(By Matt Waymeyer)

Today’s post concludes our series on this important topic, with a fifth and final reason why believers should pray in light of God’s sovereignty.

5. God has ordained prayer as a means by which He accomplishes His eternal purposes.

At this point, some may wonder how it is that Scripture can teach both that God providentially brings all things to pass in conformity with His eternal purpose and that the prayers of men can have a significant affect in the unfolding of world history. The seeming contradiction between these two truths vanishes, however, when one realizes that “the same God who has decreed the end has also decreed that His end shall be reached through His appointed means, and one of these is prayer” (The Sovereignty of God, 167). In other words, God in His infinite wisdom was pleased to ordain prayer to be a means through which He accomplishes His good pleasure in and through His creation. As A.W. Pink writes,

God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass, but He has also decreed that these events shall come to pass through the means He has appointed for their accomplishment. God has elected certain ones to be saved, but He has also decreed that these ones shall be saved through the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel, then, is one of the appointed means for the working out of the eternal counsel of the Lord; and prayer is another. God has decreed the means as well as the end, and among the means is prayer (Ibid., 171).

Understanding this relationship between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of men begins with recognizing the comprehensive nature of God’s eternal purpose. Richard Pratt writes,

God’s plan is so comprehensive that it not only includes the final destinies of things but also includes the secondary, creaturely processes that work together to accomplish these ends. For instance, God does not simply ordain light to shine on the earth each day; He also employs the sun, the moon, the stars, and countless other things to accomplish that end. God does not merely determine that someone will recover from a disease; He uses doctors and medicine to accomplish the healing. As the playwright of history, God did not simply write an ending for the book of time. He wrote every word on every page so that all events lead to the grand finale (Pray With Your Eyes Open, 109-10).

In other words, the “all things” which God works out “according to the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11) includes the means that He uses to bring about His ultimate ends. God uses the sun to bring light to the earth, He uses doctors to restore people to health, and He uses prayer to bring about many things He has purposed in eternity past.

When one wants to cross the street safely, he uses the crosswalk and looks both ways before doing so; when one desires his family members to turn to Christ for salvation, he seeks to proclaim the gospel to them; when one desires to provide for his family, he works hard at his place of employment. And in the same way, when one desires such-and-such to happen, he prays to God to bring it about, recognizing that prayer is one of the means through which God brings about His purposes here on earth.

Several examples in Scripture indicate that God has ordained prayer as a means to accomplish His eternal plans. First, when Abraham sojourned in Gerar in Genesis 20, he lied and told King Abimelech that Sarah was his sister, at which time Abimelech took Sarah into his harem of wives (v. 2). In response, God closed all the wombs of the household of Abimelech and threatened the king with further judgment if he did not restore Sarah to Abraham (vv. 7, 17). However, at the same time that God warned Abimelech of this judgment, He also told him, “[Abraham] is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live” (v. 7). In other words, God revealed to the king that His plan was for Abraham to pray and intercede for the King so that divine judgment would be withdrawn. Then, in verse 17, God’s preordained plan came to fruition: “And Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.”

A second example can be found at the end of the book of Job. God addressed Job’s friend, Eliphaz the Temanite, saying,

I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly (Job 42:7b-8a; NIV)

Then, as verse 9 reveals, Eliphaz “did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer” (NIV). From this it is clear that God not only ordained that His wrath toward Eliphaz would be turned aside, but He also ordained that the means He would use to accomplish that end would include the intercessory prayer of His servant Job.

A third and final example of God’s ordination of prayer as a means to accomplish His end can be found in God’s promise to Israel of future restoration in Jeremiah 29. In verse 11a, the Lord told Israel that He knew the plans that He had for her. In other words, the God who knew the end from the beginning was not unaware of what He had purposed for Israel’s future. He continued by telling Israel that His plans were “for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope” (v. 11b). What will happen in the future when God’s plan unfolds and He providentially brings it to pass? He continued:

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile” (vv. 12-14).

God will restore His people in response to their prayers, but these prayers—rather than being an intrusion into God’s eternal plan—are actually part of God’s plan. Both the means and the end—the prayers and the restoration—have been ordained by Him and will be brought to pass by Him (cf. Ezekiel 36:37).

