09/12/2024
This morning let’s use our time of devotional reading to deal with how a life of obedience helps us in prayer, and how the opposite is true if we are disobedient. Let’s consider how our sin can be like a wedge that has been driven between us and the Lord, and how we experience this feeling far too often in our lives. We have even coined a phrase to describe this feeling… we refer to it as having a “guilty conscience.” Isn’t it hard for us to be open and sincere with someone when we are plagued by guilt? Aren’t our prayers much the same? How can we speak to God, or listen to Him as He speaks to us, when we have sinned, and are overshadowed by guilt?
“Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
1 John 3:21-22 KJV
Pastor E.M. Bounds wrote of this in almost poetic prose as he penned this thought...
"Unquestioning obedience counts much in the sight of God at the throne of heavenly grace.
It acts like the flowing tides of many rivers. An obedient life is not simply a reformed life. It is not the old life primed and repainted. It is not superficial churchgoing life or a flurry of activities.
Neither is it only an external conformation to what society expects. It takes much more than this to be a truly obedient Christian." – E. M. Bounds
When Bounds says that it takes much more to be an obedient Christian he is referring to a true obedience which emanates from our hearts. It is obeying God out of an earnest desire to please Him. When we banish the guilty conscience by obeying God in all things, it empowers our prayers, and supercharges God's desire to answer them. We reward good children and God does this as well. Listen to what David wrote on this subject…
“the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
Psalm 19:8-11 ESV
So as we pray our way into obedience, and become proficient at it, we are opening the door of prayer to a more robust and advanced conversation with God; we are maturing in our faith. Then, as our faith deepens and our prayer life advances, our relationship with God blossoms and His blessings are magnified. Our sense of guilt is relieved, and our confidence in God’s answer is bolstered.
I pray that we will each seek to obey God from the depths of our hearts. I pray that as our faith grows stronger with each passing day, and the bounty of it unfolds, we will find God's blessings being poured over us in abundance. I pray that we will find our conscience to be clear and that our prayers will be feeding on that purity of heart we are experiencing. In this there is great peace, and our joy abounds.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for knowing our hearts so that we can come before you in true repentance, and confidently ask for your forgiveness. Thank you Lord for taking our “guilty conscience” and banishing it from us so that the peace and joy we seek to experience in our time spent with you will return to us. Hear then our expectant prayers as we ask you to enter into our lives and provide us with, sustenance, healing, defense, comfort, and to do your will in so many other loving ways. Help us Abba to love you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and let these attributes come alive in our worship, praise, faith, belief, and ceaseless prayers. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who has opened your arms to us so that we can be comforted as we pray, and confidently able to lean into your breast. Holy are you who sent your Son Jesus to wash away our sins with His blood and to defeat the sting of death in our lives by His resurrection. You saw us in all our sinfulness, and yet you loved us. You saw the chasm that had been opened between us by our sin and you chose to close it with your grace. Merciful are you, and we pray that in Christ we will find us worthy to spend eternity in your presence.
Amen!
“But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!””
Luke 11:28 ESV
“Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.”
Psalm 119:2 NLT
“If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
John 15:7 NASB
Rich Forbes