SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/15/2014 9:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Let’s talk about Prayer
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Introduction to 1 Thess. 3:11-13
Message of the
verses: I mentioned in our last SD
that I was going to move back into the book of 1 Thessalonians and finish up
chapter three, verses 11-13. As I began
to prepare to look at these verses I found that both John MacArthur and Warren
Wiersbe had some wonderful quotes on this section, quotes that I have decided
to put into this SD. Prayer is a very
important part of the believer’s life, and perhaps it is somewhat neglected in
the lives of many believers today. Why
do many people neglect prayer in our country today? I think that the answer for this question can
have facets, but perhaps one of the reasons we neglect prayer is that we are
comfortable. In the prayer from Matthew
which we call “The Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus told His disciples to pray “give us
today our daily bread.” This reminds me
of the story of Elijah and the widow that he went to see during a great drought
in the land of Israel, a drought that he was blamed for starting. Elijah went to the widow and asked her for
some bread and was told by her that she was about to use the last bit of grain
and oil to make a cake for her and her son and then they would give up and die
for there was no more food for them to eat.
Elijah told her to make the cake for all of them and that the grain and
the oil would not run out until the famine ended. Do you suppose that all of a sudden the grain
barrow was full? Do you suppose that the
jar of oil was suddenly full? My
thoughts are that there was just enough oil and grain in the barrow and jar to
feed the three of them every day. “Give
us today our daily bread.” Do you
suppose that the three of them were comfortable in their life style during this
time? My guess is that they were not as
comfortable as we in the United States are during this time, but my guess also
is that their faith was greater than our faith is at this time in our
country. Dr. Wiersbe says that the Word
of God and prayer should go together, and by reading the Word of God and by
praying our faith is increased, and that is what our Lord wants to happen in
our lives.
John MacArthur entitles this seventh chapter in his
commentary on 1 Thessalonians “A Pastoral Prayer,” and he begins this chapter
by mentioning how many prayers that are found in the New Testaments, at least
mentions a few of the references of these prayers. He then goes on by quoting Arthur W. Pink who
was born in England in 1886 and died in 1952.
Pink was an avid writer during his life and wrote many volumes on
different Bible books. He wrote on the
book of Genesis and also on the book of Hebrews that I have read parts of. The following is a quote from his book
entitled “Gleanings from Paul: Studies in
the Prayers of the Apostles.” He writes “How blessed it is to hear some
aged saint, who has long walked with God and enjoyed intimate communion with
Him, pouring out his heart before Him in adoration and supplication. But how much more blessed should we esteem it
could we have listened to the utterances of those who companied with Christ in
person during the days when He tabernacle in this scene. And if one of the apostles were still here
upon earth what a high privilege we should deem it to hear him engage in
prayer! Such a high privilege that most
of us would be willing to go to considerable incontinence and to travel a long
distance in order to be thus favored.
And if our desire were granted, how closely we would listen to his
words, how diligently we would seek to treasure them up in our memories. Well, no such inconvenience, no such journey,
is required: it has pleased the Holy Spirit
to record quite a number of the apostolic prayers for our instruction and
satisfaction.”
Our next quote comes from another favorite person and
author even though he has been in heaven for a very long time and that is
Charles H.Spurgeon John MacArthur writes the following before he quotes
Spurgeon: “Certainly the apostle Paul
modeled prayer to the Thessalonians. He
also exemplified the pastoral prayer life once described by Charles
Spurgeon: ‘I take it that as a minister he is always praying…He is not always in
the act of prayer, but he lives in the spirit of it…If you are a genuine
minister of God you will stand as a priest before the Lord, spiritually wearing
the ephod and the breast-plate whereon you bear the names of [your]
children…pleading for them within the veil.’
(Lectures to my Students
[preprint; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Ministry Resources Library, 1985}, 42, 47;
emphasis in the original).
No I mentioned prayer and Bible Study, and also faith and
we have examples of this in the Word of God which goes along with what the
apostle Paul is praying for the Thessalonians in verse ten of chapter
three. Dr. Wiersbe picks up on this
subject, and I know that we have already gone over what was in verse ten, but I
want to include this in this SD just the same.
I have a Sunday school teacher who is going through the
book of Genesis with us and one of the things he talks about as we look at the
different characters in Genesis is how the Lord works with them to increase
their faith as they grow up in the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe writes about this in the following
quote: “Abraham is a good example of
this principle. God called him to the land of Canaan, and when he arrived, he
discovered a famine. God permitted that
famine so that Abraham’s faith might be tested.
Unfortunately, Abraham failed the test and went down to Egypt for help.
“Each step of the way, God brought circumstances to bear
on Abraham that forced him to trust God and grow in his faith. Faith is like a muscle: it gets stronger with
use. Abraham had problems with his
worldly nephew, Lot. He also had
problems with his wife and her handmaid, Hagar.
The ultimate test of faith came when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his
beloved son, Isaac.
“Faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. God tries our faith, not to destroy it, but
to develop it. Had Abraham not learned
to trust God in the famine, he could never have trusted in the other
difficulties. Paul prayed that the
suffering Christians in Thessalonica might grow in their faith, and God
answered his prayer. Paul wrote in his
second letter, ‘We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren…because that
your faith growth exceedingly’ (2 Thess. 1:3).”
Spiritual meaning
form my life today: I believe that I
have learned that the same Greek word for temptation can be also translated as
testing. God tests us, but Satan tempts
us. Sometimes I faith, much more than I
want to, but if I begin to learn that the temptations that I face can be
testing’s from Lord and trust Him to cause me to grow by these testing’s then I
will begin to walk more closely with the Lord.
God never tempts us, but only tests us and as Dr. Wiersbe writes “Faith
that cannot be tested cannot be trusted.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord through the testing’s that He
brings into my life.
Memory verse for the
week: Philippians 5:2
Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “His triumphal entry into
Jerusalem.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Behold, I am at the
point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do me’?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/15/2014 11:00 AM
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