The Power of Prayer

In The Holiness of God, a book by R.C. Sproul, the point is made that before the death and resurrection of Christ, not even Christians had access to God. "The moment Jesus was slain, the instant the Just One died for the unjust, the veil in the temple was torn. The presence of God became accessible to us. For the Christian, the 'No Access' sign was removed from the gates of paradise. We may now walk freely on holy ground. We have access to His Grace, but even more, we have access to Him."

In our sinful state, all we deserve from God is his wrath. As we know, Jesus stood in our place and took the punishment for what we deserve. Not only do we now have eternal life, but we have access to the presence of God in our current lives.

God yearns to have a personal relationship with us. We are his children and he's passionate about our lives. So what does a personal relationship look like? It might seem odd to compare it to any relationship we have here on Earth. Usually we can pick up the phone and talk to someone we are in a personal relationship with. We can grab coffee, shoot them an e-mail, give them a hug, whatever it is. We can't really do any of those things with Christ, but it's still so important to maintain a personal relationship. In my opinion, the most powerful way to do that is to be in constant prayer.

Carolyn McCulley said, "[God] didn't just make us all and then stand back to have a good laugh. He is Lord over his creation, lovingly ruling over all things..."

Being in prayer and communication with him, even over things that we may feel are insignificant, is so important! He cares and wants to hear from us. This is something that I struggled with and continue to need to remind myself.

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit."-James 5:13-18 (ESV)

Pray in all things!

(Mark Driscoll had an excellent sermon on prayer--click here to listen.)

The Detrimentality of Gossip

The Lord has really been speaking to me in a multitude of different ways lately. It's funny the ways that he works to get our attention. Sometimes I feel like sermons, chapters of books, and blog posts are written just for me. There's a book that I'm reading with a friend, and we both swear that a chapter was added to address the last 6 months of my life, even though it was written a few years ago. Hey, it could happen. :)

In my devotional time, I've been reading James (one of my favs- I can't read it enough) and I was struck by this verse: "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." -James 1:27 (NIV)

This is pretty powerful and there is not room for much negotiation. James 3 goes into much more detail about taming the tongue.

Proverbs 12:18 says, "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

Gossip and slander are detrimental in general, but especially for the church.

Everywhere we go, we are to be a representation of Christ. Non-believers should see the way we act and speak and know there is something different in our lives- something they desire to have as well. How are we representing Christ if we are talking negatively or behind the back of someone made in his image? How can we be inviting friends to church one minute, then participating in the latest gossip the next?

Obviously nobody is perfect and situations arise where we lose control of our tongues. I am definitely guilty of this. I let my emotions override my desire to glorify God. In realizing that, I pray for the ability to refrain from gossip and glorify the Lord in all ways-especially through speech.

Praying for Taylor

As I mentioned yesterday, my friend's baby is in the hospital with bacterial meningitis. Anyone who knows about meningitis knows it's so very serious and it can cause serious issues and even death. Obviously this is something nobody wants to deal with, let alone watch their baby go through. However, through the whole thing, Kyle and Courtney (the parents) have shown so much faithfulness and trust that it's rubbing off on people around them! Their neighbor, who previously was uninterested in church, has mentioned that this has made him think differently and now he's interested in going. God works in mysterious ways! It's amazing to see people going through way more strenuous trials than I am, being so reliant on the Lord. It's a great reminder.

I made this card for them. 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."-Matthew 11:28 (ESV)

I was speaking with a friend last night who said it's easier for her to pray when things are going well. I can't help but imagine that this is fairly common. It's easy to be a Christian when things are smooth sailing. It's easy to praise God and see His magnificence when nothing is crumbling down around us. We have to remember that we serve a God that is so passionate and zealous about our lives; even more so than we are! We are His sons and daughters. When something goes wrong, it's not because He's napping or He's busy with something else. It's the opposite. Trials in our lives are to test our faith and help us build up our resilience to what the world is throwing at us. In James, we are told to count our trials as joyful. Normally those two words don't coincide in our minds. 

"Count it all joy, my brothers,  when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."-James 1:2-4 (ESV)

Nowhere in the Bible is the Christian life promised to be easy. In many ways, it's much harder. However, considering we get to spend eternity with a God who loves us and cares for us in a way that no earthly person could ever love or care for us...that's a goal worth pressing onward for.