Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers… For the last few days I have been humming and muttering one of the oldies but goodies from the traditional hymn collection. As I lay in bed last night asking the Holy Spirit for a prompting concerning today’s message, this line popped into my head and made itself right at home. You might recognize it as the third phrase of the traditional hymn entitled, “What A Friend We Have in Jesus”. The whole stanza goes like this: “What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry, Everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer.” Wow! What power; what truth in those few words.
Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to “pray unceasingly.” This can be a bit confusing. Obviously, he did not mean that we should go around with our heads bowed all day. I believe that Paul is not referring to non-stop talking, but rather an attitude of God-consciousness and God-surrender that we carry with us all the time. Every waking moment is to be lived in an awareness that God is with us and that He is actively involved and engaged in our thoughts and actions.
My definition of prayer is simply “a conversation with God.” Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “Believe me, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father here (at Mount Gerizim in Samaria) or in Jerusalem. But the time is coming, and is already here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship Him that way.” (John 4: 21,23) I believe the reference here is regarding the role of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth through revelation.
This is also a good time to reference the meaning of the torn curtain in the Temple at Jesus’ crucifixion. Matthew 27:50-51 tells us, “Then Jesus shouted out again, and He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom…” This massive curtain separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the Temple. Only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place as the people’s representative to offer sacrificial blood and to burn incense. But that rending of the curtain symbolizes the removal of any obstacle between man and God. No longer must man appeal to a Priest to access God; Jesus IS our High Priest! If we are in Christ, we can come boldly into God’s presence, sit on His knee, and call Him “Abba Father.”
We were created for a relationship with God, and nothing does He like more than when we engage with Him. The first Commandment makes that abundantly clear; “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” The fact is, we all have a god of one sort or another in our lives, but God Jehovah makes it perfectly clear that He is not sharing that number one spot with anyone or anything else. He told us in Hosea 6:6-8: “I don’t want your sacrifices; I want your love! I don’t want your offerings; I want your heart! In other words, He wants us to know Him personally and intimately.
When we begin our conversation with “God”, “Jesus”, or “Holy Spirit”, they’re synonymous, we have just opened the door to the spiritual realm. Nothing gets His attention more than our attention toward Him. The fact that we turned to Him to ask for wisdom, insight, courage, strength, patience, whatever it is that concerns us, is an act of obedience. He delights in this! This action brings to life James 4:10: “When we come humbly before the Lord and admit our dependence on Him, He will lift us up and give us honor. God loves to bless us, and this behavior certainly opens that door.
Now regarding the third phrase of the hymn used in the title, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear.” This phrase reminds us of the torment that results when we become victims of satan’s lies and deceptions. His sole purpose is to fan the flames of our human nature: “You don’t need any help. You can be your own god; you can get all the glory.” (Does that sound familiar?) Well, thankfully God knew from the beginning that we would be an easy target for satan and his evil minions, that’s why He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and the Holy Spirit working through us, and empowering us, was/is His plan for our victory and satan’s defeat.
As I have said many times before, “I don’t know how people who don’t know Jesus make it in this crazy world today.” When we come to know Him and truly understand what it means to be in Christ, there is a sense of confidence, security, peace, serenity and joy that comes from knowing that we are empowered to do greater things than we could ever do through our own effort. All of a sudden there is hope, especially when we realize that we ARE being transformed into the person God created us to be. And here is the super-naturalness of all of this: we realize it is happening because we are getting “self” out of the way and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our path, to give us the right words, to give us His wisdom, and to give us His courage and strength. Proverbs 3:5-6 nails this principle: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your steps.”
Prayer is the key that sets this process in motion. What a privilege to come before the throne of God and talk to Him as our Abba Father. There is no reason to forfeit any peace, or to bear any pain, guilt or shame. We honor Him by calling the Holy Spirit into action. That is every Christian’s secret weapon in our war against satan and his minions, and that is precisely why He blessed us with this gift.
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May God Bless you abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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