And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
TO PONDER:
When I was a kid I was a champion swimmer. My mean parents (the same ones I talked about yesterday who wouldn’t buy me a Swiss Army Knife) would drag me out to train every morning before the crack of dawn for 2 hours before school. If you were wanting to prove you were the best or to be a winner, 2nd place is still a loser. Getting faster was always the goal to strive for.
I have heard today’s verses used against saying the Lord’s Prayer weekly in church and then using the same prayer as a template on the “right way to pray to get answers to your prayers”.
That is not what Jesus was saying when he was preaching the Sermon on the Mount, in my opinion, that is the opposite to what He was saying.
The whole section of the sermon here is about not competing, not trying to prove yourself. It's about happily taking 2ndplace, and relaxing in God’s grace.
Prayer is not a competition, not a magical formula to get what we want if we say the right words in the right order, it's not a destination to graduate to.
Prayer is between you and God, a real conversation between a loving Father and child. We as God’s children do not have to prove our worthiness to Him before we can pray (Jesus has already done that). Prayer is coming to our loving father, sitting on his lap and talking to him.
PRAYER: Loving Father, I thank you for loving me even before I loved you, for calling me into a loving relationship with you where I don’t have to compete for your love and attention, where I can simply come as I am and pray. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
TO PONDER:
I remember when I was about 8 years old or so, one of my friends had a Swiss Army Knife, the one with a knife, scissors, can opener, corkscrew, a nail file, a little saw, a “pig sticker”, 2 screw drivers, tweezers, and a toothpick…
I wanted one so much! I wanted one so when I got lost in the bush I could survive, I could even “stick a pig” and have something to eat but alas I never was able to get a Swiss Army Knife because I had mean parents (Mum reads this, she even writes some of the Daily Verse posts) and I never was lucky enough to get lost in the bush either…
In today’s verse we read James encouraging us (the church) to confess our sins to each other so we can be prayed for and pray for each other because our prayers are powerful and effective.
If we take the time to read the preceding verses we would see the crux of the verse is not as much about confessing our sins to each other but rather about the power of prayer.
James tells us that if someone is in trouble pray, if anyone is sick pray, if anyone sins, again, prayer. He does also say if anyone is happy “sing songs of praise” which is still praying but to music!
Prayer is the Swiss Army Knife for our Christian life, anything that happens, whether good, bad, or even ugly we pull out the Swiss Army Knife of prayer and use it to survive.
PRAYER: Almighty God, I thank you for prayer, the Swiss Army Knife for life, that I can talk to you about everything, knowing that because of Jesus my prayers are powerful and effective. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay WestSide
But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life! (MSG)
TO PONDER:
The book of Jude hardly rates as a “book”, with only 25 verses (there were no verse numbers in the original text) in Jude, there was debate in the authorship of Jude, and then Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch, a non-canonical book (not part of our modern Bible), and then there is the question of when it was written.
The Book of Jude was written as a defence of the “holy faith”, a defence of the teachings of Jesus (by his own brother?) recorded in the Gospels and the other Epistles. Jude was taking a stand against the bad teachings, and their resulting divisions that were slipping into the new church.
In today’s verses Jude’s advice is not to do an apologetics course with a focus on doctrinal studies to prepare them to be able to argue their personal stance on proto-gnosticism and the resurrection of the dead (fun times).
But, instead Jude encourages his readers to pray in the Holy Spirit (led by God) keeping love and grace at the centre, rather than forming gated communities of polarising arguments, with arms open and outstretched in welcome.
In other words, prayer is a defence against tribalism and a walled, fortified church.
PRAYER: Loving God, I thank you for your unboundless love and grace you continue to show me a sinner, I ask you to help protect my heart from the judgement and anger I can use against those who seem to disagree with my theories I have created of you. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
TO PONDER
I have met people who will pray all day on a regular basis, those same people would take trips to “IHOPKC” (International House of Prayer Kansas City, Missouri) to spend a week at a conference on prayer and be excited about signing up on the 24 hour prayer roster and they would sign up for more than the 1 hour time slot.
I had been invited on several occasions to join them and would always be busy at those times, really, I was busy...
Today’s verse is encouraging the Ephesian church to pray “on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” and to “be alert” in their praying for the church (remember church is not a place/building we go to but who we are as a community). On all occasions sounds like a lot, especially when I’m busy and life is good. I will of course agree to pray for someone when they are going through something, when they have an occasion they need God's intervention and most of the time I will at least say a quick prayer soon after I had been informed of their need.
But when the “occasion” is something personal to me, something I am going through, a family member, or a close personal friend my prayers become desperate, frequent, passionate, as I long for the church to pray with me. I can’t but help feel convicted by today’s verse when Paul admonishes us/me (the church) to “be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” especially when reading the verse in the context of spiritual warfare, which is what Paul was writing about.
“The Lord’s people” are my family and deserve more than just a tossed out prayer.
PRAYER: Almighty God, I ask for your forgiveness for the times when I don’t love my neighbour as myself, when I don’t pray for my spiritual family’s needs and requests as fervently as if they were my own. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
TO PONDER
A few weeks ago an old friend unexpectedly sent me a Facebook Messenger message and when I opened the message it was an audio-file, a punk song, with lyrics like “there is no God!”, “Christianity is a dead religion”, “if Jesus is like this, I don’t want him!”, the song was crying out in anger and frustration at God and His church.
So I answered the song with a question, “Did you do that, you did it all, you wrote the song, you did the singing, the instruments, the recording???”
He answered “Yes, this morning”. Then I told him how blown-away I was with his talent and how I wanted more. In fact, I wanted a whole album of the same, I even suggested a name for the album “Psalms”.
Today’s verses speak to us about our prayer life with God, about the times we try to pray and no words can be found, the times we are unsure how to talk to God, or the times where we are not sure if we believe God even answers prayers. The life moments where we can only aim our anger towards the heavens, shouting our frustrations at the seemingly absent God.
Paul reminds us that God’s Spirit, God Himself, is standing with us, in our anger, in the frustration, in the pilgrimage of pain.
My friend didn’t respond for a few hours after our brief exchange about his song and the reasons why he composed it but when he did the reply was another audio-file, another song but this time it was a song of contrition, of repentance, of thankfulness, a renewed discovery of God’s unfathomable grace because the Spirit was with him in his anger and frustration.
PRAYER: Holy Spirit, Mighty God, I thank you that your grace is boundless, that when I am at my worst, when I don’t know what to say, what to ask for, or even how to ask, you are there with me, crying out beside me. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory
TO PONDER
This verse, together with our theme for the week, made me think of the 'child-parent' relationship as a variation of the 'master-apprentice' dynamic.
As a former teacher in a Christian school, I had the opportunity to work with lots of children from various family and cultural backgrounds, all with different levels of interaction with Christian faith and church communities. What you inevitably noticed when you reach that time of year when parent-teacher interviews happen, was children being formed into miniature versions of their parents. Suddenly, certain behaviours that you could not explain in the classroom suddenly make sense as you see the truth of the old saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
So then what does it mean for us to have a Heavenly Father? What does it mean to be God's children, if not that we should grow in bearing his likeness?
One of the strange things some members of my family have noticed as I have aged into my 40's, is that even though my father passed away about 8 years ago, I am beginning to display more traits and behaviours which I have obviously inherited from him. I think the best parents, the best mentors or masters or instructors are those whose influence remains even when they are not physically present. Jesus may have ascended into heaven, but if we are truely his brothers and sisters, co-heirs in the kingdom of heaven, the family resemblance should still be evident.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you have made a way for us to once again be called your children and have adopted us into your family. Please help me to exhibit an obvious family resemblance as I go about my day today. May it be clear to others that I am one of your children by the way I love and serve those you place before me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
TO PONDER
Those you who read yesterday's devotion will appreciate how happy and excited I was to see today's verse. I always knew it was ok for Jesus to be an example to follow.
