This morning we will learn what to do while we wait upon the Lord. My devotional reading this morning was titled "Waiting on the Spirit" and used Pentecost as its example. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven He told his apostles to stay in Jerusalem and wait there to receive power from the Holy Spirit. So they remained in the city and waited, but what did they do as they waited? Did they just sit in the upper room biding their time?
Joyous praise, is it absent in your life and church? As I read my morning devotional today I realized the even in the nineteenth and early twentieth century lifetime of E.M. Bounds there was a lack of praise in many churches. He wrote of the praise and incense that infused the early churches and how vital this was to projecting the gospel and winning souls. Bounds was right, God is worthy of our joy and praise, and yet God is complex in His nature, and churches should espouse the serious study of His Word, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the width and breadth of their nature, through serious worship. We should not abandon one for the sake of the other.
Today we are contemplating praying "Specific Prayers" in a certain manner. In my morning devotional reading today, E.M. Bounds wrote that to get the things we desire, we needed to be specific and particular with our prayers and that we should include thanksgiving in our petition. I agree that we should clearly ask God for what we want of Him, and to demonstrate our confidence in His provision through thanksgiving, but this isn't to be confused with being a legal contract. Our Father already knows our desires before we voice them, but He expects us to demonstrate that we understand them as well, and are appreciative of His provision.
The title of my devotional reading today was "God's Presence Results in Singing" and this is a subject that seems to be obvious to us as believers. Whenever our spirits are in communion with His, there is song... it can present itself as an exhilaration beyond description, or if we are experiencing moments of desperate despair or tremendous sorrow we find a connection with Him that reveals itself in solemn songs and dirges. When in God’s presence songs well up from within us and bring with them the essence of our prayers. This is why some psalms in the Bible are joyous, while others can be thankful, solemn, desperate, filled with mourning, or pleading.
This morning let’s delve into praising God and the presence of our praise in prayer. Pastor E.M. Bounds called this "Spiritual Singing". He even recognized people with little ability to sing when he said "Spiritual singing is not done by musical taste or talent, but by the grace of God in your heart." We are encouraged in scripture to address one another, and God, in song, but are we doing this? If not is it because we are judging one another’s ability to sing and thus discouraging another’s prayer life? Singing on a stage is one thing, but singing on our knees to the Lord is totally different and criticism there can be considered shaming someone who is seeking God’s presence.
Today my devotional reading was appropriately titled 'The Fragrance of Prayer.' E.M. Bounds wrote that "giving thanks is the very life of prayer. It is its fragrance and music, its poetry and its crown." And he warned us that "whatever interferes with and injures the spirit of prayer necessarily hurts and dissipates the spirit of praise." His point is that without prayer and its fragrance then the praise choruses and hymns we sing in church are no different than any secular song; we might as well be singing along with the radio.
Friday morning started very early like every other morning for me, my days begin with prayer, reading scripture, a devotional, and then with the Holy Spirit moving over me, I write this devotional you are reading now, which I share across the country and around the world. Little did I know that three days later I would be sharing something wonderful with a brother in Christ that I had met a few years ago through a friend who had asked if I would send him my morning devotional messages, someone that to this day I have not met personally. I had no idea that this dear brother would share something with me on Friday, that I would meet an Angel on Saturday, or that the Spirit would ask me to deliver this Angel’s message to my brother today, Sunday morning.
Today my devotional reading spoke of singing as a form of praise and prayer. The scripture reference for this devotional reading was Psalm 50:23 but I have added a couple of additional verses to it for additional clarity. Singing is a challenge for me because I have a hard time carrying a tune, or as an old saying goes… “He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.” I love music, I can hear it in my mind, and hum it, but the words just can’t seem to make it from my lips with the same intense beauty. However, I keep trying and hope that I am not torturing those around me when I do.
This morning my devotional reading was on the subject of prayer, thanksgiving, and how their presence leads us to consecration. E.M. Bounds, the author, was very emphatic in his proclamation as he wrote these words: "True prayer and gratitude lead to full consecration, and consecration leads to more and better praying. A consecrated life is a life of both prayer and thanksgiving." So, when we read such things do we truly understand what it means to be consecrated?
This morning let’s contemplate the negative impact that dissatisfaction and covetousness has on our prayers and thankfulness. This resonates with me because I have personally been there; have you? Can we hear ourselves praying the lyrics of an old Janice Joplin song? Do we hear ourselves saying “Lord won’t you give me a Mercedes Benz, all my friends they drive Porsches, I must make amends”? Is this true prayer?
This morning we are looking at our prayers and their forward facing nature. In my morning reading Pastor E.M. Bounds proposed that although gratitude and thanksgiving are predominately about those things realized, our "prayer deals with things desired, asked for, and expected." He goes on to write "As prayer brings things to us that produce gratitude and thanksgiving, so praise and gratitude promote prayer and encourage more and better praying." I have found this to be true in my prayer life, and I hope you have also.
Today's let’s talk about a topic that has nagged at me in the past, and caused me great fear to this day. Our subject is a loss of intensity in our relationship with God. Many people call this a crisis of faith and if we are not careful it can lead us into a total breakdown in both faith and belief. Our ultimate goal is to increase desire and deepen our relationship with God, and developing a deep devotion to His Son Jesus Christ is the way we do this. So how do we overcome these moments of doubt, and the times when our faith seems flat and its effervescence is gone?
What are we grateful for? What things in our lives, both physical and spiritual, are we truly grateful for? These sound like such simple questions but in fact they are not. So many reasons for gratitude slip right past us each day without our slightest sense of their passing, or without our acknowledging from whence they came. Let’s look at a verse from Psalm 126 today. In this psalm the psalmist speaks of gratitude and joy when he says...
The journey through the devotional messages of E.M. Bounds that I took several years ago taught me much about developing a full and holy prayer life, and the results of such a life that naturally concludes in God answering us. I learned how the aroma of that blessing, that gracious response, is a sense of gratitude which should be expressed in thanksgiving as we continue on in our prayers. Bounds conveyed this revelation with these words: "thanksgiving is the expression of an inward, conscious gratitude to God for mercies received." He goes on to say that "Gratitude is an inward emotion of the soul, involuntarily arising therein." Don’t we find this true in our lives?
This morning my devotional reading was incredibly uplifting; E.M. Bounds instructed us not only on praying our personal desires, but on discerning our holy desire and dedicating ourselves to it. He made a couple of statements that I found most revealing. The first was his observation that desire "contains choice, attitude, and fire." The second was that "Serious thought, practiced before praying increases desire." Let’s dig into these two thoughts today.