Psalm 5: A Morning Prayer for Deliverance from the Enemies of God

As a Life-giver, God is a defender of His own against His own enemies. Some folks feel uncomfortable about "imprecatory" prayers, as if they were "unloving." But it is precisely because God is love that He fights against those who would take away the life of those He loves and has sworn to protect. Pray with faithfulness the prayer God has written Himself for His saints to use in crying out to Him. Trust that God will sort out how best to deal with His (who are our) enemies.

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;
Their inward part is destruction;
Their throat is an open tomb;
They flatter with their tongue.
Pronounce them guilty, O God!
Let them fall by their own counsels;
Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
For they have rebelled against You.
Let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.
Amen.








Give ear to my words, O Lord,

Consider my meditation.

Give heed to the voice of my cry,

My King and my God,

For to You I will pray.

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;

In the morning I will direct it to You,

And I will look up.

For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,

Nor shall evil dwell with You.

The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;

You hate all workers of iniquity.

You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;

The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;

In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.

Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;

Make Your way straight before my face.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;

Their inward part is destruction;

Their throat is an open tomb;

They flatter with their tongue.

Pronounce them guilty, O God!

Let them fall by their own counsels;

Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,

For they have rebelled against You.

Let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;

With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Amen.

Life-giver

“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)

God is a Life-giver. All life originates in Him, and all of life is kept alive by Him. God created us to be life-givers also.

Of course it is true God is also a God who kills. But all of His killing is just, and all of ours must be as well. God brought the sentence of death on man for his sin. But for all who will return to Him, the death sentence is removed and life given again through Christ. In the end God is a life-giver all over again.

There is “a time to kill.” Justice and defense both require this: God is just in sentencing us to death for our rebellion against Him, and He defends His own against their enemies. But in the end His justice and defense are for the sake of life as well. He protects against enemies to give life to the oppressed. He squashes rebellions that His kingdom might thrive.

But God’s mercy triumphs. God forgives those who turn from their rebellion; He lays down His own life that His enemies might be given life and become friends. The Christian life is an exercise in doing this very thing. Am I giving life to others by laying down my own life? Or am I distorting “justice” into vengeance, and “defense” into the murder of others for my own “self-preservation.” Is everything I do aimed at bringing life? Or are the words I am saying, the thoughts I am thinking, the emotions I am feeling, the action I am taking—are these things bringing destruction to others and ultimately to myself?

Sin, in whatever form, brings on death. Sin is a death sentence in and of itself: “the wages of sin is death.” When we work the work of sin, we can expect the pay-out to be in the currency of death. Like the body-bombs terrorists deploy in a crowded marketplace, our sin not only destroys us but obliterates life in the concentric circles around us, leaving wounds and scars and death in the wake.

God forgives our sins for the sake of Christ’s death that we might have life. But God forgives sin so that we might live lives of love for God and love for our neighbor, not the very death-producing lives of sin from which He saves us in the first place. God the Life-giver gives us life through Christ that we might be life-giving spirits ourselves.

When God gave life to Eve in the Garden, you will remember it was through Adam’s similitude of death in “deep sleep” and through his giving up part of himself—a rib—to form Eve. When Christ the Second Adam gives life to His Bride, it is through no similitude but the reality of death; it is not through giving up a rib but in giving Body and Blood entire. Even so, in our own marriages, with our children, in our relationships with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ—even with our enemies—we find life ourselves and give life to others when we follow Christ’s example and lay down our lives that others might live.

“Heavenly Father, we give thanks for our life through creation and through Christ our Creator. Thank You for including us in Him, for in Him and Him alone is life. We pray, dear God, You would breathe Your Holy Spirit in us, fill us with Him, that we might be life-giving spirits as well. Teach us to guard our thoughts, tongues, attitudes, and actions that they might always be useful for promoting life in us and others rather than destruction and death. Protect us from our enemies, O God, the last and greatest of which is Death itself, and grant us everlasting life through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Psalm 145: Every Day I Will Bless You

Lift up this psalm-prayer as your own:

I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts.
And I will declare your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,
And Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power.
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.
You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.
The Lord preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.
Amen!

Honor

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)

The apostle Paul calls this the “first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Giving honor leads to long life. Giving honor leads to a life truly blessed by God.

As with all God calls us to, honor begins with God. God the Father glorifies His Son, and the Son glorifies the Father. (John 13: 31, 32; 17:1–5) The Holy Spirit honors both the Father and the Son who send Him forth. (John 16:14) Honor is at the core of their relationship (as is love), and they could have no relationship without it. Even so, our relationship with God is meaningless if we do not first learn to honor Him, and our honor of God is at the root of all other meaning in life: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

God has created us in His image, which means, among other things, that love and honor are at the root of all human relationships as well. God commands not only that children honor their parents, but honor in the home must begin with the parents themselves. Out of all the things that Paul could say to wives, he zeroes in on this one thing: “Let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:33) And Peter focuses on honor also in his instruction to husbands: “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them [your wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel [as you would a fragile vase], and as being heirs together of the grace of life.” (1 Peter 3:7) If fathers and mothers are not giving honor to one another at all times, it should be no surprise if their children, as the good little followers they are, show like dishonor to them.

Honor learned in the home is to be applied to all other human relationships. We are to honor those in civil authority (1 Peter 3:13–17; Romans 13:1–7), as well as those who rule over us in the church (Hebrews 13:17). We are even exhorted to compete with one another, trying to “outdo” one another in showing honor to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. (Romans 12:10) In some way, we are to “honor all.” (1 Peter 3: 17)

Clearly honor and respect are not only to be present in our relationships, but rather honor and respect, which include the concepts of love and submission, are the very things that make any and all of these relationships function at all. Whether problems with kids, problems in the marriage, problems at work, problems in the church, problems in society at large, friendship problems—you name it—if there are “relationship problems,” they are sure to involve a lack of honor. Learn to honor, and you will have a long and blessed life. Where we fail to, we will have trouble and the unraveling of true relational unity and integrity.

“Great and wonderful Father, we give You thanks for Your great love for us, and for clothing us with the greatest honor, the honor of being adopted into Your family through the humility, sacrifice, and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. To You belongs all honor: teach us and fill us with honor for You in all that we think, do, say, and are. Teach us to honor one another: as husbands and wives, as children and parents, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Teach us, dear God, to show honor in all of our relationships, and may You receive the honor and glory forever and ever, through our glorious Lord and Savior. Amen.”

