From: Bayo Afolaranmi Dear Beloved,
LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY! "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples'" (Luke 11:1, IV). Our Lord Jesus Christ while on earth knew the importance of prayer, and He did not play with it. He started His earthly ministry with prayer and ended it with prayer. One of the instances of His prayer life is the verse quoted above. As He finished His prayer, one of His disciples came to Him asked Him to teach them (i.e. the disciples) how to pray. This indicates that they had been seeing Him praying, and probably they had partaken in His time of prayer, but they did not know how to pray. The Bible does not disclose the identity of this particular disciple. However, one of them asked, and it led to the teaching of what we know today as "The Lord's Prayer." The prayer life of a Christian cannot be over-emphasized. It is proper for us to meditate beforehand what we are to ask of God, and to arrange our thoughts, that we may not come thoughtlessly into His presence. As Christians, we are in the war front against the devil and his host. The Bible clearly states this that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the satanic powers (Ephesians 6:12), and that though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). We can use the efficacy of prayer against these satanic powers. But, how can we use this power effectively? Promises of God abound in the Bible that we should ask Him anything in prayer and He will do it for us. How can we rightly utilize these promises in prayer? We have to ask God to teach us how to pray. There are various ways of prayer. Only God can teach us the proper method of praying if we are ready to learn. Indeed, we cannot pray acceptably at all unless God take us through the course of prayer. Somebody has suggested the acronym "ACTS" to describe the ways of prayer. The acronym stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. While praying, what method should we use? We need to ask God to teach us. Lord, teach us to pray! In His service, Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor). ================================================= From: Suzianty Herawati "In the name of the Lord I will destroy them." --Psalm 118:12 Our Lord Jesus, by His death, did not purchase a right to a part of us only, but to the entire man. He contemplated in His passion the sanctification of us wholly, spirit, soul, and body; that in this triple kingdom He Himself might reign supreme without a rival. It is the business of the newborn nature which God has given to the regenerate to assert the rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. My soul, so far as thou art a child of God, thou must conquer all the rest of thyself which yet remains unblest; thou must subdue all thy powers and passions to the silver sceptre of Jesus' gracious reign, and thou must never be satisfied till He who is King by purchase becomes also King by gracious coronation, and reigns in thee supreme. Seeing, then, that sin has no right to any part of us, we go about a good and lawful warfare when we seek, in the name of God, to drive it out. O my body, thou art a member of Christ: shall I tolerate thy subjection to the prince of darkness? O my soul, Christ has suffered for thy sins, and redeemed thee with His most precious blood: shall I suffer thy memory to become a storehouse of evil, or thy passions to be firebrands of iniquity? Shall I surrender my judgment to be perverted by error, or my will to be led in fetters of iniquity? No, my soul, thou art Christ's, and sin hath no right to thee. Be courageous concerning this, O Christian! be not dispirited, as though your spiritual enemies could never be destroyed. You are able to overcome them--not in your own strength--the weakest of them would be too much for you in that; but you can and shall overcome them through the blood of the Lamb. Do not ask, "How shall I dispossess them, for they are greater and mightier than I?" but go to the strong for strength, wait humbly upon God, and the mighty God of Jacob will surely come to the rescue, and you shall sing of victory through His grace. CH Spurgeon ==================================================== From: Suzianty Herawati "The evening and the morning were the first day." --Genesis 1:5 Was it so even in the beginning? Did light and darkness divide the realm of time in the first day? Then little wonder is it if I have also changes in my circumstances from the sunshine of prosperity to the midnight of adversity. It will not always be the blaze of noon even in my soul concerns, I must expect at seasons to mourn the absence of my former joys, and seek my Beloved in the night. Nor am I alone in this, for all the Lord's beloved ones have had to sing the mingled song of judgment and of mercy, of trial and deliverance, of mourning and of delight. It is one of the arrangements of Divine providence that day and night shall not cease either in the spiritual or natural creation till we reach the land of which it is written, "there is no night there." What our heavenly Father ordains is wise and good. What, then, my soul, is it best for thee to do? Learn first to be content with this divine order, and be willing, with Job, to receive evil from the hand of the Lord as well as good. Study next, to make the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. Praise the Lord for the sun of joy when it rises, and for the gloom of evening as it falls. There is beauty both in sunrise and sunset, sing of it, and glorify the Lord. Like the nightingale, pour forth thy notes at all hours. Believe that the night is as useful as the day. The dews of grace fall heavily in the night of sorrow. The stars of promise shine forth gloriously amid the darkness of grief. Continue thy service_ under all changes. If in the day thy watchword be labour, at night exchange it for watch. Every hour has its duty, do thou continue in thy calling as the Lord's servant until He shall suddenly appear in His glory. My soul, thine evening of old age and death is drawing near, dread it not, for it is part of the day; and the Lord has said, "I will cover him all the day long." CH Spurgeon
