Category: Christian Living

What “Pray Without Ceasing” Means

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thes. 5: 17)

Is this advice from Paul realistic? I mean, have you ever seen someone who is praying round the clock? I bet you haven’t, not even in monasteries.

A careful study of the original text of this verse tells us that it means to pray without leaving an interval or gap, without intermission. It is the same word Paul used when he said he was in “continual sorrow” for his fellow Jews who rejected Christ (Romans 9: 2). A point worth noting here: people in sorrow don’t have to be reeling with anguish all the time. They go about there normal routines just fine while they grieve in their hearts without having to break into tears every five minutes.

Continue reading What “Pray Without Ceasing” Means

Humility in the Wrong Place

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be.

A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert — himself.

The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt — the Divine Reason…

The new skeptic is so humble that he doubts if he can even learn…

There is a real humility typical of our time; but it so happens that it’s practically a more poisonous humility than the wildest prostrations of the ascetic…

The old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which makes him stop working altogether…

We are on the road to producing a race of man too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.

–from G. K. Chesterton via John Piper

When Waiting Is Not Funny

One major point of the two sermons I heard today was the virtue of waiting. Things that really matter take a lot of time to grow. Like relationships, or trust, or faith, or virtue. An oak tree takes 60 years to grow, a mongo seed can do it in a matter of days- in a petri dish! The key here is obviously the time element.

Yes we all know it by heart but that knowledge can never lessen the energy-draining effect of waiting. Whether it’s about repairing a broken trust or pursuing an elusive relationship that doesn’t seem to lead anywhere, it’s always the waiting that kills.

It is easy to tell people to sit it out and just wait for the heavens to grant their prayers. That would sound spiritual and sensible. You can clap your friend’s back when the topic comes up. You can try to make fun of it. We can all have a good laugh.

But remember that it’s not funny for everyone.

It’s not funny for someone who took his board exam the third time around. Not funny for a married couple who still don’t have a baby after many years of marriage. Not funny for a woman is still single while she’s in her late thirties. Not funny for a guy who got his fifth rejection.

Only God knows why some of us are to be tested with waiting. May we have the grace to shut up when we are most tempted to make fun of a friend’s waiting problem.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” –Galatians 6: 2

Just Do Something

If you’re unclear on your future, take hope. Your God is sovereign. God will send us where he will send us, and we don’t need to wait for a moment of revelation or a commissioning we can hear or see. If we get one, great! But we don’t need one. We can trust that even now God is lining up circumstances and opening doors to get us where he wants us.

What Platinum Credit Cards Can’t Buy

In the gospel we have full, free, open access to God. This isn’t “come once a year, kill a lamb, and hope you don’t die” access to God. We don’t need to whip ourselves into a twirling religious frenzy or to light sticks of incense. There’s no need to walk ten miles with broken glass in our shoes or wash ourselves clean in a sacred river. We can come into the presence of God at all times and at all places.

This is the greatest benefit of the gospel. Forgiveness of sins, a new heart, and eternal life are only a means to this magnificent end. Jesus Christ ushers us into the presence of God, and it’s in the presence of God that we find our soul’s deepest satisfaction. Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

A speedboat, job promotion, or beautiful, loving spouse who likes long walks on the beach can’t bring fullness of joy. Eternal pleasures can’t be purchased with a platinum credit card. Full, overflowing, eternal joy and pleasure are found only in the presence of God, and in the gospel we have access to his joyful presence….

If we’re not consistently spending time in the presence of God, we won’t be content.

Period.

Source: Stephen Altrogge, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence (Good News Publishers/Crossway Books, 2011)