Persevering prayer

Matthew: 7:7-11

7)““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 

8)For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 

9)Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 

10)Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

11)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 good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew‬

I know some people who call themselves Calvinists, do not really believe that we should be constantly praying about things. Some Calvinists believe that prayer is unnecessary, which is unfortunate and uncalvinistic, because even Calvin was a man who prayed a lot and the men who followed him e.x the Puritans. At BBC (Birchleigh Baptist Church) we hold to the 1689 Baptist Confession. Chapter 3 of the confession deals with the decrees of God. And for your information the decrees of God has nothing to do with people prophesying and decreeing that this or that will happen. We can decree that all sicknesses and the corona virus be destroyed, but that will not destroy it, because we as humans cannot decree anything. The decrees of God refer to God’s unchangeable decisions made in eternity past. It refers to God’s counsel and his purposes to accomplish all that He pleases. And because God is eternal and not bound by time, he has made these decisions or decrees in eternity past. And as the Bible makes clear in Acts 15:18, God’s works are known to Him from eternity. Everything that happens, happens because God wills it. That doesn’t mean He is the author of sin, because God is not actively creating evil in people’s hearts, we are still free moral agents and are responsible for our actions. But all our sins, God, as it were, controls, and arranges to accomplish his purposes and his decrees. If God was not in absolute control of all things that happen He would not be sovereign.

But you may say to me, if this is true, prayer is not needed! if you say that God has predestined, some to salvation and not all, why pray for the salvation of the lost? Why pray at all if God has decreed whatsoever will come to pass? He has already decided!

Although God is Sovereign, and decrees all things that whatever comes to pass, and the salvation of the elect, He accomplishes his purposes in judgment and salvation, in conversion, in sanctification and many acts of providence and provision and protecting his people, THROUGH the means of prayer and the word, the gospel ministry.

This is the point we see over and over in the Bible. God accomplishes his purposes through secondary causes, through people, acting, and witnessing and working and praying and preaching. God accomplishes his purposes through different agents, through the church, but also through unbelievers and the laws of nature and creation. If this is true, we see how important prayer is! And specifically persevering prayer.

The whole point of the passage in Matthew 7:7-11 is this: prayer must be continuous, and he who prays must persevere. We see this fact, over and over in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Literally, Christ says in verse 8, everyone asking, receives, and he who is seeking finds, and he who is knocking the door will be opened. The words in Greek for ask, seek and knock is in the participle tense, and should be translated in English in the present continuous tense. These verbs, are also in the active voice, meaning this should be a continuous activity in a person’s life. We see this command over in over in Scripture.

Take Luke 18:1-8. ““And Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart”

Take Romans 12:12 “be constant in prayer”

Take 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing

Take Collosians 4:2 “continuing steadfastly in prayer..”

Take Ephesians 6:18 “praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Our passage says the same thing in different words, Jesus said, “ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened unto you.”

Seek first his kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added unto you

❖ Seek His righteousnes 

 

➢ Remind yourself of being clothed with it

➢ Seek to Express it: right attitudes, right actions 

➢ Pursue it socially, culturally, economically in the world 

 

➢ Remind yourself of being clothed with it

 

We gain entrance into the kingdom of God, by being clothed by a righteousnes not our own, but by Christ’s righteousness. By faith in Christ, our sins are imputed, transferred to Him, and His righteousnes are imputed, transferred to us, and by that righteousnes you are justified and put in the right relationship with Christ forever. To seek His righteousness means firstly to remind ourselves constantly of this reality. We are accepted by God, by grace, by Christ’s death and righteousness. 

 

➢ Seek to Express it: right attitudes, right actions 

 

Secondly, to seek his righteousnes means to seek ways of expressing right ideas, right thoughts, right words, and right attitudes, like kindness, generosity, love, peace, joy, patience etc. We seek to express right attitudes and we seek to do what is right, like paying taxes when we need to, being honest in business, seeking kindness towards strangers, seeking to do what is right in every circumstance, helping the poor, because righteousness glorifies Christ. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of righteousnes.

 

➢ Pursue it socially, culturally, economically in the world

 

And lastly, seek God’s righteousnes in the hard places, where you may be insulted, mistreated, cursed and persecuted, like with your friends, where you do business and people seek bribes, when you are in a family gathering and they want you to offer sacrifices to the dead, or when people want to worship their appetites like sexual pleasure or drunkenness. That is the place where we need to seek first his righteousness. And God will provide.

