Tuesday, December 21, 2021

#29 A Prayer to Know God Better

 

   Alvin Vandergriend-  Eph. 1:17-19 "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you make know him better. (v. 18) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, (v. 19) and his incomparably great power for us who believe." (Google image, Read the Bible to Know God)

   Paul believed that the greatest need of the Ephesian Christians was to know God better. That may also be the greatest need in the church today. One important way Paul worked to help make this happen was to pray for it to happen. 

   Paul starts by telling us whom he prays to — "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father." Our confidence when praying is not to prayer itself but in the One to whom we pray — our Father in heaven.

   Good fathers by their very nature want to love, to protect, to provide, to guide, and to embrace their sons and daughters. It's the nature of our heavenly Father to do all of these things, and God does them to perfection. That's why we can come to God with absolute confidence.

   Paul's entire prayer here is about helping people we know and love to know God better. Don't be satisfied for your loved ones simply to know about the Bible, or about God, or even to know God a little. Pray this model payer for them, asking the Father to help them "know Him better." Knowing about God and knowing God are not the same as knowing God well.

   Knowing God well means knowing what God is really like — how He thinks, what He wills, how He works, and how He feels about you. It means knowing what gives God pleasure and what evokes His wrath. It means wanting what God wants. It means sharing God's joys and His pain.

   What Paul asked for in order to make this happen was "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation." The Spirit knows God perfectly and is one who can help us know God better and better, for the Spirit lives in our hearts.

   People who know God well have "the eyes of their hearts enlightened" to know these things:

 1. "The hope to which he has called [them]." 

   When the Bible uses the word "hope," it doesn't mean a strong wish or desire as in common speech today. It means being absolutely certain because God has promised it. Knowing God gives us a certainty about where we are going. It gives us "hope."

2. "The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints." 

   To know God well is not only to be certain where we will spend eternity but also to know just how good it will be — a glorious inheritance.

3. "His incomparably great power for us who believe." 

   To know God well is to know His great power by experience, to lean on it, to feel it, and to have it coursing through our veins as we live for God in the midst of a crooked and perverse worldly culture.

   Is this what you want for yourself and for the people you intercede for? Then ask the Father for these things. He'll hear!

(pp. 76, 77 in Love to Pray- 40 Day Devotional for Deepening Your Prayer Life by Alvin Vandergriend) 


~ James Watkins- "We see that God likes us. We bring him joy! Mind blown! 
I’ve often wondered what that song would sound like. What would be the message? We can get a clue by reading what he says about us in his Word:"
 
I take delight in you with gladness,
I rejoice over you with joyous song (Zephaniah 3:17).
You didn’t choose me. I chose you (John 15:16).
I so loved you that I gave my only Son
that believing in him you may have eternal life (John 3:16).
I showed this great love by sending him
while you were estranged from me by sin (Romans 5:8).
But now, nothing can separate you from my love,
neither death, life, angels, nor demons.
Neither our fears for today or worries about tomorrow.
No power in the sky or on the earth below can separate you
from my love displayed in Christ (Romans 8:38-39).
I am with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).
I have called you by name; you are mine (Isaiah 43:1).
See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:16).
See how very much I love you, for I call you my children, and that is what you are! (1 John 3:1)
For my Spirit joins with your spirit to affirm that you are my children. And since you are my children, you are my heir. In fact, together with Christ, you are heirs of my glory (Romans 8:16-17).
I will never abandon you as an orphan (John 14:18).


Let's pray-

   Father, our need is to know You better, so we ask that You help us make every effort to arrange time to sit and read Your Word, and meditate on it. We want to get acquainted with You, our Creator, and for You to draw us closer through prayer. 

   Getting to know You better is our aim, as we know it is a process that You'll help us  experience through your "incomparably great power." As we spend time with You now, please help us sense our salvation and future are secure.

  We confess our failure of drawing closer to You, and ask for Your forgiveness. May we desire to know You better each day, as we attend a Bible-believing church, go on a personal retreat, spend extra time reading Your Word, or read helpful Christian literature. Help us find ourselves drawing closer to You!  

   We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.


Today's Bible verse-
       

          Acts 1:8 (NLT) "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 


Quote for today-

The Perfect Present

  

To find the perfect present

Do you rush from place to place?

Do you feel time is against you

As you run the shopping race?

 

You’ll never find the perfect gift

In any store or mall,

Christ already purchased it,

And it is free…for all.

 

He paid the price at Calvary

When He died in our place.

He took our sins upon Himself…

Redeemed us by His grace.

 

What better time than Christmas

To give Him thanks and praise.

Let’s worship and adore Him

As at the cross we gaze.

 

©Frances Gregory Pasch

[Used by permission]

 

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Upcoming posts:

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   Alvin Vandergriend

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The North Country Christian Fellowship Center Churches,

located in the St. Lawrence county of NY,

broadcast their Sunday services at 10 or 10:15

You can view past services too.

Sermon listing:https://www.cfconline.org/sermon-library

 

 

 



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