Don’t Stumble In The Homestretch

July 29, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

We’re up to Psalm 131. After this step, only three more steps to go until we reach the top! We’re almost there. We started in a dark valley surrounded by enemies that wanted to keep us in the valley, but we persevered, we matured, and now the end it almost in sight! 

Notice that David wrote this Song of Ascent, and I think he may have had a particular instance from his history in mind when he did. 

(Check out all of the verses in this post by clicking here.)

At the height of David’s success, the Bible says that, “David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been highly exalted for the sake of His people Israel” (1 Chronicles 14:2). So David used his position to do something very noble: return the ark of the covenant of the Lord to Jerusalem. This was a popular decision that “seemed right to all the people” (13:3). 

But it turned out disastrously! 

One of the priests overseeing the transportation of the ark of the covenant was killed, and as a result David became angry at God and fearful of Him. 

After a cooling off time, David humbled himself. He admitted that he hadn’t “inquired of the Lord” before undertaking this task and then he looked to the Scriptures to find out how to move the ark the correct way (15:12-15). 

It’s quite possible David had this incident in mind when he wrote the Song of Ascent for people coming to worship God in the temple where the ark of the covenant of the Lord would be housed. 

The opening words sound the tone of humility—“my heart is not proud” and “my eyes are not haughty.” I think in the context of this opening verse of Psalm 131, pride can be defined as:

  1. trying to handle things on my own 
  2. concerning myself with things outside my control 

That means that humility is trusting that God is in total control. 

Verse 2 starts with an important word: But. Instead of the fretting of pride, David chooses the trusting of childlike humility. David says that he has “stilled and quieted my soul.” He has chosen childlike humility. 

This is exactly what Jesus told us: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). 

Just look at the differences between childlike and childish! 

The consistent message throughout Scripture—from Creation in Genesis 1 until the realization of our eternal reward in Heaven in Revelation 22—is childlike trust in our Heavenly Father. 

We can trust God to handle…

  • …every care—1 Peter 5:7 
  • …every step—Proverbs 3:5-6 
  • …every reward—Luke 12:32 

Don’t let pride cause you to stumble in the homestretch. The closer we get to the end of the journey, the more childlike we should become. 

If you’ve missed any of the other messages on the Songs of Ascent, you can find them all here. 

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Becoming Childlike

January 29, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

I hope you’ve noticed so far that the parts of Christ’s model prayer that we’ve looked at so far are both an acknowledgement of the holiness of God and the greatness of His Kingdom, and also a request for us to be empowered to live in a way that makes those things known to Earthlings. 

One of the ways we live to make these things seen is found in the next phrase: Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). 

In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens shows us a scene where the Ghost of Christmas Present has taken Scrooge to his nephew’s home. After dinner, these young adults begin playing games. Dickens says, “For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” 

Jesus loved children! Being around “the littles” lately at on our school campus, I have a whole new appreciation for this. Because Jesus loved children, their parents wanted them around Him, and He wanted them around too (see Matthew 19:13-15; Mark 10:14-16; Luke 18:15-17).

Children are loud, busy, adventurous, and easily distracted. But they are also loving, trusting, curious, innocent, and easily comforted. And Jesus loved to bless them!   

What does this have to do with “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”? Jesus taught us to address our praying to “Our Father.” That means we are to interact with Him as His children.  

Jesus wants us to be childlike not childish. 

  • trusting not posturing—Matthew 6:7-8 
  • honest not hypocritical—Luke 18:9-14 
  • persistent not whining—Luke 11:9-13 
  • humbly dependent not scheming—Matthew 18:1-4 

[Check out these passages here] 

Children love to do the will of their parents. They’re not trying to earn their approval, but joyfully obeying out of innocence. When we obey God as loving children, we are doing His will on earth as it is done in Heaven! 

So once again, this is both an acknowledgement and a request. 

In Psalm 131, David uses this same picture of a contented child for us. 

Childlike is lovingly dependent. Childish is selfishly independent. Childlike is trusting someone wiser. Childish is believing I know best. 

Our prayer request should always be, “Father, may I trust You and obey You as an innocent child.” 

This is part 4 of our series on prayer called Kingdom Praying. You can check out all of the other messages in this series here. 

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The Approachable Jesus

February 28, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

A friend of mine who was in a position of leadership in the Assemblies of God used to joke with people, “Since you’re bowing and walking backwards out of my office, would you like to kiss my ring too?” There are some people that we feel are in a special class so that we have to approach them differently. 

