The Bible says that if the righteous scarcely be saved, than where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Now, of course, the question is, why are the righteous scarcely saved? In Isaiah we are told that our righteousness is as filthy rags. The very best that we can do is nowhere near good enough for God. Fortunately, He has made a way. What people don’t seem to understand is that His sacrifice, by which we have obtained mercy and grace, is not a blank check to go and do whatever we want. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Run that you may obtain the prize, but keep in mind that not everyone who runs in a race wins a prize. Even in marathons, where they have lots of people sign up to run, and they award a medal to everyone who crosses the finish line gets a medal, they generally don’t order enough medals for everyone who pays the fee to run the marathon. Some people end up not showing up, and some people drop out during the race. Why would you enter a race and not finish? I’m sure that there are many reasons, but it really comes down to the basic idea that sometime during the race, something else became more important; something else took precedence. Maybe one just becomes discouraged; the medal at the end doesn’t seem worth the pain in the side and the burning lungs along the way. That’s at least somewhat legitimate, but keep in mind that in the race that we are running the prize that we are striving for is not a trifle. We are not striving for a few dollars worth of metal fashioned into a fancy design as a symbol of accomplishment (and by saying that, I don’t mean to downgrade the accomplishment of completing a marathon. That is an accomplishment, and I have a lot of respect for those people that have done that, but it’s kind of like getting an A+ on an important test in high school compared to graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard medical school). We are striving for an eternal reward, a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Jesus told us to strive. I think sometimes we get confused as to what exactly that means. To strive means to work hard at something, to really put your back into it, to struggle with it. So often we treat salvation as something that we can simply say a few words to obtain, and live how we want to. So many people make a profession of faith, and then go right back to the way we were living, just like a sow that was washed goes back to her wallowing in the mire.
You've probably seen the T-shirt with a picture of guy wearing jeans with the knees completely worn out, and a caption that says, "Pray Hard." So often, we send God a cursory prayer simply saying I want... And sometimes that's all the prayer we need right at the moment; after all, the Spirit intercedes for us, when we can’t find the words, right? Don’t use that as an excuse, though, prayer should be an expression of gratitude, of praise, and, yes, occasionally, of request. If you don't ask, you won't receive. Of course, if you don't thank God for what He's given you already, or if you don’t praise God (show an appreciation just for who He is), He's going to be considerably less inclined to give you more. Sometimes, though, prayer needs to have more intensity than we really want to commit to it. I think about Jesus praying in the garden, and it says that his sweat was as great drops of blood. There has been some discussion as to just exactly what that means, but the bottom line is, it means He was praying really hard. In some ways, it seems a little strange, He knew ahead of time what was going to happen; His impending crucifixion was not a surprise. Yet, here He was praying in the garden with a kind of intensity that most of us never reach. I have to believe that He prayed the way He did as an example to us. I don't mean that every time you pray, you should pray until sweat just rolls off of you, but that there should be an intensity to your prayers, and if you ever get into a situation that is as serious as the one He was in, then, yes, pray as hard as He did.
You've probably seen the T-shirt with a picture of guy wearing jeans with the knees completely worn out, and a caption that says, "Pray Hard." So often, we send God a cursory prayer simply saying I want... And sometimes that's all the prayer we need right at the moment; after all, the Spirit intercedes for us, when we can’t find the words, right? Don’t use that as an excuse, though, prayer should be an expression of gratitude, of praise, and, yes, occasionally, of request. If you don't ask, you won't receive. Of course, if you don't thank God for what He's given you already, or if you don’t praise God (show an appreciation just for who He is), He's going to be considerably less inclined to give you more. Sometimes, though, prayer needs to have more intensity than we really want to commit to it. I think about Jesus praying in the garden, and it says that his sweat was as great drops of blood. There has been some discussion as to just exactly what that means, but the bottom line is, it means He was praying really hard. In some ways, it seems a little strange, He knew ahead of time what was going to happen; His impending crucifixion was not a surprise. Yet, here He was praying in the garden with a kind of intensity that most of us never reach. I have to believe that He prayed the way He did as an example to us. I don't mean that every time you pray, you should pray until sweat just rolls off of you, but that there should be an intensity to your prayers, and if you ever get into a situation that is as serious as the one He was in, then, yes, pray as hard as He did.
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