I've been posting some reflections on prayer, and most recently I've posted some prayers based on Nehemiah (please see here, here and here and here), Today's prayer is from Nehemiah 2, but it is a little different from the most recent prayers.

Nehemiah 2:9  Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10  But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah, the Ammonite servant, heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

11  So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12  Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 13  I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14  Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. 15  Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16  And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.

17  Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18  And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19  But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20  Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”


Dear Father,

We see when Your servant Nehemiah was sent to lead Your people in the work of rebuilding the wall at Jerusalem, he met with opposition. We confess that sometimes  we are surprised or dismayed or discouraged when we meet with opposition. Yet we should not be surprised, dismayed or discouraged. Anyone who is sent to seek the welfare of Your people, of Your Church, is sure to meet with opposition. Satan, Your enemy, is our enemy because we are Your chosen people. Our Lord Jesus continued to be opposed. He was sent to be the Savior of the world, He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet even then we know all the opposition and rejection that He met was all under Your sovereign hand, all of it was according to Your sovereign will in fulfillment of prophecy and Your ordained plan for our Savior. Jesus warned us that as He was treated so we would be also. Help us not to fear or be dismayed, but to remember Your plan can never be thwarted, no matter how great the opposition we might meet. Help us to be assured that You are our Helper no matter the circumstance. Nothing is too hard for You. Your have promised Your Holy Spirit would abide with us forever and all authority and power is Yours. The devil is already a defeated foe.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

We need to have discerning ears and eyes as we meet with many people in this world. Many may despise us outwardly but there are times that Your enemies may come in disguise, like angels of light, like wolves in sheep's clothing. Help us to gentle as doves yet wise as serpents as we deal with people. May we be discerning and never yoke ourselves to others You are not calling to come alongside us.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

Help us to be discerning and obedient to the call You have put into our hearts to do for You and for Your people. Help us to remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in Your work for then our labor in You will not be in vain. There are times we must go out at night like Nehemiah did, to survey the walls, and there are times we must be silent about the work You are doing in us and what You are putting on our hearts. Help us to be faithful to work even when You are the only Friend we have, the only Friend in Whom we can confide in. There are those times of preparation, of plowing the soil or surveying the walls or going into our closets or to fast or to study undisturbed. Help us to know Your will for us and to walk in it. To persevere in those works You have called us to which are so vital, but not necessarily to undergirding the future work You have for us to do. Help us to persevere with joy no matter the place or the work You have for us. Be it alone on our knees or in front of a crowd. If we are obedient to You, we know Your yoke will be easy and Your burden light, no matter what the service.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

Help us to wait on You for each step of the journey You have for us. So often we would not take that time like Nehemiah to survey the ruins alone and quietly at night. We would want to get right to it. But then as we see Nehemiah speak of what You had put on His heart in Your timing, that timing was perfect, for we hear the people acclaim, "Let us rise up and build" and then begin to make the preparations to do so. We can see how You were preparing their hearts to hear Nehemiah's message at just that time. Help us not to question Your timing. Help us to wait on You and trust You when You tell us to be silent, or to go away and pray more or to wait a little longer. We will never be ashamed as we wait on You. Help us not to seek the action, but to seek You and Your face first and foremost. We want to be in the middle of the battle, we want to be doing, but any work You call us to is vital and it is all battle, it is all action to further Your Kingdom and Your Gospel. May we trust that wherever You have us is a strategic place. May we trust that You are only waiting so Your Name might be highly exalted as You always choose to act in the way that will maximize Your glory. May we look forward to Your hallowing Your Name in Your time.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write,

‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”: 8 “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.  10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.  12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
 
13 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’

I'm continuing to write some prayers based Judges 19:22-20:48. In this passage of Scripture we read how Israel went to war against Benjamin because some Benjamites had sexually abused a Levite's concubine who later died as a result of their abuse.

I would like us to continue to consider and reflect upon the perseverance of the Israelites in battle and what we can learn from their example, and then turn those things into prayers for perseverance for ourselves, so we might keep God's command to us to persevere. There are three things I would like to draw your attention to in the Judges passage, and Lord willing, I hope to continue to post prayers based on this passage of Scripture.

I. A prayer for holiness. First, the children of Israel were clear about what sin was. So too ought to be praying for a clear vision of God's holiness and an increasing desire to be holy and to live holy lives. (I've already posted about that here and here, as well as in previous prayers on this blog. Holiness must be the constant prayer of the people of God.)

II. A prayer for unity. Second, the children of Israel were united in their efforts. So too we ought to be praying for God to protect the unity we have in Him and that we would endeavor to uphold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (My last post/prayer related to unity as will today's post.)

III. A prayer for continuing obedience. Third, despite defeat, the children of Israel continued to seek and prepare themselves to do God's will and followed through in obedience. So too we ought to be praying God would keep us seeking His face, that we might be diligent and vigilant and follow through in obedience to His revealed will for us.

