The Unselfish Prayer

[1] 

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:14-21

When C.S. Lewis finally learned how to pray it was because his dying wife, Joy, needed a prayer warrior.  With her life hanging in the balance, Lewis’ spiritual advisor/pastor uttered one of those trite things we all say when we should be silent, God can change this.  

Lewis, in the throes of spiritual formation, brought on by the imminent death of his wife, looked at his spiritual mentor and solemnly replied, I pray because I can’t help myself.  I pray because I’m helpless.  I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping.  It does not change God – it changes me.[2]

Unselfish prayer is something of a redundancy; prayer is, by nature humble, not selfishly arrogant.  If self is the primary target it is hardly prayer.  Paul’s example of his deep love for the church at Ephesus is our model of praying the most important of prayers – for spiritual understanding, strength and blessing on the lives of those who co-labor for the sake of Christ.  To borrow from C.S. Lewis, that is the kind of praying which changes us.

 My Mom always had a hard time saying no to her children.  As a pre-teen I begged my parents (starting wisely with Mom) to let me bring home a free German Shepherd puppy.  (Incidentally there is no such thing as a “free” puppy).  My profuse whining brought the dog home.  We named him Bosco (after my favorite chocolate syrup in milk).  He was the resident clown in our home, more entertaining than a circus.  The way he dragged our other small dog around by the tail and flirted with the cat’s patience nose to nose – you didn’t need a TV in our house; Bosco was ever ready to play.  He could make you laugh until you cried.

Unfortunately, in just months my dog got very sick.  I then turned to prayer, whining even more profusely to God than I had for Mom’s permission.  My prayers notwithstanding, the dog died.  To this day I do not know what caused this first pet of mine to die, nor do I understand the why of it all.  What I do recall are the tears and anguish that tore my insides apart for weeks; hardly a fascinating story for the success circuit of TV evangelism or prayer manuals! 

Six decades of remembering that first heartache of loss have taught me too many lessons to list here, but a couple stand above most:

1.     I was unprepared for the death of my grandparents which would take place shortly after my dog died.  There’s something of a growing up that takes place in the middle of grief over losing your dog. 

2.     Not all prayers offered are unselfish; I wanted Bosco to live because he made me happy.  Truth be told, I was praying for me, not him.

For You Today

Paul’s prayer for his Ephesian friends was written in jail, awaiting execution.  He didn’t pray for a puppy, or his release; his unselfish prayer was a Kingdom thing.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

[2] Shadowlands 1993 movie

Measuring the Love of God

[1][2]

Friday, July 19, 2019

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!  Amen.                                  Ephesians 3:14-21

Did you ever have one of those moments when everything suddenly made sense?  And you learned this because of a seminar, a book, somebody’s advice, or a new app on your iPhone?  More than likely those influences on your life have provided some helpful insights, but this was more than that; it was being knocked to your knees with an overwhelming sense of God’s love pulling all the harshness of life into an understandable heap, tied-up with the unfailing covenant string of grace.

How can you measure something like that?

Apostle Paul was an expert at being knocked to his knees.  Pursuing a career as a Jewish religious rock star, Paul turned into a Christian-hating persecutor of Jesus.  But on the road to Damascus he met the One he was kicking against, and the thing that became most real under God’s ultraviolet spotlight of loving salvation was the ugliness of how hardened his heart had become.  That changed everything for Paul, including a name change from Saul to Paul, and the direction of his life from church-hater to church-builder, lover of Christ, and author of 14 of the New Testament’s 27 books.  It’s amazing what a little knock-you-to-your-knees-GRACE can accomplish.

I’m no Apostle Paul, but I’ve experienced a little of that.  These days it’s more common having gotten a lot older, and a little wiser, I find it easier to recognize more of how much God’s love has given me everything I am and have, and it’s so much more than I could’ve dreamed or asked-for.  I’m tempted to write out a list of all those blessings, but this is a four-minute devotion, and I’ve got more of a list than Hershey’s has little chocolate kisses! 

But here’s just a starter, looking at the height, depth, length and width of the roots of God’s love I have recognized which weaves-together the threads of my 70+ years on this planet into a tapestry that makes more sense than the individual parts.

·      Stuff – I’ve got way more than I need, and He’s showing me how to share it better than I did with that favorite seat I had on the merry-go-round at school recess when I was a first grader.

·      People – I’ve got a few friends I know I could count on in any pinch, and a host of brothers and sisters in this strange forever family of the church.

·      Mate – She’s there for me like a mama bear if anyone so much as looks sideways at me…and she’s tender as a baby fawn in my heart.

·      Purpose – the thing so many people have told me over the years…I just wish I knew what it is God wants me to do.  Frankly, I don’t have a problem with that in my brain…I’ve realized I’m simply a man God has blessed with an inner peace about how much He loves me.  That peace is there because Jesus died my death on Calvary’s cross, and that gift – a lovely indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit – compels me to do for Christ what I can, where I am, with what He’s put in my hand.  That’s my purpose for being here.

And that, my beloved, is how I measure the love of God lighting up my world.

For You Today

Look around; his love is much bigger on you than you thought.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] For another post on this Scripture  Understanding the Dangers of Peanut Butter

The Hope of Glory

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Listen to this sermon HERE

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!  Amen.   Ephesians 3:14-21^(NLT)

Considering the number of times my parents had to have some of my limbs and extremities X-Rayed, I’m not entirely certain what the final count was of bones broken, or not broken.  I do know there were prayers being offered.  Some of the prayers were petitions that God might spare me further agony; some were that the cost of a cast or surgery might not keep us from having Christmas presents (those were from my brother), and I’m sure there were a few that I might have more sense about playing football next year!

It makes a difference how you get along if you’re not broken. 

Now, what’s true in the physical world is often true of spiritual issues.  In Ephesians 2:14 Paul held-up Jesus as “our peace”.  Peace is the opposite of chaos, when things are broken. 

Peace is putting back together that which was broken. 

It’s the Humpty Dumpty reality of every child of God.  We come to God all broken and pulled apart by our sin; we hold ourselves up like a toddler comes to Mom with her broken doll, and He fixes our brokenness.

If we could look at our inside brokenness on a spiritual X-Ray, we might understand that we don’t really know how to fix ourselves, and all the things we try only break us more.  Stuff like drugs, material things, bad relationships and sexual experimentation are no way to fix the brokenness we experience.

This is the essence of Paul’s prayers for the folks at Ephesus.  He reminds them ^{(Chap 2)} that they were far from God, broken and pulled apart.  But God healed their brokenness in Jesus Christ; he brought them into the kingdom and drew them close like chicks gathered into the safety of a mother hen’s embrace.

And now God wants them strong, overflowing with his grace by the power of His Holy Spirit, overwhelmed with love from Christ dwelling in their hearts, and experiencing every possible measure of what it means to be loved by God, so that they can love others the same way. 

It’s unimaginable, but Paul prays big for people he loves.  And Paul believes it will show up in their lives.

Let’s unpack that prayer a bit; here’s what Paul (and God) want for you and me, and every person on earth:

He Wants Us Whole and Strong

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  ^v.16

 Empowered is the word “dunamis”; we hear the word dynamite.  Paul wants the overwhelming, dynamic strength of God’s glory to be active in our lives.  But he prays for it to be on the inside, the inner being…spiritual strength.

In our world it seems everything is based upon the outward appearance, not inner.  Young girls jump through all the latest fad “hoops” just to look attractive.  That’s anything but authentic. 

When you ignore the inner self in favor of presenting a sensuous, lust-creating appearance, you’re prostituting away the best part of you; you exchange real life for an existence built on sand.

To be strengthened in the inner being is to be integrated, congruent, and whole; it’s when the inner character is so “together” that it shows through to the outside. 

It means you’re authentic; what you see is what you get!

God is that way – He’s authentic.  Scripture says He is the same yesterday, today and forever.[2] 

Authentic means you’re living into who God created you to be, because you are allowing God’s Spirit to control your life.  You’re the same on the inside as the outside.

He Wants Us Loved by Christ on the Inside

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  ^v.17

Christ dwelling in our hearts – how in the world do you explain that to a five year old?  You may have seen that email story a few years ago about the small boy who has to have heart surgery.  He is a faith-filled little guy, but the doctor is something of a skeptic. 

The night before the surgery the doctor tries to assure the boy by describing the operation.  The doc says “when I open your heart”, at which point the boy finishes the sentence… you’ll find Jesus there.

Well…is he there or not?  Yes AND no are the correct answers.  He may not be there physically, but his presence comes to unite with who you are on the inside, your spirit, soul – all that which makes you who and what you are – and his influence changes you from inside out.

What kind of influence?  Christ is dwelling, making himself at home in us, rooting us in him and building a strong foundation under us…Paul piles up methaphors[3] of how Jesus makes himself known to us on the inside, fitting us for living the kind of life a strong Christian can experience.

I became a Christian at a young age, but walked away from the faith in my teen years.  For a long time, more than a dozen years I was like the prodigal son – away from my Father.  Then I came home; God began (through a relationship of faith with Him in Christ) to change my wanter.  What is a wanter?  It’s the source of most of our troubles.  It’s the inner craving for all the kinds of stuff, habits and activities that can either separate us from God, or join us to God. 

Can a Christian sin after he gets saved?  And do we?  Yes!  My answer is:  I sin all I want to; but when Jesus came and took up residence in my life, soul and spirit he changed my wanter.  I still have the ability to sin, but I want-to much less each year; He changes our wanter!

He Wants Us Living it and Loving Others

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. ^v.18-19

To know in the Biblical sense is to experience by relationship. 

Knowing Christ’s love leads to the filling of the fullness of God.  To describe this is like telling a person what transcendent love means; words fail!  You might tell what you felt like in the presence of God’s transcendent love, but you have a tough time describing the love. 

How do you describe the wind? 

How do you describe the birth of a baby? 

You know what happened, but you’re awe struck at the magnitude of the event.

But let’s take a stab at it.  Imagine you’re in a fishing boat; you let down a net and pull it up again.  The catch is so tremendous that the net is breaking.  What will you do?  Will you keep this little occurrence to yourself, or tell the first eighteen thousand people you meet about your great prowess as a fisherman?

This is what it means to live the Christian life, and experience or know His transcendent love; this is what it is to know Christ Jesus, to be in the presence of Almighty God, and share with others, as best you can, what He has done for you.

He Wants Us to NOT Miss the Best Part

The dying words of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement are recorded as the best of all is, God is with us.[4] 

There is something of that in what Paul has said to us about not being broken.

In Paul’s text he says he prays for us to be

·  strengthened in the inner being,

·  that Christ would be dwelling in us,

·  and that we would know him and be filled.

In each case the words (strengthened, dwelling, know and filled) are in the infinitive…no ending.

Paul is saying,

·  we are strengthened and continuing to grow stronger

·  Christ is dwelling in us, and never leaving us

·  knowing Him and His filling are increasing and unending.

This is what is in store for a child of God who stays close to the Father through Jesus Christ. 

The “not broken” part is for keeps!

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Amen!

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[1] Title Image: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Hebrews 13:8

[3] A.T. Robertson, WORD PICTURES IN THE N.T., Vol. 4: Epistles, (IA, Parsons, 2007) Quickverse.

[4] James Gilchrist Lawson, Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians John Wesley – Edited by Albert C. Outler, , The Works of John Wesley (13 Volumes) Baker Books, Wesley Center Online