Faithfilled Lives Powered By Prayer

"Today's Devotion" For October 1, 2005

Read: Matthew 7:7-12; Psalm 34

FAITHFILLED LIVES POWERED BY PRAYER

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will opened to you." (Mt. 7:7)

Being a Christian is no "bed of roses." So often we hear from the "name it and claim it" crowd that God wants us to be wealthy, to have many material blessings in our lives, and to be happy - usually meaning a life filled with pleasurable experiences. Yet, if Jesus Himself had to face persecution, and, ultimately, death, what makes us think things will be easier for us? Our Lord, Himself, notes that if they treated Him badly, we ought to expect to be treated badly as His followers. Thus the life of a Christian and a disciple of Jesus Christ is filled with great challenges to faith and living by a sin-filled world. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount (just before today's reading in Matthew) Jesus warns us about the challenges that living in a sinful world bring into our lives as His disciples - challenges in terms of judgment and living a repentant and forgiven life of faith in Him. We face an increasingly huge, confusing, and difficult dilemma to avoid harsh judgments without being lax and indifferent toward sin. It begs the question for us: What can we do to meet these challenges with confidence each day?

To this end our Lord Jesus Christ points us to the most important source of help we have as His disciples by which we gain help to meet these challenges - Prayer. With absolute and complete confidence, our Lord assures us that we have His promise that we can cast the burdens and decisions of life on our heavenly Father. After all He has made us His very own children in Christ. To ask, seek and knock is to approach the throne of grace with the certainty that God will respond just as He has promised. As our Father in Heaven pours out His love upon us, we are strengthened in our life of faith and shown by the power of His Word and Spirit how to avoid the pitfalls of life - judging others harshly or showing indifference toward sin. The road to God's kingdom is narrow and hard and is fraught with difficulties and temptations. It's so very easy for us to be lulled into a sense of complacency toward sin just because the world around us ignores God's will. Only our heavenly Father can carry us through such a minefield.

Jesus promises us that our heavenly Father will only give us good things, and primarily the things we need, not necessarily the things we want. Anchored by faith in God's love for us in Jesus Christ we live boldly each day in the forgiveness of all our sins, filled with hope and peace, and confident that we never walk alone - our Lord Jesus Christ is with us every step of the way. Taking God's promise to hear our prayers to heart, we realize that He brings us many good things through prayer so that we might reflect His goodness and blessings to us for others to see. By His grace and love we are also His blessings to others, giving and receiving as God has so richly blessed us. Filled with thanksgiving and praise for all of God's blessings to us, for the bountiful goodness of His grace and love, we step forth boldly in faith knowing we have all we need in Jesus to overcome the dangers of this world and the temptations of sin in our lives.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for the great gift of prayer. Knowing that I can come to You because of my Lord Jesus Christ for anything and everything is of great comfort and joy to me. I no longer feel alone or stuck with making spiritual decisions I am ill-equipped to make on my own because of my sinful nature. According to Christ's own promise to me, I know that I can confidently call on You, my gracious heavenly Father and trust that You will help me through the challenges of life and the decisions I must make so that I do what is pleasing in Your sight. Help me to also focus my prayers in behalf of others, so that they, too, might receive Your many good things. I pray these things, Father, in the precious name of Jesus my Savior and Lord. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright @2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.