Pray Network Forum

This first post in my new blog THINKING IN THE SPIRIT. Most of the posts in this new blog will not be good to post here on Pray Network. But this post could well have been entered in WATCHING IN PRAYER, which I plan to continue to post every other week. However, I am approaching even this similar entry from a different perspective and intent.

And as I finished writing this entry, I decided that because the segments were so short my readers would be tempted to skip over them too quickly. These are profound truths even though they can be written briefly and are not difficult to understand. So, I will divide them into three shorter blog posts on this subject.

The first of Martin Luther's 95 Theses read, "All of life is repentance."

We may tend to dread repentance and avoid it at all cost. But that is a wrong view of repentance. Repentance is a relief in the light of the gospel. And it leads to a life of freedom and satisfaction.

Look at this powerful prayer of David in Psalm 139.

"Search me O God and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Searching the Dependence of Your Heart

One of the primary reasons we need God to help us search our hearts is that we fall away from depending on Him for righteousness, meaning and fulfillment. I can avoid examining my heart because I don’t want to admit my weakness and failings. This ignores the source of my righteousness.  

The Hebrew word for thoughts here refers to anxious thoughts. If I am depending on my own goodness to be sufficient, I will be stressed to my limit. But we depend on the sacrifice of Jesus for our righteousness. We come to God in the purifying power of His blood. And we depend upon Him for our purpose, dignity and fulfillment in our lives.

It is a wonderful relief to repent of finding our righteousness and fulfillment in ourselves. Repentance does not just turn from lying, but from the motivation that thinks I need to bolster my position, hide my weaknesses or gain respect.

What are you depending on that needs the relief of repentance?

http://daveswatch.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

I pray that all of you are enjoying a wonderful celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the expressions of thanks to our Lord I have heard or heard about this year. One of the greatest blessings I have seen is the number of people posting daily thanksgivings on Facebook every day this month.

And with the many other expressions I would like to suggest a wonderful offering of thanks. Give thanks to God by giving to people in need. Jesus said “In as much done it for the least of these, you have done it unto me.” Many of you have been blessed by this sort of thing all your lives. Others of us will find this a new delight. And there are so many ways to give to those in need.

Living Bread Ministries, planting churches among the desperately poor http://www.livingbread.org/ When John the Baptist sent messengers from prison asking if Jesus were the Messiah, Jesus listed miraculous proofs from healing to raising the dead and climaxed the list with the statement, “And the gospel is preached the poor.” This can still be miraculous evidence of Christ in our lives.

You can give to world hunger through the IMB which also plants churches in many places around the world. http://www.imb.org/main/give/default.asp. One great advantage to giving to hunger relief through the IMB is that a dollar buys a dollar’s worth of food. They cover distribution costs through their regular mission ministries. Give online to World Hunger Fund to meet food-related needs or to General Relief to provide other aid such as shelter or clothing. Give to help victims of disasters through our SBC partner, Baptist Global Response.

You can also give to meet human needs through Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, http://www.rzim.org/  and their ministry, Wellspring International. http://wellspringinternational.org/

And you may not have thought of your local Gospel Rescue Mission. http://www.agrm.org/agrm/default.asp  My son-in-law works at our local mission. http://www.rescue-mission.org/ He told me they have collected over 1500 turkeys to prepare for hungry families this year. Rescue missions have the added advantage of allowing you to volunteer. And they will need many extra volunteers all weekend, through Christmas and all year. My son-in-law told us about a family who has volunteered to be at the family shelter at 5:00 A.M. tomorrow to prepare breakfast. Prayer warriors could pray for hundreds of people in line while serving turkey and trimmings.