In today's prayer I would like to focus us on our need for unity in the Gospel.

Father, Son and Spirit, one God in three persons,

In Judges 20 we see the Israelites uniting together and working together:

How can we have such unity and harmony if we are not of one mind about the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

In Leviticus 10 (NKJV) you warned us through your servant Moses:

Forgive us, Holy Father, spotless Lamb and Holy Spirit, we have offered You the profane fire of false gospels.
Protect us, Holy Father, spotless Lamb and Holy Spirit from offering You the profane fire of false gospels.

You are holy, holy, holy. As we come near You we must regard You as holy and before all people You must be glorified. All we offer to You must be holy.

Many who proclaim Your Gospel have twisted it; instead of allowing Your glory to shine through the sufficiency of Christ, they allow profane fire to shine in the world. Such profane fire is not the true light and has no real power to save. O, Lord have mercy on us. Send us pastors and teachers who have been led by Your Holy Spirit into the truth of the Gospel to lead us and teach us.

Whenever the Gospel is not proclaimed rightly, You are not glorified. You alone are the source of our life in Christ Jesus, You made Him alone to be our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that no one can boast but in You. All things were created by You, through You and to You so that all praise, honor and glory goes to You alone.

When we add anything to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, we no longer regard You as holy.
When we add anything to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, we diminish and obscure Your glory.
Instead of putting Christ on the lampstand for all to see, we are putting profane fire there.

We confess we have offered profane fire to You.
Cleanse us, O God, show us where we are offering profane fire to You.

Show us where we keep living in bondage to the law and religious traditions of men rather than knowing the freedom You have provided for us so we might no longer be entangled with a yoke of bondage.

Protect us from adding any of our own works onto the pure, beautiful and wholly sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Protect us from adding our own filthy rags to the perfect righteousness that has been imputed by faith to us in His sacrifice and imparted to us through the gift of your indwelling Holy Spirit.

When we take anything away the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, we no longer regard You as holy.
When we take anything from the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, we diminish and obscure Your glory.
Instead of putting Christ on the lampstand for all to see, we are putting profane fire there.

We confess we have offered profane fire to You.
Cleanse us, O God, show us where we are offering profane fire to You.

Show us where we keep living in bondage to our sin and cultural norms rather than knowing and living in the freedom You have provided for us so sin might no longer have dominion over us.

Protect us from taking away Your call to sanctification and for holy living for the believer.
Protect us from taking away the necessity of the new birth, the need for us to be born again.

By Your Holy Spirit's work, protect us, strengthen us and guide us into all truth so we might strive together for the faith the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only true Gospel, the only Gospel that has power to save, and persevere in the battle set before us.

Amen.

I recently posted A Prayer for Holiness based on Judges 19:22-20:48. In the introductory remarks to that prayer I'd written:

In the past several days I've been reflecting and praying over what unity in the Body of Christ means.

We can disagree on the nonessentials of our faith, but we can never disagree on the essentials.

Unity in Christ never means we turn a blind eye to unholiness in our midst.

Paul exhorts both Timothy and Titus to watch their doctrine and their behavior.

From the time I began this blog I wanted it to be a place that would honor God. (Please see my post About this blog - why "tent of meeting"?)

When we allow unholy doctrine and behavior into our midst, we do not honor Him.

In short, there are two ways we can be unholy.

1. WE CAN BE UNHOLY IN OUR DOCTRINE.

If we don't all accept Christ as the chief Cornerstone, as the author and finisher of our faith, then we have no unity. The Gospel of Christ is the power unto salvation. There is no other power. The Spirit brings us life; we are dead apart from His life. We are made children of God by His working. Salvation from beginning to end is all of Him and none of us. We will never be righteous in our own power. In order to be saved we must submit ourselves to the righteousness God has provided for us through faith in Jesus Christ. The good works we do are all by Him, through Him and to Him, so He alone gets all the praise, honor and glory. God forbid this place of prayer, a place that is to bring praise, honor and glory to God alone and to our Savior Jesus Christ, is polluted and tainted by any other gospel. I am praying for protection over this place of prayer and hope you will also. I truly believe that God will not bless us if we bring Him strange fire or if there are any who hide away in his own tent false idols of doctrinal profession without regeneration, legalism, moralism, returning to the law and so forth.

2. WE CAN BE UNHOLY IN OUR BEHAVIOR.

I also believe God will not bless our efforts here if we continue to confess we are His but do not live like it, if we continue in known sin without being grieved by it, we have to question if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. If we have truly seen God as holy, we cannot help but see how our sin grieves Him. If we are God's and being conformed into Christ's image, our sin should grieve us more and more. We cannot say we truly know Christ's love for us and insist our sin doesn't matter. He died for our sin. He died to purify us from all unrighteousness by His blood. He died so we might have His Holy Spirit who dwells in us to make us holy. If we persist in known sin, if we continue to excuse or rationalize sin, we have to question whether we are truly His children or not. God forbid this place of prayer, a place that is to bring praise, honor and glory to God alone and to our Savior Jesus Christ is polluted and tainted by our sinful behavior. God will not bless us here if we continue to bow down idols of licentious and sinful lifestyles. And by sin, I'm talking all sin, not just sexual immorality, I'm including those sins we too easily overlook such as anger, rage, murmuring, impatience, jealousy and so forth.

