Tag: Asking God for help

Is It Our Weakness, Or God’s Opportunity?

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

Jeremiah 9:23-25 “‘This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth. 24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me—that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration. 25 “‘Look, the days are coming—this is the Lord’s declaration—when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised:

So having a circumcised heart goes right along with knowing the Lord who delights in faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth. The Lord shows that he overrides a person’s strength, money, and wisdom to put them level on the same playing field as the man or woman without these things that still knows the Lord. It is a true blessing to be able to come to God without wisdom necessarily, without strength per se, without wealth as a prerequisite, and to receive the benefit this scripture speaks of which is the privilege still of being able to understand and know God, and to be among those who have a circumcised heart.

Isaiah 40:28-29 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out. 29 He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. 

So, the Lord overrides the weak man’s weakness and faintness, and he blesses them with strength. It is a true blessing to be able to come to God being on the verge of fainting, and to receive the benefits this scripture speaks of which is the privilege still of having your power and strength to be increased.

Romans 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

What else could it be but the mercy of God to override our lack of will and lack of taking action and grant us something good we don’t deserve? It is a true blessing to be able to come to God being on the verge of not having your own will set for action, and without your body set for performance and this scripture speaks of the privilege still of being a candidate for God’s mercy.

2 Chronicles 20:12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

So, Jehoshaphat had faith that God could override the power of his enemies and level the playing field and take the powerlessness of his own army, and “work something out on their behalf”

I am not one to promote lack of wisdom, poverty, lack of taking action, weakness, or a lack of battle strategy or to say we don’t need to apply ourselves in our faith-walks. But it is encouraging to know that in all these situations it was clear the messages God is showing us are  that when we feel like we have absolutely nothing to give out or draw from out of our personal reserves, we can lean upon our God, and his strength will be made perfect in our weaknesses.

2 Chronicles 20:3-4 Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord.

In Jeremiah 9:23-25, Isaiah 40: 28-29, and the Romans 9:16 scriptures, what we see highlighted are the wonderful transcendent virtue attributes of God, based on God’s initiative and willing action on his people’s behalf. But when a little bit of fasting gets involved, then this happens: In 2 Chronicles 20:3-4, Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. Then later in vs. 21-23 When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” 22 When they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. 23 For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them completely; and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 25When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them, including goods, garments and valuable things which they took for themselves, more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much. 30 So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God gave him rest on all sides.

When we aim to add fasting, praise and worship, to our seeking God out of our weaknesses, we can expect him to magnify his gracious attributes before us despite our weaknesses, however ugly they may seem to cling to us or cover us, and His glory is shown in spite of what we are not.

Let’s be encouraged in who our Gracious Heavenly Father Is— “the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things”, He says.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, as we meditate upon your Godly attributes which you possess in your reliable self-autonomous self-existence, you shed your grace upon us. How wonderful it is that you are so unchangeable, and your steadfast love and your loving-kind ways are often magnified before our very eyes. Your desire is towards your people Oh God, and you draw us with chords of compassion. May we meditate this week on the countless ways in which your strength is made perfect in our weaknesses, and may those who are led to do so fast, pray, and worship you Lord! For you are worthy above all else and above everyone else, Oh God our Gracious Rock and Redeemer! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Praying for Nearness to God– Seek Him With All Your heart!

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

Christianity would be a meaningless religion if it were nothing more than what some say it is—a way to “get on God’s good side with my good works so I can earn my way to heaven”. It would fall apart if that were its depth of reality. It would be a heathen religion if that were its description. Why–you ask? Because there is no eternal or transcendent power in the power that comes from me alone. We become our own idol when we put our works as a ticket to gaining the benefits of salvation. And it offends the grace of God. However, God calls us to seek Him with all our hearts!

Do you feel the tug on your heart to draw near to God? Have you looked at times hoping to see great progress in your witness but the emptiness in your witness calls you to seek him? Have you looked at times hoping to see growth and healing in your relationships, but the brokenness of your relationships calls you to seek him?

