12/13/2016
This morning we are contemplating God's desire for us to commit our lives to Him. We will revisit His desire for us to live and worship Him with zest. Pastor E. M. Bounds described the way we should pray in these words: "True prayer must be aflame." And he wrote that "The Christian life and character need to be on fire." Today we are returning once more to Revelation 3 for the principal scripture of our study.
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:15-16 ESV
Bounds selected this verse as he described God's desire for us to be totally committed to our worship of Him. Jesus instructed us in similar fashion in the gospels when he answered the Pharisees and Sadducees by quoting Deuteronomy...
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37 ESV
And, in Deuteronomy these verses read:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ESV
God wants our love, and He wants it completely. When we pray, we should do so according to our devotion to the Father... with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our might. In this way we will avoid being lukewarm in the mouth of the Lord. In this way we will not fall short in our faith, and our Heavenly Father’s expectations of us.
Ann and I will have been married for 49 years in June. I still remember the day I asked her to be my bride as if it were yesterday. I had no doubt that I loved her completely and just as importantly, I had no doubt she loved me completely either. There is a reason that the church is called the bride of Christ, and that God feels this way about us as well.... Listen as He speaks these words through the prophet Isaiah...
“For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”
Isaiah 54:5 ESV
And later in chapter 62 when He takes this further:
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
Isaiah 62:5 ESV
So, when we read these passages we gather that just as there should be no doubt regarding the love and fidelity between a man and his wife, there should be no less commitment between ourselves and God, and our prayers should be offered with all the heart and sincerity of a love poem spoken to our wife... Our love and commitment to God should be the essence of our relationship with Him.
Are our prayers aflame? Is our Christian life and character on fire for God today? These are the questions that E. M. Bounds would have asked us if he were still alive today, and they are what we should be asking ourselves right now in his absence.
Prayer:
Thank you, Father, for kindling the flame of prayer in us when we were still young in our faith, and for stoking it through the years as we have matured, and come to love you more, and more. Thank you, Lord God, for committing yourself to us so completely by sending your Son Jesus Christ to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected, for us. Help us Father to increase in our faith, belief, and the wholehearted love for you that we have promised and committed to you forevermore. Let there be no doubt in our prayers, and no hot and cold spiritual dedication to our relationship. Fan the flames of our praise and worship of you until they lick the very gates of heaven, and our desire for you roars through them into eternity with you like a wildfire. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God whose love for us was, and is, and is to come. Holy are you who expects us to love you in kind, and to burn inside for you. Help us Abba as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices that burn brightly day and night upon the altar and are witnesses of the true nature of what faith is meant to be for all to see.
And all God’s children respond by saying… Amen, Amen, Amen
“When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?””
Luke 24:30-32 ESV
“If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
Jeremiah 20:9 ESV
“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
Romans 12:11-13 ESV
Rich Forbes