January 25, 2010

  • may we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer

    I've been reflecting on prayer, and, Lord wiling, I hope to post a series of reflections on prayer. (Edit 1.27.10 - Some of those posts will be titled/tagged "Lord, teach us to pray once again." )

    This post serves as a general introduction to that series of posts...

    I've been reading through the book of Hebrews and would like us to reflect on the great privilege and responsibility of prayer which Christ purchased for us.

    Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

    Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

    May we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer.


    Our Father,

    Many times we do give You thanks and praise for Your great salvation through Jesus Christ. We give thanks and praise that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins in His body on the cross, and so we should do so. But how often do we give You thanks and praise for the privilege we have to come to You in prayer? And how often do we avail ourselves of the privilege? How often do we see prayer as a chore or a burden rather than a blessed fellowship and holy communion with You? How often do we manage to find ourselves engaged in and all other things but prayer. How often do we forget that prayer is our very life, our very breath? How can we expect to live the life You have given us if we do not avail ourselves of the means You provide for us to do so. And one of those means is through prayer.

    May we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer.

    O, Lord God, we are truly miserable and despicable creatures, and yet You still love us in spite of such attitudes, for Your Son Jesus' sake. May we never forget that our Lord Jesus Christ came not only to take the punishment for our sin, and not only so we might live forever with You in heaven (oh, yes, those are wonderful and amazing gifts You have poured out to us at Calvary by grace through faith!), but also that Jesus took on flesh, came to earth in the form of a servant and went to the cross in our place, He suffered and died for us so we might dwell with Him (and You) in heavenly places in the here and now, so we might enter into Your very presence today! We confess we do not truly understand this but we do know that if we are in Christ, we have Your Holy Spirit indwelling us and we have fellowship with You today. We have been united with Christ. You have told us we have already been seated in heavenly places with You. Eternal life begins in the here and now. These things are above our comprehension, we admit, yet we can say that we know You and we know that You know us! And how blessed it is that You have made us Your children and we can now call You, "Abba, Father." We need not fear you. There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus! What a wonderful privilege we have. You are our Father and You are waiting to hear us. And You are waiting to speak to us...if only...if only we would take time to listen. You are the one and only holy and perfect God Who would be perfectly just in wiping us off the planet and sending us to burn in hell forever, but yet in Your forbearance and love for us You made a way for us not only to escape the punishment we deserved by punishing Your only begotten Son in our place, but then You made a way for us to have fellowship with You and Your Son through Your Holy Spirit. You adopted us as Your children. You loved us when we were Your enemies. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. O, how we so often fail to reflect on the wonder of these things and the privileges we have as children of God. We throw around the word "fellowship" but we don't really consider what it means. Do we really even try to understand the privilege we have from You?

    May we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer.

    We who are unworthy have been made worthy! We who were not a people are now the people of God! We who were paupers alienated from You by our sin are now invited to come boldly into the presence of the King of kings! We who are the created are invited to fellowship with our Creator! We who were mired in the pit of our sin are invited do commune with the Holy One who lifted us up and out of all that! We who were powerless can come before Almighty God!

    Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed so we might enter into the presence of God! O that we might consider it! Consider Him! Consider the privilege we have! O, that we might consider His blood shed for us in our place! O, that we might consider His body broken for us! O, may we take the time to consider what He has done. O, may we consider Him, consider His blood, His cross, His sacrifice, His selfless life, His perfect obedience. O, that we might consider Your love and mercy and grace poured out on us who were totally undeserving and unworthy! If we were to consider these things, certainly we would run to prayer, run into Your presence, much more often than we do now. Our Lord gave Himself on the tree, the King became a servant, He was the ransom set forth our sin-filled souls, the spotless Lamb became sin for us, so we might become the righteousness of God and have full and open fellowship with God! O, we confess before You how seldom we avail ourselves of that glorious fellowship. How seldom do we bend our knees and rend our hearts before You in prayer! And yet we have the invitation. The way has been opened through our Savior's body and blood! How often do we persist in doing, doing, and more doing, being busy, busy and more busy, instead of seeking the best part, instead of seeking Him, instead of sitting at His feet and communing with our Lord in prayer? O, may we never forget You alone are our portion, our strength and our life, our all in all, and apart from You we are and can do nothing whatsoever. All our activity in the world may look very good on the outside, it may be commended by many, but it will all be fruitless and in vain unless it flows from our time of communion, our time in prayer, with You. May we the branches continue to abide in true Vine so we might bear much fruit as You send us out into the world as You sent Your Son into the world.

    May we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer.

    Our Father, teach us to value prayer. Unless we truly value the blood-bought privilege of prayer, how can we say we value Your love, mercy and grace You showed us in sending Your Son to die for us? How can we say we love You? How can we say we love You unless we love to pray?

    Lord Jesus, teach us to value prayer. Unless we truly value he blood-bought privilege of prayer, how can we say we value You and Your sacrifice for us? How can we say we love You? How can we say we love You unless we love to pray?

    Holy Spirit, teach us to value prayer. Unless we truly value he blood-bought privilege of prayer, how can we say we value You and the ministry You have interceding for us? How can we say we love You? How can we say we love You unless we love to pray?

    May we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer.

    O God, teach us to love and value You and all You have done for us.
    O God, teach us to love and value the blood-bought privilege of prayer as we ought.
    We deserved nothing and You have given us all things in and through Jesus Christ.
    Glory to You, O God.
    May You grow our love for You and our desire to spend time with You in prayer.

    May we learn to value the blood-bought privilege of prayer.

    Please add your prayers as His Holy Spirit leads you...

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tent_of_meeting

"he called it the tent of meeting..."

I am burdened to pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the reformation and reviving of Christ's church.

The phrase tent of meeting comes from Exodus 33:7: Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

This site is devoted to God first and foremost. In all that is done here, my prayer is that God is glorified and His Name magnified and Christ and Him crucified is lifted up so He might be preeminent and God might receive all the praise, honor and glory due His Holy Name. All who have come to a saving knowledge of our Father by grace through faith in the all-sufficient sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are welcome to enter this tent of meeting to seek the Lord.

This blog is a place for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to come and seek God's face for revival. My intention is for this tent of meeting to be a holy place where we can enter into PRAYER together to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit leads you, please enter into prayer either here (think of "comments" as prayers) or on your own.

Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

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