Oak Hill Baptist Church

Persistent prayer can be a journey of discovery

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Persistent prayer can be a journey of discovery”

Persistent prayer over an extended period of time regarding a specific issue can be a time of discovery for us. Often, as we spend time with the Lord thinking and praying about a person or situation, the Holy Spirit will lead us to greater and greater understanding about it.

Perhaps it would be helpful to visualize your journey of discovery as the descent into a deep cave. The deeper you go the more you discover. That’s what persistent prayer about a person or situation can be like. Yesterday we considered the five ways in which God typically speaks to us. Today I want to briefly comment on each of them and show how each can add to the depth of our journey of discovery.

Prayer is the starting place. But prayer can and should consist of more than just us speaking to God. When seeking answers in prayer, we can supplement it with a prayerful search of the Bible as we look for verses and passages that pertain to the issue we’re praying about. Prayer is the primary way we speak to God. The Bible is the primary way that God speaks to us. Combine the two and you’ve got a conversation going on.

God also speaks to us through the circumstances of our lives. Carefully and prayerfully consider if perhaps God is telling you something by the circumstances you find yourself in. Was there inappropriate conduct or bad decisions that brought you to this point and if so, does something in your life need to change? Also, if the circumstances require that a decision be made and action be taken, remember that God is amazingly consistent in our lives. Almost always one thing leads to another, like stepping stones. So, if you’re looking for the way forward, take a moment to look backward and consider how the choices you are faced with now line up with what God has already been doing in your life. That then will often point you to the way forward.

God also speaks to us through the wise counsel of other Christians. Ask others to pray for you and with you about your situation. Then ask them to share their thoughts with you about it. Finally, sometimes God uses the entire church to speak a word of affirmation, such as a call to ministry or perhaps to missions, or it could be a word of caution and correction.

All of the steps we’ve just considered take time and effort. And typically, the answer or revelation we’re seeking unfolds progressively over time. But as has been previously noted, one reason God does it that way is to hold us in prayer, and therefore in fellowship with Himself. Mighty prayer that prevails is often mighty prayer that first persisted.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

How serious are you about hearing from God?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart. I will be found by you – this is the Lord’s declaration.” Jeremiah 29:13-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “How serious are you about hearing from God?”

One of the most exciting truths I have ever learned about God came to me when I was a fairly new Christian. In the Bible study “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”, Henry Blackaby taught that one of the greatest truths revealed in Scripture is that God wants to be heard and understood by His people so we can then obey Him.

That made so much sense to me. Obviously, in order for us to obey God He first needs to make Himself heard and understood by us. That must mean that God does speak to us and that we can learn to understand Him. Evidently, hearing from God isn’t as mysterious and difficult as it might at first seem.

But it does take time. We have to want to hear from God and we have to spend the time to place ourselves in a position before Him whereby He can and will speak to us. That’s the thought He was expressing in Jeremiah 29:13-14. You will seek Him and find Him when you search for Him with all of your heart. In other words, no half efforts. Hearing from God and connecting with Him must involve more than a quick mumbled prayer as you rush out the door in the morning. It must involve more than just absent-mindedly reciting the Bible verse scribbled on the note card pinned to the sun visor in the car.

If you were to study Henry’s Bible study Experiencing God (I hope you will), you will learn that God typically speaks to us in five basic ways – through the Bible, through prayer, through the circumstances of our lives, through the counsel of other Christians, and through the testimony of the church. Almost always, when He’s trying to get our attention so He can say something to us, He will say it more than once and in more than one way. And, He will typically reveal it to us progressively, over time. Henry writes, “He is more likely to call you to follow one day at a time than He is to spell out all the details before you begin to obey Him.”

In other words, as we’ve already discussed in previous devotionals in this series, God wants to hold us in prayer so we will continue to have fellowship with Him. If He were to quickly reveal the full answer to us, we would probably go on our merry way and forget all about Him.

So that then begs the question, “How serious are you about hearing from God?” Serious enough to spend the time and to make the effort to seek Him with all of your heart and in multiple ways? Serious enough to persist in prayer until you prevail in prayer? He does want to be heard and understood by us, but we do have to make the effort. More about this tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Be still

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be still, and know that I am God …” Psalm 46:10

Our thought for today: “Be still”

For the last ten days I was supposed to have been being still. I’m recovering from surgery and my instructions were to minimize all activity for the first week, and then take it easy for the next two weeks. Unfortunately, there have been a couple of complications. Nothing serious, but my recovery isn’t happening as fast as I want it too. During the follow-up appointment the other day my doctor told me my problem is that I’m not resting enough and I’m not letting my body heal. I’m trying to do too much too soon.

I realized after the appointment that that’s always my problem. I never rest enough and I’m always trying to do too much. That’s just my life. It’s been obvious during this time of recuperation (painfully obvious) that I simply cannot sit still. I need to be active.

Honestly, I have tried to be still and to take it easy. Right now, during my time of recovery, I’m actually reading a book about slowing down and resting. The title is “When Strivings Cease” by Ruth Chou Simons. In one respect, it’s a little funny because it’s a bona fide chic-book. It is. The thing is all soft pastel colors with frilly illustrations and curly-Q doodles all throughout. It was written by a woman for women and she unapologetically makes no effort to include men in anything she says. But even as a man, I’m enjoying it anyway.

The title of chapter three is “Just Amazing Enough to Not Need Grace”. Ruth writes about her own over-achiever tendencies and how she is always striving to do just one more thing, and to do it a little better than the last time she did it. She writes, “If I am honest, I’d say I spent much of my early Christian life singing ‘Amazing Grace’ while living like the words were actually ‘God, let me be so amazing that I won’t need grace.” Uh huh. That’s me. I fully trust God, while attempting to do it all myself anyway. I love the song “Amazing Grace”, but I often allow little room in my life to simply relax and enjoy the graces of God.

Psalm 46 (above) is about a world in chaos, and it describes striving on a global scale. But verse 10 calls a halt to it all. Verse 10 demands that we take a breather and reflect on the profound truth that God is God and I am not.

Sometimes mighty prevailing prayer involves just being still and doing nothing – and that’s exactly what I’m going to do today – nothing, right after I send out this devotional, finish my sermon for tomorrow, walk the dogs, pay the bills, and rake some leaves (my wife says I’m hopeless but I don’t know what she’s talking about).

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

When God’s people pray, things happen

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our afflictions that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed – beyond our strength – so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt as if we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.” 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “When God’s people pray, things happen”

Yesterday I encouraged all of us to consider giving some special person the gift of our prayers every day for the coming year. I even suggested you make it your Christmas present to them by sending them a note in a card telling them that you will be praying for them every day in 2022.

That suggestion carries with it the assumption that prayer works. If our prayers for other people are at all meaningful, it must mean that God listens and acts based upon our prayers. Some people wonder if that can really be true. They doubt that we can change God’s mind about things or influence Him to do something that He wasn’t already planning to do anyway. If God can be influenced, if He does in fact act based upon the prayers of His people, that then raises all sorts of complicated theological questions about the sovereignty of God. I’m not going to attempt to address those issues this morning. I’ll simply point out that the people in the Bible obviously believed that their prayers mattered and that God acted in response to those prayers.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (above) we read of the Apostle Paul recounting for the Corinthians a very dark and disturbing time in his life. It was a time when he was so low, so down, that he thought he was going to die. In this passage he explicitly tells them that it was in response to many prayers for him that God carried him through that deep valley, and therefore he urged the Corinthians to keep praying for him. He wanted and needed those prayers!

In Genesis 18:16-33 we read of Abraham negotiating with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah and not only does God listen patiently to Abraham’s request, but He agrees to go along with it and adjust His own plans based upon Abraham’s request for those people.

Likewise, in Exodus 32:14 Moses pleaded with God not to follow through on His threat to destroy the nation of Israel. The Bible tells us, “So the Lord relented concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.” The Lord “relented”. He changed His mind and did something other than what He had planned to do, and He made that change based upon the passionate plea made by Moses.

In many ways prayer is a mystery. There’s much more about it that we don’t understand than what we do understand. But what we do know, from the Bible and from our own experience, is that when God’s people pray, things happen. The pray-ers in the Bible clearly expected that their prayers would be answered and would make a difference. This is why James 5:16 tells us “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.”

I encourage you to persist in prayer until you prevail. Your prayers matter and they do make a difference.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

What a beautiful gift!

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “Dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health, just as your whole life is going well.” 1 John 1:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “What a beautiful gift!”

Yesterday we looked at the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 1:3-7. He wrote them to his son in the faith, Timothy, and told him that he prayed for him constantly with warm remembrance, with tears of joy, and with intercessions. I asked you to consider how encouraging that news must have been to Timothy as he read them. I can see the smile on his face as he imagines his mentor and friend praying for him like that.

I also told you about the young man in our church who told me that he and his wife pray for me every day. That news touched my heart and brought joy and encouragement to me. What a gift it is to care about someone enough to pray for them like that – every day!

As I write this, Christmas is less than six weeks away. Some of you over-achievers have probably already finished your Christmas shopping, but others (like me), are just now starting to give it some thought. Well, here’s a Christmas gift idea that is both unique and very meaningful: As your gift to some special person, you could give them a nice card with a note inside that reads, “My Christmas gift to you this year is my promise that I will pray for you every day. Every day, before you even get out of bed, I will already have prayed that God will bless you, care for you, prosper you, and bring you joy. May you be richly blessed in 2022!”

You can, of course, put the note into your own words. But what a comforting and encouraging thought it is to know that someone who loves you and cares about you is praying for you every day. What a beautiful gift that is. Would daily prayer for an entire year classify as persistent prayer? Yes, yes it would. Would daily prayer like that for an entire year be mighty prevailing prayer? Again, yes. Only God knows the impact that kind of praying might have in the person’s life. We do know, from the Bible and from experience, that when God’s people pray, things happen. You will be blessing that person every day for an entire year by praying for them.

What a beautiful gift prayer is, and what a great Christmas gift it would be for some special person on your list. I encourage you to consider doing it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Prayer strengthens us

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day.” 2 Timothy 1:3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Prayer strengthens us”

There is strength to be found in prayer. Yesterday we considered the example of young Titus, as he faithfully served as the pastor of a church in the midst of a corrupt and contentious society. Titus needed to be praying so he could stay strong as he confronted evil and proclaimed Biblical principles. Often in such cases, the victory that comes with persistent prayer is that we have the strength to carry on in the face of so much opposition and difficulty. The victory may turn out to be simply that we stood strong and firm when others might have caved in and given up.

That’s certainly the example we read of in Hebrews chapter eleven (the Faith Hall of Fame). Many of the people mentioned in that chapter struggled their entire lives and never seemed to have had the victory they prayed for. And yet, they are in the Faith Hall of Fame. I believe it was their persistent prayers that enabled them to stay strong and stand firm. It was indeed mighty prevailing prayer – prayer that persisted and therefore prevailed, in that it gave them the strength they needed to carry on.

In today’s passage we read of another example of the strengthening power of persistent prayer. In this case Paul reports that he prayed constantly for his son in the faith, Timothy, as Timothy faithfully labored as the pastor of the church in Ephesus. In verse 3 Paul said he prayed for Timothy constantly. In verse 4 he said he did so with tears and with a longing to see him again soon. In verse 5 he wrote that in those prayers he warmly remembered Timothy’s godly upbringing by his mother and grandmother. In verse 6 he reminded Timothy of his calling and anointing for ministry; and then in verse 7 he offered this powerful word of encouragement, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” Evidently, those were elements of the prayers Paul prayed for Timothy.

I’m sure Timothy was blessed, encouraged, and strengthened to hear that Paul was praying for him like that. It reminds me of how blessed and encouraged I feel when people tell me they pray for me. I had a young man tell me just last week that he and his wife pray for me every morning. Every morning. I’m on someone’s daily prayer list? Wow. How special is that?

