When it comes right down to it, we all like to get something for nothing. For many that live in the world today, they would prefer to have a celestial Santa Claus rather than a divine Lord and Savior.  Especially when something drastic happens in our life and we are desperate for help from God, because we realize that only He can help us.

It is disappointing then when God doesn’t immediately give us the things that we perceive as important needs. If not careful, we can get discouraged and blame God. In these situations, it is often the case that our needs are really just our wants.  We all know that this is confused thinking, but how easy it is to fall into this especially if our prayer life is limited or non-existent.

James points this out in James 4:3, where he says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” I’ve caught myself praying for situations or people because they are in a tough spot or need help, not really thinking about why I am praying for them.  My motive, I tell myself, is that I feel compassion for the other person. When down deep if I really am truthful to myself, I realize that I could easily be in the same situation and would want God to help me. With wrong motives we end up with what the Psalmist says in Psalm 66:18 “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;”

It’s only when we recognize the wrong thinking and repent that we are able to turn ourselves away from our selfish thoughts and towards the One that matters. When we live the Godly life, seeking His will and living for God, we have the confidence expressed by the apostle John in 1 John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

But we can rejoice in the “Good News” because no matter what happens or how often we fail, how often our motives are not pure, God still loves us. His love is perfect and His grace showers over us. So we can be confident that no matter what we ask of Him, He will always give us what we need and what is good for us.

Join us this Tuesday at 7pm as we pray confidently according to His will.

Always praying for the glory of God,
Chris McKean

John 10:30 (ESV)
30 I and the Father are one.”
John 14:15-17 (ESV)
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

When you pray, who do you pray to? Is it the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit? Do you think it matters?

One analogy that has been used to give some understanding of the Trinity is the three physical states of water; solid, liquid, and vapor. All are water, but each have unique characteristics. However, they are all the same chemical compound. So it is with God. There is only one God, yet we know from scripture that He exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each of which has unique characteristics or personalities.

God is so complex and so mysterious and so beyond our comprehension that He has manifested Himself to us in personalities so that we can have some understanding of Him. Personalities that we can relate to and communicate with. It is unfortunate when we limit our interaction with God and not communicate to Him via the Trinity that He is.

For instance, God the Father has adopted us into His family. We are His children and we can praise Him for His creation and His many attributes. Jesus is our Savior, the one who took our sins upon Him. The Holy Spirit is our Counselor, living inside us, who knows all about us and who, if we listen to Him will sanctify us.

God provided the concept of the Trinity, so we could pray to a Person. It is important that we think of God as that, rather than an idea, spiritual concept, or principle. He wants a relationship with us as individuals and that requires that we think of Him in the same way.

When you pray, whose presence are you aware of? Speak to the Personality that is speaking to you. If you do, you will draw closer to Him. Your relationship with Him will grow and your prayers will grow deeper.

Always praying for the glory of God,
Chris McKean

Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Psalm 146:1-2 (ESV)
1 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

It may be easy to think, when we consider the self-sufficiency of God, that our adoration of Him would make no difference. Saint Augustine put it well, when he said, “God thirsts to be thirsted after.”

And yet adoration, thanksgiving and praise is not something that comes naturally to us. It is like the relationship between a parent and a child. Asking for things come naturally to a child and as a parent we want to provide what is good for them, but oh, what it means to a father to hear words of adoration and thanks from a grateful child. So it is the same for God.

In his book, “Letters to Malcolm”, C.S. Lewis provides four reasons why we can be distracted from the adoration of God. The first is inattention; getting distracted by the blur of life. The second is the wrong kind of attention, where we get focused too much on the frustrations of life. We try to analyze rather than praise. The third is greed, where instead of reflecting on what God has provided for which we should adore Him, we instead focus on getting more. Finally, the last is conceit, where we don’t understand why others can’t see the beauty of God and instead focus on how wonderful we are because we can.

I know I have been guilty of what Lewis has described. What a blessing that God has provided words of adoration, praise and thanksgiving to us in the scriptures. As we immerse ourselves in God’s Word each day, we begin to understand what the Psalmist said in the following verses.

Psalm 34:1 (ESV)
1 I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalm 22:23 (ESV)
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
Psalm 40:3 (ESV)
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

The prayer of adoration is a sweet aroma to God. It’s the best way I know of to transform us from knowing about God to knowing Him. For He will draw near to us and make Himself known to us as we adore Him.

Always praying for the glory of God,
Chris McKean

Acts 4:23-31 (ESV)
23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Peter and John were imprisoned overnight by the chief priests, then released and told not to preach about Jesus.

They went back to their friends and immediately began to pray together – corporate prayer.

1. They first praised God
2. They then prayed scripture – from Psalm 2
3. They acknowledged that what happened to Jesus was God’s will.
4. Their petition was not something that would have been expected. They prayed for boldness, not for protection.
5. God’s answer was dramatic.

This seems to be an effective model prayer.  If we want dramatic responses from God when we pray, should we focus on what God wants to accomplish rather than how it might impact us?

John 14:6 (ESV)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 18:37b (ESV)
37b “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

I reread a quote by C.S. Lewis today regarding truth. This is what he said:

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end, if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”

Our knowledge of God comes from the truth that He has provided to us in scripture. For many, the really hard part is accepting all of the truth that He has to offer. The natural inclination is to pick and choose, you know.

The quote by Lewis highlights a common trap we can fall into. It may seem better to do things that are comfortable, telling ourselves that it is truth we are after. We can get sidetracked so easily if we don’t spend time in the scriptures each and every day. However, if we get distracted and begin seeking comfort we aren’t following Jesus.

I remember a story told years ago about someone who had shared the gospel with a friend. The friend, after careful consideration, said that he was ready to accept Jesus as his Savior, but he wasn’t ready to agree to have Him as his Lord. A Savior would be wonderful, but if Jesus became his Lord, he would have to follow and obey him. It just wasn’t something he was willing to do. He wasn’t pursuing the truth, only comfort. He would receive neither.

I struggled for six months with God’s leading regarding the prayer ministry several years ago. I told myself that prayer wasn’t on my list of spiritual gifts. Why not let someone else do this? I really wanted to sit back (be comfortable), but God wouldn’t have it.

A more recent example is dealing with the deteriorating health of Cindy’s mom. Her mom won’t accept the truth of her medical conditions, because she would then have to accept and deal with the consequences of it. She would have to make some changes, accept some limitations. Instead, she disregards logic and wise counsel from health care professionals. Sometimes the consequences of accepting the truth is just more painful. I get that.

We would all prefer to avoid pain in our lives. We would rather look for the security, because the truth might mean we have to do something that is really tough. Or we might have to accept some things that we have convinced ourselves for many years is “true”, really isn’t. We see ourselves as either having or not having certain skills or abilities, but when others give us wise counsel and tell us the truth, we won’t admit it.

That’s why it is so vital for us to spend time in scripture and prayer each day, asking God to reveal the sin in our lives; those lies that have permeated us for so long that we would rather believe them than Jesus. Only when we are walking on the path that Jesus has set for us, can we know that we are following the truth.

Join me in praying to seek truth and only truth in our lives. Pray that we would not pursue comfort regardless of the consequences. In other words, pray that we would follow Jesus and only Him.

Always praying for the glory of God,
Chris McKean