I know what it is to hear God’s voice; we’ve had that kind of relationship for decades. Even so, since I began working with a new prayer journal last December, my relationship with Him and my experience with hearing His voice have been revolutionized.
This journal has a section specifically set aside for listening to Him. Every day, when I come to that section, I literally shut up and take dictation. That first day it felt slightly awkward, but it wasn’t long before I was sitting there in awe, writing as fast as I could while trying to process what He was saying. The experience was, and still is, AMAZING.
It’s not possible to entirely “get” what He’s saying as He speaks it, of course, so I then go back and read what I’ve written and talk to Him about what He’s said. He has opened my eyes to astounding things this way, and in letting Him talk freely (instead of me interrupting Him) I find that we get on topics I’d never have dreamed of. He tells me things that blow my mind, give me instruction, encourage me…
One advantage of this method is that I have what He’s said written down and can go back to refer to it at any time I wish…or any time He tells me to. This morning was one of those times, and while reading I came across one section I wanted to share with you. He was talking about the close relationship I have with Him where, among other things, He tells me secrets just like a best friend would.
This is what life should have been all along, the relationship I desire with everyone. You are no more special than anyone else. You have merely developed the art of listening and learned to trust your ability to hear.
Trusting myself to hear has been a big deal – meaning a big challenge. God and I have conversations throughout the day, and sometimes when I ask Him questions His answers surprise me. At those points, I’ll pause and ask, “Was that You or was that me?” I can almost hear Him chuckle as He answers, “That was Me.” So my faith in my own ability to hear has been growing.
But still, the first key to the truly tight relationship we should all desire to have with God (or anyone else) is in the first part of that last sentence. Develop the art of listening.
I have desired this type of relationship for most of my life. Who’d have thought that it would start with something so simple as me learning how to shut up and listen?
Well… you probably figured it out a long time ago. Sometimes I can be a bit slow.
19 Do not gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal; 20 But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal.
I’ve had head knowledge of this verse for years. I know I cannot outgive God – that no matter what I give, be it money, time or something else, God brings increase. At one point, however, in a split second, while I was reading something only marginally related, it dawned on me…
This is literal; God means it!
I know, this sounds so very simple. And it is simple, but really…
From what I’ve learned about the lives we’ll live for eternity, it seems to me that the lives we live here are a type and shadow of the things to come – like the life of the Old Testament was a type and shadow of the life of the New Testament. If I am right… What does this mean?
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…”
If we store them up, it is so that they will be there when we arrive. If they are treasures, they will be of significant value when we get there. Bottom line: We are storing up something that will matter.
Analogy: There are those who would call a man a fool for not having a retirement plan – because he is not storing up money for that time in the future when he will need it. I know one man like this. He feels that you have no business doing anything else at all with your money until you have a certain amount set aside for the future. Yet he seems to give no thought at all to storing up treasures in Heaven.
But, as I begin to see it, that is the ultimate retirement plan! The life we live here is so finite, so limited, but the life we soon go to live is infinite.
Again, back to the analogy… If one were to be given a choice of two retirement plans – one that would pay out in three years and one that would pay out in thirty – which would the wise man choose? (I assume that, by the world’s standards, the obvious choice would be the thirty-year plan.)
Yet here we are, being offered two plans – one that pays out today and one that will pay out in tomorrow’s eternity when we’ll really need it – and which do most of us choose?
I really am rethinking certain things now…working at moving a few mindsets out of my way. I’m not against earthly retirement plans, of course. On the contrary, I am only just now recognizing their real significance…
…especially as a type and shadow of things to come!
5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
Again, here are those hypocrites, and again I reiterate that I do not want to be like them! What must I do…or not do?
First, God says when—not if. Obviously, the Christian is to pray. It is obvious, too, that the Christian is often called on to pray in public, corporately, in the church, in one accord… So this verse, like so many others, speaks to the motivation of the heart. Why do I pray where I pray and in the manner in which I pray? If I pray “out there” so that men will see me and be impressed, then the only reward I’ll get will be for those men to see me and be impressed. Oh, but does this also mean that such prayers go unanswered and, perhaps, even unheard by God? If the motivation of my heart is to be heard by men, am I only heard by man? Now there’s a sobering thought, because the answer affects not only me, but everyone I would be praying for in this hypothetical situation.
And if this applies to charitable deeds and prayer, does it also apply to praise? In charitable deeds I see no danger, but only the loss of God’s reward. In prayer, it would seem the loss of God’s reward would also be the loss of answers to prayer. This is dangerous in many ways. Now, if the same holds true for praise—for giving praises to God by singing in the choir, for instance—what then? The individual has lost his reward from God, gaining only the attention of men, but is there more? Does he, perhaps, in his hypocrisy, hinder God’s ability to move? Is he more of a stumbling block to freedom in the Spirit because he is a hypocrite (or at least an ignorant and misguided man) in a place of spiritual leadership? Does he, in truth, affect what the congregation is capable of doing, the heights the people are able to reach in Him?
These are sobering thoughts.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Back to prayer.
I read this verse and think of a time or two when I was praying with groups and certain people were obviously praying specifically so that others would hear and be impressed. Mind you, I’m not saying their prayers were any louder than the next person’s. What I am saying is that, as one who was praying with the right motivation, I easily sensed their wrong motivation.
So that’s another thing about praying openly so that men can hear. Men do hear, all right, and those who are sensitive to the Spirit know exactly what is going on around them. No one likes being caught faking anything, so this one thought should be even more motivation, more reason to keep one’s heart pure and motivation right.
7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
This passage reminds me clearly of all the times one of my young sons would come to me and begin a long dissertation, taking forever to give me endless details when I already knew what he was preparing to ask. It is a frustrating thing for a parent, and there were many times when I’d want to say, “Get on with it,” or was tempted to settle for a simple, “No,” just to end quickly a conversation that was already grating on my nerves. There are few things more frustrating than listening to a seemingly endless spew of words.
Got it.
My daddy already knows what I need and want. He knows full well what I’m going to ask of Him. He does want me to ask, but He wants me to get down to the business of asking so He can get down to the business of answering. Too, like any parent, He wants our time together to be filled with meaningful interaction, warm hugs, expressions of love and thanksgiving…not gimme, gimme, gimme…
So how do I pray?
9 In this manner, therefore, pray:
He really is always right there with the answers to our questions.
Our Father in heaven,
I believe I could write books on these two words—Our Father. They mean so much!
First, they tell me about Him and the relationship He wants to have with me. He wants to be everything my earthly father is and more. He wants to be the one I run to when I’m joyful and when I’m sad, when I’m confused and when I’ve just made an exciting new discovery. He wants me to fling my arms around His neck when my heart is overflowing with love and cry on His shoulders when my heart breaks and I can’t seem to stop the tears. Above all else, He wants me to trust Him and His love for me; He wants me to believe with all my heart that no matter what things look like around me His choice is to stay at my side, holding my hand as we walk through things together. He wants to see my face as I stand before Him, not my back as I walk away.
Second, these words tell me about me. If He is my father, then there are things in Him that are also in me. Sometimes we hear people say things like, “He is the very image of his father.” We, too, having been made in His image and likeness, having been made His children, can (and should) be the very image of our Father.
The first characteristic most people think of where God is concerned is love. He is love, therefore I have it within me to be love as well. I Corinthians 13 talks about this very thing and in John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” The first characteristic of God that is mentioned in the Bible is creativity. (Gen 1:1 “In the beginning God created…”) I can never say that I am not creative, because as one who is made in the image of my Father, I definitely am. In fact, I create truths every day in the very same way God does, with the words I speak, which is one reason the Scriptures so often command us to control our tongues.
Third, these words tell me some about others who call Him “Father.” I have one full sister and one half sister and all three of us share the same father. Stick us together and you’d never know by looking at us that we’re sisters. Spend time with us and you will discover that while we are three wildly differing individuals we are also very much alike in an astounding number of ways. The same is true in the family of God. We are all children of the same Father and are often both more alike and more different than we may want to admit. I may be instinctively drawn to some and not others, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re all my brothers and sisters and my only choice is to love all them.
Hallowed be Your name.
This is a concept modern day man, as a whole, has absolutely no grasp of. From completely ridiculous profanity (Really, like any man can tell God to damn someone.) to the frustrated teenager’s use of, “God!” accompanied by rolled eyes and slammed doors, our culture shows clearly that it is clueless about the holiness of God and His name. In this, I am humbled by the Jewish manner of refusing to even spell His name. God becomes G-d as a reminder that His name is hallowed—holy.
He and His name are HOLY. Why do I feel like it is pointless to even continue with this prayer until one has a true understanding—revelation—of these four words?
10Your kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
Oh, but this is one verse I wish I really could get a revelation of. I know what it’s saying here; I really do. I just have trouble, sometimes, transferring that head knowledge into the right place.
Jesus would not have told his disciples to pray this thing if it could not come to pass. He simply wouldn’t. So it IS possible for God’s will to be done right here on Earth like it is done in Heaven. Oh, His will does get done here on Earth, but never to the extent that it ought to. In Heaven, though, it is His will that gets done and done unconditionally. I can only imagine what it will be like when His will IS done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Now, if I could only get past the imagining and into true envisioning.
11Give us this day our daily bread.
Here is another brief request that is full of meaning.
For Israel in the wilderness, their daily bread was manna, food that came straight from Heaven every single day. I have lived like this, seeing God bring to us, each day, food enough to make it through that day. Like the Israelites, I was also tempted to store up the leftovers, and like the Israelites, I sometimes forgot to be grateful. It is so easy to forget, when buried within our own selfish flesh, that this daily bread is a gift from God.
The Word of God is often likened to bread and this is something else I truly do need every single day. Just as my body needs fresh bread daily, so does my spirit need “fresh bread” daily. I ask that God give me that bread, yes, but then I must receive it. I must take time out to read it and really chew on it—to meditate on His Word.
And Jesus, in that last night with His disciples, referred his body as bread, broken for them—for me. I do not take that bread in a literal sense, as communion, every day, but I should seek that fresh revelation of Him and what He did for me every day. It is this daily bread, this continually renewed revelation of who He is, what He did, and who I am in Him that keeps me aware of my purpose and working on doing my part to see to it that His plans for me are fulfilled.
12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
This one is interesting. In praying these words I am asking God to forgive me, yes, but I am also acknowledging that there is a limitation. If someone who has wronged me asks my forgiveness and I refuse to forgive him, then I know that God will also refuse to forgive me. However, this is also a promise, as I do unto my debtors, so does God unto me. Forgive!
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
Amen! Temptation, in this sense, essentially means “to test.” God, please, save me from all of the tests you can.
But deliver us from the evil one.
If I am being delivered from something, I am being rescued, obviously. I looked the word “deliver” up in the Greek on a hunch and found that it also means “to rush or to draw.” This takes me right back to God being my Father. A natural father, when he spies something unsafe, will rush or draw his child away from danger. At times, a child will fight, refusing to be drawn away, and at such times he may be endangered.
So this part of the prayer also involves me and my actions. I am asking my Father to alert me to evil, to draw me away, and I am committing to go where He leads.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
They’re His. They are ALL His and I had best not forget it, best never fail to acknowledge His supremacy and give Him His due.
“THIS is the kind of love I expect you to walk in…love that sees things from My point of view. So when I say study (love), I mean study Me. Learn what I feel in each situation-what I say and what I do-because I am love. I. AM. LOVE.”
1Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
our charitable deeds
When we do charitable deeds or, as the King James puts it, give alms, we are showing compassion for and helping the poor on a practical level. This is clearly something God expects us to do; otherwise, He would not have expressed it as He did. Too, it’s not just “do charitable deeds,” but is “do your charitable deeds.” So each of us is to be doing charitable deeds, giving to the poor in some manner, and each of us is to do our own charitable deeds—the ones the Holy Spirit prompts us to do.
I’ve been on both ends of this. I’ve been the poor who gratefully received the charitable deeds and I’ve been the one cheerfully doing the charitable deed. Being on the receiving end requires great humility and the squashing of pride, but being on the giving end can require the same. My usual feeling, when I’m able to be a blessing to someone in need, is joy, but does pride never try to creep in the edges, whispering things I don’t need to hear? I wish.
to be seen by them
To me this seems to be the most significant part of the command. Why am I doing the charitable deed in the first place? Am I doing it so that man can see and be impressed? If so, and if I do my charitable deed in front of man, seeking his rewards, then I have the reward I sought—and only the reward I sought. My Father in Heaven cannot reward me, because it is not His reward I am seeking. That’s a heavy-duty revelation, and one that takes me right back to a study I’ve done on motivation. It is a fact; in anything I do, the most important factor is the reason I do it. Why do I do what I do?
