The Lords Prayer 4

The Lords Prayer 4.

4. Jabez may have reiterated his need to be guarded by God, that God should keep him from harm, probably because he wanted to be free from pain caused by those who would want to harm him due to his honourable way of life, no matter the unfavourable conditions he lived in.

Thank God for His loving mercy, for at the end of Jabez's prayer it was recorded, "And God granted his request." 
Note that no mention was made about Jabez changing his name from Jabez which meant "Pain" to anything else, at God's instance or otherwise for God to bring a turnaround in his life.

How is your prayer life?

Note that a man that is too lazy to pray is one that is too lazy to succeed in life.

Psalm 23, is a powerful affirmation if professed by faith, of what God has purposed for His people. To acknowledge His sovereignty over our lives, constantly, so that in turn He would honour our heartfelt confession of His hand upon our lives, and bring to fruition His promises concerning us, as contained in it.

While you may not really see all of the things therein at work in your life right now, know that God's word concerning his people can't fail if they ensure they live fulfilling their own part of the covenant with regards to prayer, which is simply to"PUSH", that is to, Pray Until Something Happens, and not to doubt in their thoughts and actions.

It goes thus, as it is recorded in Psalm 23: 1 to 7 KJV, 
1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
3. he leadeth me beside the still waters. 
He restoreth my soul: 
4. he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
5. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil: 
for thou art with me; 
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 
6. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; 
my cup runneth over. 
7. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Lords Prayer 3

The Lords Prayer 3.

Prayer should be a constant 2 way flow of communication in the relationship between God and man.

If we must request of him then we must also be attentive and allow Him speak or respond to us by any other means he so chooses that we may come to know His will and obey accordingly.

Nothing authenticates our relationship with our creator more than our persistent communion with Him in prayer. 
Prayer is the proof that His word abides in us and the catalyst that will bring it to pass.
Where there is no relationship with God there will be no abiding presence or overcoming strength.

Any Christian that doesn't have a prayer life is like a soldier without weapons, and defeat is inevitable.

Unfortunately man's propensity to go it alone, oblivious of His creators purpose for him, and man's impatience in waiting for God's reply or his choice to disobey, has been the bane of the relationship from time immemorial.

During the journey of life we will indeed have some highs and lows but God forbid that we bring trouble upon ourselves by the foolish things we utter.

In 1 Peter 3: 10, it is written, 
.., “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil ..."

This reminds me of the terrible name the mother of Jabez gave him and thank God that a heartwarming prayer to his Creator was all that was needed to turn his life around.

Lets take a while to reflect on the short account of Jabez and his famous prayer as recorded in 1 Chronicles 4: 9 to 10:

9. Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 
10. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
It can be deduced that because his mother gave birth to him in pain she unfortunately decided to give him a name synonymous with what she experienced during childbirth, rather than giving him a prophetic name that would speak blessings into his future.

The name probably characterized his existence, till he could handle it no more and one day, cried out to God in prayer.

Note that the first thing that was mentioned to his credit was that he was more honorable than his brothers.

This could have various meaning starting from him being of great renown, to respectable, to him being characterized by his unwavering integrity in the midst of the pain and suffering he could have been undergoing - for a major part of his life, until he sought God's intervention.

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, for 4 things, namely that:
1. God would bless him, 
2. Enlarge his territory, 
3. Let His hand be with him, and 
4. keep him from harm so that he would be free from pain.

One could infer from his prayer that:

1. Jabez cried out for God to bless him because of the consequence of the cursed name he was given due to his mother's ignorance of how powerful words and names were.

2. Jabez requested that God enlarge his territory because all his struggle to improve and expand had always fallen short of expectation.

3. We are the works of God's hand.
We are the clay, and He, the potter.
Jabez's request that, "God's hand be with him", was a plee that God would be active in his life, that God would guard and guide him in life so that God's good, pleasing and perfect will would be accomplished in his life. (The opposite is in Acts 13: 11).

A heartfelt prayer to God like that of Jabez can turn your life around, so don't fail to make your supplication unto the Father in faith, because if He can do it for Jabez, He can do it for you too.

The Lords Prayer 2

The Lords Prayer 2.

"Give us today our daily bread," must be a diurnal request in recognition that we need God in our lifes on a daily basis, to provide us with our physical and spiritual food requirements, as well as other needs like shelter, security, clothing, etc, like an earthly father would his children.

God is pleased to do so because He has made itHis covenant duty to do so out of His love for mankind, His prized creation.

In 2 Peter 1: 3, it is written, 
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

This is a reminder that everything we need for a godly life can only be experienced through His divine power which is at work in the lives of those who increase their faith and relationship with Him by improving their knowledge of His purpose for their lives through His Word and through prayer.

There is a promise that we must claim by faith in 2 Corinthians 9: 10, where it is written, 
"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness."

The physical and also the spiritual part of our call on God to "Give us today our daily bread," can be better appreciated when we grasp these truths:

A. Our supply and store of seed, as sowers, that is, a farmer in His vineyard, is Wealth God will endow us with so that we can invest in others in need, and therefore enlarge His kingdom on earth, and by so doing have an enlarged harvest of righteousness, that is, having a greater standing before Him to be entrusted with more of the riches of His kingdom for greater works.

B. Our "bread for food" is God's provision for our own consumption that always comes in these two forms: His spiritual revelation of His Word as well as His physical endowments to meet our daily needs.

4. God forgiving us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors is a double-edged part of the prayer, in which our request that our sins be forgiven by God, must be matched by our own willingness to forgive others who sin against us as well.

This is not a mistake nor is it too far off to ask for or achieve because that is the way God intended it to be, and all we need is to believe, that He who said it is more than able to bring it into fruition in our lives.

This request helps us not to be selfish but to keep ourselves in check by having mercy on others and therefore loving our neighbor as God did for us through the death of His son on our behalf.

As in Matthew 22: 39, where we are commanded by Jesus to Love our neighbors as ourselves, the proof of this can be seen in our willingness to choose to forgive others.

While this is not something we may normally want to do nor is it something we can actually achieve of our own will power, prayer and our reliance on God's grace always makes the difference. 

5. The latter part of the prayer is a cry to God not to allow us face any temptation that is more than we can bare, by making His grace available to bear whatever the evil one tempts or attacks us with. 

It is a salient reminder and our acknowledgment that we cannot outwit or defeat the evil one by our own strength and without God's divine intervention.

An example of this can be seen in Matthew 26: 39 - 41, when Jesus was about to be crucified and he went to a solitary place where he fell with his face to the ground and prayed to his Father, that he may not go through what he was about to suffer, but agreed to submit to God's will nevertheless.

On his return to his disciples, he found them sleeping and asked Peter, “Couldn't you keep watch with me for one hour?” He then admonished Peter saying, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation," with the note of caution that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The Lords Prayer

The Lords Prayer.

Life is a journey bound by time to a final eternal destination. For Christians, it is a sojourn to be reconciled and reunited and to ensure others are also redeem to God Almighty, our Creator.

The journey is however as important as the destination, because if we fail to accomplish the journey as we ought, in accordance to the roadmap of the One who orchestrated it all in Christ Jesus, we may after all is said and done, miss out on our final destination.

Now, one of the greatest tools God Almighty has equipt us with to ensure that we remain in tune with Him and His purpose for our individual lives, that we may finish well, is Prayer.

Prayer is supposed to be a two way communication between mankind and God Almighty, however with most people it is perpetually one way. If we will bring our petitions to Him we must also learn to listen to Him even more. The cycle must be complete.

In Matthew 6: 9 to 15, the command Jesus gave his disciples on how to pray is thus:

9. “This, then, is how you should pray: 
‘Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name, 
10. your kingdom come, 
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 
11. Give us today our daily bread. 
12. And forgive us our debts, 
as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
13. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one. 
14. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, 
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 
15. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

The command Jesus Christ gave his disciples on how to pray is a blueprint of the manner in which Christians ought to commune with God beyond the fact that He is our creator, to the truth that He desires the Father-Son relationship with us that He has with Jesus Christ His son.

The prayer the Lord thought his followers, of which we are also, deals with our role and also Gods part in a covenant relationship he has called all mankind into, and it can be broken down thus:

1. It starts with the need for us to personally believe and therefore 
acknowledge that the God of heaven is "Our Father."
This is the most important characterization we need to see God as, in order for us to understand, believe and relate with Him as we ought, and therefore have all the perks of being His adopted children accrue to us as a result.

The need for His name to be "hallowed," that it should be highly respected, revered and praised is why we were created in the first place, to worship Him, for who He is and His wonderful deeds on our behalf.

2. It continues with the desire that the Great Commission, the spreading of the influence of His heavenly kingdom on earth be made manifest in the hearts and minds of mankind and the rest of His creation, so that His good, pleasing and perfect will will be accomplished as a result, on earth, just as it is being done in heaven.

God chose that His supreme will, that men not perish but be saved from the sway of this fallen world, and reconciled to Him through Christ, would be accomplished on earth as it exists in heaven by establishing His kingdom on earth in our hearts.

We are as in 2 Corinthians 5: 20, Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us that the rest of mankind be reconciled to Him just as He reconciled us to Christ.

It is indeed a privilege that God chose to allow us participate in the expansion of His Kingdom on earth and therefore in heaven, and it is not to be taken lightly.

3. Our call on God to "Give us today our daily bread," to meet our need for sustainance on a daily basis is a request for His mercy and grace towards us which are new every morning, that we may fulfill the great commission.

The call on God to "Give us today our daily bread," is all encompassing, as it's actually a request that God meet all our daily requirements for not only our day to day needs in life but also grace for us to live godly lives as in 2 Peter 1: 3.

What Kind of Christian are you (5)

What Kind of Christian are you (5)

Just as Physical strength is required to finish a race or finish well or first, so also is Spiritual strength that must be built up by meditating on and having Faith in God's Word, that one has come to understand, as well as the willingness to live it out.

In Proverbs 24:10 it is written that, if one falters in the time of trouble, how small is ones strength.

If a person hesitates or stumbles due to doubt or the likes the only remedy the person has is toincrease in strength so he will not vacilate or fail next time.

The admonishment that Nehemiah gave in verse 10 of chapter 8 of his book, that "the joy of the Lord is our strength" is indeed the only cure for fear, temptation or any other inadequacy that can cause a man not to fulfil God's mandate for himself per time.

So what does it mean?
How can the simplicity of one delighting in the Lord be a source of strength?

Let's begin with the basics. Joy in the Lord is a unique state of mind unlike happiness that is erroneously used interchangeably with it.

Happiness comes from the word happenstance and it is a blissful state of mind that is always as a result of ones prevailing circumstance at that material time, while having the Joy of the Lord, that is, delight in God, usually in unfavourable situations is as a result of the truth of the Word of God that you know concerning the final outcome of what one is faced with or is going through, that causes one to be calm and hopeful in the midst of uncertainty, trouble or any other unpleasant circumstance. 

In 2 Corinthians 12:7 to 10 apostle Paul encouraged the Corinthian church by the challenge he happened to be facing, that he described as a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan, that was tormenting him.

He intimated them that God's response after his several plea for divine intervention was simply this word of encouragement, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

While Gods response may seem inadequate or mean even though one didn't know what the apostle was specifically inflicted with, he made these profound assertions, that we would do well to take into cognisance in our own lives:

1.Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 
2. ..., for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In a nutshell, what Paul was saying was thatwhere his strength fails is where God's supernatural empowerment begins to manifest in his life.

Are you erroneously trusting in your own acumen, strength or ability to accomplish something?

Know that God will share the glory due Him with no man. 

If a Christian is convinced that natural endowments are sufficient for him to succeed in life without God's intervention per time, then you can be sure that such a person will not get too far before he is proven to be absolutely wrong.

When we acknowledge our inadequacies in the strength and abilities we personally have, that God may be glorified in our lives, He complements our faith in His Almightiness to endow and empower by giving us supernatural strength and ability to come out on top, no matter how difficult or impossible the situation we may be facing may seem to be.

What Kind of Christian are you (4)

What Kind of Christian are you (4)

Running in such a way to get the prize, requires a lot of other things, and every other requirement cannot be accomplished without these basics.

Other requirements are:

Having an action plan that you strictly adhere to concerning:
1. How you'll run the race,
2. How to overcome obstacles, as the Christian race is like a hurdle with lots of obstacles the only difference being that most of the hurdles come unannounced and therefore requires prior preparation in order to scale through, and 
3. How to win the race and finish well.

Thank God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has already ran the race and won and all we have to do is join the winning team by having faith in his finished work and following his strategy through the Holy Spirit, our teacher, helper and personal trainer to the end. (ref. John 14:26)

Unlike any other earthly race the heavenly race is a lifelong race, one you'll continue to run till you leave this fallen world in death or rapture.
You'll definitely need a pacemaker in the person of the Holy Spirit to help you be fervent and keep to God's timelines for the various stages.

Living by and therefore keeping in step with the Holy Spirit will help you cultivate the right attitude towards everyone else you meet along the way.

A major requirement of the race unlike any other earthly one is that you must invite others to the race by not just simply telling them about the one who graciously brought you into the raceand why you follow him so tenaciously, but also esteeming their needs above your own.

Finally, it's important to note that strict training connotes and therefore requires consistency in all aspects of the way you are to run.

What Kind of Christian are you (3)

What Kind of Christian are you (3)

I'd like us to dwell a little while longer on the athletic dimension that Apostle Paul in Timothy 2: 5 brings to bear on our call to be followers of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24 to 27, it is written, 
24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 
25. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 
26. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

The portion of Scripture we need to dwell on begins with the question, "Do you not know ...?"to draw our attention to the importance of knowing that in every "human race" although every participant will run, only one individual will eventually get the most coveted, 1st prize.

As a result of this fact, we are admonished in our "Christian race" to run in such a way as to get the prize of an eternal life of fellowship with God the Father in paradise.

Like the saying, "many roads leads to Rome but only one way leads home!" so also is there only one way to get the heavenward prize that is the portion of every believer.
The heavenward prize God has promised us unlike any ephemeral earthy prize, that is, that will not last or stand the test of time, is eternal, but like every earthly competition, as Christians we must also go into strict training to be able to run the only way God would have us run to attain it.

When Paul spoke about not running like someone running aimlessly as well as not fighting like a boxer beating the air, he was drawing our attention to the truth that running in such a way as to get the prize required focus, a target, an aim that would keep one going no matter the obstacles or distractions, that may try and prevent one from not just finishing but finishing well.

Apart from a singular focus Paul also spoke about subjecting and enslaving his earthly covering, that is his body, with all it's ungodly will and desires to the will of his spirit, which is his true self, that was already being controlled by the Holy Spirit as a Christian.

His Spirit had to be in control of his body which was prone to sin so that after preaching to others, his body would not disqualify him for the prize because of his lack of self-control.

So in summary, in order for a Christian to run in the way God would have him run in, to get the prize, s/he must go into strict training by: 
1. Being focused on Christ, (the Word of God) and the author and finisher of our faith as well as, 
2. Continually subjecting his body to the will of the Holy Spirit by constantly feeding & giving in to the will of the spirit over that of his flesh.