Selfless Prayer

I've been noticing lately a correlation between my joy, and how I pray. I know that this may seem elementary, but stick with me on this one.

Yesterday was good for me, as I continued to read through Piper's book: I was able to understand more about how to find joy in God. Yet I still went to bed last night with the anxieties of my life swarming through my head and divebombing me as I entered the throne room of the Almighty to pray. Then something quite amazing happened. Here's how it went...

I started my prayers as I often do with giving praise and ascribing glory to the One whose holy presence we are in when we engage in the wonderful act of prayer. I recommend to you to start your prayers this way if you do not currently do so; it will help you keep a Kingdom perspective, and will aid the Spirit in aligning your will with the will of the Holy Trinity.

I then started to pray for myself. I began by saying, basically, "Here I am once again, Lord. I come to you with this problem once more, to hand it over to You today."

Then I stopped...

I spoke to myself. I said, "Self, your life is not all about you."

So I changed gears and started making intercession for others first, before I came with my own requests. I prayed for our city, I prayed for missionaries from our church, I prayed for my friends, and I prayed for the other people who are involved with my current problem, that God would draw them to Himself, and that they would see His glory above all else, and would find ultimate, breathtakingly beautiful joy in that glory.

Only after I had done this did I pray for my own wants (O how I so often forget this! A brief review of the Lord's Prayer will reveal that this how we are to pray). And you know what? The anxiety had left...

I remembered to do this because of something that my pastor had said about the anxieties of our life: when we are anxious, we are self-absorbed. He recommended that we spend more time giving to others to get our thoughts off of ourselves, to draw our gaze from our own navels, as a way of combating anxiety.

Intercessional prayer was a way for me to serve others, to give to others, to show others love.

Long story short: I entered the presence of my Lord last night full of worry and possessing a disquieted spirit...

I left His presence full of peace.

And it was a most restful sleep.

Talking to yourself is healthy

I recently received four new Piper books from the $5 sale at Desiring God Ministries. Of all of these books, the one that I started reading a couple of days ago is called "When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy".

Now, I'm not completely certain why I chose this one to read. I'm not particularly lacking in this gift right now: God has been staggeringly gracious in granting me the desire to seek after Him lately, and for that I am utterly grateful, for this has given me a glimpse of the joy that I was created to have in praising His name and being found in His glory. However, I have found it difficult lately to allow God to let that joy overcome other areas of my life which seem to be lacking joy. In other words: Chris ain't feelin' too hot right now.

Well, even though a loss of desire for God does not seem to be one of my current ails, I am beginning to see how this book will bless me. Here's a look at what I've been reading today (quoted from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, in reference to Psalm 42, especially verse 5):

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you."

It was a very encouraging moment when I read this. God has given us promises in His word, and we (read: I) need to speak these promises to our (read: my) own souls, otherwise our souls will continue to speak to us... and the Creator of our souls is certainly wiser than our souls themselves!

Brethren, please pray for me, that God would grant me the strength to do this. My joy has been robbed once again by the anxieties of this world, and after having tasted and seen that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8), I long to be overcome again by the deluge of joy which was meant to flood my life, the joy that can only be found in taking refuge in the LORD.

Yo, bro! The slow-go of no mo' uh-oh (also: show and sow mo' glow) is fo' sho' a yo-yo!

Wow… if you’re actually choosing to read this post after having endured the title, I applaud you for your tenacity…

Since I rarely have an original thought (nothing new under the sun, eh?), today’s post is taken from an analogy that my pastor used in Sunday school this morning (this one’s for you, Crystal).

Sanctification can be tricky for us to understand sometimes. Period.

I once had a conversation about sanctification with my pastor, and I told him that I have sometimes asked myself if God has actually done any work at all in my life, because the same sins and desires that haunted me before still haunt me now. I knew that He has, obviously, but sometimes I feel very discouraged in seeing these old demons raise their ugly heads again and again and again.

Pastor Mike said something in response which I think will always stick with me. We recognize that there is a battle constantly raging within us, one of flesh and Spirit. Far too often, however, we view the process of sanctification as a reducing of the flesh. However, this will always yield a downcast heart when we find that the flesh is still very much alive in us. If we ever assume that an old temptation is no longer present, if we take our foot off of the snake’s neck (Genesis 3:15, Romans 16:20) – even if God is gracious to give to us old age, and we are still walking with our Lord; even then – it will leap up to strike us. In light of this, we must view sanctification as a process of the Spirit overcoming the flesh, rather than of the flesh simply disappearing (1 John 4:3-4, Romans 12:21). Temptation, as well as the desire for the things of this world, will never disappear from the battlefield… but our fight therein, by the work of the Spirit, will become more effective with time.

So, that being said, we’ll get to the analogy (don’t we all love analogies?). There were two that Pastor Mike used this morning, and I’ll mention the first one briefly:

Sanctification is kind of like one of those blow-up “bopper” dolls that kids use as punching bags: you punch it, it falls down, it comes back up. This is similar to our fight against sin in that once a temptation is defeated… it doesn’t stay down for long! This means that we will never stop “bopping” our sins. The good news is, however, that the “bopping” does become easier, because our arm becomes stronger the more we use it.

