Pray Network Forum

I fear that the church in these days, especially in the West, has become shallow in our understanding and practice of forgiveness. We sometimes confuse forgiveness with overlooking sins. And agape* love in the church family certainly covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8) But the depth of forgiveness in the church family must be more than putting up with one another's faults and weaknesses. Nor is forgiveness the same as understanding. I have heard someone say, “Well, I can forgive him because I understand why he did that.” Real forgiveness does not demand understanding. It can come while you still hurt. Such forgiveness is the key to true reconciliation that releases the power of God in our midst.

In the years that I was pastoring churches I always used the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:15-17 as a guide for church discipline when someone had sinned against the whole body. I believe that is justified to some extent. But that is really not the context in which Jesus spoke those words. They begin, “If your brother sins against you.” Because of the importance of this passage I want to present it here in its entirety including verses 18-20. And I encourage you to read it slowly and thoughtfully before I begin to unpack some of it.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

First, notice the goal of reconciliation. When someone wrongs you, you are not to go to them as the judge pointing out how wrong they are. Your goal is to heal the relationship. From the start you need to have worked through your willingness to forgive, and restore the relationship, possibly deeper than it ever had been before.

This requires humility produced by the Holy Spirit through time spent agonizing in prayer for the person. And that humility extends to a willingness to sit down with a person before an outside party. When you bring in another party, or failing that, go before the entire church, you have to be open for them to see things you haven't seen in the issue. And you have to be humble enough to submit to their authority over you for the sake of reconciliation. This will require nothing short of the agape* love that God is developing in our lives and in the fellowship of the church.

And even the judgment of the church, is to be carried out in heartbroken agape*. While treating people as non-believers does not mean we have no more contact with them, it does mean that the whole purpose of the body of Christ is broken. And seems to be very serious. Jesus says rather forcefully here, “Whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven.” He says identical words in John 20 where He breathes on his disciples the Holy Spirit.

“And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

(John 20:22,23)

Finally we see the depth of agreeing together in prayer that can only come from forgiving from our very hearts. Peter comes to Jesus and asks how many times shall he keep on forgiving someone who has wronged him. Jesus tells the parable of the servant who has received great forgiveness, but won't forgive his fellow servant. And he concludes with verse 35.

“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

*Agape is the ultimate love of God poured out in our lives. The fullest description of agape in 1 Corinthians 13.

http://theanchorofthesoul.blogspot.com/

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

Website

http://daveswatch.com/

YouTube

https://goo.gl/PyzUz7

This week I was working on a proposal for my book on AGAPE. And I thought this was something I should run here.

Okay, you are rushing to work in the morning. You got away from home without breakfast or even a cup of coffee. But you've made better time than usual and you have just enough time to pull into Starbucks. But the car in front of you takes an extra ten minutes trying to decide what everyone in the car wants to order. How do you react? You need agape to respond in a godly manner.

You are in the grocery store and although the line is longer, you go to the register marked “20 items or less” thinking it will move faster, only to discover that two people snuck into the line with baskets overflowing. How do you maintain your composure? Let me suggest that you develop the habit of praying for the overworked cashier, for each person in line, for all the children hanging on to the carts and begging their parents for candy and gum. If you finish praying for them, you can pray for your pastor or people you know who are sick or in the hospital. Praying draws you into awareness of the nearness of God. As you pray God will pour His love into you. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Years ago I challenged a group to pray for people in traffic on their way to and from work. Many of them commuted an hour or more twice a day. I told them they could pray for hundreds of people on the freeway. The next week they came back giving testimonies about how much better they felt when they arrived at work and when they got home at night.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

We often think of the gospel as that most elementary truth of the Christian life that you leave behind as you grow deeper in the faith. But that is not true at all. It is true that the gospel is simple and may be the first thing a person becoming a believer understands. But we never outgrow the importance of the gospel in our lives.