Prayers of petition and intercession, then, should not be thought of as attempts to alter the eternal purposes of God. As Pratt writes, “Trying to alter the eternal decrees of God through prayer is like trying to reach the moon on a trampoline; it is impossible. Our petitions cannot interrupt God’s plan for the universe anymore than a trampoline can break the power of earth’s gravity” (Pray With Your Eyes Open, 109). Instead, prayer should be understood as “one of the many secondary causes through which God fulfills His plan” (Ibid., 110).

It is obvious, then, that one need not deny the sovereignty of God in order to be committed to a life of fervent prayer. For such a life begins in an obedient submission to the command of God and the model of Christ, it flows out of the recognition that God is able and willing to respond to the prayers of His children, and it rests in the assurance that God has sovereignly ordained prayer as a means to accomplish His purposes.

So far, we have considered two reasons to pray in light of God’s sovereignty. Today we will consider two more.

3. God is able to respond to our prayers.

Rather than hindering the prayers of believers, the sovereignty of God ought to motivate them to pray, for “prayer grows from the certainty of God’s omnipotence and sovereignty” (The God Who Hears, 47). Put another way, if God does not reign in sovereignty over His creation and is not able to accomplish whatever He desires in and through it, why bother requesting of Him what He is unable to deliver?

To illustrate, if a five-year-old boy repeatedly asks his mother to make it stop raining on a Saturday morning, this may create a precious memory, but in the final analysis the boy’s request is misguided. As much as his mother might like to alter the weather, she simply lacks the ability to do so, and therefore to request this of her makes little sense. But when the children of God come before the throne of grace, they come with the full assurance that their heavenly Father is able to accomplish whatever He is pleased to do, for nothing is too difficult for Him. And this ought to motivate them to pray.

“To be worth praying to,” Hunter writes, “God has first of all got to have the power to do what we ask. Second, he must have sovereignty over creation to do what he wants to do” (The God Who Hears, 48). So perhaps the question, “If God is sovereign, why pray?” could be replaced with the question, “If God is not sovereign, why pray?” Believers must come to their God presenting to Him their requests because He has both the authority and the ability to grant what they have requested in their petitions and intercessory prayers.

4. God actually does respond to prayer.

The fourth reason that believers should pray is that God not only can, but actually does change the course of history in response to prayer. Jesus said, “[A]sk, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.” As Wayne Grudem points out, Jesus “makes a clear connection between seeking things from God and receiving them. When we ask, God responds” (Systematic Theology, 377).

Scripture is filled with examples of God granting to His people what they have requested in their prayers of petition and intercession. First Chronicles 4:10a records the prayer of Jabez in which he said, “Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep me from harm, that it may not pain me!” In response to Jabez’s prayer, “God granted him what he requested” (v. 10b). In Exodus 32:10, God told Moses of His intentions to destroy the people of Israel because of their idolatry. But Moses interceded on behalf of Israel (vv. 11-13), and in response to his prayer God relented and did not destroy them (v. 14). And as James records, God responded to the earnest prayers of Elijah in both initiating and ending a three-and-a-half-year drought (James 5:17-18; cf. Genesis 18:22-33; 32:26; Daniel 10:12; Amos 7:1-6; Acts 4:29-31; 10:31; and 12:5-11).

At the same time that it is acknowledged that God is sovereign, then, it must also be acknowledged that “[t]he effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16b; cf. 4:2). In fact, immediately after answering the question of how to pray in Luke 11:2-4, Jesus goes on to answer the question of why to pray by giving two reasons—because God rewards diligence in prayer by granting requests (Luke 11:5-10), and because God delights in giving good gifts to His children (Luke 11:11-13).

In the words of Richard Pratt, then, “Prayer is a powerful human effort that can significantly affect not only the lives of individuals but the very course of world history” (Pray with Your Eyes Open, 112). This truth, no doubt, should be a powerful motive for the children of God to pray. As Grudem writes,

If we were really convinced that prayer changes the way God acts, and that God does bring about remarkable changes in the world in response to prayer,…then we would pray much more than we do. If we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much at all (Systematic Theology, 377).

(By Matt Waymeyer)

Why Pray?

In this series, we will consider five reasons why believers should pray in light of the sovereignty of God.

