A prayer to challenge and encourage us:
“Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in You, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Yourself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Your Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from You.”
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A prayer to challenge and encourage us:
“My dear Lord, I can but tell You that You know I long for nothing but Yourself, nothing but holiness, nothing but union with Your will. You have given me these desires, and You alone canst give me the thing desired.
My soul longs for communion with You, for mortification of indwelling corruption, especially spiritual pride. How precious it is to have a tender sense and clear apprehension of the mystery of godliness, of true holiness!
What a blessedness to be like You as much as it is possible for a creature to be like its creator! Lord, give me more of Your likeness; enlarge my soul to contain fullness of holiness; engage me to live more for You. Help me to be less pleased with my spiritual experiences, and when I feel at ease after sweet communings, teach me it is far too little I know and do.
Blessed Lord, let me climb up near to You, and love, and long, and plead, and wrestle with You, and pant for deliverance from the body of sin, for my heart is wandering and lifeless, and my soul mourns to think it should ever lose sight of its beloved.
Wrap my life in divine love, and keep me ever desiring You, always humble and resigned to Your will, more fixed on Yourself, that I may be more fitted for doing and suffering.”
Filed under: Prayer, Pride, Transformation | 4 Comments »
A helpful post from Karry which we will re-post here:
It seems all the world is united. We are waging a climactic battle against one common enemy. It is a virus about one-half micron tall. A few hundred years ago nobody understood. Certainly, when Paul wrote Ephesians, people knew nothing of germs.
Of course, we all should battle the Covid-19 virus. Let’s sequester ourselves, flatten the curve, and wash our hands. We believe, however, there are even greater things in play than our health or individual survival. Our ultimate concern has to do with eternity. We wrestle against the “rulers … authorities … cosmic powers over this present darkness … spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” As serious as the Covid-19 virus is, our ultimate battle is more serious. It has eternal consequences.
The whole world is living this trauma in different ways. Several times each day, we have to stop to remind ourselves. God has not lost. He has not lost a battle. He has not lost control. He has not lost sight of us. We have not slipped out of His protecting hands.
When anxiety encroaches and fear sneaks in, we stop, and we remember. We are wrestling a spiritual battle for minds and affections and allegiance — starting with us. The identity of our enemy is the devil and his evil spirits who operate under the cloak of this present darkness. Their strategy is to deceive our minds and hearts and, ultimately, to weaken our faithful allegiance to Christ. Anxiety and fear are their allies.
God supplies us with armor against such thoughts and emotions and impulses. The text says we are to take up the “full” armor God supplies. The first thing on is the warrior-girdle of truth. It is bound strong around the waist beneath all the other equipment and anchors everything in place.
Take truth. Bind it thick and strong around your core. Connect your thoughts to it. The warrior-girdle of truth will protect you from the devil’s lies and the fear he means to incite. The truth is, our perfect Father keeps his eyes on us. He has us always and forever in His hands. The world shakes now. But his love is unwavering. His intentions are undeterred. Our hope is certain. That is truth.
Lashed securely to the girdle of truth, our impenetrable breastplate is Christ’s righteousness; we have all of it. The devil cannot accuse us of sin. Jesus paid for our sin. This virus is not sent by God to destroy us. Jesus died for our sin. On our feet is the gospel of peace. This virus is not hostility from God. His anger was expended at the cross.
Faith is the shield that protects us from the fiery darts of the devil. Those lies are extinguished by faith. The reality and finality of our salvation in Christ is like a warrior’s helmet protecting our minds from the attacks of our enemy. Our salvation is sure.
While we battle to defeat Covid-19, we also remember our ultimate battle. Our primary means of wrestling comes in verses 18-20. We pray. God is our sovereign. Christ is our redeemer. The gospel is our peace. Our faith is in Him. Our salvation is settled. God’s Word is in our hands. We stand in this armor…to pray. We pray for each other, and all the saints. We pray for their protection. But we pray for more.