Now, I am not talking of using God to gain a successful life. And I am not speaking of a relationship with God in order to make life easy. But what is God’s goal in telling us to seek him? Do you know God said he would come when we seek Him? How often do we seriously aim to make it a goal to dwell with God verses simply trying to pray for God’s help? What does it mean to “abide with Christ”?  Is it something we can swiftly turn on with an “On” switch in our prayer life? This is not simply talking about not rushing through prayers and not rushing through Bible studies. Abiding with Christ is more than a passionate seeking of a God who told us to seek him with all of our hearts. It is a square look at what we are not and a deep surrender of the painful bent of the world’s imprint upon my soul. Again, how do I tell if I have sought God with all of my heart? What am I to wrestle with? I have to come to the end of myself in some way to truly seek him in truth from that barrenness!! I must see the emptiness of my earthly strength and power for a desperation to arise out of my deficits! We put a short in our relationship with God when we cringe away from our barrenness and deficits and run to spiritual band-aids and aspirins, and quick one liner or two liner prayers and short glances at our spiritual bankruptcy as if it had no impact on us and if it didn’t matter that much anyway because “God’s sovereignty would just fix everything automatically”!

We shift off our brokenness quite easily because we think our deficits make us look bad. And they do! But we shortchange God of opportunities to fill us up when we don’t surrender our flesh to his filling us and to his power. Paul Washer tells of how God loves us in his video “The Way God Loves You”:

–”It is so easy to learn principles about holiness, it is so easy to learn attributes of God as they’re set forth in statements, but how many men are so sick and tired of not being in the presence of God that they are willing to depart from absolutely everything and if it means running like a wild man through the woods for a week, throwing rocks at heaven, they will not rest until the presence of God is real in their life. I warn college students all the time Dr. Piper has a tremendous following among college students and I’ll hear college students preaching some of the things that …preaching…lets even go back farther… preaching some of the things Edwards wrote. And I tell them, you’re nothing more than a parrot—You’ve memorized what Edwards says but you don’t know what he knew. And you’ve never been in the presence of God like him, you’ve never tarried in prayer! You know nothing of the prayer life of David Brainerd. Dew has never fallen on your head although you’ve read his diary a thousand times. And one of the greatest reasons why ungodliness even among the people of God is because many times we’re nothing even though we stand in a pulpit we’re little boys parroting things from other men! Our ears have heard about him, but our eyes have not seen him! That would be offensive to you only if it’s true! How much time do you spend in the presence of God?! How much time do you lay before Him? How much time do you pull away from everyone else and even from your studies dear brother do you throw yourself down before him and seek his face?!…You’re going to become nothing but a bunch of cold principles if the presence and power of God is not in your life….Song of Solomon 4:8 says …come down to me…from those high proud independent places of yours where danger lurks…”

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo6b4dckj5A

The Song of Solomon Bible book was written through the vessel of a man who ended up needing it quite desperately! Solomon drifted gravely from God! Oh how his life would have been different if he would have sought deeply what intimacy the Lord God was seeking to make known to him! I don’t think he squarely perceived the gravity of the importance of this intimacy God was speaking to him about! On the website https://bible.ucg.org/bible-commentary/1-Kings/Solomon-turns-from-God;-Adversaries-raised-up/ It is explicitly stated that Solomon turned away from God “when he was old” (1 Kings 11:4). First Kings 11 begins by succinctly stating the cause of Solomon’s idolatry: “But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites…. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” …many of Solomon’s wives and concubines were undoubtedly the result of foreign alliances, as was the custom of the day. God knew these customs, and He commanded Israel’s kings not to engage in them.” So, it boils down to the customs of the day and his own lusts were taking a toll on Solomon, Solomon had God’s word, and ignored parts of it, and faced the grave consequence of drifting from God.

Let us not make the same mistakes Solomon did! We have more than the tools Solomon had for intimacy with God! Let’s make use of all we have and cry out to God in our real brokenness, barrenness, and desperate spiritual bankruptcy and cry out till we are assured of nearness to our one and only God and Savior! We have no earthly good to travel with us to heaven! Amen!

Prayer:

Lord, as we are recognizing our powerlessness, and the possible danger of just becoming a bunch of cold principles apart from Your nearness and power, may we sense your pull on us to seek you with all of our hearts! May we take serious time day after day, even week after week or month after month till we find you and till we empty ourselves of ourselves, and wait before the fountain of living waters for a fresh and abiding baptism, and seek you with eyes wide open to catch a glimpse of your heavenly face of love! Till we see you and imbibe on you and become utterly transformed in our faith and in the expression of our lives Oh God may we learn to abide in your presence until our zeal and love for you truly becomes fresh and awakened in Your power and might! We pray these things in your gracious name Oh Lord! Amen and amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

The “Necessity” of Christian Hardships

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

The gospel when proclaimed in a Biblically sound way does and should, bring peace to us all. While this is true there also seems to be a notable number of scriptures that inform us that the God who sent Christ to earth to pay with his blood for peace to be established between the believer and God is also the one who deserves our trembling and shaking before him. He is the same Jesus who said in Mathew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

