Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-16, Luke 11:9-13

“You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on pleasures.” James 4:2b-3

How is your prayer life?  Ever feel like your prayers hit the ceiling and bounce back rather than going to heaven?  Ever wonder why you don’t get the answers you seek?

Jesus encouraged us to pray, and to keep praying, until we get an answer. Matthew 7:7-8 are Jesus’ words of encouragement and assurance to us:  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus offered further encouragement for us to pray; He said if a son asks his father for bread, would the father give him a stone?  Or if a child asks its father for a fish, would his father give him a snake instead?  Then Jesus made this comparison—if we, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, think how much more our Heavenly Father would give good gifts to us when we ask.

Philippians 4:6 instructs us,  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  And then there is that wonderful invitation in Hebrews 4:16,  “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault.” How many decisions do you usually make during a day?  A week?  A month?  A year?  Our need for God’s wisdom and guidance is continual, ongoing, so we need to stay close to Him in prayer to receive His wisdom and power as we need it.  As we keep asking and seeking and knocking, our gracious Heavenly Father keeps hearing and answering our prayers.

All too often we come to God only when emergencies arise, but we need to keep in constant touch with Him.  Jesus called it “abiding”, and Paul called it “praying without ceasing.”  One little girl said, “When I call God in the morning I just never hang up the phone all day.”

God doesn’t always answer our prayers right away.  So we should keep right on praying until He does.  Sometimes He says “yes”, and grants what we have asked.  Sometimes He says “no”.  He may say, in essence, “maybe.  Keep praying”.  He may tell us He will answer later, and we need to wait patiently. Sometimes He will give us the assurance that He will grant a request at a later time, and we can begin to thank Him in advance.  And sometimes God will impress upon us to no longer pray a certain prayer.  Perhaps we have prayed with a wrong motive and are making an invalid request.

We need to remember, too, that prayer isn’t just about asking for things that we want or need.  Much of our prayer life should consist of praise, thanksgiving, and intercession for the needs of others.  Prayer is a conversation with our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit—our triune God.  It is the most incredible experience available to man.  Imagine:  we can talk to the awesome God of the vast universe at any time about anything.  He’s never asleep.  His line is never busy.  He’s never too far away to answer our call.  So keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking.  He loves to hear from His children!

Father, thank you ever so much for the incredible privilege of prayer. May we enjoy your presence everyday.  Amen.

Why am I stuck in the kitchen?

Luke 10:38-42

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better…” Luke 10:41-42a

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Worship is at the heart of all that we are and all that we do in the Christian life.” This past year, God has been showing me that the most important part of our Christian walk is our intimacy with God—the quiet times of reading His word, talking to God in prayer, and listening as He speaks to us. If you do not have a quiet time when you get alone with God everyday, you are missing one of the best privileges of belonging to Him.

Two sisters and a brother, named Mary, Martha and Lazarus, lived in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. They were friends of Jesus. When Jesus came to Bethany, Martha opened her home to Him.

Martha’s sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to what He said. Actually, all three times Mary is mentioned in the Bible she was at the feet of Jesus. When her brother died and Jesus came to their house, Mary fell at Jesus’ feet and poured out her grief over Lazarus’ death. And, at a banquet, she poured out an expensive bottle of perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair in an act of devotion and worship.

Most women can identify with Martha. Everybody else was having a good time visiting with Jesus, and Martha was hustling around the kitchen trying to get the meal ready to serve. Many of us can probably identify with Martha’s irritation with Mary for not helping her. Ever been there? Martha was having a pity party. She had a martyr complex. Martha tried to enlist Jesus’ support. She wanted be appreciated. She also wanted Jesus to chastise Mary for being lazy. She said to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all this work by myself? Tell her to help me!” But it was Martha whom Jesus chastised, and He gave Mary His approval. Martha had an attitude problem. She could have been kind and tactful to her sister. She could have quietly asked her to help. Or Martha could have kept quiet and graciously served, considering it a privilege. She could have simplified her preparations and joined Mary at Jesus’ feet as soon as possible. But she was distracted by making many preparations, angry at Mary for not helping, worried and upset about many things, and feeling sorry for herself.

It certainly isn’t wrong to cook and serve others. Think how hungry we would be if no one did that! But Martha had a priority problem. Jesus told her that Mary had made the better choice of spending time with Him.

A Christian missionary and speaker named Miss Bertha Smith came to my church to speak at a conference we sponsored. She stayed with one of the ladies in the church, but she said she always insisted that the hostess prepare only a very simple meal so she could attend the conference. Wiersbe goes on to say, “Martha received Jesus into her home and then neglected Him as she prepared an elaborate meal He did not need. What we do with Christ is far more important than what we do for Christ. Few things are as damaging to the Christian life as trying to work for Christ without taking time to commune with Christ. If serving Christ makes us difficult to live with, then something is wrong with our service.” Unless we meet Christ personally and privately each day, we will soon end up like Martha—busy but not blessed.

Actually what we need is to be balanced—to worship like Mary and serve like Martha. Both are important. Charles Wesley wrote, “Faithful to my Lord’s commands, I still would choose the better part; serve with careful Martha’s hands, and loving Mary’s heart.”

Father, may I always come to You to be filled with Your Spirit before I go out to serve You. Amen.

Do You Want Justice?

Matthew 7:1-6

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Matthew 7:1

If we take Matthew 7:1 out of context, we will think we are never to judge anyone else. But when we read the rest of this passage of Scripture, we find that Jesus was saying for us not to judge other people until we have first judged ourselves. And Jesus warned us that we will be judged in the same way and by the same standards with which we judge others.

We want justice for other people. We think they should be given what they deserve. But we want mercy for ourselves. We are very lenient about our own sins. Jesus likened them to having a plank in our eye. That’s huge. We ignore the plank but point out a speck in someone else’s eye. Most people are far-sighted when it comes to sin. They see the sins of other people but not their own.

We can’t see clearly to help other people if we are blind to our own sins. We tend to approach others with a haughty, self-righteous attitude like that of the Pharisees. But if we have faced up to our sins and confessed them, we will come to others in humility with a sincere desire to help them rather than gleefully pointing out their shortcomings. We need to be very careful about criticizing others because only God knows the hearts and the circumstances of other people. 

Sometimes we are called upon by God to offer criticisms or suggestions to others. If so, we should have their good and their growth as Christians as our purpose. The goal of correcting others should be to leave a person better than he was before. Warren Wiersbe said, “The Pharisees judged and criticized others to make themselves look good. [Gossip fits into this category.] But Christians should judge themselves so they can help others look good.”

You know how it feels when you have something in your eye. It is irritating and painful. You want it removed as gently and painlessly as possible. You don’t want it to scratch or otherwise harm the eyeball, and you don’t want the process of removing it to hurt.

If we need to confront another person, we need to do it as gently and lovingly as possible so we don’t do more harm than good. Just as “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”, if we mix praise with advice it makes the correction easier for others to take. 

A good rule of thumb is to sandwich criticisms between two sections of praise, like putting a piece of bologna between two pieces of bread. Praise, then criticize, then praise again. But your praise should not be empty flattery. People don’t appreciate that. We can find truely praiseworthy attributes in almost anyone. Our praise should be recognition of positive valid characteristics of a person. When we affirm someone for their good traits, we leave them encouraged as well as corrected.

The reason for exercising discernment when looking at specks in the eyes of others is not to condemn them but to know the best way to minister to them. Think in terms of exhorting people to live up to their potential. That’s what parents do as they teach their children and help them mature. “Brush your teeth”; “take a bath”; “don’t chew with your mouth open”; et al. If exhortation is given with love and gentleness, it is more likely to be received than rejected, and a person becomes better for it.

Father, may I confess my sins and approach others with a sincere desire to help rather than a “holier than thou” attitude. And, may I be open to the helpful criticisms and suggestions of others. Amen.

Where are your treasures?

Matthew 6:19-34

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV)

The problem with storing up treasures on earth is that they are so temporary, so easily destroyed. A spark of fire, a theft, a downturn in the stock market, and the things we have stored up for the future can be gone in a flash. We outgrow or wear out many of the things we thought we just had to have. The Rev. Ron Dunn pointed out that “the treasures of yesterday are the trash of today.” There is only one place to keep treasures that are safe and lasting and that is in heaven. God Himself guards our eternal treasures and keeps them for us.

There is a story about a man who died and went to heaven. As St. Peter was showing him around, he saw a mansion that belonged to a friend of his. The man thought if that friend had such a beautiful home, his place must be a knock-out. Imagine his disappointment when they stopped at a little shack, and St. Peter told the man this was his new home. Seeing the man’s disappointment, St. Peter said, “We did the best we could with the materials you sent up.”

It is true that “you can’t take it with you”, but it is also true that you can send it on ahead.

God is concerned about our treasures because He knows our hearts will be wherever our treasures are, and He is always concerned about our hearts. Accumulating wealth and material possessions can take over our thoughts and our affections and actually become our god. Jesus warned us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Are your treasures temporal and temporary or eternal and secure? The clue to the answer to that question is this one: where is your heart?

Father, may we treasure the things that are spiritual and eternal rather than the things that are worldly and temporary. Amen.

How do you pray?

Matthew 6:1-18

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6:7

Author Robert A. Cook wrote, “All of us have one routine prayer in our system; and once we get rid of it, then we can really start to pray!” It is quite possible to treat the Lord’s Prayer this way--to recite the familiar words without thinking about them. This prayer is designed as a pattern for our prayers.

In the model prayer, notice that there are no singular pronouns. It begins with Our Father. When we pray we should remember that we are part of God’s family of worldwide believers. An example for how not to pray is this prayer, “Lord, bless me and my wife, our son and his wife, us four and no more. Amen.”

Jesus used the term “Abba” for God. This is more like “daddy” than “father”, a warm, intimate term. God wants us to draw close to Him.

A guideline for effective prayer is to pray for God’s will. The purpose of prayer is to glorify God’s name and to ask for His instructions and power to accomplish His will. Robert Law said, “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting men’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth.”

In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book, “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, Ivan endures all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp. One day he is praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner notices him and says with ridicule, “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, “I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God.”

It is proper to put God’s concerns first and then bring Him our needs. The Lord’s Prayer does not begin, “Our Father, give me.” Prayer should be more than a wish list, or “to do” list we present to God. However, we are told to ask God to meet our needs in the phrase, “Give us our daily bread.” “Bread” represents the necessities of life, not the luxuries. We probably all need a lot less than we want.

Another guideline is to pray with a forgiving heart. We ask God to “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:14 and 15 are very plain verses. They say, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” So, if we want to be forgiven, we must forgive others.

Father, may I seek Your will first and foremost. Amen.