How Jesus Addresses Our Anxieties (Part 2 of 3)

 by Paul Tautges

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

Matthew 6:30

We are earthbound people who naturally focus on earthly burdens. Our smallness of faith exposes itself in our predisposition to worry about our needs instead of resting in the care that our Creator promises. Our faith is not yet fully grown; it continually needs to be nurtured. Knowing that this is the case, Jesus develops our faith by gently confronting our unbelief.

In the verses that precede our verse for today, Jesus employs another image from nature to ask a conscience-stirring question. “Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider [i.e., deliberately notice] the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin” (Matt. 6:28). Clearly he intends to redirect weary eyes of faith to look godward.

Jesus directs us to think about how the flowers are clothed. They do not buy or spin their own fabric. They are beautifully adorned by the Lord—such that “even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matt. 6:29). Jesus does not discourage us from working hard in order to provide for ourselves. But no matter how hard we can possibly work, God is always working harder on our behalf. He is the ultimate provider. If God cares for the flowers and dresses them in a dazzling array of shapes and colors, how much more does he care for you. We must acknowledge his tender care and trust him with our concerns—for, as Jesus asserts, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8).

Jesus then presents the grass of the field as another illustration. If God clothes the grass—which is destined to be destroyed— with such a lovely array of flowers, how much more will he care for you.

God’s faithful care should produce great confidence in a believer. In light of this, Jesus relates anxiety to having “little faith.” The root of our anxiety is unbelief. He challenges unbelief and the small view of God that it takes—the fact that when we are anxious, we fear that God is lacking. But God is not deficient in any virtue. Nor is he ever unfaithful.

In all these questions and exhortations, Jesus is saying the same thing over and over. “Look at what God is doing. Look at the flowers. Look at the grass. God takes constant care of them, and they are temporal. He tends to their needs. Why do you not trust God when you are infinitely more valuable and will live for eternity?” Unbelief and anxiety both whisper in your ear, “Your needs won’t be met. What are you going to do?” In our fight against anxiety, a small view of God will never suffice. God delegated the care of the earth to man (see Gen. 2:15), but he has always been the Gardener. And the pinnacle of God’s creation is man (see Ps. 8). Therefore, believe that God will meet your needs. Have faith. God cares about you!

For Further Reflection and Application

• Reflect: How does your view of God impact your trust in him? How does it help you to fight your anxiety?

• Act: Meditate on Jeremiah 17:7–8. Journal about the fruit of trusting God. Write these verses on a 3×5 card. Read them often. Let their truth remind you to turn your gaze upward.

• Act: Find a wise Christian friend and share with him or her how you have seen God meet your needs. Then, together, praise the Lord for how he cares for you.

*This devotional is a daily excerpt from the 31-day devotional, ANXIETY: Knowing God’s Peace. Consider working through this devotional yourself or with a friend or two.

Posted at: https://counselingoneanother.com/2020/04/20/how-jesus-addresses-our-anxiety-part-2-of-3/

How Jesus Addresses Our Anxieties (Part 1 of 3)

by Paul Tautges

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Matthew 6:26-27

In today’s verses, Jesus says that we should not worry about what is not ours to worry about. Instead, we should be more like the birds, which do not doubt the faithfulness of God. When we intentionally “look at the birds,” we remind ourselves of how dependent all creatures are—and especially ourselves. As we wait on the Lord, our responsibility is to actively do what he commands and to leave the rest to him.

Three Comforting Truths

Worry distracts us from enjoying the love of our heavenly Father, but Jesus offers us comforting truths to settle our anxious hearts.

Your heavenly Father feeds his creatures (v. 26). God cares for the things he creates. He takes responsibility for them. Jesus directs us to look at the birds—to consider how their needs are faithfully met. They own no barns and have no ability to store up for the future. Yet God meets their daily needs.

You are more valuable than any non-human creature (v. 27). Jesus also reassures us that we are infinitely more valuable than animals are. Human life possesses fathomless value because man and woman are created in God’s image and likeness. We are designed to reflect God’s glory. This is what gives human beings their worth.

Your heavenly Father has a plan for the span of your life (v. 27). When King David praised God for the wonder-filled way he had created him, he also acknowledged that God would providentially lead him according to his sovereign plan. “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them,” he testified (Ps. 139:16). Since this is true for each of us, worrying about tomorrow will not “add a single hour to [the] span of [our] life.”

God faithfully provides for us. He does this primarily through our work and through our disciplined stewardship of our resources (see Prov. 6:6–11). Nevertheless, even if we are faithful with our responsibilities and resources, we may have needs that remain unmet. If this is the case for us, then we trust God to provide for us in his way and according to his timetable. To fret is to heap fake cares on our large-enough stack of legitimate ones.

For Further Reflection and Application

• Reflect: What are your fake cares? List them, and also review your “care list” from day 1. Are the items you are currently worrying about legitimate cares, or could some be things that you fear might happen?

• Act: If you can’t distinguish between fake and true cares, turn to a wise Christian friend and ask for help.

• Act: Read Psalm 127:2. Compare it to what Jesus teaches about the heavenly Father’s care and provision.

*This devotional is a daily excerpt from the 31-day devotional, ANXIETY: Knowing God’s Peace. Consider working through this devotional yourself or with a friend or two.

Posted at: https://counselingoneanother.com/2020/04/16/how-jesus-addresses-our-anxieity-part-1-of-3/

What Makes It Possible for the Christian to Rejoice in the Midst of Pain and Anxiety?

By R.C. Sproul

In 1993, my wife and I were involved in an historic train wreck. The crash of the Sunset Limited into an inlet from Mobile Bay killed more passengers than any Amtrak accident in history. We survived that eerie accident but not without ongoing trauma. The wreck left my wife with an ongoing anxiety about being able to sleep on a train at night. The wreck left me with a back injury that took fifteen years of treatment and therapy to overcome. Nevertheless, with these scars from the trauma we both learned a profound lesson about the providence of God. Clearly, God’s providence in this case for us was one of benign benevolence. It also illustrated to us an unforgettable sense of the tender mercies of God. In as much as we are convinced that God’s providence is an expression of His absolute sovereignty over all things, I would think that a logical conclusion from such a conviction would be the end of all anxiety.

However, that is not always the case. Of course, our Lord Himself gave the instruction to be anxious for nothing to His disciples and, by extension, to the church. His awareness of human frailties expressed in our fears was manifested by His most common greeting to His friends: “Fear not.” Still, we are creatures who, in spite of our faith, are given to anxiety and at times even to melancholy.

As a young student and young Christian, I struggled with melancholy and sought the counsel of one of my mentors. As I related my struggles, he said, “You are experiencing the heavy hand of the Lord on your shoulder right now.” I had never considered God’s hand being one that gave downward pressure on my shoulder or that would cause me to struggle in this way. I was driven to prayer that the Lord would remove His heavy hand from my shoulder. In time, He did that and delivered me from melancholy and a large degree of anxiety.

On another occasion I was in a discussion with a friend, and I related to him some of the fears that were plaguing me. He said, “I thought you believed in the sovereignty of God.” “I do,” I said, “and that’s my problem.” He was puzzled by the answer, and I explained that I know enough about what the Bible teaches of God’s providence and of His sovereignty to know that sometimes God’s sovereign providence involves suffering and affliction for His people. That we are in the care of a sovereign God whose providence is benevolent does not exclude the possibility that He may send us into periods of trials and tribulations that can be excruciatingly painful. Though I trust God’s Word that in the midst of such experiences He will give to me the comfort of His presence and the certainty of my final deliverance into glory, in the meantime I know that the way of affliction and pain may be difficult to bear.

The comfort that I enjoy from knowing God’s providence is mixed at times with the knowledge that His providence may bring me pain. I don’t look forward to the experience of pain with a giddy anticipation; rather, there are times when it’s necessary for me and for others to grit our teeth and to bear the burdens of the day. Again, I have no question about the outcome of such affliction, and yet at the same time, I know that there are afflictions that will test me to the limits of my faith and endurance. That kind of experience and knowledge makes it easy to understand the tension between confidence in God’s sovereign providence and our own struggles with anxiety.

Romans 8:28, which is a favorite for many of us, states that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (NKJV). There’s no other text that demonstrates so clearly and magnificently the beauty of God’s sovereign providence than that one. The text does not say that everything that happens to us, considered in and of itself, is good; rather, it says that all things that happen are working together for our good. That is the master plan of God’s redemptive providence. He brings good out of evil. He brings glory out of suffering. He brings joy out of affliction. This is one of the most difficult truths of sacred Scripture for us to believe. I’ve said countless times that it is easy to believe in God but far more difficult to believe God. Faith involves living a life of trust in the Word of God.

As I live out the travail that follows life on this side of glory, hardly a day goes by that I am not forced to look at Romans 8:28 and remind myself that what I’m experiencing right now feels bad, tastes bad, is bad; nevertheless, the Lord is using this for my good. If God were not sovereign, I could never come to that comforting conclusion — I would be constantly subjected to fear and anxiety without any significant relief. The promise of God that all things work together for good to those who love God is something that has to get not only into our minds, but it has to get into our bloodstreams, so that it is a rock-solid principle by which life can be lived.

I believe this is the foundation upon which the fruit of the Spirit of joy is established. This is the foundation that makes it possible for the Christian to rejoice even while in the midst of pain and anxiety. We are not stoics who are called to keep a stiff upper lip out of some nebulous concept of fate; rather, we are those who are to rejoice because Christ has overcome the world. It is that truth and that certainty that gives relief to all of our anxieties.

Posted at: https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-makes-it-possible-christian-rejoice-midst-pain-and-anxiety/

Are You A Functional Atheist?

Paul Tripp

I’m concerned with the level of functional atheism that exists in the church of Jesus Christ.

Yes, we believe that God exists, that he created the heavens and the earth, that the Bible is accurate, and that paradise awaits, but we often live—at a functional level—as if there is no God.

We worry too much. We control too much. We demand too much. We regret too much. We run after God replacements too much. We do all these things because we have forgotten God’s presence, power, and glory.

If you look around and look at yourself, you’ll see evidence of functional atheism everywhere in the lives of Christians.

This week, how many thoughts did you have, words did you speak, or decisions did you make that omitted the Lord from your process entirely?

It’s embarrassing to admit my functional atheism to you, but I’m not always good at preaching the gospel to myself or allowing it to influence everything I think, say, and do, even though I teach it to others publicly.

This devotional has reminded me again that I can’t share truths that I don’t first desperately need myself. If I ever stop being the first audience of my writing, I should stop writing. As you read my material, please remember me and pray for me. Pray that God will help me to live, with courage and hope, the things that I write.

There’s another side to functional atheism that we need to be aware of. Maybe we aren’t as extreme to assess our lives in a God-absent way, but perhaps the God we remember is small, distant, disconnected, uncaring, and seemingly unwise.

In ways we don’t realize, we experience trouble not only because of the stress of life in a broken world but also because of how we interpret the character, size, and strength of the God who rules that brokenness.

Many people have talked to me about the Lord in the middle of their difficulties, and after listening to them, I have been struck that if I believed in the same “God” they described, I’d be in a panic too.

So where do we go from here? Humbly admitting our vulnerability to functional atheism is the first step. But then we need to ask for help.

Ask the Lord to give you spiritual eyes that see his infinite grandeur everywhere. You cannot correctly understand your life and make God-honoring choices unless you look at it through the lens of a God-centered worldview. God first, God all the time.

Pray also that God would grace you with the wisdom and strength to avoid measuring the size and nearness of God by assessing your circumstances. Your interpretation of God will never be either accurate or stable if you’ve arrived at it by trying to figure out what he is doing in the situations in your life.

When your Lord answers these prayers—and he will—your heart will be progressively washed clean of the cynicism, doubt, fear, discouragement, anxiety, worry, and control that defines functional atheism.

God bless,

Paul Tripp

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. What words did you speak or actions did you take this week that omitted God from your process? Did you intentionally ignore his glory, or was it a matter of forgetfulness?

2. How can a biblical worldview change your words and actions today? Be specific and consider what you will experience today. What do you need to remember to influence God-honoring decisions?

3. Consider a time, in the past or present, when you judged God based on your momentary circumstances and not on who he reveals himself to be in Scripture? How did that affect your faith?

4. How can you be a tool of sight and remembrance in the life of another believer this week? What truths does God want to communicate with them, and how can you be a willing instrument in the Redeemer’s hands?

Posted at: https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/are-you-a-functional-atheist

An Encouraging Statistic About Death

Paul Tripp

Here’s a mind-boggling figure: scientists estimate that in the United States alone, 13.7 million birds die every day.

It’s a seemingly random and rather unpleasant statistic, but when I came across it, my heart was deeply encouraged.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.” (Matthew 10:29, ESV)

There are hundreds of billions of birds in existence around the world today. Almost all of them have no monetary value whatsoever. Apart from a handful of endangered or noteworthy birds, we don’t track these creatures, name them, care about them, or know them.

But their Creator does. He is in control over every aspect of their life: their birth; the color and quantity of their feathers; their nest; their breeding; their migration; and ultimately, the time, location, and manner in which they die.

Think of all the technology, human resources, and coordination that is required for us to track the relatively few planes that are in the sky every day. God is in complete control over the flight paths of every single one of these hundreds of billions of birds.

This reality alone should be unbelievably reassuring. No matter how it looks at street level, your world is not out of control; no, it is under the careful administration of the Creator who has the wisdom and power to be the great Author of it all.

But that’s not enough; Jesus takes the comforting illustration even further: “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:30-31)

By grace, you are now the adopted child of the One who has this immeasurable control. As his son or daughter, you are far more valuable than any bird. This means your heavenly Father exercises intimate, personal, and specific control over your life for his glory and your good.

Discovering peace in difficult times is never accomplished by measuring the size of your strength and wisdom against the size of your trouble. No, rest is found when you compare the size of what you’re facing against the Creator of the heavens and earth. By grace, he is your father wherever you go.

Whatever you are facing today, meditate on Matthew 10:29-31. Ask God to remind you of his power, presence, and promises. And then get up and live, with courage and hope, in light of this truth!

Here’s a poetic meditation that I wrote in light of the coronavirus, Matthew 10, and this past Easter weekend.

It swept us up,
unseen
unexpected
unwanted,
disease
destruction
death
in its path.
Confused and separated,
we try to analyze
what we don’t understand,
try to conquer
what is bigger than us.
Fear sets in,
denial offers temporary
peace,
numbers rumble upward,
hope weakens.
Then we remember,
this isn’t the
worst,
this isn’t the
biggest,
this isn’t the most
fearsome.
There is another disease,
most don’t see it,
most deny it,
no human can defeat it,
everyone is infected with it.
There would be no
cure
if not for the Savior,
willing to come,
face the ultimate plague,
die alone,
broken
weak
forsaken,
so that there would be a
cure,
ours for the taking,
no money needed,
no line to stand in,
bring only one thing,
a heart ready to
believe.
Receive your healing,
rise, live again.

God bless,

Reflection Questions

1. Are you potentially spending an unhealthy amount of time or emotional energy analyzing the statistics of the current pandemic? What might this do to your spiritual meditation?

2. What are some other statistics or illustrations that you have heard or studied recently? (They could be related to anything) How can you interpret them in light of God’s Word and apply them to your life?

3. How has your lack of power and control been exposed in the past few weeks? Be detailed. How have you responded to that loss?

4. Have you been pondering death more often in light of everything surrounding you? What have you been thinking, or how have you been feeling?

5. Apply Matthew 10:29-31 to your current situation and relationships. How does this illustration address what you are facing? How does it comfort and challenge you?

Posted at: https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/an-encouraging-statistic-about-death

Praying is the Most Practical Thing You Can Do

Rachel Jones

The irony of life in lockdown is that it’s precisely when the needs are at their greatest that we feel the least able to help.

The needs nationally are obvious and overwhelming. Yet those of us who aren’t key workers, medics or politicians feel powerless to help. We’re stuck at home, cleaning and baking while Rome burns. (Or at least, having our characters on The Sims clean and bake while Rome burns.) The solutions are out of our hands. All we can do is keep washing ours.

And the needs in your personal circle may feel just as overwhelming, and just as impossible to meet: exhausted parents you’re not able to watch the kids for, grieving friends you’re not allowed to hug, lonely people you can’t welcome into your home. Your heart goes out to your struggling friends, but you have to stay in.   

For those of us who pride ourselves on being one of life’s “do-ers”, this crisis has been a humbling experience. We’ve been sent to the bench to watch the match, when what we really want to get back on the pitch. We feel so… useless. It’s incredibly humbling.

And yet in God’s economy, humble people are the most useful people to him. Because it’s humble people who are in the position to do the most practical, most powerful thing possible right now: pray.

We might be confined to our houses—“but God’s word is not chained” (2 Timothy 2 v 9).

We might have had our freedoms curtailed—but our Father “will do all that [he] pleases” (Isaiah 46 v 10).

Our little worlds might have stopped turning—but the Son is still “sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1 v 3). 

In God’s economy, humble people are the most useful people

Can you imagine what God might do in your church, your community and your nation, if you spent the next three weeks earnestly asking him to be at work? And then consider that he is the one “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us” (Ephesians 3 v 21)!

You’re not powerless to help in the face of this pandemic. Well actually, you are. That’s part of the point. But you have the ear of the One who is not, and you’re invited to come to him in prayer.

Posted at: https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/blog/interestingthoughts/2020/04/15/praying-is-the-most-practical-thing-you-can-do/?fbclid=IwAR0FY7oBU00JKDLLiOpQq1_IhyJi3vtebTDOA6_NnSl0C8cGMGpY3ybzf2k

Context Matters: Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing

 BY RYAN HIGGINBOTTOM

Perhaps you’ve heard that no one can do anything apart from Jesus. You may have been told this saying refers to our complete reliance upon God. Or, you may have read this phrase during leadership or evangelism training, urging your frequent communication with Jesus.

Context matters. When we learn to read the Bible in context—not just as a collection of memorable phrases—we’ll find that some familiar verses take on richer and deeper meanings.

The Vine and the Branches

The phrase “apart from me you can do nothing” is just a portion of John 15:5. This is part of a long conversation Jesus has with his disciples on the evening of the Last Supper, after Judas departs (John 13:30). Jesus tells them he is the vine and his father is the vinedresser (John 15:1); God takes away branches that do not bear fruit, and he prunes every fruit-bearing branch (John 15:2).

Because of their parallel nature, we need to read John 15:4 and John 15:5 together.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5)

In the immediate context, “you can do nothing” is related to “bear[ing] fruit” and “apart from me” stands opposite to “abide in me and I in him.” We cannot know Jesus’s full meaning in John 15:5 without understanding “abiding” and “bearing fruit.”

Abiding

In one way, the metaphor of the vine and branches makes clear the meaning of “abide.” Branches draw nourishment and life from the vine; without that connection, they die.

Abiding in Jesus is not an extra level of discipleship—it is essential! He is life itself; anyone who does not abide in Jesus is thrown away like a branch from the vine and burned (John 15:6).

Abiding in Jesus is also connected to both Jesus’s words and his love. If anyone abides in Jesus, his words abide in them, and their prayers will be answered (John 15:7). Jesus tells the disciples not just to abide in him but to abide in his love (John 15:9). He then explains what this means—if the disciples keep Jesus’s commandments, they will abide in his love (John 15:10). Jesus teaches this not as a burdensome duty but so their joy will be full (John 15:11).

We should also notice the similarity between the words “abide” and “abode,” or dwelling. Unfortunately, some translations obscure this link. Jesus is going to prepare a place for his disciples in his father’s house (dwelling); he wants them to be where he is (John 14:2–3). He speaks of his connection with the father as “the father abiding in me” (John 14:10, NASB). Throughout this discourse, Jesus’s relationship with his disciples shares many features of his relationship with his father.

Any disciple that wants to bear fruit must abide in Jesus and Jesus must abide in them (John 15:5). This mutual abiding, along with the other context summarized above, points to a unity, knowledge, obedience, and love that is life-sustaining and supernatural.

Bearing Fruit

As with abiding, bearing fruit goes hand-in-hand with following Jesus. Jesus says that bearing fruit is the way a person proves to be a disciple (John 15:8). In the metaphor of the vine and branches, bearing fruit is what normal, healthy branches do.

If anyone loves Jesus, they will keep his commandments (John 14:15), and thus we see a connection between bearing fruit and keeping Jesus’s commands. Jesus knows that we need help in this calling, which is why he promises to send “another helper”—the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). The Spirit abides with the disciples and will be in them (John 14:17, NASB).

We see this essential link between love, obedience, and the presence of God in John 14:23.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23, NASB)

So bearing fruit is a Spirit-powered yet normal part of being a disciple of Jesus. And it happens as we abide in, love, and obey Jesus.

Abide in Him

Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. When we read this verse in context we see that Jesus is not primarily warning against self-reliance nor dismissing the contributions of non-Christians. Yes, he is drawing a sharp line between those who follow him and those who do not. But this is a call to life.

Those connected to the vine are animated by the life-giving Spirit, and they are fruit-bearing by nature. Apart from the vine, there is no nutrition, no life, no fruit.

Context matters.

Posted at: https://www.knowableword.com/2020/04/13/context-matters-apart-from-me-you-can-do-nothing/

How Deep The Father's Love for Us

Hymn by Stuart Townend

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Five Motivations to Pray

Brian Hedges

For years, when I thought about prayer, I mostly felt guilty for my lack of a robust prayer life. Reading stories of great saints praying for two hours a day or more left me with a gnawing sense of defeat. I would often resolve to pray more. But the resolves didn’t last.

One day I realized that something had changed. While not exactly satisfied with my prayer life, I knew that I had one. I’m sure that I still don’t pray as much as I should. But I pray a lot more than I used to. And I’ve tried to think about why. What changed? On one level, of course, whatever prayer life I have is the fruit of God’s grace. He gets the credit. But God uses means. The Spirit’s work doesn’t bypass our thoughts, feelings, habits, and desires. No, He works in and through all these aspects of our Personhood.

When I think about my prayer life in these terms, two kinds of things bubble to the surface. On the one hand, I can identify certain things that happen inside of me that often trigger prayer. And on the other hand, there are several tools I’ve discovered that have helped me form better habits in prayer.  This post is on the triggers. The next will be on the tools.

1. Longing

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”[1] Augustine’s famous prayer is my biography in a sentence. I first felt the sharp stab of desire as a child. I remember hearing a beautiful song that made me feel I hardly know what. It made me both happy and sad. It evoked longings I didn’t know I had and had no labels for. As I grew older, the longings became acuter.

We all feel this existential ache one way or another. C. S. Lewis wrote about this longing, calling it “the truest index of our real situation.” [2] The problem, of course, is that we usually mistake the object of our true desire. We try to slake our thirst with personal success, sexual fulfillment, meaningful relationships, the accumulation of cool stuff, and the approval of others. We forsake the fountain of living waters and try to drink from broken cisterns that can hold no water. [3] But the ache remains. And that ache is one of the key triggers for prayer. In the words of the Psalmist,

Whom have I in heaven but you?

   And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

   but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. [4]

1. Guilt

The second trigger that drives me to prayer is guilt. I don’t mean feeling guilty if I don’t pray. I mean the conviction I feel for having sinned against God and others. To echo a confession that Robert Murray M’Cheyne made in one of his letters, “None but God knows what an abyss of corruption is in my heart.” [5] Anyone who truly knows their own heart can say the same. I suppose I’ve prayed more prayers of confession than anything else. I’m so grateful for Psalm 51 and the other penitential psalms. These Psalms, along with the promises of divine forgiveness, remind us that we don’t have to wallow in guilt or stay in our sins. With the tax-collector in Luke 18:13, we can pray, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

1. Stress

Perhaps nothing has helped my prayer life more than the pressure of difficult and painful circumstances. We call it stress, but the biblical word is “trial.” Sometimes our circumstances are almost unbearable. We feel like we’re about to sink. That’s why one of my favorite prayers in Scripture comes from the lips of Peter as he sinks beneath the waves: “Lord, save me!”  It’s short, simple, and to the point. But for someone desperate for help, it’s enough.

On one level, trials are – well – stressful! But when we can embrace our trials as instruments in our Father’s hands, intended for our good, they can lead us to a deeper dependence on Him. In the words of an old hymn:

Trials make the promise sweet

Trials give new life to prayer

Trials bring me at his feet

Lay me low and keep me there.[6]

1. Love

Another motivation that triggers prayer is love. I especially have in mind love and compassion for others. When Paul asked the believers in Rome to pray for him, he appealed to their love, a fruit of the Spirit’s work in their hearts. [7] Love is the most effective spur to intercessory prayer.

As a pastor, I get a front row seat to people’s deepest needs and problems. More often than not, I feel inadequate to meet those needs. But I’m learning that the best way to love them is to pray for them, to ask the One whose sufficiency knows no bounds to meet their needs according to his riches in Christ.

1. Gratitude  

One more trigger for prayer is gratitude. I should feel much more gratitude than I do. As M’Cheyne, whom I quoted above, said in a wonderful poem:

When I stand before the throne,

Dressed in beauty not my own,

When I see thee as thou art,

Love thee with unsinning heart,

Then, Lord, shall I fully know –

Not till then – how much I owe.[8]

Like M’Cheyne, I know that I don’t fully realize how much I owe to the Lord’s kindness and grace. But sometimes I get a glimpse – often on the heels of a fresh sight of my sinful heart and the Lord’s unfailing grace and mercy in my life, and gratitude overflows into joyful thanks.

Longing, guilt, stress, love, and gratitude. There is nothing unique about these feelings. This is the ordinary stuff out of which all of our internal lives are made. But what I have slowly learned is to let these ordinary feelings be my starting place for prayer.

If you want to grow in your prayer life, just start where you are.

Does your soul throb with the dull ache for something more?  Take it to God. Is your conscience stained with the memories of yesterday’s sins? Bring them to Jesus. Are you worried about a loved one’s health? Anxious about how you’ll make ends meet this month? Unburden your heart to the Father.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re facing, start there. Bring your needs to the throne of grace, and you will have a prayer life.

End Notes

[1]Augustine, Confessions, Bk. 1, Ch. 1

[2]C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (HarperCollins, 2009), p. 42

[3]Jeremiah 2:13

[4]Psalm 73:25-26

[5]Andrew A. Bonar, ed., Memoirs & Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2004 reprint of 1844 edition) p. 637. Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a 19th-century Scottish minister renowned for his earnest pursuit of holiness.

[6]William Cowper, “Welcome Cross.”

[7]See Romans 15:30

[8]From his poem, “I am Debtor,” quoted in Bonar, ed., Memoirs & Remains, p. 637.

Posted at: https://servantsofgrace.org/five-motivations-pray/

The Imperative-Indicative Balance

Bryan Chapell

Right application of Scripture necessitates Herman Ridderbos’s famous insight into Paul’s theology. Every imperative of Scripture (what we are to do for God) rests on the indicative (who we are in our relationship with God), and the order is not reversible (Acts 16:14–16; Col. 3:1–5; 1 John 5:1–5).[i] The human instinct with every non-Christian religion reverses the order, teaching that who we are before God is based on what we do for God. Thus, any preaching that is distinctively Christian must keep listeners from confusing, or inverting, our “who” and our “do.”

What Christians do is based on who we are in Christ. We obey because God has loved us and united us to himself by his Son; we are not united to God, nor do we make him love us, because we have obeyed him. Our obedience is a response to his love, not a purchase of it. We keep this indicative-imperative relationship clear, not by when we happen to mention each element in a sermon, but by making sure that the message is not done until listeners are motivated to obey God based upon God’s gracious provision for them.

Sometimes, we’ll lay a foundation of God’s provision as a motivational basis for the imperatives that follow; other times, we’ll detail the clear duties of the text before explaining the relationship with God that enables our obedience. There is a conceptual priority on the indicative that motivates and enables obedience, even if the imperatives follow in the actual presentation of the sermon.

If we try to establish a standard order or proportion for the mention of the imperatives and indicatives in our sermons, we will inevitably end up twisting texts in ways not intended by the original authors. We certainly should mention the imperatives and indicatives in various orders or proportions in different sermons according to the content and context of each biblical text. Still, the key to making any message gospel-consistent is making sure listeners do not walk away with the sense that their behavior is the basis of their redemption.

A sermon is not a sermon, if it includes no imperatives; a sermon without application is mere abstraction. But a sermon isn’t a Christian sermon if its ethical imperatives eclipse its gospel indicatives. A message that only heaps duty upon duty is mere legalism, even if the duties are in the text.

Proportions of imperative and indicative will vary, but listeners need to be able to discern the importance of each. We damage Scripture’s purposes, and the clarity of the gospel, if we do not pastorally consider what is needed for each element to be heard and lived.

A message that hammers on imperatives for 35 minutes, and then ends with a tossed in, “But remember Jesus loves you,” does not understand how the human heart functions. A message that mews about Jesus’ love for 35 minutes, and ends with an intangible, “So make your life count for him,” does not understand the human propensity to use grace to avoid obedience.

As pastors, we should aim for messages that enable people to honor our Savior with gospel-enabled obedience. To do this well, we must evaluate both the demands of a text and the disposition of our congregation. This will help us determine the proper balance between imperative and indicative.

If people don’t know what to do, then they cannot obey God. So imperatives of some sort are necessary. If people obey out of wrong motivations, then their so-called obedience doesn’t honor God. So indicatives that rightly motivate and enable must ground every imperative. The proportion varies, but both must be present with enough significance to inform behavior and stir affections for Christ’s honor.

* * * * *

[i] H. Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 253.

Posted at: https://www.9marks.org/article/the-imperative-indicative-balance/