At the beginning of the year, Pastor Doug Patterson gave everyone in the congregation a copy of the book "A 12-Month Guide to BETTER PRAYER." Our job was to read and meditate on one chapter per month throughout the year. I have found this book to be of great encouragement on the subject of prayer. It is a compilation of several articles on prayer written by several great men of God. All of them successful ministers, and especially, all of them successful soul-winners. It is the fact that they were all great soul-winners that makes this tiny book all the more important to our Christian development. Soul-winning is almost a lost art in the Christian life today.
February's chapter centers on a piece of scripture that I had used in some of January's blogs. It was written by Charles H. Spurgeon. John 15:7-If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
The majority of our actions are predicated on the concept of "words abiding" in us. We meet a certain someone with whom we fall in love with and their words abide in us and cause certain actions. We meditate constantly about their love and the sweet words that they whispered in our ears and begin to change the course of our actions. We sometimes walk around with a silly grin on our face. If we have had a fight with this person, we will meditate on that and walk around with a scowl on our face. Depending on our experience of love or anger we will either be pleasant or grumpy. All because somebody's words are "abiding" in us.
I have long maintained that modern Christendom has more faith in a Coke machine than they do with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We walk by that Coke machine at work and begin to meditate, "I'm going to get me a cold drink out of that thing in a little while." We have "no doubt" that our actions are secure. We don't cry, we don't moan, we don't read the instruction manual again and again to make sure we've got it down pat. We just "act" on the word printed on the outside of the machine. If it says to put sixty cents in and make your selection, we ----JUST DO IT. We don't call the prayer hotline and ask for wisdom, we----JUST DO IT. We don't get on the internet and search the top 10 sites, we----JUST DO IT.
I know that this is great and audacious revelation for some of you but you will just have to get over it. The Word of God is greater than your Coke machine, your job, your sweetheart and even your grandchildren. (Startling, ain't it?) Our success as a Christian does not depend on our pastor's blazing message at church today. It doesn't depend on whether the worship team sings hymns or choruses. Your success as a Christian depends on how much of HIS Word YOU allow to abide in YOUR heart. It doesn't matter what your spouse, your pastor, your boss or your children say about it. It depends on whether HIS Word lives in YOU every day. Just like the directions of that Coke machine lives in you every day. The change in YOUR attitude towards the Word of God will cause major changes in your life and the lives of the ones you care about.
The Word of God had a dramatic effect on Abraham and Sarah's bodies when they were 99 and 91 respectively. He chose to abide in God's Word instead of what his mind was telling him and his eyes saw. The Word of God abiding in Moses made him obey God even when he had to stand before the most powerful ruler of the land. Guess what? God won. And, because God won, Moses and the children of Israel won. All because somebody was "abiding in God's Word" instead of abiding in what they saw and heard.
More tomorrow.
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