June 26, 2009
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rend the heavens, rend our hearts of complacency
In a few days, Lord willing, I'm planning to begin a series of prayers based on the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, but first I would like to lead us in some preparatory prayers so God might begin to prepare and humble and break up the fallow ground of our hearts, so we might readily hear what His Spirit has to say to each one of us...
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down...Isaiah 64:1
Thus says the Lord:
Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:1-2From Elton Trueblood's "The Yoke of Christ and other sermons" (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), 16-17:
Even a small dose of vital Christianity is enough to shake people out of their easy complacency. When they begin to measure themselves by the standard of Christ, they know that their own personal goodness to be poor and shoddy by comparison. Jesus taught all who would learn to pray, not to be satisfied with their moral self-improvement, but to ask for forgiveness of sins. A Christian is one who, among other things, admits daily that he has done those things we he ought not to have done, and left undone those things which he ought to have done. Instead of thanking God that he is not as others, he cries out in sincerity, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,We confess we are complacent.
We confess we overlook our sin.
We confess we justify our sin.
We confess we excuse our sin.
We confess we measure ourselves by the standard of men, rather than the standard of Christ.
We confess we are prideful and say, "I thank God I am not like that sinner."
We confess we neglect to see the plank in our own eye.
We confess we do not admit, "I am a sinner."For Jesus Christ's sake, Holy God, be merciful to us, we are sinners. Forgive us our sins.
Forgive us for our complacency.
Forgive us for overlooking our sin.
Forgive us for justifying our sin.
Forgive us for excusing our sin.
Forgive us for measuring ourselves by the standard of men, rather than the standard of Christ.
Forgive us for being prideful and saying, "I thank God I am not like that sinner."
Forgive us for not seeing the plank in our own eye.
Forgive us for not admitting, "I am a sinner."For Jesus Christ's sake, Holy God, be merciful to us, we are sinners. Forgive us our sins.
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
and the breath of life that I made.
17 Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,
I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
19 creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the Lord,
and I will heal him.
Isaiah 57:15-19
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
–Ezekiel 36:26-27Father, Son and Spirit,
You can rend the heavens, yet our hearts are so hard. Can You really rend our hearts? O, our hearts are so hard! But, yes, we know You can do all things. You can rend the hardest heart. Your desire is for us to have soft hearts. But we cannot soften our hearts. Your desire for us is to be holy as You are holy. Yet we cannot be holy apart from Your Holy Spirit. Your desire is for us to repent. But we cannot repent apart from Your kindness. Your kindness works to lead the chief of sinners to repentance. Each one of us is the chief of sinners. Though you dwell in the high and holy place, You come to dwell with those who have humble and contrite hearts. Yet we cannot make our hearts humble. We cannot work up sincere contrition.
Be merciful to us, O God! Rend the heavens and come down! Rend our hearts of complacency!
We need new hearts.
Rend our hearts.
Break our stony hearts.
Give us hearts of flesh.Be merciful to us, O God! Rend the heavens and come down! Rend our hearts of complacency!
We need a new Spirit.
Give us Your Spirit
So we might walk in Your statutes.
And obey Your rules.Be merciful to us, O God! Rend the heavens and come down! Rend our hearts of complacency!
Rend our hearts.
Humble our hearts.
Give us contrite hearts and spirits.
Come and dwell with us once more.Be merciful to us, O God! Rend the heavens and come down! Rend our hearts of complacency!
If Your Presence does not go with us
Do not bring us up from here.
Rend the heavens and come down
Come and dwell with us once more.Be merciful to us, O God! Rend the heavens and come down! Rend our hearts of complacency!
Come and heal us.
Open our ears to hear Your Word.
Circumcise our hearts to tremble at Your Word.
Rend the heavens and rend our hearts of complacency.As the Holy Spirit leads you, please add Your prayers here.
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Comments (3)
rend our hard hearts. amen.
Lord, bring all Christians to repentance.
Father, You know that I read this earlier today in the opening portion in Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret:
He [Taylor] put to the test the promises of God and proved it possible to live a consistent spiritual life on the highest plane. He overcame difficulties such as few men have ever had to encounter, and left was work which long after his death is still growing in extent and usefulness. Inland China opened to the Gospel largely as an outcome of this life, tens of thousands of souls won to Christ in previously unreached provinces, twelve hundred missionaries depending upon God for the supply of all their needs without a promise of salary...
When I read this, I realized how small my vision is. How little I test Your promises. No, I am not called to China like Taylor, but I am called to the Church right here in the United States. You have continued to burden me with this ambition: to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named...not in the classic sense, but so that I might intercede for Your Church here and speak to Your Church here all the words of Your life, so Your Gospel might go and infiltrate those many places where Christ is not really named today, where His Name is but a by-word or is spoken or sung only out of tradition or habit, those places where Your people have lost their first Love, those places which appear to be alive but are really dead.
Enlarge my vision. Expand my faith. Increase my resolve. Rend the heavens and rend my heart of complacency!
When I read those words, I thought, "Why can we not have tens of thousands of souls revived to Christ today in dead or dormant churches right here? "Why not indeed!
You have so many sheep, sheep who are scattered and without shepherds, or have false shepherds or hirelings watching over them. You have so many sheep who need to be cared for and nursed back to health. They are limping and weak and weary and wandering. They are hungry and thirsty. Who will feed them? So many sheep who need to be revived again!
Rend the heavens and enlarge my vision of what You can do.
Rend the heavens and enlarge my vision of what You can do in and through me.
Rend the heavens and rend my heart of complacency. I so often want to do the safe thing. But if I am concerned with safety I will never be open to doing whatever it may take to save many souls and impact Your Kingdom for eternity. Dare I say it? Yes, I must: increase my burden for I know I am still not constrained by Your love as I must be to go without reservation and in complete obedience to You.
Rend the heavens and pour out Your Spirit on me once more.
Rend the heavens and pour out Your Spirit on Your Church once more.
Rend the heavens and revive tens of thousands of souls in Your church.
Rend the heavens so Your people might return to You, their first Love.
Will You not do this for Your Name's sake? Is not Your Name undergoing reproach because of the complacency, dryness, apathy and deadness in the Church? Will You not send Your fire and stir us once more for Your Name's sake? Will You not bring life to the dry bones? Will You not remember us, remember Your Church for Your precious Son's sake and have mercy upon us? Do not let us continue to be complacent and languish. Do not let me continue to be complacent and languish.
Rend the heavens and rend my heart of complacency!
Amen.
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