Stop Praying?

Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

Francis Chan wrote in his book “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” the following:

What if I said, “Stop praying”? What if I told you to stop talking at God for a while, but instead to take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word? Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That’s what fools do. And often, that’s what we do.

We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.

I am arrested at this thought tonight. I am guilty of this very thing… just running right into his presence and throwing up my prayers and running out, like a 3 year old comes in and makes his bold announcement to his parents in the midst of their dinner party and then makes his exit just as promptly.

I just need to spend some time gazing on His beauty.

Pure Wisdom

James 3:13-18 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

“If you are wise…” James begins, and then he throws it down with “prove it!” Prov 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy one is understanding.” A simple substitution of wisdom with “Fear the Lord” would change the context of this passage.

If you fear the Lord… prove it by living a life based in humility. Obviously paraphrased, but kind of a a “duh” moment for me this morning. Who am I compared to the Lord? Of course I fear and revere Him, so why should I do anything outside of an attitude of humility? Just because of who He is, should be enough to keep me on my face. But often time it isn’t.

Here’s where Papa took me with this…. v14 talks about “… selfish ambition…” and not to cover it up, but for me, to search deep in my heart to see if it’s lurking because selfish ambition and jealously open the door for the enemy to come in like a flood (v15). The ESV says that it is “… earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.” That scared me, because jealousy and selfish ambition are a couple of things I tend to (and I imagine many do) struggle with and I do not want to open any doors to the enemy. Verse 16 goes on to say that every “... vile practice (ESV)” comes along with jealousy and selfishness. Yikes!

So how do I gauge my wisdom? How do I gauge how much I fear the Lord? v17 explains… First off it is pure (which means reverent or sacred). James goes on to list a “checklist” of how I am to live. Man I hate checklists. I always so far short. Anyway, here it comes.

• Pure – Am I reverent to and regarding the Lord?
• Peace Loving – do I bring peace to the situations I am in?
• Gentile at ALL times – ALL times?
• Willing to Yield to others – Do I always want my own way?
• FULL of Mercy – not just occasional mercy…
• FULL of Good Deeds
• Shows no Favoritism – see yesterday’s post on James 2 (Through His Eyes)
  
• Always Sincere – Always? Yikes!

Thank you Lord for your mercy where I fall short. If I continue to live in my own strength, I will never check off this list. If I choose to die to myself (Gal 2:20), then and only then is this kind of life possible. With this kind of life is promised a harvest of what we sow. Sow peace. Sow peace.

What harvest do I want?  What seeds am I sowing

Let the Fear of the Lord be upon you

2 Chronicles 19:7 says “Now therefore, let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take care and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, no partiality, nor taking of bribes.” In the Message it reads “Live in the fear of God—be most careful, for God hates dishonesty, partiality, and bribery.”

Do I live in the fear of God? Do I walk as a man with a healthy fear of the Lord such that it influences my actions?  The judges that Jehoshaphat put in place were to perform their work with a fear of the Lord such that they worked with a high degree of integrity in everything that they do.

Holy Fear Moment

So I read Leviticus 26 this morning.  I am not sure If I have never read it or it just has hit me differently than ever before.  But I joke you not as I was reading this I began to have this feeling, I guess the best way to describe it is a holy fear of God, and I began to tear up at the thought of what that looks like now, and how if God is still the same yesterday today and forever and He can not change than this characteristic is still true for today.  I got nervous and scared and awed, and this chapter just really hit home with discipline and obedience for me.  This whole chapter, this whole punishment was brought on by disobedience.  And I guess  the reason I think it was a holy fear as opposed to just fear is because I understand the underline meaning in what God is doing.  God punishes His children 6 different times, but what that means to me is He doesn’t go straight to death for their disobedience and pride (19 I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze).  There is this unspoken grace of God that gives them one more chance, and then another one and another one, and He continues to make it worse and worse for them with the understanding if you will stop with your prideful ways repent and change this whole thing ends and I will live with you and speak to you (But in spite of their behavior, while they are among their enemies I won’t reject or abhor or destroy them completely. I won’t break my covenant with them: I am God, their God. For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I, with all the nations watching, brought out of Egypt in order to be their God. I am God.” )  6 different times He allows them to end this punishment and yet doesn’t because He loves them enough to give them more chances and emphasize , by the means of increasing punishment, His love over them by not taking them straight to death by the hands of their enemy.  As I began to look at this chapter and my own life I got a real gut check on things that I don’t honor God with, things that I have not revered like God talks about in the beginning of this chapter (14-17 “But if you refuse to obey me and won’t observe my commandments, despising my decrees and holding my laws in contempt by your disobedience, making a shambles of my covenant, I’ll step in and pour on the trouble:)  This was just a good time for me to remember who He is and what He will do if I just obey, and then what He will do if I choose not to.  It was a good reminder and appropriate for this time going into this start up of this thing we are doing, and just reminding me and giving me this reverence for Him this morning as I sat and pondered what He said. 

Dad my heart is obedience and humility.  Help me break my pride and  continue to show me the disobedient places in my life that I may repent and change my ways not for the sake of the punishment but because I dont think I could not live without you or have you speak to me.  Father pour out your grace over me today.