Ever-Persevering Petitions

February 23, 2020 Background Scripture: Luke 11:1 – 13 Lesson Passage: Luke 11:5 – 13 Jesus was a man of prayer. Jesus scheduled time for prayer—or, better yet, Jesus made provisions whereby he could spend time in prayer. It should be noted that whenever the bible records specific prayers of Jesus, they were always conversational between him and the Father. It does not appear that Jesus’ prayers were mere speeches repeated to yield a desired result. But instead, Jesus’ prayers were trusting and loving conversations with his Father. Jesus did not appear to approach God as though He were some distant and indifferent superbeing with powers to bless or afflict. Jesus appeared to approach God as one would their own loving parent. His approach was respectful, in a spirit of communion or fellowship, and with a sense of real connection between the two. In was not some incantation recited into space with the hope of getting a desired result as the proof that it was done correctly—so as not to offend a sensitive deity. There is no wonder that after observing Jesus in prayer, that one of his followers would have inquired of him that he would teach them to pray also. The background scripture states that the disciple asked Jesus to teach them “to pray”. That can be very different from being taught “how to pray”. As was stated in the notes for last week’s lesson, this model prayer is not intended to be a “prayer speech” to be repeated as one’s own sincere petition to God. It models one’s approach to a Holy God as one approaching his Holy Father. God is to be addressed as a loving and caring Father and not as though He is some indifferent and overly-sensitive deity who needs our obeisance—even if it is vain or empty rhetoric. One should approach God with the respect due to a holy and loving Father. Although God knows everything, we should still communicate our requests to Him. By requesting what we want, it should become more instinctive for us to respond in gratitude when our petitions are answered. God does not have to do anything for us, because He is sovereign. We should be grateful when He chooses to grant us our petitions. Our petitions should aid us in fulfilling the kingdom’s agenda. Put another way, we should ask God for what we need to fulfill His will for His kingdom. And, we should not ask of God anything that is contrary to His will. When this is done, Jesus assured his disciples that God hears them, and He will grant them according to their request. Furthermore, it should be expected that if God is good, then what He does will be good likewise. As Jesus stated, even earthly parents know how to give good things to their children. How much more then would a Holy and Righteous God give good things to His spiritual children. The main point of Jesus’ lesson to his disciples seem to be that we are to pursue a right relationship with God as His children. It may bode well for us to consider this to be Jesus’ key teaching concerning prayer. A prayer is not a list of wishes or apologies to an impersonal spiritual entity. Prayer is the spiritual conversation between human beings and our Spiritual Creator and Redeemer. Persevering should not be a matter of us making time to pray. It should be that we deliberately set aside time to spend in prayer and communion with our Heavenly Father. Robert C. Hudson February 3, 2020

Kingdom-Seeking Prayer

February 16, 2020 Background Scripture: Matthew 6: 9 – 15 Lesson Passage: Matthew 6:9 – 15 In today’s lesson, Jesus teaches us how believers should offer prayer to God. This passage of scripture is sometimes called the Lord’s Prayer or the Model Prayer. There are several prayers of Jesus recorded in the four accounts of the gospel. It is worth noting that none of those prayers use the same words as the words recorded here. That is not to say that Jesus never prayed this specific prayer. If one were to pray these specific words, that prayer would likely be offered in private rather than public—just as the recorded prayers of Jesus were heard by his disciples. There were occasions when Jesus separated himself from his disciples and spent the night in private prayer. So, what are we to make of this prayer? Over the years, children have been taught to memorize this prayer and to repeat it in unison—even in the public schools at one time. It is not clear if, or how often, the prayer was explained to the children who had to memorize it. Let’s take a closer look at what Jesus was teaching his followers with this prayer. From the context of the surrounding scriptures we see that Jesus was teaching them about praying in private. He even told them to avoid being hypocritical and praying in public just to be heard or seen by others. Note, he did not tell them to avoid praying in public. He spoke to them concerning their motive for praying in public—noting that the motive could be a hypocritical one. The beginning of the prayer sets the tone for the rest of it. The believer is to address God as Father. This makes the relationship between the believer and God very intimate. A believer does not pray to the unknown god. By addressing God as Father, believers acknowledge that we are God’s children. Believers should expect our prayers to be heard and answered by God because we are part of His spiritual family. A believer doesn’t pray as though he/she is an only child. We recognize that our Father has many children and we pray on behalf of all. So, we pray concerning “our”, “us”, and “we”. This would be a worse world to live in if God only forgave and helped one person and not all who come to know Him as personal Savior. When all believers can have the assurance of forgiveness by God, then forgiving others is reciprocation for having been forgiven by our Father. When our Father meets our daily needs, then there is no cause for which we should have to resort to taking from others what they have received. I should not pray just to have God meet my daily needs, but I should pray that all believers receive what we need daily. As believers mature spiritually, we become acutely aware of our spiritual weaknesses. For this cause, we petition God to not lead us into situations to be tested by evil. We cannot handle the temptation without falling. Jesus knew all too well what it was like to be led by the Spirit to the evil one to face temptation. It is not for spiritual wimps such as we are. But we do go astray on our own. When we do go astray, we need our Father to deliver us from the evil situations we get ourselves into. We close the prayer even as we opened it, by acknowledging the one and only eternal kingdom—that is the kingdom of our Father. We experience and learn of some of His power and we have heard about His eternal glory. Robert C. Hudson January 30, 2020

God-Honoring Piety

February 9, 2020 Background Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:1 – 6; Matthew 6:1 – 18 Lesson Passage: Matthew 6:1 – 8 Today, the word “pious” is often used in a negative way. When we speak of someone as being pious, it will often evoke thoughts of hypocrisy. However, piety means to be devout, to be faithful, and/or to exemplify high quality as a standard. The word piety, as used in the New Testament, means to act in reverence and fear of God. The word has taken on a different meaning in its use today because some, who have presented themselves as such, have been found to be woefully lacking in any form of true piety. So often it seems that their actions are meant to project a false image of who they really are. People hide behind masks of piety—whether in church or not. Perhaps there is a good reason for this. Children are raised with the notion that they should “act like they have good sense”. And adults are sometimes admonished to “fake it until you can make it”. When one thinks about those two expressions, individuals are encouraged to project an image of someone they might not yet be. This is not all bad. Our habits are developed through repetitive actions. As children, we are “trained” to behave progressively with more and more mature actions. Even though we don’t understand it, we are taught to behave properly before we understand the reason for doing so. For Christians, it can be a different matter as we mature spiritually. The question for mature Christians is: What does God expect of me? As we begin to live up to God’s expectation of us, our actions around others will make sense. Our actions should be a true projection of what people cannot see within us. Put another way, our actions should leave no doubt concerning our motives. Motive. I believe that most people desire that everything we observe in others and everything we hear them speak be initiated by pure motives. In other words, if someone says I love you, we don’t want those words to be spoken without them being true. The same applies to us and how others should view us. That’s the reason the criteria should not be based on what we think others expect of us or should see in us. The criteria for Christians is that our actions should rightfully project our true reference and fear of God. When that occurs, then we are truly projecting a God-honoring piety. Our lesson’s text helps us with this. In the background scriptures, the Old Testament passage reminds of us two things. First, we should be careful of our actions whenever we find ourselves in the house of God. Secondly, we should be quick to hear and slow to speak. Our speech should be true, frank, and to the point. The more we talk, the more likely we are to say something that we might regret. An abundance of words is called the sacrifice of fools. In the New Testament passage, Jesus admonishes his followers to show benevolent love in such a way as to not draw attention to themselves. Their actions should reflect that they are true servants of God and not pleasers of men. The same disposition is to be exhibited in their prayer life. Personal prayers are powerful when they are private conversations with God and not public displays for people. God is not honored when people elevate one another. God is honored when His servants allow their hands, finances, and benevolent love to be used for His glory. Robert C. Hudson January 29, 2020

Single-Minded Obedience

February 2, 2020 Background Scripture: Matthew 4:1 – 11 Lesson Passage: Matthew 4:1 – 11 The text in today’s lesson states that Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards he was hungry. That statement appears to be missing some adverbs. After forty days and forty nights of fasting, the question is, “How” hungry was he? If I only have one meal in a day, within hours of that meal I become very cognizant that my physical body is something separate from my inner person. How I feel and the clarity of my thinking are affected by the effects of my physical body’s demand for nourishment. I might not feel right and may not be able to think clearly until after I have satisfied the demands of my body. Understanding that a person is spirit, soul, and body is important to understanding the different ways in which a person can be tested. After Jesus subjected his body to a forty-day fast, then Satan tempted him to use his divine powers to satisfy his flesh. Jesus rejected Satan’s request. This is important in at least two ways. First, Jesus did not allow Satan to tell him what to do—which would have caused him to follow Satan’s advice. Second, Jesus was hungry because he “purposely” fasted. In other words, Jesus was in control of his situation already. Then Satan took him to a very high place and told him to jump off of it because the scriptures declare that God would protect him with His angels—provided he is the anointed of God. This request was a subtle way for Jesus to check to see if God would do what He said or for Jesus to validate his identity based on the results. Either a person has faith in God or not. If one has faith in God, then God’s word is sufficient. On the other hand, Jesus was not having an identity crisis or that he needed confirmation as to who he was. This was just a ploy by Satan to get Jesus to put God to the test as though Jesus did not trust God. Finally, Satan offered Jesus something that was already rightfully his, i.e., the world and its people. Except in this case Satan revealed his real motive. Satan wanted Jesus to bow down and worship him. Satan wants to be God. Satan went after Jesus in ways that tested the limits of his humanity. From physical hunger and personal insecurities to worldly pride among his brethren, Satan pushed all of the right buttons that would have caused lesser people to stumble. Jesus held firmly in spite of being hungry—which could have led to other maladies in him. Fasting prepared Jesus for this encounter with Satan. Fasting put the weakest part of Jesus, his flesh, into subjection to his inner person. Jesus’ strength came from the Spirit of God in him directing the faculties of his soul. When Satan approached Jesus, Jesus used the word of God as his guide in answering him. When Satan attempted to control Jesus by misappropriating the word of God, Jesus demonstrated a higher understanding and use of the word of God to refute Satan. Jesus’ final response in this encounter with Satan was to demand that Satan get behind him—and not attempt to lead him. Since he found no means to control or mislead Jesus, Satan left him—for a season. There is much to be learned from Satan’s testing of Jesus. One of the greatest lessons is how it all came about. Jesus was led by the Spirit into this encounter with Satan. It was necessary at the onset of his earthly ministry to be tempted in the same manner in which those he would save are tempted. This was not easy for Jesus but it was necessary for us. There is no wonder that when Jesus gave his disciples the model for prayer, it includes the request “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Robert C. Hudson January 18, 2020