The Problem with our Prayer

I shared this picture a couple of weeks ago on my Facebook page thinking: Wow, that's so true! Today, I still believe it's true, but it's become apparent to me how true it really is. When I shared the picture I was in a short season of my life where I was praying a lot more than I had been and was building my prayer life up. Being a seminary student you would think it would easy to keep the prayer season going. I have found it to be quite the opposite. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I love everything I'm learning about in seminary, but I'm learning so much about so many different things in such a short period of time that I actually burned out a little on my spiritual life. My bible reading outside of what I had for seminary dropped to next to nothing. My prayer... Well it was about the same as my bible reading. And my spiritual life felt dry to be honest. It was just so drab and it felt so boring.

However I kept thinking of this picture. "The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is worthy to be sought. The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is worthy to be sought." I would see all the need for prayer in my own world and think about how I needed to pray for it but then think about how my own prayer life was struggling. Then I would remember: "The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is worthy to be sought." 

I think this is one of the truest statements I've heard in a long time, but the only way to get that motivation is to remember why He is worthy. And how else are we going to remember why He is worthy, but by reading His Word. God created us and we sinned. God called us back to him and we turned away. God had us taken away and we called out to him. God sent His son to save us and we rejected him. God's Son died on a cross for us and we realized it was too late. Then God rose His son on the third day in victory over the grave and we accepted the new life He gave us. God taught us how to live and we forgot to remember Him... 

God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we might spend eternity with Him. He bridged the gap that we never could. He freely offers us a new life we could never earn. He, and He alone, is Worthy! Will we remember? Will we pray? 

"For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, might not die, but have everlasting life." -John 3:16

He is worthy!

What is Salvation?

Salvation, in our case, is when a perfect person comes and saves us from our sins. I don’t think many people, if any, would disagree with that. What they might disagree with is how one attains salvation. Time and time again I hear, “Jesus came and died so that we could be saved from our sin and all that we have to do is accept it. I’m left wondering “how though? How do I become saved?” This is where conflict arises. Different religions and even different sects of religions will give you different answers. So today, I’m writing to tell you what the Bible says about how we receive this salvation. 

I wish I could say that it’s as simple as saying a couple simple words and poof you’re in, then again I’m glad that’s not it. Romans 10:9-11 says, 

“If you declare with your mouth,

 ‘Jesus is Lord,’ 

and believe in your heart that 

God raised Him from the dead, 

then you will be saved. 

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,

 and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

So part of it is praying and declaring Jesus to be Lord, but another part of it is believing in your heart. I said I’m glad that it’s not as simple as saying a few words because if that’s all that salvation is about, then what’s the point? When you believe something in your heart, your heart changes, it starts to follow what you believe in. Words can be empty, but belief is trusting in what you believe in. When a person comes to Jesus and puts their trust in Him, their heart changes. It no longer desires what it wants but desires what Jesus wants. The heart no longer wants to be sinful but to share the good news of Jesus. This brings me to what happens when a person receives salvation. They repent. 

The word repent means ‘to turn away from’ and for us that means turning away from sin. So often professing our faith and believing is where we stop. It’s where our journey of faith stops because we don’t repent. After we receive salvation we stop moving toward sin and we start moving towards Jesus. We start the mission that He left for us. 

“Then Jesus came to them and said, 

‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, 

baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. 

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

Matthew 28:18-20

We begin to tell the world who Jesus is and what He did for us. We daily ‘take up our cross and follow Him’(Luke 9:23). So from here, we go together to the ends of the earth.