 

Therefore, the cure for anxiety is to 

 

Look at the birds of the air, look at God’s providential care, take notice or his works,

 

Consider the lilies of the field, take notice of the way in which he cares for creation and all life on earth

 

Know that God knows your needs and cares for you

 

Believe in the promises of his word that He will provide

 

Seek first his kingdom and righteousnes. Amen

 

Be focused on God, his Kingdom, his nature, His righteousnes, his care, his sovereignty. Amen

The cure of anxiety part 7

• Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness 

 

Verse 33 begins with a “but” in other words, don’t be anxious, but…

33). “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” 

Seek first. 

 

Two conditions are given for you to inherit the promise. Seek first. That means to make it your focus in life, your primary objective, your mission in life, your goal, your first priority when you wake up, to seek

 

To seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What does it mean? 

 

❖ The kingdom of God

 

What is the kingdom of God? 

 

The Bible says nobody can see or enter the kingdom of God, unless they are born again (John 3:3-5). In other words, the kingdom of God is first of all, a spiritual place, a spiritual place whereby God made you alive to a spiritual reality. The reality of God and his rule. To enter the kingdom of God, means you come under the reign and rule of God as your Father and that happens when the Holy Spirit makes you alive unto God and grants you faith in Jesus Christ and repentance towards God. Unless you are converted and changed and become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:3). The kingdom of God is the spiritual place or state of being  where your sins are forgiven, where God drives away the demons, where the power of Satan is broken and the Holy Spirit reigns. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). The kingdom of God is everlasting. So when the text says, seek first, it assumes you are in it already, you are regenerated and are filled with the Spirit. To seek it further in your life, means, I believe, three things:

 

➢ Seek your continual submission to it

➢ Seek the expression of it

➢ Seek the expansion of it

 

➢ Seek your continual submission to it

 

Seek to bring every area of your life, your thought life, your affections, your loves, your hates, your dreams, your ambitions, your future, your will, your body, your family, your hobbies, your dreams, your money, your possessions, under the control of Christ. Seek to deny and crucify your sinful desires and wishes and plans continually, and seek to submit the whole spectrum of life unto God. That is what it means to seek the kingdom of God. 

 

➢ Seek the expression of it

 

This point relates to the first. The kingdom of God is within you, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit testifies of this fact. You are indwelt by the Holy Spirit when you are a child of God, and the Holy Spirit produces fruit, or we can say expressions, it wants to express or exhibit the nature of God through you by your submission to the King. How? By being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, being meek, pursuing righteousness, showing mercy to others, loving purity and peacableness, 

 

➢ Seek the expansion of it

 

And thirdly seeking his kingdom first means you desire the expansion of it, by submitting to it, expressing it and using means like preaching, praying, distribution of truth, standing for what is right and good on a familial, social, cultural and global level. You seek for opportunities to make the King known, through the gospel and by loving people.

The cure of anxiety part 6

• Believe that if you do seek first God’s kingdom He will provide

 

33)But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 

 

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. 

 

Here is a promise attached. When we first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added. 

 

Promises in the Bible are very important. And they are given to believe in. There is nothing so powerful as a promise of God. Our salvation rests on the promises of God. We are made partakers of the divine nature by the promises of God. By believing in the promises of God!! (2 Peter 1:3,4)

 

God cannot lie. God hasn’t lied. God doesn’t lie. God will not lie. He has promised that He will provide in the needs of His children and He will! This is the rock you must stand on. It is unshakable. God’s word is true and indestructible. 

 

Believe in it. God is a good God. God is a faithful God. God is a God of truth and his promises will come to pass over and over in your life, child of God. Believe in it. Put this promise in your heart. God will provide in your needs, in your necessities, for your future when you seek him first. 

 

You see there is a condition. But seek first….

 

God must be first in your life. You must put him first. Not your family, not your job, not your hobbies, not entertainment. God must be first. When God is first in your life, God will provide in your needs. 

 

“No good thing will God withhold from them who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11) “My God will supply in all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).

 

Believe! BELIEVE, that God will stay true to his word and promises!

The cure of anxiety part 5

• Know that God knows what you need and He will provide 

 

31)Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

32)For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 

 

The third prescription to cure anxiety is to KNOW! Know that your heavenly Father knows what you need. He knows exactly what you need. 

 

Many times in Scripture the word “believe” is used as a synonym for the word “knowing”. We see this in Romans 6. 

 

What must I know? 

 

I must know that God is omniscient. I must keep this truth, as it were, in my heart. I must remind myself of it constantly. I must know that God sees everything. God knows everything of everyone. And God is not ignorant of my every need. God knows me intimately. He knows my thoughts from afar. He knows what I am going to say and think before I do (Psalm 139). He knows me through and through. He knows me better than I know myself. He knows all my medical conditions, he knows what medicines and pills I am taking. He knows my future. He has plans for me as a child of God. He has prepared beforehand the good works that I should walk in (Ep 2:10). He knows my needs, my debts, my sins, my struggles, my fears, my talents, my liabilities, my weaknesses, my gifts, my everything, my family. He knows everything. And if he knows, and if he is my Father and He is loving and good, why are you anxious? This knowledge, this knowledge of who God is changes everything. He knows me, he knows my needs, and as a Father, he will provide for me, because he not only knows me, he cares for me, he loves me, I am his child in Christ. 

 

Stock up your mind with knowledge about God, his love, his omniscience, and know and believe God will care. Learn more about God, study God’s attributes. Meditate on God! 

 

Know, know the character of God!

The cure of anxiety (part 4)

• Consider the lilies of the field, faith in God’s love and care

28) Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 

29)yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

30)But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

 

The second prescription is to CONSIDER

This is the second imperative, or command. 

 

What must I do, to get delivered of anxiety? 

 

Consider the lilies of the field. God clothes them, more beautifully than Solomon in all his glory, more gloriously than anyone can be clothed in this world. More exquisitely than anyone can be clothed in the world. God created beauty and God created the flowers and the lilies and the wild lilies and the roses. Consider, that means, think deeply about, ponder, meditate if you will, consider. Think about God’s works of creation, how he sustains and beautifies creation.

Look at the plants. 

Who causes them to grow? 

Who sends the rain? 

Who causes oxygen and nitrogen to be in the air? 

Who causes the wind to blow? 

Who causes bees to pollinate plants and for seeds to be scattered across the world? 

Who? 

Who created different kinds of seeds, seeds of plants, flowers and roses? Who created this clothing of the lilies? 

Was it chance? 

Did it all happen by chance? 

Not at all! 

God did it!

Consider the power and wisdom of God! Consider God! Consider his insight and sustaining hand and his hands of care and love over creation! CONSIDER!

If God clothes the lilies and flowers of the field, will he not much more clothe you, you who are made in the image of God, you who are more valuable than gold and silver, for whom Christ died, and gave his life, his last breath!?

Will he not much more clothe you and care for you and sustain you and provide for you, clothes and food and money and all that you need! Consider! 

Consider! 

Think! 

Consider creation. 

Consider the Creator! Consider! Think! Let your mind be renewed by the word of God. 

 

Consider and believe! Believe that God will clothe you as well. Because you are more valuable than lilies and flowers and plants.

Consider, consider the works of God!

Will you go to heaven when you die?

I can’t think of a more important question to ask you than this one. I’m not asking whether you have enough food, or whether you have children that behave well, or not, or whether you have a good wife or husband, or not, whether you have enough money or a good job, or a happy life. These things are not necessarily unimportant or peripheral things in our lives. However, I am more concerned about the state of your soul. Too long you have put the topic of God and eternity out of your mind. I want to know whether your soul is right with God. Are you right with God? Do you have peace with God? If you die tonight are you sure you will be with God and see his glory in heaven? Do you have the favor of God on your life? Or are you running away from Him? Are you living for yourself? For your own happiness, for your own pleasure and comfort? Is your life centered around God or around money and possessions or alcohol and parties or your own self? 

 

The Scriptures say, “we all are like sheep, we have all gone our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). The Scriptures, the Bible, reveal that we are spiritually dead in our sins, we are dead to God and alive to our sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). The Bible says, those who are in the flesh, those who are controlled by the sinful nature, cannot please God (Romans 8:7). You see, the world has a pattern, and those of the world are following its pattern, its ways. Those who are of the world are enemies of God. Those who love the world, does not have the love of God in them. Those who love the world, those who are lovers of themselves and pleasure, those who are preoccupied with what money can buy, will perish. Jesus said, we cannot serve God and money at the same time. We will either love the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:19-24). Unless you understand that you were created by God and for God life will never make sense to you. You are not here on earth, to become the best version of yourself, you were created on earth for God, to know Him, love Him, fear Him, worship Him, obey Him and to trust in Him (Deuteronomy 10; Matthew 22:36-40). 

