Lessons this week
I have been reading the Bible more this week and I wanted to take a minute to share with you some lessons learned this week. The first thing that was reinforced to me is that prayer is about my getting on God's plan and not His getting on mine. If you recall, in Matthew 7:11 says, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven give what is good to those who ask Him?" This verse tells me that it is not God's inability to answer that sometimes leads to a delay in answered prayer. Sometimes it may be a matter of what I am praying for or the fact that God and I are not on the same page in the playbook.
In his book "Effective Biblical Counseling" Dr. Larry Crabb has a section about what it means to be a christian counselor He talks about how many people, including many christians think the main objective in life is to "be happy". While I don't think that God has called me to be the next Jeremiah (often called the "weeping prophet"), I do think that this is true. Many christians do not present themselves as having a biblical viewpoint. We are influenced and have been influenced by the world. And that is something that as we pray and seek God's face and get into the word that God has a chance to transform. For we need to be transformed and renewed in our thinking (Romans 12:2).
The fact is, that scripture teaches us that God's priorities are not ours and that God has a very different way of thinking that we do. In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." So how much higher is the heavens than the earth? The answer, of course, is that they are infinitely higher. We can even fathom the width or breath of the heavens and so it is with God's thoughts being so much greater than ours.
Not only are God's thoughts higher than ours, but it is clear he has a greater agenda than ours. Sometimes prayer can be used as almost like drive through ordering. I heard a preacher one day say that modern christians want God the same way they want a hamburger at McDonald's: fast, hot and cheap. But, God's desire for us is transformation into the character of Christlikeness. This is his ongoing mission in my life, my sanctification. This happens, as I spend time with Christ and surrender to Him each part of my life. Sometimes a byproduct of this is contentment and peace and sometimes it is just plain hard. But, the goal is not happiness, the goal is Christlikeness.
This is one of the first lessons that the people of God had to learn about the nature of God, that God is holy. When Moses encountered God on the mountain, God told Moses to take off his sandals. He spoke to the people in fire and thunder and in power and declared himself to be holy. Then, he told them that they would need to reflect that they know him by living holy lives. In one of the hardest to read books of the Bible, Leviticus, it says this in Lev 11:45 "For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy." He told them this lesson over and over again for over 40 years of wandering and sadly, most of them never learned. He said that his people, who are called by His name are to be different, sanctified (set apart) and holy. Too often, we simply look like the world, when God has called us to be transformed.
I think this is one of the main reasons the church today is really powerless, at least in America it appears to be, while in other parts of the world such as China the spirit of God is moving and thousands upon thousands are being saved. God simply doesn't bless our plans. Rather, he calls us to get on his plan and He will wait until we do so.
"And My people who are called by My name humble themlselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
In his book "Effective Biblical Counseling" Dr. Larry Crabb has a section about what it means to be a christian counselor He talks about how many people, including many christians think the main objective in life is to "be happy". While I don't think that God has called me to be the next Jeremiah (often called the "weeping prophet"), I do think that this is true. Many christians do not present themselves as having a biblical viewpoint. We are influenced and have been influenced by the world. And that is something that as we pray and seek God's face and get into the word that God has a chance to transform. For we need to be transformed and renewed in our thinking (Romans 12:2).
The fact is, that scripture teaches us that God's priorities are not ours and that God has a very different way of thinking that we do. In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." So how much higher is the heavens than the earth? The answer, of course, is that they are infinitely higher. We can even fathom the width or breath of the heavens and so it is with God's thoughts being so much greater than ours.
Not only are God's thoughts higher than ours, but it is clear he has a greater agenda than ours. Sometimes prayer can be used as almost like drive through ordering. I heard a preacher one day say that modern christians want God the same way they want a hamburger at McDonald's: fast, hot and cheap. But, God's desire for us is transformation into the character of Christlikeness. This is his ongoing mission in my life, my sanctification. This happens, as I spend time with Christ and surrender to Him each part of my life. Sometimes a byproduct of this is contentment and peace and sometimes it is just plain hard. But, the goal is not happiness, the goal is Christlikeness.
This is one of the first lessons that the people of God had to learn about the nature of God, that God is holy. When Moses encountered God on the mountain, God told Moses to take off his sandals. He spoke to the people in fire and thunder and in power and declared himself to be holy. Then, he told them that they would need to reflect that they know him by living holy lives. In one of the hardest to read books of the Bible, Leviticus, it says this in Lev 11:45 "For I am the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy." He told them this lesson over and over again for over 40 years of wandering and sadly, most of them never learned. He said that his people, who are called by His name are to be different, sanctified (set apart) and holy. Too often, we simply look like the world, when God has called us to be transformed.
I think this is one of the main reasons the church today is really powerless, at least in America it appears to be, while in other parts of the world such as China the spirit of God is moving and thousands upon thousands are being saved. God simply doesn't bless our plans. Rather, he calls us to get on his plan and He will wait until we do so.
"And My people who are called by My name humble themlselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
