Prayer to be Pure in Heart

Pure in Heart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prayer to be Pure in Heart

Lord, my life is almost lived, As I prepare to continue my life, I look back with gratitude for helping me be Pure at Heart. It was your gift, to nourish me, enlighten me and speed me on my way to eternity. And now I do what you told your disciples to do – I work at being Pure at Heart. My faults and failings, I leave to your mercy. Tonight before I close my eyes in sleep, I thank you for each of the gifts and attitudes your love has brought me today… Especially, Lord I thank you for the guidance you have provided me, to achieve being Pure in Heart.. Amen.

Pure in Heart-Q&A

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pure in heart-Q&A

⁸God blesses those whose hearts are pure,

for they will see God.

And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.

Measure yourself on these mental attitudes-1 being Low and 4 being High: I have come to the place where I can be completely open and honest with God and others – transparent because I have nothing to hide. I don’t have to put on “airs” or to pretend to be what I am not.

The ability to be yourself without any pretenses and allow the presence of Christ to radiate through you.

Practical Application

Humor has done a lot to help in spiritual life and to be pure in heart. A pastor told this story:

After a talk from a Christian speaker, a Christian lady, was enjoying with some friends she met there: She told them: I got married at age 31, I didn’t worry about getting married; I left my future in God’s hands. But I must tell you, every night I hung a pair of man’s pants on my bed and knelt down to pray this prayer:

Father in heaven, here my prayer,
And grant it you can
I’ve hung a pair of trousers here,
Please fill them with a man.

The following Sunday I told that humorous story to our congregation, and they enjoyed it immensely, I happened to notice the different reactions of a father and his teenage son.

I received a note from the mother:

Dear Chuck

I am wondering if I should be worried about something. It has to do with our son. For the last two weeks I have noticed that before our son turns the light out and goes to sleep at ni9ght, he hangs a woman’s bikini over the foot of his bed…. Should I be concerned about this?

I assured her there was nothing to worry about. And I am pleased to announce that the young man recently married, so maybe the swimsuit idea works.

Pure in Heart

English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pure in Heart

In the previous posting we introduced the attitude of “Pure in heart” as part of our discussion of Mercy.  The precious attitudes covered were attitudes that dealt with the assignments and challenges you face as part of the training program to make the decision of loving yourself or God.  Now we are going to look at an attitude that impacts the love of God you may have chosen as part of the decision.  As part of that decision, we need to ask God to cleanse us from within, cleansing our hearts and spirits for new thoughts and desires.  Right conduct (as covered under “doing the right thing”), can only come from a clean heart and spirit.  Have you asked God to create a pure heart and spirit in you.

In the physical world, deception is acceptable.  In God’s spiritual world only honesty is acceptable.  In order for us to be near God we must be working to be free of the evil things that would bring us shame in our relationship with our lover God.  And one of those He hates the most is dishonesty.  Because God knows everything in our hearts and minds.  And when we are dishonest, we are, in effect, saying that we don’t care how our lover feels and thinks; we want our way.

As lovers of God, our self-worth is based on the fact that God loves us and calls us to share love with him.  We are His lovers now (that we made the decision to love him), not just sometimes in the distant future.  Knowing that we are His lover should encourage us to live as Jesus modeled for us. 

The Christian life is a process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.  This process will not be complete until we see our lover – God, spirit to spirit, but knowing that it is our ultimate destiny should motivate us to purify our love in anticipation for meeting our lover – God, spirit to spirit.  To purify means to work at becoming morally correct; much as a  person in a loving relationship prepare (puts on the right clothes, takes a shower, etc.) to meet his/her lover, free from any corruption.  God actually purifies us but we must take action to show God that we want that purification.

There is a difference in doing evil (sin) and continuing to sin.  Even the most faithful lover sometimes commit sins, but they do not cherish a particular sin and choose to commit it again and again.  A lover who commits a sin, commits to not committing it any longer (repents), confesses and accept the penalties for that shame brought to the love affair, and asks for and accepts the forgiveness offered.  A person who continues to sin, by contrast, is not sorry for what he or she is doing.  Thus this person never confesses and repents and never receives forgiveness.  Such a person is in opposition to God, no matter what religious claims he or she makes.  Thereby impacting their quality of life.

If we do work at being pure at heart, we will be able to receive the attitude of “Peace” and become a “Peacemaker,” in attitude.  Covered in the next posting.

Prayer for Mercy

The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prayer for Mercy

Dear Lord, we are surly tired in these days of want and need. We have not always loved You with all our heart nor served You. We confess that we have not always shown mercy to others, when You have shown it to us. Forgive us, O Lord, all our sins, our neglect, our indifference, our lack of mercy. In your mercy, O Lord, turn your face again toward us. Help us, we pray, and give us today what we need to support ourselves and our dependents. Fill also our souls with your shared love and peace. To You belogs the glory both now and forever; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Mercy-Practical Application

English: Schliengen: Saint Leodegar Church, life-size statue of Jesus luging cross Deutsch: Schliengen: St. Leodegar, lebensgroße, kreuzschleppende Jesusstatue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mercy-Practical Application

Measure yourself on These following attitudes – 1 bein low and 4 being high:

· I have come to the place where I can enter into the feelings of someone who is hurting, lonely, or distressed and feel alongside them in their pain. God has given me a sensitivity for the suffering of others.

· The ability to pick up on the hurt and pain of others and be present without being pushy or nosy.

· I have come to the place where I don’t have to be the strong one all the time , I can be tender and gentle with people. I’ve given over control of my life to God and I don’t have to “win” all the time.

· The ability to be tender because you are inwardly strong and to lead without overpowering others.

· I have come to the place where I can really feel the empty places in my life. I can let others know when I am hurting and share the grief of others without embarrassment. I can weep like Jesus did.

· The ability to feel what others feel, to laugh and cry with others.

· I have come to the place where I want to know God and His will for my life more than anything. I am mor excited about God’s will for the world than my own financial gain, success in my life, or acceptance by my peers. I long for God’s perspective in my decision-making.

· The ability to maintain spiritual priorities and to cause others to seek a deeper walk with God.

Mercy

English: David's Love for God's House, as in 1 Chronicles 22:6-16, illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mercy

Let’s take a look at “Mercy” and what it means as an attitude.  The Bible often speaks of God’s care for the weak, poor, and needy, and on the blessing on those who share this concern.  God wants our generosity to reflect his own free giving.  As he has blessed us, we should bless others.  The physical world teaches Strength without feeling.  God’s love says since we are shown mercy, we, in our modeling of Jesus, should show mercy to others.

Just as children imitate their parents, we should imitate Jesus.  God’s great love for us led Him to sacrifice His son so that we might live with Him for eternity.  Our love for others should be the same kind – a love that gets beyond affection to self-sacrificing service.

Pride causes a person to despise others, and prevents him or her from learning anything from God’s training program.  We all need God’s mercy every day.  We should not let pride in our achievements cut us off from sharing love with God.

The acts of mercy (smiling, saying Thank You, etc.) we all can do every day are many if you work at it.  These acts do not depend on wealth, ability, or intelligence, they are simple acts freely given and freely received.  We have no excuse to neglect those who have deep needs, and we cannot hand over this responsibility to the church or government.  God – our lover demands our personal involvement in caring for others’ needs.

Mercy has been defined as “not giving a person what he or she deserves.”  This is exactly what God does for us.  Any of our disobedience (past, present, or future) demands penalties just as we learned in our living of life.  But God shows mercy towards us by providing an escape from the portion of the penalties that impact the sharing of love with Him, through Jesus, who pays that part of the penalty.  We still need to pay that part of the penalty that teaches us not to love our-self but God.  When we pray for forgiveness, we are asking for what we do not deserve.  Yet when we take this step and trust in Jesus’s saving work on our behalf, we can experience God’s forgiveness and love.  And we need to do the same to others.

What mercy on God’s part!  How many times has God shone His love this way.  He has held us back from doing something that would displease our lover.  We have no way of knowing – we just know that He can.  God works just as often in ways we can’t see as in ways we can.

As we can see, Mercy is an attitude that we need to work on to improve the quality of our life.  And one way we can do that is to work on an attitude of “Pure in heart” which we will cover in the next sharing.

Prayer for Meekness

Meek (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prayer for Meekness

Jesus, during your earthly life you were always reflecting the kind of life we were to live. I also wish to live as you would like me to. Help me to do know how I may do this. Make me attentive to being Meek during the years of preparation for my home in heaven. When I do reach the point of my graduation to my new life, help me to enter it with the Meekness You desire me to have. Amen.

