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2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 18

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 18

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18

The Sufferings of this Present Time

In this life, we will have trouble.  God has purposed our life in such a way that the consequences of sin still hold sway over this world.  Being a follower of Christ does not give us an exemption from the troubles that come naturally from the brokenness of this world.  Some in the church struggle under the weight of sufferings, all kinds of sufferings.  Some believers suffer from physical illness while others deal with the psychological pains of torturous relationships.  Some Christians face direct suffering due to their faith in Christ.  Even in this moment, all over the world, there are believers right now suffering under the persecution of repressive regimes or religious fanatics.  For some, their trials are so great as to cause them to question the very purposes of God.  They may even question the love of God.  Because of the significance tribulation can play in the life of a Christian, it is vital for every believer to have a profound understanding of the theology of suffering.  Proper thinking about the suffering of this world and an understanding of the joy that awaits us protects the heart of the believer.

Glory To Be Revealed

Paul does not deny the reality of our trials in this life.  Even if we are experiencing times of relative ease now, we know that in an instant a trial can suddenly engulf us.  However, if we understand that God leads us and comforts us through trials and if we understand that God redeems even the most difficult circumstances for His glory and our everlasting joy, then we can embrace trials as a means to greater joy.  Paul described it this way.  Paul said it like this in II Corinthians 4:17-18, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  This current life of suffering is tiny when compared to the glory of God that will be revealed to us.  Affliction produces something for believers, “light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory.” Glory will overwhelm the suffering that believers experience in this life, both in duration and intensity.  First, there is the comparison of duration.  This life and its trials are momentary while life in Christ is eternal.  Compared to eternity, this life is but a breath, a mere whisper, a blink of an eye.  If we are suffering now, even if the suffering seems to go on without end, eternality will one day make this present, painful experience seem but a brief moment in time.  Second, there is the comparison of intensity.  Paul described the afflictions of this life as "light" and the eternal experience as "the weight of glory far beyond all comparison."  As weighty as suffering can feel, when we experience the weightiness of glory, when we are in the presence of Christ, this painful reality will seem light.  In the realm of suffering, Paul spoke from personal experience.  He had suffered greatly in the cause of following Christ.  However, in Romans 8:18, Paul described the comparison of this present world of suffering to the eternal life in Christ.  From Paul’s perspective, the weight of our present suffering is not even worthy to be put in the same discussion as the weight of the glory we will experience in Christ forever.  Trials are real.  Suffering will occur.  However, the eternal glory of Christ that awaits us is greater than our pain.  Such knowledge protects our hearts. 

Prayer Focus

Thank You, God, for the promise that You redeem our temporary afflictions for Your everlasting glory and our everlasting joy.  Thank You, God, that you produce the eternal, weight of glory through my suffering.  Prepare my heart for the trials that will come.  I confess to You that I need You at all times.  I trust in Your promise to one day eliminate all of the struggles of this life forever and to replace them with Your weighty, eternal glory.  Protect my heart in the midst of difficulties.  Draw me closer to You.  Protect my mind in the midst of trials.  Give me clarity through the understanding that comes from Your Word.  In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

OUTFLOWING STREAMS

I would like to see someone just full of living water; so full that they couldn’t contain it; that they would have to go out and publish the Gospel of the grace of God. When a man gets so full that he can’t hold any more, then he is just ready for God’s service. When preaching in Chicago, Dr. Gibson remarked in the inquiry meeting, “Now, how can we find out who is thirsty?” Said, he, “I was just thinking how we could find out. If a boy should come down the aisle, bringing a good pail full of clear water, and a dipper, we would soon find out who was thirsty; we would see thirsty men and women reach out for water; but if you should walk down the aisle with an empty bucket, you wouldn’t find it out. People would look in and see that there was no water, and say nothing.” So said he, “I think that is the reason we are not more blessed in our ministry; we are carrying around empty buckets, and the people see that we have not anything in them, and they don’t come.” I think that there is a good deal of truth in that. People see that we are carrying around empty buckets, and they will not come to us until they are filled.  They see we haven’t any more than they have. We must have the Spirit of God resting upon us, and then we will have something that gives the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; something that gives the victory over our tempers, over our conceits, and over every other evil, and when we can trample these sins under our feet, then people will come to us and say, “How did you get it? I need this power; you have something that I haven’t got; I want it.” O, may God show us this truth. Have we been toiling all night? let us throw the net on the right side; let us ask God to forgive our sins, and anoint us with power from on high. But remember, He is not going to give this power to an impatient man; He is not going to give to a selfish man; He will never give it to an ambitious man whose aim is selfish, till first emptied of self; emptied of pride and of all worldly thoughts. Let it be God’s glory and not our own that we seek, and when we get to that point, how speedily the Lord will bless us for good. Then will the measure of our blessing be full. Do you know what heaven’s measure is? Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. If we get out heart filled with the Word of God, how is Satan going to get in? How is the world going to get in, for heaven’s measure is good measure, full measure, running over. Have you this fullness? If you have not, then seek it; say by the grace of God you will have it, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us these things. He wants us to shine down in this world; He wants to lift us up for His work; He wants us to have the power to testify for His Son. He has left us in this world to testify for Him. What did He leave us for? Not to buy and sell and to get gain, but to glorify Christ. How are you going to do it without the Spirit? That is the question. How are you to do it without the power of God?

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 17

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 17

“and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him,”  Romans 8:17

Heirs of God, Fellow Heirs with Christ

God takes rebellious sinners and saves us from His wrath through the work of His Son’s death on the cross.  He offers to us complete forgiveness of sins.  He declares us as righteous in His eyes through the righteous life of His Son.  He then takes us and adopts us as His own children.  All of these truths are overwhelming.  They overwhelm the senses.  Who can fathom such divine love?  Who can fathom a ruler taking the rebellious peasants and making peace with them at great personal cost?  This verse engages our minds on a new level of divine love.  Our adopted status as children of God is not some second-class family relationship.  Instead, He brings us into the family in order to make us co-heirs with Christ.  All things exist by Christ and for Christ.  Now that we are adopted into the family, with Christ as our brother, He shares all that is His with us.

If We Suffer With Him, We May Also Be Glorified With Him

But what about suffering?  If we face trials, does this mean these promises are no longer valid?  Paul answers by reminding us that Christ suffered.  Christ suffered and was then glorified.  Even if we suffer in this life, we also will be glorified with Him.  Trials come.  Troubles come.  However, these troubles do not mean God has forgotten us.  These trials do not mean God’s love for us has ceased.  Trials do not mean the end of God’s love for us anymore than the suffering of Christ meant His Father’s love had left Him forever.  Trials, troubles, and suffering all distinguish us as members of the family.  These difficulties mark us family members, because they are what our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, endured.  We cannot let troubles in this life shake our confidence of these truths.  The end of the troubles of Christ Jesus was His everlasting glory.  That is the end of all believers in Christ Jesus.  As members of the family, God will redeem our difficulties and one day, He will overshadow our trials with everlasting glory.    This is what the Father did for His Son.  This is what He will do for His adopted children as well.

Prayer Focus

Your love, Oh Lord, is beyond my comprehension.  Your love perplexes my mind.  I cannot fully understand Your divine love whereby You take sinners in open rebellion against You, make us Your adopted children and grant us to share in the inheritance of Your Son.  There are trials in my life.  Lord, I confess that sometimes my suffering causes me to question my relationship with You.  Sometimes my difficulties cause me to lose confidence.  Thank You, oh my God and Savior, that my temporary troubles are not big enough to thwart Your everlasting plans for me.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

SPIRITUAL IRRIGATION

It is possible a man may just barely have life and be satisfied; and I think that a great many are in that condition. In the 3rd chapter of John we find that Nicodemus came to Christ and that he received life. At first this life was feeble. You don’t hear of him standing up confessing Christ boldly, and of the Spirit coming upon him in great power, though possessing life through faith in Christ. And then turn to the 4th chapter of John, and you will find it speaks of the woman coming to the well of Samaria, and Christ held out the cup of salvation to her and she took it and drank, and it became in her “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” That is better than in 3rd chapter of John; here it came down in a flood into her soul; as someone has said, it came down from the throne of God, and like a mighty current carried her back to the throne of God. Water always rises to its level, and if we get the soul filled with water from the throne of God it will bear us upward to its source But if you want to get the best class of Christian life portrayed, turn to the 7th chapter of John, and you will find that it says he that receives the Spirit, through trusting in the Lord Jesus, “out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” Now there are two ways of digging a well. I remember, when a boy, upon a farm in New England, they had a well, and they put in an old wooden pump. I used to have to pump the water from that well upon wash-day, and to water the cattle; and I had to pump and pump and pump until my arm got tired, many a time. But they have a better way now; they don’t dig down a few feet and brick up the hole and put the pump in, but they go down through the clay and the sand and the rock, and on down until they strike what they call a lower stream, and then it becomes an artesian well, which needs no labor, as the water rises spontaneously from the depths beneath. Now I think God wants all His children to be a sort of artesian well; not to keep pumping, but to flow right out. Haven’t you seen ministers in the pulpit just pumping and pumping and pumping? I have, many a time, and I have had to do it, too. I know how it is. They stand in the pulpit and talk and talk and talk, and the people go to sleep, they can’t arouse them. What is the trouble? Why, the living water is not there; they are just pumping when there is no water in the well. You can’t get water out of a dry well; you have to get something in the well, or you can’t get anything out. I have seen these wooden pumps where you have to pour water into them before you could pump any water out, and so it is with a good many people; you have to get something in them before you can get anything out. People wonder why it is that they have no Spiritual power. They stand up and talk in a meeting, and don’t say anything; they say they haven’t anything to say, and you find it out soon enough; they need not state it; but they just talk, because they feel it is a duty, and say nothing. Now I tell you when the Spirit of God is on us for service, resting upon us, we are anointed, and then we can do great things. “I will pour water on him that is thirsty,” says God. O blessed thought - “He that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled!” (Isaiah 44:3; Matthew 5:6)