With the many topics that the Lord introduces to his people in the NT that seem hard, “fasting” would fit the bill. Perhaps you’re a little like me, who have compared the OT plan of drawing near to God with the NT plan for such a work. We think the OT plan should be hard, and, we, —should be done with “hard” in the NT. I believe because we have a nuanced gospel, and can be so prone to settle for a quick and “easily explained” definition for telling what our Christian habits should be, and can get tempted to think that for us NT folks, if each part of our walk with God is not “ease producing” then it also cannot be “peace producing”, but that is simply not true. “Ease” for the Christian is not synonymous with “peace”. To use our distinguishing abilities, we will have to pull the reference cards out of our minds for these two words and closely examine some similarities and differences for discernment purposes on them, mentally write details to edit our definitions with important markers on them and file them away again for future use. We so much need to glean from the many “holy difficulties” that are either sent by Providence, or captured by God for His divine purposes having been sent from the “drizzle” attack of our blind Enemy.

Isn’t it true the Bible says in Luke 13 to make every effort to enter by the narrow gate? Luke 13:23-24 says, “Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, 24“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” 

We can take the word “narrow” in this sentence to be an invitation from the Lord to do hard things. And we can take it as an invitation from the Lord that some hard things The Lord introduces to us are absolutely necessary for us to embrace and “take in” to make a regular part of our lives for a walk with God that stays on the narrow path.

1 Peter 2:20-21 CEV “You don’t gain anything by being punished for some wrong you have done. But God will bless you, if you have to suffer for doing something good. 21. After all, God chose you to suffer as you follow in the footsteps of Christ, who set an example by suffering for you.” I don’t bring up this short passage to suggest we need to be told about the subject of being punished for wrong doing but to suggest that if God would allow others to cause us to suffer and to “capture” different conditions of the suffering the enemy might like to dish out to us and have it all somehow be woven into part of His genius plan for us for our sanctification, then this plan that He has had from before the foundation of the world, just magnifies the amazing qualities of foreknowledge and Providence of our redemptive Shepherd King.

May we travel the hard road of the desert/wilderness with Christ, fasting as often as He may lead, and laying down “every weight and burden, and the sin that so easily besets”, so that we may go swiftly with Him and with perseverance, even running with Him as He leads!

Prayer:

Dear Lord, some days I feel nothing that excites me about going through the routines of the day, of getting out of bed, doing the morning rituals , hopping in the car and going to work, that I much consciously “spit out the lukewarm aftertaste” left from dinking of the world too much, remember that you have called me to yourself, think of your jealousy, and count the cost you paid again to “cleanse my palate to taste again what is truly true”. Help me Oh God, to not be slow to show up for prayer, and as much as only you can cause my drawing near to you to be a taking in of your substance Lord, and a breathing out of your goodness; may I ever keep my eyes on you to wash myself from the world, over and over and over again until others see really clearly, Christ in me. Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

In Our Fight Against Our Sin, We Do Not War With Carnal Weapons

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Prayer and devotional blend

Lord, by your good grace, may I and others lose our appetites for anything that is not like you Lord Jesus. As we fast, I pray you would help us deal with our sin habits, so that we can nip our sin habits in the bud. You have given us the directive in the word to leave our lives of sin, and to come follow you, but have not left us like helpless orphans! Help us to lose the enjoyment of indulging in excess because all sin is a snare! Help us to not justify our sins, or excuse them because of the “pluses” we think they add to our lives, or to love the things that snare us! May we hate the things in our lives Oh God that you hate Oh Lord! May we look squarely at the word Oh Lord, and pluck out of our lives the things that we are discerning that offend you Jesus! Dear Jesus, your word tells us that people can become sick with pockets of sin in their lives if that sin is not dealt with! Isaiah 1:5-7 reads, “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.” This sounds so much like our lives in America!

May we not be like the people of Isaiah 5:18 who drag sin along as with cart ropes! We notice they were deceived in that verse, and notice that sin is heavy—like the weight of a cart that horses or multiple people would pull around! Or at least that would take the strength of two hands to drag along! May we count the cost of what sin habits rob us from and count the cost of what we might be losing by keeping sin habits in our lives! Even our complacency is a sin Oh God before you! And if we are not the deceived ones, is it not right and fitting for us to help others to become UNDECEIVED who are yet in the muddy swamp of deception?

