19. Which part in the story would you have played? (What to Pray and how?

15 Each year at the time for the Passover meal, Pilate let one person come out of the prison. The people could choose which person should be free.

16 At that time, there was a man called Barabbas in prison. Everyone knew about what he had done.

17 Then the crowd came together at Pilate’s house. Pilate asked them, ‘Do you want me to let Barabbas come out of the prison? Or do you want me to let Jesus out instead? Jesus is called the Christ.’

22 Then Pilate asked the people, ‘What then should I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?’ The people all shouted, ‘Kill him! Kill him on a cross.’

23 So Pilate said, ‘Why should I kill him? What bad things has he done?’ But the people were shouting many times even louder, ‘Kill him on a cross! Kill him on a cross!’ -Matt.27

Most of us know, that at times Jesus had many followers. By the time He made it to the cross only three stayed near. There were a few that watched from afar and some that hid. Some of these so-called followers, even  ended up in the crowd shouting for His crucifixion.

Signs and wonders were one thing. People loved them. This Jesus however, also taught God’s high standard. People were offended by His “rude judgmental attitude”. So much so, they hated Him enough to demand His death. Really how dare how dare He?

Most people would like to think they were a person living in this time and place, they’d be in the group that stayed near. Most people though also realize that they can be fearful at times. Indeed most would say they’d most likely be in the group that ran and hid. I challenge us all, though to really consider who we are? The truth is, most of us would’ve been in the crowd calling for Jesus’ blood.  As much as we shutter to think of it. It’s most likely true.  This is man’s sinful nature. God didn’t put it in anyone’s heart to kill Jesus, even though Jesus was God’s planned sacrificial lamb. God knew when Jesus preached people would eventually be so angry and offended they would want Him dead.

Most of us would love to think we’d stay near but these aren’t the numbers. Three stayed at the cross. His mother, friend Mary and the disciple John. Some watched from a far. Some hid, and the rest either did nothing or were screaming for blood. Look closer and see only one person actually helped Jesus. He only helped carry Jesus’s cross because he was forced to by the soldiers. Theses are the numbers, people haven’t changed much in the last two thousand  years have they? 

Many people who hated Jesus, eventually loved Him, realizing that He died for their sins. Still, if you had lived in His day, what point in your life would you have been in? Which part in the story would you have played?  When answering this question, let us not be fooled by our pride.

Rom.8

¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”

I’m not trying to make us all feel bad. Indeed once we’re forgiven we are to forgive ourselves as well. We need to be aware of our nature while praying to our God. Always depending on Him to make us righteous. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 1 Cor. 1:30.

Please as you pray today, whatever is on your heart. Pray in the attitude of knowing who you’d be without God. Without His grace and power in your life, who’d you be. Without the power of His cross who would you be? When we keep this in our minds, we will depend on Him solely and worship Him wholly.

17. Our sin is serious His wrath is serious. His loving grace is just as serious (what to pray and How)

1 Return to the Lord your God, Israel’s people. Your sin has destroyed you.

2 Think about the things that you will say. And return to the Lord. Say to him, ‘ Forgive all our sins. Accept the good things that we are doing. We will praise you with our lips.

3 Assyria cannot save us. Our war horses cannot keep us away from trouble. We will never again say to idols that they are our God. Our hands had made those idols. But you are someone who shows great love. You show great love to children who have no parents.’

4 The Lord says, ‘They left me. But I will forgive them for that. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now.

5 I will be like the rain in the morning to Israel’s people. They will become like flowers. They will be like the tall trees in Lebanon. These trees will be very strong in the ground.

6 They will become alive with new branches. They will be beautiful like olive trees. They will have a smell like the tall trees in Lebanon.

7 Israel’s people will live again in a shade. They will grow well like grain. They will grow well like a vine. They will be famous like the wine from Lebanon. (Hosea 14)

Israel had a lot of ups and downs. For years they would worship and serve the Lord. Then years would fallow, that they wouldn’t. Verse 2 tells Israel to confess their sins to God and ask for forgiveness. 3, Goes on to say that only The Lord can defend them, that they will no longer tell idols that they were their God. They know what they’d been doing was seriously wrong, but there’s that word: BUT… “But you are someone who shows great love... They’re asking for forgiveness and promising to never do it again. In confidence that The Lord had enough love to take them back again. Had they done all this before? Of course they had. Sometimes they meant it sometimes they didn’t. Did they mean it this time? Well how does the Lord respond in verse 4? “They left me. But I will forgive them for that. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now.” He knew they meant it. He also knew they’d do it again in the future.

 Let’s be honest, if the Lord were most people, He’d probably be more inclined to tell them He’d wait and see, how things go for a while before He forgave them. Of course it’s only by His power they could do right in the first place.

