Ephesians 6:18; Truly seeking God and His life in prayer (and study, and living), part 2.

Class Outline:

Tuesday August 16, 2022

 

Let us read David’s prayer in Psa 25. Notice the themes of sinner, humility, and fear of the Lord.

 

PSA 25:4-15

Make me know Thy ways, O Lord;

Teach me Thy paths.

5 Lead me in Thy truth and teach me,

For Thou art the God of my salvation;

For Thee I wait all the day.

6 Remember, O Lord, Thy compassion and Thy lovingkindnesses,

For they have been from of old.

7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

According to Thy lovingkindness remember Thou me,

For Thy goodness' sake, O Lord.

 

8 Good and upright is the Lord;

Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.

9 He leads the humble in justice,

And He teaches the humble His way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth

To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.

11 For Thy name's sake, O Lord,

Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

 

12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?

He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

13 His soul will abide in prosperity,

And his descendants will inherit the land.

14 The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him,

And He will make them know His covenant.

15 My eyes are continually toward the Lord,

For He will pluck my feet out of the net.

 

“Remember me for Your goodness’ sake.” “Pardon my iniquity for Your name’s sake.”

 

Wouldn’t we initially imagine that our forgiveness and God’s attending to us is for our sake? How could it be for His sake?

 

All good things must be for God’s sake because He is the source, the reason, in essence, goodness is God’s nature or person.

 

He alone can do anything to forgive us. He alone can do anything to have a relationship with us. Nothing that is good is for our sake, but for His. Yes, we benefit immensely and are blessed beyond dreams, but never forget that it is for His sake that this is done, and also that our blessing is what pleases God.

 

Forgiveness and God’s presence are for the Lord’s sake, and so also is our whole spiritual lives.

 

LUK 9:24-25

“For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 25 "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?”

 

To deliver our lives, is to find our lives …

 

MAT 16:25

“For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”

 

If we start to think that what God has done in forgiving us, saving us, and blessing us with eternal life is for our sake, then we become important.

 

We are valuable and beloved in God’s eyes, but never important.

 

PSA 8:4

What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?

 

PSA 144:4

Man is like a mere breath;

His days are like a passing shadow.

 

ISA 40:17

All the nations are as nothing before Him,

They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

 

In truly seeking God’s presence and guidance, prayer becomes a path to self-knowledge.

 

In the parable, the tax-collector clearly understood that he was the sinner in need of God’s mercy, and so necessary to him was the mercy or propitiation from God that when praying the Lord put the verb in the imperative. The tax-collector, in essence, commands the Lord to be merciful or propitious to him.

 

On the other hand, the Pharisee’s self-knowledge is not non-existent, but way off the mark and out of bounds. The Pharisee has gained self-knowledge, but it is false.

 

The Pharisee’s kind of religion, rather than softening a person’s heart and growing the love of God in him, it hardens his whole nature.

 

Trying to be righteous for a personal reason, rather than for life in the presence of God (in the sphere of His will and wisdom), is not humility but a subtle form of pride. Pride always hardens a person. They know within that they are weak beings, so they make an outer shell of religion or morality or some form of both while the inner man is mushy weak. To give of ourselves to another, to be truly gracious and compassionate and loving, we are giving something invisible, ethereal, not material, and that has to come from within. For this type of person to do that, they have to reveal what is within them, and it is darkness and weakness, and that is their biggest fear.

 

2TI 3:5

holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power;

 

MAT 5:8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

 

MAT 6:23

“If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

 

JOH 3:20

“For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

 

Before God, in the inner room, which is akin to the Holy of Holies, the brilliant light of God’s glory does not admit darkness. Darkness itself hates divine light.

 

Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we have to be sinless to enter into prayer with God or communion with God. We must be humble like the tax-collector.