Lord we are given evidence to believe in the scripture which tells us that you grant your people an inner holiness and to approach you in the same attitude of holiness poured into us from you, and this speaks of your Spirit alive in us having made us born again. Yet simultaneously you call us to chasten our souls with fasting! And we know this is not a work of asceticism! Asceticism is powerless in itself to do the work only grace can do in us as we see we are enabled by another (by God) to live out Philippians 2:13 –to desire and to act according to your good purposes! You call us to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit, and to live in the grace of the Spirit, and yet it is a chastening lifestyle led by your Word for the holy crucifying of the flesh! We tell ourselves that grace should make it “easy and comfortable” and “easy to agree with!” But sometimes it seems I am far from the pure work of agreeing with your will for a flawless and undisturbed crucifying of the flesh, and how far I feel at times from boldly shouting “YES LORD! Your will and NOT MINE!” But I want to GO there! I want to be more willing and ready to run unhindered with you in the pathway of your commands Oh God! (Psalm 119:32)

Sometimes when spending a long time in one place, the scenery all begins to look the same, and we can lose track of the lessons God is giving us in life and the things we are positioned by God to remember. The scripture is the gift that is available 24 hours a day to remind us of what God has done throughout his plan of redemption. To know we have the benefit of God working in our hearts is a tremendous strength when battling the flesh. What God does in our hearts once we have been born again is to flood them with his Spirit and light. Thankfully this positions us for God to win the war in our hearts when we begin to separate from our idols. Looking at Galatians 4:6, and 2 Corinthians 4:6, we read, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” and, “ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

When struggling with the tool of fasting to crucify our flesh we are never expected by God to put confidence in the flesh, but we can put our trust in the Lord, so that through His Spirit we can crucify the flesh! Oh God, you put your light in our hearts for so many reasons but clearly to show us what we are, and who we are, to give us strength to live for you, to motivate us to strive to be like you and to leave our old lives of sin behind!

Even given our Biblical model, we are shown we cannot do the crucifying in our own strength! Jesus clearly carried his own heavy cross, but he did not nail his hands or feet to the cross! This tells me that some other factors Our God might allow in our lives to indeed help us “crucify” our flesh. That reality is both scary and relieving at the same time. Notice the purpose of suffering in 2 Corinthians 4 (beginning in v 7)But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. The purpose of enduring these painful motions and means of crucifixion is SO THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY be manifested in our body!

Oh Lord, how encouraging it is for us to read the scriptures declaring the provision you have given for putting off the flesh and crucifying it and for seeing the reality of Jesus at work in our personalities! And we so much want to keep away from religiosity, legalism, and asceticism and the motions of works-righteousness, enduring a cold heart! On the other hand, we also want to stay away from laziness, slothfulness, gluttony, impulsivity, and a lack of self-control which springs from us doing our own things and keeping our own will in the center of our mind as if we were our own God or as a people who serve mainly themselves. Please may we take the next step in the journey you are taking us on, for sanctification, living in the spirit, pursuing holiness, pushing away from sin, in going the other way and in crucifying sin. We can do this successfully only by your Spirit at work in our hearts, and are empowered and led forth to obey you oh God, and this is a great and beautiful mystery! Praise to you Lord, for truly setting us up for victory in Jesus, gracious Lord! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

“Getting our Worship Right”

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

Lord, I am reminded today that “Unless the Lord builds the house the workers labor in vain who build it.” Lord we ask that our hearts would be pliable moldable and our mouths yours and yours alone. My prayer is Lord, show me what I don’t see about myself that is keeping me from serving you more fully—wholeheartedly. Show me if I have any hidden sins that I need to surrender. Help us to count the cost that it takes to serve you at the level you have called us to so far, and Lord please forgive us for any way we have been lagging behind the leading of your Spirit.

By nature we are worshippers. Our hearts were designed by You Lord to long for something or someone to worship. Help us Lord to not make the false assumptions that what I long for in the here and now is as good or better than the goal Paul speaks of to lay hold of that to win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phi 3:14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Help us not to worship the goal of worshiping itself. Help us not to be in love with the idea of having “awesome friends” or for that matter, having “great ministries” or even having some spiritual mileage and think we “know our way around the mountain” because by those acts and presumptions we cloud our own vision and secondly we abort the very work we thought was being done “by your Spirit” Oh God!

Prayer: We ask to be cleansed from entertaining temporal loves. We ask to be freed from the delusions of the false promises by people and plans we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to that at times ended up dragging us and them along in directions that neither we nor they needed to go! Forgive us when our pious grandiosity about our fitness for “the job” ended up doing more harm than good! Forgive us for playing with the false promises this world offers. Forgive us for our pride and self-love, and forgive us for eating it up when people we know may seem to point to that as a viable option about ourselves Oh God! Turn us forever away from the creeping slime of filthy pride that like sewage spreads out along the gutter and seeks to fill our lowly places like water draining into the sewer vents that are open to the world above ground! May we spit out the poison if it has gone past our lips and may we vomit forth a thrust of air and may we reject it with the rejection of evil that Jesus cultivated with firmness and conviction even as a toddler in Isaiah 7:15 which reads “He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right”. And so you had REAL power to reject evil even as a toddler which is clear that you cultivate in your people Oh God before it comes near us or touches our lips again! Oh God! May you give us courage to warn others, and may you touch us to cleanse us as we seek your cleansing, and may you purify our tastes as we commit again our whole beings again to you Oh Lord that we may truly and forever “Taste and see that the Lord is Good! Oh God! Help us! Cleanse us and purify us oh Lord for pure fellowship with You, in our seeking you, and in your love eternal Oh God! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

24 Biblical Blessings From Fasting for Today

Author: Lisa Groen

Why did OT believers or I, myself have to do anything to “get” God’s presence? As fasting is an approach that is taken by some to draw near to God, we can see similar postures of heart comparable to fasting were prescribed and even ordained by God in the Old Testament. Fasting goes hand in hand with mourning or taking a heart posture of sorrow, self-denial and self-control. Are developing these truly a good work for the believer? This sorrow of fasting is not a type of play acting that God is telling us to do like a child play acts sad and cries with fussy “tears” to manipulate their parents. Fasting is not a process comparable to the “refusal of food” a child might do to try to get the parents to do something the child wants in order to make the child happy. Biblical fasting is for “the believer” (at a minimum) because fasting isn’t needed by God to help God hear us more effectively. There is nothing deficient in God’s hearing. God is not dependent on us, but he does enable pathways by which the believer can draw nearer to God. But let’s examine how is it used to help a believer draw near to God.

Let’s first read how God addresses the lack of self-denial, entitlement, and several other self-gratifying attitudes spoken of in Isaiah 58:

Isaiah 58:3 Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’—-this is entitlement
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, —-this is entitlement
And oppress all your workers. —-This is an absence of self-control
4 Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. —-This is an absence of self-control
You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!—maybe they were fasting physically but in their hearts they had wrong attitudes.
5 Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?—short lived “humility” or “an outward spiritual show”
Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed— short lived “humility” or “an outward spiritual show”
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? —this is all outward show but doesn’t mention heart attitudes changing.
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

God’s fast appears to be the solution God gives for breaking the entitlement attitude off of us (vs. 3) and appears to be God’s solution for breaking off of us the menacing lack of self-control.(behold…you find your desire, vs 3), and appears to restore back godly self-control. Fasting appears to deal with getting rid of the wrong attitude of the heart, like the heartless using physical force against people. (vs. 4) Fasting deals with getting rid of the wrong belief that just bowing yourself to God like a reed for a day (the pride of a spiritual appearance) that related to the idea they will get noticed by God for their spirituality. They were wanting their voices to be heard on high, and Isaiah doesn’t say that that was a bad pursuit, but just that the way they were going about it was bad. A list of actions in Isaiah 58:1-5 were fruitless, or wretched, and self-indulgent and fasting is shown to be the hatchet that would cut them away. Fasting can build the discipline of maintaining a longer-term posture of humility instead of just humbling yourself for a day (vs. 5). Next, fasting can make our prayers more effective in causing or letting the oppressed go free (vs 6) undoing the bonds of wickedness (vs 6) and undoing the bonds of the yoke and that every yoke of wickedness would be broken (vs 6).

Let’s look at a more extensive list of 24 direct blessings from fasting:

6 Is this not the fast that I choose:
To release the bonds of wickedness,  —blessing 1
To undo the ropes of the yoke, —blessing 2
And to let the oppressed go free, —blessing 3
And break every yoke? —blessing 4
7 Is it not to break your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, —blessing 5
And your recovery will spring up quickly; —blessing 6
And your righteousness will go before you; —blessing 7
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. —blessing 8
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; —blessing 9
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ —blessing 10
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
10 And if you offer yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the need of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness, —blessing 11
And your gloom will become like midday. —blessing 12
11 And the Lord will continually guide you, —blessing 13
And satisfy your desire in scorched places, —blessing 14
And give strength to your bones; —blessing 15
And you will be like a watered garden, —blessing 16
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. —blessing 17
12 Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; —blessing 18
You will raise up the age-old foundations; —blessing 19
And you will be called the repairer of the breach, —blessing 20
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. —blessing 21

13 “If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
14 Then you will take delight in the Lord, —blessing 22
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; —blessing 23
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, —blessing 24
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

God shows us He is truly responsive to a mournful heart, and tears of repentance and sorrowful seeking of Him, as people knew their brokenness and need for Him. In Isaiah 58, God gives at list of 24 spoken blessings God that come with the right heart attitude of self-denial that goes with fasting and does not  take away these 24 promises for the believer after Jesus went to the cross. The promises of Isaiah 58 are still active and alive today. Isaiah 58 seems to be about the theme of self-denial and self-control in seeking the Lord, and the lack of self-denial and self-control. The desire to build these back again and making room for self-control and self-denial leads were possibly the singular cause and best reason today in the New Testament for God’s people to resort to fasting.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-4

For Those With Covid:

Lord, we come to you with humble and contrite heart, you alone have all authority and all power to answer our prayers. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you that one of your Hebrew Names is Jehovah Rapha “I am the LORD, who heals you.'” Exodus 15:26, I thank you that Lord you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. I thank you that your desire is for us, and that Mathew 10:30 says, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” I thank you that you grant us everything we need for life and godliness, and that we have grace from 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 which gives us eternal encouragement and good hope. I ask Lord that you’d encourage the hearts and strengthen those who have Covid with your word. We ask you would be the glory and the lifter of their heads, and that their hope would be fixed in you and that you would grant them strong consolation and the joy of the Lord, and give them the grace to rest in you and find your arms of love and safety surrounding them with help in this time of need. We ask that this would be just a light and momentary trial working in them a glory that far outweighs all the trials they go through and that you would fix them with deep roots in your peace and joy. We ask for their spiritual nourishment and that you would grant their minds to be at peace and that you would take away the sharp pains in the lungs and chest and the fever and the cough and that you would remove all the bacteria and virus populations from their systems and open the alveoli in their lungs. Open up the bronchial passages to where they need to be for safe, peaceful, relaxed and undisturbed breathing. Lord, please watch over them and raise them up from their sickbeds and bring them to yourself. May you do something in this time of recovery that would make the most of this time, and that there would be a drawing near to you and a deepening of awareness of your presence, and that they would lose nothing of value in this time. May they find that you are a fountain of life welling up to eternal life, and may they sing and make melody in their hearts if it is too much for them to sing with their lungs at this time. May you renew their minds, and give them understanding in the word, and may their meditation of you be sweet. May your words and grace be ever speaking to them giving them life and sweet meditations, may you cheer them up with your kindness, and hope. Grant thee doctors the knowledge and know how to deal with specific situations that may require added medical provisions, and grant them to focus, and carry out the safest protocols and best practices that are out there. May you restore them in your care, physically, mentally, emotionally, and grant them to trust in your grace and goodness. Restore to them what the enemy is trying to steal, Oh Lord and may you be their governor and umpire and advocate through this trial. Please remove from them all forms of worry and anxiety, may they remember Lord that you are the God who heals all our diseases and the God who routes the enemy for our sake and that you are the One who grants the promise in 1 Peter 5:10 which says, “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.” Please grant that your peace would override every form of doubt, angst, and frustration and please renew in them the relationship that will establish them in love and contentment, hope, and strong faith by your spirit. Lord, may you use what the enemy meant for evil for the good of these folks and bring a blessing out of this time of need that they have. May you teach them you respond to faith, and that you hear their prayers. May you encourage them by growing them up in the faith in your timing and in your care. May you soon crush the enemy underneath their feet.

We ask these things in Your Name Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-3

Author: Lisa Groen

The title of the song is a good one to follow to draw close to God-“Come ye Christians poor and needy”. With that posture let us look to the Lord in prayer:

Dear Lord, as we look about our country and see the brokenness, the abominations that the government is “forcing” us to accept as a freedom of choice, as we see the racial conflicts and the legalization of marijuana, the limiting of the police force, the harassing of children, and multitudes of other national grave problems, these things are a tap on our shoulders that our country has forsaken its first love. We need to look to the church to see if there is a weakness in us that may be a crack in our foundation. There is a cry from our children who know something is not right with society, and we along with much of the church have slipped in our opportunities to stand up and speak truth in the midst of these situations.

Lord, we know that you must prepare the soil of people’s hearts for the Word that is sown to go down deep into the soil, and for it to grow well and for the soil to be rich enough to sustain the healthy growth of the seeds of truth. As we fast today may you prepare the soil of the hearts of our loved ones, the hearts of the lost in our neighborhoods, and cities and in our governments, at a local and national level. We pray for hearts to be made ready to hear truth, and to hear just what you would speak to people from your Word dear Lord. We pray for hearts to be hungry for truth, and for people to seek to read the Bible. Oh Lord, may the fear of God grip people enough for multitudes in America and in our spheres of influence to seek, read, absorb, and look to your Word for direction and to honor Your word. May people think about your Word, and seek truth in the midst of our dark society. And with these prayers for the spiritual hunger for truth in the lives of people in our spheres of influence, we seek that our hearts too would be prepared with your truth, hoed, and weeded and cultivated with your Word, as we take in your Word and as it satisfies the spiritual hunger in us. Lord, may you open the right doors for ministry at the right time. May your love be in us to share and encourage others with, and may your light be in us as we seek you for spiritual life- that we may have life abundantly, nourish it in our hearts and protect it, and that our hearts would be a fountain welling up to eternal life and ready to be salt and be light and a fountain to the world around us that You alone are the giver of spiritual life and abundantly give us Eternal Life. 1 John 5:11, John 17:3

Amen.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-2

Author: Lisa Groen

The title of the song is a good one to follow to draw close to God-“Come ye Christians poor and needy”. With that posture let us look to the Lord in prayer:

Dear Lord, we your people live in a world of many seductive pulls and glitter. You alone know the reasons you have created us. You sent Jesus into the world to rescue us from the sin that would try to feed us. May we turn from the many shiny and sparkly attractions of this world to see you. May we have ears to hear you as we look up to you. May we magnify you and abide with you. Lord we must hear your voice above the attractions of this world, and we must ween ourselves from the abundance of comforts in this world to hear the only one who tells us the truth about everything. May we stay long sitting before you. May we quiet our rebellious flesh as we pursue the opportunity to meet with you. May we turn our heads away from the whining of our appetites and from the growling of our stomachs to gain something far better which is the life from your voice and the life that is in your word and your touch. May we turn our heads away from the pull of the TV and the internet to settle our spirits as needy children in your all wise grandfatherly arms of love. May we strip from ourselves as we discern any layer –even if there may be many –layer after layer of idolatrous habits. May our idols become less and less, not because we do less searching for them but may our self-examination be illuminated by you and not be diminished but let us keep looking through the lense of the gospel at our lives. May we as we keep our eyes on you keep striving to line up this area and that area, and more areas of our lives with the word of God, and our gospel examples. And this is only possible through the gifts of grace which are the basis of our relationship with you. And may our idols become less attractive to us as we begin to see them for what they are and as we strip them away by your help because we are enabled by your vision to do  more searching for you and and less gazing at temporal “answers”. May we put into practice being led by you more habits of self-denial. Our world is full of the gospel of me, mine and more!! May we seek the pure milk of the word and may our taste buds be cleansed from the world by drinking in the pure water of the word. Lord where our taste buds have gotten off track from too many options of flavors of the world, and too many thrilling worldly temptations may we still desire the pure milk of the word for cleansing us and the water of the word to satisfy us.

Jesus, I am impressed with the Israelites and how you brought them through the wilderness eating simply one kind of meal from heaven for 40 years, and that was manna. You are not a God who had a goal of boring your people on purpose with one choice, but I believe you were building the taste buds toward the bread from heaven into the consciences of the people as a simple and holy staple of a plain but pure heavenly food. May we simply recognize the temptations to the Israelites in the wilderness was not prostitutes, heavy drugs, or a life of crime, or drunkenness, –things we consider vulgar or obnoxious sins, but the simple foods of cucumbers, melons, leeks, and onions and garlic. Because of not having these things, they grumbled and fell in the wilderness. (Numbers 11).

They were made to “fast” in this way by you for their good—that you would do good to them in the end, and you wanted them to treasure you, your word, feed upon you, your provision, your love, your care, your shepherding and your baptizing them, even if the food choices were not in abundance for them at that time. You were building them although you stripped away their comforts.

Help us Lord as we apply what we can learn from the Israelites in their times of testing and trial and in their times entering the promised land though it may seem like a long and sort of monotonous and bland journey for us and them both (although their life may have been very much more difficult, and inconvenient and much more harrowing than ours, and for many more years!) Hebrews 4:11 NIV states “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (See all of Hebrews 4) May we be strengthened in our fasting and learn directly from scripture the needed disciplines and heed the warnings of weaknesses seen in the Exodus so that we do not follow the same pattern of disobedience and unbelief. And build in us a sweet and tender abiding in You even if we are uncomfortable in the process.

Amen

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-1

Author: Lisa Groen

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you today acknowledging your greatness, your authority, your power, your all sufficiency and your deep love for us and all the world, and grateful that we can know that because of Jesus’s payment for us, we are welcomed by you to come before you. We thank you for the reality that you are the God of our salvation and acknowledge your desire to save people is greater than we can fully know in this life. We acknowledge your keeping power of us your people is greater than we can fully know in this life. And we acknowledge that yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. We seek that you would be glorified in our lives and in this prayer time. May the blessings of Psalm 1 be granted to all people in all our spheres of influence and that you would let us prosper in all we set their hands to do, and that you would establish the work of their hands as in Psalm 90:16-17…16 May Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands— yes, establish the work of our hands!

Lord we seek you to fight off the enemy as in Exodus 14:14 which says “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” And because of  Numbers 6:24 The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; dear Lord, may those blessings be granted again to us. Lord, please protect us and everyone in our spheres of influence as we seek you and your will and as we seek to live out our faith and callings before you. We seek that you would show lovingkindness to us your people, as is written in  1 Kings 8:23 … that you would “…keep covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart,”. Lord we are grateful that Jesus fulfilled the covenant and fulfilled the law of God in any place that we fall short, so that we are simply recipients of your grace oh God (Romans 4:4; 11:5–6; 2 Timothy 1:9–10), so may we be given your help, and enabled with strength to follow you, to fulfill our callings and accomplish all your will for our lives. May you fill us with power to will and to act according to all your good pleasure as you desire for our lives. Lord, the many great ways and promises you granted on behalf of your people in the old testament still hold great promise for us today and so we ask that you may grant that you would establish us before you as your holy people as is written in Deuteronomy 28:9. And that the promise of Isaiah 32:18 would be true in our lives which says “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places;” We pray for that security and rest and safety in our habitations. Lord, as you are aware of the many people that we have loved or that have been close to us over the year have been affected with illness, hardships, losses and deaths, may you avert the enemy from attacking in any unnecessary way and keep the enemy from hindering us in accomplishing your will. May your will be done and not the enemy’s will Oh Lord. I remember your promise Lord that you are the protector of Israel, and you neither slumber nor sleep, and you watch over your garden day and night lest anyone hurt it. Please may that continue to happen in our lives and spheres of influence. May you guide us in our personal prayer times and devotion times and as we recognize that from you comes any power that we could ever have to do any ministry, or to bear any good and lasting fruit, so we pray that you would continue to use us as you see fit, and make us fruitful in your kingdom. Please heal up any breaches in our walls in any way that our protection may have been damaged, or in any way the enemy may have gotten a foothold. Please deliver, keep the devourer from devouring and grant our loved ones and us too, the safety, health and deliverance they need and that we all need to follow you strongly and to keep our eyes on you as we should, and that we would continue to seek you in everything and that our hearts would be wholly and fully yours. I am reminded of 1 Kings 8:61 Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day. And think of 1 Chronicles 22:12 which says “Only the Lord give you discretion and understanding, and give you charge over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.” And Lord, we do want to keep following you, and you alone are our protection and from you alone comes all of our success, so we ask specifically for the discretion we need, and the understanding we need, and I ask for good discernment also in our plans, our choices, in our motivations and in our work and rest as well. In any way our discernment may have failed, please forgive, and cleanse us and grant discernment and the right responses to situations that we need for the ministry we are doing and at the level we all need to follow you would be granted that we can wholeheartedly and to fully do your will and to fulfill our callings. Moses prayed in Exodus 33:15 “If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. Lord, we want to be of the same mind as Moses and have the same approach. We want the approach of David who sought your direction in 1 Samuel 30:8 … saying, “Should I pursue after this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue them, for you will surely overtake them and will surely recover all.” But in 2 Samuel 5:23 And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up;…” May we have the responsiveness before you to have the ears that truly hear you even when you might say to us “You shall NOT go up…”

Lord, I pray for those of us and others in our spheres of influence that have been assaulted or wounded by the enemy in the line of battle, we seek you for your healing of us as in Psalm 12:5 “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

May you grant us to have the mind of the spirit which is life and peace and grant a peaceful meditation before you as we go on our way today keeping our eyes on you.

Psalm 121

1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. 8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forever.

May you be mindful of the prayers of Your people Oh Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG