A 'Home Run' from the 'bat' of Pastor Andrew Murray:

This is the love of God, not that He gives us something, but that He gives us someone in whom is all life and blessing - Jesus Himself. It is the will of the Father that we should have Jesus as ours, even as He has Him. God has given His Son, given Him wholly to become ours. How I do wish that all Christians may understand this. The one great work of God's love for us is that He gives us His Son. In Him, we have all. The one great work of our heart must be to receive Jesus who has been given to us and to consider Him and use Him as ours. I must begin every day anew with the thought, I HAVE JESUS TO DO ALL FOR ME. In all weakness, darkness, or danger, and in the case of every desire or need, let your first thought always be, I HAVE JESUS TO MAKE EVERYTHING RIGHT FOR ME BECAUSE GOD HAS GIVEN HIM TO ME. Let this always be your first thought: THE FATHER HAS GIVEN ME JESUS TO CARE FOR ME. For this purpose, consider this gift of God every day as yours. Take Him new every day. Through faith, you have the Son. The love of God has given the Son. Take Him (daily, purposely, purposefully!) and hold Him fast in the love of your heart. Andrew Murray

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Such a prayer with such meaning from the reformer Menno Simons (1496-1561):

O Lord of hosts, when I am buoyed up in the waters of Your grace, I find that I can neither fathom nor measure them, for Your mercies are greater than all Your works. . . Adam departed from You and believed the counsel of the serpent; he transgressed Your commandments and became a child of death before You. But Your fatherly kindness did not reject him. In grace You sought him, called and reproved him, covered his nakedness with coats of skin, and graciously comforted him with the promised seed. Your fatherly grace did not forsake me, a miserable sinner, but in love received me, converted me to another mind, led me with the right hand, and taught me by the Holy Spirit until of my own choice I declared war upon the world, the flesh, and the devil, and renounced all my ease, peace, glory, desire, and physical prosperity, and willingly submitted to the heavy cross of my Lord Jesus Christ that I might inherit the promised kingdom with all the soldiers of God and the disciples of Christ. Menno Simons

More and more I am realizing that my daily, basic prayer must be and must continue to be: Lord, please continue to seek me. Please continue in love to receive me. Please continue to convert me to another mind - the mind of Christ. Please continue to lead me with Your powerful right hand. Please continue to teach me by Your Holy Spirit until I, too, find myself being willing to declare war more and more often upon the world, the flesh, and the devil in my life; until I too find myself being willing to renounce more and more often all my ease, peace, glory, desire, and physical prosperity; and until I too find myself being willing more and more often to submit myself to the heavy cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. Father, every day, through the power of Your Holy Spirit, turn me more and more and more Christward. Continue, Father, every day, through the power of Your Holy Spirit, continue to convert me!

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The bountiful 'spread' at a recent Church supper reminded me of a great illustration I heard an evangelist share one time years ago. It seems this man returned home from a speaking engagement on the Saturday before a planned Sunday church potluck. Not being aware of this event until being informed by a neighbor fellow church-attender after his arrival, and finding only bread in the pantry and baloney in the fridge, his first thought was, 'I'm not prepared; don't want to shop and cook; I'll get a hamburger after church.' 'No,' the neighbor responded, 'Bring whatever you have. We'll put it with all the food and everybody will feast.' I remember this guy - with a smile on his face - sharing how almost guilty he felt when, the next day after church, he found himself with a plate full of fried chicken, potato salad and a lot of other good stuff chowing down while, at the same time, glancing at his puny plate of baloney sandwiches. Not a bad deal. Let me share with you the incredibly good news of an eternally better deal:

(One)incomparable benefit of faith is that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom. By this mystery . . . Christ and the soul become one flesh. And if they are one flesh and thee is between them a true marriage - indeed the most perfect of all marriages, since human marriages are but poor examples of this one true marriage - it follows that everything they have they hold in common, the good as well as the evil. Accordingly the believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has, as though it were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own. Let us compare these and we shall see inestimable benefits. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ's while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul's; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride's and bestows upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall be not take all that is hers? Martin Luther

To the Corinthians - and to us - Paul wrote these words: 'God made Him (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.' 2 Cor. 5:21(NIV) To the church at Rome - and to us - he wrote these words: 'What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him (and in Him), graciously give us all things?' Rom. 8:31,32(NIV) Hey,forget baloney and chicken. What Jesus is saying is, 'I'll go to hell for you - I already have! Why don't you come to heaven in and with and through Me and My Holy Spirit and My almighty power because I have and am everything you will ever need in this life and the one to come. I offer you Me.' Friends, we cannot, we must not lose out on this!

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This will no doubt come as a shock to many who know me - probably all - but when I was a kid I was not all that bad of an athlete - really. For example, in my Little League (it wasn't called that but that's what it was) years I made a couple of all-star teams, one of which even made a trip to Malta Bend,Mo. - yes, Malta Bend - to play their all-stars. I really don't have a clue what happened - I played catcher - although I like to think that we emerged victorious. One thing I do remember about those years though was my 11th birthday. All the guys I played with wore uniforms of some kind or another - not the almost professional uniforms that kids wear today on these great youth league teams, but just basic catalogue-ordered uniforms with a number and some form of design - you know, something cool. I knew Mom and Dad had little money - though we were always provided for. But there was this shirt - red stripes, red trim, number 10 - I really wanted it. What a shock! On my 11th birthday I not only got the shirt, I got the pants too. Sometimes loving parents are able to find ways to really surprise us with their generosity. Commenting on Ephesians 3:20 - 'Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us . . .' NKLV John Bunyan shares this:

He can do abundantly more than we ask. Oh! Says the soul, that he would but do so much for me as I could ask him to do! How happy a man should I then be. But mark, the text doth not say, that God is able to do all that we can ask or think, but that he is able to do above all, yea, abundantly above all, yea, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. What a text is this! What a God have we! God foresaw the sins of his people, and what work the devil would make with their hearts about them, and therefore to prevent their ruin by his temptation he has thus largely, as you see, expressed his love by his word. Let us therefore, as has been bidden us, make this good use of this doctrine of grace, as to cast ourselves upon this love of God in the times of distress and temptation. John Bunyan

Is Bunyan saying here - is the Bible saying here - that God is just some Big Heavenly Genie whose only task in life is to be at our beck and call to fulfill every little whim and wish that might interest us? I think we all know the answer to that. Paul says that God will always supply His children's legitimate needs in this life. But here is the gracious truth that both the Apostle Paul and John Bunyan underscore for us and remind us of: If we will be still and allow God to define for us what our real needs are and if we will allow Him to give to us what He really wants to give, our desired shirt will always become a full suit of blessing in His hands for, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.' I Corinthians 2:9 NIV Wow! What a God!

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In my mind - admittedly limited as it is - one of the most perplexing truths, questions, facts of our Christian Faith is this business of many times having to go back time and again to God with our prayer requests before - if we have indeed remained consistent and persistent in our asking - we finally receive God's answer to our request. Now I am not saying that it is this way all of the time, but from many stories that Jesus told illustrating His truths - the lady seeking justice from the unjust judge; the neighbor seeking bread in the night from his neighbor in order to feed unexpected guests - and from His dealings with many folk He dealt with it seems to be a spiritual fact of life that there are times, many times, when God holds onto His answers for awhile. Why do you think this is so? Is God teasing us, tormenting us, torturing us? Is God asleep, distracted, bored, maybe watching TV? No, no, no, and most especially NO! I believe that E.M. Bounds is on the right tract:

Answer to prayer is conditional upon the amount of faith that goes to the petition. To test this(our faith), God delays the answer. The superficial pray-er subsides into silence, when the answer is delayed. But the man of prayer hangs on, and on. The Lord then recognizes and honors his faith, and gives him a rich and abundant answer to his faith-evidencing, importunate prayer. E.M.Bounds

Maybe the real issue that God wants to know about when we approach Him about anything is, 'Does this person want my answers more than he wants my answers and Me? Or really, does he want my answers more than he wants Me and my answers. Or does he want my gifts more than Me alone? Because, you know what, I alone am the answer to any human problem.' Maybe when God causes us to wait for His blessings, in part anyway He is forcing us to look at our priorities. But whatever is all involved, don't give up. Keep on keeping on.

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Paul says that we are more than conquerors through faith. But can one do more than conquer? Yes, one can, if one stands after having conquered, preserves the victory, and abides in the victory. How often has it not been seen that the one who pressed victoriously against the storm without weakening, exhausted could not endure the calm which came with the victory; or the one who was so hardy he could endure all the changes of weather, heat and cold, but could not stand the strong breeze at the moment of victory! And how often has not a victory been won in vain, if the victor then became proud, conceited, arrogant, self-satisfied, and thus lost just through having conquered!
Spiritually understood, there are always two victories: a first victory, and then the second by which the first victory is preserved. The worldly always talks about one victory, the godly always talks about two. In the first conflict, he fought against the world for the victory which was won; in the second conflict he fights with God about that victory. A man only stands, then, after having overcome everything, when he immediately, at the very moment of victory, ascribes the victory to God. Oh, in the eyes of the world, what folly: to need God's assistance most of all after one has conquered! Soren Kierkegaard

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