But that's not actually the compelling part of today's verse for me. What hit me as I read this was that the apostle Paul was able to say to the Corinthians, "follow my example".
Granted, he went on to say, "as I follow the example of Christ" but how confident would you be of the example you are setting to others both within our church and outside of it as to what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the world today? If Jesus is our example then how good a job are each of us doing of being an example to the rest of the world?
The idea of an apprenticeship is for an apprentice to one day become a master of whatever craft he has been apprenticed in and be capable of passing on his knowledge to the next generation of craftspeople. While we may not have the capacity to attain the same mastery of life as Jesus, this side of eternity, we are supposed to learn from Jesus example and to be an example to others.
So next time you are tempted to compromise your behaviour or your faith to 'fit in' with a group of friends or colleagues, consider being an example to them instead.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, even in the face of suffering and death, you did not compromise who you were or the purpose for which you had come. Please help me to be an example of your resurrection life in everything I do today. Amen
today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
TO PONDER
I have heard numerous pastors and theologians over the years admonish myself, and others, for referring to Jesus as an example for us to follow. Their concern is that if Jesus becomes an example, then we lose sight of his divinity and the significance of his death and resurrection as an atoning sacrifice for all humanity. Keep that in mind while I talk about Jesus being an example for us to follow.
While those pastors and theologians might have a valid concern, I don't think we can ignore the fact that Jesus tells us to follow him. Not only that, but he goes so far as to say, "take up your cross and follow me" - literally telling us to do what he is about to do. And he basically says the same thing in today's devotion verse. "As the Father sent me, I am sending you." Jesus is not just saying I was sent, now you are sent; he's saying, I'm now sending you in the same manner in which I was sent by the father. I am sending you to serve, not to be served. I am sending you to give your lives as a ransom for many. I and sending you to show my love to the world and tell them all the things I have done to make them my own.
If we are truely Jesus' apprentices, then we have to learn by watching what he does, how he lives and how he loves. Like any other apprentice we learn from our masters who model and demonstrate to us the right way to to the work we have been given to do.
Don't be afraid to make Jesus your role model or example - just also remember that he is also your saviour, redeemer and friend.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you that I can look to you for guidance and inspiration as I try to follow you in my life. Help me each day to faithfully take up my cross and follow you wherever you lead me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
TO PONDER
What makes someone 'qualified' to teach? These days, you would need a four year bachelor degree in Education, or an equivalent in some kind of specialist field plus a diploma of education in order to be considered qualified to teach in a school but what about outside of a school? What makes you qualified to teach in an informal setting?
The answer is quite simple - you are qualified to teach if you know something that someone else doesn't. I might have mentioned that I have recently taken up guitar building classes. My 'teacher' is actually just a long term student of the luthier (guitar maker) of the guy who owns and operates the school. He doesn't hold some kind of fancy degree or formally recognised qualification, he just knows more about building guitars than I do and so he is able to teach me.
Same is true for Christians. You don't have to be a pastor with a 5 (or 7) year tertiary theology degree behind you in order to be qualified to teach people about Jesus. You just have to know something more than the other person does. The good news (or not so good news) is, if you know Jesus, then you know more than 2 out of every three adult Australians. This means you have something to teach people - you are qualified. You may not have all the answers, but simply sharing what you do know might begin the journey for someone to their own discovery of who Jesus really is. You have heard it from reliable teachers, people entrusted with the task to pass the faith on accurately - now that you have been taught, you are also qualified to teach.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you taught your disciples many things about life, humanity, and God the Father's love for his people. Things that have been taught and passed down from generation to generation right down to me. Please help me to have the confidence to share what I know of you and to trust that what I don't know, I will learn as I take up the task of teaching others all that you have shown me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle