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26th August 2024
MondayReflection
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Beth
Sharing Bread
The importance of praying for everyone
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I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people
1 Timothy 2:1
Paul opens Chapter Two urging his readers to pray.
The word translated "urge" actually meaning "a call intended to produce a particular effect" - exhorting us all to the action of prayer.
Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things He has for us.
Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire.
It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God.
Paul sought to teach his readers the importance of praying for everyone - particularly those in authority.
The motive behind his purpose being that we might live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
This is pleasing to God.
This urging should certainly draw our attention to our individual prayer lives as well.
Most of us, if we are honest, pray very selfishly - or at the very least narrowly - seeking only to cover our immediate families and close friends.
Praying for our governing officials - those who lead our country - with thanksgiving - oftentimes is an afterthought at best.
Sadly, we seem to pray for what is most bothersome to us over what is the most bothering to the heart of God who, Paul states, desires for all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth.
We can know for certain it is God's will if we are praying His Word back to Him.
Indeed, I think it blesses His holy heart to hear His children repeat His Truths.
We are to be a praying, thankful people as prayer changes things not the least of which is our hearts.
I greatly desire to humbly go before His throne - emptying myself of me and asking for the Holy Spirit to fill every part of me with His fullness.
I want to pray according to His will and not my own.
God desires to make Himself further known to us through our stillness before Him.
Sometimes I sing, sometimes I seek to envision Him on His Great Throne with Jesus at His right hand always interceding for me.
We live in such confusing times and often only God can clear away the confusion.
Our attitudes of heart are to be honest and humbly repentant before Him.
It does us good to remember that Paul was to make known the gospel to the Gentile world. And what a world it was!
It was a world literally rotten in its vileness and corruption.
A world given to the worst kind of paganism and idolatry.
A world in which men were enslaved by Satan and powerless to deliver themselves.
Much akin to our world today.
It was into such a world as this that the apostle Paul proclaimed the One "who gave Himself a ransom for all."
And when men believed the message they were saved.
After meditation of the Word, prayer is first approaching God in confession of our sins and then responding with thanksgiving and praise for our salvation via the cross.
God has never promised to answer a prayer that comes through unclean lips.
True prayer must be backed by a holy life as we seek to walk before Him in purity - keeping our accounts short with repentance.
All men are entitled to approach God but they must be careful that they are living such lives as will commend their prayers to God.
God has never promised to hear the prayers of people who are not seeking to walk righteously before Him in repentance.
After praise comes intercession for others and finally petition for our own needs.
Lastly, in our prayers we are not to pray with indignation or malice but with sincere love for all mankind - lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Out of love for others, we are to pray with confidence and speak the Truth with boldness.
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
Scroll down for the continuation of this discussion.
Sharing Bread
is a ministry led by a single family
The entire thing was started by Beth (the grandmother), and its values are lived out in the lives of the entire family.
It's connected, it's dynamic, and it's super rare.
We believe that one person growing up in Christ will transform an entire family.
(that cultivated four primary spiritual disciplines: reading God's Word, prayer, memorizing scripture, and mentorship.)
These disciplines yielded fruit that included a vibrant lifestyle, marriage, family, and connection with God.
Because of the power of this fruit, these disciplines are the very core of Sharing Bread.
More
The Apostle now turns to instructions for women in the church.
If you are looking for a passage of Scripture that runs directly counter to the prevailing "wisdom" of our culture, then 1 Timothy 2:8-15 is a good place to start!
Our culture is terribly twisted on issues of gender and sexuality, and the pressure for the church to compromise and conform on these issues is great.
Pastor Mark Dever states:
"The most important revolution of the last century has been the
sexual revolution...Contraception replaced conception.
Pleasure was separated from responsibility.
It was as if a license was given out, legitimizing the bending of every part of our lives around serving ourselves.
Since that time, divorce, remarriage, abortion, premarital sex, and extramarital sex, as well as homosexuality have been accepted by increasing percentages of the public.
Pornography is huge business.
This is not just a problem with society out there.
Many churches have found their members plagued by failed marriages and illicit affairs, by so-called private sins that turn into public disgraces, some of which are known, some of which are not yet known."
We live in a culture, on a world, and sadly amid a church marked by rampant sexual immorality, skyrocketing divorce, the degradation of marriage, and the confusion of gender.
John Piper writes:
"Confusion over the meaning of manhood and womanhood today is epidemic.
The consequences of this confusion is not a free and happy harmony among gender-free persons...
The consequence rather is more divorce, more homosexuality, more sexual abuse, more promiscuity, more social awkwardness, and more emotional distress and suicide that come with the loss of God-given identity."
Ladies, God's Word is not out of line, and it is not out of date; it is true and right and good.
May we repent of our unbelief and arrogance and gladly submit to God's best for our lives which is His good design.
God's desire is for the salvation of all people and He is deserving of the worship of all people and Christ's death was for all people.
Clearly Paul was addressing situations and problems that were evident in the church at Ephesus in the first century - they don't just come out of nowhere.
They were written to a specific people at a specific time.
Nevertheless, God's Word still applies to all people at all times.
There is more
The full article is avaiable on request
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