This Means War

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 25:1–2, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘In you, LORD my God, I put my trust.

I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame.’

Pause and repeat
Pause to read the passage: Eph. 6:12–13
‘Sometimes, submission to God involves meek acceptance of suffering, but at other times we should get angry about our un- answered prayers and fight! Why? Because Christians do not believe that all suffering is God’s will. We know that the terrors and tragedies screaming from today’s newspapers cannot possibly reflect the heart of a loving Father at work in His world. Instead, we believe something so surprising that it would be almost impossible to accept if it wasn’t so blatantly true: we believe that the Almighty God does not always get His way on earth—even though He is the Almighty God! Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” precisely because it isn’t a foregone conclusion’*

Do I ever misdirect my anger against ‘flesh and blood,’ or even against God Himself, when I should instead be harnessing it in spiritual warfare against ‘the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’?

Pause and reflect
Recognising the spiritual battle raging around me today, I put on the helmet of salvation to guard my thinking; the breastplate of righteousness to guard my heart; the shield of faith to deflect enemy attacks; the belt of truth to guard my sexuality; the shoes of the gospel to make myself ready; and the sword of the Spirit to fight the enemy with the sharpness of God’s Word.

Pause and pray
As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray a prayer of the eighteenth-century soldier, explorer, and monk Charles de Foucauld:

‘Father, I abandon myself into Your hands; do with me what You will. Whatever You may do, I thank You: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only Your will be done in me, and in all Your creatures—I wish no more than this, O Lord.’

Amen.

*Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p175

By: Pete Greig

God Knows What You Need

Sometimes we spend so much energy trying to figure out every detail of life that we forget God already sees the whole picture. He knows what you need before you ask, and He is not late, confused, or unaware of what is weighing on your heart. Today, you can take a deep breath and trust that your Father is paying attention. You may not have every answer yet, but you have a God who provides, guides, and cares for you one step at a time.

Bible Verse:

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19

By: Living Christian

Serenity

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 130:5, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.’

Pause and repeat
Having completed our study of Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane, today’s reading takes us back to Chapter 2 of God on Mute and includes our Bible reading which comes from Philippians 4:6–7.

Pause to read the bible passage
Pete writes, ‘As the day of Sammy’s surgery approached, we found great comfort in the promises of the Bible. I’m not just saying this because it’s the sort of thing Christians are supposed to say in situations like this. The Bible addressed our fears in a way that no person could and gave words to things we were struggling to express. Almost every night we went to sleep clutching a verse for dear life’* One of our favourite verses at that time was Philippians 4:6–7: ‘Do not to be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ This simple exhortation not to worry, with its practical reminder to pray about every little thing we were facing, and its assurance of supernatural peace often brought us comfort at a truly terrifying time in our lives.

God’s peace ‘transcends all understanding.’ It isn’t index- linked to outward circumstances. In one of the darkest moments of my life, waiting to tell Sammy that she had a brain tumour, ‘I became aware of a kind of inner warmth … Doctors would probably call it shock, but to me it felt a lot like the presence of God’.**

How, according to the apostle Paul in this passage, is it possible to replace anxiety with serenity?

Pause and reflect
You’ve probably noticed, Lord, that I don’t have a lot of faith left for big breakthroughs, but I’m going to try to see Your hand at work in the details of the next twenty-four hours. Let Your peace guard my heart (which is hurting) and calm my mind (which is racing). Make me more aware of You in spite of my circumstances today.

Pause and pray
As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray the serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

*Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p42

** Ibid, p40

By: Pete Greig

Yet Not My Will

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 17:6–7, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;

turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.

Show me the wonders of your great love.’

Pause and repeat
Today, we conclude our study of Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane, considering its sobering and challenging final sentence.

Pause to read the passage
Having acknowledged God’s love (‘Abba, Father’), God’s power (‘everything is possible for you’), and His own terror (‘take this cup from me’), Jesus now surrenders Himself completely to the Father’s purposes. Such surrender is never easy: ‘Maybe God has simply been replying to your prayers with a loving but firm no. I don’t suggest this lightly. It may well be the most painful possibility you have ever had to consider, and it may also seem to fly in the face of everything you know of God’s heart and will’*

Having prayed ‘Take this cup from me,’ is it possible that God might be replying to me, as He replied to Jesus, with ‘a loving but firm no’? How can I discern what His will might be for me in my situation?

Pause and reflect
I take time now to surrender my will to God’s will.

Pause and pray
As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray the words of a well-loved hymn of surrender by Judson W. Van DeVenter:

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give

I will ever love and trust Him

In His presence daily live

I surrender all, I surrender all

All to Thee, my blessed Saviour I surrender all.

Amen.

* Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p105

By: Pete Greig

HOPE WHEN YOU ARE DEFEATED . . . by Death

As the old heaven and earth disintegrated, John stood in awed wonder of a “new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). What he saw was confirmed by the words of the One who was seated on the throne: “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5). Imagine it: One day, everything will be brand-new!

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In contrast, our heavenly home is going to be brand-new!

Not just restored but created fresh! It will not only look fresh and new, but it will also feel fresh and new! John gives us, not just a vision of heaven’s fresh beauty, but a “feel” of heaven’s serenity, which permeates the atmosphere because God is there: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’ ” (Revelation 21:3–4 niv 84).

In this brand-new home there will be no more death or pain or hospitals or funerals or grief or broken homes or broken hearts or broken lives or broken dreams.

There will be no more physical handicaps or muscular dystrophy or multiple sclerosis or blindness or lameness or deafness or arthritis or heart disease or diabetes.

Heaven will be perfect in its quality of life, not only because the life of Christ is lived out in redeemed men and women for all eternity, but because He is the center of it! Heaven is not only our home; it is His home! He is not only preparing this place as a heavenly home for you and me but as a heavenly home for Himself!

We will live with Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ will live with us! We will live with each other! Forever! We will never again be separated from our loved ones or from our Lord. And in heaven there will be perfect health and harmony and unity and unbroken times together! There will not even be the natural separation between night and day, because “the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (Revelation 21:23). Our heavenly home glows and radiates with light from within.

Every person born into the human race, no matter how wealthy, powerful, or knowledgeable he or she becomes, no matter how small and insignificant he or she feels, will ultimately be defeated by death. Death is the great equalizer. But the vision of His glory gives hope to you when you are defeated by death. It gives hope to you because you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ; your name has been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life! The vision of His glory gives you hope because it reveals that this world is not your home, that death does not have the final word, that one day your faith will become sight, and you will see the gates of pearl flung open for you. Best of all, you will hear your King say, “Welcome home!”

By: Anne Graham Lotz

Take This Cup
As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 13:1–2, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘How long, LORD? Will you forget me for ever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and day after day have sorrow in my heart?’

Pause and repeat
As we continue to explore Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane, today we consider its five most shocking words: ‘Take this cup from me …’ (Mark 14:35–36).

Pause to read the passage
Thus far, Jesus has been following the pattern of His own ‘Lord’s Prayer’, saying ‘Abba, Father’ instead of ‘Our Father,’ and ‘everything is possible for you’ instead of ‘hallowed be your name,’ but now, at the point where He’s meant to pray ‘Your kingdom come,’ He says the exact opposite: ‘Take this cup from me.’ He is going off script, admitting to the Father: ‘I don’t want to suffer. I’m scared. There has to be another way!’ If Jesus can be so honest with God in His hour of greatest need, then surely so can we?

In what ways do I pretend when I pray? Are there any ‘tricks’ I use to try to avoid or persuade God?

Pause and reflect
I take a little time now to speak to the Father honestly from my heart about what I’m really feeling and thinking, remembering that He loves me, values my honesty, and is never shocked.

Pause and pray
As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray a prayer of surrender by Richard Foster:

‘Today, O Lord, I yield myself to You. May Your will be my delight today. May You have perfect sway in me. May Your love be the pattern of my living. I surrender to You my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions. Do with them what You will, when You will, as You will. I place into Your loving care my family, my friends, my future. Care for them with a care that I can never give. I release into Your hands my need to control, my craving for status, my fear of obscurity. Eradicate the evil, purify the good, and establish Your kingdom on earth. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.’*

* Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), 24.