God Praying
with the Prayers of the Bible By
the Revd Dr Herbert McGonigle, Senior Lecturer in
Historical Theology & Church History, Nazarene
Theological College, Manchester Introduction In
this series we will be looking at twelve prayers found in
the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some
are prayers for personal circumstances while others
relate to family or church or nation. In studying
all twelve prayers the emphasis will be on what we can
learn about prayer and how we can be encouraged to pray
more regularly, more fervently and more expectantly. Praying
about the Unknown Future: “O Lord God, what will you
give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my
house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Genesis 15:2-3.
This
is the Bible’s first prayer. That doesn’t
mean that no one before Abraham had prayed, but this is
the first time we have a record of some praying to God.
We
learn as early as Genesis 4 that “men began to call
on the name of the Lord” (v.26) but it does not
explicitly say that they prayed. We can hardly
believe that godly men like Enoch and Noah never prayed.
Enoch ‘walked with God’ and in his long
pilgrimage of three hundred years of fellowship with God
(Gen. 5:22) he must have prayed many times. Even
before Abraham’s first prayer is mentioned we are
told that God appeared to him, that he built an altar for
sacrifice and worship and that he called on the name of
the Lord (Gen. 12;7; When
God first appeared to him, he had been promised that from
his family a great nation would emerge (Gen. 12:1-3). Now
many years later he still has no children and custom
dictates that his chief servant, Eliezer, will inherit
everything. Has God forgotten him? Were all those
promises of being a father just make believe or self-delusion?
So
he cried to God, “What will you give me?”
It was a desperate prayer from a desperate heart. What
was God doing? Why had He not kept His promises?
Had He forgotten? Was He not able to do what He had
promised? We have all been where Abraham was when
he prayed that prayer. We want to believe but why
is nothing happening? Then
God answered! “Your own son shall be your heir”
(v.4). This wonderful answer was sealed with a
dramatic illustration. God directed Abraham to look
up into the night sky. “Number the stars if
you can,” God said. “So shall your
descendants be.” Abraham would have as many
offspring as the stars in the sky! Impossible?
Incredible? Far-fetched? But
it happened! The next chapter records the birth of his
son Ishmael and two chapters later we read of the birth
of Isaac, the son of promise. And history, both
biblical and secular, confirms that the illustration from
the stars was no exaggeration! So
the Bible’s first prayer helps us in a number of
ways. First,
when our hearts ache because of fear or doubt or
uncertainty, take it to God in prayer. Second,
God’s delays are not denials. Third,
with Abraham who ‘believed the Lord’ (v.6),
trust quietly in our sovereign and gracious God. Sermon
Notebook: “People Like Us” Simeon:
Luke 2: 22-35 This
month sees the start a new series of Sermon Notebook
looking at people of faith in the Gospels. We begin with
Simeon, who blessed Jesus in the The
Spirit was upon Simeon Simeon
was moved by the Spirit to wait for the ‘consolation
of How
can we overcome the tendency to be pre-occupied with our
own needs and concerns? Simeon
was moved by the Spirit The
Holy Spirit himself brought Simeon and Jesus together, in
the right place at the right time (27). While we often
look for the Holy Spirit in the extraordinary, this
reminds us that He usually works through the ordinary
circumstances of everyday life. What
examples of this have you seen in your own experience? Simeon
praised God in the Spirit The
Spirit enabled Simeon to recognise the child as the
Messiah (28-31), and inspired his praise in the words we
call the Nunc Dimittis (lit: ‘(you) now dismiss’).
With a prophetic perspective, Simeon declared Jesus to be
God’s light to reveal him to the Gentiles,
fulfilling his promise to Abraham. In
what ways have we found Jesus to be God’s Light to
us? In
the coming year, with Simeon, let’s pray for a
Spirit-inspired longing to meet with God, guarding us
against any spiritual complacency. Ten
things God won't ask you when you die 1
God won't ask what kind of car you drove, He'll ask how
many people you drove who didn't have transportation. 2
God won't ask the square footage of your house, He'll ask
how many people you welcomed into your home. 3
God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet,
He'll ask how many people you helped to clothe. 4
God won’t ask which diet you were on, He’ll ask
how many hungry people you helped to feed. 5
God won't ask what your highest salary was, He'll ask if
you compromised your character to obtain it. 6
God won't ask what your job title was, He'll ask if you
performed your job to the best of your ability. 7
God won't ask how many friends you had, He'll ask how
many people to whom you were a friend. 8
God won't ask in what neighbourhood you lived, He'll ask
how you treated your neighbours. 9
God won't ask about the colour of your skin, He'll ask
about the content of your character. 10
God won't ask why it took you so long to seek Him, He'll
lovingly take you into his Kingdom, not leave you at the
gates of Hell. Questions
& Answers: Is
daily Bible reading a must? I
have heard it said that the traditional daily ‘Quiet
Time’ with the Bible and prayer is nowhere
sanctioned in Scripture, and is really a piece of
evangelical legalism. Is it all right to let it go? The
trouble with holding such a view is that – by the
time our neglect of daily Bible reading has taken its
toll – our sense of self-perception has dulled and
we are unaware that our spiritual cutting edge is already
blunted. We
then start getting into difficulties over Christian
truth, doubts and even about the Bible itself. It
then becomes unfashionable to take the Bible to Christian
meetings. We can reach the point when a meeting is
in progress (even a Bible study) – and no Bible is
in sight! The sins that we once had vigorously
combated now begin to overcome us – and we still
fail to connect our feeble discipleship with our neglect
of the Bible. But come back to the Bible on a
regular basis again – and within days we shall
notice the difference! No,
it is not a legally binding duty; daily Bible reading is
rather to be seen as a personal daily delight. “When
your words came,” said Jeremiah, “I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight.”
(Jeremiah 15:16) We fall in love with Christ –
and we find ourselves wanting to read the Scriptures,
because they lead us to him. (John 5:39). Morning
or evening? Again, there is no legally binding rule.
I’ve seen people reading the bible on the For
most believers, however, the word of the American
expositor Henry Ward Beecher surely apply: The first hour
of waking is the rudder that guides the whole day. David
the Psalmist knew this. “I rise before dawn,”
he exclaimed, “and cry for help. I have put my
hope in your word.” (Psalm 119:147). This
sounds like a habit! Isaiah
knew it, too. “The sovereign Lord has given me
an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the
weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my
ear to listen like one being taught.” (Isaiah
50:4). That
sounds like every day! The apostle Peter exhorted
his readers to receive God’s ‘pure spiritual
milk’ so that by it they might ‘grow up’
in their salvation. He then goes on to say, “As
you come to him, the living Stone…” and the
Greek of the text indicates that they were to continue
coming, in this way. (1 Peter 2:2-4). Let
daily Bible reading and prayer be like the meeting of
lovers for an agreed appointment. As Soren
Kierkegaard of From
‘The Top 100 Questions – biblical answers to
popular questions’ by Richard Bewes (Christian Focus) |