Christ Toothpaste?

Have you ever been around a person you just knew was a Christian's Christian, they stub their toe and something "less than holy" comes out of their mouth? How about riding with someone you looked up to in the faith only to find that their witness on "the highways and byways" wasn't one that glorified Christ to other drivers (even with a Jesus fish on the back of their ride or my favorite, the "F8ith" license plate). I'm sure we're all guilty as Christians, no matter where we are in our walk, of instances just like these and sometimes worse. It's called sin, and it's something none of us can escape. However, these momentary glimpses into our fleshly shortcomings shouldn't be the things that others can look at our lives and see as the norm.
When we look at scripture, we see a picture painted of the kind of person who's attitude, outlook, and emotions are completely under his control. The kind of person who's never brought down by circumstance, who's never downtrodden in countenance, and has tamed fits of anger and frustration into patience and graciousness.

How is it that such people able to achieve these things? What is it about them that sets them apart from the rest of us? For the unsaved it would be God's grace, for the Christian, it would be God's grace plus the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's check Galatians for some Biblical perspective on how we ought to act if we're indwelt with the living Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:19-26
"19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

If we live by the Spirit of God, then it would make itself known in us by providing the kinds of "fruits" listed above. This applies to every area of our life. When we are dealing with those who would be our enemies, we're still bearing fruit. When situations in our life arise that are less than favorable for us, the world should see us going through it while "bearing fruit". The Bible is actually very specific concerning the way Christians should face trials. James 1 teaches us the following:

James 1:2-3
"2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."

So here the Bible actually tells us that as we grow, our progress is actully measured and given to us in our trials. R.C. Sproul had this to say regarding verse 3 of this passage

"Trials can be considered pure joy only when there is knowledge that they are designed by God for a purpose. They are tests of faith given in order to develop perseverance. In turn, perseverence produces mature Christian character."
- Reformation Study Bible commentary

This is also illustrated in Romans 5.

Romans 5:3-5
"3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

So there, we have a clear illustration of how and why a Christian can and should handle trials with a grace that should stun all onlookers. It's not because we're good people. It isn't because we were raised well. It's solely based on the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and because of His work that we are good trees able bear good fruit.

Christ also promoted this principle several times during His ministry. Here's a quote from Jesus found in Luke 6.

Luke 6:43-45
"43 For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,
44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

So we know that it's what is IN us that determines what comes OUT of us.

This presents a whole new perspective on trials and temptations that Christians endure during the race of life. We're able to see them as a sort of gauge to measure our growth and maturity. It allows us to see the areas where we need to focus on developing. Much like the law is a tutor that leads us recognizing what sin is, ultimately leading us to turn and lean on Christ, we see trials achieving the same thing in our day to day lives. Showing us the areas of our shortcomings so that we're able to turn and depend on the Holy Spirit to help us grow in those areas. We should be monitoring closely the kinds of knee-jerk reactions we give to all circumstances. When you squeeze a tube labled "Crest", you expect toothpaste as opposed to glue. So we bear the label and name of Christ, what comes out when we are squeezed?

Wolves in sheep's clothing?

Over the last few weeks, I've been giving a LOT of thought to the church and how it's to handle false doctrine and those that operate under the "banner of Christ", without actually holding to Biblical teachings. 

It's quite a dilemma!  I find that there are two extremes in most cases.  There are those that choose simply to accept them and shrug their shoulders at their teachings, and there are those that opt to throw labels like "heresy" and "false convert" on them and then exclude the offender from the body of Christ. 

In the past, I've definitely been the latter, but things are changing rapidly for me lately, here are my thoughts.

We've changed churches (again?!?!?!).  Prayerfully this time, it's final.  We really feel like this is the place.  It's a part of the Sovereign Grace fellowship that C.J. Mahaney has put together, and, so far, I can say that I agree with the doctrinal stance of this church! 

Last Sunday, in the new member class, we started discussing the "gifts of the spirit".  The class leader asked if anyone had any questions, so I raised my hand.  I asked about how to tell between FALSE use of gifts like tongues, and the like and how we should go about telling others NOT to support ministries that demonstrated this false fruit.  The answer I received really surprised me.

He opened his response by saying that I should first check my heart for signs of pride and self-righteousness.  *GASP - SHOCK* ME?!?!  Self-righteous!?!?  The opening landed on me hard.  He went on to discuss that we don't know if the offenders are sincere or not.  They could REALLY be trying to serve God with whatever it is they know to do!  He gently reminded me that any knowledge of Christ that we have been given, wasn't because we were so smart to figure it out, but it was a gift given by the Holy Spirit.

