Extracted from 'Our Daily Bread'
Prayer Malfunction
Reading and Meditation
Dear Friends, if our heart do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1 John 3:21-24)
In a box of my father's old tools I found a hand drill that was at least 60 years old. I could barely get the wheel to turn. The gears were clogged with dirt, and the pieces that hold the drill bit in place were missing. But I wanted to see if I could get it to work.
I began by wiping the accumulated dirt and sawdust off the gears. Then I oiled them. At first they turned hard and slow, but I kept working them. Soon the gears were turning smoothly. Then I saw a cap at the top of the handle. Unscrewing it, I discovered the missing parts that would hold the bit in place. I placed them in the drill, inserted a bit, and easily bored a neat hole in a piece of wood.
Working with that old drill taught me something about prayer. Jesus said we will receive from God what we ask of Him (Matthew 7:7-8). But there are conditions. For example, John said we must obey God and do what pleases Him (1 John3:22). This includes believing in His Son and loving one another (v23). If we don't meet God's conditions, our prayers will be ineffective - just like that old drill.
If your prayer-life is malfunctioning, make sure you're meeting the conditions. When you do, you can be confident that your prayers will be effective. - Dave Egner
Forgive us, Lord, our selfish asking,
All that's petty in Your sight;
Oh, help us pray with godly motives
And to seek what's good and right! - D. De Haan
Prayer Malfunction
Reading and Meditation
Dear Friends, if our heart do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1 John 3:21-24)
In a box of my father's old tools I found a hand drill that was at least 60 years old. I could barely get the wheel to turn. The gears were clogged with dirt, and the pieces that hold the drill bit in place were missing. But I wanted to see if I could get it to work.
I began by wiping the accumulated dirt and sawdust off the gears. Then I oiled them. At first they turned hard and slow, but I kept working them. Soon the gears were turning smoothly. Then I saw a cap at the top of the handle. Unscrewing it, I discovered the missing parts that would hold the bit in place. I placed them in the drill, inserted a bit, and easily bored a neat hole in a piece of wood.
Working with that old drill taught me something about prayer. Jesus said we will receive from God what we ask of Him (Matthew 7:7-8). But there are conditions. For example, John said we must obey God and do what pleases Him (1 John3:22). This includes believing in His Son and loving one another (v23). If we don't meet God's conditions, our prayers will be ineffective - just like that old drill.
If your prayer-life is malfunctioning, make sure you're meeting the conditions. When you do, you can be confident that your prayers will be effective. - Dave Egner
Forgive us, Lord, our selfish asking,
All that's petty in Your sight;
Oh, help us pray with godly motives
And to seek what's good and right! - D. De Haan
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8)
Faith and love are vital to effective prayer.
Extracted from Every Day with Jesus
Not a protest - a prayer
Reading and Meditation
The Crucifixion
As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and out the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then
"they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!"
and to the hills, "Cover us!" '
For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. (Luke 23:26-34)
Now we start to focus on the first of Jesus' seven cries from the cross: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing' (v.34). This cry, we should remember, fell from His lips as He was being crucified, possibly while the Roman soldiers were nailing Him to the cross.
Crucifixion was one of the most horrifying forms of torture ever devised by the human mind. Though Roman slaves were crucified, no Roman citizen ever was because it was such a shameful punishment. The Latin word for cross is crux and, as some of you reading this may be aware, it is from this word that the word 'excruciating' is derived. Nothing I say can describe the intolerable pain that went though our Lord's body as the Roman soldiers hammered Him to the cross. Josephus, the Jewish historian, said, 'It was customary for those being crucified, when the nails were being driven into their hands and feet, to curse their crucifiers and to rail down every evil thought upon them.'
But how did our Lord react as He was being crucified? Not with protest - but with a prayer: 'Father, forgive...' How astonishing that in the midst of such distressing circumstances our Lord's first thought should be directed towards His Father. Most people caught up in a moment like this would want to disown God or vent their anger on Him and shout, 'Why are You allowing this to happen to me?' But not Christ. His confidence in God remained intact. Men could hammer the life out of Him, but they could not hammer the love out of Him. He loved and believed in His Father still - even though hell was breaking loose about Him.
O Father, help me to trust Your love so deeply that no matter what situation I find myself in I shall respond to it in the way Jesus did - not with a protest but with a prayer. In His dear name I pray. Amen.
Faith and love are vital to effective prayer.
Extracted from Every Day with Jesus
Not a protest - a prayer
Reading and Meditation
The Crucifixion
As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and out the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then
"they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!"
and to the hills, "Cover us!" '
For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. (Luke 23:26-34)
Now we start to focus on the first of Jesus' seven cries from the cross: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing' (v.34). This cry, we should remember, fell from His lips as He was being crucified, possibly while the Roman soldiers were nailing Him to the cross.
Crucifixion was one of the most horrifying forms of torture ever devised by the human mind. Though Roman slaves were crucified, no Roman citizen ever was because it was such a shameful punishment. The Latin word for cross is crux and, as some of you reading this may be aware, it is from this word that the word 'excruciating' is derived. Nothing I say can describe the intolerable pain that went though our Lord's body as the Roman soldiers hammered Him to the cross. Josephus, the Jewish historian, said, 'It was customary for those being crucified, when the nails were being driven into their hands and feet, to curse their crucifiers and to rail down every evil thought upon them.'
But how did our Lord react as He was being crucified? Not with protest - but with a prayer: 'Father, forgive...' How astonishing that in the midst of such distressing circumstances our Lord's first thought should be directed towards His Father. Most people caught up in a moment like this would want to disown God or vent their anger on Him and shout, 'Why are You allowing this to happen to me?' But not Christ. His confidence in God remained intact. Men could hammer the life out of Him, but they could not hammer the love out of Him. He loved and believed in His Father still - even though hell was breaking loose about Him.
O Father, help me to trust Your love so deeply that no matter what situation I find myself in I shall respond to it in the way Jesus did - not with a protest but with a prayer. In His dear name I pray. Amen.
