Prayer Is for Sinners

Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1)

God answers the prayers of sinners, not perfect people. And you can become perfectly paralyzed in your praying if you do not focus on the cross and realize this.

I could show it from numerous Old Testament texts where God hears the cry of his sinful people, whose very sins had gotten them into the trouble from which they are crying for deliverance (for example, Psalm 38:4, 15; 40:12–13; 107:11–13). But let me show it from Luke 11 — in two ways:

In this version of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4), Jesus says, “When you pray, say . . . ” and then in verse 4 he includes this petition, “and forgive us our sins.” So, if you connect the beginning of the prayer with the middle, what he says is, “Whenever you pray, say . . . forgive us our sins.”

I take this to mean that this should be as much a part of all our praying as, “Hallowed be your name.” Which means that Jesus assumes that we need to seek forgiveness virtually every time we pray.

In other words, we are always sinners. Nothing we do is perfect. As Martin Luther said, on his deathbed, “We are beggars. This is true.” Even if we have achieved some measure of obedience before we pray, we always come to the Lord as sinners — all of us. And God does not turn away the prayers of sinners when they pray like this.

The second place we can see this is in Luke 11:13: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jesus calls his disciples “evil.” Pretty strong language. And he did not mean that they were out of fellowship with him. He did not mean that their prayers could not be answered.

He meant that as long as this fallen age lasts, even his own disciples will have an evil bent that pollutes everything they do, but doesn’t keep them from doing much good as they rely on his grace and power.

We are simultaneously evil and redeemed. We are gradually overcoming our evil by the power of the Holy Spirit. But our native corruption is not obliterated by conversion.

We are sinners and we are beggars. And if we recognize this sin, renounce it, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

John Piper

What's real inside that heart?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever gone to a sawmill and watched them process timber? They take a big log out of the woods that may have bumps and knots on it, and they lay it on a cradle, running it through a saw, cutting off one side. Then they bring it back, turn it, and run it through again to cut off another side. When they’re finished, if you stand and look down it, it’s perfectly straight. But if you look at the end of it, the heart is still crooked. That’s the way it is with some individuals who are outwardly living the Christian life. But Jeremiah 17:9 warns the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We need regeneration. We must be born again.

ACTION POINT:

Read Psalm 19:14— 

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”

Pray it from your heart—that today you would desire with everything within you to be pure in thought, word, and deed. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Glorify God in Your Body

You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

“Worship” is the term we use to cover all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God. This is what we were created for. It might be singing in church. It might we sweeping the kitchen floor.

Don’t just think about worship services when you think about worship. That is a huge limitation which is not in the Bible. All of life is supposed to be worship.

Take breakfast, for example, or mid morning snacks. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Now eating and drinking are about as basic as you can get. What could be more real or more ordinarily human than eating and drinking? And Paul says, in effect, let all your eating and drinking be worship.

Or take sex. Paul says the alternative to fornication is worship.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18–20)

That is, worship with your body by the way you handle your sexuality.

Or take death for a final example. We will experience death in our bodies. In fact, it will be the last act of the body on this earth. The body bids farewell. How shall we worship in that last act of the body? We see the answer in Philippians 1:20–21. Paul says that his hope is that Christ would be magnified — worshiped, shown to be worthy — in his body by death. Then he adds, “For to me . . . to die is gain.” We express the infinite worth of Christ in dying by counting death as gain.

You have a body. But it is not yours. “You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

You are always in a temple. Always worship.

John Piper

Trolling for hidden treasure

BIBLE MEDITATION:

In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Many years ago, the Spanish Armada was sailing off the coast of Florida. A hurricane struck, and the ships laden with gold and silver ingots sunk to the bottom. People knew the treasure had been lost and believed one ship went down near Vero Beach in Fort Pierce, Florida. Fishermen fished over that spot, sometimes doubtless hanging a hook on a lump of gold.

One day some explorers went diving, and there it was in the shallow water. In fact, the water was so shallow that any of us could have swum to the bottom and brought up millions of dollars. In the same way, I believe there are many of us yet to discover the full treasure we have in Jesus Christ.

ACTION POINT:

Have you plunged your heart deep into the treasure of the Lord? Or are you living life in the shallow end, wondering if the treasure will ever come to you?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Wondrous Things

17 Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. 

18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. 

19 I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! 

20 My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.  - Psalm 119:17-20

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me."

9 And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' 

10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."  - Isaiah 6:8-10

174 I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight. 

175 Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me. 

176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.  - Psalm 119:174-176

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 

3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" 

4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. 

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation  - Psalm 42:1-5

25 My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! 

26 When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! 

27 Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. 

28 My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! 

29 Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! 

30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. 

31 I cling to your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame! 

32 I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!  - Psalm 119:25-32

9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"- 

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

16 "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 2:9-16

13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? 

14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.  - Isaiah 40:13-15

32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" 

35 "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" 

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. - Romans 11:32-36

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. - John 15:15-17

We need the structure of God's law.

It is a guide to us, keeping us on a steady course to holiness.

It is not our justification, nor our sanctification.

Those are through God, Christ and His Holy Spirit.

Can you see the wonder in these sacred things?

We Live by Faith

The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Faith is a perfect fit with God’s future grace. It corresponds to the freedom and all-sufficiency of grace. And it calls attention to the glorious trustworthiness of God.

One of the important implications of this conclusion is that the faith that justifies and the faith that sanctifies are not two different kinds of faith. “Sanctify” simply means to make holy or to transform into Christ likeness. It is all by grace.

Therefore, it must also be through faith. For faith is the act of the soul that connects with grace, and receives it, and channels it as the power of obedience, and guards grace from being nullified through human boasting.

Paul makes this connection between faith and sanctification explicit in Galatians 2:20 (“I live by faith”). Sanctification is by the Spirit and by faith. Which is another way of saying that it is by grace and by faith. The Spirit is “the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29). God’s way of making us holy is by the Spirit; but the Spirit works through faith in the gospel.

The simple reason why the faith that justifies is also the faith that sanctifies is that both justification and sanctification are the work of sovereign grace. And it’s faith that corresponds to grace. Justification and sanctification are not the same kind of work (justification is the imputation of righteousness; sanctification is the impartation of righteousness), but they are both works of grace. Sanctification and justification are “grace upon grace” (John 1:16).

The human corollary of God’s free grace is faith. If both justification and sanctification are works of grace, it is natural that they would both be by faith.

John Piper 

How did this happen?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. Psalm 119:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

How did it happen? How did the Bible get written apart from divine inspiration?

Suppose we decided to build a monument to all 50 states in Washington, D.C., and use native stone from each state. We would hammer out the stones from individual quarries in each state. 

Then ship them. 

Uncrate them. 

Then fit the stones together.

As the stones were assembled, we discovered that there was not one stone too many. Not one stone too few. When completed, we had a magnificently symmetrical monument.

The only explanation for this perfection is that there was a master architect who designed everything. In the same way, you cannot explain the unity of the Bible apart from divine inspiration.

ACTION POINT:

Praise God for His Master Design of the universe—of the stars, the planets, the skies, the seas...and you! 

LWF Adrian Rogers