1 John 3:21, 22 says,...

Today's verses are 1 John 3:21, 22, which read,

v.21 - Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;...

Yesterday, our hearts condemned us because our feelings were bigger than our God.  God is greater than our feelings and God knows all but we choose to live our life based on our feelings and these facts are set aside.  If we live by the facts about God then our God is bigger than anything this world throws at us and our heart doesn't condemn but brims with confidence about our God.  These words are easier to type than to live out at times but John is giving those he loves dearly instruction to have a right relationship with God in action.

I know that I have gotten myself into places I should not have been and thoughts I should not have had when my God is too small in my eyes.  I have short changed what He can do and what He knows that I don't know.  Our faith is not to be based on our feelings but on the facts of God.

v.22 - ...and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

This is one of those verses that gets twisted to make God a puppet to anything we ask of Him.  Usually what is quoted is just the first half of the verse.  Sometimes it is best to flip the phrases around so we see it more clearly.
"Because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight, whatever we ask we receive from Him."
If we are keeping God's commandments and fulfilling the great Commission then our prayers will be focused on the kingdom of God advancing because that is what our focus will be.  Keeping the commandments and living lives holy and glorifying God changes our prayers.  Living with God bigger than our feelings, changes our prayers.  This is not a verse that is talking about selfish prayers but prayers in accordance to God's will.

My heart is set on God and my actions are in accordance to His glory and His word is supreme and because of that I come before Him with my prayers that are focused on Him and His glory.  This makes me look at the content of my prayers and also the content of my life toward and with God.

"Lord, may my prayers change to reflect You.  Thank you for the confidence that You give me when my eyes and my actions are centered on You.  May my day reflect more of You than me today.  Amen."
Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more