Lord, Teach Us To Pray - Part Seventeen

 

 

Psalm 14:2

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men,

to see if there were any that did understand

and seek God.

Prayer Cards No. 71

Psalm 14:2

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

    Are we seeking God the way He wants to be sought after? I would hope that we are.

    We run to God with our problems, with our tears; with our sorrows and troubles. We run to God with our hopes, our joys; with our happiness in His love and grace.

    We run to God and He runs to meet us. We have been prodigal children and we have sought out a loving Father to embrace us and bring us into His home, choosing to be His servants in whatever way He wants to use us.

    But God lifts us up in His embrace and calls us sons and daughters. He kisses our faces and we are overjoyed at the welcome He gives us. We are enveloped in His lovingkindness and shown great grace. He calls for a feast to be prepared for us.

We have, indeed, sought God the way He wants to be sought after. We are home, for this is love.

Seeing The Pigsty..

...For What It Is

Luke 17:15-20


You can tell your kids to clean their rooms. You can show them how to clean and take care of their rooms. But until they realize that their room is filthy, according to your standards, they will just not see the filth for what it is.

Us Moms and Dads know that a clean room is more than just a nice room. The child/children sleeping and playing in there are happier, the room smells fresh and clean when you walk into it and the child is learning a basic need for him or her self: responsibility for one's own needs. 

It is the same way with a sinner. We are told we need to be saved from the penalty of sin. We are shown the way to salvation. But until we see the need for salvation, until we recognize that we are sinners and that our thoughts, our actions, our words are sin, we will not obtain said salvation. 

We need to see sin for what it is before we can be declared set free from sin. Which begs the question, What is sin?

SIN IS ANYTHING GOD SAYS IS SIN. 

What is the penalty of sin? 

Death. Twice dead. 

How do I escape the penalty for my sin?

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth on Him, should be saved.". John 3:16 

GOD STILL LOVES. It is not a past tense, it is a current frame.

"For whosoever shall call upon The Name of The LORD shall be saved". Romans 10:13

WHOSOEVER MEANS ANYONE. God's love is not restricted to the color of our skin, nor the culture into which we are born, nor our gender, nor our citizenship. GOD LOVES. EVERYONE. 
Even the people who hate God, God loves. Why? Because GOD IS LOVE. 

What does God hate? Sin. Not the sinner, not the one committing the sins, but sin itself. Sin is disobedience to God. It is what keeps us from God's presence, because God is holy and sin is not. 

Are you seeing the pigsty yet? The Prodigal son saw nothing but despair and hopelessness when he sold himself into slavery to slop pigs. It is only when he realized where he was and what he was doing that he ran to his father and begged for forgiveness, expecting only to be a paid servant.

But what happened? His father ran to meet him, when he saw him coming. He forgave him immediately and wrapped him in the family garments, threw a huge party and welcomed his son home. 

It is in this way that God sees us. He waits for us to see sin for what it is, to recognize that we need His forgiveness on our sins because it is against Him we have sinned. He wraps His arms around us, throws a robe of righteousness across our shoulders and gives us only His best. 

That's what a heavenly Father does. 

Our hearts are our rooms. It is this room Jesus enters, when we believe. It is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Jesus washes our sins away with His blood. He cleans our hearts when we believe that He is who God says He is. 

I believe.