prayer

Jonah: A Prayer of Repentance

July 8, 2021 by David Noland Leave a Comment

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish
Jonah 2:1

When you find yourself stuck in a trap of your own making, what is your usual first response? Do you blame someone else, perhaps even the devil? Do you sit and wallow in the mud like a half-satisfied pig? Do you find yourself seeking ingenious methods of getting yourself out of your situation, only to become frustrated when your own understanding provides zero results? Or do you cry out for help and learn from your mistake?

I can assure you, all of us at one time or another have fallen into some muck or mire as a result of our own poor decisions and sinful choices. And more often than not, our usual response is to either blame someone else or just sit paralyzed in the midst of the filth. It usually isn’t until we have tried to claw our way out of the stickiness only to find ourselves even more stuck than before that we finally give up and cry out for help. It’s human nature. However, Jonah recognized that the direness of his situation was due to his own disobedience and that God not only brought about judgment to get his attention, but provided a miraculous safe haven to protect him in the midst of his rebellion. Yes, Jonah was trapped in the belly of a large fish, likely very cramped and squeezed inside with little room to move or even squirm. Yet, Jonah “called out to the Lord, out of my distress and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.” (Jonah 2:2)

Jonah recognized that not only was he in big trouble, but he also recognized who put him there.

For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Jonah 2:3

Jonah recognized that God Himself put him in the belly of that fish as judgment for his sin of rebellion and disobedience. All too often from today’s modern populist pulpits, I hear theology espoused that not only disavows the reality of God’s judgment, but outright denies His holiness in favor of His mercy and grace and love. Anything “bad” (by our own selfish definitions) is a product of Satan or is demonic in origin. It denies the reality of sin and its resulting consequences.

Mercy and grace by definition require that we deserve judgment. Mercy means we don’t receive the judgment that we deserve. Grace means we receive favor when we deserve judgment and punishment for our actions. To deny the reality of the God’s holiness and righteousness as far superior to our own is to recreate God into our own image, which is the very definition of idolatry.

Discernment of your situation and how you got there can often be tricky, but discernment begins with humility. Humility is not humiliation, but rather it is a sort of controlled strength that allows you to see yourself in the big picture. Discernment requires first to look at ourselves and our situation with a different set of lenses that expose the truth of who we are in the light of who He is.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!
Jonah 2:9

Jonah recognized that His current predicament and suffering were a result of His own sin and rebellion. He also recognized the Father’s grace and mercy in capturing him and protecting him in the belly of this fish. As dark and smelly as the case may be, it was better than drowning in the sea of his own wasted life and time. And that is a cause for a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Interestingly, a great theology truth is also revealed in the last line of Jonah’s prayer: “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” Salvation is not ours to give or to take. It is God’s and God’s alone. He alone has the power to save. We can’t save ourselves by the works of our hands, the power of our confession, or even our own faith. That is the exclusive domain of the sovereign Lord Almighty. He alone has the authority to save us. He alone has the authority to condemn. He alone is righteous and holy. Thus He alone is worthy of our worship and worthy to be praised.

On the day of Pentecost, Peter made the bold proclamation of the exclusivity of Jesus’ authority to save: “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11, 12) Just as Jonah had rejected God’s command to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, the Jews of Jesus’ day rejected Jesus and His message of repentance. However, it was His sacrifice on Calvary that provides salvation. His sacrifice alone makes Him worthy of our worship and praise. And it is by His name and His authority alone that we might be saved.

The Gifts of the Kingdom

August 31, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
Matthew 7:7-11

Esther approaches the throne of King Ahasuerus (from “One Night With the King”, (c) 2006, Gener8Xion Entertainment

One of the very basic principles of Biblical study is to apply textual context when examining a given passage. Perhaps one of the most blatant examples of a passage of Scripture that is studied out of context and then twisted to fit a humanistic, self-centered agenda is Matthew 7:7-11. Taken in isolation and viewed on the surface without digging into the full context of the passage, it seems to reduce the Almighty and holy God of Creation to a sort of celestial “Santa Claus”. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

We must remember that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been describing what it is like to live in the Kingdom of God, to be a citizen of God’s domain, and a member of His family, with Him at the head of the family. Repeatedly Jesus has implored His audience to seek God’s Kingdom and the will of the Father and has warned against seeking after our own selfish desires and lust that corrupt us. This sets the stage and the mentality in the mind of the audience to give appropriate context for the petitions we bring to the throne of grace.

When we are focused on Kingdom priorities and the fulfillment of God’s will in our individual lives, this ultimately transforms our way of thinking as our desires are replaced by His desires. Our hearts become broken for the things that break the heart of God. Our hearts are filled with joy at that which brings joy to the heart of the Father. And it informs our petitions before the throne of grace.

If a child were to go to his father and ask for a poisonous snake as a pet, would a loving and generous father give that child such a gift when requested? Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. Just as a father would give a gift to the child that is good for them, they would withhold “gifts” from the child that would prevent them from living their best life, knowing that the request was not in their best interest.

We do not get to define what is “good” for us. That is the prerogative of the Father. He is the one who knows what our future holds. He is the only one who sees beyond what our limited vision is capable of seeing. When we are focused on Kingdom priorities, it changes our petitions to reflect God’s desires for His children. The more intimately we know the heart of the Father, the more confidently we can approach the throne of grace knowing our Godly petitions will be granted in the interest of His Kingdom.

It takes boldness and even audacity to approach a king with a personal request. Typically, from a standpoint of human interests in government, the only thing a citizen could rightfully ask the king for is mercy. In some cases, entering into the presence of a king without invitation or announcement would be grounds for execution.

Such was the plight of Queen Esther as she entered the presence of the King, knowing that to do so could mean certain death (Esther 4:16). However, as Esther had already cultivated a relationship with the king as his queen, and she had found favor in his eyes, Esther was was allowed to issue an invitation to fellowship, which he graciously accepted. It was at this dinner that Esther exposed a plot to exterminate the Jewish race. Her genuine relationship with the King gave her the boldness and confidence to approach Him with her request. In so doing, the Jews were saved from certain destruction – preserving God’s plan for His people.

As children of the King, we are effectively Princes and Princesses of Creation. Our relationship with the Father gives us the boldness and conviction by which we can approach His throne with our petitions. By virtue of our relationship with the Father we can enter into His presence without fear, knowing that He will hear our prayer and grant our desires insomuch that they align with His Kingdom purposes.

The Petition of the Kingdom

August 19, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

The Petition of the Kingdom

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”’
Matthew 6:9-13

Have you ever had someone repeatedly making the same demands of you to the point that suddenly feel like you are trapped in a scene of Groundhog Day? A common practice among the pagan Romans of the day was to repeat the same ritualistic phrases over and over again in a form of magical incantation, meant to manipulate the gods into doing the will of the pray-er. Subtly, the Jewish leadership began to model this same practice by repeating the Scriptural prayers of old so much so that they began to lose the heart of their prayers and turned prayer into another form of incantation in order to manipulate God into doing their will. In fact, there are some elements within the modern church today that still practice this concept, and have taken the Lord’s prayer and turned it into this same ritualistic practice, instead of recognizing the context of what Jesus was saying in order to inspire the people to approach prayer as a time of intimate conversation with their Creator.

When Jesus says “Pray, then, in this way”, He was not saying to only pray with these words. Rather, the phrase “in this way” is more appropriately translated “in this pattern.” There have been a number of different acronyms and illustrations of how to pattern your prayers after the model that Jesus presented here, so I will not go into those. But I will give you some highlights in the hopes of guiding you through how prayer touches the heart of God.

First, we begin with the intimate acknowledgement of our relationship to Him. He is our Abba. Our spiritual daddy. The head of our household. The Father who guides, teaches, and disciplines because of His great love for His children. And even though He may not be physically present with us, His spiritual presence is always with us.

Secondly, the acknowledgement of our relationship to Him inevitably inspires an acknowledgement of His holiness. When we humbly approach the throne of grace, recognizing He is the only Holy and righteous God, we are forced to recognize that we are wretched in comparison to His surpassing greatness. He is the King of Glory and we must be dependent upon His mercy.

Which brings us to His Kingdom. He is not only our Father, He is also our King. He is our lawgiver and we are citizens of His kingdom, adopted into His family and naturalized into His realm. As such we are now beholden to His word and submitted to His Lordship in our lives. As a result our priority is to shift to His will in our lives, not our own.

Next we transition to our petition for our daily need. Our manna, the bread of heaven. That which gives us nourishment and strength for the challenges of the day. As Jeremiah lamented over the pending destruction of Israel, he uttered the familiar encouragement:

“The Lord’s lovingkindness [mercies] indeed never cease,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

From here, as we bask in the glory of His grace and mercy, we are then inspired to confession. As the apostle John wrote “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10) John writes these words not to the unbelievers of his day, but to the church – the believers who claim the name of God. When we walk in the Light of His truth, we can quickly see that we are indeed sinners in need of mercy. And when we confess our sinful nature and our specific sinful acts, He is faithful to forgive and righteous in His cleansing. Only the righteousness of God can cleanse our own unrighteousness by the power of the Blood of His Son.

This transitions us into repentance. A heart that is forgiven is one that seeks to remain in the mercies of God. And this requires continual repentance and submission of our sinful will to the righteous will of God. It’s not enough to confess our sin and depend upon His mercy. If our confession does not result in repentance, it is a faithless confession and our words ring hollow when presented from a heart of stone.

Ultimately, our prayers must be reflective and submitted to the will of God. For the Kingdom is His. The power is His. The glory is His. None of it belongs to us. We have no right to make demands of our God, but He joyfully wishes to bless His children who are submitted to the will of His Kingdom.

The great mystery of grace is not that we can approach the throne of the King and bring our demands, but rather that we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) We can approach His throne confident in knowing that when we come before Him with humility and brokenness of heart, He is faithful to place His hand upon our head and heart and give us His full approval.

The Prayer of the Kingdom

August 18, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
Matthew 6:5-8

Prayer is not a tool for the proud, but rather it is a petition of the weak. If you spend more time in prayer glorifying yourself and your deeds and your own personal value to the kingdom, then you have completely missed the point. Prayer is about humbly submitting ourselves before our Sovereign, yet merciful God, recognizing that we do not have all the answers, but He does. By His providence, He sees our past, our failures, our mistakes, and our sin. By His grace, He forgives knowing that His Son paid the penalty for our transgressions. By His omniscience, He knows what our future holds before we even imagine it.

In Jesus’ day, it was a common practice among the religious elites to not only walk around with bells on the hems of their robes to announce their coming, but at certain times of day they would suddenly and without provocation stop and loudly pray in the street – bringing attention to themselves. In many cases, contextually speaking, these prayers would be spiked with pride and self-aggrandizement. Other times, they would point out the sins of others or give thanks for their high position relative to others around them.

Jesus illustrated this with the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, which is related by the gospel writer Luke. Two men enter the temple to pray, one a Pharisee (the religious elite) and one a despised tax collector. And Jesus made a point to describe the tax collector as “despised.” It was more of an indictment of the heart of the Pharisee than the condition of the tax collector. Tax collectors were often locals who would volunteer to collect taxes on behalf of Rome in exchange for protection or relief from their Roman oppressors and were often paid out of the taxes they collected – resulting in some cases over taxation for the benefit of the collector.

The Pharisee’s prayer was full of selfish pride: “I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.” (Luke 18:11-12) Oh the hubris! The pride. The arrogance to stand before a holy God and compare yourself to another of His creations, when the only comparison that should be made is to Him alone. When we stand in the darkness of our sin, we are blinded to our own wretchedness in comparison to Him. However, when we stand in the light of His holiness, we stand exposed for all that we truly are.

And the tax collector in Jesus’ parable knows this all too well. His own prayer is a simple confession: “O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) And acknowledge not only of His own spiritual condition, as is our own condition before a holy God, but a plea for mercy. It is a shorter version of Isaiah’s prayer before the throne of God:

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Isaiah 6:5

Genuine prayer sheds light upon the holiness of God and exposes our nature by this same light. When we see God for who He truly is, we see ourselves for who we really are. And it changes us. For better or for worse, it transforms us. Either we fall on our face in repentance before Him, or we run away rejecting His authority. Often times, this rejection will play itself out as we live lives contrary to His word. We demonstrate a rejection of His authority by our own refusal to repent of our own selfish agendas.

Consider the words of your prayers. If the focus of your petitions before God shines more light on you than it shines on Him, then I beg you to re-examine your heart. I beg you look upon God for who He truly and deservedly is. Contemplate His holiness. Meditate upon His mercy. Embrace His grace. Then and only then will your prayers prevail upon the ears of righteousness and move the heart of our Abba.

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