Both types of unholiness are threats not only here but also in the Church at large. God's standards are the same today. God's Gospel has not changed: Salvation comes by grace through faith and not by works. And God's definition of sin has not changed: He continues calls us out to be a holy nation and to  be holy as He is holy and He has given us the means to do so through His Holy Spirit.

We cannot abide impure doctrine and impure behavior in the midst of this place that is to be holy unto the Lord. If we come to Him unholy and impure in any way, He will not accept our prayers.

While I was out walking recently I saw an end table ready for trash pick-up. Why was it put out to the curb for trash pick-up? Why was it discarded?

It had three legs.

What good is a table with three legs?

When we come with unholy doctrine, it's as if we're coming with to the Lord with three legs. When we come with unholy behavior, it's as if we're coming to the Lord with three legs. We're not whole. We'll never stand before a holy God.

Psalm 24 reminds us:

At times I think we've become so enamored with Christ as our "friend," which He is, but we tend to forget He is absolutely holy. How often do you think of Jesus like the Jesus we see in Revelation 1?

Do you have an understanding of Jesus like that? If not, then I ask that you ask God to reveal His holiness to you, the holiness Isaiah saw.

Should we not all not be responding to the holiness of God like John...

Oh, yes, I know we've come to Mt. Zion, not Mt. Sinai. We've been saved by grace through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our God has poured out His manifold mercies and lavish grace and love for us at the cross of Calvary. Nonetheless we are to approach Him as a holy God and have a holy fear of Him. Sometimes I venture to say that we've drunk a bit too much of grace and forgotten that Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath to the dregs for us. We've made grace cheap and forgotten about the righteousness of God which calls us to holiness. If we truly saw God as holy, holy, holy, how could we continue to sin and not be grieved by it and go back to the cross once again to repent and receive His forgiveness and cleansing?

When God's people insist on coming to Him full of sin and unholiness, unrepentant over our sin, harboring and bowing down to those hidden sins of lust in our hearts, He looks upon us as if we were Sodom and Gomorrah (this from Isaiah 1):

Thanks be to God He gives us the remedy for our unholiness through the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah's words remind us of the Lamb who was to come and give His blood to save us and purify us and make us a holy and blameless people for Himself.

O, by the grace of God drawing us, let us be willing and obedient and go to Him to rid ourselves of all our idols, brothers and sisters, so we might eat the good of the land. Until we do, our sins will continue to separate us from Him.

We can have no true fellowship with the Father, Son and the Spirit so long as we persist in sin. We can say we have fellowship with Him, but we are only lying! And correspondingly, we can have no true fellowship with our brothers and sisters unless we have fellowship with Him. We can have no true fellowship unless we come to Him and receive the forgiveness and cleansing only He can provide. And then by His Holy Spirit at work in us, He will help us to become pure in our doctrine and our behavior, after all His will for us is sanctification. May He do for us which we are powerless to do! May He make us holy as He is holy so we might shine as lights in the world!

A PRAYER FOR UNITY

Father, Son and Spirit, one God in three persons,

You show us what perfect unity and harmony looks like in the Godhead.

In Judges 20 we see the Israelites uniting together and working together.

Holy Father, Spotless Lamb, Holy Spirit,

You are perfectly holy and perfectly united. We acknowledge have no unity apart from being united to You.

You are holy. We cannot say we have fellowship with You so long as we continue to be unholy in our doctrine and in our behavior. And we can have no fellowship or unity with our brothers and sisters so long as we are unholy in any way. Forgive us, forgive Your Church, as we have so often persisted in being unholy in our doctrine and behavior. May Your kindness bring us into Your light and show us our unholiness and lead us to repentance. Send Your Holy Spirit to purify us and make us holy so we might be a praise in the earth.

Holy Spirit, purify us and make us holy unto the Lord. Knit us together into You so we might work together as one man to You, O Lord. May we be a praise in the earth. Make us shine in the darkness. We confess we often look and act no differently than the world. Guard each of us and keep us from sin.

Holy Spirit, purify this place of prayer, this tent of meeting, and make it holy unto the Lord. Knit those who come together into You so we might pray together as one man to You. May this place be a praise in the earth. Make it shine in the darkness. Guard this place and keep it from sin.

May our doctrine never bring reproach to Your holy Name.

May our behavior never bring reproach to Your holy Name.

Have mercy on us. Protect this place of prayer. You are calling many of Your people to turn to You in prayer. May You give all You are calling ears to hear and grace to respond to Your call. May those You have called continue to persevere in prayer by Your great grace and mighty arm strengthening us to do so.

Amen.