“The Problems with Prayer.”

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
--Romans 8:26

If I were to title this devotion, I would call it “The Problems with Prayer.”
As believers, you and I know that we are commanded and called to prayer. Ephesians 6:18 tells us that we should pray “at all times in the Spirit.”

But because of our flesh, there are several “problems” that stand in the way of effective and empowering prayer… problems that the Holy Spirit can help us overcome if we but ask.

First, we lack concern. As humans, lethargy and even laziness battle our desire to pray. We don’t feel the need or urgency to pray. The flesh really doesn’t want to pray. But the Spirit gives us the concern and prompts us to pray.

Second, we perceive distance between God and ourselves. Many people don’t pray because they feel like they’re either talking to themselves or to someone who is absent. They cannot sense the presence of God in prayer. That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. We have access by the Holy Spirit to the Father.

According to Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father!”

We have the Spirit of God living within us to make God real and to make God ever present. The Holy Spirit helps us connect with God the Father.

THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL HELP YOU OVERCOME THE “PROBLEMS WITH PRAYER” IF YOU WILL BUT ASK.

THE CAREFUL BUILDER

OK, this is not our typical devotional today. Last night I was watching the 2 football games that were on and at the half, Lou Holtz was on and he recited this poem. So, I went and found it on the internet to see exactly what it said and I tought it woul make a pretty good devotional. It reminded of James 3.



THE CAREFUL BUILDER

I saw them tearing a building down - a gang of men, in my hometown.

With a heave, and a ho, and a 'yes, yes!' yell They swung a beam, and a sidewall fell.

I said to the foreman, "Are these men skilled? Like the ones you'd use if you had to build?"

He laughed and said, "Oh, no! Indeed! The most common labor's all I need. Because I can destroy, in a day or two, what it takes a builder ten years to do."

And I thought to myself, as I went my way - Which of these roles am I willing to play?

Am I one, who's tearing down, as I carelessly make my way around?

Or am I one who builds with care? So my family, my community, is just a little better, because I was there.



So, I think we should read James 3 it and meditate on it.

James 3

Taming the Tongue

1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Empty Me

I've had just enough of the spotlight when it burns bright
To see how it gets in the blood.
And I've tasted my share of the sweet life and the wild ride
And found a little is not quite enough.
I know how I can stray
And how fast my heart could change.

Empty me of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride
And any foolish thing my heart holds to
Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with you.

I've seen just enough of the quick buys of the best lies
To know how prodigals can be drawn away.
I know how I can stray
And how fast my heart could change.

Empty me of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride
And any foolish thing my heart holds to
Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with you.

Cause everything is a lesser thing
Compared to you, compared to you.
Cause everything is a lesser thing
Compared to you so why surrender all?

Empty me of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride
Empty me of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride
And any foolish thing my heart holds to
Lord empty me of me so I can be
Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with you.
Oh, filled with you.
Empty me.

by Chris Sligh

How can you be confident in your future?

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
--Psalm 39:7

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have a hope that is grounded in God. And there is nothing stronger, truer, surer, more reliable, more just, or more powerful than Him!

So how is this confident hope made real in your own life?

Hope is made real through the Scriptures. If you want to increase your hope, study the Scriptures. “In his word I hope” (Psalm 130:5). God, who cannot lie, has given us a guarantee, a sure promise in His Word. The revelation of His word is that you and I have a future and a hope.

Hope is also made real by the resurrection. Because Jesus Christ lives, we shall live also. Because He conquered sin, the grave, death, and hell, we are conquerors through Him (Romans 8:37).

And hope is made real by faith. Faith and hope are inseparably linked. Faith is the root, hope is the fruit. Faith produces hope! “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness” (Galatians 5:5).

MAKE YOUR HOPE REAL BY BUILDING YOUR LIFE UPON THE WORD OF GOD.

Where Have You Pitched Your Tent?

Genesis 13:12 (KJV) says,
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Notice that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. Every day his attention was placed on that city. Here is what the Bible says about those that lived there.

But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly (Genesis 13:13, KJV).

What we focus our attention on will influence us. It will try to draw us in like a magnet. The next time we read about Lot he is living in Sodom.

And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed (Genesis 14:12, KJV).

Next we find him even further entrenched among the people of Sodom. Genesis 19:1 declares that Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

In Eastern cities, the “gate” was a place devoted to business transactions, the administration of justice, and the enjoyment of social discourse and amusement. Lot was right “in the thick of things”—but it happened by degrees. It was a process.

What you view and listen to, and the company you keep, will influence you—sometimes in very subtle ways—and will play a role in shaping your values and character.

So be careful where you pitch your tent!

Saved From Such Men

Psalms 17:14 O Lord, by Your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life....



Whenever I travel over the ocean, I am always reminded of the seemingly insignificant time we have on this earth. I often imagine dropping a glass of water out the window of the jet into the huge body of water below. The Lord then reminds me that this is how my life is compared to eternity-a mere drop in the ocean.



Yet, every day millions of people will go to work seeking to gain that elusive thing called success. The rewards of this life continue to provide the incentive for 60-hour weeks or the extra weekend away from the family. Sometimes we get entrenched in the message of the world. This message is an appealing, seductive call to sell out eternity for the temporal.



As a Christian businessman, I fell for this for many years until the Lord allowed me to wake up. It took some severe wake-up calls, but they did their job. I'm so grateful the Lord cares enough to give us these wake-up calls. He knows what real life is about. We think we know what it is, only to learn once again that real life is only in what is built on eternity. How does this verse line up with where you are today? Are you building around a world whose reward is in this lifetime, or an eternal one? Do those with whom you associate live in such a way that they demonstrate their reward is not concerning this life? Jesus said to seek first His Kingdom and all these things will be added. Amen.

Your Word is a Lamp

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Thoughts on today's verse: God's promises, God's Scripture, help us find our way in a pluralistic world of competing voices and lights our path in these times so given to cynicism and despair. What great grace we have to know God's will in our own words!

Prayer: Loving Father, thank you for giving me your truth in Scripture. To know that you love me enough to communicate in language I can read is truly awe inspiring to me. Make my heart hunger for your truth revealed in your Word. I want to grow to be a righteous and gracious child in your family. With love through my older brother I pray. Amen.

Spiritual Strongholds

2 Corinthians 10:4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

One of the great discoveries I made in later years in my walk with God has to do with living in victory over generational strongholds. The Bible speaks of punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generations. (See Exodus 20:5.) The only way out of living under the curses of generational strongholds is to acknowledge them before the Father and repent of their reign in our lives. This breaks the curse's future effects.

A stronghold is a fortress of thoughts that controls and influences our attitudes. They color how we view certain situations, circumstances, or people. When these thoughts and activities become habitual, we allow a spiritual fortress to be built around us. We become so used to responding to the "voice" of that spirit, that its abode in us is secure. All of this happens on a subconscious level.

As a businessman, I discovered that I had been influenced by a generational stronghold of insecurity and fear that was manifested in control. This subconscious fear motivated me to become a workaholic, to seek recognition through activities, to control others' behavior to avoid failure, and to have a relationship with God that was activity-based instead of relationally-based. One day God brought about a number of catastrophic events that forced me to look at what was behind these events. I found that the influence of these strongholds was at the core of these symptoms. The Bible speaks of this war on our souls.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete (2 Corinthians 10:3,5-6).

The steps to freedom for me came when someone shared that these were sins that I was harboring, and in order to walk free of their influence, I needed to repent of them. It was through the power of the cross that I no longer needed to be subjugated by their presence. Once I took this step, I began to walk free of their influences. Besides salvation, this became the most important discovery in my entire Christian walk. My relationship to Christ changed immediately. I began to hear God's voice. I began to trust Christ in areas I never thought possible. I could truly experience the love of Christ for the first time.

This knowledge helped me in business as well. One day I was in the middle of a contract negotiation with another Christian businessman. A lawyer had jumped in the middle of the negotiation. My friend began to surface many old feelings that were a source of pain from his past. When I perceived that a stronghold of insecurity and fear was at the core of his response, I interrupted his argumentative discussion with me and said with a very forceful tone, "I am no longer going to listen to the spirit of insecurity that is speaking through you right now! If you don't refrain from this, I am going to leave!" My friend was taken back. He looked at me quite startled. After a few moments, he agreed with my diagnosis. We talked through what he was feeling and completed our negotiation without further incident.

What are the true motivations of your heart? Have you ever looked deeply at these motivations? You might find that these subconscious motivations may be preventing you from experiencing the fullness of Christ in your life. Ask Him to reveal these and then repent of their influences.

Helplessly Relational

Helplessly Relational
By Scott Sauls

The movie Jerry Maguire includes perhaps one of the sappiest scenes in the history of film. Jerry, separated from his wife, suddenly comes to his senses—his life is not complete without his wife in it. So, he barges into his wife’s sister’s house (where his wife is staying at the time), and in the middle of a room filled with women who see men as “the enemy,” says to her, “You complete me.” He continues on with a long soliloquy about how he loves and needs her.

“Shut up. Shut up,” she responds, “You had me at hello. You had me at hello.”

OK…either you see this as one of the most moving scenes ever, or…it makes you want to gag. Either way, it accentuates the reality that human beings are helplessly relational. The image of the Lone Ranger or the Marlboro Man who are symbols of strength and independence—people who need no one else but themselves—is bogus. John Donne spoke truthfully when he coined the phrase, “No man is an island.” We are helplessly relational. We need connection or we will die.

Why is this so? It is because we are created in the image of God—and God is Himself intensely relational. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit co-exist as a perfect, mutually-loving, mutually-supportive, in-covenant community. What this means is that we, who are created in God’s image, cannot help but need relationship—without it our lives become distorted. This is why so many people, living in a culture where over 50% of marriages end in divorce, still ache for a “significant other.” This is why so many of us are still willing to take the risks involved with loving, even though it exposes us to the potential agony of rejection and betrayal.

Friendship means self-disclosure
Sartre once said that hell is to be looked at. Our fear of being known flows out of a fear of exposure, because exposure opens us up to potential rejection. Out of self-protection we therefore keep others at a distance. The intimacy we long for is also the intimacy we fear. We are reluctant to go deep.

But biblical friendship goes deep. It takes the risk because the unshakable favor and loyalty of Jesus provides us with a safety net. The Gospel gives us the emotional wealth for self-disclosure—a form of transparency that gives two people (or, even more ideal, a community of people) consistent access to each others’ dreams, fears, loves, hatreds, struggles and sins. The difficulty with self-disclosure, however, is that we are all afraid on a deep level of being looked at, of being truly known. We want it more than anything and we also fear it more than anything. What if he rejects me? What if she uses my struggles against me? Self-disclosure is indeed risky…yet any friendship or (especially) any marriage that doesn’t take the risk is a costly counterfeit to the real thing. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Love anything and your heart will be…broken…” If you want to protect yourself from the risks of love, “you must give (your heart) to no one…the only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell.”

Friendship means enduring loyalty
Rather than being deeply committed “’til death parts us,” most of us are “committed” to people only to the degree and duration that they are useful to us. As long as they are meeting our needs at a cost that is suitable to us—as long as we are getting from the relationship at least as much as we are investing into it—we will stay with the relationship. But when a relationship becomes costly to us, we withdraw. We get a new friend, a new roommate, a new job, a new church, or even a new spouse, when the cost/benefit ratio is no longer in our favor. Rather than sticking with each other “until death do us part,” we stick together “as long as our love shall last” or “as long as I’m getting something from this relationship—as long as my needs are met at an acceptable cost to me.”

This sounds like a cold assessment, but it is true for many of us if we take a deeper look at our motivations for many of our relationships. Yet the Bible calls for relational commitments that endure…flowing from the Gospel, from Jesus’ eagerness to “stick with us” even though having us as his friends cost Him everything.

Friendship means a vision for each other’s glory
Whereas “modern” friendship asks, “What can this person do to make my life better?” a Gospel-centered friendship asks, “What can I do to make this person’s life better? What can I do to ‘enhance her glory,’ to help her be and become all she can be, as the person God created her to be and to become?” When the Christian Gospel gets into our hearts, it changes our entire paradigm for our acquaintances, our friendships, and our marriages. When we understand that all of our deepest and truest needs have been met by Jesus, our hearts are freed to love—and to devote ourselves to the good of the other people in our lives. Modern friendship treats friendship as a negotiation (I’ll take care of you if you take care of me, I’ll serve you to the degree that you serve me), whereas Christian friendship treats it as a covenant (I will stick with you even if you become costly and high-maintenance to me). Modern friendship is devoted to receiving from the other person. In a covenant, Gospel-oriented friendship, the good of the other person and the relationship take priority over our own needs and wants. And this kind of “one anothering” becomes possible only to the degree that Jesus, who “one-anothered” us by giving himself to us all the way to the death, becomes our deepest and most significant other.

Do not love the world!

1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world.

Thoughts on today's verse: Love for things, especially temporary ones, can sure get us in trouble. Even worse, we can begin to think they will make us happy or fill the empty places in our hearts. But if we really place our hopes and dreams in our Abba Father, we are attached to eternity, and what we need most is always with us!

Prayer: Give me wisdom, Holy God, to invest in you and things that matter. I confess to you that my eyes and my heart are often distracted by the glitzy stuff that is temporary. By your Spirit, O Father, stir my heart to yearn for you. Through Jesus I pray, amen.