This armor of God is really for people like us – people who have aligned ourselves with God’s mission in history. This is a missionary’s text. It is missionary armor. I don’t want to lose sight of that. Especially in this time of crisis. God, please grant us all boldness in witness.
All around the globe, we World Team members are quarantined. Paul himself, wrote this in chains. But he remembered, even in chains, he was Christ’s ambassador. While we wait, let’s pray and ask God to embolden our witness. Now while we are confined. And later once the quarantine is lifted.
Filed under: Prayer, Sharing the Gospel story | 3 Comments »
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I met Jordan & Scarlett for the first time this past Sunday. Or maybe I should say that I met them for the first time “in person” as we probably met when I spoke to their group at an Assessment Centre via Zoom presentation.
They are seeking to join one of our new church planting ministry teams.
Their enthusiasm is contagious. They are excited about what God has been teaching them over the past year [even though difficult at times]; they are excited about the training they are receiving by serving in their local church, and they are excited about the work to which they feel called.
Three questions came to mind as we talked. The first was: what has been the biggest blessing this past month? The second: what obstacle(s) do you see in front of you? And finally: if you were the focus of a WT Global prayer thrust, what would you ask for?
It was their answer to the last question that moved me to talk about them here. They said, without hesitation: solidify their relational and family networks, and be at 75% of our support by April 2020 so that they could begin to plan for attending pre-field training!
The excitement of ‘going’ and yet at the same time the desire to ‘leave well’ and address relational networks and struggles that may exist. I was challenged and blessed by their honesty.
You’ve probably guessed by now, one of the obstacles they shared that they are facing: the difficulty of partnership development and finding the needed support. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but they have learned much through the process of how God is at work to provide for their needs.
They also know that they are part of a much larger World TEAM. So what can you and I do? Three (3) possible ways: PRAY that God would bring in their remaining support and ‘thrust’ them out. DROP them a line to let them know you are praying for them [send me a note and I’ll let you know how to write to them]. CONNECT them to networks you know who might be open to joining their partnership team.
There are many other Jordans and Scarletts out there. Will we stand with them, pray with them, and see them sent out?
Filed under: Partnership development, Prayer, Teams | 4 Comments »
I have been working my way through the three volume work of William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour. It’s Gurnall’s meditation on Ephesians 6 and the armour of God. A modern version of this work has been published.
As promised, over the next few weeks, from time to time, I will share quotes from Gurnall’s work. I hope these quotes might be of encouragement and challenge to each of us. As well as to convince some of the benefit of ploughing through the 900 pages! Here’s a quote that should give us food for reflection:
“Of the two strains of pride, I think spiritual pride must be far more odious to the nostrils of God, for it is on a higher plain than carnal pride. The life of a Christian, as a Christian, is superior to the life of a man as a man. And as the natural man is proud of those things which make him seem superior in the natural state (i.e., wealth, honor, beauty), so the Christian is prone to puff himself up when he perceives that he has superior spiritual attributes.
Pride always destroys love and separates saints. Without love for all the brethren, we are bound to lose much that God wants to give. The Bible says that every saint has been given gifts to benefit the body of Christ.
So beware of pride! The only thing that will keep you from it is humility. Remember whom you wrestle with – spiritual wickedness. Their ploy is to lift you up high in order to give you a harder fall. They will try to convince you that your spiritual accomplishments are a result of your own efforts and that you deserve the credit for them. Surely you know this is not true! In case you have forgotten, think back to what you were like before the Holy Spirit came to you with gifts from God’s storehouse. How can you be proud of another’s bounty? You may be able to impress other men with your gifts, but you will not impress God. He knows where they all came from.
How can the Christian escape those persistent self-promoting thoughts? Run from them as you would from an enraged bear. Do not stand still to listen to these lies, or soon the devil will have you erecting a monument to yourself with the glory of your God-given gifts. Remind yourself daily how weak you are and how utterly dependent on God for every good and perfect gift.”
Filed under: Humility, Prayer | 6 Comments »
Thoughts Along The Journey 