Costly Investment, Outlandish Rewards

What God Gives You in Prayer by Jennifer Kennedy Dean (via Charisma)

The most limiting misconception about prayer is that its secret lies in the words we sandwich between "Dear God" and "Amen." God has so much more to give us than just those things we know to ask Him for. He wants to give us Himself. And what does He want in return? Everything. Prayer is not an activity, but a relationship.

Teri bought an abstract painting from a junk store in California for $5. Ten years later, she discovered that the "junk" she purchased was likely an original Jackson Pollock painting and could be worth more than $10 million. Let's project our imaginations into the future and suppose that Teri has been paid $10 million for the painting that cost her $5. Let's imagine that she is sitting in the palatial mansion the money has afforded her and that she is dripping in jewels and draped in fine designer clothing, none of which she could have afforded previously. Imagine that I ask her, "What did that Jackson Pollock painting cost you?" How do you think she would answer that question? I think she would say, "Cost me? It cost me nothing. It gained me $10 million and afforded me everything I own." When the profit far outweighs the investment, we call it gain. The initial cost is swallowed up in the benefit it obtains, and it shows up on the "profit" side of the balance sheet.

Jesus challenged those who would be His disciples first to count the cost. "For who among you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost to see whether he has resources to complete it? Otherwise, perhaps, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to complete it, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to complete it'" (Luke 14:28-30). He made it clear that to be His disciple would cost a person everything. But Jesus also challenged those who sought to be His disciples to count the reward. After you count the cost, then count the reward. "If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:31-32). When the benefit far outweighs the cost, we call it gain.

"But what things were gain to me, I have counted these things to be loss for the sake of Christ. Yes, certainly, I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God on the basis of faith, to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil. 3:7-10)

Do you see what Paul is saying? He said that he gave up everything he valued because when he compared it to "the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord," everything he valued was rubbish. It was nothing. It was less than nothing. The worth of everything he valued was swallowed up in the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. If we could ask Paul, "What did radical discipleship cost you?" I think Paul would answer, "Cost me? It cost me nothing and gained me everything."

The call is radical. His call to you is that you surrender everything to be His disciple. And when you have emptied yourself of everything you have, He will fill you with everything He has. What does Jesus have to give you? "All that the Father has is Mine" (John 16:15). Once you have counted the cost, then count the reward.

Prayer Is Not the Center

"Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of a family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it. It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go. Conversation is only the vehicle through which we experience one another. Consequently, prayer is not the center of this book. Getting to know a person, God, is the center."

            - A Praying Life by Paul Miller (Kindle Locations 378-382)

HT: Dash House

Tweeking Your Prayer Life

Does your prayer life need a little "tweeking"? Read The Power and Privilege of God's People by David Mathis

Now is the time to take a fresh look at your private prayer life and dream about a tweak or two you could make in the coming days. Typically the best way to grow and make headway is not a total overhaul, but identifying one or a couple small changes that will pay dividends over time.

Or maybe you have little-to-no real private prayer life (which might be as common among professing Christians as it’s ever been), and you really need to start from scratch. You may feel first-hand the weight of Francis Chan’s alarm, “My biggest concern for this generation is your inability to focus, especially in prayer.” Perhaps it’s true of you, and you’re ready for change.

Whether you’re in need of a little self-evaluation, or learning as a beginner, I’d like to offer a few practical flashpoints on private prayer. But let’s start with why private prayer, or “closet prayer,” is so important in the first place.

Praying “in the Closet”

“Closet prayer” gets its name from Jesus’s famous “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5–8. The context is Jesus’s instructions for not “practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them” (Matthew 6:1).

When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:5–6)

Just as praying in earshot of others had its immanent rewards in first-century Judaism, so also it does in our twenty-first-century church communities, whether it’s in church or small group or just at the table with friends and family. It can be easy to slide into impressing others as the driving motivation for our praying with others, whether its our length, tone, topic, or jargon, all carefully chosen to produce certain effects in our human hearers alone.

It’s a tough line to walk, because we must pray publicly — in church and in our homes and elsewhere — and public prayer should take into account that others are listening; it should have others in mind. But the danger lurks of sidelining God and shifting our focus to making ourselves look impressive.