This prompted MANY conversations with very close friends.  I shared what I'd been told, and discussed it at length with many different people.  Ultimately I was turned to a book by Randy Alcorn.  The brother I spoke with had told me about this book before so it was kind of funny to me how it came that we were talking about it AGAIN (about 2 weeks after the first conversation).  He had a copy and he let me borrow it.   The book is called "The Grace and Truth Paradox".  I have to say, that I found myself nodding so much I had to take frequent breaks to calm myself because I kept getting excited!

Then later that same week I received an email from a friend (whom I had NOT discussed this with) with an excerpt from the Puritan John Newton that said:

I am not to expect others to see with my eyes! I am deeply convinced of the truth of John the Baptist's aphorism in John 3:27, "A man can receive nothing--except it be given him from Heaven." I well know, that the little measure of knowledge I have obtained in the things of God--has not been owing to my own wisdom and teachableness, but to God's goodness. Nor did I learn everything all at once--God has been pleased to exercise much patience towards me, for the past twenty-seven years--since He first gave me a desire of learning from Himself. He has graciously accommodated Himself to my weakness, borne with my mistakes, and helped me through innumerable prejudices, which, but for His mercy, would have been insuperable hindrances! I have therefore no right to be angry, impatient, or censorious to others, especially as I have still much to learn, and am so poorly influenced by what I seem to know!

I am weary of theological controversies and disputes, and desire to choose for myself, and to point out to others, Mary's part--to sit at Jesus' feet, and to hear His words. I cannot, I must not, I dare not--be contentious! Only, as a witness for God, I am ready to bear my simple testimony to what I have known of His truth, whenever I am properly called to it.

So a confirmation for me (Aside from the made up words... "teachableness"?).  This has made me change my views on how I handle a lot of things, but especially my speech about those whom I consider to be "wolves in sheep's clothing". 

Here's my view in short.  While we ARE supposed to judge the fruit of those who claim to be Christian, and we are to season our speech with grace concerning those we consider to be off in stance.  I don't think we are to IGNORE them, I don't think we are to VALIDATE them either.  Share the truth, with Love and Grace.  Randy Alcorn kept making the point during the reading that Christ wasn't full of just grace, nor was He just full of Truth.  I like Randy's illustration best for describing it.  "Christ wasn't 50% grace and 50% truth.  He was 100% grace and 100% truth."  Christ held both at once.  We are to do likewise.  While not condoning a false version of the gospel to be presented, we should help to correct others in a way that reflects Christ's method best.  TALK TO THEM, don't just LET people be led astray, but do it in love.  And if they don't receive God's words and wisdom, don't take it personal.  Keep in mind that it's not YOU they reject, it's CHRIST.  They also reject because the Spirit has not opened them to receiving, so shake the dust from your feet and move on.  LOVE THEM, of course, continue to preach to them if you can!  When a fireman enters a burning building and finds occupants unconscious and unable to help themselves (sinners dead in sin and unable to help themselves), he doesn't scoff and insult the helpless (how DARE they reject the true gospel!).  His attitude isn't one of pride (I'm conscious.. they're NOT, glad I'm not THEM).  Because he CARES about the well being of those people he makes an attempt to save them (preaching and teaching the truth, not allowing others to be deceived BECAUSE of love, not out of pride, hate, or arrogance).  If he is unable to save them he has to regretfully move on (no injury to pride, but saddened because this person could not be reached or helped), however if he is able to rescue them, everyone rejoices! 

That of course is a very loose analogy, but I think it fits.  So when discussing the teachings of those we find to be unbiblical with those that follow them, are we critical or caring?  If we happen to find ourselves in discussion with a teacher who presents false teachings are we lovingly corrective or abusive and harsh?  Any thoughts?

The Humility of Christ

I’m sitting here at work doing my little spreadsheets and listening to Timothy Brindle’s “Killing Sin” album and the song “The Humility of Christ” cues up. Because I’m working intensely (on a spreadsheet), I’m kind of half listening, but near the beginning of the song, it kind of grabbed me.

Timothy begins to describe the birth of Christ and two lines really hit me and made me start to think:

“Let me ask you if you seem confused with this/

God passed through His own creatures uterus/

I admit this is odd, but the Bible can persuade me/

An omnipotent God crying as a baby?!?!?”

Let’s take a moment to break this down for a second and put it all into perspective. Here we have one person from the Trinity, The Word become flesh, the ruler of the universe, the King of the Jews who rules both physically and spiritually… and yet he made himself so small… so fragile, so meek to become an infant little boy?!? It seems so opposite of the way Christians or humanity as a whole work today. It seems so many times we all struggle and wrestle with ourselves and each other to climb to the top of the pile. Yet, here we have the one who deserves the honor and praise so much that it’s required, but he puts himself at the bottom of the deck. He took off the power, the deity, the Holiness He had, and became one of us. Flesh like you and me, and was STILL God! It boggles the mind how… but more importantly WHY He would do something like that!

An illustration I like to use to demonstrate God’s patience is to contrast it with the patience we have. I’ll paint the picture of an artist or something and say things like “now say you had a picture you wanted to paint. You had it all planned out in your head… but as you begin to paint, it wasn’t turning out as well as you thought it would... what would you do?” Of course the answer is start all over right? Why did God go through all the trouble? Was it because He loved us so much? I don’t think that’s the whole reason, but certainly part of it. Was it because of His limitless patience? I think it played a part… but not a majority of it. Well what do the scriptures say about it? What reason does the Bible give that God would go through all of that rather than just wipe the slate clean and start over. The simple answer is, God wanted the glory! OH HOW HE DESERVES IT!

The simple fact is, there’s nothing about anyone on Earth that could make God have a change of heart! Plainly put, He planned and ordained everything from the beginning. I like the illustration I used in the previous paragraph, but there’s one glaring obvious flaw people don’t pick up on all of the time. It assumes that the fall of man caught God off guard. It assumes that God didn’t have any clue what would happen once he started this “people project”. That of course is wrong, but I do it like that so that I can bring up another point. That point being the HUGE difference between God and man.

How limited our intelligence, foresight, potential for planning ahead… it’s all predicated on other circumstances we don’t control. We can’t create or manipulate events all the way through. For all of our planning, for all of our thinking, there are still uncertainties. Companies can plan to build buildings 5 or 6 years into the future, but when the time comes and those 5 or 6 years have passed, every company will stop to examine its condition at the time to decide if beginning that building is something they can afford to do. I was in a conversation with a co-worker where this was exactly the case. A company had began to build some office buildings in our area a few years ago with the idea that they’d be able to fill them up with occupants, however during the building process, turns in the market means that now, people and businesses aren’t willing to spend as much, so the building is finished and barely occupied now.

It isn’t so with God. He knows every second that passes. He’s seen it all already, and we’re all in His stage play. He’s planned everything in such a way that He would be magnified by those who love Him throughout history. He hardened Pharaohs heart so that the Israelites would witness His might with the splitting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh and his army. He has allowed sin to exist so that we would be able to experience His grace and kindness. Would we know how GOOD our God is without evil to contrast His goodness? He only allows it for a time, and those who will open their eyes to witness His splendor will be kept for eternity having borne a testimony to God’s glory and being able to worship Him rightly because of it. With that in perspective, let’s take another look at the marvelous work He has done by coming to us in such a humble fashion.

A holy and matchless God, who formed the universe with a few words, made himself into the likeness of His own small creation and saved them from His own wrath. Someone so High and Mighty, deserving of all the horns of the Earth announcing his entry, chose to come to us in the most humble conditions, in the most humble place, in the most humble way. Why? So we could look back into history and witness this even in our Bibles and see that His coming is two-fold. The first part was to free the slaves from the bondage of sin and the second, to gather those who He chose to save. Praise our God!

Do you fit the description?

A quick preface here. This was recently posted on a message board I frequent.. and has been the greatest eye opener, besides the Bible of course! I pretty much run all of these and thought this may help any of those visiting here. I hope you're blessed and edified... and mostly encouraged to grow in this area. Grace and peace! -btate

SIGNS OF PRIDE

1. Insecurity. Research reveals clergy as one of the most insecure of all professional groups. Insecurity is the root of many unhealthy and ungodly behaviors. It provokes us to want the lavish praise and attention of others too much. Much of pride is motivated out of one’s unmet need for self-worth. Finding one’s identity and security in Christ is a must to avoid pride.

2. The need to be right. Ever encounter someone who has a hard time being wrong? This is a symptom of pride. The need to be right prevents one from appropriately evaluating issues as well as themselves (Galatians 6:3). A person who needs to be right has an exalted investment in himself or herself and thinks that he/she knows better than others. In religious circles, the need to be right is frequently manifested through always saying ‘God told me’ or ‘God showed me’.

3. Being argumentative. Individuals, who argue their point of view, especially to those in authority over them, are allowing pride to get the best of them. At the root of their argument is a belief that they are right and the other is wrong and that their will should prevail. It is appropriate to advocate for a point of view or position but not to do so in such a manner that you are more invested in your opinion than in arriving at a mutual understanding.

4. More invested in being heard than in hearing. When someone develops a pattern of needing others to listen to them rather than first hearing others, pride is motivating the need. The need to be heard is common among clergy who are insecure. Oftentimes, the individual does not feel loved or valued unless people "hear them out." In truth, this is often just an expression of insecurity and pride.

5. Anger. Anger is a self-justifying emotion. This means that the nature of anger is to prompt us to justify our position and blame another for the wrongdoing. Justification of self leads to denial of our own complicity or wrongdoing. The scripture warns that the "anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God." (James 1:20). An individual who is angry a lot is suffering from pride.

6. Irritability and impatience. Even though I am a counselor, it was only recently that I learned that the root of impatience in my life is anger and therefore pride. When we are unable to be patient with another and are irritated, it demonstrates a haughty view of self. We feel that our views, time or needs are more important than the other persons. This again is more an indication of our pride than someone else’s slow movement or imperfection.

7. Lack of submissive attitude. Submission is the voluntary placement of oneself under the influence, control or authority of another. When an individual pledges their submission to you or another, yet is critical or argumentative of that authority, then pride is the hidden issue. The test of humility and submission is being able to say ‘yes’, maintain a positive attitude and trust God, especially when the decision of your authority goes against your grain or better judgment.

8. Not easily corrected. Ever work or live with someone who won’t receive any negative or corrective feedback? This too is pride. Before he died, a pastor in the East Valley was noted for being easily entreated and able to receive corrective feedback from others. He would thank the person for the negative feedback and commit to pray about it, seek counsel and get back to the person with what conclusions he came to. He was a role model for many of us.

9. Receiving correction but not changing. I worked with a man who often would receive my correction and say thank you for the feedback, but would never change. This too is a form of pride. The individual was placating me and people-pleasing me, telling me what I wanted to hear but not really taking the feedback to heart. His insecurity and fear prevented him from truly changing.

10. Needing others to take your advice. Counselors, such as myself, easily fall into the trap of having to have others take their advice. Advice should always be offered without strings attached. If you find yourself resenting the fact that your advice is not followed, look deeper at the motivating issues in your life.

11. Needing to proclaim your title or degrees. A good friend of mine requires everyone to call him ‘pastor’, saying that he has deservedly earned the title. Demanding that others call you ‘doctor’ or ‘pastor’ or ‘bishop’ is usually a way of making you ‘one up’ and them ‘one down’. Once again, pride is fueling the requirement.

12. Being stubborn. Webster’s dictionary defines stubbornness as "unduly determined to exert one’s own will, not easily persuaded and difficult to handle or work, resistant." The root issue of stubbornness is willfulness, which is ‘I want what I want when I want it’. Another name for pride.

13. Comparisons and competition. 2 Corinthians 10:12 makes it clear that comparing oneself with others is unwise. Comparison is a form of competition. It is often overt. For example, emphasizing the size of one’s church, the number of converts, etc. However, it can also be the subtle sin of heart that inwardly grieves when another is more successful or rejoices when another pastor’s ministry enters hard times. The motive of heart is pride.

14. Thinking you have no pride issues. Thinking that you don't ever struggle with pride could be a very good indication of pride. I believe we all struggle with pride on some level.

15. Proclaiming your humility. This one is tricky - it can be manifested by refusing help, but being always willing to give and give (whereas true humility has no problem saying 'I need help!'), it can be manifested with false affection and compliments which make you look good to those on the outside (such as using terms of endearment to make people think you are loving when in fact, you despise the person) and it can also be seen in some cases by proclaiming your constant and consistent innocence when you believe you are wronged.

What Do you Believe and why?

You ever ask yourself that question? Why do I believe what I believe about the Bible? Why am I apart of the religious denomination I’m in? How solid is the foundation I’m building my relationship with God on? When you REALLY think about it, that's a VERY important question to ask for a lot of reasons. What you believe about God effects everything from how you view God in Sovereignty, how you interact with God, how you view God and His Holy Word, and most importantly the things you say to others about God!

These are ALL VERY important issues that EVERY Christian should inspect in their own lives OFTEN! So many of us in The Body take what Pastor says or what Bishop says about a topic and hold that as the ultimate truth! We accept what we hear from the pulpit as the final authority, rather than holding it up and comparing to the scriptures. How backwards is that?!? EVERYTHING anyone ever tells us should be subject to the Word of God.

Now I know that a lot of times, it becomes really easy to misinterpret scripture when reading on your own. That’s why wisdom encourages the use of Bible study tools like a concordance and some Bible commentaries. Use discernment in deciding which version of the Bible to read and which commentary to purchase. I personally add to that mixture the use of sermonic podcasts. I listen to a lot of R.C. Sproul, Way of the Master Radio, John Piper, Paul Washer, and John MacArthur. From my own studies, I’ve decided to listen to them because they most closely match what I believe to be proper expositional teaching vs the freestyle type of preaching done in many churches today. That's not to say that I agree with EVERYTHING they teach. For instance, R.C. Sproul is a theologian I hold a lot of respect for, but when it comes to infant baptisms our opinions are different. Not that I know any better than him, but I don't seem to find any place in scripture that teaches that children are to be baptized.

It's important to remember when reading scripture, that we don't read God's Word to find a passage that may support what we think, but that we read in order to gain a better understanding of God. When we excuse ourselves and allow ourselves to read scripture and eisegete things into the text that wasn't originally meant, we are in danger of creating idols for ourselves by fashioning a God that fits the description of what we want our God to be like. This is why I support expositional teaching over thematic teaching. When reading a passage of scripture, it's easy to distort meaning when we hop about the entire Bible attempting to make sense of a verse (at least is shouldn’t be done without the use of certain tools), instead, a person would read a verse in context with the other verses leading up to and after that particular verse to get a proper context of scripture.

To quote Flame “A scripture could never mean what it never meant before to its original readers and author”. In other words, the verses and scriptures we read should mean the exact same thing to us, as it did to the original audience and author. Bearing in mind grammatical and historical diffferences of our day and the time in which the text was written.

So many times we use God’s Holy words OUT of context and laugh and joke about it, without realizing that God is a HOLY God, and as such, His Word should not be taken lightly. We should strive to understand God’s Word in its FULLNESS to help us gain a deeper and richer understanding of our Heavenly Father!

I won’t forget a conversation I had with a good friend. We ventured into a theological topic and just as soon as I started getting into it, responded with “See, I believe that the devil will use all this theological stuff to trip believers up sometimes”. It hurt me to my heart to hear him say this, but it gave me a lot of insight on how high up the view of God’s Word he had. I agree that too much of anything can be a BAD thing a lot of times… but NEVER too much of God’s word. It’s deeper than any ocean, and even wider than the same. Most certainly it's important enough for us to delve deeper and attempt to learn ALL we can! The Bible describes itself as containing milk for the simple and meat for the deep. One could argue that spiritual growth and a relationship with God can flourish by dining on the basics of the Bible, but I honestly believe that any lover of God would want to graduate from the surface and simple things concerning the Bible and move to have a deeper relationship with a Saviour that saved their soul. Being mindful of ourselves in the process however because we all know that "knowledge puffs up". So we should ensure that our motives for wanting to grow spiritually and in knowledge of scripture should solely be based out of a desire to know God better.

There are portions of scripture that CAN be understood without digging too deep, but from my own personal studies, with friends and alone, I’ve discovered that a majority of scripture requires that we give it our utmost attention and priority to properly unpack and understand. It’s because of a sloppy approach to hermeneutics that we have a lot of the divisions we have today in the Body today! I’m not referring to the small disagreements believers can sometimes get into (spiritual gifts, anointing, etc). Rather the more important and VITAL things like the Sovereignty of God, the Deity of Christ, and the Trinity as examples. Without proper view of such things, one cannot even HOPE to even believe in the same God revealed in Scripture.
A lot of times, we choose to be stubborn and hold on to what we WANT to believe, even if it contradicts scripture. We’d rather BE right than GET it right (IRAAC, "I'm right at all costs"). It’s hard to fathom that sometimes mom or dad MAY have had it wrong. What a hard pill to swallow when you have to UNLEARN a lot of the things you’ve been taught because you find that your beliefs are found nowhere in Scripture, but rather in the twisting of the meaning of scripture or simply holding on to traditions!

I would just like to encourage you, reader, if you’re serious about the truth, and God’s Word, then please take it seriously enough to know that God doesn’t need an editor, or a proof reader (“see, what God MEANT to say here was….”). Submit YOUR will, to the authority of Scripture and conform yourself to it’s truth. Study to show thyself approved...

Amen.

Powerful Praying

Just to be clear, my view on this has changed recently, but this article is being kept for reflection later and for comparison to later material that will show up here. Hey.. we all grow spiritually right?

Beezy

Just some notes I took from a sermonic podcast I listen to and thought I'd share.

Sermonic Notes

Lon Solomon "Prayer" - Part 8 of the series "Spiritual Boot Camp"

How do you pray with the power to reach the possibilities of God's promises in our lives? How do we pray with the authority and power that the believers before us had?

Promises of God regarding answers to our prayers

(ASV) Eph_3:20 - Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

(ASV) Jer_33:3 - Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things, and difficult, which thou knowest not.

(ASV) Jas_5:16-17 - ....The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working. Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.

What are the requirements we should meet in order to pray effectively?

There are 4 principles every believer should keep in mind when praying before God.

1. Pray with clean hands and a pure heart.
Psa_24:3-4
Psa_66:18

We need to ensure that we clear our hearts of any sins we may be harboring, anything we know we've done wrong, Something we should do in every prayer is to repent of these things before we make requests. We need to make sure our hearts are in the right place and cleaned.

2. Pray with a forgiving spirit
Mar_11:25-26

We need to ensure that we clear any hard feelings or anger and bitterness towards anyone else before we continue in our prayer. From Jesus' own lips he tells us that our prayers will be effectively ignored if we are harboring hate or ill will towards any of our neighbors. When we pray with these things in our hearts, it's like trying to grow a garden in soil heavily mixed with salt. NOTHING can grow in soil of this kind. You can't mix prayers and these sort of feelings and expect to reap anything fruitful.

3. Pray in faith
Mat_21:22
Mat_13:58
1Jn_5:14

When making requests from The Father we should ask with the belief that we will receive the blessings we ask for. Matthew 13:58 says Jesus didn't perform miracles in his own hometown because they did not believe. What good is it for God to reward unfaithfulness? What benefit to the body is unbelief? This kind of wavering mind is not rewarded. We need to have a strong understanding that God WANTS to fulfill our requests according to his word and his promises. God WANTS to ensure blessings in the lives of his children, but not just for blessings sake. By blessings it doesn't necessarily mean "stuff" but also includes love, peace, and security knowing that we are his children and that we are taken care of in him physically and eternally. We can pray for whatever we desire! Praying for wealth and success are not off limits! HOWEVER, we need to understand that these things shouldn't be for our own vanity (see number 4). Remember every granted prayer is according to his will for our lives and his ultimate plan for salvation for the people of this world. However God chooses to answer such prayers is up to him and not to be limited by any circumstance, human interference, or limitation of any kind, including unbelief.

4. Pray with the Glory of God as our motive
Isa_42:8
1Ki_18:36

Our prayers shouldn't be vain. What we request should directly go to our personal desire to see God glorified in the Earth. If we're praying for wealth and success for our own vanity, then this prayer is NOT in line with the will of God, however praying for wealth or success for the advancement of The Kingdom agenda is perfectly fine and we can expect God to reward this kind of prayer. God is interested in revealing his power in might in our lives as well as everyone else's. When Elijah went against the prophets of baal (1 Kings 18), his prayer to God was not one requesting that God would prove him right in front of others. He didn't ask for retribution or harm to anyone. He simply asked that God would take the opportunity to prove his might. The Bible doesn't say that any time passed between the time of the prayer and the time of God's action. The Bible shows that this was an immediate response to the prayer Elijah offered up. God immediately took the opportunity to show himself strong and mighty before the people.
With these principles in our hearts, we open ourselves to be used more completely and powerfully by God. When God can see that we would make no effort to take any recognition or praise, rather we would take the attention received and say "HEY! LOOK AT GOD!!", God is more willing to use us as vessels of His glory.

This is how a believer can wield the true power of prayer in life. By remember that it's to be used for God's glory, only when our hearts are pure and forgiving, and strong with faith that God will perform.


Amen.