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Religiosity makes a person go to church every Sunday, dress a certain way, talk different, filter what he or she listens and reads, and even moves the person to give money for certain causes. But religiosity doesn’t touch the intimate being, our affections, our zeal, and our desires. We may sing a song or say a prayer, but it lacks power, effectiveness; it’s dull and empty and it reaches the air.
Devotion, on the other hand, reaches God. It goes beyond the walls of a church building into the streets, into our cars, at our work place, at home. It touches the innermost fibers of your being; it stays with us at night when we go to sleep, and is with us when we wake up. “Whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do it all for God’s glory.” A lifestyle of passion for God is not restricted to one particular activity, during one particular day in a particular place; it’s a 24 hour way of life.
Devotion is fed by fervent prayer, by meditating in God’s Word, by responding to the Spirit in humility and obedience. It bursts into praises and singing to God. It makes its beholder to laugh and cry with deep emotion for the things of God. Religiosity is a response of duty and becomes mechanical; devotion is a response of earnest love and is spontaneous. Which do you posses?
Devotion to God makes life to be packed with excitement, and free from religion. Experience it for yourself!
Do you pursue high places? Are you looking for prominence? Do you like to be recognized in front of others? Do you like it when your name is mentioned in public? Do you have dreams of grandeur? Pride has seen the fall of many. Proverbs 16:18 says: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
On the other hand, modesty, lowliness, humility (rare commodities for us human beings) are pleasing to God. In Luke 18:10-14 Jesus tells the following story: "Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank You, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don't cheat, I don't sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give You a tenth of my income.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." Which of these two individuals characterizes you? Which one do you rather be?
Stay away from pride, self promotion, from being self conceited, and looking for the praises of others. Stay low; seek God’s favor; lift HIS Name on high and not yours; praise HIM and not yourself, for “God resists the proud, but give grace to the humble.” James 4:6
We Christians have an untapped source of power called prayer. When we pray, things change that otherwise would not change if we didn’t pray. Throughout the Bible and the history of Christianity, we encounter great and fascinating stories of unusual achievements that would not have been realized except through prayer. Do you want to see God at work in your life? Pray. James 5:16 says that “the effective prayer of the righteous avails much.” And James 4:2 says: “You do not have, because you do not ask.”
So to resume our thoughts about prayer:
1. Why pray?
We humans are very independent; we rely on our abilities and pride to accomplish things. But the truth of the matter is that we are imperfect, we don’t know much about what’s going on and we can do very little to change things around us. We are not in control. We pray because we trust God; He is in control; He created the heavens and the earth; He knows everything that goes on and what we really need. He loves us with a love that we cannot comprehend. He is our loving Father. Besides that, we pray for many reasons: “God commands it” 1st Thessalonians 5:17; “Jesus set the example” Mark 1:35; “for strength” Ephesians 6:18-19; “to serve God and others” Luke 2:36-38, and many other reasons.
2. Who do we pray to?
We are to pray to the Triune God of the Bible: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are not to pray to anyone other than our God. That includes dead relatives, “saints,” idols, etc. Jesus said in Matthew 4:10 “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”
3. What should we pray for?
It would take a long time to list the many examples of prayer listed in the Bible. A good exercise for you and me would be to search the Scriptures for these prayers examples and incorporate them in our prayer life. Anyhow, the Bible should be our guideline so that we pray His will, but this does not mean that we are limited to what is in the Bible.
4. When should we pray?
We should have a constant attitude of prayer. 1st Thessalonians 5:17 says “Pray without ceasing.” Of course, you cannot pray when you are talking to someone else at the same time, but everything that we do or say should be seasoned or bathed in prayer.
5. How should we pray?
There are certain ingredients for effective prayer. We need a clean heart when we approach God (Psalms 66:18; James 5:16; Matthew 5:23-24.) Have a humble attitude (Luke 18:10-14.) Have a conversation with God, just as if you were having a conversation with your best friend. Do not use repetitive words. The Lord’s Prayer (which should be called the disciple’s prayer) is more like a model on what we should pray for and not to be used as a repetitive prayer (Matthew 6:7.)
There is much more that can be said about prayer, and you can search the Scriptures and learn. However, the most important thing is that you experience it by yourself. Start today; set some alone time with God; pray for yourself, for your family, for your friends, for relationships, for your church, for government, etc.
“The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26
Prayer benefits us all in every way. In communicating the importance of prayer, the Apostle Paul, writes to his disciple Timothy the following words: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."1st Timothy 2:1-4
Who are the leaders in your life? Think about government, places of employment, church, family, etc. Today, take some time to specifically pray for our leaders. God will intervene on our behalf to do according to His will when we pray in Jesus’ Name. “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 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." 1st John 5:14-15
Many blessings!
Our God does provide for our needs. A year or so after I became a Christian, I took off camping with 2 other brothers to the Isle of Margarita in the Caribbean. We overspent our money and didn’t have any food left. Walking along the shore of a nice beach during a beautiful sunset, we had a casual conversation with God and told Him: “Lord, we don’t have any money and we are hungry.” As we continue walking, all of a sudden, we see a live fish right in front of us. We thanked God, cooked it and had leftovers (this is a true story.)
The Bible says: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:7-11
Many Blessings!
Lord, how do I pray for this situation? Many times we encounter circumstances where we don’t know what or how to pray; a loved one might be going through hard times (an illness, a loss, etc.) As humans, we see circumstances with a different perspective. We may be in an uncomfortable situation, and we may ask God to take us out of it, but God may want to keep us there to perfect our character.
The Bible says that in those moments, when we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit mediates on our behalf. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27
When you are praying with the help or assistance of the Holy Spirit, your prayer may say something like “Lord, I don’t know how to pray for this matter. Please intercede for me as I pray. Your Spirit is in me, and you know my heart.”
Many blessings!
Where is the source of power of the believer? It’s in the closet, when we spend time with the Lord in prayer. Man’s natural ability is limited; our strength is easily exhausted, our patience is short. We need God to succeed, to act brotherly, to be wise, to do justly and walk humbly. Prayer is like a crystal clear water spring that rejuvenates life. But you need to drink from it; it’s not enough to look at it from afar. There are many blessings available from God to those who ask; the power to do mighty exploits that will bring glory to His Name. Would you ask Him just as Paul did to fill your life with God’s fullness?
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14-21
Romans 12:12 reads “continuing steadfastly in prayer.” Read the verses that surround this passage and you will find that the source of all Christian graces and good deeds is prayer.
Because of God’s amazing sacrifice on the cross, because of Jesus’ blood having been poured for our sins, the Bible says that we have free access to God through prayer. Hebrews 4:16 says “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Let us consider the following as we come before the throne of grace.
Praying with faith has all the potential to radically change our lives, the lives of those around us, and even our circumstances. The Bible says “Call on me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jer. 33:3.
As we continue to pray the Word and following the model of the disciple’s prayer (Mat. 6:9-13,) pray for the following:
- For God’s will to be done. (James 4:15)
- For the coming of God’s Kingdom. (Mat. 3:2)
- For our daily necessities. (Psalm 37:25)
- For the practice of forgiveness. (Eph. 4:32)
- For God’s deliverance from evil and temptation. (Mat. 26:31)
Many blessings!
Prayer is simply communicating or having a conversation with God. Prayer is not limited by time, for in 1st Thessalonians 5:17 it says to “pray continually.” Prayer is not limited by space, for in Psalms 139:9-10 it says that even “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” God is Omnipresent (He is everywhere at all times.) Neither is prayer limited by specific words. Even if you don’t know how to pray, the Lord will understand, for He is also Omniscient (He knows it all.)
Prayer changes things. James 5:16 says that “the effective prayer of the righteous avails much.” James 4:2 says: “You do not have, because you do not ask.” Sometimes when we spend time in prayer, we find ourselves short of words. May I suggest praying the Word? Use the Word of God as a guideline. Make them your own; pray for yourself, for those around you, family and friends, for your church and your leaders, for your country.
May I recommend that today you pray this verse in James 1:5 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” Salomon, the wisest man that has ever lived, was given by God the opportunity to ask for anything that he wished; he could had asked for riches, or fame, or power, but he asked for wisdom.
Many blessings!
Well renowned French atheist Voltaire, who lived between 1694 and 1778, boasted that “100 years after his death, the Bible would just be looked at as an antiquity.” In the irony of life though, only 20 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society purchased his house to print Bibles. His former house eventually became a headquarters to print and distribute Bibles throughout all Europe.
Here are some facts: The bible has been translated in whole or in part in more than 2,300 languages and thus is available to more than 90% of the earth's population. On the average more than 1 million are distributed on a weekly basis. The Words of God has transformed uncountable numbers of lives throughout history. They have the power to change pride into humility, fear into courage, hatred into love, distress into peace, discouragement into encouragement, foolishness into wisdom, the uncaring into the caring, the drifter into a person with purpose, the eternally lost into the eternally saved, sinners into saints, the rejected into sons and daughters of God.
Many have tried to destroy it without success, for the Word of God is eternal and indestructible:
"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." 1st Peter 1:24-25
Today, make a commitment to let it be a daily part of your life.
It would be impossible to properly understand the Bible without the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” This promise was specifically directed to Jesus’ apostles. They received help to record the events and words of Jesus. But the application of this verse extends to all Christians.
The Holy Spirit illuminates the believer’s understanding of the Scriptures. The following verses explain how this is done: “But as it is written: "EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1st Corinthians 2:9-14.
Some people believe that verse 9 is referring to heaven, but if you study the verse in the light of the context, it is talking about the Scriptures being revealed by the Holy Spirit. It is an amazing fact that we humans can fathom the wonders of God through His Book. In 1st Peter 1:12, when talking about the revelation of God through Scriptures, it says that this is so incredible that angels desire to look into it. “To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.”
Let’s pray as the psalmist prayed: “Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.” Psalm 119:18
The Bible is a complicated book. Where should I start? I always recommend people to start with the simple stuff. I usually refer them to read the Gospel of John first; then the other Gospels, and so on. As you build a foundation, then you can move on to deeper stuff. The principle is that as you learn the basic teachings and doctrines, everything will start to make more and more sense. To drive a car, you need basic knowledge of the parts of the car: the steering wheel, the breaks, the accelerator, etc.
There is difficult stuff in the Bible; there is no doubt about it; to deny so would be foolish, but there are methods that will help you understand it. I remember years ago about the principle of discovering mysteries, and it goes something like this: when something is difficult, it doesn’t mean that it can never be known; it just means that at that time, it is hidden from you. If you are given a sealed letter, when you receive it, the content is a mystery to you, but if you break the seal and open it, then the content is no longer hidden. But if the letter is written in another language, then it is still a mystery. But if you learn the language, then it’s no longer a mystery. But what if the letter contains some technical terms that are foreign to your understanding; it will still remain a mystery. But if you learn the technical terms, then the mystery ceases. The Scriptures are like that; at first they may appear to be difficult, but as you start to read and learn the simple stuff, then the difficulties will become less and less. When talking about the mysteries of parables, Jesus said: “For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance.” Matthew 13:12
In our next article we will expand on the ministry of the Holy Spirit as it relates to helping us understand God’s Word. Meanwhile, enjoy your time in His presence.
Religiosity makes a person go to church every Sunday, dress a certain way, talk different, filter what he or she listens and reads, and even moves the person to give money for certain causes. But religiosity doesn’t touch the intimate being, our affections, our zeal, and our desires. We may sing a song or say a prayer, but it lacks power, effectiveness; it’s dull and empty and it reaches the air.
