All tagged holy
Prayer, the Word of God, and creation, go hand in hand because all of creation is made holy by the Word of God and prayer. That is a thought worth contemplating. Have we ever considered that our prayers might be helping to bring goodness, and holiness, to creation?
I read a short devotional message nine years ago, on this very day, that thrilled me. It was called "A Sacred Place" and it couldn't have been more relevant to my life at that time, and continues even now. The scripture verse used was from 1 Thessalonians. I gave this verse, a prayer of intercession and blessing, much thought, and I found that it went hand in hand with the prayer, consecration, holiness, and sacredness of my own life. I hope it does this for you too, and opens your awareness of the sacred places in your prayer life where God’s love sanctifies you through, and through. Today I reprint what I wrote that morning…
I was reading the thoughts of Pastor E.M. Bounds on praying Holy Prayers this morning, and he made the point that Holy Prayers are not just said, but come from men and women who are whole heartedly devoted to God; entirely separated from sin, and fully separated or consecrated to God. The bible verse we will use as we contemplate this today is Revelation 8:4. Let’s read it together…
"The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand."
Revelation 8:4 ESV
This morning I read about the relationship between being consecrated (becoming sacred or holy) and prayer. Although it is much like the chicken and the egg, in which we ask which came first, there is no doubt that they go hand in hand. But, reading the bible and attempting to adhere to every commandment without speaking with God is nearly impossible to my way of thinking. As a matter of fact, it would be ignoring a great portion of the bible itself as it deals with prayer, praying, and those who pray. Pastor E.M. Bounds, attempted to explain this conundrum to us in his discussion of prayer and consecration; yet still left us with a bit of the conundrum to consider. In one statement he says...
This morning we are contemplating a holiness of heart and life. Isn't this one of the core aims in our quest of faith? Pastor E.M. Bound speaks to how we should go about achieving such a life, and heart, in these words... "To cultivate this kind of life and heart, one must be watchful, one must pray and be forgiving toward others. A true Christian seeks holiness of heart, he is not satisfied without it. For this very purpose he consecrates himself to God. He gives himself entirely over to God in order to be holy in heart and in life." How are each of us doing in this pursuit?
When we speak of consecration, or declaring someone, or something, sacred, who, or what, comes first? Are we dedicating ourselves to the sacred service of the Church, to the defense of religion, or to God Himself? Scripture gives us a clear understanding of how we should focus our consecrated life...
In our lives we can endeavor to be holy, but holiness belongs solely to the Lord and only He can make us so. It is only by the movement and filling of the Holy Spirit that we are granted true holiness. Although we can seek to be holy, only through the Holy Spirit can we realize that goal. Scripture tells us much of God's holiness and it also contains our call to become holy.
Are we consecrated men and women or are we fooling ourselves? Most Christians view themselves as being consecrated, but are we doing those things in our lives that insures that this is true? To know the truth we must first understand what consecration actually means. It is the dedication of ourselves to God; allowing Him to sanctify us and make us holy. If we are consecrated then we must dedicate ourselves to God and His use; our lives should be centered on prayer, worship, and service to God.
Goodness is our topic for consideration this morning. Let’s explore goodness and see how it relates to our faith and holiness. There are people who do good things and are considered good people, but have no, or very little, faith. There are people who have faith, but don't do good in their lives, and finally, there are those of faith who in their holiness do good many things. Which of these do we envision ourselves to be?
Have you ever been shopping or at a restaurant and seen an older couple walking together that have the same stride, have the same mannerisms, the same inflections in their speech, and in some strange way even resemble each other? It would be easy to mistake them as brother and sister, but they are in fact husband and wife. This is what years of love and living together does... it joins us in ways that we often can't explain and that are so subtle we barely realize it’s happening. Our faith and holiness should unite us with Christ in much the same way.
Our devotional thought this morning surrounds praying as a holy act, and focuses on the subsidence of holiness in the church today. Our scripture verse tells us that unless we are holy then we will not see the Lord, and yet we, and our churches, spend an inordinate amount of time in the physical world. Even when we pray we tend to focus more on our wants and less on loving God and our neighbors, thanksgiving, asking for forgiveness, and other spiritual things. We need to lean into these things as we pray.
This morning let’s talk about "God's Promises" and how they are personal to each of us. They are true, good, eternal, and should be expectantly called out in our prayers. God stands by his promises always, and His Word is not only unchanging, but His promises are unfailing.
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.
This coming Sunday being Palm Sunday makes today’s lesson all the more pertinent. There are three Sunday's when people attend church who don't typically come, and this is one of them. This is not a time to judge them, or look down our noses on them in pious condemnation of their faith, but to rejoice in their presence there with us, and embrace them. This is the time to open our hearts to them, and to smell the aroma of their religion and God as they are drawn back to the Church to seek, believe, and worship. May they fill the church pews, and the scent of their devotion waft over us on these holy days. They are the temple just as we, who might come to church every Sunday, are the temple… beware lest we destroy God’s Temple and destroy ourselves.
Have you set yourself apart for the use of God? In other words, are you holy? If you think you are then let's go a step further and ask ourselves another question: "am I perfect!" These are hard questions and we often deflect them by saying that only Jesus is perfect, so how could I possibly be holy.