assignment. He challenged me to memorize this Psalm and repeat it as often as I could. He felt that when I could truly pray this Psalm from my heart, then I would probably be ready to become a Christian.
I would finally be ready to become a Christian, because I would finally be ready to deal with the sin in my life. My heart would be ready to change because it would have released the things that were at that time controlling it. Sin hardens us. Sin hardens and breaks us. This world is broken. I was broken. Sin breaks our communion with God, others, and even ourselves. It cuts us off from our heart and it sears our consciences. It destroys whatever good is in us and it destroys the good in this world. We can not be close to God and be in sin as well. It is impossible.
I was so hard at this point in my life from all the sin I had indulged in that I needed a transformation. I needed a new heart, and new spirit. I needed to come to God on His terms, not mine.
I took my friend's challenge and eventually I had a breakthrough. God did have mercy on me. He did restore to me the joy of my salvation and renew a steadfast spirit within me. God was faithful and created a pure heart within me. I had not been pure in a long time but now I was and I could be completely different. Instead of being religious, I could be righteous - right with God. I could have integrity. I could have truth. I could walk without fear of what I was hiding.
God was and is faithful. Thirty some years later, I am still walking this walk and striving to keep this prayer and all of God's word in my heart so that I will not sin against Him.
I praise God that He did restore and in His timing, He did make me prosper. He has given me so much and I would never have known all the good He had in store if I had not been willing to get on my knees and pray.
Prayer for the Day
Dear Lord,
Have mercy on us we pray. Forgive us our sins. Cleanse us. Only You can do this. We thank You for forgiving us. We thank You for Your mercy and grace. We thank you for even caring at all. We know that we are completely unworthy. Please grant us a willing spirit to sustain us. Grant us joy as well so that we may live and be the examples that You deserve. We know that in Your good pleasure, You can make us prosper. We look forward to that day.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen
QFT
1. What do I think God really wants from me? Why? Do I have a correct perspective of God? Why or why not? How can I get a more accurate view?
2. Do I realize how much I sin against God? Am I turning to Him for forgiveness? Do I realize that when I sin against others, I am sinning against God? Does this help me to stop sinning or could this help me? How can I remind myself of this fact?
3. Do I feel burdened by past sins? Have I been forgiven? How do I know? Do I need to discuss anything with another person to help deal with a habitual sin?
4. What does repentance mean to me? What do I do when I have done something wrong? How do I deal with it? Is this the best thing to do or could I do something differently?
5. Am I turning to God for a pure heart, a steadfast spirit, a willing spirit, and a joyful heart? Which of these is the hardest for me to maintain?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment