What Does God Require, part 2

‎He has showed you, O man, what is good. 

‎And what does the Lord require of you? 

‎To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

‎Micah 6:8

And what does the Lord require of you? One thing is to act justly ... do justice ...  do justly.  No matter what situation or circumstance we encounter, at all times, on every occasion, we are called to act justly.  You may be thinking, is this like doing the right thing? Yes, it is.  Sometimes, knowing the right thing to do or how to respond justly and with fairness is just not clear.  We may just not know, or not have enough time to think about it.

Consider King Solomon whom God described as the wisest man who ever lived. See 1 Kings 3:16-28 for this story. Two prostitutes came before him.  Both had given birth to sons three days apart.  One baby died during the night as his mother rolled over on him.  Each argued that the live child was hers. What was he to do? Who to believe? How to act justly?

King Solomon called for a sword and ordered that the living child be cut in two. Half would be given to one and half to the other.  The woman whose son was alive, filled with compassion, responded: “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” The other responded: “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!” 

In the king's ruling lay the wisdom from God to act justly. “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”  Now your question may be, will God give little ole, plain and ordinary me the wisdom to act justly in every way, at all times, on all occasions, no matter what's going on? Yes, He will! So go forth in the power of God doing what God requires of you.  Act justly!!!

What Does God Require, part 1

‎He has showed you, O man, what is good. 

‎And what does the Lord require of you? 

‎To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

‎Micah 6:8

Through His Word, God has shown us what is good and what He requires in every situation and circumstance, and with every relationship.  We are faced daily with so many choices. God quietly shows us in His Word what is good.  The world blares out and bombards us with its notions of what is good.  All too often, the two ways are in conflict.  When the two are in conflict, what choice do you most often make?  Is it good the world's way or is it good God's way?  Favored words from my pastor -- life is choice driven; we live and we die by the choices we make.  To help us with the many choices before us may be a continuing focus on the question -- if Jesus were in my shoes, what would He do? To answer that question knowingly requires that we be disciples, i.e., students of the Word. 

My friend, with whom I've shared many meals eating the world's way, has recently had open heart surgery.  One good thing I can do to assist recovery is deliver a meal once per week. What should that meal be?  Convenient fast food? Home cooked, deep fat fried, over salted, over sugared foods we've always enjoyed? What would Jesus do?  Another friend is dating a married man.  How would Jesus respond to my friend?  Yet another friend has joined what I believe to be a cult and is now inviting me to check it out.  How do I respond?  How would Jesus respond?  Another friend has been dating this wonderful man who is now pressuring her to have sex to show that she really loves him.  She's asking what would I do.  Will my response be the Jesus response?  How do you discipline your children, God's way or the world's way?  Surely God can understand that my living expenses must be covered before a tithe can be paid to the church.  My friend trips over her foot and falls in my home, breaking her ankle.  With no insurance, she wants me to pay her full medical expense and will sue me if I don't do so. How would Jesus respond?

Good the world's way or God's way?  Which will it be for you?

 

Could You Not Pray?

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?  Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”  Mark 14:37-38

Have you ever imagined that Peter and the other disciples were just awful people to be asleep when Jesus most needed them to be in prayer with Him and for Him?  Have you thought that if you had been there, never ever would you have fallen asleep?  Have you ever wondered how one could fall asleep on the hard ground ... outside in the cold ...  almost immediately after having eaten the Passover meal with Jesus? 

Have you ever fallen asleep while on your knees in prayer? Have you awakened, felt a call to pray, started to do so, and then it was time to get up, hours later? Did you pray?  For how long?  Could you even remember?  Have you wanted to pray but couldn't get your mind focused? Have you been in prayer and stopped to answer the phone ... read a text ... check your e-mail ... respond to someone else ... or some other distraction?  Did you ask God to wait for a few minutes, or did you just abruptly leave Him?

I can only thank God for His grace, and mercy, and loving kindness.  Even when I don't do what I want to do, when my flesh overrules my spirit, when my best desire fails, Jesus graciously acknowledges "the spirit is willing, but the body is weak."  He gently encourages me to "watch and pray."  I can only say, Yes Lord, I will watch and pray. Starting right now, I will watch and pray more diligently, more faithfully, more consistently, more often.

 

How To Receive God's Best Blessings, part 5

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:13-14

God promises to heal our land.  In a recent discussion, one of the sisters commented on how evil and dirty and low down people have become, she expressed grave concern over the senseless murders that are so rampant.  She lamented the great loss of life and how there seems to be so little regard for life.  I felt a sense of despair, thinking how bad it is and how never have the times been so bad.  Headings and sub-headings in both local and national newspapers that day included: "15 year old student shot and killed" ... "mayor sickened by T-shirt logos" ... "health department investigating reports of unlicensed abortions" ... university student shot and killed himself ... "balcony-climbing rapist gets life sentence" ...  "patrolling officers make drug bust" ... "police seek man in fraud scheme" ... "pediatrics group backs same-sex marriage" ... "S. Korea: cyberattack came from China" ... and more.