Psalm 92: A Sabbath Prayer for Sunday

Pray this prayer authored by the Holy Spirit, using God’s Words as the expression of your own faith and heart. Remember the importance of Sundays as a time to reflect on the works of God, which include your re-creation in Christ and your deliverance from all of your enemies through the righteousness and sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.
For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
O Lord, how great are Your works!
Your thoughts are very deep.
A senseless man does not know,
Nor does a fool understand this.
When the wicked spring up like grass,
And when all the workers of iniquity flourish,
It is that they may be destroyed forever.
But You, Lord, are on high forevermore.
For behold, Your enemies, O Lord,
For behold, Your enemies shall perish;
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox;
I have been anointed with fresh oil.
My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies.
My ears hear my desire on the wicked
Who rise up against me.
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Amen!

Sabbath Celebration

“Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8–11)

God is a God who honors His own work. When He had finished six days’ labor, He “rested” the seventh day. Why? Because He was tired? Rather, God “hallowed” the Sabbath, turning it into a holiday (“holy-day” is the origin of this word) on which He enjoyed and celebrated the wonderful creation He had brought into being.

God invites us to do the same. When Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, the day changed from Saturday to Sunday, but the celebration is the same, only ratcheted up to a much higher level. Instead of merely celebrating and honoring and worshiping God the Creator of the World, we are now celebrating and honoring and worshiping God the Savior and Re-Creator of the World—we are celebrating His salvation and transformation of us in and through Christ.

Many Christians have gotten hung up on what they “can” and “cannot” do on Sunday. The best solution is to treat it for what it is, a holiday—the truest of holy-days—and do those things appropriate for such. You don’t make your employees work on holiday, and you certainly don’t work yourself on a holiday. You spend time with your family—and on Sunday especially this always means gathering with the family of God. On holidays you conscientiously remember and observe what the holiday is set aside for: Sunday is set aside to commemorate our salvation through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; to observe His worship; to remember and celebrate the covenant God established in His Son’s blood. Holidays are for feasting, and so on Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Supper (which traditionally is normally followed by a big “Sunday dinner”!).

A lot of Christians in our day, however, treat Sunday as any other day, arguing that “the Sabbath command is no longer in effect.” Or, if they do have the day off from work, they treat it as a day centered on themselves: on their rest, on their play, on their family. While it may be true that the Sabbath per se is no longer celebrated (the seventh day, that is), 99.999999% of Christians throughout all of church history—including those mentioned in the New Testament—have treated the first day of the week, Sunday, as the most fundamental holy day, gathering in worship together, centered around all that God has done for us and who we are in Christ. Do we have less to celebrate in the New World Christ has given us? Less reason to worship Him together and give thanks? Rather, no one has more reason to holiday every week than us!

“Heavenly Father, thank You for Sundays. Thank You for setting aside a special day for us to gather together with those who love You, those whom You love, that we might celebrate all we have in You and glorify our Lord and Savior. Teach us how to “keep it holy,” and give us the desire to set Your day and Your worship apart as the most important time of each week. Help us to take the trouble necessary to prepare for Sundays, and teach us also how to give goodness and rest to others as You have brought rest and goodness to us through Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Taking God’s Name

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)

This is a decree, but it can also be read as a promise: If you call upon God, the one true God, the one God who is Three, if you cast your hopes on the name of Jesus Christ—you will not be calling upon that name in vain. God will come through for you. That is because God “obeys” this command as He does all the others. Or in other words, we see in this “law” the very representation of God’s character, what God is like and what He does all the time.

We can see this again clearly in our own baptismal vows. In baptism, God swears by His own name that He will wash you clean of your sin and guilt, pour out His Holy Spirit upon you, take you into His covenant family, give you a new start, and grant you an abundant, eternal life with Him. He also swears to take on your enemies, protect you from them, and defeat them for you. He swears to feed you, clothe you, provide for you in every way, and make you a full-fledged citizen of the one Kingdom that will outlast and outshine all others. There is more, of course, but you get the idea: God does not take His own name in vain, but what He swears by It He will perform.

For our part, we are to be like Him, that is, we are not to take His name, “the Name,” in vain. We are to be faithful to our covenant vows as well. In our baptisms we also swore in the name of the Trinity—to give God our lives, walk in His ways, and come to Him for our needs, which include forgiveness for our sins and His help in our repentance. When we take the name of Christ upon ourselves in baptism, we are calling upon the name of the Lord to save us, and in exchange we are vowing our allegiance to this one God alone, believing Him to be the True Source of Life, the One Way to Truth, the Only Standard for Right Living, the One Hope for the World.

Our baptismal vows are the most important, of course, but in marriage we swear by God’s name as well. When we “take His name” at our weddings, we are calling upon God to witness that we will perform what we vow: to take to ourselves no other, to have and to hold this one person alone, to love and to cherish them for the rest of our lives, indeed, to the day of our death. Just as our vows in baptism should guide the “performance” of our day-to-day, moment-by-moment lives, even so we should see that we did not take our marriage vows “in vain” but meant what we said and will do what we have to do—“in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer”—to fulfill the words uttered in the name of the Lord our God.

The one who dwells in God’s house is described in Psalm 15 as “he who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” Again, we see this is exactly what God has done for us. What did it cost God to fulfill His own promises to us? Nothing less than the humiliation, death, and sacrifice of His own Son. He swore to His own hurt. The cost was worth it to Christ—He saw the joy set before Him that enabled Him to endure the suffering. Give thanks to God for His faithfulness to keep His word, and pray God will enable you to follow in His steps, to stay true to your own vows, come what may.

“God, we give You thanks this day in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for Your covenantal love for us. We thank You for the fulfillment of Your own promises toward us in Christ—for the forgiveness of sins, abundant life in Him, the hope of eternal life, and the gift of Your Presence with us. We pray You would help us to keep our vows—not to take Your name in vain—and help us at all times and in whatever circumstances to walk worthy of the name You have placed on us in our baptisms. Hear us for Christ’s sake and through His name. Amen.”

Worshiping God as He Truly Is

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” (Exodus 20:4)

Far from simply a prohibition of statues or even religious art, this decree from a loving God for His people encourages us to worship God as He truly is.

Shortly after the command was given, Moses’ brother Aaron caved in to mob anxiety and fashioned for the Church of his day the infamous Golden Calf. When he presented it to the congregation, he shouted, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Some of them—actually, a lot of them—fell for it: they worshiped in their foolish and wicked way and suffered God’s judgment for it.

But others could not be so easily fooled. “What? I don’t care how golden it is—our God a moo cow? The God who turned the Nile River into blood and blotted out the sun for three days straight? The God who parted the Red Sea—we walked through it, for crying out loud!—and then drowned the entire Egyptian army in it? Let the Hindus have their cow-gods: our God is inexpressible in His greatness!”

