Oak Hill Baptist Church

Let the Spirit show you your sin

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Let the Spirit show you your sin”

A few days ago, in a previous devotional, I noted that sometimes the reason God draws us to prayer and holds us there, delaying an answer to our prayers for perhaps weeks or even months, is to help us see that there’s something about us that needs to change before He can or will grant our prayer request.

I personally believe this can be one of the most important aspects of mighty prevailing prayer. Sometimes there are deeply embedded issues in our own life that need to be addressed. Perhaps there are character traits that are so much a part of our personality that we aren’t even aware of them, but which are not God-honoring and which therefore need to change. Often, it’s through sustained periods of prayer during which the Spirit is free to search our hearts and reveal things to us (Psalm 51:10 above), that it begins to dawn on us that we need to change.

I recently came across an interesting note about this very thing from Dr. Dennis Prager. He was commenting on the interaction between Jacob and Laban in Genesis chapter thirty-one and he noted that both Jacob and Laban were habitual liars, to the point that both of them lied as easily as they breathed. Referring to people who habitually lie this is what he wrote:

For such people, lying can become so natural they believe it themselves; they have actually convinced themselves they are not lying. According to a study conducted by a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University College of London: ‘People who tell small, self-serving lies are likely to progress to bigger falsehoods, and over time, the brain appears to adapt to the dishonesty.” Dr. Prager goes on, “The brain adapting to dishonesty is another way of saying the individual no longer regards the lies he or she is telling as lies. It is therefore very difficult, if not impossible, for such people to change because, having done nothing wrong in their own mind, they recognize no reason to repent and therefore no reason to change.”

This is where the searching and revealing ministry of the Holy Spirit comes in. It may be difficult or even next to impossible for us to discern our own sinful ways, but the Holy Spirit can uncover such tendencies, show them to us, and move us to deal with them. But that process often takes sustained prayer. We have to be open to it and we have to want it.

Perhaps one of the greatest impacts mighty prevailing prayer can have in our own lives is to show us things about ourselves that needs to change. That’s what David was praying for in Psalm 51:10 and it’s what we should want too.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Needs lead us to pray

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Need motivates prayers, and prayer enhances our relationship with God”

This morning I want to reprint a devotional from a previous series because it illustrates one of the reasons that God may want us to persist in prayer. It’s because He wants us to come to Him in prayer, and we’re most likely to do that when we have a need. But the sooner He answers that prayer and the need is no longer present in our lives, the sooner we’re likely to stop praying. And so, to keep us coming back to Him in prayer He will sometimes delay the answer.

George MacDonald, the Scottish pastor, theologian, and Bible scholar from the mid-to-late 1800s had some thoughts about how God uses needs in our lives to draw us to prayer and to keep us praying. He wrote, “What if He knows prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God’s idea of prayer is the supplying of our great, our endless need – the need of Himself? Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer …”

This is insightful and helpful. It provides us with one answer to why we pray. Our unmet needs – whether they concern finances, family, illness, or anything else – those needs drive us to our knees in prayer because we know that God can address those needs for us. That then brings us into communion with God which, it turns out, is what our soul needs more than the answer to the prayer itself. Our soul needs communion with God more than our body needs food or health or finances. The unmet physical needs become the things that lead us into communion with God, which is what we really need more than anything else.

This is what Paul was teaching in Philippians 4:6-7 (above). Don’t fret and worry, don’t be unduly anxious about the rent money, the aching back, the rebellious child, or anything else. Bring all of those things to God in prayer, and then allow Him to minister to your soul. The prayer time will bring peace. It might also result in an answer that helps to address the original need, but whether it does or not, it will have accomplished the greater and more important purpose of nourishing the soul through communion with God.

The fact is that needs motivate prayers, and prayers enhance our relationship with God.

God bless,
Pastor Jim
(There won’t be a devotional on Tuesday. I’m having a minor surgical procedure this morning and will be in the hospital overnight. I should be released sometime on Tuesday. I plan to be back to work and writing the next devotional on Wednesday. Prayers appreciated!)

Something has to change

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.” Isaiah 59:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Something needs to change”

In recent days we’ve been considering why it is sometimes necessary to persist in prayer, perhaps for long periods of time, before we finally prevail in prayer. Another one of those reasons could be that there’s something in us that needs to change before God can or will answer our prayers, and He intends to hold us in prayer until we see that.

In Isaiah 59:2 the prophet described one such situation. In that case there was unconfessed, unrepentant sin which needed to be dealt with. Isaiah went so far as to say that sometimes our sin separates us from God to the point that He denies us the sense of His presence, and He gives no thought to answering our prayer until we get the sinful situation straightened out. In verse 3 he even provided an example of the kinds of sins which were hindering answers to prayer in that particular situation, “For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers, with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongues mutter injustice.” Clearly there were some lifestyle situations which needed to be dealt with before God would be inclined to answer.

Along these same lines, James wrote that sometimes our prayers go unanswered because our motive for asking is wrong, “You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” In verse 7 he then offered the remedy to the situation, “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

So, there we have it – draw near to God in prayer and He will draw near to you. As that happens, the Holy Spirit will give you clarity about your situation, you will see what you need to do to correct it, and then you will be in a better position to have your prayer considered by God.

In a previous devotional we considered the truth that sometimes our prayers go unanswered for long periods of time because something needs to change in the life of the person we’re praying for before God will answer our prayer for them. The same principle holds true in our own lives. Sometimes there are things that need to change in us before we will be ready to receive the answer to our prayer. So, persist in prayer until you prevail in prayer. But be ready to make some changes so that can happen.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

It might take a very long time

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.” 1 Samuel 12:23 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “It might take a very long time”

Yesterday I wrote about how Saint Augustine’s mother Monica prayed for his salvation for a very long time, thirty-one years. Not only did she never stop praying for him, but she enlisted others to pray for him too. Her prayers for her son ultimately did prevail, but it took a very long time. Despite the prayers from his mother and from multiple other Christians, there were things that needed to occur in Augustine’s own life before he would be ready to come to Jesus. While that was happening, Monica never gave up on her son, she never stopped praying for him.

Monica’s tenacity in prayer, her diligence and her refusal to give-up, for thirty-one years, is impressive. But my own mother has her beat. My mother prayed for my father for more than forty-eight years. I love to tell the story of how my father ultimately came to faith in Christ. It’s one of the highlights of my ministry years.

My mother was a devout Catholic her entire life, but my father was anything but that. He had zero interest in matters of faith. Additionally, he was an angry and withdrawn man who had no close friends and who had little involvement in the lives of his children. He did mellow with age, and in his later years he was easier to get along with, but he was a pretty tough nut his entire life. However, my sweet mother hung in there with him and she never gave up on him.

My dad was already retired when I started my second career as a pastor (after retiring from the Navy) He was proud of the fact that I was a pastor and each Sunday morning, as he sat at his kitchen table in our family home in New Jersey, he would listen to a cassette recording of my sermon from the previous week. (Hallelujah, my dad was getting some religion!)

Towards the end of his life, he was terminally ill with colon cancer and emphysema and my mom was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease. So, they moved to California to live with my family, and they began attending church with us so my dad could hear me preach in-person. Finally, one Sunday morning during the invitation, here comes my mother pushing my father in his wheelchair down the aisle as my dad publicly placed his faith in Christ. A couple of months later he died and went to heaven.

Please don’t miss the point that my mother spent their entire married life, more than forty-eight years, praying for my father. It wasn’t until the last couple of months of his life that those prayers finally produced fruit – proving once again that sometimes we need to pray for our loved ones for a very long time. So please, don’t stop. Prayer that persists until it prevails is a powerful thing. So, don’t give up on them and don’t stop praying for them.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t stop praying for them

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t stop praying for them”

Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 are about the importance and necessity of persistent intercessory prayer that doesn’t stop until it prevails. He says we are to keep praying because it is God’s will that none be lost, that everyone come to faith in Christ. Paul also notes that it’s not only in their interest that we pray for their salvation, but it’s in our own interest as well – so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life. In other words, when important people in our lives become Christians, our own life will improve because their behavior will have improved. So, don’t stop praying for them. Pray as long as it takes.

That passage always reminds me of the story of Monica, a godly woman of strong faith who had a much-loved son who was totally lost in his sins as he lived a life of sex, drugs, and rock& roll. (Actually, since the story took place around 375 A.D., and since rock and roll hadn’t been invented yet, it was more a wild life of sex and alcohol but still, you get my point.)

The boy’s name was Augustine and he was out of control. By his own admission (years later in his memoir called “Confessions”) Augustine admitted that during those years his only concern was living for pleasure. He was well-aware of his mother’s prayers, and he also knew that she had other Christian friends and Christian leaders praying for him, but he continued in his playboy ways – until one day the prayers broke through, the Holy Spirit grabbed his heart, and Augustine came to faith in Christ. Augustine went on to become known as “Saint Augustine” the Bishop of Hippo, and to this day he is considered the greatest theologian of the early Church.

The reason it took so long for the Holy Spirit to finally get ahold of Augustine’s heart was because there were issues in Augustine’s life that had to be worked through before he was ready to give up his old life and come to faith in Christ. There were some pretty low times he had to go through, some very unpleasant things he had to experience, before he was ready.

That’s often the case with people we’re praying for too. Our prayers for them are meaningful and important but before they can be answered, there are pieces that need to fall into place in their lives before they will be ready to surrender to Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to orchestrate those events in their lives. It’s our job to keep praying for them as He does. So, whatever you do, don’t stop praying for them.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

There’s a battle being fought

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.” Ephesians 6:12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “There’s a battle being fought”

This morning I want to continue our thought from yesterday regarding the truth that one of the reasons the answer to our prayers is sometimes delayed is that there’s a battle being fought over it in the spiritual realm, a battle we aren’t even aware of.

In 1986 author Frank Peretti published a Christian novel with the title “This Present Darkness”. The story takes place in a small college town called Ashton. On the campus and in the town, there’s a secret society taking root known as “The Universal Consciousness Society”. They’re a New Age group which is determined to spread its evil influence in the college, in the town, and then eventually nationwide. The Christians in the town sense the evil but they don’t fully understand it. However, throughout the course of the story they resolve to take a stand against it and therefore, a battle rages – in the physical realm but also in the spiritual realm simultaneously.

The crux of the story, and the primary lesson Peretti is teaching through it, is that there’s a direct correlation between events in the physical realm and corresponding events in the spiritual realm. Angels and demons in the spirit world are competing for influence in the lives of people in the physical world. As the people in the physical world give-in to the influence of the demons, the demons are strengthened in their battle with angels in the spirit world. And as Christians pray in the physical world, the angels are strengthened in their battle with the demons in the spirit world. The influence the angels or demons are then able to have in the physical world is directly related to how much power they have at any given moment in the spirit world.

The books are a work of fiction, but they’re based on Biblical truth. As Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter 6, and as we saw yesterday from Daniel’s experience in Daniel chapter 10, our prayers on earth are directly related to, and have a corresponding impact on, events in the spiritual realm. And sometimes the reason we experience a delay to the answer to our prayers here on earth, is because there is business that needs to be taken care of first in the spiritual realm. But it’s business we’re usually not even aware of – we don’t even know the battle is raging (except for the fact the Bible tells us it is).

The thing for us to do then, is to just keep praying. Persist in prayer so you can then prevail in prayer. Tomorrow we’ll consider another reason the answer to our prayers is sometimes delayed and therefore requires mighty prevailing prayer.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t give up

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.” Daniel 10:12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t give up”

Mighty prevailing prayer is prayer that doesn’t give up. It’s prayer that persists until it prevails.

There are many good reasons that it’s sometimes necessary for us to persist in prayer before our prayers are finally answered. Over the next few days we’ll consider several of those reasons. Today we will think about what might be happening in the spiritual realm that could be interfering with the answer to our prayers, and which could require persistent prayer on our part to break through.

Daniel lived during the time the nation of Israel was attacked and conquered by the Babylonians. He was young at that time, a teenager, and along with his three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he was taken as a captive to Babylon where he spent the rest of his life.

In chapter ten, which took place decades later, Daniel was in deep distress over the situation his people were in and he wondered what the future held for them. Beginning in verse 10:2 we read, “In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks. I didn’t eat any rich food, no meat, or wine entered my mouth, and I didn’t put any oil on my body until the three weeks were over.” So, for three weeks Daniel fasted and prayed, but apparently with no answer. Then, in verse 12 (quoted above), we read that an angel was sent to Daniel from God who informs him that his prayers were indeed heard the moment he prayed them.

So, why the three-week delay? Beginning in verse 13 we read the angel explaining, “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me after I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the last days, for the vision refers to those days.”

Why was the answer to Daniel’s prayer delayed three full weeks? Because there was a battle being fought over it in the spiritual realm and while it was being fought, Daniel had to pray through it in the physical realm.

This is often true for us too but because it’s happening in the spiritual realm, we aren’t aware of it. The fact is that there’s a direct link between our prayers on earth and things that happen in the spiritual realm, and sometimes business needs to be taken care of there before an answer is delivered here. We’ll think more about this tomorrow. In the meantime, I urge you to continue to persist in your prayers. There are battles being waged on your behalf that you don’t even know about.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

We need to be mighty in prayer

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”

Our Bible verse for today: “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” James 5:16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “We need to be mighty in prayer”

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve never met a man or woman who was fully satisfied with their prayer life. I’ve known lots of great saints who I have considered to be powerful and effective prayer warriors, but I’ve never known anyone who thought of themselves that way. Even those who believe strongly in the power of prayer and who pray often and with passion, almost always wish they were better pray-ers. I know that I do.

As I write this, I’m looking at one of the bookcases in my home office with the section of books about prayer. There are forty-seven of them. I have more on the bookshelves in my office at the church. I’ve read them all, some of them more than once, with underlines and notes in the margins. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m better at reading about prayer, and preaching and teaching about prayer, than I am at actually praying. Oh, I do pray, multiple times every day. And I am firmly convinced of the power of prayer, and of the necessity and importance of prayer. But as is probably true of you too, I sure do wish I was a better pray-er.

In James 5:16 James informs us that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. That tells us something important about prayer. It tells us that there is power in the ministry of prayer and that it has an impact both in this physical world and in the spiritual realm. I want that power. I want to be able to pray effectively for myself, for my family, and for others.

More than thirty years ago Dr. Wesley Duewel wrote a great book about powerful, effective praying. The title was “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”. Over the course of this month, I’ll refer to some of the lessons in that book, but I also wanted to borrow his title for this devotional series. Mighty prevailing prayer is prayer that is powerful and effective because it persists until it prevails. That needs to describe our prayers too. I look forward to exploring this great truth with you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Never stop learning

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”

Our Bible verse for today: “Instruct the wise, and he will be wiser still; teach the righteous, and he will learn more.” Proverbs 9:11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Never stop learning”

Virtually everything we know we have learned from others. It’s true. There are very few original thoughts; very little that is discovered out of thin air. Everything we know we have learned from others. Even those things that we do figure out for ourselves come out of a foundation of knowledge that we have learned from others. And no matter how much we have learned, there’s always more to learn. Therefore, we should never stop learning. For all of life we should be active learners. This is what Solomon (the wisest man of his day) was urging us to do in Proverbs 9:11. The wise man or woman will be a lifelong learner.

As we’ve seen over the course of these last two months that we’ve been exploring the theme of “Great thoughts from great Christians”, there’s much we can learn about how to live the Christian life well from great men and women who have gone before us. That’s why I so appreciate the insightful lesson from Billy Graham’s brother-in-law Leighton Ford, “I surround myself with the thoughts of those who have thought much about God.”

I encourage all of us to make it a point to be intentional lifelong learners. Spend time with those who are older, wiser, and more spiritually mature than you are. Listen to them; observe their conduct; learn from their example. This is one of the primary benefits of being physically present for gatherings of the church body. When we gather with the church we can directly interact with and observe wise men and women who we can learn from. This is what the Apostle Paul was urging in Philippians 3:17 when he wrote, “Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.”

We can also learn from great Christians with whom it isn’t possible to actually be with. We do so by reading good Christian books, magazine articles, and essays. We can listen to sermons online. Keeping a journal and recording the “great thoughts from great Christians” that you come across is very helpful. You can then go back and review those great thoughts from time-to-time.

As we come to the end of our second month with this theme, I could easily continue it for many more months to come. There’s so much good stuff out there! But, it’s time to move on. Beginning November 1^st, we will start a new theme. However, I encourage you to commit yourself to being a lifelong learner. In many ways and in different forms, be intentional about surrounding yourself with the thoughts of those who have thought much about God.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Read with your heart

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”

Our Bible verse for today: “I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Read the Bible with your heart not just with your head.”

Poetry is widely misunderstood and underappreciated. Surveys indicate that fewer than 10% of Americans claim to like poetry, and only 7% say they have intentionally read a poem in the last year. However, it’s just not true. The truth is that they do read poetry and they do like it, even if they don’t realize they do. For instance, words in a song are a form of poetry. Song lyrics are essentially poetry set to music. So, if you like songs then you do like poetry. Also, roughly one-third of the Bible is given to us in some form of poem. Therefore, if you love the Bible, and if you read it, then there’s another form of poetry that you do like and which you do read.

One of the big problems people have with all forms of poetry is that we try to understand it with our head instead of with our heart. This is especially true when we read the Bible. We read it as narrative and expect it to make logical sense to our intellect so we can learn and memorize some lesson that will enable us to live better. But poetry isn’t intended to appeal to our intellect; it’s intended to appeal to our heart. It’s designed to involve us on an emotional level not on an intellectual level. Do most of the songs you love connect more with your head or with your heart? With your heart, right? You enter into the story of the song with your imagination, and then the story captures you at an emotional level, not on an intellectual one.

You listen to and appreciate a song with your heart more than with your head, and that’s the best way to read the Bible too. We are to enter into the story and using our imaginations, engage with it on an emotional level. Connect with it in your heart rather than in your head. Author Matthew Mullins calls it “reading with your gut”. In his book, “Enjoying the Bible: Literary Approaches to Enjoying Scripture” he writes, “When reading the Bible, we need the music with the message or it becomes just cold hard doctrine … Read with your gut.” He goes on, “We need to read with the heart of a poet and with an appreciation for the beauty.”

In Psalm 119:11 did the Psalmist say he treasured the Word of God in his head? No, he said he treasures it in his heart. In other words, more than just connecting with the Word on an intellectual level, he was engaging with in on an emotional level. He was reading with his gut, engaging with his emotions. That’s how we come to understand and appreciate any form of poetry – be it a children’s nursery rhyme, a traditional poem by Emily Dickinson, a song on the radio, or a passage from the Bible.

In your Bible reading today try reading with your heart and not just with your head.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim