Praying Pint

 

Colossians 3:1  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Psalms 107:9  For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

Spiritual hunger and thirst are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, while at the same time they are enlarged for more of Him. This satisfaction overwhelms all lesser longings. Fleshly yearnings are never fulfilled, and every attempt at such satisfaction soon cloys.

“Do we think of, and rejoice in, our blessings more than in the Person in whom we have them? As to even our doctrinal blessings, there is a wonderful charm about them when they are new to us, and they sustain the soul for a certain time; but when the first joy of them passes away, a settling-down process commences. Every new bit of blessing may seem to put a new bit of life into us, but it gradually loses its luster and power, and we become just ordinary Christians – we make very little progress.

“It is as we take the Lord Jesus by faith into the affections of our hearts that we make spiritual progress. It is as He occupies an enlarged place in our affections that we go on. The head may be filled with general theological information without producing one spark of heart-affection for the Lord Jesus, and the soul remains in a state of spiritual emaciation.

“Many have been misled by thinking that by reading the Bible you become like Christ – transformed; but you will find diligent students of the Word, who may never say anything incorrect in doctrine, yet who never seem to grow in grace and walk in spiritual reality.

“All blessings of this dispensation of grace are wrapped up in a Person, and, by means of the Word of God, we make spiritual progress as our hearts learn to find everything in Him – the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.”  (Stanford)

 

Proverbs 23:4–5     Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.

We should appreciate money without worshiping it. We should save money without hoarding it.   Finally, we should use money without trusting it. Proverbs 10:15 says, “The rich man’s wealth is his fortress.” Money can protect us against some things. That’s why God commands us to save for the future. But look at the balancing word in Proverbs 18:11: “A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own imagination.” The ultimate security that money promises is an illusion. Money can’t protect us against everything.   In Luke 12, Jesus told a parable to illustrate this truth. Jesus described a rich man who had so much excess that he didn’t know what to do with it. Then he came up with a plan: He would build bigger barns to store all his goods so he could put his feet up and live in luxury. But while he was dreaming of security and luxury, God said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (v. 20).   Money can’t protect you from your mate having an affair, your children rebelling against you, or your body developing cancer–and it certainly can’t protect you from death. At any time, you could be taken from your possessions, or your possessions could be taken from you.   From 2010 to early 2020, the Permian Basin in West Texas experienced the greatest oil boom in history. But that changed on April 21, 2020. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude went negative for the first time in history. You had to pay people to take the oil off your hands. David Arrington, a Texas oilman, placed a humorous sign outside his office in downtown Midland: “Will trade oil for toilet paper.”   Everything you have can disappear overnight. That’s why Proverbs 23:4–5 says, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.” Use money, but don’t put your ultimate trust in it.  (Jeffress)

 

 

Romans 10:14-15     How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

 A doctor saves lives with medicine and skill. But we don’t need a medical degree to do and say something that will heal a life. We carry something just as powerful: a word spoken at the right moment, in the right tone, with the right intention. A word of faith that reminds someone who they are. A word of love that tells someone they are seen. A word from Scripture that lands exactly where the wound is.

Malachi saw a day coming when “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays” (Malachi 4:2). Light that heals as it shines. Not light that exposes and condemns, but light that restores. That is what Jesus brought. And that is what He calls us to carry into every room we enter.

And then there is the word that goes further than any of these. The word that does what no medicine can do. The gospel: the news that God came, that He died, that He rose, that the door is open. It is the only word that can move a person from death to life. Not metaphorically. Eternally.

Paul called it “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Not a suggestion. Not a philosophy. Power. The kind that changes where a person spends eternity.

If the tongue has the power of life and death, then the most life-giving thing it can ever do is carry that word. The most beautiful sentence a human mouth can form is the one that tells another person: there is a way home.

We will all speak dozens of times today. Most of those words will feel small and inconsequential. We won’t remember them by evening. But the people who receive them might.

A doctor needs years of training to save a life. We just need our tongue. The question is what we do with it. Did the words we spoke today leave people more alive? Or less? (Bible Portal)

 

Proverbs 18:21  The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. 

Proverbs 10:20-21    The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.  The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.

Ephesians 4:29    Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

 

A little girl handed her mom a compliment one afternoon that she didn’t deserve. “Mommy, this is the best ice pop ever.” It was fruit I had blended and frozen. Nothing special. Just fruit. She was four then. She is fifteen now. Her mom had forgotten about it until recently. And then it came back to her, and she couldn’t let it go. A few days later, when she dropped her off at preschool and overheard her tell her teacher: “Oh, I love your skirt.” The teacher stopped mid-sentence. She smiled the way people smile when they weren’t expecting to. She didn’t know she was doing anything significant. She was just saying what she saw. Her mom has not forgotten it since.

James didn’t choose this image casually. In the ancient world, fire was not a convenience. It was a terror. A single spark in a dry season could take a village. Entire forests, entire harvests, entire ways of life, gone in hours, from one ember that landed wrong.

James is not reaching for a polite metaphor. He means it literally: you are carrying something that has the same destructive potential as the thing that has leveled civilizations. And you reach for it without thinking, dozens of times a day.

The image gets harder from there. James says the tongue “corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire” (James 3:6). Not just the moment. The whole course of a life. Words spoken in anger, in jealousy, in carelessness do not stay where they land. They travel. They embed. They shape the story a person tells about themselves for years afterward. I know this is true. I have been on both ends of it.

James pushes further than most of us are comfortable with. With the tongue, he says, “we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9). Out of the same mouth. The same voice that sings on Sunday. The same lips that pray.

He says plainly: this should not be (James 3:10). And then he asks the question that won’t let us escape: can a spring pour both fresh water and salt water from the same source? (James 3:11). The answer is no. Which means the problem is not the words themselves. The problem is what is producing them. The tongue only reveals what is already there.

That is the harder truth. We can modify our words without changing what generates them. We can become more careful speakers without becoming different people. And James is not interested in more careful speakers. He is interested in transformation at the source. (Bible Portal)

 

Luke 12:15   Be on your guard against every form of greed.

Psalms 10:3  For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.

Psalms 119:36-37  Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!  Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

Proverbs 23:4-5     Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.  When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

What should our attitude be toward money and material things?   First of all, we should appreciate money without worshiping it. It’s understandable that people would choose to worship money. Money promises many of the same things God promises, such as security, peace, and fulfillment. The problem is that money never truly satisfies us. It’s like salt water: The more you consume, the more you thirst for it, even though it leads you to harm. As 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”   Money led the rich young ruler to turn away from Jesus. Money convinced Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. Money caused Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Spirit and be struck dead.   On the other hand, money built Solomon’s temple, where the people of Israel worshiped God. Money paid for the Passover meal that Jesus shared with His followers on the night before His crucifixion. Money funded Paul’s three missionary journeys. And money allows us to reach people around the world with the gospel today.   William Barclay summed it up this way: “Money in itself is neither good nor bad; but the love of it may lead to evil. With it, people may selfishly serve their own desires; with it, they may answer the cry of their neighbour’s need.” Money is not evil, but we need to keep money in perspective. That’s why Jesus said, “Be on your guard against every form of greed” (Luke 12:15).   John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, once wrote, “Money never stays with me: it would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find a way into my heart.” During Wesley’s life, a lot of money passed through his hands, but he didn’t let money possess him because he was aware of the dangers. As Christians, we should appreciate what money can do without letting it take God’s place in our lives.

 

John 17:15  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

It is a sweet and blessed event which will occur to all believers in God’s own time-the going home to be with Jesus. In a few more years the Lord’s soldiers, who are now fighting “the good fight of faith” will have done with conflict, and have entered into the joy of their Lord. But although Christ prays that his people may eventually be with him where he is, he does not ask that they may be taken at once away from this world to heaven. He wishes them to stay here. Yet how frequently does the wearied pilgrim put up the prayer, “O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest;” but Christ does not pray like that, he leaves us in his Father’s hands, until, like shocks of corn fully ripe, we shall each be gathered into our Master’s garner. Jesus does not plead for our instant removal by death, for to abide in the flesh is needful for others if not profitable for ourselves. He asks that we may be kept from evil, but he never asks for us to be admitted to the inheritance in glory till we are of full age. Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour’s company, as to be at rest. Now it is quite right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better, but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Rather let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as he pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflict, and suffering, and leave him to say when “it is enough.” (Spurgeon)

 

Philippians 1:21  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 3:3  For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—

Ephesians 2:18-19  For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

Failure to live the Christian life is due to one’s utter inability, but it is all governed by the Father. He teaches us to become proficient in failure, in order to bring us to total reliance upon His Son, who is our Christian life. “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).

“It is a wonderful moment for the believer when we by faith occupy our standing in the favor of the Father – when we know that we are received by Him in all the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“We do not then think of ourselves, of our worthiness or unworthiness, at all. We think of the Lord Jesus – His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father – and by faith, we have access into the favor of which He is so worthy.” -C.A.C.

“To find that we are objects of consideration to the Lord Jesus is an infinite solace, and it brings Him before our hearts in such a way that we are sustained above the consideration of ourselves.”

“There is an infinite difference between self-improvement and growing in the Lord Jesus, nourished and cherished by Him. Instead of being elated by our own improvement, or depressed because we cannot effect it, we are to be occupied with the grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which we are thus made to share.”

“We cannot be in the presence of the Father in innocence, for we are guilty; so that we must be there in His righteousness, and that place which used to repel us, now forms me into a likeness of itself. I am not tolerated there, I am at home; and where the distance was, there is now nearness and attraction.” (Stanford)

 

Luke 19:13  Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’

Mark 13:34  It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.

Matthew 25:15  To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

John 9:4  We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

Luke 2:49  And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

1Peter 2:21  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

2Timothy 4:1-4  I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

1Corithians 3:13  each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

1Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

 

Hebrews 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Behold the epitaph of all those blessed saints who fell asleep before the coming of our Lord! It matters nothing how else they died, whether of old age, or by violent means; this one point, in which they all agree, is the most worthy of record, “they all died in faith.” In faith they lived-it was their comfort, their guide, their motive and their support; and in the same spiritual grace they died, ending their life-song in the sweet strain in which they had so long continued. They did not die resting in the flesh or upon their own attainments; they made no advance from their first way of acceptance with God, but held to the way of faith to the end. Faith is as precious to die by as to live by.

Dying in faith has distinct reference to the past. They believed the promises which had gone before, and were assured that their sins were blotted out through the mercy of God. Dying in faith has to do with the present. These saints were confident of their acceptance with God, they enjoyed the beams of his love, and rested in his faithfulness. Dying in faith looks into the future. They fell asleep, affirming that the Messiah would surely come, and that when he would in the last days appear upon the earth, they would rise from their graves to behold him. To them the pains of death were but the birth-pangs of a better state. Take courage, my soul, as thou readest this epitaph. Thy course, through grace, is one of faith, and sight seldom cheers thee; this has also been the pathway of the brightest and the best. Faith was the orbit in which these stars of the first magnitude moved all the time of their shining here; and happy art thou that it is thine. Look anew to-night to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith, and thank him for giving thee like precious faith with souls now in glory. (Spurgeon)

 

2Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

God has revealed so many glorious contradictions in the lives and conduct of genuine Christian believers that it is small wonder that we are such an amazement to this world. The Christian is dead and yet he lives forever. He died to himself and yet he lives in Christ. The Christian saves his own life by losing it and he is in danger of losing it by trying to save it. It is strange but true that the Christian is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strongest. When he gets down on his knees thinking he is weak, he is always strong. The Christian is in least danger when he is fearful and trusting God and in the most danger when he feels the most self-confident. He is most sinless when he feels the most sinful and he is the most sinful when he feels the most sinless. The Christian actually has the most when he is giving away the most; and in all of these ways, the Christian is simply putting into daily practice the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, his Savior and Lord! (Tozer)