Prayer

Michael writes that Jesus said, "Abide in me and you shall bear much fruit." The heart’s desire of a Follower of Christ, is to do the things that bring us closer to Him. According to Philippians 4:10, the Apostle Paul said, “that I may know him and the power of His [Christ's] resurrection being conformed to His death.” He clarified this verse in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

When we treasure treasures in heaven, it’s not about the price, it’s about the value. What is worth most in your life? We will be set free when we come to the realization that Christ alone is worthy. Glory means "Praise ascribed in adoration; honor, as in "Glory to God in the highest". Glory is weighty ... the weighty things of life are the things that really matter. Therefore glory in the Lord. Our first principle is that Jesus is Savior and Lord. Lord means owner. As followers of Christ we are men and women of God. A child of God is God’s child. Christianity is not who we are, but whose we are. God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. The qualification is in God’s gift of the Holy Spirit he gave us when we were "born again", not of corruptible seed of biological life, but of incorruptible (seed) by the word of God which lives and abides forever. His seed is Christ in us the hope of glory. The Word of God is our final authority for faith and practice. 

Be people of prayer. Most people have an aversion to prayer. They feel guilty and unworthy to pray. When we think that God does not approve of us, we’ll avoid the fellowship of corporate prayer. If we think that God is unsatisfied with our performance, we’ll avoid meeting with others who value their fellowship with like minded believers. When we allow God to search our heart, He will convict us to approach His throne of grace with a spirit of meekness and humility. When we come to Him confessing our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  

We can approach God’s throne of grace with the righteousness of Christ because of Romans 8:1, “For there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.” The righteousness of Christ in us, overcomes the failures of our fallen carnal nature, the “corruptible seed” of biological life that we inherited from Adam. Because of the payment Christ made on our behalf, we are sons of God by our new spiritual birth. Therefore we can approach God in prayer clothed in the righteousness of Christ. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However He who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of Christ in him.

Paul said in the the second letter to Timothy that men and women in every church should pray with holy hands lifted up to God. Therefore be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our lord. God always answers prayer. It’s not always the answer we want according to our own desires unless we have made His desire our desire. Most people think that prayer is God giving us what we demand. However according to the book of James, you have not because you ask not or because when we ask we have the wrong purpose ... that we may consume it upon our own lusts. God doesn’t give us what our carnal minds desire .... He gives us what we need according to the good pleasure of His will. Prayer is aligning our desires with God’s desires. Therefore, as the Psalmist said, Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Prayer is the work. Prayer is God’s force multiplier. Then when our delight is God’s delight ... when our good pleasure is God’s good pleasure, then when we pray, God will work in us and through us to will and to do of His good pleasure.  
Like a son who runs into the loving arms of his dad, we come boldly to God’s throne because God is our loving, Heavenly Father. For he that does evil hates the the light, neither comes to the light, but he that does truth comes to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought of God.

In Psalm 51, David turned away from his sin and approached God with a broken and a contrite heart. Even though he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and ordered her husband Uriah’s murder, David said, “Against thee and thee only Lord have I sinned.” David prayed, Create in me a new heart so that I can walk according to thy Word and thy will in the joy of the fellowship of the Lord. When we run to the Lord, our joy is in the Lord and not in the selfish desires of our flesh. Jesus said, come to me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.  

Prayer and praise to God is the outpouring of a thankful heart. Prayer aligns our heart with God’s heart. When our vertical relationship with God is in alignment, then our horizontal relationships with others will be blessed. The prayer of a loving servant says, Lord, thy wish is my command.

In Colossians 1:9-12 Paul said: “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:”

Prayer taps into the power of God’s agape love. Love suffers long and is kind. Love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up.. behaves not itself unseemly, seeks not its own. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. My prayer is that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord pleasing him in all respects according to the spirit of Christ’s heart behind our heart, that with a thankful heart rejoicing in the Lord.

We may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ, Michael