Test of Authenticity

But “closet prayer” offers a test of authenticity for our public praying. As Tim Keller comments on Matthew 6:5–6,

The infallible test of spiritual integrity, Jesus says, is your private prayer life. Many people will pray when they are required by cultural or social expectations, or perhaps by the anxiety caused by troubling circumstances. Those with a genuinely lived relationship with God as Father, however, will inwardly want to pray and therefore will pray even though nothing on the outside is pressing them to do so. They pursue it even during times of spiritual dryness, when there is no social or experiential payoff. (Prayer, 23)

Private prayer is an important test of whether we are real.TweetRemedy for Inadequacy
But private prayer is not just a test of our trueness, but also an ongoing remedy for our inadequacies and the lack of desire we often feel for God. Prayer, says John Piper, is “not only the measure of our hearts, revealing what we really desire, it is also the indispensible remedy for our hearts when we do not desire God the way we ought” (When I Don’t Desire God, 153).

Private prayer shows who we really are spiritually and is essential in healing the many places we find ourselves broken, needy, lacking, and rebellious.

Nothing Between You and the Presence

   "...'You shall not have other gods besides me' this meant no gods other than the God who freed the Israelites  yes, but it meant something deeper as well. It meant inviting God's presence - the living, breathing truth of who God is - to reside amid all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, at all times.

To place anything - be it another deity or something more commonplace like romantic love, anger, ambition, or fear - before the Almighty is to give it preeminence in our regard. To become too attached to a thought or feeling or thing is to place it between God and ourselves. When we attache ourselves to something other than God, God's presence is blocked, unseen, and disconnected from our awareness. The straight line between creature and Creator is then impeded, and - as with most unwise detours - disorientation follows."

 - Elizabeth Scalia in  Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life., pages 14-15

The Real You Meets the Real God

“The only way to come to God is by taking off any spiritual mask. The real you has to meet the real God. He is a person.

Your heart could be, and often is, askew. That’s okay. You have to begin with what is real. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous. He came for sinners. All of us qualify. The very things we try to get rid of—our weariness, our distractedness, our messiness—are what get us in the front door! That’s how the gospel works. That’s how prayer works.

In bringing your real self to Jesus, you give him the opportunity to work on the real you, and you will slowly change. The kingdom comes when Jesus becomes king of your life. But is has to be your life. You can’t create a kingdom that doesn’t exist, where you try to be better than you really are. Jesus calls that hypocrisy—putting on a mask to cover the real you.

So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you.”

           — Paul Miller  A Praying Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2009), 33-34


Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Stay Tethered

"Theology is a way for you to know and respond to God. It is something you tether to God, not something you tether God to."

                  - Joe Thorn, Note to Self, page 52

HT: Rick Ianniello
 

Living the Three Circles

In honor of his birthday yesterday, here's an excerpt from Francis Schaeffer's book No Little People:, published in 1974:

As I see it, the Christian life must be comprised of three concentric circles, each of which must be kept in its proper place.

In the outer circle must be the correct theological position, true biblical orthodoxy and the purity of the visible church. This is first, but if that is all there is, it is just one more seedbed for spiritual pride.

In the second circle must be good intellectual training and comprehension of our own generation. But having only this leads to intellectualism and again provides a seedbed for pride.

In the inner circle must be the humble heart — the love of God, the devotional attitude toward God. There must be the daily practice of the reality of the God whom we know is there.

These three circles must be properly established, emphasized and related to each other. At the center must be kept a living relationship to the God we know exists. When each of these three circles is established in its proper place, there will be tongues of fire and the power of the Holy Spirit. Then, at the end of my life, when I look back over my work since I have been a Christian, I will see that I have not wasted my life.

Hat Tip:  Miscellanies

Life From the Inside Out

"When we learn to truly follow Jesus, we find that obedience to God comes from the inside out.  Submissions to what God wants for our lives flows naturally out of that relationship.  It's not to say that what we do or don't do doesn't matter, but what we do or don't do must come from who we are as followers of Jesus."

- Not A Fan, Kyle Idlemann, page 77

To A New Level

“This is the beauty of making disciples. When we take responsibility for helping others grow in Christ, it automatically takes our own relationship with Christ to a new level.”

      — David Platt, Radical (Colorado Springs, Co.: Multnomah Books, 2010), 100-101

Hat Tip: The beauty of making disciples | Of First Importance

Accepted at Our Worst

"In the cross God demonstrates the deepest law of acceptance. For to be convinced that I have been accepted, I must be convinced that I have been accepted at my worst. This is the greatest gift an intimate relationship can offer — to know that we have been accepted and forgiven in the full knowledge of who we are, an even greater knowledge than we have about ourselves. This is what the cross offers. "

— Rebecca Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons, (San Francisco, Ca.: Harper & Row, 1989), 105

Hat Tip:  Of First Importance