SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/8/2019
11:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro to Eph. 6:18-24”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 6:18-24
Message of the verses: “18 Pray in the
Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your
prayers for all believers everywhere.19 And pray for me, too. Ask God to give
me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good
News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. 20 I am in chains now, still preaching
this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly
for him, as I should. 21 To bring you up to date, Tychicus will give you a full
report about what I am doing and how I am getting along. He is a beloved brother
and faithful helper in the Lord’s work. 22 I have sent him to you for this very
purpose-to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you. 23 Peace be with
you, dear brothers and sisters, and may God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ give you love with faithfulness. 24 May God’s grace be eternally upon
all who love our Lord Jesus Christ” (NLT)
John
MacArthur tells a story that I want to pass on here. “Each time his team loses a game, a
well-known professional football coach tells the players in the locker room
afterward: ‘Gentlemen, I told you how to
win. You didn’t do what I told you, and
you lost.’ Just like an athlete, a
Christian can gave great skills, the best training, the best equipment, and a
good understanding of what he is supposed to do—and yet fail because he does
not follow instructions. If a football
player does poorly when he fails to follow his coach, how much worse does a
Christian fare when he fails to follow His Lord?”
I
remember years ago that I watched Billy Graham preach to a crowd in the western
part of the country of Canada. He was
talking about how difficult it was to live in a society with all of the “stuff”
that the peoples of Canada and the United States have. It is a great distraction to have the things
that believers have access to in our world today. We can become dependent upon these things and
not depend on the Lord. We have to trust
in the God who gives us gifts and not on the gifts that God has given to
us.
John
MacArthur writes “Ephesians begins by lifting us up to the heavenlies, and ends
by pulling us down to our knees. ‘Don’t
think,’ Paul concludes, in effect, ‘that because you have all these blessings
and resources that you can now live the Christian life without further help
from God.’ God’s armor is neither
mechanical nor magical. We cannot simply
take hold of it on our own and expect it automatically to produce supernatural
feats. If James Russell Lowell’s
eloquent saying, ‘The gift without the giver is bare,’ is true in human
relationships, it is immeasurably truer in our relationship to God. Our divine gifts—marvelous as they are—are bare
without the divine Giver.
“In
the closing verse of this letter Paul first gives believers some general
instruction about prayer, then a specific illustration of prayer, and finally a
benediction.” I look forward in looking
at this section, especially the parts about prayer.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
I am always thankful for learning more about prayer as sometimes I can
get the wrong focus in my prayer life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have to think that prayer is an important
part of humility.
David Jeremiah comments on Job 2:11-13
in our quotation from “Love in Action.
“There’s probably no better salve you
can pour on a hurting person’s wounds than genuine tears. These friends sat down with Job and
wept. And then (the wisest thing they
did) they kept quiet for seven days. For
seven days and seven nights they sat without saying a word. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came allegedly to
comfort Job, to encourage him. But they
were lousy encouragers. Actually, Job
used the word “miserable” (that’s Old Testament for lousy).”
11/8/2019 12:21 PM
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