SECTION 4 Everyone is well acquainted with purpose. The majority of things we do every day all have a distinct purpose for them. Some are obviously far more important than others, but we cannot function without purpose. This is how God made us and it is how normal responsible people live. This next section is all focused on the singular purpose God has for us humans. We started these lessons with the reason we humans are here on earth and that is to inherit the kingdom. But now we are shrinking down that purpose to an infinitely small one that is to actually touch every facet of our lives. I always find it amazing how much God is able to take what appears to be a small thing and expand it into truths of gigantic magnitude. That is what we will see with this section titled The Ultimate Purpose of The Good News of the Kingdom. I hope you are able to understand the purpose God has for your life in a whole new magnificent way as we work through section 4. LESSON 51 The ultimate purpose of the good news of the kingdom (part 7) Bible References: Hebrews 4:16 (1) Romans 8:1 (2) Good morning and welcome to another Lesson from the tent. One of the greatest things that will come from praying without ceasing is the transformation of how we fallen, poor in spirit people think, feel and act. The reason this occurs is because the more we commune with God the more attentive we become to His voice and to His presence. The more attentive we are, the more we will learn new ways to think, act and feel and God certinally knows we desperately need that type of change. In the middle of intense struggles though, we can easily lose sight of what is important. The gentle voice of the Holy Spirit often gets pushed aside and the struggles of life become all we can think about. When this takes place, suddenly praying without ceasing will be nothing more than an expression of tears, anger, frustration, and questioning why God doesn’t change what is causing our difficulties. When life gets this way there is a verse in the Bible that addresses these difficult times. Listen to God speaking directly to this. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (1) The original word translated confidence defines our ability to talk to God in the middle of intense struggles. It means we have complete freedom to say what we are thinking and feeling. When we come to God this way, the first thing to remember is He is not like us. He does not get riled up because we are. He doesn’t respond in kind to our hostile attitudes. As this verse says, He sits on a throne of grace where we can find help in our time of need. Let’s start with the word grace. This word is fundamental to our relationship with God, for without it there is no communing with Him. Truthfully, we have far too much wrong with us to freely come into His presence especially when our feelings, attitudes, or actions are clearly wrong. Let me share with you some of the words that define this beautiful word grace. They are sweetness, loveliness, favor, joy, delight, and good-will. While sitting on His throne of grace God asks us to bring Him all our hurt and pain, and when we do, we are welcomed with – sweetness, loveliness, favor, joy, delight, and good-will. As beautiful as this is God says we also receive mercy. Here are some of the words associated with this great word: compassion, a desire to help, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness and soothing. Even with all that these two words bring us there is still another concept that comes as the result of the salvation Jesus gives His favored ones. Listen to this: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (2) Another way to say this according to the definition of condemnation is, there is no damnable judgement to those who are in Christ Jesus. Put all three of these word definitions together and our praying without ceasing becomes a freedom to pour our hearts out to God no matter what we are feeling. This seems impossible when you understand the judicial nature of God, but that is the wonder of what Christ’s sacrifice for our sins has brought us – grace and mercy with no condemnation. What freedom God’s favored ones have while praying without ceasing. Maybe one of the truest things we can say about life is it is a contrast of experiences. In the morning we can have a great day and just after eating lunch the opposite can take place, and suddenly the rest of our day is full of problems. Human joy can turn into sorrow in a few minutes. Laughter can turn into anger when a difficult situation comes crashing down upon our fun. That’s life and we all experience this contrast of feelings. Good can turn into bad and vice-versa in the blink of an eye. This is also true of praying without ceasing. So often there are extreme contrasts between our thoughts and feelings and God’s. We can be angry one moment while God is happy. Later, we can be happy, while God sees a real need for a change in our attitudes. This contrast with God and how we approach Him and life is the result of how little we know and understand God. This is where memorization, meditation and praying without ceasing has its greatest value to us. The more we practice all three of these the more we will understand God and the less major contrasts there will be between His thoughts and feelings and ours. This is also where God’s throne of grace can nourish and soothe our struggling souls. We are free to pray without ceasing in the middle of intense feelings without fear of any repercussions from God. What a privilege it is to commune with our King knowing we do not have to fear retribution for being out of sorts with Him. Joan and I have experienced some challenging moments during our struggles with cancer. Recently we were both physically getting the hell beat out of us during our cancer treatments. It was a challenging time to say the least. But God stepped in with His grace and mercy and gave us a weekend retreat on the beach for four days which was incredibly refreshing for our broken-down souls. The crashing of the waves we could constantly hear. What a pleasant sound and very refreshing. The numerous playful dolphins that so often swam by brought much joy to our hearts. While lounging on the patio the smell of the ocean was always with us. During the four days we stayed in this beautiful beach house we were able to enjoy a wonderful refreshing of our souls. It didn’t take long at all, and we found ourselves praising God together for His goodness in the middle of our struggles with cancer. Yes, life is a contrast of experiences. One moment we can find humor in how God is doing something in our lives and the next moment our praying without ceasing can turn into frustration and complaining. What we can never forget is God is not a contrast of emotions and responses like we are. He is always consistent with His feelings and thoughts, and His are always in harmony with what His Bible says. This makes memorization and meditation on the Bible a necessity for praying without ceasing. Remember, we can be assured that there will be no damnable condemning response to us even when our thoughts and feelings are messed up. Well, that’s it for today and once again there is just one thing ─ we can come boldly to the throne of grace whether we are happy or intensely discouraged and we will always find grace and mercy to help; so pray without ceasing no matter what you are going through. ------- Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/ ------- Produced by Dereck Bradley Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com
