Sinners Can Pray

Can a sinner pray?  Consider the what should be the number one apostle “Peter”, who many times was singled out special by the Lord Jesus.  Matt 16 — “Peter, …upon this rock”,  Matt 17 – saw the Lord transfigured with a few other apostles.

But here in Luke 5, Peter realized he was a sinner.  Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw [it,] he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

Consider this section from Holy in Christ by Andrew Murray.

O my God! with a love and a joy and a thanksgiving that cannot be uttered, I praise Thee for Christ, who has been made unto us of Thee sanctification and redemption. In Him Thou art my Redeemed, my Holy One. In Him I am Thy redeemed, Thy holy one. O God! in speechless adoration I fall down to worship the love that passeth knowledge, that hath done this for us, and to believe that in one who is now before Thee, holy in Christ, Thou wilt fulfil all Thy glorious purposes according to the greatness of Thy power. Amen.

1. ‘Redemption through His blood.’ The blood we meet at the threshold of the pathway of Holiness. For it is the blood of the sacrifice which the fire of God consumed, and yet could not consume. That blood has such power of holiness in it, that we read, ‘Sanctified by His own blood.’ Always think of holiness, or pray for it, as one redeemed by blood. Live under the covering of the blood in its daily cleansing power.


 

Eternal Realities

“Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities.” from Robert Murray M’Cheyne

This verse reminds me of I Cor 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Also consider the verse showing the confidence of God in completing what He begun in us.   Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

So when we pray, remember God is in this eternal realm, and sees things from this perspective.

God Hears Prayer

Look at these verses on prayer in the Bible, God listens to every prayer.  Have this confidence that in every pray, whether it be small or large, whether it be well phrased, or just a bunch of broken words, God listens.  Sometimes what we think are the worst prayers, God just loves, since we are expressing our real feelings.

Psalms 66:19 But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Psalms 66:20 Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!

James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly…

This  last verse in James eventually refers to Elijah who in a very unique situation needed a prayer to bring God in to vindicate Himself.   Elijah did pray and God did come in.

So never feel that God does not hear, He does hear and answer.   p.s.  answers do not always come how and when we expect them.

Prayer for Holiness

O Lord! the alone Holy One, Thou hast called us to be holy, even as Thou art holy. Lord! how can we, unless Thou reveal to us Thy Holiness. Show us, we pray Thee, how Thou art holy, how holy Thou art, what Thy holiness is, that we may know how we are to be holy, how holy we are to be. And when the sight of Thy Holiness only shows us the more how unholy we are, teach us that Thou makest partakers of Thy own Holiness those who come to Thee for it.

O God!  We come to Thee, the Holy One. It is in knowing and finding and having Thyself, that the soul finds Holiness. We do beseech Thee, as we now come to Thee, establish it in the thoughts of our heart, that the one object of Thy calling us, and of our coming to Thee, is Holiness. Thou wouldst have us like Thyself, partakers of Thy Holiness. If ever our heart becomes afraid, as if it were too high, or rests content with a salvation less than Holiness, Blessed God! let us hear Thy voice calling again, Be holy, I am holy. Let that call be our motive and our strength, because faithful is He that calleth, who also will do it. Let that call mark our standard and our path; oh! let our life be such as Thou art able to make it.

Holy Father! I bow in lowly worship and silence before Thee. Let now Thine own voice sound in the depths of my heart calling me, Be holy, as I am holy. Amen.

From Holy in Christ by Andrew Murray

Prayer and Doing What God is Doing

In James 5, Elijah is mentioned.  He was a man who saw a situation, prayed and obeyed God.  His prayer was in the middle of doing what God is doing.  The story of Elijah in James 5 is from the Old Testament of Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18.

God is concerned that His people can experience definite answers to prayers if they will be as obedient as Elijah was.   Elijah had frustrations, wonderings, doubts and feelings just as we do, yet he was obedient to God’s word.  That obedience gave God an opportunity to answer his prayers.

In the gospel of John 15:7, Jesus says:  “If you live in me and what I say lives in you, then ask for anything you want, and it will be yours.”, in the KJV it says:  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  So look at the sections in this verse.  First it says to abide or live in God, this is the obedience.  Second it says to let His word live or abide in us.  Third it says what you pray will be answered.  So what a promise when we just choose to obey God.

Pray this Prayer…

No wonder that Paul, in the chapter in which he has spoken to the Ephesians of their being ‘chosen to be holy,’ prays for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God to be given to believers, that they might know ‘the hope of their calling’ (i. 17, 18). Let all of us, who feel that we have too little realized that we are called to Holiness, pray this prayer. It is just what we need. Let us ask God to show us how, as He who hath called us is Himself holy, so we are to be holy too; our calling is a holy calling a calling before and above everything, to Holiness. Let us ask Him to show us what Holiness is, His Holiness first, and then our Holiness; to show us how He has set His heart upon it as the one thing He wants to see in us, as being His own image and likeness; to show us too the unutterable blessedness and glory of sharing with Christ in His Holiness. Oh! that God by His Spirit would teach us what it means that we are called to be holy as He is holy. We can easily conceive what a mighty influence it would exert.

From Holy in Christ by Andrew Murray