Of course, the Bible itself describes God with metaphors and allusions to help us know what God is like. He is a Rock and Fortress, but He is not a rock and a fortress but far more. Take “rock-ness” and “fortress-ness” out to the nth degree, to infinity, and you have one aspect of what God is like. As a fortress will protect you from the invading army, even so our God will protect you from your enemies—only He does it infinitely better than the mightiest fortress on earth.

Even so God is called a “Man of War,” but He is no mere man, and we cheat ourselves and dishonor Him to think of Him so. Just as Christ is a “greater than Solomon” in His infinite wisdom, so God is not only mightier than the strongest and bravest of men, but also more compassionate, more forgiving, more patient, more intelligent, more understanding, more condescending, more kingly, and more “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”

We will never come to the end of finding out what God is all about—after all, God is infinite in His glory, and we are finite and always will be. But we are to worship Him as He has revealed Himself to us—in His Word and in His Son especially—and, among other things, that will guide our prayers.

Pray to a God who is your Father, who loves you for Christ’s sake, who will never leave you nor forsake you, who protects you from your enemies, who gives better gifts to His children than the kindest father on earth. Pray to a God who is jealous for your love and utter devotion, yes, and is angry with those who are unfaithful to Him; but remember in your prayers He is also rich in mercy, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness. Pray to a God who is not like a man and will not lie to you but will fulfill all His promises to you and will keep His end of the covenant He has sealed with the blood of His own Son.

Never settle for a God of man’s making, but rather pray God to re-make you in His image, in the image of His glorious Son.

“Heavenly Father, we praise You this day as the God who is invisible yet who has revealed Himself to us. We praise You as the God who is more than any man yet who reveals His express image in the Man Jesus Christ. We give You thanks for unveiling Your glory in Christ and for revealing to us who You are and what You are like in Your Word. Teach us, O God, how we are to worship You in truth. Take away any false understandings or false imaginations we have concerning You. And fashion us, dear God, after the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Living in the Presence of God

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

The words before Me might best be understood as meaning “in My presence,” that is, in the presence of your God, your Lord. The Latin phrase coram Deo illustrates this thought as well: “before the heart of God.” What is in God’s presence, before the very heart of God? Everything!

Not only are we to have no other gods in the presence of the One God, but we are to live out our lives in His presence, fully acknowledging His presence and sovereignty. Any area of life, down to our thoughts and imaginations, kept “secret” from Him (which of course is no secret to Him) is an attempt on our part to give that part of our life to another, a rival, god.

Our little children know the catechism question well: “Can you see God? No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me.” And every child--and adult--ought to know Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place,/Keeping watch on the evil and the good.” We know intellectually and theologically that our God is a God who sees. This is a great comfort to us when we suffer unnoticed by others or when we are in danger or trouble. But it is also our greatest fear if we are doing what we know He disapproves. Living coram Deo, “before God,” is living in such a way that we not only theologically but experientially acknowledge God—our God—is there and that His presence makes all the difference.

Psalm 139 puts all of this beautifully and was written to be the sincere prayer of our hearts:

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me.’
Even the night shall be light about me.
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You. . . .
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Amen.”

Gods

“You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)

Gods abound these days and always have. In one sense, one’s “god” is whoever or whatever he most

• Worships
• Serves
• Loves
• Fears
• Trusts
• Believes in
• Looks to for deliverance (“salvation”)
• Obeys
 • Devotes his life to
• Prays to
• Thanks

For one example among many, God specifically identifies money as a god in the New Testament when He equates greed with “idolatry” and when He opposes God and “Mammon” (“riches”) as two rivals for the hearts of men: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) Money worship in our day is as common as Baal worship was to the ancient Canaanites. This is evident in the way so many people—rich, poor, and everywhere in between—develop their entire sense of security around money, devote their entire lives to the obtaining of it, fear more than anything the loss of it, place their trust in it (despite what we say on our money), and look to it in the end for deliverance. After all, didn’t Solomon himself say, “Money is the answer to everything?”

Yes, but Solomon also said that God is the one who gives riches and wealth and even the power to eat of it. There is one God above all who meets all needs and deserves all honor, praise, thanks, and worship. One test of your “idolatry factor” is you prayers. If you don’t pray at all or you don’t pray much, even as a Christian, you serve other gods in the presence of God. Those who truly trust in God look to Him for all their needs—spiritual, physical, emotional, and other needs—and give Him thanks for it all as well.

“Great and wonderful God of heaven and earth, we give You thanks for all things this day and look to You alone for all things. We pray, dear God, we would have no other gods before You. We pray we would not be found at the end of the day to have worshiped or loved or feared anyone or anything above You. For You alone are our help, our hope, our Savior, our comfort; You alone are our Lord, our Master, our King, our Center-of-All-Life. Make our hearts truly devoted to You in all things, dear God, provide for us all our needs, and deliver us this day from all of our enemies, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

God’s Covenant Name

“And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord [Jehovah] your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.’”

When God meets His children at Mt. Sinai to seal a covenant with them, these are the gracious words with which He opens: “I am Jehovah—your God.” In effect He is saying, “I belong to you, and you belong to Me. I am not some generalized, public-square kind of ‘God’ who demands no commitment and who makes no real difference in the lives of those who ‘believe’ in Him. I am Jehovah—I have a covenant name, the name by which I am known to you—and I am like no other god.” Jehovah, creator of heaven and earth, is not only the God who had created them but the God who had saved them from their enemies, who had given them their lives again. Thus they owe their allegiance to Him—to this God with a covenant name—and He promises to be faithful to them as well.

In the same way, God meets us in baptism and seals a covenant with us, and once again the covenant name is important: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38) “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Those who are baptized into this name—Christians, in other words—owe all their allegiance to Christ and His law; and our deliverance—from sin, death, and the devil—is secured by our God for us. His name is on us: He has sworn by His own name to be faithful to His own people, and we who have been bought at the price of His blood are obliged to trust and obey Him in all things, to walk worthy of the name of our God.

“Heavenly Father, we give You thanks this day for placing Your Son’s name upon us. Thank You for sealing us through baptism into the covenant name of Jesus Christ. Thank You for being our God and for making us Your children. We pray, dear God, we would live worthy of His name, trusting fully in the God who saves us and living in obedience to His holy and righteous law. And it is in that name we pray—the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Psalm 27: A Prayer for Times of Trouble

The Psalms have always been used as daily Christian prayers. Where can you find better prayers than those authored by the Holy Spirit? The Psalms are one of the best examples of praying according to the will of God by praying according to the Word of God. Pray the following Psalm sincerely from the heart. Are you in trouble? Your "enemy" may be an actual personal enemy, enemies to God's people in general, sickness, death, your own personal sins, or the devil himself. Hear God’s Word to You, and pray God’s Word back to Him as an expression of Your own faith, hope, and desire.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the Lord will take care of me.
Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage.
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!