The Humility of the Gospel

Few things are more important in the Christian life than humility. Peter said, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and he will lift you up." The gospel is the final source of our humility. The Son of God had to die to redeem me!

The Security of the gospel

But there is no security like the gospel. God loved me so much that He sent His Son to die for me. His love is the foundation of our security.

The virtue of the gospel

Because of the gospel we do not try to do what is right so God will accept us. We hunger to do what pleases God because we have been accepted in the beloved.

We ought to see everything in Scripture in the light Jesus and through the lens of the gospel. From time to time over the next few months  I want to show how one passage or another must be seen through the perspective of the gospel.

http://daveswatch.com

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com

I recently finished the rough draft of a book on AGAPE. I have to admit that writing it has been a thrill. One of the things that God pressed on me is that agape, the love of God, the love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have lavished upon one another from before time, is at the heart of our bond with God. And agape needs to be the driving force of our prayer. Let me point out some natural expressions of the love of God that should shape our prayers.
Prayer for the Needy
God cares for the poor. He loves them with a special love. (James 2:5) You can pray in general for ministries to the poor. Thank God for them. And of course real agape and real prayer will give to such ministries. But that is not enough. You can pray for people you may pass every day. You may see them on the side of the road or in the grocery store. You may very well see them in church. And you can pray for opportunities to get the know some of them personally, and find personal ways to pray for each of them.
The neediest people you will ever meet are people who are lost without Christ
Prayer for the Lost
God cares for the lost. Jesus began His teaching in Luke 15 with this parable. Which one of you who has a hundred sheep but loses one of them will not leave the 99 in the open field to go after the one lost sheep? When he finds it, will he not put it on his shoulders with joy? Coming home he will call his friends and neighbors saying, “Celebrate with me because I have found my lost sheep!” Jesus concluded, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Are you praying daily by name for people who do not know your Lord? I assumed many of us would have to look for needy people. But that is not true about lost people. God has placed you in the midst of family members, neighbors, coworkers and acquaintances who need Christ. He has trusted them to you. Pray for a clear witness to them. Pray for softened heart. Pray for every need they have. Pray for His power in their lives.
Prayer of Forgiveness
As Jesus hung on the cross He prayed, “Father, forgive them.” Who do you think He was praying for? He was certainly praying for the Roman soldiers who were carrying out His crucifixion. I believe He was praying for the multitude shouting, “Crucify!” I believe He was praying for the men who had condemned Him. But He was also praying for me. His whole crucifixion was a powerful prayer for God to forgive me and you. That prayer was a declaration of the will of God from before the foundation of the universe.
Are you praying for God to forgive those who have sinned against you? They probably include people whom you love, people who are close to you. They will include people who hate you. They will include people who hurt you deeply, and people who are not at all sorry about it. This kind of praying requires spiritual growth. And it will be a major factor in your growing more and more in the love of Christ.

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/
http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/
http://daveswatch.com/index.html

I have been doing research on three books that I am asking God to let me finish. Their working titles are FAITH, HOPE, and AGAPE. From time to time I intend to give you glimpses of each of these books in my blog posts. This is the first.

In the introduction to my book, Joy, I said that whole book was to some extent a definition of joy. That is not the case with AGAPE. In this book I would like to show you powerful elements of love and help you develop genuine love in your life. But love is much more difficult to define. That is primarily because of its infinite personal source. Agape comes from God and God alone.

Look with me at 1 John chapter 4:7 and 8.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Do you get the force of this statement? "God is Love!" "God is agape!"

In the same context verses 16 and 17 say,

"And we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

This gives us a glimpse into the nature of the triune God. Love is not something God developed later. He did not create us so He would have someone to love. Love is the very nature of the infinite God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loved one another eternally. The first lines of this poem on John 1:1 reaches for this truth.

In the beginning, from before the beginning

There was God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

In perfect union, eternal love communing."

So verse 19 of 1 John 4 concludes that we love because God loved us first.

Love comes from God. We love out of relationship with Him.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/.