Sometimes I am at a complete loss for what to pray. The cool thing is the Bible is a rich well, full of examples of prayers to God. Here is a great prayer from the Psalms dealing with sin:
Psalm 19:12–14 (ESV)
12Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
So when you get stuck or you feel stale in your prayer life, spend some time reading the Word and incorporate it into your communication with the Father. Pray the Word!
Father, thank you for another day. Thank you for your Word and the opportunity to worship you and commune with you in prayer. Remind us of your love for us and of the adoption we have into your family through your Son. Thank you for your many blessings. In Jesus name, Amen.
Scriptures That Bother Me — 1 Cor. 6:19-20.
Solid post by Jim Thornber on being completely sold out to Jesus.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
This a section of a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. In these verses, Paul is laying out the basic issue all Christians have post conversion; namely, we are all still stuck in the physical world. I know there are times when I share Paul’s sentiment of rather being with Jesus in heaven than stuck in this body in the broken world we live in. What I really fail to grasp sometimes and what Paul so rightly describes here is that this time on earth matters. Paul was keenly aware of the fact that the reason he existed was to share the message of Jesus and the Kingdom with others. He had a mission. It was this mission that sustained him and motivated him to march through this life and into eternity with Jesus. He also understood that he would be rewarded for how well he completed this mission. I think sometimes the idea of the Father rewarding us for our good or poor performance on earth is more than folks want to consider. Yet in this passage and several others Paul directly tells us that we will receive in Heaven what we we deserve based on our earthly actions. It is important to understand that this is not a conversation about salvation. There is no work or action that a person can do that will warrant salvation. There is no work or action that a person can do that will remove the penalty of their sin and make them righteous enough to be accepted by God. Salvation only comes by faith in Jesus alone. So its not salvation that Paul is talking about here but it is about reward. I think as Christians we really need to capture this idea of commission or being sent out. We need to go medieval and embrace the reality that we have been commissioned by a King to be ambassadors sent out to proclaim the message of our Kingdom and demonstrate the love and service of our leader and periodically, we need to evaluate ourselves and ask how well we are doing. I know personally, I work hard to be a good worker at my job. I am keen to the objectives that are set out for me each year and strive to make sure that those objectives are met so that when my boss evaluates my performance I am found well pleasing to him. If I am willing to toil and labor to please my earthly boss how much more should I be will to toil and labor for Jesus my eternal King?
Father, thank you for your love and the grace you give all humanity to rise each day and live in the world you created. Thank you for adoption into your family and your Kingdom through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus for your love and your sacrifice and your Kingship. I pray that I would honor your sacrifice and that I perform admirably as your ambassador in this world for as long as this body constrains me to it. I offer you praise. In your name, Amen.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
I read these verses over the weekend and they hit me like a ton of bricks. I am so grateful for statements like these and yet I often forget they are in the Bible. I don’t have a lot of insight or anything in way of application to bring to the text other than to say that this about sums it up. I am thankful for the Apostle Paul. I see him as a man who just wanted to please God. He keenly recognized and in turn articulates to us that this life in Christ isn’t so much about dwelling in the past or even dwelling in the present day, but rather this life is about looking to the future. It’s about living each day in the reality that even though the world around us may crumble and fall we are ever moving toward a reality and glory greater than anything we could have ever imagined or contemplated. And equally great is that there is transformation occurring in us daily. It’s a great thought to think that I am a little more closer to being like Jesus than I was yesterday. It’s a great thought to know that each day I am one day closer to shedding this earthly body and seeing the Father in all his eternal glory.
Father, thank you that you have left us words of encouragement in your Word. Thank you for the testimony and leadership of your servants like Paul. Father put the hope that he had in our hearts. Help us face trials and afflictions with a confidence in the promises of heaven. Thank you for your many blessings. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Have you ever considered that someone would be able to tell something about you by how you have influenced others. I guess this concept is pretty strait forward but I don’t think I have truly ever given it any consideration. I know I have heard folks say, “oh, so and so is such a good influence on so and so”, or “wow that kid there is a trouble-maker don’t let your kid play with them”. Yet, I never really thought of it in the context of the Kingdom.
Looking at the verses above from 2 Corinthians we find the Apostle Paul in the midst of trying to convey to the Corinthian believers that his ministry to them is valid. He is battling against a smear campaign that was designed to discredit him as someone who wasn’t truly in tune with the work of God. The dissenters had even asserted that because Paul had suffered and endured trials then surely God was not with him.
I really like Paul’s response to this criticism and questioning of his validity as someone doing God’s will. He challenges these folks to look at themselves and the church in Corinth and see if they have been transformed by the work has he done with them. He rightly points out that the transformation they have experienced could only be a result of the Spirit working through the ministry, service, and message he introduced to them. I love the language he uses describing those who he had influenced as “a letter from Christ” that was “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts”.
So what does it mean for us? For me it means I have to really take the relationships of influence I have more seriously. I would like to be able at the end of my days to say that everyone I was able to influence was influenced toward Jesus. The heavy thing here is that we have vast relationships of influence to be mindful of. Spouse, children, family, friends, co-workers, church family, neighbors, and more all may come under our influence at some point. My hope is that like Paul I will be able to say that I influenced them in the transformative power of the Spirit through the Gospel of Jesus.
What do you think? How do you see yourself influencing people?
Father, thank you for this day and your Word. I pray God that I would be mindful of those who I influence and I pray that by your Spirit working in and through me that they would be “a letter from Christ”. I offer you praise. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ
I don’t know if I am alone in this, but do you ever worry about your deodorant "”breaking”? It’s funny but I can distinctly reminder days in my life where I have realized after leaving the house to go to work that I forgot to put on deodorant and became immediately convinced that I would stink. Today’s verse is interesting in that the Apostle Paul is telling us that sometimes we will stink.
The language and imagery of the Scriptures often amazes me. I think that is what I am feeling about these verses. I get a picture in my mind’s eye of a smell working its way through a room and although the smell is unchanging and consistent the reaction to the smell is varied. It may be analogous to a perfume or cologne that someone may completely enjoy the smell of while others are completely put off by it.
These scriptures are declarative in that Paul is stating what is true in that some hearing the Gospel will understand that for them it is a message that will cause them to find hope in eternal life while in others the message will affirm their present condition and the hopelessness of eternal death.
I think the key point of application is found in verse 17 where Paul is reminding the church in Corinth that he did not come with the fragrant message of the Gospel in an arrogant or self-serving manner, but rather he came in sincerity, full of the knowledge of the seriousness of the message. I would say let it be so for us. I think we have to realize that as we proclaim Jesus not all who hear the message will receive it. There is a sadness in that. The Gospel is “death to death” for some. I think sometimes I am a little too flippant about that reality.
Father, thank you God for your Word and your wisdom. I pray that you would help me be mindful of the spiritual condition of those around me. I pray that you would help me not be flippant about the Gospel and its implications on those who are unable to receive it. I pray that I would be like Paul, sincere and not concerned not with my own agenda but rather with the your work and your will and your Kingdom. I ask these things. In Jesus name, Amen.