Sometimes we except God to be like us. We forget how graceful He really is. While we might find it hard to forgive, He actually doesn’t. Our sin is serious His wrath is serious. His loving grace is just as serious. God would rather do like the rest of the passage says. He’d rather make us beautiful and strong then hold a grudge.“But you are someone who shows great love.. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now…”  He’d rather send His Son to die in place of all mankind then to punish us. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. (Rom.4:25)

Sometimes our prayer life isn’t what it could be, because we’re uncomfortable approaching the Lord. When we feel that we’re not worthy, we miss up too much. We’ve just done so many horrible things. That lack of quality time with the Lord because we find His grace hard to swallow, actually makes it even harder to do right. It’s a vicious cycle. He is the one who makes us righteous enough to come to Him. If you have sin weighing on you, you need to confess and trust His grace. If you’ve confessed sin, but still feel dirty, you need to trust His words. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 Jn. 1:9  

If You’ve never know Jesus as your savior, all of this applies to you too. God is perfect, so He must punish sin. Jesus died under the weight of all our sin, in our place. If we believe and accept that what He did for us He becomes our savior.If you never have, I urge you to, now. Pray to Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and He will. He love you and  wants to save you!

A pray for both groups to come to you know Lord…

4 The Lord says, ‘They left me. But I will forgive them for that. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now.

<3KellyClayWoo

2 “What does that word Supplication mean anyway?” (What to pray for and how)

 

Praying always with all prayers and supplication in the Spirit(Holy Spirit). Eph. 6:18.

That’s the “How”, I think the “What” will be that we’d know what that word Supplication means?

Couple more questions:

Is supplication prayer? Yes. Is prayer supplication? Not always. Prayer is talking to God. We thank Him, we praise Him. We complain to Him.We causally make request of Him. We sometimes just sharing our thoughts with Him. All this is considered prayer.  It’s not supplication, lets look at the definition of supplication:

sup·pli·ca·tion

noun

 the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.”he fell to his knees in supplication”

Interesting that it’s a noun. Remember 3rd grade? A noun is a person, place or thing. Yet the definition says it’s an action of asking or begging. Most of the time we’d think of prayer as an action. Us praying. Praying must be producing something. It produces a Prayer, of course! So is a Prayer,  something that can be held in your hand? Well maybe not our hands but there are places in the Bible that speak of the prayers of the saints being held in bowls. I’m not going to get into this being literal or figurative. There’s something spiritual going on here for sure. Either way it’s clear that somehow,  prayers become nouns. Back to 3rd grade,  they’re not a person they’re not a place, but prayers are  most certainly a thing. When we think of our words to God as not just vapors, fleeting thoughts and words, but something God can hold. It makes us, I believe, more aware of how  precious to the LORD our prayers are.

Now that we’ve established that prayers are nouns, lets look at the prayers that are Supplications. The first part of the definition is obvious and common. Asking. When we have prayer request, we don’t say “Would you supplicate for my mom?” No, we say, “Would you pray for my mom?” A request is supplication, even if we don’t use that word. The second part is, Earnestly. I find that interesting because earnestly means that your sincere, that you really mean what your saying. It seems obvious but then again, how many times have we prayed a prayer just because someone ask us to? Or because everyone else said “Amen” at the appropriate time, so we did too? Earnestly would mean you actually care about the outcome. Not just in the, “Sure I care.” but really truly care. We all battle with, being more concerned with things that don’t really matter. We all battle with self more than anything. We might too concerned our own wants or our own disappointments, to really have our hearts in it. We must, only by the power of the blood of Christ fight against this, to be earnest in your prayers.

 The 3rd word is Humbly. Here we are battling self again. Sometimes we even get angry with God, that He hasn’t done what we’ve been asking for. We feel we’re entitled to what we have coming. Well when we remember what we really had coming when Jesus stepped in and saved us filthy sinners, it kinda knocks us down a peg. Again this something we all struggle with. We must remind ourselves that God is the creator of all . He owes us, the creation nothing. Yet look at all He give us, including the right, yes he gives us the right, to come into His thrown. The thrown of what? Grace. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, Heb. 4:6. We only have the right to come to Him because of HIS grace. Grace is not what we deserve, grace is what He gives out of love.

So when the Bible talks about supplication, lets not just glaze over this uncommon word, lets remember the three: asking (or begging) ,earnestly, humbly. We need to check our own hearts, we can’t overcome our Self, on our own. Again it’s by His Grace that we can do so.

So lets pray for our request to be real supplications to God. That we’d understand the meaning of supplication, when we read or hear it. Pray that we come boldly to the thrown of grace, remembering that it’s grace that brings us there (Humbly). That His Son’s blood was shed so we could come, not because of anything we’ve done. Lets pray that we’d let all our request be known to God. Philip. 4:6(Asking) that we’d mean it with our whole heart, (Earnestly). Pray that the Lord search our hearts and correct us where we’re wrong, by the faith in the blood of His Son. That we’d remember that our prayers are precious to out Lord and Savior.

for the Glory of Christ…