If we feel that way about certain people, what might we be thinking when we consider approaching the supreme, awesome, preeminent, incomparable Jesus?! It’s very likely that we could feel Him to be unapproachable, as though we aren’t worthy of His attention. 

But when Jesus Himself told us, “When [not ‘if’] you pray,” He is assuming that we will pray. And then He adds this amazing thought: “And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13)! 

Jesus loves to help us. He died a cruel death on the Cross so that He could help us! Jesus ties our trusting prayer with His willingness to serve us (Luke 12:22-37). Note this last line from our approachable Savior: 

It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when He comes. Truly I tell you, He will dress Himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. (v. 37) 

Jesus serves us?! What an amazing thought! But does this make Jesus somehow less majestic? I like what John Piper has to say about this: “Does this belittle the risen Christ—to say that He was and is and will ever be the servant of His people? It would, if ‘servant’ meant ‘one who takes orders,’ or if we thought we were His masters. Yes, that would dishonor Him. But it does not dishonor Him to say that we are weak and need His help.” 

How do we not treat Jesus as an order-taking servant? First, we have to remember that approachable doesn’t mean something we do casually. I think this is discovered in our attitude—it’s the difference between being childlike and being childish. 

The childlike attitude is one of wonder and trust. One that calls God, “Daddy.” One that is lovingly dependent on Him. One that says, “I don’t understand what I’m going through right now, but I trust Your wisdom.” 

The childish attitude is one who treats majestic things flippantly. Perhaps the childish one talks about God as “the Big Guy upstairs.” Or one who remains selfishly independent, or who says, “Do it my way—now!”

The childlike attitude glorifies Jesus as our approachable Servant Savior. 

The childlike attitude also recognizes that there are more dimensions of the majesty of God to be discovered in an abiding relationship with Jesus. Our approachable Savior wants us to come to Him, to call to Him for help, and to know Him more intimately (Jeremiah 29:13-14; Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:16; 10:19, 22). 

Prayer not only unlocks deeper, proper intimacy with Jesus, but it conforms our heart more and more to His heart. As we are conformed to Him, we reflect His approachable glory to others (2 Corinthians 4:6, 3:18). 

We approach the awesome Jesus reverently in childlike faith. It’s in God’s presence that the Holy Spirit matures our faith so that we become glory-reflectors that point others to Jesus. 

If you’ve missed any of the eight messages in our series Awesome: Learning to pray in the awesome name of Jesus, you can find the list of all of the messages by clicking here. 

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Powerful Childlike Prayer

June 7, 2021 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple or Spotify.

I was at a friend’s house and interacting with their two young children. Their son was very energetic and playful, but not very talkative. When the tikes climbed up to the kitchen counter for lunch, their mom asked them what they wanted to eat. The little girl placed her lunch order and then said, “He wants PB&J with milk.” I asked him, “Is that really what you want?” He smiled a big grin and nodded his head. Isn’t nice to have someone give us words when we are lacking in our own vocabulary? 

Last week we learned how the Spirit of Truth would help us speak truthful words to those who were antagonistic to the Good News of Jesus. If the Holy Spirit will do this when we are speaking to people who are enemies of the Cross of Christ, how much more so will He help us when we are speaking to our loving Heavenly Father! 

Here’s something we never have to doubt: God’s love for us. We don’t have to try to get our Father’s attention because He wants to lavish His love on us (Matthew 6:7-8; Luke 11:9-13; Ephesians 1:5). 

Jesus likens our coming to God as a child coming to its father. Sometimes we come with fears or tears, sometimes with hunger or thirst, or sometimes just to feel His closeness. The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Adoption, and He loves to keep on reminding us how much our Father loves us (Romans 8:14-17). 

“When our perplexed spirit is so befogged and beclouded that it cannot see its own need and cannot find out the appropriate promise in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God comes in and teaches us all things and brings all things to our remembrance whatever our Lord has told us. He guides us in prayer and thus He helps our infirmity. … He will write the prayers that I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I will see them there and so I will be taught how to plead! It will be the Spirit’s own Self pleading in me and by me and through me before the throne of grace!” —Charles Spurgeon 

Our loving Father is not looking for well-polished prayers; He’s looking for real, childlike prayers. Let’s be honest: Not even the most educated person in the world has a vocabulary sufficient enough to accurately communicate with The Almighty God! So He wants us to come to Him in simple, childlike anticipation. Jesus reminded us, “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Our Father wants to answer our prayers, and He has given us His Holy Spirit to help us pray in a way that He can answer (Romans 8:26-27). 

The Holy Spirit turns our tearful, childlike prayers into powerful, poetic prayers!

Don’t try to spruce up your vocabulary before you come to God in prayer. Just come to God in prayer, trusting that the Holy Spirit will make a beautiful prayer even out of your childlike groanings! The Holy Spirit turns our groans into prayerful poetry in our Father’s ears! 

If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series called We Are: Pentecostal, I’ve shared the complete list here.

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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Simple Faith Is Still Powerful Faith

April 15, 2021 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.

Simple Faith Is Still Powerful Faith

     I would have you note that the faith that justified Abram was still an imperfect faith, although it perfectly justified him. It was imperfect beforehand, for he had prevaricated as to his wife and bid Sarai, ‘Say you are my sister’ (Genesis 12:13). 

     It was imperfect after it had justified him, for the next chapter we find him taking Hager, his wife’s handmaid, in order to effect the divine purpose, and so showing a lack of confidence in the working of the Lord. It is a blessing for you and for me that we do not need perfect faith to save us! ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you’ (Matthew 17:20). If you have but the faith of a little child, it will save you. Though your faith is not always at the same pitch as the patriarch’s when he staggered not at the promise through unbelief, yet if it is simple and true, if it confides alone in the promise of God, it is an unhappy thing that it is no stronger, and you ought daily to pray, ‘Lord, increase my faith,’ but still it will justify you through Christ Jesus! A trembling hand may grasp the cup that bears a healing draught to the lip, but the weakness of the hand will not lessen the power of the medicine.

From Justification By Faith

A prayer that Jesus loved was simply this: “Lord, I believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:14-27). The recognition that Jesus alone could help is the essence of faith. 

I’ve often said that the simplest, most powerful prayer we can pray is, “Lord, help!” In just those two words we are saying, “I cannot do a thing to help myself, but, Lord, I believe Your power is limitless to help me!” 

Small faith is still powerful faith—even faith as small as a mustard seed—because it can move mountains. Childlike faith touches the heart of God. I love how Spurgeon reminds us that the weakness of the hand that grasps the cup promise does not lessen the power of the medicine in the cup. 

The best way to learn to pray in faith is simply to pray in faith. A baby doesn’t wait until he has a fully-formed vocabulary to ask his father or mother for help. Just pray! The Holy Spirit can turn even your childlike prayers into pleasing sounds in your Heavenly Father’s ears. 

Maybe you could paraphrase that father who was in desperate need of Christ’s help, “Lord, I am praying; help me to keep on praying!”

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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Poetic Groans

October 29, 2020 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.

Our Prayer Helper 

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26) 

     A man’s heart is moved when he groans. A groan is a matter about which there is no hypocrisy. A groan comes not from the lips, but from the heart. A groan, then, is a part of prayer that we owe to the Holy Spirit, and the same is true of all the prayer that wells up from the deep fountains of our inner life. [see also Jeremiah 4:19; Isaiah 38:14; Psalm 77:4, 38:8-9] … 

     That which is thrown up from the depths of the soul, when it is stirred with a terrible tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the intercession of the Holy Spirit! … 

     Beloved, what a different view of prayer God has from that which men think to be the correct one! You may have seen very beautiful prayers in print and you may have heard very charming compositions from the pulpit, but I trust you have not fallen in love with them. Judge these things rightly. I pray you never think well of fine prayers, for before the thrice-holy God it ill becomes a sinful supplicant to play the orator! … The tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of our prayers, for they need only the wing feathers of faith. The peacock feathers of poetical expression are out of place before the throne of God. … God looks at the heart. To Him fine language is as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, while a groan has music in it! 

From The Holy Spirit’s Intercession

God is not looking for well-polished prayers; He’s looking for real prayers. Let’s be honest: Not even the most educated person in the world has a vocabulary sufficient enough to accurately communicate with The Almighty God! 

Our Heavenly Father wants us to come to Him in simple, childlike anticipation. Notice I didn’t say childish anticipation—there is a huge difference. What Paul is telling us in Romans 8 is that the Holy Spirit can make the most eloquent, childlike, sincere prayer out of our deepest longings in our hearts. 

Jesus reminded us, “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Our Father wants to answer our prayers, and He has given us His Holy Spirit to help us pray in a way that He can answer. 

Don’t try to spruce up your vocabulary before you come to God in prayer. Just come to God in prayer, trusting that the Holy Spirit will make a beautiful prayer even out of your childlike groanings! The Holy Spirit turns our groans into prayerful poetry in our Heavenly Father’s ears!

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Jesus Calling For Christmas (book review)

October 9, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

I love how Sarah Young turns Scripture into Jesus addressing us in the first-Person! As we are approaching the Christmas season when we celebrate Christ’s First Advent on Earth, Sarah has used her God-given talent to tell us what Jesus Himself says about His Advent, and what the joyful implications are for us today, in her newest book Jesus Calling For Christmas. 

Most people usually think of Christmas as a time of joy, peace, and celebration. But this season should carry even greater meaning for Christians who know that we are celebrating Joy and Peace personified in Jesus Christ. So Sarah, reminding us of what Jesus would say, tells us, “In the midst of this busy Advent season, keep bringing your focus back to My holy Presence. Remember that Immanuel has come, and rejoice!” 

This book is easily readable around a family dinner table, or as a bedtime reading with children. The Christmas scenery captured in this book is beautiful, the words of Jesus are easy to understand, and the corresponding Scriptures make it easy to see how Christ’s arrival on Earth fulfilled all that was prophesied about Him. 

Children already seem to have a wide-eyed wonder about Christmas time, and adults would do well to learn from them. In fact, Sarah writes Jesus saying, “Gaze at the Glory of My birth, just as the shepherds did, and respond with childlike wonder.”

Children of all ages—even the “grownup” ones!—can experience Christ’s Advent in a whole new way by reading Jesus Calling For Christmas together this season. 

I am a Thomas Nelson book reviewer. 

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Saturday In The Psalms—Childlike Not Childish

March 17, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

Lord, my heart is not haughty… (Psalm 131:1).

This psalm is only three verses long, but they are three verses of immense trust in God. Truly these verses reveal extraordinary childlike dependence on God.

My heart is not haughty—I am subduing my pride.

My eyes are not lofty—I’m not looking for great things for myself.

I do not concern myself with great matters—I stay away from burdens I don’t need to carry.

I have no interest in things too profound for me—I don’t spend time on the “what ifs,” but I quietly trust God to provide for me.

I have calmed and quieted my soul—if my emotions start running too far ahead, I remind myself that God knows best what I need.

Childlike not childish!

Childlike is lovingly dependent. Childish is selfishly independent.

Childlike is trusting someone wiser. Childish is believing I know best.

John Maxwell said, “The Christian leader is mature enough to not act childish, yet remains trusting enough to stay childlike.”

Think of it this way: a “weaned child” (v. 2) is able to eat more grown-up food than an infant, but it is still dependent on a loving parent to provide that food—food that is best. It’s not necessarily food I want, but it is food I need.

David implores us to adopt this childlike dependence on God, and give up our childish independence apart from God. This attitude, David says, starts in a humbled heart.

Holy Spirit, work in my heart today. Drive out any childish selfishness for what I want, and create in me a childlike trust in my God Who gives me all that I need. Amen.

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Quotes On Prayer

October 20, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

C.H. Spurgeon“How does your child come to you when he wants anything? Does he open a big book, and begin reading, ‘My dear, esteemed, and venerated parent, in the effulgence of thy parental beneficence’? Nothing of the kind. He says, ‘Father, my clothes are worn out, please buy me a new coat;’ or else he says, ‘I am hungry, let me have something to eat.’ That is the way to pray, and there is no prayer which God accepts but that kind of prayer—right straight from the heart, and right straight to God’s heart.” —Charles Spurgeon

John Piper“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.” —John Piper

“Pray; pray always; or literally, in all times and seasons; not yesterday only, but today; not in darkness only, but in the light; not in adversity only, but in prosperity; not in the day of bereavement, and terror, and weariness, but in the time of security, and comfort, and peace. Pray always. Pray without ceasing.” —Horatius Bonar

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Oswald Chambers On Prayer

July 2, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Oswald ChambersSome great quotes from Oswald Chambers on prayer…

“Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.” —Oswald Chambers

“It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.” —Oswald Chambers

“Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God.” —Oswald Chambers

“The men with God’s ‘go’ in them have these three characteristics—a saving experience, the evidence of supernatural power at work, and the spiritual efficacy of success in prayer.” —Oswald Chambers

“God never hears prayer because a man is in earnest; He hears and answers prayer that is on the right platform—we have ‘boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,’ and by no other way. It is not our agony and our distress, but our childlike confidence in God.” —Oswald Chambers

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