Another Prayer Based on Psalm 91

We come this day, dear God, to the Secret Place of the Most High, to our Hiding Place—fill our hearts with songs of deliverance, dear Lord, calm our fears, for we trust in You. We give You thanks, dear God, for our lives this day, and we give You thanks that we live this day in the Shadow of the Almighty—You are our Refuge and our Fortress, our God in whom alone we trust. Hide us in Yourself, dear God, be near to us, and hear our prayers and our praise.

Almighty Fortress, deliver us this morning from the snare of the fowler, from the perilous pestilence. Cover us with Your feathers, and shelter us under Your wings. By Your truth be our shield and buckler, deliver us from our night terrors, from the pestilence that walks in darkness, from the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

Because we have made You, dear Lord, our Refuge, even the Most High our dwelling place, we pray no evil will befall us, that You would take away the plague that has come near our dwelling. We pray Your holy angels would keep us in all our ways, that their hands would bear us up lest we dash our foot against a stone. Trample under our feet this day the serpent and the lion who would devour us. We have set our love on You, O God—deliver us, O God. We call upon You alone, dear God—answer us! Be near us in our time of trouble. Deliver us and satisfy us with long life, and show us Your salvation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Way to the Good Life

“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.”
(Psalm 1:1, 2)

Blessedness is goodness, happiness, the state we would all like to be in. Aristotle and the Founding Fathers observed what all philosophers eventually get to: Everyone is looking for happiness, and everything we do is devoted to that pursuit. The trick is in knowing how to get there from here.

How do we get there, to the “good life”? God’s answer is in the negative first (and, yes, God does lay out negatives about as much as He does positives): You get to the blessed land by avoiding the advice of those who despise God. God is the author and source of all blessedness, and those who despise that Source are going to head you off on the wrong track—every time.

The advice of the ungodly is dirt cheap these days and everywhere to be found. Unfortunately many of us inundate ourselves with it daily, whether by way of the Internet, movies, television and radio (yes, even—or perhaps especially—“the news”), books/magazines, the government, pop psychology, our “friends,” relatives, education, culture, history (the interpretation of which can teach us lies as well as lessons), “style,” or the all-ruling spirit of the age. These things and others have become to one degree or another the prevailing voices in so much of our everyday lives, and thus the subtlety of the lies they feed us can easily turn us out of the way in pursuit of our true goal (happiness, remember).

Walk not in it, God says. We are instead to listen to His counsel and filter all other counsel through His one all-wise Scripture-grid. God puts it fairly succinctly in the gospels: we are either traveling on the broad way that leads to destruction—following the road signs of the ungodly—or we are walking in the narrow way that leads to life, guided by the Holy Spirit who speaks to us predominantly through the Word of God. Christ said His sheep hear His voice and follow Him—not the world.

“Great God in heaven, Source of all Blessedness, we give You thanks for all of the blessing You have poured out on us in and through Christ. We pray that You would help us to walk in Your ways and not in the ways of the world. Teach us Your paths, O God, and grant us discernment and wisdom that we might avoid the counsel of those who despise Your ways. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and fill us with a deep, abiding love for Your Word and Your ways. Grant us the grace to do as well as to know the things that lead to true happiness and joy. For it is all by Your grace and Yours alone—we look to You to satisfy our deepest longings and delight in You to find the answer to the desires of our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Psalm 30

"I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried out to You,
And You healed me.
O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.
Now in my prosperity I said,
"I shall never be moved."
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried out to You, O Lord;
And to the Lord I made supplication:
"What profit is there in my blood,
When I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
Lord, be my helper!"
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever."
(Psalm 30)

"God, You have graciously saved us in times past--save us now, that we might give You the thanks for it and bring You glory. Bring up our souls from the pit, grant to us joy in the morning, turn our mourning into dancing. Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy on us--Lord, be our helper! And we will give You the thanks and the praise forever. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

More Restoration Reminders

“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1)

The last part of this verse contains a warning: “consider yourself lest you also be tempted.” So what are the temptations? What are the dangers found in seeking to restore someone who has fallen into sin?

One of the easiest sins to which we fall prey and equally one of the most subtle is the sin of spiritual pride. And never is this more a temptation than when we are trying to “help” someone else with his problem with sin. We all know, if we are honest with ourselves, it is far easier to see the sins of others than it is our own. But it is also far easier to despise someone else for their sins than it is to look upon our own with equal vehemence. True humility thinks the best of others while thinking honestly about ourselves. It is in this way we are likely to be of any real help to those needing restoration.

But there is also the danger of falling into the very same sin we are seeking to root out in our neighbor. It is very common for one Christian who is struggling with a particular sin to try to help another who is having the same struggle. But rather than either one getting much help, they are often equally a further temptation to the other. This is not always the case, of course—two Christians struggling with the same sin may well be more motivated to hold one another accountable. But it is also not uncommon for two Christians “fighting” the same sin to sympathize with each other and let each other off the hook. If you are dealing with a particular problem, the best bet is to get help from others who have true strength in that area, and then, when you are stronger yourself, you may be of more help to those who are where you once were.

Then there are the equal and opposite temptations of either going too easy on the one hand or becoming too harsh on the other. What is particularly a problem is that we often bounce back and forth between these two extremes—presumably in “repentance” from the other—rather than finding the proper balance. Love and truth—the truth in love—are the twin keys that solve this problem best. True love will motivate us to speak the truth to others (“faithful are the wounds of a friend”), but true love will also move us to speak in such a way as to build up and not destroy, to encourage right things as well as pointing out the bad. As in all other things, the rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” provides a good measure as well.

“Dear heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your love to us in our sanctification. Help us to love others as You have loved us, and help us to love them enough to call them to holiness. Keep us far from pride, and rather teach us to consider our own propensity to sin as well as our neighbor’s potential for repentance by the same grace we need. Protect us and deliver us from evil, and teach us to be wise in our confrontation of it in others. Help us to tell the truth in love and to love enough to tell the truth. Fill us with the Spirit of Holiness that we might be led into all truth ourselves and that we might be instruments in His hands for that purpose in the lives of others. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Restoration Reminders

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted." (Galatians 6:1)

This is a short but extremely important verse in the Bible regarding daily interactions with the people in our lives. Here are a few of the gleanings from it:

1. When we desire to help others by pointing out their sins, it should be with the motive of restoring them to spiritual wholeness and helping them to grow in sanctification, not for the purpose of attacking them or of defending ourselves.