You know, it doesn’t take much thought to realize that it’s foolish to “do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.” After all, who in their right mind would take man’s reward over God’s reward? But we do. All too often, I do. Where I should be walking in humility of spirit, doing what God desires only because He desires it, I sometimes catch myself showing off…doing a thing more because it will make me look good in the eyes of man, because man’s reward gives instant and obvious gratification. The problem, of course, is that this is also fleeting gratification. When the man is gone, and the honor is gone, there is nothing. But with God…
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed…
When, not if. The Teacher rephrases and restates so that I will not miss the point. WHEN I do a charitable deed…
…do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
And again He makes His point. If I choose to draw attention to myself and my charitable deed, I am no better than the hypocrites Jesus had to deal with continually. How many times have I read about them in the Scriptures and been completely disgusted? May I never be so disgusting!
3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
There’s that humility stuff again.
When I do a charitable deed, I try to not even let the recipient know what I’m doing. I have a trusted “right hand” who usually passes such blessings along for me; I have been other deed doers’ silent right hands as well. I know this isn’t the literal meaning of this verse, but it surely fits the spirit.
4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
Again, what wise person would pass on this promise? Jesus says here that if we do our charitable deeds as He tells us to then our Father will reward us and will reward us openly. Yes, true humility requires no reward, but I’m not talking about true humility right now; I’m talking about true human nature.
The instant-gratification world we live in has trained most of us too well; we take the instant gratification even when it’s bad for us or leaves us wanting more. On the human level, it may seem silly to wait for God’s reward when man’s is right there, yet man’s reward cannot compare to God’s promises.
Today is the National Day of Prayer, and as I was praying this morning, while I was asking God to start a revolution, to send revival, He said, “It’s little things that start a revolution. It’s little things that start a revival.”
We keep asking God to send revival, too often failing to understand that revival starts HERE, with us, and it starts small. It begins with one man deciding to spend five more minutes a day in prayer. It starts with a young woman asking of God, every morning, “Help me be a blessing to someone today.” It starts with me using the amazingly simple new witnessing tool He’s given me.
Revival, a revolution of our walk with God, may well sweep in on us like a flood, but it’s the little things – each of us doing our share of little things – that will trigger it.
Consider a dam. It holds back massive amounts of water, but if you poke enough little holes in it the water will eventually burst forth and flooding is inevitable. Let us poke those holes. Let each of us seek God for those little things He would have us do. Who knows? It may be your little thing that is exactly what is needed to put the final hole in the dam.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
I know I am not alone in counting this among my favorite scriptures. It seems I see it more and more in email signature lines, on plaques, and in a variety of other places. I love it in the King James. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you…”
Whether the word is translated as “thoughts” or “plans”, I inevitably go back to the beginning. I mean, I go back to the literal beginning- “In the beginning God created…”
Consider it. He said, “Light be,” and light was, yet even before He said the words, He thought the thought; He made the plan. God’s thoughts and plans have immeasurable power. God’s thoughts and plans result in an outpouring of His creativity. God’s thoughts will have results; His plans will come to pass. Bank on it.
And He thinks these thoughts towards me. He has these plans for me. Me! Can there possibly be anything more reassuring than to know that the One who created the universe is thinking about and making plans for me, and that His plans are to give me a future and a hope?
There’s an old expression that I can’t quite remember…something about painting everyone with a wide brush. (Feel free to correct me.) This picture reminds me of how much I dislike the practice.
When I saw this empty carton in the bushes at McDonalds, I could have thought, “Man, smokers are so rude!” but I didn’t, because not all smokers are rude. In similar vein, not all blacks are ___________, not all gays are _______, not all Christians are _________, not all athiests are ________, not all Republicans are ________, not all Democrats are _________…
I don’t care what group you’re talking about, there are VERY few things you can say that would unconditionally apply to every member of that group. So why do we insist on assuming…or pretending…that we can?
Is it because we’re lazy, because it’s easier to assume we know people than it is to actually get to know them? Is it because humans are instinctively judgmental? Is it because we have an undeniable need to apply labels (and make our own definitions)?
For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace…
Here, in five words, is a principal I was taught years ago – follow peace.
It is the rule I adhere to when making any important decision. Yes, I follow forms of reason and logic as well, but peace has the final say because I have learned that God speaks through peace – and the devil cannot.
Recognize this – for it is foundational. Over and over Jesus, the Prince of Peace, promises us His peace. We are assured that while our minds are stayed on Him we will be in perfect peace (I’ve experienced this while touring the inside of the fiery furnace!). On the other hand, confusion and doubt, worry and fear – these come only from Satan.
So, in the end, finding the path is a fairly simple thing. When faced with a decision, needing to choose between two things and failing to recognize the obviously right option, I choose both – one at a time.
To illustrate…
My doctor told me I was pregnant and immediately informed me that he didn’t deliver babies anymore. I was instantly thrown into turmoil, not knowing who to go to, who I should trust with the delivery of my child. I began researching my options, which I had recently learned included midwifery, and writing out the pros and cons of each. Even so, I was still unable to make a decision. Then I remembered what I had been taught – “Be led by peace” – and decided to decide, and in deciding to see where peace might be found.
I decided to go with a doctor. Almost before the decision was fully made, my insides were churning. To say there was no peace would be to make a gross understatement.
So I decided again – this time to make an appointment with the midwife I’d been hearing about. Peace flooded my soul in that very moment.
I will not say the decision is always as clear. Sometimes both options bring peace. Since God authors peace and the devil cannot, I take this as a sign that both options are equally acceptable to God and the choice really is my own. Sometimes neither option brings peace. When this occurs, I start looking around for a third option, one I’d either not considered or had cast aside earlier. If there truly is no third option I look to myself, seeking out anything in me that might be blocking the peace God sends my way.
What I find could be fear, unforgiveness…any number of things, but put simply it is sin. Once I’ve dealt with the sin and go back to the options, sincerely choosing each in turn, one will almost always inspire peace, making itself clear as God’s choice.
I’m an organizer – a list person. I love researching my options and listing the pros and cons of them all, organizing my thoughts to the tiniest detail, but when the rubber meets the road and the decision must be made I would much rather let He Who Knows All make it for me, and then lead me forth in peace.
Just as damaging as a mad man shooting a lethal weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says, “I was only joking.”
I have never appreciated pranks, as a rule, have never cared for the tradition of April Fool’s, and have always considered the phrase “practical joke” to be an oxymoron. That is all a result of my own conservative nature, of course, and I do not begrudge others their enjoyment of such things. What this passage speaks of, however, is something different, and when I stumbled across it in my daily reading I was glad to see that God feels as strongly about this as I do.
How many times have I heard, or heard of, something hurtful being said and then heard, “I was only joking!” follow as if those four words somehow made the lie or hurtful words okay? Too many times, of course, especially as the mother of boys.
It starts on the playground as little children tell other little children that they are going to do something to or for them or, worse yet, say hurtful things about them. Whether the lying child really is joking or merely expects, “I was only joking” to get him out of trouble, he is still lying, and in this translation God likens him to a madman shooting a lethal weapon.
The more I think about it, the more I see how accurate this comparison is. The Word says that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Prov 18:21 KJV) It is interesting that death is mentioned first in this verse. I have read that if a person is told one destructive thing about themselves, they must hear seven constructive things to counteract it – or that one destructive word will bear fruit in their lives. I believe this because I’ve seen it time and time again. I have seen dreams destroyed – both those of children and adults – and I have seen people crushed, all by mere words. Often the hurtful words were intended, but many times they were not and the speaker would return later, appalled by the results they saw, and cry, “But I was only joking!” They may have only been joking, but the damage was done. How much better it would have been if they had not spoken the lie in the first place.
Yes, the man who lies and says, “I was only joking” really is like a madman shooting off a lethal weapon. He fires off destructive words without caution and destroys without knowing what he’s doing.