1. God has commanded us to pray.

The most obvious reason to pray is that God has commanded us to pray. This is evident throughout the teachings of both Jesus and the apostle Paul. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13, introducing the prayer with the words, “Pray, then, in this way” (v. 9). Afterward, He instructed His disciples to be persistent in their prayers (Luke 11:5-13). In Luke 18:2-8, Jesus told them a parable “to show that at all times they ought to pray” (Luke 18:1). And upon arriving at the Garden of Gethsemane, He instructed them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40).

The apostle Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17); he instructed the Philippians, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (4:6); he charged the Colossians, “Devote yourselves to prayer” (4:2); he wrote to the Ephesians, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf…” (6:18-19a); and he urged Timothy “that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men” (1 Tim 2:1).

The point is clear: God has commanded us to pray, and our response to this command must first and foremost be one of obedience. Even if we never reach a clear understanding of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of man, the fact that God has commanded it should be enough to move us to pray. When God promised Abraham a son through whom he would become a great nation (Gen 21:12b) and then commanded him to sacrifice that very son (Gen 22:2), Abraham bowed the knee of submission before His Creator and simply obeyed what was commanded of Him (Gen. 22:3-10). The believer who asks the question “Why pray?” must follow his example and do the same.

2. Jesus modeled a life of prayer.

A second reason believers should offer prayers of petition and intercession to God is that such prayer was modeled by Jesus who “would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” during His ministry (Luke 5:16). Jesus’ consistent example of fervent prayer to the Father is evident throughout the gospel accounts. During His ministry in Galilee, Mark records that “in the early morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there” (Mark 1:35). After feeding the five thousand in Bethsaida, Jesus sent the multitudes away and “went up to the mountain by Himself to pray” (Matt 14:23).

On the night before He chose the twelve disciples, Jesus “went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). Later Luke refers to a time “while Jesus was praying alone” (9:18), and eight days later Jesus “took along Peter and John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray” (Luke 9:28). And who could forget His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44; Mark 14:35-39; Luke 22:41-45) or the “High Priestly prayer” of John 17? And what believer fails to cherish the fact that He lives to intercede even now on our behalf (Heb 7:25)?

In offering prayers of petition and intercession, Jesus was not ignoring or denying the sovereignty of His Father. This is obvious from several of Jesus’ prayers, not the least of which include His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44; Mark 14:35-39; Luke 22:41-45). As Hunter writes, “He knew that by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge he would be put to death by being nailed to the cross (Acts 2:23). He told the incredulous disciples this at least three times…. Yet in Gethsemane, as Mark tells it, he ‘fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him’ (14:35)” (The God Who Hears, 51). In other words, even though Jesus was well aware that His death at Calvary had been preordained by God, He still saw fit to petition His Father that this cup might pass from him.

If the followers of Christ are to be imitators of Him and “walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6), they too must be characterized by fervent prayer for themselves and for those around them. Knowing that Jesus prayed as a way of life may not clear up the tension that exists in believers’ minds between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of men, but it should motivate them to imitate the One who Himself saw no disparity between His own prayers and the sovereignty of His Father.

(By Matt Waymeyer)

* Matt pastors Community Bible Church in Vista, California. He is a graduate of The Master’s Seminary, and a periodic contributor to Pulpit.

The story is told about a small town in the south. For many years, this town had been “dry” in that no alcohol was ever sold or served there. But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern. In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement. He said: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

It is very easy to dismiss the power of prayer, isn’t it? It is very easy to drift into thinking that prayer is a nice sentiment, but in the end, a waste of time because it doesn’t really make any difference anyway.

For some people, this kind of dismissal arises from unbelief and doubt that God really can answer prayer. For others, however, the question that paralyzes their prayer life is this: If God is sovereign, why pray?

In other words, if God will simply do what He wants to anyway, why offer prayers of petition and intercession? Why bother requesting that God do such and such when everything has been ordained by Him beforehand? If prayer consists of pleading with God to change His eternal purposes, isn’t such an undertaking feeble at best and arrogant at worst?

Although there are no easy answers to these questions, Scripture is not silent on this issue. My purpose here is to examine the Bible’s teaching on the sovereignty of God and the prayers of man with the goal of answering the question, “If God is sovereign, why pray?” This will be done by briefly defining what it means that God is sovereign and then by offering five answers to the question of why people should pray.

God Is Sovereign

When people make plans, it is not uncommon for those plans to fail or to be thwarted in one way or another. In contrast to His creatures, however, Almighty God always brings about that which He has purposed. In a word, God is sovereign.

This truth is perhaps most clearly seen in the words of Isaiah 46:9-11, where God demonstrated His superiority over the Babylonian idols by declaring:

Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure”; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

In this passage, God indicates that He both purposes what He desires to happen and then actually brings those purposes to pass. In other words, God providentially brings about in time and history what He has sovereignly ordained in eternity past. As the apostle Paul writes, God “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11).

The truth of God’s sovereignty over His creation is taught throughout Scripture. The psalmist declares, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps 135:6; cf. 115:3; Dan. 4:35); Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand;” and Proverbs 21:1 states, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” As W. Bingham Hunter writes, “From a biblical perspective, your world-history book should be prefaced with 2 Kings 19:25: ‘Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In the days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass’” (The God Who Hears, 49).

(To Be Continued Tomorrow)

(By John MacArthur)

No one would argue that we live in a world of compromise. In fact, compromise is often touted as a virtue; it’s diplomatic and reasonable. On the other hand, those who hold fast their integrity are viewed as difficult, hard-nosed, and unconcerned about the common good. You can understand how the world thinks that way, but shouldn’t Christians be different?

Unfortunately, too many believers worry about what people will think, say, or do if they take a stand on godly principles. So instead, they compromise their convictions or maintain them under the cover of darkness. If you’re one of those faint-hearted Christians, or if you know people who are, I’d like to encourage you to take a lesson from the life of one man, a man with a backbone.

The Test of Integrity

Following his first invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem in 606 B. C., King Nebuchadnezzar took hostage dozens of quality Jewish youths (who were probably in their teenage years) to help ensure the success of his long-range plans for world dominance. One of those youths was especially destined for greatness, and today his name is synonymous with integrity and an uncompromising spirit. His name is Daniel.

It wasn’t captivity that tested Daniel’s integrity, it was privilege. When the king ordered his chief official, Ashpenaz, to choose from among the Israelites, he sought youths with certain qualities. They were to be without defect, good looking, “showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge,” with the ability to serve in the king’s court (Dan. 1:4). They were to receive privileged instruction for privileged positions.

The king ordered Ashpenaz “to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans” including mathematics, astronomy, natural history, agriculture, and architecture (Dan. 1:4). They were to eat the king’s food and drink the king’s wine, and after three years, they were to have a guaranteed position in the king’s personal service. I doubt the other exiles were getting along as well.

Now you say, “Privilege, education, good food and drink, one of the most sought after jobs in the kingdom—who could have a problem with that?” Daniel.

Daniel didn’t argue with the education, the training program, and the future in the king’s court. He didn’t even balk when Ashpenaz named him Belteshazzar, after a Chaldean god. Daniel drew the line where the Scripture did—he wouldn’t eat the king’s food or drink the king’s drink.

“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank” (Dan. 1:8). Those enticing morsels and vintage wines—perks of the king’s service—had been ritually dedicated to Babylon’s false gods. What’s more, eating food prepared to Babylonian standards was likely to put the young exiles in violation of God’s laws concerning unclean foods (cf. Lev. 7:23-27; Lev. 11).

Daniel wanted no participation in any pagan feast, even to the slightest degree. That would be a form of idolatry that would provoke the wrath of a jealous God (Ex. 20:4-5). His decision, though immediately dealing with food and wine, was ultimately a decision about who he worshiped.

The Results of Integrity

Daniel’s decision constitutes a basic part of genuine integrity and the uncompromising life: you must draw lines where Scripture draws them. If the truth of God’s Word opposes the world’s wisdom on a certain issue, you must align yourself with God’s Word.

The more you read about and analyze the life of Daniel, the more clearly his personal integrity comes into focus. His uncompromising lifestyle stands in sharp contrast to the way many believers live out their convictions. Many Christians tend to waver and offer ambiguous explanations for abstaining from certain secular activities. But that wasn’t how Daniel approached the opportunity to state his convictions.

Unashamed Boldness – If Daniel wanted to abstain from eating and drinking what the king provided, he could have gone about it a number of ways. He could have thrown it away when no one was looking and sneaked other food from the kitchen; he could have made arrangements with the kitchen staff; he could have started a vegetable garden out back. But Daniel, having made up his mind, chose the route of open boldness. “He sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself” (Dan. 1:8). He was respectful, but unbending. That’s called courage.

Unearthly Protection – Daniel was in a foreign country, at the very heart of the empire that had just destroyed his homeland. And yet, “God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials” (Dan. 1:9). He proved the truth of Proverbs 16:7: “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Don’t compromise and forfeit God’s protection. Stand firm in obedience to God’s Word and trust Him—He’ll take care of you.

Unhindered Persistence – In his boldness, Daniel didn’t hesitate to go right to the top. But when Ashpenaz feared the forfeiture of his head for granting the special menu, Daniel was undeterred. He appealed to a lower-ranking overseer who monitored him–presumably a man who would not be as afraid of Nebuchadnezzar since he didn’t report directly to the king. Daniel showed another vital trait of integrity: persistence in doing what is right.

Unblemished Faith – When Daniel sought permission to go on a water and vegetable diet, he demonstrated unwavering faith in God. He said, “Please test your servants for ten days … then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see” (Dan. 1:12-13). Daniel did what was right, and trusted God for the results, no matter what. In this case, God caused Daniel to look healthier than all the other youths (Dan. 1:15).

If it had turned out that Daniel’s appearance failed the overseer’s scrutiny, I believe he would have trusted God without wavering, maintained an uncompromising lifestyle, and humbly accepted the consequences. I also believe that all true Christians will show the same fortitude in the midst of trials.

If you’ve fallen into a pattern of compromise, confess it as sin to the Lord. Repent and look at Daniel as an example of unwavering integrity. Then seek the Lord’s help to live like he did. You must resolutely set your heart as Daniel did to fear the Lord, and the Lord alone. Borrow a little backbone from him, and you’ll live your life with integrity before God.

Today’s Post Adapted from The Power of Integrity (Crossway, 1997).

On June 12, 1944, just six days after D-Day in World War II, a young lieutenant named Richard Winters led his men to the outskirts of Carentan. As the officer in charge of Easy Company, of the 101st Airborne, he was tasked to clear the large French town of its German defenders. It would be a small battle, but it played a significant role in the massive effort to rid the world of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

As Winters led his company up the road toward town, the company started taking machine gun fire from a German MG42. The men instinctively dived for cover into ditches on either side of the road, and stayed there — they froze. Not only was the success of the mission in jeopardy, but the men were easy targets for enemy machine gun and sniper fire.

What happened next proved to be the turning point in the battle for Carentan — it’s the stuff legends are made of. Lt. Winters went into the middle of the road and, with bullets hissing past him, started yelling at his troops to get up out of the ditches and engage the enemy. His words, coupled with his heroic action, motivated the men to get up, get in the fight, and gain a decisive victory over the Germans.

Winters’ disregard for personal safety in his effort to save his men from certain death didn’t just earn him a medal; his actions earned him the love, respect, and admiration of his men. They followed him faithfully from Carentan, through the nightmarish Battle of the Bulge, and on to triumph at Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.

Soldiers willingly follow men like that, men who demonstrate acts of self-sacrifice in the most harrowing of circumstances. How much more should we, as Christians, follow the One who endured suffering and death to rescue us from the most terrifying fate of all, an eternity in hell?

That was the idea that entered Paul’s mind when, at the end of his own ministry, having been imprisoned by the emperor Nero, he wrote to encourage the young pastor Timothy. Timothy was facing severe conflict in his ministry at Ephesus, and the relentless opposition from heretics, apostates, and persecutors was weakening him. And just like any Christian who experiences difficulty because of following Christ, he needed to be reminded again of his task — to suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:3-4, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” A good soldier is one who does not simply do minimum duty for his Lord, but rather is one who serves Him with everything he is and has. As a Christian, that’s what you are called to. Paul’s words to Timothy are your marching orders, too, as you strive to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

The first mark of a good soldier is the willingness to suffer hardship with the rest of the soldiers. “Suffer hardship” literally means to suffer evil or pain along with someone else. By adding “with me,” Paul assures Timothy that he hasn’t asked anything of him that he wasn’t willing to do. In fact, Paul was writing from a prison cell.

