November 7, 2010

2 Kings 20

Do our prayers really affect the plan of God? If He really is sovereign, how can He allow His sovereign plans to be affected by our prayers? Greater minds than mine have honestly grappled with these questions, and they came up with mutually exclusive answers. I am not able to plumb the depths of how the sovereignty of God and the free will of man can both exist and do not infringe on each other. However, this is clear. God had determined that Hezekiah’s time on earth was done. He warned Hezekiah through Isaiah. Hezekiah immediately plead with God for healing. God immediately sent Isaiah back to heal him. Apparently, our prayers do somehow make a difference in the sovereign plan of God.

Maybe we should be careful about how we pray. Hezekiah lived another 15 years. He accomplished two things in those 15 years. Neither were good for the nation. 1) He became proud about the position the Lord had given him. So, he showed it all off, especially to the Babylonian ambassador. He did not brag about what God had done, but about what God had given him. 2) He fathered Manasseh and failed to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Manasseh was arguably Judah’s most morally corrupt and worst king. If Hezekiah had not prayed and received those requests, would the nation have been better off? Would God’s plan of showing the world the failure of the law been accomplished?

Part of the glory of God is that somehow He assigns the working of His sovereign plan to our participation with Him in prayer. That participation can result in either good or bad, but ultimately His plan is accomplished. That amazes me. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

Hebrews 4
Well now if Jesus is able to give me victory over sin, what is the mechanism by which we claim His victory? Jesus uses His word, His Spirit and our faith. As we combine these three, we enter into His faithfulness and rest in our struggle against sin. Jesus’ word, partially given by Moses, is taken by His Holy Spirit and reveals the deepest issues and sins in our lives that need to be removed. He sees into every nook and cranny of our lives. But He does so to act as a High Priest not as a judge. As our sin is revealed, our first inclination is to run and hide our sin from God, others and even ourselves. That is what the nation of Israel did at Kadesh Barnea, when they refused to enter the Promised Land.
But we have a High Priest in Jesus who can sympathize with our weaknesses. We should not run from our sin but rather bring it to our High Priest. After all He was tempted in every point just as we are, and He felt the full force of that temptation. Yet, He triumphed and did not sin. He triumphed and died and rose again for our sin. When His Holy Spirit reveals our sin through His word, we must deal with that sin by coming to His throne of grace obtaining His mercy and grace and the empowerment and provision for overcoming temptation through the filling of His Holy Spirit. It is obtained by faith. He is compassionate toward us and gives us His victory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John