Prayer to achieve meekness

The stoning of Saint Stephen provides an example of wrath, as well as of meekness, its opposite virtue. Painting by Rembrandt, Canto 15. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prayer to achieve Meekness

Father in heaven, provide me enough meekness to keep me friendly, enough meekness to keep me dependent on you, enough accomplishment to keep me eager, enough failure to keep me humble, enough faith to drive away rebellion, enough doubt to keep me learning what you desire, enough hope so that I keep on looking for better ways to serve you, enough sense to know when I have found them. And when I’ve done all I can do in one day, the best I can, help me to realize I am your child.

Meekness

English: Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Meekness

Let us start looking at Meekness now.  The dictionary defines it this way: Meekness is the state or quality of being meek (patient and mild; not inclined to anger or resentment, submissive, gentle or kind).

One of God’s followers (David) described meekness in a Psalm/song 37 as follows: Meekness hardly seems the proper weapon to deal with enemies.  God’s war-fair must be carried out with calm faith, humility before God, and hope in His help.  Jesus also promises sure reward  (inherit the earth) for those with the meekness attitude.  We were being shown that God in sharing his love, wanted to give us everything we need to make the decision (to love God instead of ourselves); this includes the challenges, assignments and the parts of the physical world we also need.

God frees people from being in control of everything around them.  He asks them only to do their best on the assignments and challenges He gives them to complete so they can make the right decision.  As a reward for relinquishing control He gives us love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all trials.  A relationship with God changes meaningless toil into spiritual productivity and purpose.

We learned the importance of meekness, when as a child we saw that this trait was valued by our family and friends.  Those who had it were well liked. 

David, in the previously mentioned song, called us to take delight in sharing love with God and to commit everything we have and do (our “way”) to him.  But how do we do this?  To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy in his or her presence.  This happens only when we know that person well.  Thus to delight in our lover – God, we must know him better.  Knowledge of God’s great sharing love for us will indeed give us delight.

To commit ourselves to that sharing love program means entrusting everything – our lives, families, jobs, possessions – to His control and guidance.  To commit to God means to trust Him, believing that He can care for us better than we can ourselves.  We should be willing to wait patiently for him to work out what is best for that decision and God’s overall plans.

Anger and worry (fretting) are two very destructive emotions.  They reveal a lack of trust that God loves us and is in control.  We should not worry, instead we should trust in God, giving ourselves to him for His use and safekeeping.  When you dwell on your problems, you will become anxious and angry.  But if you concentrate on sharing love with God and the mutual goodness that occurs in that love, you will find peace.  So where do you focus your attitude.

Righteousness

Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. NB - slightly cut down - for full size see here (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Righteousness

Righteousness in the dictionary is defined as acting in a just, upright manner, doing what is right, virtuous, morally right, fair and just, morally justifiable, good, excellent, satisfying, pleasant, authentic: a generalized term of approval.

Isaiah 11:4, 5 and 42: 1-4 call for it. Jesus required it to counter pursuing personal needs. He points out that we will be filled/satisfied if we reach it. We can develop it by practicing John 16:5-11 and Phillipians 3:7-11.

He will defend the poor and the exploited. He will rule against the wicked and destroy them with the breath of his mouth. ⁵He will be clothed with fairness and truth.

The righteousness that God values is more than refraining from sin. It is actively turning toward others and offering them the help they need.

“Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, and I am pleased with him. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will reveal justice to the nations. ²He will be gentle—he will not shout or raise his voice in public. ³He will not crush those who are weak or quench the smallest hope. He will bring full justice to all who have been wronged. ⁴He will not stop until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.”

The chosen servant reveals a character of gentleness, encouragement, justice, and truth. When you feel broken and bruised or burned out in your spiritual life, God won’t step on you or toss you aside as useless but will gently pick you up. God’s loving attributes are desperately needed in the world today. Through God’s Spirit, we can show such sensitivity to people around us, reflecting God’s goodness and honesty to them.

But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and none of you has asked me where I am going. ⁶Instead, you are very sad. ⁷ _ But it is actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Counselor^£ won’t come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you. ⁸ _ And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. ⁹ _ The world’s sin is unbelief in me. ¹⁰ _ Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. ¹¹Judgment will come because the prince of this world has already been judged.

Three important tasks of the Holy Spirit are (1) convincing the world of its sin and calling it to repentance, (2) revealing the standard of God’s righteousness to anyone who believes, because Christ would no longer be physically present on earth, and (3) demonstrating Christ’s judgment over Satan.

I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. ⁸ _ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ ⁹ _ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. ¹⁰ _ As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, ¹¹ _ so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!