2. As Jesus warned in Matthew 7, when we are concerned with dabbing the specks out of the eyes of others, we must first take care of the tall timbers in our own. We will be of limited help to others if we are refusing the help of the Holy Spirit in our own lives in regard to our own sins.

3. Helping others, however, doesn't have to wait until we are absolutely 100% positively sure we have attained sinless perfection. Quite to the contrary, we should help others in all humility (the word translated "gentleness" includes this concept), fully acknowledging our own weaknesses, our own helplessness apart from the help of God, and our own ongoing need for repentance. "There but for the grace of God go I."

4. When we are on the side of receiving "rebuke," humility is always to be our response as well--regardless whether we think our "helper" is following all of these other "rules for rebuking." In other words, if someone is steeped in his own pride, not being gentle, blind to his own sins, but is still, despite all that, making some rather obviously good points (ouch) about my obvious sins (double ouch), my only good first response is to admit my faults, turn from my sins, and thank both God and my "rebuker."

"Dear God, we give thanks for the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Fill us with Him and His sanctifying power. Make us holy as You are holy. Thank You, dear God, for loving us enough not to let us continue in our sins without saying something about them and calling us to repentance. Thank You also, dear God, for using others in our lives for this very purpose as well. Help us to be faithful to repent of our own sins in all humility, and help us, again in all humility, to seek to restore each other to walk in Your ways for the sake of our love for You and for our neighbor. Help us to help others, heavenly Father, that we might be like You in Your great work of conforming us to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen."

Of Refuges and Fortresses

"He who dwells in  the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust."
(Psalm 91:1, 2)

We are short on castles in America. I wish we had a few around, lying about here or there. I have never actually seen one close up (not that I can remember anyway)--I have read enough and seen enough pictures to be mystified by them--but I think it would help us all just a bit to get a better picture of what God does and is for us if we could actually lay our eyeballs on the real thing.

God is a house for us, a house made of stone, a mountainous house made of stone and founded upon a mountain of stone--a rock fortress upon the heights. No enemy can breach His walls, no arrows can penetrate to the Secret Place in which we dwell. He is a walled city, complete with all we need for life abundant. We are not only safe from enemies without but provided with all of our needs within. 

All of life besides is unsure--but a shadow. But here is the assurance we have in Him: God's very shadow is a safer place than any other thing of so-called substance to which we may entrust ourselves here on earth. No castle of money, modern medicine, government, relationships, or any other created thing affords us the security our Refuge and Fortress can. Safely inside Him, however, no other created thing has a chance against us.

"For I am persuaded that neither death or life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38, 39)

"Great God of heaven and earth, in You we trust, for there is no other so trustworthy. Protect us, provide for us, deliver us, grant to us life. We thank You for the safety we have found in Christ and the life we have through Him. Thank You for being a Rock and a Fortress, a Castle and Citadel to which we can run and find refuge. Defend us against our enemies all around, heal our diseases, and fill us with the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Pray in This Way (Part Nine)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” The language of the prayer is very similar to David’s final public prayer recorded in 1 Chronicles 29:10ff:

"Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,
The power and the glory,
The victory and the majesty;
For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord,
And You are exalted as head over all.
Both riches and honor come from You,
And You reign over all.
In Your hand is power and might;
In Your hand it is to make great
And to give strength to all."

Like this excerpt from David’s prayer, this portion of the Lord’s prayer is pure praise. But every prayer should have at least the spirit of these words, and we should be praising God in this way daily.

When we ascribe to God all kingdom, all power, all glory, we are not taking it for ourselves, and we are not ascribing it to anyone else. This is a confession of our faith: God is King over all, He is all-powerful, and He alone is worthy to receive all glory, forever and ever. Amen.

“Blessed are You, O God, our Father, forever and ever. Yours is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours. You reign over all. Reign over us by Your Holy Spirit and by Your Word, work Your great power on behalf of us Your saints, answer our prayers for Your name’s sake and for Your own glory, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Eight)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

Let’s face it: the world is filled with “evils,” and an awful lot of it directly affects us, as individuals, as families, and as the church corporate. We need God’s help in facing them—help in resisting their evil influence, help in avoiding a sinful response on our part, help in bearing up under it all, and just plain HELP! getting out of trouble.

Some trouble we may not think of as “evil” per se, such as chronic sickness, economic downturns, natural disasters, or even smaller problems such as a struggling grade in math class. Yet God intends for us to bring these things to Him for help and deliverance as much as anything else. He wants us to trust Him to save us, and the way we trust Him is through prayer and patience and obedience even in the midst of our trials. It is quite true that God often “delivers” us by taking us through the trial (the lengthy illness or the difficult marriage) rather than whisking us away out of all inconvenience. But we should pray and believe that God will deliver us in whatever way He thinks wisest for our ultimate good.

Other things more clearly earn the name of “evil”: the unbelieving spirit of the age, personal enemies or enemies to the church, and even Satan himself. Jesus came to save us from these things as much as He did from our own sins. The Psalms are full of examples of prayers in which the psalmist is crying out to God to deliver him from his enemies. The Bible is clear: God is on our side, and if we have God on our side, who can be against us? If God is my helper, what can man do to me? God can deliver us from the greatest evils, and the very devil himself will flee from us if we resist him and cry out to God for His deliverance. And if the devil, then obviously God can save us from any “lesser” evil.

When you find yourself in danger or trouble of any kind, cry out to God and He will save you. And since we face “evils” every day, this should be part of our daily prayer.

“Great and wonderful God, our Deliverer, our Fortress, we pray that You would deliver us from all evil. Deliver us from our enemies: our own sins, the world, the flesh, the devil. Save us out of our distresses. Convert those who are enemies to Christ and His Church. Save us from the corruption that creeps into our homes and souls, from the evil running rampant through our culture. Hear us, O God, when we call upon You, defend us when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. We trust You to save us finally even from death through the resurrection that is in Christ, and so we trust You for every lesser evil we encounter in this life. We give You thanks for Your salvation of us, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Seven)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

“Lead us not into temptation.” All sincere prayer in confession of sin will naturally lead to prayer for deliverance from the power and presence of sin itself. God does not forgive us our sins, wiping the slate clean, in order for us to keep on sinning but rather so we can be holy as He is holy. The same Holy Spirit that communicates to us the boundless mercy and forgiveness of God also holds the power to transform us—from heart to head, body and soul—into a “new creation,” having done with the “old man” and becoming more and more like the Christ who saves us. Christ not only saves us from the guilt of our sins and the punishment we deserve, but Christ saves us from the sins themselves and the sinfulness itself.