As a Christian in the Western world, I’d bet it is sometimes difficult for you to understand what serious spiritual warfare and suffering for Christ mean. Even though the secular environment in our society is increasingly hostile to Christianity, you are not faced with loss of job, imprisonment, or execution because of your faith. With few exceptions, being a Christian won’t keep you out of college or from getting a good job. But the more faithful you are as a Christian, the more Satan will put roadblocks, hardships, and rejection in the way, the more evident the spiritual warfare will become, and the more frequent and obvious the hardship will become.

You have been called to endure hardship, and every Christian who has gone before you has had his share. And although you haven’t yet shed blood for your faith (Hebrews 12:4), you will experience hardship as a Christian for your faithfulness–count on it. Jesus said, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). But be encouraged for He also said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus is the perfect Commander who leads by example and will bring you to certain victory in the end.

Secondly, a good soldier is marked by his separation from the “normal” life. A “soldier in active service” does not have a 9 to 5 job, or even a long 60- to 70-hour work week. He is a soldier 24 hours a day, every day of the year. His body, his health, his skills, his time–all that he is–belongs to the military. Even when on leave, he is subject to recall at any time, without notice and for any reason. And whenever ordered into dangerous duty, he is expected to put his very life on the line without question or hesitation.

Consequently, he is separated from his normal environment, so that he will not “entangle himself in the affairs of everyday life.” Paul is not speaking about things that necessarily are wrong in themselves. It is not that you, as a Christian, should have no contact at all with your former friends and surroundings, but that you should never be caught up and enmeshed in them. Those things are irrelevant to your soldiering and are always subject to being relinquished.

You should never allow earthly matters to interfere with the fulfillment of your duty to the Lord. Temporal concerns and activities, innocent in themselves, have neutralized the effectiveness of many pastors, special ministries, and doctrinally sound churches. Though they once labored faithfully in the primary purpose of serving Jesus Christ to advance His kingdom against the forces of darkness, they have unwittingly taken themselves out of the battle.

Just as the dutiful soldier places his life willingly on the line in the service of his commander, so also will you, as a faithful Christian, willingly deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). And you will find yourself echoing Paul’s words: “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:24).

The final mark of a good soldier is a genuine desire to “please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” The men who followed Lt. Winters through terrible conditions and battles in Europe did so willingly–he had earned their respect and affections. In an even greater way, the Lord deserves your honor, your affection, and your obedience for all He has done for you. His own courage on the battlefield is unparalleled. He stayed the course and went before you to win your freedom and eternal life. And now He seeks your loyal service in His army.

The Christian’s greatest desire is to please Christ, and his fondest hope is to be rewarded for faithful service, to hear his Master say, “Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).

With that hope in the forefront of your mind, let your life be animated and driven forward by your love for Jesus Christ. And make it your ambition, “whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9) — He is your spiritual Commander-in-Chief.

(Review by Nathan Williams) 

In Search of a Confident Faith by J.P. Moreland & Klaus Issler

There may be no more misunderstood word in American culture today than the word faith. Many people use the term, but few grasp the biblical teaching about what constitutes genuine faith.

In their book In Seach of a Confident Faith, J.P. Moreland and Klaus Issler attempt to deal with this misunderstanding of the essential nature of faith. This book seeks to answer a number of significant questions dealing with faith. What is the nature of true faith? Why must we even relate to God in terms of faith at all? Why can’t God just appear to us and tell us up front that He is real and we must obey and follow Him?

In Search of a Confident Faith divides into two sections. The first three chapters discuss the challenges we face to our faith in God. In this section we learn exactly what faith is and why it is so significant. We also begin to understand distractions which keep us from experiencing increasing confidence in God. These distractions cover intellectual obstacles to faith and emotional obstacles to faith.

The next three chapters make up the second section of the book and focus on the growth of faith. Within these chapters we find teaching on learning to trust the promises Jesus makes in the gospels. It’s important to understand that Jesus lived a life of faith also and we can learn much from His example. In these chapters we’re also made aware of two other ways to grow our confidence in God. These are noticing the work which God is accomplishing in the world around us and learning to trust God’s faithfulness as we make life decisions. As I read there were several points which I found to be most helpful and a couple of issues of which I felt the reader needs to be wary.

First, the teaching this book provides on the nature of faith is excellent. The authors go into detail in the first chapter about exactly what real faith looks like. They discuss the three classical aspects of faith; the content of faith, the personal awareness and assent to that content, and the willful commitment to living a life that reflects the content of our faith. Many Christians have probably never thought this deeply through their faith and what it actually looks like. Often, we may forget that faith involves knowing information, assenting to that information mentally, and having that information affect the actions we perform.

The authors also walk the reader through several philosophical aspects of faith that will help as one considers the topic of faith. I found a couple of these to be particularly helpful. First, the teaching on the degrees of faith. Often we believe and act as if faith is an all or nothing endeavor. Someone either believes something or doesn’t believe it. This can be true in certain instances, but often our faith in a propositional statement or a person rises and falls. The stronger the confidence in a particular teaching, the more likely it is that we will act on that confidence. Second, the authors point out that faith does not grow directly, but indirectly. In other words, people do not have direct control over what they believe. This is a fascinating insight into how our spiritual lives work. You can never convince someone of something they don’t believe by simply telling them repeatedly to believe it. They must have some evidence brought to them or some new teaching which changes their mind and increases confidence in some truth.

As I mentioned before, there were a couple of areas of unease which I had as I read In Search of a Confident Faith. I was quite concerned throughout the book to be confronted with examples which indicated an approach taken to care for the soul including secular psychological methods. Many of the examples given looked back to early childhood experiences and concluded that these events had subconsciously affected the individual in an extremely negative way. For example, in a discussion of a roommate who feared he had committed the unpardonable sin, this analysis is given; “Due to early childhood attachment issues, he felt unloved by and disconnected from people in general and God in particular, and rather than face this head on, he projected his emotional insecurity on the unpardonable sin as a more manageable center of focus” (p. 56).

Another area of concern I had was with the strong emphasis given to experience as an authority throughout the book. The last two chapters are meant to increase our faith by noting that God is working in the world and that He can be trusted to guide our lives. Rather than attempting to increase the faith of the reader through the clear teaching of Scripture, the majority of these chapters was given to personal anecdotes which were meant to increase faith.

If Scripture remains our only authority for faith and practice, and faith comes through hearing the Word of Christ, (Rom. 10:17) then a better way to increase faith would have been through clear biblical teaching. Obviously experience is important to our ability to look back and see the faithfulness of God in our lives. But experience can never increase faith in the same way as Scripture. Several of the experiences recounted in the book involved faith healers, dreams as direct revelation from God, and God providing guidance through direct revelation to individuals. Obviously this is not the place for a detailed argument over these issues, but Grace Church’s cessationist position on these things is well known. Thus it is important to make potential readers aware.

Overall, this was a helpful read in many ways, though there were a couple areas in which extra discernment was needed. We are a people of faith and it is vital to understand exactly what we mean when we are calling people to live a life of faith.

(By Rich Gregory)

How were the heart’s of the early believers so enflamed by the gospel? What was it that so consumed them that they were willing to spurn fame, fortune and family?

We have already been forced to realize the fact that within modern Christianity there exists a deficiency of commitment to Christ and His work. It is acknowledgeable that the reason for Paul’s statements of such deep commitment in the epistles was necessary in order to inspire his readers to the same commitment. However, the fact remains that far fewer people claimed to be believers in those initial years than do today, and somehow at the same time, they did, in spite of their small number, commit extraordinary acts that are due in large part to the work of the Holy Spirit using their sheer devotion.

Simply put, the primary factor which caused those early Christians to sell out everything for Christ was the fresh memory of what He had done for them. Their memory of that awesome day had not been allowed to scab over. Rather, a life-changing scar ran deeply through their minds with the memory of the day that Christ had died. Their worldview was crimson, and their purpose in life was fastened to the wood of the cross of Christ. They felt what it was to die with him, and to be daily resurrected with him in the newness of life (Rom. 6:4-5). They understood the imperative call for the cross to be central within their lives.  

They were chained to its memory because having been there, the simultaneous horror and wonder of those moments were seared into their minds. Their encounter with the cross had changed them dramatically. They didn’t have the luxury, like the modern Christian, of reading or hearing the story of the crucifixion and walking away. No, the sight of cross (which was common in their day) would have brought the sights, smells, and feelings of that jaw dropping day flooding back to their senses. They could not escape the power of the cross in their life!

This is why in Gal. 6:14, Paul is able to say, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!” Peter as well, could not help but remind himself of this reality when he states, speaking of himself in 1 Pet. 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” They’d been there. They’d seen it happen. We do not have the luxury of those early believers. That does not however, mean that the image of the cross cannot be driven with force into the center of our hearts, or that it cannot be burned into our minds.

When our hearts throb with our own self-absorption, of course we are unable to be passionately committed to the person of Christ. It is essential that the cross and our memory of its power daily act as lance that pierces our hearts, allowing the self-centeredness of our sin to be drained. Only then can the cross change us and allow godliness and passion for Christ to grow within our hearts. Just like those early believers, once we have experienced it’s ongoing power in our own lives, we will never be able to forget it!

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation not only for the Jew and the Gentile, but also for the daily life of the believer. We are saved, yet our power and dedication comes not through our own strength, but rather through the strength of Christ’s atoning work on our behalf. Only as the image of His death and resurrection is held constantly before our eyes will we be motivated to forfeit all and charge after Him with a reckless faith.

From the moment of salvation the burning power of the cross is smoldering within our hearts. It is imperative that we allow it to be fanned into full flame by continually reminding ourselves of the gospel, and preaching it to our own hearts. On a daily basis, we must remind ourselves that we were sinners, look to the life of Christ, and knowing that He died for us, follow His example and die to ourselves.

It might seem basic, but that is because it is basic. It is most certainly however, what is necessary in order to walk with Him. 

The gospel is able to envelop and invigorate the flagging Christian, no matter how mature or immature. As believers, we must allow it to do so first within our own hearts by constantly reminding ourselves of Christ’s work on our behalf. It is then imperative that we do so for others by forcing them, through the power of Christ’s work visible within our own lives, to see the work of the cross. It is our duty and utter joy, because of what He’s done for us, to love Him and follow Him and to be so committed to Him that we leave the world around us with no choice but to accept or reject Him because they are unable to miss the stamp of the cross emblazoned upon us.

(Review by Nathan Williams)

The story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and subsequent murder of Uriah, her husband, stands as one of the saddest instances of sin in the Bible. How could such a man of God fall so far and so hard? The truth is that without the story of David, Bathsheba and Uriah, we would not have one of the most magnificent Psalms contained in the pages of Scripture. I would imagine that multitudes of Christians throughout the centuries have returned time and again to the words found in Psalm 51 to help express their own sorrow for sin and their own desire to experience God’s mercy.

Paul Tripp understands that the story of David and Bathsheba is really the story of every Christian. We may not sin in the exact same way in which David did, but we all constantly sin and we are all in need of constant mercy. With this in mind, Tripp wrote this short book entitled Whiter than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy. In it he gives 52 short meditations which are all taken from the words of Psalm 51.

The themes of these meditations center on sin and mercy. As one reads this book, he will uncover the depths of sin contained within his own soul, but will also come face to face with the limitless mercy God provides to overcome sin. The meditations are short and helpful, each one is only a couple of pages long. Tripp uses a variety of approaches to meditations including several long poems concerning the topics of sin and mercy.

One of the most helpful aspects of this book is the example it will provide the reader of how to meditate on the Word of God. Most of us read our Bibles and don’t push ourselves to think deeply about it. Tripp has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about Psalm 51. He draws thoughts out of the text through meditation on the context, the background, and the words used in Psalm 51. He discusses the great biblical themes presented in Psalm 51 including sin, mercy, God’s grace, and forgiveness.

At the end of each meditation, Tripp provides 2 questions dealing with how the reader can further apply to daily life the truths learned. These questions are thought provoking and challenging and will also help in the process of learning how to meditate on God’s Word.

Obviously, this devotional should be read slowly, only one or two meditations per day. Each meditation conveys a kernel of truth or a challenging thought which the reader can dwell on throughout the rest of the day. Tripp writes clearly and with great insight into the human condition and the grace of God. I found this book to be an encouraging and convicting at the same time.

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, here are five bullet-point reasons why gambling is wrong:

1. Because it denies the reality of God’s sovereignty (by affirming the existence of luck or chance)

2. Because it is built on irresponsible stewardship (tempting people to throw away their money)

3. Because it erodes a biblical work ethic (by demeaning and displacing hard work as the proper means for one’s livelihood)

4. Because it is driven by the sin of covetousness (tempting people to give in to their greed)

5. Because it is built on the exploitation of others (often taking advantage of poor people who think they can gain instant wealth)

For the full sermon discussing these five points in detail, click here.