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 16

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 16

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,” Romans 8:16
The Spirit Testifies With Our Spirit
Within the life of a believer there exists an ongoing verification of our fellowship with God. The Spirit Himself bears witness to our relationship. This is the intangible aspect of our spiritual life. Much of Christianity deals with objective truths. God created the universe. We humans violate the law of God by sinning with our minds, our speech, and our actions. This sin separates us from God and puts us under His just condemnation. God sent His Son to bear our sin. He lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death in our place, and rose again from the dead defeating sin and death. When individuals put their faith in these objective truths and receives Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their lives, they become Christians. All Christians immediately receive the remission of sins and the gift of eternal life.
Christians also possess the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit guides us and leads us. The Spirit will never lead us to do something outside the explicit will of God as articulated in the sacred Scripture. He always gives testimony that is consistent with the Bible. Herein lies the intangible reality of how God works in our lives. The indwelling Spirit speaks to our hearts and verifies the truth of God’s word. He convicts us of sin and brings us to repentance. He gives us wisdom by guiding us through decisions both great and small. He empowers us for good works and produces divine fruit in our lives (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). The fruit born by the Holy Spirit in our lives represents the external, objective evidence of the intangible reality of the presence of God’s Spirit.
We Are Children of God
One aspect of the intangible work of the Spirit deals with our confidence before God. The Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we belong to God and that we are in a unique father-child relationship with God. Fear shakes our confidence. Trials and difficulties bring doubts into our minds. The Spirit helps us in our weakness because we struggle with the objective reality of our relationship to God. We are children of God, but we don’t always feel that reality. The Holy Spirit supports us, testifying in our hearts as to the love of God that has been poured out in our hearts, Romans 5:1.

Prayer Focus

(Prayer request for today, please pray for the nine of us from Matthew Road as we work together in Woodsboro, TX. Pray that we would be an encouragement in the midst of the very difficult circumstances they face as they recover from Hurricane Harvey.)
I praise You, my Father. Thank You for verifying my relationship to You through the gift of Your Spirit. My confidence wavers, but You help me in my weakness. Strengthen me today. Give me confidence in my relationship with You. Protect me from sin that so easily sifts my sense of closeness to You.

From DL Moody's Secret Power
“NONE OF SELF”
Then you will find all through the Scriptures, when men were filled with the Holy Spirit, they preached Christ and not themselves. They preached Christ and Him crucified. It says in the first chapter of Luke, 67th Verse, speaking of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist:
“And his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. As He spoken by the mouth of His Holy prophets, which have been since the world began.”
See, he is talking about the Word. If a man is filled with the Spirit, he will magnify the Word; he will preach the Word, and not himself; he will give this lost world the Word of the living God.
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways. To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and increased in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.”
And so we find again that when Elizabeth and Mary met, they talked of the Scriptures, and they were both filled with the Holy Spirit, and at once began to talk of their Lord.
We also find that Simeon, as he came into the temple and found the young child Jesus there, at once began to quote the Scriptures, for the Spirit was upon him. And when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, and preached that wonderful sermon, it is said he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to preach the Word to the multitude, and it was the Word that cut them to the heart. It was the sword of the Lord and Peter, the same as it was the sword of the Lord and Gideon. And we find it says of Stephen, “They were not able to resist the spirit and wisdom by which he spoke.” Why? Because he gave them the Word of God. And we are told that the Holy Spirit came on Stephen, and none could resist his word. And we read, too, that Paul was full of the Holy Spirit, and that he preached Christ and Him crucified, and that many people were added to the Church. Barnabas was full of faith and the Holy Spirit; and if you will just read and find out what he preached, you will find it was the Word, and many were added to the Lord. So that when a man is full of the Spirit, he begins to preach, not himself, but Christ, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
The disciples of Jesus were all filled with the Spirit, and the Word was published; and when the Spirit of God comes down upon the Church, and we are anointed, the Word will be published in the streets, and in the lanes, and in the alleys; there will not be a dark cellar nor a dark attic, nor a home where the Gospel will not be carried by some loving heart, if the Spirit comes upon God’s people in demonstration and in power.