So this is one of the things that ought to form our daily prayers to Him: “God, deliver me from my sins. Keep me from sin and temptation.” If we confess our sins and ask for His forgiveness but skip the part about repentance and the need for God’s help in avoiding evil, our prayer is suspect to insincerity. If we really believe our sin is “sin,” that is, the “bad” in our life, then our desire to leave it behind, avoid it, have done with it altogether, will be as strong as our desire for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

We should confess our sins both generally and specifically, and we should ask God’s help in our repentance in the same way—both generally and specifically. Naming our sins is important: it is only in naming our sins that we are being entirely honest with ourselves and before God (and others to whom we may be confessing). E.g., “God, forgive me for blabbing too much about so-and-so last night on the phone, and please help me not to be a gossip today.” But our overall desire should be to have God thoroughly cleanse us from sin and sinfulness, knowing He knows the depth and extent of our sins far better than we do.

“Gracious heavenly Father, we acknowledge again not only our sins but our great propensity to sinfulness. God, please deliver us from our sins and from our sinning. Lead us not into temptation but away from it. Make us holy as You are holy. Grant to us an ever-increasing desire for holiness and an ever-increasing hatred for our sins. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and cause us to walk in the way of righteousness and goodness. Help us this day to put to death the “deeds of the flesh,” all of those things that go contrary to Your law and Your character. Increase our faith, dear God, and help us in our repentance, for our desire is to obey You, to please You, to enjoy life the way You meant it to be, and to bring You glory by doing so. We pray earnestly in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Six)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Sin is certainly as daily as our daily bread, and so should be confession and forgiveness. In confession we acknowledge our sin, agree with God that it is sin, and seek to make it right with the one we have sinned against.

This not only teaches us how to pray but how to handle our human relationships as well—again, on a daily basis. Confession and forgiveness among family members, church members, and the larger community in which we live should be as common as our sins against each other—which is pretty common for most of us. Among other things, this would eliminate so much of the bitterness, anger, and separation that characterizes many of our relationships.

Sin here is identifies as “debt,” reminding us that we owe God and others our love and obedience. The apostle Paul explained that love is the essence of the law, and that lawlessness is the essence of sin. Every sin against God is a failure to love Him, and while every creature owes Him love and allegiance, how much more do we who have been bought with the blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We will certainly never repay such a debt—we need forgiveness.

And just in case we the disciples of Christ do not quite understand the second half of this petition—“as we forgive our debtors”—Jesus comments explicitly on this portion of the prayer: “For if you forgive men their trespasses[their sins against you], your heavenly Father will also forgive you [your sins against Him]. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” This is a comfort to us that we can’t out-forgive God. But it is also a warning to us to be faithful to forgive others as God in Christ has forgiven us. Our sins against God are infinitely worse than even the worst sin someone else can commit against us. So if God can forgive us our infinitely-offensive sins against Him, how much more so should we be willing to forgive the relatively “minor” sins we commit against each other.

“Dear heavenly Father, forgive us our sins—all of them, dear God—everything in us that is contrary to Your law of love. Teach us our sins, O God, and give us the grace to repent of them. Teach us how to really love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and how to really love our “neighbor”—spouses, children, brothers and sisters in Christ, even our enemies—as You have loved us. Help us by Your Holy Spirit to right wrongs as soon as they crop up, to seek forgiveness from others we have offended and to grant forgiveness freely to those who sin against us. Thank You, dear God, for the forgiveness of sins we have through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Five)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

You might be able to live without most everything else, but you cannot live without food and water! Praying that God would “give us this day our daily bread” teaches us to trust our heavenly Father for our most basic needs—physical as well as spiritual—and to direct our ultimate thanks to Him when they are provided. And if God provides our most basic needs, then He is sure to meet any and every other need as well. If we look to God in prayer for the very substance of our lives—food, water, clothing, shelter, protection, deliverance—then certainly we should look to Him (and not elsewhere) for the other needs of life, such as love, wisdom, faith, forgiveness, grace, peace, and countless other things vital to happy human existence.

Jesus brought this point home in His Sermon on the Mount where He taught His disciples not to worry about anything—not even the food you eat nor the clothes you wear—for, He said, “Your Father in heaven knows you have need of these things even before you ask.” If instead you make your primary aim the glory of God and the coming of His kingdom (in your life and elsewhere), then He your faithful King will see to it that all of your needs are provided. A faithful Lord takes care of His faithful subjects.

This of course in no way means we are not to seek to provide these things for ourselves, for our families, and for others. Of course we are, and it is only in doing so that you are being like your heavenly Father. Bums and moochers do not inherit the kingdom of God. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” the apostle Paul legislated. So we are not to be praying to God, tail in the easy chair, waiting for manna from heaven or for the ravens to drop food into our mouths. But we are reminded from both these very out-of-the-ordinary instances that all of our food does indeed come from heaven, even if it goes through the toil of the farmer, grocer, delivery truck driver, “breadwinner,” and mom to get to your belly. Pray for what you need, work to receive it, and distribute it as God gives you opportunity, and then thank God at the end of the day for His answer. But do not be found praying for something in which you are not willing to be part of the answer.

“Father of all life, we give thanks to You this day for the breath in our lungs, the food in our bellies, and the Bread of Life which is Christ our Life. Give us this day all we truly need—food, clothing, shelter, love, wisdom, forgiveness, faith, and repentance. Remind us, O Lord, to come to You with every need, great or small, and to look to You for life and true satisfaction. Inspire us also, dear God, to work hard at meeting our own needs and the needs of others, that we may be like You, Good Father, and like our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Four)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

When we pray that God’s name would be “hallowed,” we are praying that God’s name, as well as the Person that name represents, would be “holy,” that is, set apart—reverenced, glorified, given more importance than anything else—by us and all men. This model prayer, in effect, both begins and ends with this thought: all glory belongs to You, O God, and may our first and last and every prayer, thought, and act in between be to that end.

Next we pray that God’s kingdom would come. In one sense, of course, His kingdom has come already, especially as Christ, God’s Anointed, has come, conquered sin and death in His own death, rose from the dead, and now reigns on high at the right hand of the Father. But in another sense, the kingdom is still “coming,” still being established on earth, as men and nations are converted to the Christian faith. So when we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are praying that His reign would spread—in our own hearts, in our own families, in our own communities, as well as throughout the families and communities and nations of the world. We are praying that every knee indeed would bow and every tongue confess Jesus as Lord—King—over all the earth.