Your heart will remain restless unless it finds rest in God (Saint Augustine). You will remain unsatisfied and without hope unless you find hope in God. The Bible makes it clear, that we all have sinned against God (Romans 3:23) and because of our rebellion and sins (lies, idolatry, covetousness, thefts, blasphemies etc) we deserve God’s justice (Romans 2:1-10). And his justice demands that we die, die in this life, and die for eternity in hell. God is holy and cannot have union with sinners who hate Him. The Bible says, “the punishment of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “the soul that sins must die” (Ezekiel 18:20). Someone needs to tell you this. Unless you find peace with God, unless you get right with God, your sins will drag you to hell, and God will condemn you to die forever in hell(Revelation 20:11-15). Hell is a place of suffering, a place of outer darkness, where people will be in agony, where there will be no rest, and where the fire to torment them will never be quenched (Mark 9:41-49). All who refuse to come to Christ and be saved will gothere and God’s just sentence will be executed on them. 

 

Here follows the good news. The Bible says, “the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:23). And “God so loved the world that He gave Jesus Christ that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God made a way, through Jesus Christ, for you to escape the horrors of hell, and to have peace with God, for your sins to be forgiven, and for you to be right with God. 2000 years ago God sent Jesus Christ into this world. He lived in Israel. He was born of a virgin. He was God in human form, and He lived a life of perfection, he never sinned, (2 Corinthians 5:21). And after he performed many miracles, he gave his life as a sacrifice, to die in the place of sinners like you and I, and then after paying for our sins, he rose from the dead, conquering death, Satan and sin, and now He offers eternal life and forgiveness of sins for all who would turn (repent) from their sins and trust in Him alone for salvation. I urge you come to Christ and believe in His promise. You will not perish, but live if you come to Him and believe in Christ (John 7:37). 

Come today, before it is too late, and let your sins be washed away!

The cure of anxiety Part 2

The diagnosis: 

 

▪ A lack of understanding 

 

Jesus diagnosed the problem of anxiety very plainly: 

 

26)Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 

27)And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 

28)And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 

29)yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

30)But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

 

Jesus says: your Heavenly Father feeds them(the birds), are you not of more value than they? And God clothes the grass of the field, will he not much more clothe you? 

 

The reason why Christians get anxious is because they don’t understand how God cares for them. Their minds have not been renewed. They don’t have God’s perspective on things.They don’t believe in the sovereignty of God. The cause of anxiety is a lack of understanding of God and his nature. When we think and ponder on the nature of God, when we set our minds on God, we will have less anxiety. Therefore, the Bible says, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1,2). To believe God is sovereign means you believe God controls everything that comes to pass every single day and minute of the day in your own life and on every millimetre of this planet and in the universe and that he has wise plans and purposes for everything that happens in your life. Even if it means painful things and things that you can’t make sense of. 

 

▪ A lack of trust 

 

Jesus says: 30) “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

 

The reason why we have anxiety over the future and our present situation is because we have little faith! We lack faith in God, we lack trust in God. And for us to believe in God, we ought to understand God and his ways. We don’t believe that God is sovereign over us. We don’t believe that God can get us out of our conundrums. We don’t believe God is in control. We don’t trust in God’s promises. Our minds are filled with other things, with love of money, with selfish ambition, with worldly pursuits and food, and drink and driving the best motorcars. Our minds are on the earth. We are earthly minded, not spiritually minded. That’s why we are fearful and anxious. 

 

▪ A lack of focus  

 

The reason why we are anxious is because our focus is not on God, but on other things. Our focus is on making much money, becoming rich, doing well for ourselves, our focus is not on the kingdom of God, but on the kingdom of self and comfort, on the kingdom of this world. Our focus is on Mammon. And Jesus, said it, you cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time. You must choose. When your focus in life is not God, then anxiety will haunt you sooner or later. It is inevitable. 

 

3. The Prescription: Five strategies to overcome

 

So here follows five prescriptions from Jesus to cure your anxiety. I will look at each one in the following devotions. 

 

• Look at the birds of the air, faith in God’s providence 

• Consider the lilies of the field, faith in God’s love and care

• Know that God knows what you need and He will provide 

• Believe that if you do seek first God’s kingdom He will provide

• Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness