Day 6-Daniel’s Prayer of Confession

Lord help us to see our sins the same way You do.

Day 6-Daniel’s Prayer of Confession

Day 5-Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth

Lord help us comprehend the love of Christ

Day 5-Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth

Day 4- Hezekiah’s Prayer for Deliverence

Lord look down and see us.

Day 4-Hezekaih’s Pray for Deliverence

Day 3-The Apostles Pray for Boldness

Lord give us boldness of speech to proclaim your word.

Day 3-The Apostles Pray for Boldness

Day 2-Abraham’s Servant Prays for Guidance

Lord give us success as You guide us in our tasks.

Day 2-Abraham’s Servant Prays for Guidance

Day 1-The Model Prayer

Lord teach us to pray.

Day 1-The Model Prayer

40 Days of Prayer and Reading

My wife and I are currently putting together a book for the Saints at Lanton to help us all be People who Pray on Purpose. The book is entitled 40 Days of Prayer and Reading. As we complete each prayer and reading I’ll post them up for you to use. We hope that these thoughts will help you become a Person who Prays on Purpose. Look for the first prayer/reading tomorrow. Special thanks to Edwin Crozier for allowing me to use his format from Give Attention to Reading.

God’s Secret to Happiness

Can I share a secret with you? If the truth be told, I haven’t always been a happy person. There, I’ve said it. I’m glad to finally got that off my chest.

You see there was a long stretch in my life where I was a truly unhappy person. To me happiness was an elusive dream. It was something that I longed for, searched for, and so desperately desired.

In my quest to find happiness I sought out relationships with people. I thought if I could find the right girl I would find happiness. I thought if I surrounded myself with a close group of friends I would discover what it meant to be happy. I did both and soon realized that people couldn’t make me happy.

When I realized that people couldn’t make me happy I decided that I would I find happiness by moving. I just knew that if I moved away from my unhappiness I was sure to find happiness somewhere else. So I moved to Florida where I thought I would be happy. But I soon felt that if I would move back to Tennessee I would be happier.

Finally after seeing that people and places were not going to make me happy I decided to turn to work and money, surely I could find happiness in those things. I’m here to tell you that happiness can’t be founded upon where you work or the type of job you do. And don’t get me started on money. You all have heard the old saying, “more money; more problems,” well it’s especially true when you’re looking for money to make you happy. Neither of these things made me happy and I was ready to give up. I was ready to resign myself to a life of unhappiness.

And then one day I read a bible verse that changed my life. In Luke 11:28 Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” To understand how this verse fits with the concept of happiness you need only to know that blessed is sometimes translated happy (Act 26:2; Rom 14:22 NKJV). So Jesus is saying, “Happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” It was then that I finally realized that if I really wanted to be happy I couldn’t base my happiness on people, places or things… my happiness had to come from God’s word and my keeping of it. Then and only then could I be happy. I can’t express to you the joy and freedom that came to me that day. I was finally released from the drudgery of seeking after happiness because I knew it could be found in the keeping of God’s word.

The apostle Paul understood this concept. He was a man who endured more for the cause of Christ than any of us could imagine and yet he was able to, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” (Phi 4:11) His contentment was not predicated by the people who was with him, the place that he might have been or the things that he had. Instead his contentment, his happiness, was based on God’s word and his keeping of it.

Sadly there are a lot of unhappy Christians in the world and for the vast majority of them it’s because they are trying to find happiness in people, places and things. Friend you will never be happy in this life unless you are following God’s word. You will never know the heights of happiness so long as you look for people, places and things to make you happy. They will all change and fail you but God and His word will never change and He will never fail you. My prayer for you is that you will look to God for your happiness.

Why do we teach?

When we come together in our assemblies what is the purpose of our teaching? To answer this let’s look at the reasons given by the New Testament writers:

• For Luke it was so his audience would “know the certainty of those things in which [they] were taught.” (Luk 1:4)
• For John it was so his audience “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (Jhn 20:31)
• For Peter it was to so his audience would have a reminder of the things taught and the know that they did not follow cunningly devised fables (2 Pet 1:15).
• For Paul it was to commit the faith to others who would in turn teach it to others (2 Tim 2:2).

Our teaching should be centered on the needs of our audience. As we teach our goal should be to build up the faith of those who sit at our feet by seeking to teach for the same reasons the New Testament writers taught.

Don’t Envy Sinners

“Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day; For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 23:17-18

The wise man is warning us to not let our hearts want what sinners have. Instead we are to be enthusiastic for the fear of the Lord all day long. The reason for this is that there is an afterlife and if we have been enthusiastic for the fear of the Lord we will not be cut off like the sinner who did not fear the Lord.

Envying or wanting what sinners have in this life is a great temptation for God’s people. Just like the children of Israel we too want to be like the “nations around us.” (1 Samuel 8) The great temptation is to envy the way the sinner lives in the here and now. The sinner gets to go wherever he wants; fishing on Sunday, nightclubs on Saturday, and immoral movies on Friday night. The sinner gets to dress anyway she wants to; with immodest dress, and expensive and costly clothing. The sinner doesn’t have to show self-control in their eating and drinking, emotions, or sexual relationships. The sinner gets to take their ease and “eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19) because they live only for today and not for the hereafter.

But God has called for us as His children to be zealous for Him all the day (or all our days). Our lives are to be filled with pleasing God and seeking to follow His commandments. The reason for this is because there is an afterlife. There is coming a time when men, the sinner and the saved alike, will be judged according to their works (1 Peter 1:17). Surely if we follow God and His son Jesus Christ then our hope of being judged faithful will not be cut off (Romans 8:23-24).

Let’s not envy what sinners have in this life because if we do we will have their reward in the next life.

Related proverbs: Proverbs 24:1-2, 19-20; 28:14