Pray. Really—Pray!

ALL – Psalm 70:1-5
ALL – Proverbs 24:8
OT – Isaiah 54:1-57:14
NT – Ephesians 6:1-24

Interesting passage for the day: Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes. Plead with him, reminding him of your needs, and keep praying earnestly for all Christians everywhere. – Ephesians 5:4, The Living Bible

Thought: Prayer is harder for me, in some ways, than Bible study. When I’m studying the Bible, I always know exactly where my reading for the day is supposed to begin and end. If I have a question, I do some research until I think I have the answer. I can consult with “experts.” Even if I’m not sure exactly what’s right, I can at least get to the point where I have a lot better an understanding of all the perspectives I should be thinking through.

But with prayer, it’s a lot harder to feel like I’ve made progress. Sometimes I struggle to come up with words to say. When I do, I might be stumbling over myself. Even if I set a goal of praying for a certain number of minutes, I find that I struggle to fill them all with actual prayer. My mind gets distracted. The time goes by, and I’ve managed a sentence of prayer.

Perhaps that’s because I often don’t bring God my needs, but my wishes. I don’t take time to confess my true heart to God. I ask God to help me finish up the day’s business, but my prayer time is distracted time because my mind is so worked up about getting back to the day’s business.

Instead of just asking God to help me with my tasks, perhaps I need to pray more about Him changing the way my heart rebels against doing some of them. Instead of merely asking God to help my kids learn to be quiet (for once!), perhaps I need to pray more about Him teaching me patience, about Him leading me in being a good father to them, and about Him getting their full attention so that they grow in understanding that sometimes their volume bothers other people. Instead of praying just to pray, perhaps I should be praying so that I get to know my heavenly Father better and so that He changes my heart, my behaviors, my thinking, my speech—me. And as I get to know my own needs better—my need to be more like Jesus, not just my need to have a good day—perhaps my prayers for others will be deeper and more intentional and focused, too.

Father, help me to pray to You sincerely, exposing and confessing my deepest daily needs. Help me to see my need for a heart that grows steadily more Christlike. Help me to recognize that I’m not the most patient man in the world, and to pray about it. Help me to understand that getting my tasks done doesn’t mean that I’m a success in Your book, and to pray about it. Teach me to pray in a way that honors You, that really seeks You and finds You, that taps into my real needs and weaknesses and comes to You for my every provision and strength.

Question: Do you struggle with prayer sometimes, too? What helps you to turn to God for an extended time of honest prayer?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Dirty

ALL – Psalm 69:15-36
ALL – Proverbs 24:6-7
OT – Isaiah 51:1-53:12
NT – Ephesians 5:1-33

Interesting passage for the day: Dirty stories, foul talk and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, remind each other of God’s goodness and be thankful. – Ephesians 5:4, The Living Bible

Thought: I take a pretty strong stand against Christians using swear words. And some people close to me have challenged me on it, asking me whether swear words are inherently any worse than what I consider to be less offensive words—words that I use in pretty much the same way.

And you know what? In some ways, my friends are right. They’re right that when I use “cleaner language” to express my own unclean thoughts, I’m still sinning. I may be less offensive to other people, but my heart still has major problems.

So is that a justification for swearing?

I don’t think so.

I think that both my friends and I are called to clean up our act, and zealously. Here’s a theological truth that anyone can understand: God is GOOD. Seriously good. And we’re His children. Would He share our language—whether the less-filtered language my friends don’t mind or the cleaned up versions I use? Would God appreciate our dirty stories or foul jokes?

God is good. And we are His. We aren’t missing out on anything by giving up our dirty stories and foul language. We should be thankful that such a wonderful God is willing to associate with us, rather than upset that being associated with Him means saying no to our filthy hearts.

Question: How comfortable are you with your personal degree of impurity? What have you learned about putting off unclean thoughts and words and putting on purity? What’s your role? How does the Gospel fit into this discussion?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Not Just Forgiven: Welcome

ALL – Psalm 68:1-18
ALL – Proverbs 24:1-2
OT – Isaiah 43:14-45:10
NT – Ephesians 3:1-21

Interesting passage for the day: Now we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in him. – Galatians 3:12, The Living Bible

Thought: Have you ever done something so bad that the person you offended or hurt couldn’t forgive you?

Let’s not debate the word “couldn’t”. I’m not trying to get into the question of whether they actually could but wouldn’t, or whatever. I’m just asking whether you’ve ever had the experience of being unforgiven and totally shunned. Or perhaps you are the one who hasn’t forgiven someone. The reality is that some of our relationships can be totally destroyed because we can miss the mark so badly in what we do that we offend people in ways they can’t overlook. Ever.

Enter God. In contrast to even the best of men, He is holy and righteous and good. We sometimes give in to temptation; when Jesus walked the earth with us, He never gave in. We sometimes laugh at our sins; Jesus cried over the sins He encountered. When we get worn out, we stop aiming for what’s good; when Jesus was overwhelmed, He persevered. We may despise those who commit certain sins and crimes, but we know what it’s like to sin when we’re in a tough spot; in the toughest of spots, Jesus never sinned.

So if anyone should be able to forgive, just based on common experience, you’d think we could forgive one another. Our sins are not all the same, but we’ve all sinned. But do we forgive one another and welcome one another back into our embrace? Often, no. Instead, the God who hates sin and has never given in to its temptations for one moment, who has no desire to sin or understanding of a desire to sin (even though He understands what makes temptations so hard, having gone through them), the God who has spent eternity doing good and not evil—HE is the one who forgives! And He forgives so completely that “we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in him.”

Question: Have you received the forgiveness and welcome of God? What keeps you from knowing the reality of this amazing mercy? What convinces you that God’s welcome for you is actually available?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Belonging in Heaven

ALL – Psalm 67:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 23:29-35
OT – Isaiah 41:17-43:13
NT – Ephesians 2:1-22

Interesting passage for the day: Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian. – Galatians 2:19, The Living Bible

Thought: It’s nice to belong. No, it’s amazing to belong.

Everyone’s been an outsider at some point. Being an outsider is just…awkward. Perhaps you spend some time living in someone else’s house. You’re used to having chores at home, but in their house you feel like you have no role at all and you’re useless. Maybe you’re visiting a new church and you discover that they have some sort of “understood” pattern for when to stand and when to sit—but they don’t communicate it verbally, so you’re constantly finding yourself in the wrong position. Or perhaps you’re not into sports and someone takes you to a basketball game. You’re barely interested but you feel stupid knowing nothing, and you can’t even begin to follow what’s going on.

It’s that first-ever day of school feeling. “Will I ever really belong here?”

When we first get to know God’s people, everything’s new and foreign. They open up the Bible and tell us strange things. We realize we don’t belong. But we want to belong. We recognize the truth, the grace, the love, the righteousness. We want to know Jesus.

And then we give our lives to Jesus—we submit to Him, confess how awful we’ve been, ask for forgiveness and receive it. He welcomes us into His family, takes us by the hand and walks us up to the throne of His Father—now ours. And the heavenly Father says, “You belong in my household with every other Christian.”

We who trust in Jesus Christ are no longer strangers. We belong in God’s house. We belong.

Question: Do you still feel like an outsider, or have you realized in your heart that you belong with God? What is keeping you from being at rest in Jesus’ family?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Holy Agent of Change

ALL – Psalm 66:1-20
ALL – Proverbs 23:26-28
OT – Isaiah 39:1-41:16
NT – Ephesians 1:1-23

Interesting passage for the day: And because of what Christ did, all you others too, who heard the Good News about how to be saved, and trusted Christ, were marked as belonging to Christ by the Holy Spirit, who long ago had been promised to all of us Christians. – Galatians 1:13, The Living Bible

Thought: How thankful are you for the Holy Spirit? Do you realize that He has been given to us because of Jesus Christ? Peter tells us in Acts 2 that Jesus “poured out” the Holy Spirit on His disciples, and the Holy Spirit has been given to all believers since then. Romans tells us that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit marks those who have faith in Jesus Christ. His fruit is grown in our lives. He lifts our eyes to Jesus when we would otherwise get distracted or discouraged. He speaks to our conscience and encourages us toward what is best. He brings the newness of Christ’s life to dwell in our souls, and He navigates the new creatures we are safely through this world’s challenges to dwell in our heavenly home.

Question: Are you working with Christ’s Spirit or against Him? What difference do you think that His presence in our lives should make?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.