Before lapsing into a heightened state of despair, I remembered words Solomon penned some 900 years before Jesus was born.  "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." (See Ecclesiastes 1:9-10) Uhmmm, man's inhumanity to man is nothing new.  Sin is not new.  Violation of God's commands is not new.  Uhmmm, neither are God's promises new.  They are just as real and meaningful today as they've ever been.  God will heal our land IF we do our parts. What can I do, you may be thinking? Do your part, obey God's commands.  Hear and receive the final word from Solomon's pen found in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.  "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."

How to Receive God's Best Blessings, part 4

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:13-14

Do I have a wicked ... evil ... wrong ... bad ... no good ... impure way(s)? I have many.  What about you? If getting my prayers answered is dependent upon my meeting the condition of turning from my wicked way(s), then why have I not turned away from them ... some of them ... more of them ... all of them?  One biblical definition of turn away is to repent, and vice-versa.  To repent means to turn away. So why have you not turned away from your wicked way(s)?  Is it hard to do so?  Does it hurt to do so?  Do I want to do so? Do you?

As I write this, I'm reminded of a season of my life during which I smoked.  I actually quite enjoyed smoking.  For a long time, I saw nothing wrong with doing so.  I reasoned that since I was, at some point, going to die, I might as well die while doing something I enjoyed.  Never mind the fact that smoking would bring on death more quickly, a fact I ignored.  Take Romans 12:1, the biblical call to present your body as a living sacrifice.  I ignored the passage as much as possible.  I reasoned again that it wasn't applicable to my smoking habit.  On other occasions, I reasoned as Solomon wrote that we should eat, drink, and be merry, and that we should enjoy life.  Smoking was one way that I enjoyed life. So it must be okay.  I must be okay.  Surely, this little habit was not a bad sin.  I went to church, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  This was not really a wicked way that I was called to turn from.  There were a whole lot more wicked ways that I did not practice at all.  Was I okay? No.  Are you okay? Probably not.

Do I really want God to heal my land?  Do you really want God to heal your land?  Why am I not obedient to God's commands totally and completely?  Why is it so hard to do the right things?  Even when I want to do good, it seems that I can't.  Sometimes I start to turn from my wicked ways, and then turn back.  Probably, I am more the wretched one than I choose to believe.  (See Romans 7:21-24) Even when I want to do good, evil is right there.  Is the command/condition to turn from our wicked ways an impossibility for us?  How important is the promise from God to heal my land? How important is that promise to you? Choose to meet the conditions.  When? Today!!!

How to Receive God's Best Blessings, part 3

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:13-14

Seeking the face of God is the third of the four conditions God gives in this passage as one prerequisite to His best blessings.  Consider that seeking means to search out, to dig as for gold, hunt, go after with full enthusiasm and gusto, learn about, inquire of, look for, investigate, desire, require.  God reminds us that He may be found when we search for Him with our entire being – spirit, soul, and body. 

Sometimes, we may expect God to answer in certain ways, to be in certain places, to be found by praying a certain way or in a certain position, to respond as He has previously done only to not find Him.  So now, what are we to do?  Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on inquiring, keep on knocking, keep on searching.  Elijah, when at a time that he was running to save his life, was told by the Lord that He was about to pass by.  When the Lord wasn't in the great and powerful wind, Elijah kept standing.  When the Lord wasn't in the earthquake, Elijah kept standing.  Even when the Lord wasn't in the fire, as might be expected, Elijah kept standing.  When the Lord saw that Elijah would not be moved, the Lord appeared as a gentle whisper.  (See 1 Kings 19:11-13.)

On occasions, we might be like Elijah.  We're in trouble and need a word from the Lord. Our wait seems too long.  Our ears hear nothing.  Our eyes see nothing.  We're on the edge of the cliff about to fall off at any second.  What are we to do?  Seek His Face!!!

How to Receive God's Best Blessings, part 2

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:13-14

In this passage, God gives first four conditions to receiving His amazing three fold blessing.  Condition number two is pray.  Pray!  Prayer -- consider the who, what, why, when, where, and how of prayer.  We sometimes need to stop and consider one or more of these questions.  It is so easy to get stuck in a rut, to pray at the same time, in the same manner, using the same words.  Would we want God to respond to us with this same degree of sameness? Probably not. 

I'm learning to be in continual prayer.  Paul reminded the Thessalonian church to pray without ceasing, to be in continual prayer (see 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Much speaking is not required.  When the work of restoring the walls of Jerusalem was threatened and the people were fearful, Nehemiah simply said "O God, strengthen my hands" (see Nehemiah 6:9).  I'm learning that brevity works too, i.e., -- thank you ... help ... yes, Lord ... show me ... lead me ... send me ... I'll go ... use me ... forgive them ... forgive me ... I'm sorry ... amen ... Jesus ... etc.  I'm learning the power of agreement with another or others, as well as agreement with the Word because it is His Word that does not return void or empty (see Isaiah 55:11). I'm learning the boomerang effect in praying for others, that what I offer up or declare on behalf of another returns to me (see Galatians 6:7). I'm learning the necessity of praying the Word, of putting God in remembrance of what His Word says.

Prayer is amazing. What are you learning in prayer?  Through prayer?  By prayer?