Okay, good analogy and all, but this is not the one of chief concern for this post. Here goes:

“Sanctification is like a man playing with a yo-yo while walking up stairs.”

I know, I know… but stay with me here…

The yo-yo will continue to go up and down, just as we continue to have highs and lows in our spiritual walk and in our fight against sin. However… we are still moving upward with every step that we take!

There is danger in focusing too much on any of the highs or lows of the yo-yo itself. Concentrating on a point where the yo-yo is near the floor robs you of your joy and ignores the power of the cross; concentrating on a point where the yo-yo is at its apex will set you up for disappointment when it falls back down.

Therefore, let us run the race as to receive the prize (1 Corinthians 4:24-27, Philippians 3:12-14), and let us not be discouraged if we fall down: the race is not over, the prize is still in sight! We must be confident that

He who has begun a good work in [us] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. -Philippians 1:6

This means that God is actively sanctifying us through the glorious work of His Spirit, and that this work is currently being perfected. Try no longer to do what God is already doing in you! Turn to Him and receive the boundless joy that is to be found in freedom from sin!

Huh... that's funny...

Believe it or not, I did not write the previous post in response to the one before it. I didn't even have the first one in mind when I posted tonight, but I just re-read it after I posted my last one.

I was just blessed by my own blog post!

God is good.

God's Faithfulness

We started our small group time tonight with singing songs that professed praise to God. One of them was based on Psalm 96, and I was struck by a beautiful truth as we were singing the chorus. Here are the last five verses of the Psalm (vv. 9-13):

Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns;
The world also is firmly established,
It shall not be moved;
He shall judge the peoples righteously.”

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the LORD.

For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness,
And the peoples with His truth.


What a strange thought: we rejoice because the LORD is coming to judge the earth in righteousness and truth.

By all rights, the prospect of coming face to face with the holy Lamb in that day should cause us to cry out to be crushed by rocks rather than face His wrath (Revelation 6:16). And yet, what is the psalmist's response? He rejoices in this thought! Why does he rejoice? He rejoices in the LORD's ultimate judgment because he knows that he serves a faithful God, a God who will unquestionably keep the covenant which He has sealed with His people, which guarantees that they will not face His wrath in those last days.

If the psalmist - who was a member of the first covenant - rests upon the promises of God to the extent that he rejoices in His coming to the earth to judge humanity, how much more reason do we - as members of the perfect covenant of the Son - have to rejoice in the same thought!

And if we can trust in God to be faithful in His promise to save us from His wrath by the covenant of His Son's blood, to the point that we delight in the judgment-bearing return of that Son upon the earth, how much more can we trust in God to be faithful to His people in this life! If we believe that God has already done the unthinkable in counting us righteous by the sacrifice of His Messiah, why do we so often doubt that this same God will provide for us in ways which are far less bewildering?

Why do we have reason to rejoice? We rejoice because we know that we serve a faithful God, a God who will undoubtedly keep His promises, be they large or small. If we rest upon this truth, we will be most certainly blessed by it.

Do I Truly Trust God?

What does it mean to trust in the Lord?

Have we lost a level of trust in God when we are disappointed about our failed plans? If we truly believe that He is sovereign, and that His plans should supersede our own, does this mean that we should accept His perfect will without questioning why or without dealing with His answers with a certain amount of difficulty?

It does not seem to be the biblical case that questioning God is a sinful act of disobedience, for we see many of God's faithful servants question His ways throughout the Scriptures. But then how do we deal with God's answers to human questioning in the book of Job? How can we question God... when He is God and we are not?

How are we to deal with persecution and hardships, or even the simple disappointments of life, as people who profess to serve a God of ultimate sovereignty and unfailing promises? What does faith look like in the face of discouragement?

Obedient Lightnings

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, ‘Here we are!’?” –Job 38:34-35

What a mighty God we serve!

This passage is found at the end of the book of Job, after God has allowed for Job’s life to be shaken. God’s justice has been questioned, and God responds: who is man that he should question God? Was man present when the earth was created? Did man give counsel on where the stars were to be placed in the heavens? Did man show himself worthy of praise by controlling the flow of the powerful seas?

No, man did not… but God did.

There is great beauty to be found in unraveling and contemplating the truth of these two small verses. Our Father is most powerful: He commands - by the mere release of His utterances - the often tumultuous, and seemingly random, weather of this world. He lifts His voice, and the clouds loose their rain upon the earth.

The Creator says… and the creation does.

If we look closer, though, we see not only the fact that the creation obeys, but obeys with passion! God commands the lightnings to move, and it comes to Him and says, “Here we are! We have come to hear Your word! Command us, O Creator, that we may fulfill our purpose!” For this is where all of creation finds its greatest joy: in serving the One which it was created to serve.

So when our LORD commands us, we, as part of creation, should obey not with dullness or reluctance, but with vigor and excitement!

Let’s think on another beautiful truth here: This is the same Voice which not only commands us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), but has also commanded the following:

“Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” -Luke 7:50

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

“Do not be afraid; only believe.” -Mark 5:36

“Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” -Mark 5:19

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.” -Matthew 11:30

How matchless is our God! He is the God who calls us to righteousness, as well as to peace, love, faith, joy, and rest… all in the same compulsive breath! The same God who commands the sea and the skies commands us to be found complete in Him: how can we refuse?!