Fellowship In The Gospel

“Fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself - God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say - Lord, this gives me such heart-ache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do any thing He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himself and in His goodness. Self pity is of the devil, if I go off on that line I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. I have "a world within the world" in which I live, and God will never be able to get me outside it because I am afraid of being frost-bitten.

Brokenness: The Process

Romans 8:29-31 - 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

How tempting it is to think we need very little improvement. Ask around, and you’ll hear many people concede they could probably use a bit of “maintenance” on one or two problem areas (preferably without being caused any discomfort). Yet most will add, “But I’m a good person.” Don’t be fooled—the Father refuses to settle for humanity’s meager vision of “good enough.”

God sees each believer as the person he or she will be when fully yielded to Jesus Christ. He then sets about achieving that complete renovation by transforming the individual’s present self into the image of His Son. We could say that God is our “interior designer.”

An essential step in remodeling involves removing whatever is unnecessary, damaged, or outmoded. In our case, what must go are the areas of self-will. I can tell you from experience that being a man under construction is uncomfortable! God targets habits, attitudes, and even relationships wherein we act independently of His purposes. Then He applies pressure to direct our attention there as well. The Lord takes hold of interests that are dear to our hearts in order to coax from us the rather humbling question, “What more would You have me submit to You?”

Conforming our will to God’s changes who we are. In the midst of our transformation, pain from His tools may temporarily obscure the beauty of His design. But nothing is more splendid to God than a committed, obey-at-all-costs follower

The Holy Spirit in You

I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD. Ezekiel 37:14

When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we receive His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God that allows us to have a relationship with the Lord. The Spirit of God intercedes for us in prayer as He uses words that enter into the throne room of God when we can only moan and groan. He is our Counselor, our Teacher, our Comfort and our Guide. But the most important eternal promise we receive when the Spirit of God is placed in us is the seal of our salvation as we come alive spiritually for eternity. Amazing!

Do you realize the power you have living inside you? That power raised Lazarus from the dead, healed all kinds of diseases and delivered souls from bondage. That same power is found in you through Jesus. Jesus shows us this power through His indwelling peace. When we receive the Spirit of God, we have peace with God, not peace as the world gives, but the peace of God that surpasses understanding. It is peace that "settles" you. No matter where you are or what you are struggling with, God has settled your soul to have peace with Him.

The peace of God is a promise for you today. Claim it, speak it and live in it. Throw off the distractions of illness, financial loss, negative comments, guilt, and self-condemnation. And let the peace of Christ dwell in you richly. Nothing can interfere with the love Christ has for you and the peace that is yours by knowing Him. All these things on earth will pass away, but your security for eternity is fixed. Fix your eyes on Jesus by reading His word. Get a verse today that you can claim as a promise and live beyond the struggles. Cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you.

Decision-making

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

This is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible related to gaining wisdom and direction from God. Yet I have never heard one teaching on this passage that teaches what I believe the psalmist is really saying. The first part is pretty easy; we are to trust with all our heart. But the next part is not so clear. We are not to lean on our own understanding. If we are not to lean on our own understanding, on whose understanding are we to lean? God's!

Throughout the Old Testament we find that God set up structures by which those in authority made decisions. God has always set a principle whereby we are to seek Him in all our decisions, that He might truly make our decisions. In the Old Testament, the priest made decisions based on which way the Urim and Thummim fell inside his breastplate. The casting of lots was another means of allowing a decision to be left with God. Proverbs says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Prov. 16:33). Another means of making a decision was through the agreement of two or three. No one could be guilty of any crime without the witness of two or three. This was a biblical way of confirming a matter. Still another means of making a decision is through a multitude of counselors.

Given all these scenarios, what are we to gain from these examples? We are told in Jeremiah 17:9a, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." So what really protects each of us from the deceit of our own heart? I believe it is the combination of all the above. When we get to a place with God that our decisions are accountable to others, whether that be a wife, a board, or a few close friends who are committed to the same godly ideals, this is when we are protected from the deceit of our own heart. This is one of the hardest things to yield to God-the right to make our own decisions. Yet, it is the most elementary principle God requires of us to receive His blessing in our lives.

This principle took a long time for me to appropriate. However, today I can tell you I would never make a major decision without the counsel of others who are close to me. Relational accountability has become lost in our culture due to our hunger for independence. I have experienced too often the hardship that results from making decisions that God isn't behind. Walking in obedience is the only real freedom in Christ.

Test Me, Control Me

When I was reading my bible on Sunday, I came across a couple of passages I thought I would share with you guys that really struck me. The first is from Psalms and is something we should pray daily: Ps 139:23-4 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. What a powerful prayer to start each day.

Another good verse to meditate on is found in Ps 141:3-4 Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.