I have a suggestion about this that I want to share with you. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. In the meantime, I encourage all of us to pray for others. And then, tell them that you’re praying for them.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Nuclear giants but ethical infants

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “… to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; in fact, they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.” Titus 1:15-16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Nuclear giants but ethical infants”

Today I want us to consider one more devotional thought about how mighty prevailing prayer (prayer that persists until it prevails) changes us. Sometimes the reason persistent prayer is needed is to change us (the pray-er) and to help us to see the object of our prayer in a clearer way so we can then be more effective in our dealings with them.

Titus was a protégé of the Apostle Paul. He had been assigned by Paul to be the pastor of a church on the island of Crete. Evidently, this was a major undertaking because the Cretans were an extremely difficult people. Paul described them as being rebellious, full of empty talk and deception, dishonest, liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. In short, a tough crowd.

The situation with Titus helps to illustrate the point I’ve been making over the last several days about how important it is for us to truly understand the people we’re dealing with so we can then be effective in our ministry to them. As was taught in a previous devotional, the Holy Spirit will use our prayer time for such people to open our own eyes so we can understand them better.

Sometimes our time in prayer for them will help us to understand that a person is hurting and in need of grace and compassion. But sometimes the Holy Spirit will use our prayer time for them to dispel any naivety on our parts about the people we’re dealing with. In that case, prayer will help to strengthen our resolve in dealing with them. Such was the case with Titus in Crete. He was a young man who was fairly inexperienced. The Cretans were accomplished liars and cheats. They were manipulative, deceptive, dishonest, and lazy. Titus needed to understand that about them and then be prepared to deal with them on that level.

I recently came across a statement made by World War II General Omar Bradley regarding a disturbing trend he saw developing shortly after WWII. He said, “The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.” When I read that it occurred to me how much more that description fits our own society today. We live in a world of very smart, very technologically advanced people, but people who are morally and ethically stunted. Character has died. We live in Crete.

Our persistent prevailing prayers for people will often lead us to acts of extraordinary grace, kindness, and compassion. But sometimes those same prayers will serve to stiffen our resolve and help us to see that we must stand firm in our opposition to evil. Such was the case for Titus in Crete, and sometimes it’s true for us too.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Grace is a beautiful thing

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” Ephesians 4:32 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Grace is a beautiful thing”

This morning I want to continue our thinking from the last two days regarding cutting people some slack and blessing them with acts of kindness and grace – rather than judging them for their faults. What did you think of the incident I told you about when Pastor Tony Campolo gave a birthday party for a prostitute in a diner at 3:30 in the morning? Personally, I love it!

When it comes to this issue of blessing people with acts of kindness and grace, one of the most helpful Bible studies I’ve ever participated in is Philip Yancey’s “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” Philip himself was raised in an environment of soul-crushing, unrelenting, and unforgiving Christian fundamentalism. His was a world of strict rules, sweeping judgmentalism, and little grace. But then, Philip discovered the life-giving freedom and the absolute beauty of grace, and he just had to tell others. So, he wrote a book to tell all about it.

The book is an insightful study about the power of grace as a means of getting people’s attention, blessing them through kindness and compassion, and then leading them to faith in Christ. This is especially effective when those acts of grace are carried out in unique and unexpected ways (like a birthday party for a prostitute).

Like Philip Yancey, at one point the Apostle Paul was also a ranting raving fundamentalist (a Jewish Pharisee). His world too was made up of relentless rules and regulations, with little room for kindness or compassion. But then he experienced the grace of Jesus Christ and from that point on he too needed to tell everyone about it. That’s what we’re reading in Ephesians 4:32. Paul was making the case for grace as a way of life.

We live in a world where grace and kindness are not the norm. War, anger, conflict, selfishness, judgmentalism – those are the things that are most common. Grace and kindness? Much less so. Which is why acts of grace, kindness, and compassion are so startling and so powerful.

As was noted in the two previous devotionals on this subject, the way we move our hearts in the direction of grace and kindness when it comes to dealing with people (especially difficult people), is by praying for them. And the more difficult they are, the more lost in their sins they are, the more we need to pray for them.

Grace is a beautiful thing. Let’s pray we will all show more of it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

A party for a prostitute?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.” Luke 19:5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “A party for a prostitute?”

In yesterday’s devotional I noted that people have issues in their lives which we know nothing about, and those issues are often the reason behind the things they say and do. I encouraged us to be slow to judge people and to instead, pray for them and ask God to help us better understand why those people might be speaking and acting in inappropriate ways.

This morning I want to continue that thought by considering the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and he was rich. That means he made a very good living from defrauding and exploiting his own people, the Jews. He had to have been a despicable man and he would have been hated by his fellow Jews. But in this scene, we find Jesus reaching out to him in a friendly way, and even inviting Himself into Zacchaeus’ home. It was an extraordinary act of kindness, compassion, grace and mercy on the part of Jesus, and the end result was that Zacchaeus repented and became a follower of Christ.

Pastor and author Tony Campolo, in his book “The Kingdom of God is a Party”, tells a similar story. He was in Honolulu once to speak at a conference. He had a terrible case of jet lag and couldn’t sleep, so he ended up in an all-night dinner at 3:30 in the morning. Soon a noisy group of prostitutes came in and sat at the table next to him. He heard one of them, by the name of Agnes, mention that since the new day had begun it was now her birthday. The other prostitutes joked that they should throw her a birthday party. Agnes suddenly got quiet and said, “In my entire life nobody has ever given me a birthday party.”

After the group left, Tony asked the guy behind the counter (Harry) if those prostitutes came there a lot. “Every night”, Harry said. Tony asked him if he thought they would be back the next night and Harry said he was certain they would be. That gave Tony an idea. The next night when the group came in, there was Tony with a cake, balloons, and a present. He then led the group in singing “Happy Birthday” to Agnes. She was stunned and with tears in her eyes asked why Tony had done this. Tony explained that he was a Pastor and that Jesus loves her. He asked if he could pray for her and he then led the group in a prayer that included a hope that she would change her ways and honor God with the rest of her life.

When it was over Tony was asked what kind of church he belongs to. He replied, “The kind that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.” To which Harry said, “If there really is a church like that, I’ll join it!”

Personally, I wouldn’t want to be a part of any church that would not throw a birthday party for a prostitute at 3:30 in the morning. But how do people in a church get to the point of being that kind, that gracious, that merciful and compassionate? By caring about people. By praying for them rather than by judging them.

I encourage all of us to pray for people more and to judge them less. Maybe we need to throw more parties.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

There is always one thing more

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God … Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.” Romans 14:10; 13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “There is always one thing more”

The notion of judging others is, unfortunately, often misunderstood and misapplied by many Christians. Sometimes we confuse judgment with accountability. It’s true that we are to hold each other accountable and we are to correct each other when we err, but that’s to be done gently and in a spirit of love. Matthew 18:15-17, Galatians 6:1, and 2 Timothy 2:23-26 are just three of the passages which provide us with instruction regarding what is commonly referred to as “The gentle art of correction.”

Where many of us fail in this is by adopting a spirit of judgmentalism with regard to how we believe others are falling short. That is not based in love. It also is not kind and seldom expresses itself gently. Instead, it is often critical, nitpicking, and gossipy. That’s what Paul was cautioning against in Romans 14:10-13.

We’re all prone to make unfair or inaccurate judgments about others. Often those judgments are based upon what we think we know about them from what we hear them say and what we see them do. But seldom does that give us a complete picture. C.S. Lewis once observed, “There is always one thing more going on in every person’s life of which you know nothing.”

The fact is that people have issues. We don’t really know what other people’s lives are like. Every person you meet has something going on in their life that they wish wasn’t there, and those things impact how people conduct themselves. That isn’t an excuse for bad behavior, but it does serve to remind us that we need to cut people some slack.

Instead of making judgments and even being critical of them, we should pray for them. And the worse they’re behaving, the more we should pray for them. When we pray for someone not only does it potentially create opportunities for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives, but God will use our prayers for them to sensitize us to the things that that person might be going through. Perhaps there were clues in their speech and conduct that we missed but now, in our prayer time, as we’re thinking about them, revisiting their words and actions, and lifting them up to the Lord in prayer, perhaps the Spirit will open our eyes and give us understanding about them that we didn’t have before.

Remember, there is always one thing more going on in every person’s life of which you know nothing. So, pray for them rather than judging them.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim