Tag Archives: prayer

Prayer: The GOD-Required Original Persistent Irksomeness

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“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.”

Luke 11:8-10

#PersistenceInPrayer is a primary point. God is there. God is faithful. God gives access. Men ought always to pray. Prayer is a chief evidence of saving faith. When Jesus returns He will search specifically for the Intercessors. “When the Son of Man comes shall He find faith in the earth?” On any given ordinary day could you produce enough evidence to convince the Court of Heaven?

There is an irritability component of prayer which cannot be ignored, if you have prayed, you know what I mean… That is, we become irritated by the required persistence demanded in all true prayer, for we know He has said, “He knows our needs before we ask.” Ok. Remind me again WHY we are asking, dear Lord? Well one reason: “To obey is better than to sacrifice.” Because He said so. It’s good to pray. Jesus modeled prayer for us. And who can recount the 10,000 or so other reasons we ought pray? It is the chief component of ANY day regardless of where the fire is or what needs are screaming or snapping at our heels. One too cannot help but ask, “Why so many times Lord?” Why so many tines must I repeat this same needed request? But our heart cries, “I come again Lord,” on this another day.

Below enjoy another #CSLewis quote on prayer in his masterful work, “Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer”

“Well, let’s now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a crossword puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us…. Now the disquieting thing is not simply that we skimp and begrudge the duty of prayer. The really disquieting thing is it should be numbered among duties at all. For we believe that we were created ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ And if the few, the very few, minutes we now spend on intercourse with God are a burden to us rather than a delight, what then?… The painful effort which prayer involves is not proof that we are doing something we were not created to do. If we were perfected, prayer would not be a duty, it would be a delight. Someday, please God, it will be.”

Lewis captures with beautiful poignant honesty that which many of us battle with: We struggle to discover Prayer as that which morphs into a delightful duty which grants us greater satisfaction in joy by seeing our Lord (our Friend) more than receiving the request for we asked.


Sweet Hour of Prayer by Casting Crowns


A Plethora of Some Relevant Questions for a Pastor by a Visitor Interested in Bilateral Committed Church Membership

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Questions…if I might, & if you please?

 

