Bible League: Living His Word I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.There are some things that we, like the Apostle Paul in our verse for today, should pray for ourselves and for any others God places on our hearts. First of all, we should pray that God would give us something from out of His glorious riches. What are God's glorious riches? They are the inexhaustible abundance of His grace and mercy for us. God is rich in mercy and grace. He has everything we need to live the lives He wants us to live. He has everything we need to meet all our needs (Philippians 4:19). What specifically, however, should we pray for from out of His glorious riches? We should pray that He will strengthen us with power through His Spirit in our inner beings. What does this mean? It means that our inner beings, our hearts or souls, lack something. Our souls lack the power and ability to do something. Our souls, as a result, need to be strengthened. They need to be given the power and ability to do what needs to be done. What needs to be done? We need to have faith. We need to believe what God wants us to believe. Apart from God's Spirit working on the inside of us we are unable to believe what God wants us to believe. Instead, we will believe whatever we want, or, worse, we will believe what Satan wants us to believe (I Timothy 4:1). We need to be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to believe the way that we should believe. What, specifically, should we pray for the faith to believe in? We should pray for the faith to believe in Jesus Christ. When the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented to us we need the faith necessary to believe it. We need this faith so that Christ will dwell in our hearts, so that we will be true Christians. We need prayers like Paul's prayer. We need God's glorious riches of grace and mercy. We need to be strengthened in our inner beings so that our faith in Christ will come into being and grow. We need, in other words, to pray Paul's prayer for ourselves and those we care about on a regular basis. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJonah Jonah 1 -- Jonah, Sent to Nineveh, but Flees to Tarshish; Thrown into the Sea and Swallowed by a Fish NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jonah 2 -- The Prayer and Deliverance of Jonah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jonah 3 -- Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites; They Repent and God Relents NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jonah 4 -- God Rebukes Jonah for His Displeasure NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Revelation 9 Revelation 9 -- The Bottomless Pit and the Army from the East NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. Insight The farmer must wait patiently for his crops to grow; he cannot hurry the process. But he does not take the summer off and hope that all goes well in the fields. There is much work to do to ensure a good harvest. In the same way, we must wait patiently for Christ's return. We cannot make him come back any sooner. But while we wait, there is much work that we can do to advance God's kingdom. Both the farmer and the Christian must live by faith, looking toward the future reward for their labors. Challenge Don't live as if Christ will never come. Work faithfully to build his kingdom—the King will come when the time is right. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Joel 2:13 Rend your heart, and not your garments.Garment-rending and other outward signs of religious emotion, are easily manifested and are frequently hypocritical; but to feel true repentance is far more difficult, and consequently far less common. Men will attend to the most multiplied and minute ceremonial regulations--for such things are pleasing to the flesh--but true religion is too humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the tastes of the carnal men; they prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly. Outward observances are temporarily comfortable; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness is puffed up: but they are ultimately delusive, for in the article of death, and at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital godliness all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere heart, every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of heaven. Heart-rending is divinely wrought and solemnly felt. It is a secret grief which is personally experienced, not in mere form, but as a deep, soul-moving work of the Holy Spirit upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a matter to be merely talked of and believed in, but keenly and sensitively felt in every living child of the living God. It is powerfully humiliating, and completely sin-purging; but then it is sweetly preparative for those gracious consolations which proud unhumbled spirits are unable to receive; and it is distinctly discriminating, for it belongs to the elect of God, and to them alone. The text commands us to rend our hearts, but they are naturally hard as marble: how, then, can this be done? We must take them to Calvary: a dying Saviour's voice rent the rocks once, and it is as powerful now. O blessed Spirit, let us hear the death-cries of Jesus, and our hearts shall be rent even as men rend their vestures in the day of lamentation. Daily Light on the Daily Path Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.Philippians 4:6,7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. • And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" Isaiah 45:19 "I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek Me in a waste place'; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright. Hebrews 10:19,22 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, • let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 13:6 so that we confidently say, "THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?" New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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