Pushing Forward

Why do we think we have developed a heightened level of spirituality when we give up on praying and stifle our love of Christ in a muffling "your will be done"?  Nothing so marks the carnal mind like the indifference to praying and "keeping on" praying.  It is passive aggressive bitterness that stops at the point of impassioned interceding for all the needs that come to our mind.  The great purpose of intercessory prayer is simple; to bring each and every one of those things that disturb us to the mind of Christ and there with the Holy Spirit working in our heart  learn to love God with the type of love Mary had not many minutes after she  wondered aloud why Jesus had waited too long to save Lazarus.  The pagan determination to pray for the dead is not so far off the mark as we think.  In Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega all at once, who is to say our praying cannot reach back before us and alter even what has happened in the past.  Where is the justification for giving up on everything that seems hopeless to us if God can pull the dead from the grave on the last day?  The praying of one believing Christian can change the course of events miraculously and in stunning fashion, not because she is worthy of it but because the love of God is poured out in the interceding and that love is a healing fire.  Nothing in the spiritual realm is quite so intoxicating as the determination to quit on a matter because it seems hopeless.  It is the morphine of Satan, this resolve to let go of the thing when the Holy Spirit is pressing us forward in prayer.  Who among us has not quit on a matter just as arrogantly as the mourners who laughed when Jesus informed them that the little girl was not dead but merely sleeping?  The opportunity to pray at any given moment for each part of a day is a privilege won for us at the Cross and we should not quit on it so carelessly.  

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24 NIV

Undisturbed or Undetermined

Have we got anything to look forward to today?  Are we satisfied with the way things are going to such a degree that it would be perturbing if God said “do this” or “do that” all of a sudden?  Could we bounce out of our plans or are we too settled for God to blow them apart and not come unglued ourselves?  What would we give to have things go smoothly right now?  Is there something we can’t see torn asunder?  Have we a freedom of the Spirit that leaves us empty of self-will and determination?  God is not interested in us becoming the best we can be or making our days uncomplicated and settled.  He is righting the ship that has been broken completely by the storms of sin we have leveled against it.  We are undone and don’t realize it because we are too far invested in ourselves and how we want things to go.  God’s will for us is to kill off our will so that we can be one with Him and free of the tangled weeds of sin choking our life.  He must break up our day and shatter our plans for us to give in to Him and let Him become our all in all.  The sacredness of the day is not found in what we accomplish or set out to accomplish but rather in our complete trust in Christ to make of it as He will.  That does not mean passively sitting back in a mess of meaningless activities but rather drawing near to the Holy Spirit in each and every part of the day.   It is not Christian to realize your dreams.  It is Christian to die to the will to sin and become so in love with Jesus that nothing He makes of our moment is cursed and everything we want is undisturbed by a love of the world.  Find a moment to love Christ without conditions.  Let this day be His.