And as we pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying that His will would be performed perfectly, for that is exactly how His will is obeyed by the angels in heaven—perfectly, willingly, and cheerfully. This goes hand-in-hand with our prayer that Christ’s kingship would be honored throughout the world and that His name would be hallowed: If we long for God’s glory and we long for God to be king, then we also long for His will—His “law”—to be perfectly obeyed. And if we pray for all of this in general—that men everywhere would do God’s will, obey His Word, live lives that are entirely pleasing to Him—then we are nothing but hypocrites if we do not first sincerely pray that these things would be so in our own lives.

“Heavenly Father, we pray Your name, Your Word, Your works, and Your Being—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—would be honored and glorified and set apart in our hearts and throughout the world. We give thanks for our King, Jesus, and we pray that all men and nations would enjoy Your righteous and benevolent reign. We pray that You would convert all nations to Yourself, that the bounds of Your kingdom would be stretched to the ends of the earth, and that we would be fit instruments in Your hands for the building of the same. We pray, dear God, that Your will would be done, Your Word obeyed, in our hearts, in our families, in our churches, in our nation; and we pray, dear God, the same for the entire world. Your glory, Your kingdom, Your will—these things we desire above all else and ask for them in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Three)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

So what does it mean for us to pray to our Father in heaven? For one thing it means we are by faith going to a place where we can really receive help. God has the advantage over us: our world cannot really solve our dilemmas—but Heaven can. C.S. Lewis described Christ the Heavenly Man as saving us, as we drown in the midst of the river, as a Man “with one foot on solid ground.” That foot is in heaven. When we try to save ourselves, we are just thrashing around in the swirling water when we ought to be down on our knees in prayer to heaven.

Another reason we need to direct our thoughts to heaven is because that is where we are headed. Heaven is our goal, and I do not simply mean it is our destination but that heavenly perfection is what we are shooting for here on earth (even if we don't actually attain it this side of heaven). When He was commanding us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, Jesus ended up that thought with this: “Therefore be perfect, even as Your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Sound impossible? It is—without God. But with God all things are possible, and that is why we need to pray. We will never be like Christ the Heavenly Man if we don’t go to heaven for the help we need in the midst of our troubles, for forgiveness and deliverance from our sins, and for the grace to live by faith in all this vast world under heaven.

It is also vital we remember in our prayers that God sees all from His heavenly perspective. That is a great comfort to us when we are in trouble and we need a heavenly Comforter, a Helper, a Deliverer. It is equally important, however, to remember God sees all when we are in the midst of the sins that overtake us. Pray daily to a Father in heaven who sees all from heaven, and you will likely be far more inclined to seek to please the Father who sees you.

“Great God in heaven above, look down upon us in mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ’s name make us like Him. Grant to us heavenly help, dear God, and move us continually to call down heaven into our earthly cares—our troubles, our temptations, our families, our work, our hopes, our aspirations. You are a glorious God, O God, and all earth and heaven cannot contain You. Get for Yourself glory in us, sinful yet redeemed man, by transforming us from glory to glory, from mortality to immortality, from what we are to what we cannot imagine, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Pray in This Way (Part Two)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

Secondly, when you pray, pray in this way: Pray to God as Your Father. Remember that you originated in Him, that He is Your Creator. Remember that all of Your life comes through Him, that He is the one who made you, who sustains you, feeds you, clothes you, trains you and teaches you, provides for you, protects you, disciplines you, corrects you, loves you, and holds you as the apple of His eye.

Some folks did not have good earthly fathers, and none of us had perfect ones, so it is sometimes hard for us to think correctly about our heavenly Father. The Scriptures can help us here, however, and we can pray accordingly. Christ taught that His Father, who is also our heavenly Father, is a good Father, who gives good gifts to His children and they should ask Him for them. He said His Father will never leave nor forsake His children, unlike so many earthly fathers. Our heavenly Father is always near, ready to listen to our concerns, calm our fears, and comfort us in times of loneliness or sorrow. He is also there to pick us up when we stumble and fall, as well as to welcome us back when we come back, humbled, from our sinful rebellions against Him. He is the perfect Father.

How does this help us to pray? One way is by encouraging us to go to God as children to their father, seeking to honor and obey Him; asking Him for all our needs; looking to Him for guidance, forgiveness, protection, and deliverance; and making the primary aim of our prayers His honor (glory) and the good of His household (or kingdom). And as we learn from the Bible what kind of Father we have, we become that much more inclined to go to Him in prayer, and we become more confident in our prayers, trusting that He loves us and has our best interest at heart.

“Dear heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your perfect love for us through our Lord and Your Son Jesus Christ. Thank You for Your plan for us, for Your care for us, and for the sacrifice of Your Son for us. Grant that we would come to You in prayer as faithful children to their Father, looking to You for all that we need or desire. Teach us to trust in You and to open our hearts to You in prayer. Watch over us, minister Your grace to us, correct us. Protect us and provide for us, comfort us, and grant us wisdom to live lives pleasing to You, we pray through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” 

Pray in This Way (Part One)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)


In the parallel passage to this one, in Luke 11, Jesus introduces this prayer in response to the disciples’ request: “Lord, teach us to pray.” If the twelve apostles, who walked with Christ and heard Him pray for three years straight, needed Him to teach them to pray, how much more so do we. God, teach us to pray. And if we are listening for the answer, we will find it right here in His answer to them.

So when you pray, pray to our Father in heaven. First He is our Father. When you pray, it is certainly all right to pray in first person singular (with I’s and me’s and my’s and mine’s)—there are prayers like that throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms. But we should always remember that even when we are praying alone, we are not praying alone. When we pray in our homes or by ourselves, we should keep it in mind that we are praying with (and often for) the whole church. A goodly portion of what we are praying for ought to be the same things all the rest of the church is praying for (e.g., God’s honor, His will, His kingdom, the spread of the gospel, and so forth). And certainly we should pray for others as much as we do for ourselves: for our spouses and children, our extended family, our church family, other churches, churches in other lands, those in authority, etc.

But even everything in my prayers that may seem personal to me (my wife, my children, my sins, etc.) has an effect on the rest of the church and the kingdom of God. For example, your children, for whom you are praying, will also have children, who will also have children, and your descendents, all twenty-five kabillion of them, will have you to thank for your faithful, fervent, and effective prayers for your children. Your prayers, in other words, have an incomprehensible effect on the church—present and future—and the building of the kingdom of God on earth. And that is just one example of how you are praying with the church and for the church, not just for your little spot of Christendom.

“Dear heavenly Father, holy Father, we give thanks to You for including us in Your holy family, and we pray together with the whole world of Christians that Your kingdom will come and Your will will be done in this world as it is in heaven. We pray You would teach us to pray and that we would be faithful to pray, knowing our prayers have a profound effect on the kingdom of God, and we pray You would hear our prayers and grant our requests for the sake of Your own glory, for the good of Your people, and for the building up of Your kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Pray according to the Will of God

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14, 15)


This is a wonderful promise from God, and I am convinced that, in general, most Christians do not take advantage of it as God desires for us to. What is it He says? We can have confidence God hears our prayers and will grant our requests on this condition: if we pray according to His will.

Of course we do not know His “secret” will. I cannot pray with absolute confidence that a shiny, new red Camaro will be deposited in my driveway tomorrow, the key with my name on it. But it certainly is not wrong for me to pray about a new car—rather God does want us to pray for our specific needs and even our desires, as long as those things are not out of line with godliness. But then I must leave it in the hands of God as to how He will work it all out. I can be confident God will provide my needs—that much He promises in His Word—but as to how and when He will do so, those things are His “secret.”

There is, however, an awful lot of God’s will that has been revealed to us, that we can know for sure. This is why I say the surest way to pray according to God’s will is to pray according to His revealed Word, the Bible. For example, I can know for sure God desires for me to obey Him--He commands this over and over in His Word--so I can pray with a great deal of confidence, "God, help me to obey You." In other words, when I pray this way, I am praying the type of prayer I know God likes to hear: it is a prayer according to His will, revealed for me in His Word.

If my six-year-old asks me to teach him to spell a certain word, I will do so with great eagerness because that is exactly the sort of thing I want him to learn and I have myself planned and determined for him to learn such things. Even so, God is eager to grant to us the very things He has commanded us or promised us or prepared for us. When we discover these things in His Word--and they are on every page--these are the very things we ought to use as the substance of our prayers.

God answers all sorts of prayers because He is a loving God and condescends to our weak way of praying them. But if you want to pray with more confidence, pray according to the known will of God. Pray concerning those things commanded and promised in His Word. Pray for what you know God desires for you and the others for whom you are praying.

“Great God in heaven, You know all things, and we definitely do not. But we do know that You have graciously revealed to us much of Your will, and we pray You would teach us to pray according to it. Grant to us confidence in our prayers, and grant to us the knowledge of Your will that bolsters such confidence. Give us the desire to do Your will and the desire to pray that Your will would be done—in our lives—as perfectly as Your will is performed by the angels in heaven. So we pray, dear God, according to Your will and according to Your Word, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Pray about Everything

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6, 7)


I do not think it would be an exaggeration to say I struggle, to one degree or another, with anxiety every day. It might begin at 3:15 in the morning when I wake up for some reason and I begin thinking about the day ahead or some problem for which no solution presents itself. Or it might hit me when I am trying to figure out what to wear or what to eat (two things Christ particularly tells us not to worry about). I might grow anxious when a certain project is not getting finished on time, and I certainly struggle with anxiety as Sunday draws near and the pulpit is in view. I know it is not very spiritual for me to worry about all of these things, and, well, there you go: I am just not all that spiritual sometimes, meaning I do not walk in the Spirit like I should but allow the flesh-y side of me to run me in the ruts of habitual anxiety once again.


The antidote? Pray about every doggone thing. It is not just a matter of praying when I grow anxious--that certainly would be the correct response, and often I will "catch myself" in the act of worry or fear and cry out to God. Again, that is just the sort of thing I ought to do, of course. But the Scripture above talks about something in addition to that. The kind of prayer mentioned here is not simply panic prayer or desperate prayer. Instead we are encouraged (commanded) to pray, give thanks, supplicate, present our requests in every thing that comes our way.


This is why it is so important to pray habitually about lots of the same things every day. Do you struggle with anxiety as I do? Then pray about it every day. Make it one of your daily prayers. Pray that you would be "anxious for nothing" in this day. Are there anxieties, fears, troubles between you and your spouse? Pray about it daily, before the day even gets rolling: "God, make the love between my wife and me grow and flourish today," or "Help me to control my tongue today and speak only words that build up when I speak to my husband." If we anticipate the day and the things that will likely be popping up in it, and we pray about those things, God will hear, and God will grant greater and greater peace (less and less anxiety) the more we pray. We can have confidence, the Scriptures say, that if we pray according to God's will, He will answer. After all, God wants you to love your wife or speak gracious words to your husband even more than you do. Why wouldn't He answer? And He certainly wants you to live in peace. The very fruit of His Spirit is peace. Prayer is the branch upon which it is borne.


"God, grant us peace. Teach us to be anxious for nothing and to pray about everything. We cast all of our cares upon You, knowing You care for us far better than our own worries can. Hear our prayers when we cry out to You in the midst of our troubles today, and run to our aid. Show Yourself strong on behalf of those who trust You yet struggle with fears and anxieties just the same. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and produce within us the peace that passes all understanding, we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Matins: Pray without Ceasing

Matins are "morning prayers." In hopes of encouraging more "daily prayers," here are a Scripture, a meditation on it, and a prayer.


"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

One thing I can know for sure: It is God's will for me to "pray without ceasing." In the very least that means praying daily. Christ taught His disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," and to pray as often as they had sinned--which for me, at least, is daily as well. If you are not praying daily, you can be assured you are not following God's will. And who wants to be living a life contrary to God's will?

The good thing about daily things--whether prayers or hugs or meals or baths--is that their daily-ness gets them done. We all know we should be praying. We all know we have a lot to pray about. We all should know that a life lived apart from trusting God through prayer is a life doomed to failure, that a prayerless life is a faithless life. Yet all too often prayer is passed by or squeezed out by "more important" things.

Indeed prayer should be as daily as our daily bread. If life cannot be lived for long without food for our bodies, how much more certain is the death creeping over our souls and lives when we let our prayers lapse.

Pray without ceasing. Pray daily.


"Great God in heaven above, I pray that I would pray without ceasing. Hear my prayer, O God, and grant that I would have both the desire and the will to do Your will every day, to pray every day. Help me to pray as Christ has taught us, to pray daily for the bread that keeps me alive, knowing my every breath depends on Your every-moment grace. Teach me how to pray, to desire to pray, to pray persistently, fervently, devotedly, daily. So I pray, dear God, through Christ our Lord. Amen."