"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
1 John 4:7-11
I was praying last night and asking God how can I be more like Him, how can I obey Him, and these verses sprouted to mind.
I then asked God how can I love others more? I asked Him to show me a practical way of loving others more, an instruction of His that I can follow.
And the words pray earnestly for others came to mind.
By the amazing hand of God, the chunk I was reading from Desiring God was on prayer. The two parts that spoke very loudly in my heart were
1. Prayer as a pursuit of God's glory
2. Praying like an adulteress
For the first part, it was written that without Christ, we are capable of no good (John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.")
And in aforementioned verse, it also shows that God intends for us to good - bear fruit.
It is written in Desiring God:
"How then do we glorify Him? Jesus gives the answer in John 15:7: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." We pray! We ask God to do for us through Christ what we cannot do for ourselves - bear fruit. Verse 8 gives the result: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit."
So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy."
This first bit really opened my eyes as to how important prayer is, especially prayer made in love and humility.
I admit, I've been slipping into a life of indifferent complacency, and not allowing God to bear the fruit which glorifies Him!
He's been really good to me, and for that I am so thankful.
But what is better than to let this love that God has showered in my life overflow and stream into the lives of others by work of the Holy Spirit?
And when God placed the burden in my heart to pray earnestly for others, it reminded me of my selfishness and my lack of humility and love to let Him bear the fruit in my life and lives of others.
Which then brings me to the second bit of in Desiring God which touched my heart: Praying like an adulteress.
"So there is a kind of praying that is wrong because it makes a cuckold out of God (see James 4:3-5). We use our Husband's generosity to hire prostitues for private pleasures. These are startling words. James calls us "adulterous people" if we pray like this.
He pictures the church as the wife of God. God has made us for Himself and has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Therefore it is adultery when we try to be "friends" with the world. If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows. And, what's worse, when we go to our heavenly Husband and actually pray for the resources with which to commit adultery with the world, it is a very wicked thing. It is as though we would ask our husband for money to hire male prostitutes to provide the pleasure we don't find in Him!"
Truthfully, I never saw it that way and when I read this, my eyes and heart were open with horror and shame!
Prayer is a response to God, and this made me think, am I responding to what God wants me to pray for, or am I merely praying self-centred prayers that do not align themselves with God?
When we give ourselves to God, we give ourselves to love.
Thus, the only manifestation of love in this process is that love from God streams into our lives and overflows into the life of others.
And to pray earnestly for others is God's way of teaching me to set aside earthly pleasures, and to allow Him to expand my heart to receive the love He has shown me and learn to love others; because He has said not only just to pray, but to pray earnestly for other people.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
1 John 4:7-11
I was praying last night and asking God how can I be more like Him, how can I obey Him, and these verses sprouted to mind.
I then asked God how can I love others more? I asked Him to show me a practical way of loving others more, an instruction of His that I can follow.
And the words pray earnestly for others came to mind.
By the amazing hand of God, the chunk I was reading from Desiring God was on prayer. The two parts that spoke very loudly in my heart were
1. Prayer as a pursuit of God's glory
2. Praying like an adulteress
For the first part, it was written that without Christ, we are capable of no good (John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.")
And in aforementioned verse, it also shows that God intends for us to good - bear fruit.
It is written in Desiring God:
"How then do we glorify Him? Jesus gives the answer in John 15:7: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." We pray! We ask God to do for us through Christ what we cannot do for ourselves - bear fruit. Verse 8 gives the result: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit."
So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy."
This first bit really opened my eyes as to how important prayer is, especially prayer made in love and humility.
I admit, I've been slipping into a life of indifferent complacency, and not allowing God to bear the fruit which glorifies Him!
He's been really good to me, and for that I am so thankful.
But what is better than to let this love that God has showered in my life overflow and stream into the lives of others by work of the Holy Spirit?
And when God placed the burden in my heart to pray earnestly for others, it reminded me of my selfishness and my lack of humility and love to let Him bear the fruit in my life and lives of others.
Which then brings me to the second bit of in Desiring God which touched my heart: Praying like an adulteress.
"So there is a kind of praying that is wrong because it makes a cuckold out of God (see James 4:3-5). We use our Husband's generosity to hire prostitues for private pleasures. These are startling words. James calls us "adulterous people" if we pray like this.
He pictures the church as the wife of God. God has made us for Himself and has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Therefore it is adultery when we try to be "friends" with the world. If we seek from the world the pleasures we should seek in God, we are unfaithful to our marriage vows. And, what's worse, when we go to our heavenly Husband and actually pray for the resources with which to commit adultery with the world, it is a very wicked thing. It is as though we would ask our husband for money to hire male prostitutes to provide the pleasure we don't find in Him!"
Truthfully, I never saw it that way and when I read this, my eyes and heart were open with horror and shame!
Prayer is a response to God, and this made me think, am I responding to what God wants me to pray for, or am I merely praying self-centred prayers that do not align themselves with God?
When we give ourselves to God, we give ourselves to love.
Thus, the only manifestation of love in this process is that love from God streams into our lives and overflows into the life of others.
And to pray earnestly for others is God's way of teaching me to set aside earthly pleasures, and to allow Him to expand my heart to receive the love He has shown me and learn to love others; because He has said not only just to pray, but to pray earnestly for other people.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home