Be Careful How You Pray

I found this at Kevin DeYoung's blog.

Have you ever had a friend or child or spouse who wanted something so bad they were positively miserable without it? Maybe your husband is unhappy with his job and can only think of landing something else. Or maybe you have a friend who simply has to be married. Or maybe your child is despondent because he didn’t make the basketball team and probably never will.

How should we pray in these situations? Would you ask God to provide a new job? Would you petition him for a spouse? Would you quietly ask for six more inches for your son? How would you pray?

Here’s Jeremiah Burroughs’ (1599-1646) answer:

Therefore for my part, if I should have a friend or brother or one who was as dear to me as my own soul, whom I saw discontented for the want of such a comfort, I would rather pray, “Lord, keep this thing from them, till you shall be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent; let not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their discontent over the want of it, for if they have it before that time they will have it without any blessing” (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 159).

In other words, if people think they can’t live without some thing, they’ll still be miserable even when they get the thing they wanted so badly. Burroughs goes on to suggest:

There are many things which you desire as your lives, and think that you would be happy if you had them, yet when they come you do not find such happiness in them, but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions that you ever had, and on this ground, because your hearts were immoderately set upon them before you had them.

So be careful how you pray. As Tim Keller (or was it that spirit of Jeremiah Burroughs?) has written, “We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us” (Counterfeit Gods, 1).

On Being A 'Somebody'

This comes from Justin Taylor's blog where he interviews Dr. Gerald Bray about some basic questions to ask when interpreting Scripture. Taylor asks how the genealogies of 1 Chronicles can be helpful to us. I find Bray's answer very encouraging.

'They say that most of us are nobodies from the world’s point of view. We live and die in a long chain of humanity but there is not much that anyone will remember of us as individuals. At the same time, without us, future generations will not be born and the legacy of the past will not be preserved. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, a long chain of faithful people who have lived for God in the place where he put them. Even if we know little about them we owe them a great debt of gratitude for their loyalty and perseverance when they had little or nothing to gain from it or to show for it.'

I think that I was trained to expect that I would become a 'somebody' who would be noticed and remembered. I'm not. And Bray's comments on 1 Chronicles are more ammunition to help my soul understand that and rejoice in it.

How He Loves

I'm listening to a song that is so beautiful and powerful. So, I thought I'd post the words and share at least that much with you - though you really need to hear the music to really feel it.

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
And all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me

Oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh how He loves us
How He loves us all

We are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking
Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us

David Crowder Band

Fearing My Sin

I'm writing this to share something of who I am with folk. I'm not good at this since I usually don't share something of who I am with folk. So, if you're not interested in getting to know me better just skip this post.

One of the highlights of each day is my morning prayers. I'll skip lots of things for good (and sometimes bad) reasons, but it is incredibly rare for me to miss my morning prayer time. I get to talk with my Father. How good is that! Now, I talk with Him throughout the day. But this is different. It's a little more special.

I usually include this triad in my prayers: guidance, protection, correction. I'm just going to talk about 'correction'. Maybe I'll come back to the others some other time. I've been a Christian for a good bit of time and, because of the great patience and persistence of the Spirit, I've learned some things over that time. One is that I am a sinner. That is no longer just a doctrine that I'm supposed to believe. This is something that I know to be true. And that's because I've seen it. I am a sinner and that has caused great trouble and sadness. Something else that I have learned: sinners sometimes go so far off the deep end that they are beyond hope. '​​​​​​​​He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.' (Proverbs 29:1) That is also something that I know is true because I have seen it - not in myself but in others. So, I often pray that the Father would not hesitate to correct me, to slap me hard if it will take that, so that I would quickly repent of whatever sin the Spirit might point out to me. I fear becoming that Christian who, though often reproved, refuses to repent. And that, I think, is a healthy fear. It does not tie me up in knots. No, rather it is a very helpful motivation to prayer. I talk to the Father about everything. I know He's interested and able to deal with whatever. So, it just makes sense that I talk to Him about my sin. My hope is in His care and in His power. I have no hope in myself. Too many have been fooled by their sin - I have been fooled by my sin - for me to take any hope in my ability to see danger and turn from it. My hope is in the Gospel. Because of Jesus, I know that the Father will care for me. And if He smacks me a good one because I'm getting a little stiff-necked, I'll thank Him for it after I repent of whatever it might be the Spirit was pointing to. There is grace for sinners, and I, for one, am so glad for that.