I bring you my shortcomings… my frustration when things don’t quite go my way!
I bring you my worship and praise… Thank you so much LORD for the time together as a family last night as we listened to hubby play Christmas Carols on his violin…It has been so long! And what a joy..though I cannot sing right now what a joy it is to my heart to quietly praise you!
I bring you my prayer… for grace and mercy IN EVERY area!
You spoke to me… in a message this past Sunday the was so amazing. I had a struggle during Sunday school and then you answered and comforted me Lord during the morning worship service. It just shows that you are an all knowing God and knew my circumstances long before i did and prepared the way for my heart to be mended! THANK YOU LORD!
In Words that directly apply to prayer Peter says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” Note the progression: humility, the step down, makes possible God’s lifting us up. By trying to be strong, I may even block God’s power.
I have been reluctant to blog a problem I have been having with someone who used to be a very close friend.. I still battled over it until Sunday when I read th above quote. I must admit that when I first got married I was very “opinionated” in how life works. In both my faith and my marriage and my children. My most humbling experience–having a strong willed child!
This past week I received a phone call from the afore mentioned friend. I haven’t spoken with her in the last 4 or 5 weeks and I must admit that the last few weeks have been very peaceful and enjoyable. I have not worried about conforming to that friend’s opinionated ways.
So when this friend called i was shocked to say the least and amazingly I didn’t even think twice about answering the phone. Within the first 10 minutes I was completely shocked. This is why:
My friend is working on finishing her bachelor’s degree at a Bible college…She had planned on taking a philosophy class but it was online and she and her husband do not have the internet in their home….her only other option was a ministry class that deals with marriage and motherhood….I have taken this class and learned a ton from the prof. HOWEVER this friend of mine had to persuade her husband to let her take the class because he thought..”you won’t learn anything,you could teach the class”. He finally said she could take the class so i asked her if she has learned anything to which she replied “no not really I already know what my philosophy is and I am pretty opinionated about that”
I was livid!!! The arrogance and pridefulness that exuded from every word! I talked then for the next 110 minutes and amazingly she didn’t say a peep!
I said what I had to say in love but yet there is a certain air of righteous anger. I have ENABLED her to continue on this path with us fro some time and i am called to hold my brother’s and sister’s in Christ accountable for their sin…especially when it affects me in causing me to sin.. I at some point will have to let her know that we do not stand for such arrogance and pride and that it is sin. Opinionated is just another way of saying arrogant or prideful in trying to make it sound as a spiritual sort of way.
I will share with you some of the same things shared with her. Churches today are opinionated so much so that they alienate new people and those already in the church. Most things in the Christian walk are boiled down to how the Holy Spirit convicts each person parenting and so on are some of those things…however there is One basic thing through which we can be certain is not based on conviction i our faith and that is Salvation By GRACE!!!
GRACE is the thing missing from most people and churches…Yet we have accepted Christ’s grace laden gift of Salvation!! I think it’s about time Christians start basing their encounters with other believers and those who are unsaved with grace and mercy rather than “opinionated attitudes” or their testimony is severely going to be damaged and friendships will be lost.
I think these words are extremely important in our walk with God. Because what wiill affect those most are our actions…Do we practice the grace that we preach!!!
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Don’t worry I will not do this for every chapter. I promise that I will limit my thoughts to 2 or 3 thought provoking insights for each post Considering that I got the three things from the first three pages I can’t say i will limit two or three things from each chapter!!
So let’s get with it shall we:
#1 is the quote that appears below the chapter title
The prayer preceeding all prayer is ” May it be the real I who speaks, May it be the real ThouThat I speak to” ~C.S. Lewis
It’s amazing how when we struggle in our faith we all feel this at one time or another. It’s just that we haven’t put it nearly as eloquently. Oh and what an encouragement to know that such a man as C.S. Lewis felt the same…It’s just an ever present reminder that those who have fame is just as human as the rest of us “normal ” people!
#2 A brief confession of the famous pastor Haddon Robinson who begins almost every sermon this way:
God, if these people knew about me what you know about me, they wouldn’t listen to a word I said
WOW! what transparency with both God and his congregation. I wonder what his church thinks when they hear this at the beginning of almost every sermon!!! Haddon is also known for the RBC program Discover the word and is a regular write for their (RBC’s) Our Daily Bread.
#3 is a self realization by the author
Whenever i get depressed by a lack of spiritual progress, I realize that my very dismay is a sign of progress.
This hit close to home with me. It’s been tough to face so much rejection in the face of trying to do God’s will and what we know God has called us to do. So in a place of spiritual dryness I struggled with simple things, washing the dishes, doing laundry and cracking God’s word. In my spiritual journey with Christ we all hit stagnate moments that’s the way it goes but it’s amazing how those stagnate moments are getting shorter and shorter. I just can’t stay away from God as long! I am drawn back quicker and quicker each time. The longing for communion with my Savior is deepening every day..So yes. I completely understand what the author is saying.
In closing this book has hit close to home and really has helped me to realize that I am not alone in this journey we are all on together!
Can I just say that I love this book!! Hubby and I have discussed this author before and I know that I do not hold to some of the things he writes about but as for this book it is an very realistic view of our world and prayer.
Mr. Yancey is very candid with how he has looked at prayer and how he has began his journey through this book on prayer.
i have already marked the book to death and I am only on the third chapter!! Here is a picture to prove it!
Now I must Confess that not every page looks like this but it is close.
I will be sharing excerpts that strike me as I read through but as you can tell by the picture above I cannot share them all!
I will try to stick to one or two thoughts. I don’t want to be accused of copy-right infringement after all!
So here is thought provoker #1
Prayer helps correct myopia (nearsightedness), calling to mind a perspective I daily forget. I keep reversing roles, thinking of ways in which God should serve me, rather than vice versa. As god fiercely reminded Job, the Lord of the universe has many things to manageande in the midst of my self pityI would do dwell to contemplate for a momentGod’s own point of view.
Where were you when i laid the foundations of the earth’s foundation?Tell me if you understand who marked off it’s dimensions? Surely you know. (god’s questioning of Job in the book of Job)
When, after shrugging aside all his caustic theological queries God enlightened hapless Job, the poor man crumbled. I’m Sorry Job said in effect. I had no idea what i was asking. Job did not receive a single answer to his probing questions, a fact that no longer seemed to matter.
At this point let me throw in my insights into this. As of the last few months Job was on my reading radar..ok so it was More like March of this year! I am ashamed to say that even though I am a Bible college grad and a studier of God’s word. I did not understand why Job was wrong. I have read this book so many times and yet I was still confused. Just as I believe that a person who is unsaved can read the Bible many times and understand the Bible and believe it is true and yet is not saved until The Holy Spirit moves that person to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. There is more to salvation than believing that Jesus Christ is a true person. I believe that be So I can say that God hid this understanding until just the right moment. He did so I believe because only a few weeks later i found myself in a teaching position in a church that we were canidating at and someone had the wrong perspective of the book of Job…ironically the same view I had held not a month earlier….
Anyway that being said Job questioned god about why was he “punished” in such a way..(he lost everything) Job didn’t realize that he didn’t need to know and that God was in control the whole time. Job was blameless for a time until he began elevating himself to the level og God, claiming perfection in so many words, blameless. He forgot he was a son of Adam…he would ALWAYS deal with the consequences of sin…he was not blameless!
So many times we Act blameless when in all reality the whole point was to show that Job was a humble servant of God…Job failed. though he did not curse God though he did not turn his back on God the outcome was still a failure. He humbled himself when all the things in his life were hunky dory (as my mom used to say)
So my question is when we are talking to god about the things that are going on in our lives do we claim that “we do not deserve this” Or do we humbly say to God “now what, where do we go from here?” Because the last time I checked we all deserve the wages of sin..we are all sinners. We deserve death. It is by the grace of God that we can claim life no matter what happens on this earth!
And i will leave you with thought provoker #2 And i will have no commentary on this quote!
Grace, like water, descends to the lowest part. Streams of mercy flow. I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility of what happens on earth,and ask what part i can play in God’s workon earth. “Let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream” cried the prohet Will I stand by the bank or jump into the stream?
Ok so as of late I have been feeling a bit guilty because I have a meme for every day of the week and I just don’ have time for them. So here is the solution. With the new church we are attending I have a new obligation and that is to participate in a Sunday school class and in that Sunday school class I must read the assigned book which Happens to be Prayer by Philip Yancey so instead of participating in memes on Tuesday Wednesday and Friday I will be blogging about what i am reading in the afore mentioned book!
