This last Sunday, Pastor Herk of Little Church in the Pines continued in his Sermon series topic of Prayer. Prayer is powerful and each of us are a powerful pray-er, when we pray. In Ephesians 6:18 the Apostle Paul wrote: “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”
He opened by asking, “If God were to answer the most important prayer in your heart, what would change in both your life and your world?” The two-letter word “IF” is one of the shortest words in the English language, but have one of the greatest effects on life. The dictionary defines the word “if” as the cause, reason or motive for something to happen. “If” is the work that evokes a response for action. The word if is considered the cause portion of the “cause and affect” quotient in English grammar. When an “if” statement is used, it is generally followed by a “then” statement. The “then” statement tells what then or will happen to fulfill the “if” statement.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Lord knows, we need that 2 Chronicles 7:14 Scripture to be fulfilled in our land today and the word “if” is the conditional key because God is speaking a conditional statement in this passage of Holy Scripture. The condition must be fulfilled before the promised result can happen. Note that the word “people” in this passage is plural. We need some semblance of revival in this country for God’s people to obey all the “if” conditions in this Bible verse. Why can’t we live up to these “if” conditions? The millions of God’s people in this country need to be praying and obeying this Scripture to be fulfilled. Throughout the Bible, God’s Holy Word, there are multiple occasions when God has specific conditions that have to be met before He acts. Sometimes, we naively think that we can make these things happen by individual prayer, when the Scripture states “if My people” – the multitude of God’s people – pray in “Corporate Prayer”.
First, people have to humble themselves. We do not live in a humble society. We live in a prideful “me” society. The great philosopher Toby Keith said that we live in a culture that says, “I wanna talk about me. Wanna talk about I. Wanna talk about number one, Oh my me my. What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see.” If someone said, “You need to humble yourself”, you’d think they were crazy in this arrogant, brazen, privileged secular culture that glorifies “self”. Righteous humbling of ourselves hurts our “feelings” and self-esteem of the sin nature in our fallen flesh.
Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Humbleness is the state of being humble or low; humility; meekness. 1 Peter 5:6 says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. God commands us to humble ourselves. What if we believe that we cannot bring ourselves to humility and don’t? In this self-focused “Me” generation, how many people in this country will take it upon themselves to meekly humble themselves before God? How many Christians humble themselves when they come before the Lord in prayer to their almighty Maker, exalting the Creator of the Universe? Our heavenly Father created all that exists, lives and breathes. Yahweh is the great “I am” and we can pray to Him in the posture of humility. Maybe that means that we need to get down on our knees and pray occasionally. Seek a position of humility before the Lord, your God as you seek His face and communicate with your just and holy Creator Father in Heaven. Humility is the freedom from arrogance that grows out of the recognition that all that we are and all that we have comes from God, the great Creator - Jehovah Jireh.
Romans 12:3-5 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
Some look at humility and meekness as weakness. Biblical humility in meekness is not belittling of self before others. It is the exalting and praising of others around us, highly caring for them. It is recognition that by ourselves, we are actually very little. But, we are created by God and created in His image, and are Believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, so we have great worth and value. We are finite beings, but God is infinite. Isaiah 55:9 speaks to our comparison to Almighty God in saying: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Humility is just feeling little because we are little. Humility is realizing our unworthiness on our own because we are unworthy on our own. Feeling like we are sinner is because we are sinners.
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Lord, I am empty without your fullness, broken without Your wholeness, helpless without Your strength, and clueless without Your wisdom. True humility does not produce pride in any way, shape or form, but will produce thankfulness in abundance. We see it all through Scripture that humbleness is a condition that God requires.
Let's continue Pastor Herk's message on Powerful Prayer Prayers in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment