A Prayer for Today

Posted on Sunday, July 18, 2010 by Becky Pliego

The Lord’s Supper

God of all good,

I bless thee for the means of grace;

teach me to see in them thy loving purposes

and the joy and strength of my soul.

Thou hast prepared for me a feast;

and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest,

I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus,

and hide myself beneath his righteousness;

When I hear his tender invitation

and see His wondrous grace,

I cannot hesitate, but must come to Thee in love.

By Thy Spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern

and spiritually to apprehend the Saviour.

While I gaze upon the emblems of my Saviour’s death,

may I ponder why He died, and hear him say,

“I gave my life to purchase yours,

presented myself as offering to expiate your sin,

shed my blood to blot out your guilt,

opened my side to make you clean,

endured your curses to set you free,

bore your condemnation to satisfy divine justice”

O may I rightly grasp the breadth and length of this design,

draw near, obey, extend the hand, take the bread,

receive the cup, eat and drink,

testify before all men that I do for myself,

gladly, in faith, reverence and love, receive my Lord,

to be my life, strength, nourishment, joy, delight.

In the supper I remember his eternal love, boundless grace,

infinite compassion, agony, cross, redemption,,

and receive assurance of pardon, adoption, life, glory.

As outward elements nourish my body,

so may thy indwelling Spirit invigorate my soul,

until that day when I hunger and thirst no more,

and sit with Jesus at His heavenly feast.

The Valley Of Vision

Have a most blessed Lord’s Day!

Lord, Teach us to Pray

Posted on Friday, July 16, 2010 by Becky Pliego

My dear sister in the Lord, Diane from Theology for Girls, is here today to share with us about prayer.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Diane!

When Becky blessed me with the honor of writing today’s blog for Daily on My Way To Heaven on the subject of prayer, I began contemplating the various elements involved in prayer. As well, the pattern or structure of how we ought to commune with God should be considered. Truly, volumes have been written on both counts.

Certainly, when we think of an appropriate blueprint for prayer, our usual consideration draws us to the greatest model set forth in Scripture by our Lord when he instructed his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6. A second important example would be Christ’s high priestly prayer with the Father in John 17.

As I compared both of these passages I noticed that the predominant themes were exaltation of God the Father and the Son. These prayers also reflect the Psalms which are replete with the adoration of God. In both prayers our Lord begins by addressing God as Father. In Matthew, Christ emphasizes the holiness of God’s name and in John He emphasis the glorification of Himself by the Father. Both prayers close with a focus on the glory of God the Father (Mt) and of God the Son. (Jn).

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Matthew 6:9

“Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”

Matthew 6:13

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

CHRIST’S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

John 17:1

“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,”

John 17:14,26

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (vs 24)

Requests on our behalf for our spiritual and temporal needs are sandwiched between these magnifications of God’s glory and holiness. When we shift gears in prayer from our adoration of God to confession, thanksgiving, and supplication we understand that God intimately cares for us as a loving heavenly Father. He has instructed us how to pray about our needs, yet we must keep in mind that God’s glory should be foremost in our petitions for ourselves and for others.

The church today has been swallowed up by self-absorption. An Arminian view of Scripture saturating our theology for more than a hundred years has resulted in an approach to God that has become increasingly man centered. Our prayer and worship has become more self gratifying than God glorifying which is reflected in the way we pray and also in much of our modern Christian music. We hardly know how to sing or speak to God without using the word “I” in every phrase. Just by way of exercise, we might want to try praying for 30 minutes without using the words “I, me, or my”.

Furthermore, the name of Jesus Christ has been denigrated not only by those outside the church but by those within. A Google search of “Jesus Is My Homeboy” pulled up more than 98,000 hits, many titles being so blasphemous I was sorry I had clicked on it.

The proper use of and reverence for God’s holy name is so important that the 3rd commandment warns,

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” Exodus 20:7

Ezekiel prophesied:

“I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.” Ez 6:23

Such little reverence is given to the proper use of the name of Jesus Christ that many in the church no longer end their prayers “In Jesus Name”. Our Lord placed great emphasis on this by saying: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”

In conclusion, when we come to our great God in prayer, let us first address Him as Father with adoration for His Holy name. We must not come to Him with an attitude of improper familiarity. He is our Friend but He not our “buddy”. He is our Holy Father and we are indeed privileged to address him as such. We should passionately pray that His will would be accomplished and His glory pronounced. Let us bring our petitions to Him with boldness bathed in humility. Finally, we should conclude our special time of communion by invoking the precious name of Jesus.

Remember the Sick in Prayer

Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2010 by Becky Pliego

Today I am breathing, are you?

Take a deep breath, can you feel the air filling your lungs?

Can you take a deep breath after the summer showers and walk over the damp green grass?

Can you fill your lungs with air to sing praises to our God?

My friend cannot.

Jo, (The Reformed Traveler), is dealing with Pulmonary Hypertension. She cannot laugh out loud, but she smiles a lot, she cannot sing, but her heart is full of praises to our God. She trusts a Sovereign God, and she says so:

“the road of PH lays in pleasant places…”

May I ask you to pray for her, to bring her before the throne of grace today?

We can certainly not visit her, but we can certainly pray for her.

A House of Prayer

Posted on Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Becky Pliego

“The Ten commandments are the rule of our life, the creed is the sum of our faith, and the Lord’s prayer is the pattern of our prayer”
Thomas Watson

    “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
     Your kingdom come, your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven.
     Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
     as we also have forgiven our debtors.
     And lead us not into temptation,
     but deliver us from evil.”
Matthew 6: 9-13 ESV

Summer is beautiful here, the Lord has sent rain to clean the air we breath, the grass is green and the flowers are all in bloom. But the highlight of our summer has been taking the time to study more in depth about prayer.

I have been reading about prayer, and have been meditating about it. I still have more books on the shelf to read, but one thing is certain:

The only way we can truly learn how to pray is by praying.

When one of the disciples asked Jesus “Master, teach us to pray” Jesus’ answer was in form of a prayer. He prayed and so he taught them about prayer. His life was a life of prayer.

We teach our children about the importance of praying, we are learning to teach them how to pray, but we must pray together, with them too.

We must build a house of prayer…
or should I say…
We should long to build a house of prayer…
What else could be more beautiful than that?

Charles Spurgeon says that in the times of the Puritans, if someone was walking by the home of the Christians at certain hours of the day, or evening, one could hear a Psalm being sung or read, because there was not a Christian home which lacked family prayer.

I firmly believe the only safe way to look “inside” of us is to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith, as Paul says in II Corinthians 13:4-6, so I must ask myself this:

Am I building a house of prayer?

Am I being an example to my children in this area?

Do I dare to call myself a Christian and live without praying?

“If we only tried seriously to live up to our praying—it would have a powerful effect upon our character and conduct!.. If our lives were as good as our prayers, we would be saint-like in character.” J.R. Miller

Let the rain, the many prayers, be poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; let the life and renewal that prayer brings, be as the life and renewal that rain is bringing this summer!

“We often wonder . . .
why we fail,
why so little comes of our efforts,
why we do not get along better with people,
why we are not happy,
why joy is so lacking in our experience,
why we are so easily fretted and vexed,
why we are so discontented,
why we fall so easily into surliness and bad temper.
It is because we cease to pray!” J.R Miller

The beautiful photographs you see were taken by my precious daughter.
Such an amazing gift the Lord’s rain has brought!
We don’t know the name of this flower, it grew over on the road to our house, so if you know the name of this flower , please share it with us.

Helping Our Children Grow Tall and Strong

Posted on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 by Becky Pliego

When you live in one of the most crowded cities in the world, you need to plan ahead some time in the woods.

We went to the woods yesterday, and I enjoyed watching my children running and climbing; searching and discovering. We breathed fresh air, and enjoyed the smell of the wet ground and Eucaliptus pines. I even wish this post were a scrath-and-sniff one!

As I saw them on those big trees, I could not think other than, “this is the way I want them to grow in the Lord, tall and strong. With wide roots capable of holding others, and tall branches to be able to see from above.”

Lord, help me nourish my children with your Word; may them grow with strong roots, and grow tall enough to see from above the world. May the little beginnings bear much fruit at the end; may their lives turn into the sweet aroma which only those, who have been in your prescence have.

In the name of Jesus,who brings life out of darkness.

Amen

A Treasure in Jars of Clay

Posted on Friday, June 25, 2010 by Becky Pliego

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2 Cor. 4: 6-10 ESV)

O Lord, let me not forget today
that I am a jar of clay,
a jar of clay in which you have decided to place a treasure;
the treasure of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Amen

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Category Archives: Prayer