Why Prayer? - Isaiah 37:21

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria - Isaiah 37:21

There is a school of thought among the many Christian denominations that God has already decided what His decrees will be and thus prayer does not and cannot change His will; therefore; why pray? A more sobering look at why we are to pray awaits anyone with a Bible in their possession to understand that God does indeed answer prayer. Jesus Himself said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” - Matthew 7:7. Do these sound like useless and ineffective commands? Does this sound like God doesn’t answer prayer? Doe this sound like God has already made up His mind?
There are only a few reasons why God doesn’t answer prayer. One would be what the Apostle James regards as an improper request, not because our prayer is improper but because we have asked for something that is not within the will of God. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” James 4:3. We must approach God in a manner appropriate to Him as our Creator, Sustainer, and Lord.
The Apostle John reiterates this approach when he writes - “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”- 1 John 5:14. We must be certain that what we ask for fits within God’s certain will, even when His will does not placate our human desires. Our own mothers and fathers didn’t always give us what we wanted; God is no different in this small respect.
Another reason God will reject our prayers as insignificant is when we come to Him with sinful hearts. Naturally, we all come to God in such a manner because we are all sinners at heart. But approaching God with humble hearts in reverence and contrition will often loosen us from the worldly bonds that so often darken our souls with unrepentant sin. “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.” - Psalm 66:18-19. Bringing our prayer requests to God while we bask in our sinfulness will always ring with the hollow and forlorn sound of ‘the weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
As regenerated children of God, we have been instructed to - “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Again, we see that this is the will of God for us. The effectiveness of our prays made according to God’s will is hardly up for debate. Among the many clear accounts of answered prayer are this one - “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” - James 5:17-18.
We may never know what God’s plans involve or are to bring about. We know what His declared will holds for us but His decretive will is another thing altogether. Why does God cure one but not another? Why does He save one from harsh persecution and not another? Why does He allow the genocide against one nation and not another? Why does God allow one child to live yet another to die? The answer to these questions we can only speculate about. Our understanding of why God does things the way He chooses to appears to us (if at all) as though through a fog. But one day - “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” - 1 Corinthians 13:12.
Our prayers are commanded by God and if for that reason alone, let us pray.

Sea Change - James 2:10

 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. - James 2:10

    The most self-aggrandizing words often come from the most sinful mouths. We have all heard the pretentious claims of someone who routinely transgresses against God’s word. While they are quick to ignore God’s commandments, they are even quicker to disparage others who don’t share their personal ideals about morality. Thoroughly convinced they occupy the moral high ground, they are first in line to pick over the laws they like and discard those they don’t. Newsflash: we don’t get to choose! And the Bible is perfectly clear regarding those who try. “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.” - Romans 1:28-29.
    These persons can mechanically point out their own pious acts and world view. They declare their love for others that includes everyone. And they steadfastly refuse to judge anyone, except those they vehemently disagree with. However, the true test is whether or not God sees their false piety as a blessed trait or merely the cloyingly sweet frosting of human sinfulness.
    Toleration and encouragement are well and good as long as we don’t tolerate and encourage blatant sinfulness. We certainly cannot condone or support a deadly game of spiritual Russian roulette as a sign of our universal love for anyone! “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.” - Luke 17:1-3.
    Even the worst of humanity, through God’s common grace, do good from time to time. It doesn’t mean they are good. Even Hitler fed his dog, a good and righteous thing to do, but the one kindly act doesn’t change our view of this genocidal maniac or his sins. God’s justice demands that sin is condemned and punished, especially among those who carry on in sin throughout their lives and to their deaths. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” - 2 Corinthians 5:10. Everything we do will be judged; the good and the bad.
    A ‘sea change’ is required of us. Since we are sinners in the eyes of God we must either repent of those sins or die in them. Besides being sorry for our behavior, repenting also implies that we alter our behavior. It is not enough to simply say, “I’m sorry,” then simply fall back into our lives of debauchery. We must change our thoughts, words, and actions if we are to truly repent!  But it exacerbates and worsens our guilt before God when we point out that small handful of righteous things we do in lieu of our inexhaustive sinfulness. God has spoken and He observes what we think, say, and do. We cannot hide from Him. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” Psalm 139:7-8.
    Suggesting that the laws of God don’t apply to us is the same as saying the laws of nature don’t apply to us. Death, both physical and spiritual, await us either way. But all is not lost while we still breathe. There is now time for each of us to come to Christ in both word and deed. To suggest that even one sin will be ignored or overlooked is to declare that God is not righteous. We need the forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ! The atonement of the cross awaits all who will call on His holy name . . . and believe.
    “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” - Romans 10:9-10.

A Place Prepared For Us - John 14:2-3

 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. - John 14:2-3

    C. S. Lewis once said that Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord. The reasoning went something like this: only a madman would try to convince others that he was in fact God. By this definition 2000 years of Christianity and all its worldly benefits, i.e. the development of schools, hospitals, universities, charities and what not would have been based upon mankind’s dedicated following of a lunatic; hardly a believable scenario.
    On the other hand, Christ may have just been a clever liar seeking great fame, wealth, and power. If that were the case He failed miserably, living in abject poverty and eventually being arrested and crucified for His mendacity and claims of divinity. In either aforementioned story line, Jesus gathered and has maintained millions of believers over the past millennia under the banner of Christianity, the largest religion in the world. Many of His followers even went to their deaths as martyrs for their faith. What a stunning loss of life if Christ was merely a madman or a liar.
    But Lewis’ third possibility - that Jesus was exactly who He said He was - would explain humanity’s long and deeply rooted faith that Jesus is indeed the Son of the living God and the second member of the Holy Trinity. When viewed from this perspective it is the only answer that makes sense! “. . . and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” - Matthew 3:17.
    Having established that Jesus was neither a lunatic or a liar we can then extrapolate that the veracity of His words is beyond question or suspicion. When we take every true word that Christ spoke in the Bible then suggest that His claim to His divinity is somehow false, we futilely push against every truth of the Word of God. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” - John 14:6.
    Christ tells us truly that He will come back and take us to Himself so that we may be where He is . . . in heaven! These are the words Jesus speaks to those who believe in Him. These are the words of the Lord and Savior to us who have been saved by faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.
    Some have said that the words of John 14:2-3 are some of Jesus’ most reassuring words in all of Scripture. Think about the comfort of Jesus’ words that there is a place for us in His kingdom. And what a kingdom it is. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” - Revelation 21:3-4.
    There is a heaven and we know so because Christ has told us so. No matter where we find the words of Christ, we find the truth. There are no lies when Jesus speaks to us. The veracity of His words is without question. He tells us plainly - ‘if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” Jesus gives us no false hopes. He alludes to no fool’s paradise. His word is truth! “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” - Proverbs 30:5. We must not let the foolishness of the world convince us that God is a liar. Let the glorious truth of eternity in heaven by God’s very word shine its light upon us now and forever.

Will It Truly Be A New Year? - Psalm 81:11-12

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.” - Psalm 81:11-12

    A brand new year - 2021. For many it is all excitement. For others relief from what they consider their worst year ever. Regardless of how we see 2020, the only good change coming in the new year will depend upon how we conduct our lives. It will depend on what we allow into our lives and those things we allow to influence our lives; otherwise, this year will be no different. In fact, it may even be worse! We can’t possibly believe that things will be any better if we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. “But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” - Jeremiah 7:24.
    Think for just a moment: how can we even hope for a difference in our lives if we maintain old attitudes and old corruptions? Rhetorically, we walk down the same street everyday and get beaten up on the same corner, then repeat it again, day after day. How can we possibly expect anything to change for the better when we continually repeat doing all the wrong things and making all the wrong choices? Stubbornness is not a godly trait. It is an arrogant human trait and suggests that we are smarter and more powerful than God. It is truly the road to perdition. We were warned in the past of such lofty attitudes and we are warned still today - “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” - Isaiah 13:11.
    If we truly want the ‘new’ in our lives we must seek the new and not the same old sinful ways, hoping for a different outcome. We all know what that is the definition of. And if that weren’t enough, when we ignore God and pursue our own road, we inevitably reap what we sow. “Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.” - Proverbs 1:29-31. So why on earth would this year be any different than last year?
    This shouldn’t come as any surprise to any of us. We know from our own pasts that God will ultimately give us what we demand, though not necessarily what we hope for or expect.  And when He does so, based upon our inclinations and proclivities, we burst into tears and demand to know ‘why.’ Angered and saddened by God’s answers to our own demands we heap curses upon Him and merely deepen the hole we have dug for ourselves. “If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.” - Job 8:4. This, more than any other, gives all the more reason to be careful what we wish for.
    And if we decide that your life hasn’t been all that bad up to now, you can thank the restraining hand of God that He has kept you from the worst consequences of your sinful desires.
    But now is the rise of a new day and a new life based upon the promise of God, not some human manipulation resulting in more poor choices. God has promised us two possible resolutions to the lives we choose to live and He will certainly provide one or the other based upon our response to Him - the dire curse, “I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.”- Ezekiel 25:17 or the benign blessing. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” - Ezekiel 36:26. There is no third option. Either we see God as a vengeful and hateful tyrant or we see Him as our Lord and Savior. 2021 could truly be a ‘new’ year and it all starts with our relationship with God.