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Sometimes when Christians get anxious about a situation, it appears that they have forgotten that God is just as loving and strong today as He was in the good ol’ days. We need to guard against this misunderstanding.
Let’s use this prayer to remember that God isn’t just the God of the good ol’ days, but He is still just as loving and powerful today as He has ever been—
“God, You have been faithful—You have rescued me. Now help me to see that You are still Sovereign over this current situation—You are doing something in the midst of this crisis.”
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Heartfelt prayer is never a meaningless exercise. Without exception, something is changed with every single prayer we offer to God. Last week, we talked about how prayer changes our attitude.
Here’s an important question: What do you expect is going to happen when you pray? Or maybe we should ask the question the opposite way: What do you expect is going to happen when you don’t pray? The writer of Hebrews talks about our expectation in coming to God (Hebrews 11:6).
Recall that last week that we used the word “attitude” as a pilot understands it; that is, the direction of the nose of the plane takes the rest of the plane and all its passengers up or down. The same thing is true of our expectation in prayer: it also impacts those around us.
There was a father that comes to Jesus with a heavy burden on his heart: his demonically-afflicted son (Mark 9:14-18). The man came in a posture of prayer (Matthew 17:14-15) only after he had first gone to the followers of Jesus, but they could not heal this boy.
Why? I don’t think they expected that they could ask for God’s power to be released. How sad! Look at what they had already experienced:
the miraculous feeding of the 4000 (Mark 8)
a deaf and mute man healed (Mark 7)
Jesus walking on the water and feeding 5000 people (Mark 6)
Jairus’ daughter raised to life (Mark 5)
And probably most shocking of all, they themselves had been used by God to heal people—“They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them” (Mark 6:12-13).
Jesus calls His disciples an “unbelieving generation” (9:19). Some translations use the word “faithless” (like the NKJV and NLT). The Greek word here is a- (without) + -pistos (faith) = apistos. Literally translated it means without trust in God.
Bu I think maybe Jesus was really saying, “O unexpecting generation!”
Their lack of expectation negatively impacted the praying father. He originally came in faith for healing, but now he says to Jesus, “If You can” (Mark 9:20-22).
Jesus calls on this father to banish the “if” (vv. 23-24). At the word of Jesus, the father’s expectation changes, he believes for a miracle, and the miracle happens (vv. 25-27)!
The disciples wanted to know how to banish the “if” from their hearts, and Jesus gives them an interesting answer in vv. 28-29. He tells them to pray. We are supposed to pray in faith, but that faith comes as we pray (Matthew 17:19-21). Other New Testament writers bring this out as well: James tells us the prayer offered in faith is effective (James 5:15), and Paul tells us to be faithful—or faith-filled—in our praying (Romans 12:12).
Does this sound circular? It is a beautifully circular thing!
Abdu Murray said, “Hope is a positive expectation of a desired future event. Faith is trusting in the One who promised to make that event happen.”
It was the word of Jesus that raised the expectation of the father, that gave him the spark of faith (Hebrews 11:1; Romans 10:17). Then he used that faith to raise his expectation of a miracle from God.
Go back to the biblical record or even your own personal history to see what God has already done. Let the word of Jesus ignite your expectations—let that word raise your expectations!—and then cling to His word as you pray in faith.
Faith fuels your prayer, and prayer fuels your faith. So we need to remain on the lookout for opportunities to pray for ourselves and others (Colossians 4:2).
Let me return to the opening question: What do you expect is going to happen when you pray? If your expectation is too low, start by praying, “God, forgive us of expectations of You that are too low!” Be humbly bold enough to admit, “I do believe, but help my unbelief.” Then when you hear the word of faith, expect the miracle through that faith. The longer you pray, the more you need to include a prayer for your own faith to remain expectant.
The God who gives you faith wants to reward that faith. Let prayer raise your expectations as you continually banish the “if”!
If you have missed any of the other messages in our series Prayer Changes Things, you can find them all by clicking here.
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I opened an email this week and clicked on the link to login in to my auto and homeowner’s insurance account, and I was greeted on their website with this message, “Peace of mind is the best gift you can give yourself this season.” And I said to myself, “How perfect, because we are looking at the next prophesied name for Jesus which was given before He was born in Bethlehem: Prince of Peace.”
Except there’s a huge problem here. Did you see it in that website message? “The best gift you can give yourself.” Quite frankly: I cannot give myself peace! Colossians 1:21 says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” All of us have sinned and are hopelessly destined for eternal punishment (Romans 3:23, 6:23a).
Thankfully, Romans 6:23 goes on to say “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is what the fourth prophesied title of Jesus foretells (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Prince means a Ruler or Overseer. Peace is the Hebrew word shalom which means completeness, soundness, and contentment. Some have described shalom as there being nothing missing for us to know this ultimate contentment. Many call this the assurance of our covenant relationship with God.
Isaiah uses the word shalom quite a bit, but he uses it here in chapter 9 for the first time in the Book of Isaiah.
Zechariah saw the covenant as being fulfilled before Jesus the Messiah was born. Noticed the past tense words that culminate in light and peace in Luke 1:67-79. Zechariah concludes his prophetic word by noticing two profound transitions:
The First Advent of Jesus made peace with God possible for us (Luke 2:8-14; Hebrews 2:14-15).
Now we can live in peace (Isaiah 26:3, 12; John 16:33) and we can announce “peace on earth” to others (John 20:21; Romans 10:15).
The Second Advent of Jesus will reveal His unending peace that gives us eternal life in Him (Isaiah 52:7-10; Genesis 3:22; Revelation 22:14).
We have the peace of God because of the Prince of Peace! And we have the message of peace to share with those who don’t know the Prince of Peace. I pray that this Advent season we will messengers of peace to all those who are living in darkness and hostility.
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Last week we talked about how the title “God” can mean different things to different people. When we are talking about the One True God as He is revealed to us in the Person of Jesus, there is no doubt of Whom we are speaking. The opponents of Christianity knew this too, which is why they tried to get the early saints to not use the name Jesus.
Isaiah 9:6 says that a Child is born and a Son is given, but this Son is given the unusual title of Everlasting Father. Jesus acknowledged this unusualness in this exchange with the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-45.
“Everlasting” means continuous existence; existing in perpetuity; the Chief by which all other things are ordered and aligned. We see this in Genesis 1:1, where “In the beginning” signifies God started Time but He existed before that moment.
In John 1:1, similar words are used,but here “in the beginning” means if you stand at the moment Time began and were able to look back into the immeasurable eternity that existed before that, God was there. More specifically, the Word of God (Jesus) was there as God. Jesus Himself affirmed this in Revelation 1:8 and 3:14.
Then in 1 John 1:1, the phrase “from the beginning” means that after Time ends, you can look into the infinite eternity that still exists and God is there. Again, Jesus Himself affirms this in Revelation 22:13.
“Father” this is the first word in our biblical Hebrew dictionary. It means father, the head or founder of a family, the protector of the family. Paul says that Jesus fulfills all of these definitions (Colossians 2:9-10, 1:15-22), and the writer of Hebrew opens his epistle with the same thought (Hebrews 1:1-3).
No one on earth has seen God the Father. This makes it difficult to follow Him. Which is why Jesus made His appearing among us (John 1:1, 14, 18).
Paul wanted people to know“the mystery of God, namely, Christ” (Colossians 2:2), and he said that Jesus is the Key that unlocks the treasure-trove of God’s rich love for us. Notice Paul’s progression: teaching the Word (1:25-27) so that we mature (1:28), so that we have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ (2:2-4).
When Jesus was born, Simeon gave us the same assurance when he saw Jesus and announced that Jesus was the Christ that had been prophesied (Luke 2:25-32), and Jesus Himself told His disciples the exact same thing (John 14:8-9).
Let people see God’s love through your life, all year-round but especially at Christmas. As we said last week, when we talk about Jesus and live for Jesus, we invite others to God, through Jesus, by the Spirit’s illumination.
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During the first year of [Darius’] reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the Word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. (Daniel 9:2-3 NLT)
Reading the Word of God prompted Daniel to pray to the God that is revealed in the Word, and the prayer he offered to God was grounded in biblical promises—in God’s own promises (vv. 4-19).
It’s like when children are speaking to their earthly fathers and say, “Dad, you promised,” it gets the attention of that father’s heart because he wants to keep his word.
God hasn’t forgotten His promises; in fact, He is always at work to fulfill what He has said. But when we pray, “Father, according to Your promise to me,” we are praying words that resonate with His heart. He delights for His children to see Him at work. And He is glorified when we praise Him for fulfilling what He has promised.
When we end our prayer with “in the name of Jesus, Amen,” that is not just some magical phrase that we tag on, but it is a reminder that we can come boldly before God’s throne with our petition. And prayers that are aligned with the heart of God—prayers that are grounded in the Word of God—have the “Amen” of Jesus added to them (Hebrews 10:19-22; 2 Corinthians 1:20).
We never need to be at a loss for words when we go to our Heavenly Father in prayer. Read His Word, see the Holy Spirit illuminate and apply the Word to your circumstances, and then pray confidently in the name of Jesus.
For pastors and shepherd leaders, my book Amen Indeed contains over 100 biblically-based prayers for many of the situations we face in our ministries. My prayer for you is that this book will help you learn how to use the Bible as your Prayer Book.
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We saw in part one of this two-part series that we quickly go into crisis mode when we forget that God is in control, so we need to remain full of thanks all the time (Ephesians 5:20 AMPC). We called gratitude our inoculation against the pull from contentment to crisis, but inoculation doesn’t mean that we never experience some pangs of anxiety when a moment of darkness hits. Maturing Christians are learning how to spot the beginning of anxiety and move back into the contentment zone earlier and earlier (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2, 12).
James says we “will receive the crown of life” from Jesus. There’s no doubt about that! In a trial, it’s important to be reassured that the trial can never cause us to lose out with our Heavenly Father (Romans 8:38-39).
Psalm 107 starts out with this same assurance—“those He redeemed” (v. 2) is in the perfect tense. It’s complete and irrevocable! We walk out our redemption in circumstance after circumstance in a way that bring glory to God and draws others to Him as well. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say” is in the imperfect tense, which means giving thanks is an ongoing practice (v. 1).
Redeemed once, but giving thanks always!
Romans 8 gives a little snapshot of some of the situations that could have sent us spiraling into crisis mode, but remember the conclusion: None of those things can separate from God’s love.
Last week we saw how the psalmist linked prayer and gratitude in a repeated theme. This practice is backward looking (vv. 7-8, 14-15, 20-22, 29-32). When we look back to see how God has moved and then we contemplate Who He is (Hebrews 13:8; Isaiah 59:1).
Look at the closing verse (v. 43):
heed = guard, watch over attentively; this is an imperfect verb—which means we keep on doing it
consider = discern: totake apart the evidence and harvest the lessons
great love = God’s limitless lovingkindness
I love this verse in the New Living Translation: Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.
That means we…
Review the history of God’s faithfulness
Rejoice over it
Apply it to your current circumstance
We can pray, “God, You have been faithful—You have rescued me. Now help me to see that You are still Sovereign over this current situation—You are doing something in the midst of this crisis.”
In Romans 8:28, Paul tells us that God is working together all of our circumstances for His glory and our our good. Oswald Chambers noted, “In the Christian life we have no aim of our own, and God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too shortsighted to see what He is aiming at.” Reviewing our history and then giving thanks helps assure our anxious heart that God is going to hit the mark (Philippians 1:6).
Praise the Lord! I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with His godly people.How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them.Everything He does reveals His glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.He causes us to remember His wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our Lord! (Psalm 111:1-4 NLT)
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word. (Ephesians 5:25-26)
Dr. Henry Halley points to seven images the Bible portrays of how Jesus interacts with His saints.
“1. The Shepherd and the sheep emphasizes both the warm leadership and protection of Christ and the helplessness and dependency of believers (John 10:1-18).
2. The vine and the branches points out the necessity for Christians to depend on Christ’s sustaining strength for growth (John 15:1-8).
4. The cornerstone and building stones (Matthew 21:42) accents the foundational value of Christ to everything the church is and does, as well as Christ’s value to the unity of believers. Love is to be the mortar which solidly holds the living stones together (1 Corinthians 3:9; 13:1-13; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5).
5. The head and many-membered body, the church, is a vibrant organism, not merely an organization; it draws its vitality and direction from Christ, the Head, and each believer has a unique and necessary place in its growth (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27; Ephesians 4:4).
6. The last Adam and new creation presents Christ as the initiator of a new creation of believers as Adam was of the old creation (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
7. The bridegroom and bride beautifully emphasizes the intimate fellowship and co-ownership existing between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25-33; Revelation 19:7-8; 21:9).”
You can read all of the Bible verses listed in this post by clicking here.
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Sanctification (“saint-ification”) is an ongoing process that usually involves the help of other saints. We learn this by having a biblical worldview (that’s the “B”), being accountable with saints (“A”), and serving the Body of Christ (“S”). These are the things that bring out increased fruitfulness in our lives, make us more joy-full people, and enhance our testimony to others.
What a blessing it is to be involved in all of these saint-ification things alongside other brothers and sisters. Isn’t nice to know that you’re not all alone on your journey?
Two brothers walked up the hill to the park every afternoon to play baseball. One day a neighbor who lived near the bottom of the hill saw the younger brother pulling his older brother up the hill in a wagon. He observed this for a couple of days before he finally asked what was going on.
The younger brother said, “My big brother broke his leg so I pull him in the wagon so he can watch us play baseball and can be our coach.”
“He must be heavy,” the neighbor replied.
“He’s not heavy,” the little boy said, “he’s my brother!”
In the first brothers that the Bible shows us, we see the origin of the phrase “brother’s keeper.” Cain was jealous of the way God was blessing his younger brother, and so he murdered Able. God came to Cain and asked him, “Where is your brother Able?”
Cain responded with another question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).
The word brother is someone connected to me by blood or some other common bond. Cain used the same word for brother but then asked if He was supposed to be his brother’s keeper—his guard, helping to keep him in bounds, celebrating his victories.
The clear teaching of Scripture is that the answer to Cain’s question is an emphatic “Yes!”
That definition of brother’s keeper sounds a lot like the definition of an intercessor. In the Hebrew, that word mean to go to God on someone else’s behalf (Genesis 25:21; 2 Samuel 24:25). The Greek of the New Testament sounds more intense (hyperentygchano): to meet a person of the purpose of conversation in behalf of someone else.
Remember that the Hebrew word for brother was pretty narrow? The Christians in the New Testament took the word for relative-by-blood (adelphos) and made it a synonym for fellow saint, regardless of where they are from (Acts 9:17; 2 Corinthians 13:11).
John used Cain’s misunderstanding of brother’s keeper to show us the spiritual responsibility we have to our adelphos (1 John 3:12, 15-16).
When we intercede for our adelphos—our fellow saints—we are participating in the same work as both the Spirit and Jesus (Romans 8:26-27, 34;Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 5:16).
A couple of weeks ago we looked at Philemon’s service to the Body of Christ. Look at how Paul’s intercession may have released Philemon to do this (Philemon 7, 16, 20).
As Paul said to Philemon, I say to you—
I appeal to you on the basis of love: Be your brother’s keeper!
Guard your adelphos, keep them in bounds, and celebrate both their righteousness and God’s blessing on their lives.
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Sanctification (saint-ification) is an ongoing process that brings out fruitfulness, joy-fullness, and enhances our testimony to others. And an essential part of this process involves other saints. Notice that this word “saints” it plural. That’s because it is a plural word every place it appears in the Bible.
Saints have gotten themselves into trouble when they tried to go solo. Like David’s sin with Bathsheba, Elijah’s slide into depression, or Peter’s denial of Jesus. But we also see saints thriving through difficult situations when they have a fellow saint alongside. Like how Barnabas gave Saul his start, Paul and Silas could sing together in prison, Silas and Timothy helped Paul minister, and how Jesus sent out His ambassadors by twos (Luke 10:1).
How does accountability to other saints work? Since we see togetherness so much in the early Church (look for the phrases like “each other” or “one another”), think A.C.T.S.—
(1)Admit my need for accountability. James tells us that we all stumble and that even my so-called little slip-ups are major in God’s eyes (James 3:2, 2:10). So I need help.
John Maxwell said, “Every person is undisciplined in some area of their life; in the area that I am undisciplined, that is the area where I need greatest accountability. I will not do well in my areas of weakness unless I am held accountable for better results.” We all have blind spots, we all have weak areas, and we must be humble enough to admit to those things.
(2)Choose my accountability partners prayerfully and carefully (Proverbs 12:26; 2 Corinthians 6:14). These should be trustworthy people who have the emotional and spiritual capacity to be able to come alongside me (Proverbs 17:9; Galatians 6:2).
(3)Trust my friend. Trust their counsel even when it stings a bit (Proverbs 27:6), and trust the effectiveness of their prayers for me (James 5:16).
(4)Stick with them through thick and thin. Be your brother’s keeper and let them be your keeper (Hebrews 3:12-14). We need to keep at it especially in difficult times. Notice the phrase “let us” that appears five times in Hebrews 10:19-25.
If we are living with a biblical worldview, we realize that the saints here on earth are those we will also be with for eternity. Our biblical worldview should form our understanding of both being accountable to another saint and holding other saints accountable as well.
As Jack Hayford so wisely noted, “The believer’s best defense against self-deception is through mutual accountability to one another.”
If you would like to check out the other messages in our series B.A.S.I.C. Christianity, you can click here.
Craig T. Owens 