  1. How did you come to know Christ?
  2. What have you discovered to be essential to maintain your walk with God? Contrarily what trips you up most readily?
  3. What is your besetting sin and do you find grace sufficient to overcome?
  4. Do you distinguish between personal devotion and sermon preparation? What is the difference? How do you practically guard your personal time alone with God so as to not to allow sermon prep or ministry challenges to intrude into your heart preparation of your walk before God?
  5. What role does personal holiness play in your public ministry? What makes a man holy?
  6. When you preach do you preach from your head or your heart? What is the difference?
  7. Do you consider yourself a man of prayer? What role does prayer play in your ministry, and what practical evidence do you point to that demonstrates its essential centrality to your ministry?
  8. How do you show the love of Christ to your wife and your kids? Does she generally validate your calling and affirm your witness? Would you eagerly call her as your first witness to testify of your secret life before God or cringe to think of what she might say?
  9. Do you delight to pray with your wife? How do you overcome hindered prayers?
  10. Who are your favorite authors? What books are you reading now? How many and what types of books do you read every month? What authors have most influenced your life, your marriage, your ministry and your personal walk with God? These are likely different authors.
  11. If you were marooned on an island with your Bible and one other book, which book would it be?
  12. If you picked one book besides the Bible to give to your children which book would it be?
  13. What do you think of the 9 Marks Ministry and their accountable approach to Body life and ministry?
  14. Do you believe church discipline to be a relevant Biblical doctrine for the church today? Have you ever excommunicated or participated in the excommunication of an unrepentant believer? What is at stake when the church tolerates known, public, willful, blatant, unrepentant sin?
  15. What steps would you take today to implement the recovery of a wayward saint? Do you believe Biblical discipline correctly implemented is an act of love and hopeful restoration? 
  16. What do you think of Pink and the Sovereignty of God? Of Martyn Lloyd-Jones? Of John Piper, Of Alistair Begg? Of RC Sproul? Of Walt Chantry? Of Albert N. Martin? Of John MacArthur? Calvin? Edwards? Of Spurgeon? Of Wesley and Whitfield?
  17. Do you read CSLewis, and what is your favorite book of his and why?
  18. Who is your favorite contemporary pastor and why?
  19. Who is your favorite pastor of the past and why?
  20. What are essential components of a successful sermon? What are the essential components of a successful pastor?
  21. What is your view of Confessional Christianity? Do you hold to any particular confession? Why or why not?
  22. Do you see the need or have the desire to move toward Confessional Christianity for both historical and theological stability, and for accuracy and the general safety of the body of truth?
  23. Do you catechize your children and your converts? Do you see this as helpful?
  24. Many believe in the profit of the systematic reading of the Psalms as a fundamental part of the call to worship. Do you have thoughts?
  25. If you see and believe in and value a historical Christianity why do you rarely reference the old writers such as the Puritans, and very rarely have the great hymns of the faith been sung? I speak of Wesley, Cowper, Watts, and others. (I refer primarily but not exclusively to hymns of the 1600’s through the 1800’s, not the modern “hymns” of the 1900s which generally lack depth of theology as they generally became more man-centered and needs-oriented.)
  26. Do you actively and normally participate in the weekly selection of appropriate hymnology material with thematic elements to validate and coincide with your sermon topic? Should you participate for sake of order and decency?
  27. What system do you enact to ensure that you fulfill the divine mandate to “keep watch over the souls of those entrusted to you as one who will give an account”?
  28. Do you envision ever having a loving type of shepherding oversight of members at large so that you and other staff may actually ensure how it goes with the souls of the brethren entrusted to your care? Do you see yourself as being accountable for implementation of this principle of watchful accountability?
  29. How do you define a successful ministry and how is that to be measured practically and biblically?
  30. Are you responsible to establish and maintain relationships with the membership at large or is it permissible to stay aloof from more intimate relationships with the general population? When and how do you intend to implement a closer, more aggressive relational pursuit of others?
  31. Why are you in the ministry and can you satisfy your calling by occupation of the pulpit alone or must you pour out your life into others to fulfill your calling?
  32. Have you ever preached a good sermon that gave you total satisfaction? When have you fully discharged your gospel duty? If the glory of God is the end of preaching, what part does man’s response have in the successful preaching of Christ?
  33. What role does prayer have in your life? In your ministry? In the church? When does this church pray corporately? Are we meeting a minimum or acceptable Biblical standard of prayer today?
  34. What are the central components of corporate worship?
  35. What are the ordinances of the church?
  36. When was the last Communion service at SGBC? Why are they so infrequent and is something lost in their absence? What has taken the place of Communion?
  37. How would you distinguish your calling to the ministry from another’s job? What are the inherent dangers of seeing yourself as an employee on the clock? Why is it important for you and staff to be visible at most services? With the new schedule do you intend to exercise a sort of liberty of absence?
  38. Who do you work for and how do you answer to them? Why should your intended absence be previously announced to the church at large beforehand and not to a select few?
  39. What happens when you don’t get your way or when things don’t go your way? Do you see yourself as a man under authority?
  40. When was the last time you were told “NO!” (I am not referencing a NO by your wife.) Perhaps by staff? How did you respond? What was the last occasion that you publicly confessed sin to your fellow staff members in the ministry? 
  41. What is the process whereby decisions are made in the church and how is the church body involved? Are we elder ruled, deacon ruled, elder/pastor ruled by congregational consent, or does the preaching pastor generally get what he wishes? I really don’t know and I would like to know how the practical functioning of government and decisions are fleshed out.( I have witnessed abuse by an authoritarian style of ministry in the past.)
  42. How can three separate worship services promote unity of one Body with one mind, in one voice and in one accord? Is that wise or even possible and will it not possibly result in the essential formation of three separate churches rather than one Body?
  43. What in your opinion is the greatest need of the church today? What is the greatest threat to the church? What is the greatest danger to your ministry personally? (Please don’t say these questions or one who asks them.)
  44. What steps are you taking to avoid a simplistic event-oriented Christianity that emphasizes an aesthetic or entertainment value over an encounter-participatory worship experience that actually encourages communion with and transformation by the living God? One is spectator-oriented and the other is participatory that sees God.
  45. Which of the calling requirements (Timothy/Titus) to ministry as elder/pastor causes you the most angst and why? How do you, and who honestly assists you in your ongoing evaluation of continued personal fitness for the ministry? How often do you open yourself up to scrutiny by others? The real question here is, who pastors you and your family? Do you believe a pastor needs a pastor?
  46. Statistics indicate many pastors struggle with pornography and we know it is ubiquitous. (They have solitude, access and opportunity.) How do you guard your heart/eyes, and who holds you accountable?
  47. Do you take criticism well? Would you like some constructive criticism? Do these questions anger you? That is not my intent.
  48. What part of man was affected by the Fall and to what extent? What are the implications of this corruption and curse?
  49. What role do we have in salvation by grace? How do you communicate man’s responsibility but hold to God’s sovereignty?
  50. How does a dead man of Ephesians 2 come to Christ? What are the conditions of salvation? Does the new birth precede repentance and faith, or do repentance and faith move God to grant the new birth? (This is really not the proverbial chicken/egg question and is actually very crucial in your practical methodology applied to men in the Gospel call.)
  51. How do you explain Philippians 2:12-13 to a new convert? To yourself? To me?
  52. Why do you believe and why do you preach? What will you do if all you hold dear is taken from you? Would you be content with God alone? “ He who has God and everything has no more than he who has God and nothing.” (GKC) Is this true?
  53. Do you struggle with options or with the temptation to implement an apparent viable Plan B in a secular world to find more temporal happiness or security?
  54. Describe worship in spirit and truth, and what are its signs that we have arrived or are at least that we have begun the journey off the mount or out of Jerusalem back to the Father?
  55. What is the multifaceted goal or ultimate end of your ministry at SGBC in particular?
  56. Finally: Have you read, and if not, would you and your staff purpose to read and interact over…
    Preaching and Preachers by Lloyd Jones
    Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp
    Lectures to My Students by Spurgeon
    Preaching by Keller
    Brothers, We are Not Professionals by Piper
    The Reformed Pastor by Baxter
    Power Through Prayer by EM Bounds

Remember those in Prison as though with Them… A Report of Sorts with an Appeal for Prayer 

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#CCC Ministry last PM

Charlie or C Pod

Series: Proverbs 6 on The 7 Abominations that God Hates

Topic: “Feet that Run Rapidly to Evil”

Jesus: He is the antithesis of what God hates…

Jesus is the quintessential fulfillment of the love of God and the life of God as He was and is God Personified. Jesus walked always and only in righteousness.
Of course the warning of feet entering the evil path has the previous proverb precursor of “A Heart that Devises Wicked Plans” which we discussed last week. Our feet walk toward our heart’s desire, thus the charge to keep it with diligence. Thus the need for God to overthrow our ungodly heart of stone and make us to walk with new heart in His way. He makes us to do this! (Ezekiel 36: “I will put my Spirit within you and CAUSE you to walk in My path…”)

Please #Pray for these men. I long to see Christ open their eyes and Christ to finally be formed in them. We walked through Proverbs 7, (one of the saddest chapters in the whole Bible), using the terrible example of the naive young man whose feet led him to a wild night in the bed of the harlot as she opened the door for him to enter hell. The arrow piercing into the young man’s liver (as toxins build and the body slowly poisons itself or he bleeds to death) is a most vivid and eye opening illustration of the wise Father’s counsel to His son. What a vivid warning of sin’s deadly nature. It was pointed and powerful, and the Word rocked us all back upon our heels as the Spirit moved. I feel many are near the Kingdom as interest seems heightened and some alarm over their spiritual poverty seems manifest. The Spirit is such a gentle Dove, and I long to not grieve Him. May He be pleased to appear in cloven tongues of Fire and convict of sin and righteousness and judgment to come.

Fly to Christ with those feet! Get off the path to death and destruction. Find the Way to life in the Author of life!

So pray as God prompts. It’s not some strange doctrine I preach. It is the gospel of grace that tells the love story of the Friend of sinners. He came for these guys who have been routed in life by habitual life choices of sin. Jesus sets the captive free! That’s the good news that fixes the bad news of our condition. 

Hebrews 13:3

“Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.”

“God, would You please CLOBBER that creep for me?”

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“And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies
And destroy all those who afflict my soul,

For I am Your servant.”

Psalm 143:12

  

As much as there are times when we might wish it so, Imprecatory Prayer is not like a Mafia contract killing. God is not a Killer-For-Hire. “He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” “He does not wish for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” Imprecatory prayer is maybe… just my thought… our final (but oft repeated) step toward relinquishing an untrustworthy, vexed heart and confusing circumstantial desires to a wise and holy Father who sees all and knows all and can righteously fulfill His purpose in glory indifferent to the acts of ungodly men or well-meaning saints. That would be my heart that is vexed and needs be handed over to the King once again. And again. And again.

Imprecatory prayers have multiple bases that are as varied as they are broad as they encompass the glory of God and the purpose of God in the lives of individual saints who are collectively engaged in the Body Corporate revelation of God that always touches eternity. Here in Psalm 143 we see the Psalmist essentially prays for God to clobber his enemies as he appeals to his servant relationship to God, with a reminder of his perpetual need for God’s mercy demonstrated by God acting to clear the solitary path to heaven.

Answered imprecations do not always imply immediate deliverance from or annihilation of all enemies. We are granted assurance that God does answer all prayer by His standing offer of tender mercy and tangible comforts to the seasoned warrior-saints who cry and pray. Joy is the expected Biblical norm indifferent to current impoverished circumstance or ongoing prosperity of enemies. We are to discover joy in God alone, not in the answer of deliverance; or in the non-answer. God may not purpose deliverance or a change in circumstance. That is no justification for embittered complaint. “Mumble, mumble…” Although when we mumble, we best mumble to God. I distinguish between a mumble and a grumble. (I hope that is not rationalization…)

I just read again this morning the story of Joseph’s initial revelation of his identity to his brothers as they stood before, arguably the most powerful man in the universe : “You sold me as a slave, but God actually sent me to preserve you as a remnant.“ Oops… big boo-boo. (Knees probably grew weak and a few murmured 4-lettered words likely escaped the lips as the guilty victors become humbly victimized.) Their logical understanding of these events was about as elusive to them as my understanding how my youngest son has juggled as many as 8 balls simultaneously. It’s beyond the normative of ordinary human experience. Or is it? Does not God have the capacity to animate dead dust formed into live Man by the breath of His mouth? How does dry dust hold together anyway? Ever wondered that?

Joseph likely had passed through frequent periods where his pleasure, comfort and hope were derived from reminding God of the injustice of his current imprisonment, yet he probably never anticipated an answer to this prayer by a reunion with both his brothers and father. This unlikely reunion was occasioned by Joseph being a faithful steward of God’s purpose, and his adaptation to his role as a servant with an enlarged heart to meet the need of the masses in general but his brethren in particular. Answered imprecatory prayer may lead to restored relationships. Don’t be aggravated if God lets your enemy off the hook. Didn’t He do the same for you? You better answer, “Affirmative there, Ghost Rider.”


“Run the way of His commands and He enlarges your heart.”

I suspect this is the bottom-line, glory-of-God ideal we should call up on our personal rangefinder when we fire off salvos toward heaven loaded with ammunition intent on importuning God with appeals for calamity upon adversaries. “God remove them… but I guess, save them if You must.” I know we as Christians ought be careful for we gravitate toward the natural shade under the juniper tree where we can sit around swapping fish stories with a strange bed-fellow, (who is just about drip-dried), who still speaks of being eaten alive by a monstrous fish.

God has a very large paint brush that details an answer to our prayers, and we need to be sensitive and open to the signed portrait He presents to us. As an example, consider that those beautiful rolling thunderheads rushing over the horizon toward me actually hold wind, hail, floods and potential death hidden underneath their majestic beauty. God’s destruction upon our enemies may mean that in proud prosperous arrogance they succeed today as they literally get away with murder and their life may have temporal beauty. Their hearts may be hardened with ungodly blind indifference as they blissfully enjoy temporal blessings beyond measure so that “their portion might be in this life…” All questions of right and wrong, of justice and mercy will be ultimately revealed and equitably balanced in powerful, comforting clarity granted on The Final Day. An honest current Judgment Day perspective is crucial for contentment today, and helps a struggling, afflicted believer to currently see wisdom and find joyful peace and contentment through a Psalms 73 worldview. This is our one reconciliation of the apparent incongruences that result as we pray for the restraint of God upon our enemies or the removal by God of the wicked… yet in answer they prosper as never before. “Thanks a lot God!”

Just remember, “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.”


Let’s end this in search of agreement with the Psalmist at the end of Psalm 73. 


Psalms 73:25-28 (NASB)

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;

You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;  I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,  That I may tell of all Your works. 

“And though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world!”  (Hymn)


“I have learned the secret of being content in any circumstance.”

Paul


  

Final statement and I’m sticking to it: 

Imprecatory Prayers are thoroughly Biblical and need to be routinely prayed… I suppose daily to seek deliverance from an embittered heart. God’s answer to imprecatory prayers may not always coincide with my desire, intent nor agenda and ultimately require my thanksgiving. This reality only serves to reinforce why we pray, as prayer implies a Wise Sovereign who has our times, and the times of God’s enemies… my enemies… in His hands. Prayer has both temporal and eternal application. When the Psalmist requests his “enemies to be cut off” it carries with it the consequential final outcome of being shut out of the Covenant Community. This is serious business but the reasonable and logical outcome of habitual running in darkness from Light. Pray brethren, but pray in wisdom and pray in love with Eternity in your heart and the Glory of God in your sight.
  

Priorities

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“Let me hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning;
For I trust in Thee;Teach me the way in which I should walk, For I trust in Thee.

Psalm 143

We are the better to prepare for the day than to simply resort to repentance of the day after the fact of ill-prepared failure. Accuse me of legalism if you will but why should a new creature in Christ not early hunger and thirst after His presence in preparation for the struggles against our three-fold enemy who has risen to rush toward us with designs to crush us in mortal, spiritual combat?

Spiritual disciplines affirmed by the Carpenter of Nazareth at an introductory minimum would require “rising early, departing to a lonely place and praying there.” (Mark 1:35)

The old legalist that I am… this is my only hope. God is faithful to covenant love; God is faithful to normative principles. The Father sees in secret and subsequently rewards openly those who know their God in secret. They shall do exploits in His name.

The quality of gathering with the community of believers is limited by the preparation and condition of the heart. “We cannot give that which we do not first possess.” (Lewis) The Church alone can’t fix what one hides as perverted or broken by secret sin. If the fire of love for Jesus does not burn within the inner recesses of the breast then pretense will be the garment worn in public. The perversion of doctrine and lack of power in preaching in the contemporary pulpit can often be traced back to a mere academic pursuit that sacrifices devotional purity and worship of the King in secret. “The things my hands have handled and my eyes have seen… these things I make known to you…”

And that is the glory and joy of seeing His face even in midst of sorrow and struggle which we all know and that without honest exception. He is the Friend and Savior of sinners and I am glad. Yet He does not endorse that which is not changed and requires us to die daily to His glory. 

“When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.”

Oh to Cure the Malady of Prayerful Silence

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Irony was discovered lurking at the end of Session 6 of the Prayer Conference when the pastor’s request for closing prayer was greeted with resounding silence. Uncomfortable silence. Twitch inducing silence.

Thankfully, yet sadly… the paid professional flinched first.

Why does the church struggle with prayer? Is prayerlessness the auditory evidence indicative of a larger problem hidden beneath the spiritual waters? Do we fail to pray for we are unfamiliar with our God? The guesses could become endless. Some elementary notes:

  • Prayer is work.
  • Prayer is joy.
  • Prayer is essential.
  • The Lord inclines his ear to hear our prayers.
  • Prayer is learned.

The response of silence to a given opportunity to practice what we were just taught is not unique to this church or that church. Not in my experience. Moreover the distinguishing mark of churchmanship we long for is that rare assembly become many where the men trip over themselves to seek God in public for they are much acquainted with Him in private.

“Brethren, do you pray? Do you seek God in secret?”
#AH

Preaching & Prisoners & Prayer

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When prisoners of #CCC (Caddo Correctional Center) crowded round in response to the Gospel message there was joy as God made His move at the end last evening’s chapel service. They soberly entreated prayer for felt needs and tangible fears. You see they have no hope nor help unless God acts, and they daily live in the driven reality of this constraint. That is not all bad. It can turn redemptive by Divine design.

“Dust and rust, thy life’s reward? Slay the thought! Believe thy Lord!” (A Carmichael)

Ideally this present life of imprisoned restraint could actually become the narrow neck of the funnel that rapidly propels the prisoner toward that unique avenue that opens into the flowing River of Life. Part of my role as “shade-tree” pastor-counselor is to first isolate their location and then encourage their escape out of the difficult place they live by entry into the path of possibilities filled with Gospel promises. This great escape can only be offered without promise of immediate change in circumstance and with no pretense of anything beyond God’s presence and approval in the final analysis. This is not really a “hard-sell” to the inmate if they are apprehended by the God who delights to build His new house upon the very foundation that their sin constructed. It rings with a clear, full tone of eternal truth and hope. Otherwise their life seems destined for destruction. 

Simply stated their surroundings are at work to sharpen their spiritual acuity as their visual perception becomes focused upon an ever-narrowing experience of reality. The fluff and stuff of life are gone. These disappeared into Neverland with the resounding clang of the prison doors. Four walls now encroach upon their existence. Their experience is confined to the consequential grind of old life choices come home to haunt them. We on the outside easily neglect and even stumble over that which they have come to value as true needs in their distilled, simplistic world. Our affluence becomes a distortion… an idol… of our perceived reality, and we easily miss what they learn, where they live, what they value, and why this is Truth that screams incessantly to Conscience. 

In retrospect I think the real obstacle in this opportunity of prayer is to draw their attention to prayer’s reality, not as an “abracadabra magical-method” to swish away all troubles. The goal is the challenge to unmask prayer’s mystique. The prisoner must begin to embrace prayer as quiet communion with God as an elementary exercise God affords to teach us to entrust our cares and burdens to the wise, personal, powerful God who knows our needs before we even think to ask.

So my real goal in prayer with any inmate is for us to seek God together, not to the end of audible clangs of the cell doors as they rattle and swing open; rather my prayer for them is answered if I point them to a God who is near to the broken-hearted and a God who is willing to forgive the debts of those now crushed in spirit.