Some may tend to think of prayer after the sin has been committed. This daily devotional looks at using prayer to help us resist sin.
Nuggets
- Prayer is our connection with the spirit world.
- Prayer done the right way pays God the reverence He is due.
- Prayer helps us to change our lives so we can resist sin.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the How Do We Live Godly Lives? series
In the last devotion, we talked about watching. In this devotion, we are looking at prayer. In the next, we will look at then together.
“The third sort of directions are for the ordering of evil thoughts, when they do intrude; and” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
Let's Put It into Context
We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes. Charnock has taught us
- that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
- that we focus our thoughts by being humble instead of prideful, following God instead of the worldview, working instead of being idle, and laboring for Him.
- that we overcome our evil thoughts by burying ourselves in Scripture, relying on His omniscience and judgment, guarding our hearts and lips, evaluating ourselves, and recognizing evil thoughts, especially hating sin and resisting Satan. We do this by watching and praying.
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Glossary
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
What Is Prayer?
“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mk. 13: 33 KJV)
Prayer is our connection with the spirit world.
South described what prayer is. He wrote, “… prayer is that blessed messenger between heaven and earth, holding a correspondence with both worlds, and by a happy intercourse and sure conveyance carrying up the necessities of the one, and bringing down the bounties of the other.”
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Prayer isn’t just words that come out of our mouths. It has to come from our hearts. Leechman told us what this entails.
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How to Pray
Prayer done the right way pays God the reverence He is due.
Paul said that we need to pray constantly (I Thess. 5: 17). We also need to pray with a passion. We have to really mean what we say.
We have to sincerely want the outcome for which we are praying. If we are asking God to take away a sin, we have to want to give it up.
When we are praying, God wants us to pray with a reverent attitude. He wants a humble heart. He wants a mind focused on Him.
Leechman said that we have to firmly believe that God can answer our prayers. That means He is in control of us and our circumstances.
We reflect what is in our hearts when we pray. Hopefully, it will be a heart that is after God’s own heart.
Prayer isn’t about appearances. It isn’t about ceremony and religion. Jesus reiterated in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector that God wants our relationship and submission.
We can talk a blue steak and tell God how wonderful we are. God knows better. He knows our hearts.
God isn’t looking for a marketing campaign where we feel like we have to sell ourselves to Him. He is looking for us to recognize His eminence over us.
We have to look down in prayer because God because He is higher than us.
Resisting Sin by Praying
Prayer helps us to change our lives so we can resist sin.
When we approach God humbly, it means we acknowledge His majesty and our failings. We have to determine what God is and what we are not. God is virtuous, perfect, and holy. We are not.
It amazes me sometimes how we think God is going to welcome our arrogance. Well, maybe welcome isn’t the right word. He is at least going to allow it.
Our arrogance is pitifully small when compared to His attributes. Yet that is what we lead with time and time again.
We can’t lead with arrogance. We have to lead with helplessness and faith.
We don’t have to feel reluctant when approaching God. He wants us to pray to Him.
Because the tax collector humbly asked for mercy, God granted his prayer. We have to humbly approach God. We have to be contrite about our sins. Our proud, entitled attitude has to be changed into a humble, repentant one.
Salvation is not a merit-based product. We don’t buy it with going through the motions.
The Pharisee had the ceremonial goodness, but not the moral goodness. The thanksgiving, though skewed, was there, but not the gratitude.
Instead of searching for God and loving him, we are deceiving ourselves when we think we can be self-righteous. That is not the way to salvation and eternal life.
How are we self-righteous? We are when we think being a good person is good enough to get us eternal life. The Pharisee was banking on what he did to gain God’s favor. Yes, they were things God approved of – fasting and tithing.
However, salvation isn’t a works-based deal. Instead, God offers us salvation through grace. It is about accepting what God did — provide the Savior.
Our prayers have to be all about what God could and will do because we surrendered ourselves to Sovereign God. God only looks favorably on those who acknowledge they have broken His laws and commandments. He saves only those who are sorry for their sins and genuinely want to have His character.
Paul prayed that the Colossians would be strengthened in their ethical principles. Ethical principles — our social behavior.
Our social behavior is how we interact with others. What is that governed by? Our character.
We are to be growing our character — our thoughts, feelings, and actions all added together — to be more like God’s character. That is our redo for godliness.
Paul knew our character needed strengthened, and that we couldn’t strengthen it on our own. We can’t do our redo on our own.
The tax collector was a moral person, but his cry told us that he thought the exact opposite. We have to watch that. We can’t being so contrite that we think we are justified in God’s sight, but we aren’t in our own. In other words, we have to forgive ourselves.
But what is God really looking for when He looks inwardly? He is looking for motivation. Have we really submitted our lives to Him? Are we using the Sanctification Road to change our characters to be like His?
God doesn’t want lip service. He wants changed lives.
Prayer helps us gain stability in our walk. It helps us to not become complacent when we have that mountain-top experience. It will help us with our insecurities.
We think any communication is good communication, right? No. We have to pray submissively. We have to pray constantly. We have to pray in His Will.
Sometimes, we have difficulties with the fact that God knows what we are going to ask before we ask it. He is omniscient, after all. Omniscience means God is all-knowing.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Prayer is a way of submitting to God. We show our dependence on Him. It puts Him firmly in control.
It also proves where we are at in our relationship with God. If we don’t want what He wants, we aren’t going to pray that way.
That is just it. Prayer isn’t about getting Him to move to us. It is about us moving to him.
We move to God by changing our character to imitate His.
Leechman debunked another myth about prayers. Some say God has already written our plans, so it doesn’t matter if we pray or not.
Leechman wrote, “None ever maintained that God hath determined events to happen without any means, and prayers are the proper means of obtaining spiritual blessings.”
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God isn’t a dictator. He gives us free will. We use that free will when we pray.
God has designed our plans around what He knows will be our choices. How does He know that? One way is He knows what we will pray.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below./
Making the Connections
How can we tell the difference between conscious sins and sins because we are sinful creatures?
- The obvious reason for willful sins is they come form our moral actions. In other words, we make a conscious choice to act a certain way at a specific time.
- Our weakness-of-the-flesh sins are because they go against what Scriptures say doesn’t fall in line with our salvation, such as former sinful habits, the seven deadly sins common to all mankind, low self-discipline, temptations, lack of knowledge of how to withstand the temptation, wrong beliefs, and lack of sincerity in our confession.
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By the way, Newman included governing thoughts, speech, and feelings in the low self-discipline category.
How Do We Apply This?
We didn’t do the application in the last devotion, so this included those.
- Give God the glory and honor due Him
- Have a realistic image of ourselves
- Honor God through our speech
- Be sober-minded (I Pet. 5: 8; II Tim. 4: 5)
- Watch for Satan’s temptations
- Reading and hearing God’s Word and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit
- Be alert in every situation that God puts us in and use it to further His kingdom.
Glossary
Only God can help us resist sin. The only way we can access His help is by asking Him through prayer.
Father God. We hate the sin in our lives. We know that – without You – we cannot even attempt to master it. It is through You alone that we can resist sin. Amen.
What do you think?
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