Walking with God

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Amos 1-5; Psalm 126

TO CHEW ON: "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" Amos 3:3

This eight-word rhetorical question could be the text of a wedding sermon, or the basis of a talk on the principles of a business partnership. Where it appears, in the middle of Amos's prophecy, it refers to another even more basic relationship -- one's relationship to God.

"Now we are at the heart of Amos's prophecy," says a sidebar article about this verse. "God elected Israel to be His people but they were not walking in oneness with Yahweh. In fact they were heading in different directions!" - Lloyd Olgivie, New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1176

When we walk with someone we go in the same direction. We move at the same speed. A walk conjures pictures of conversation and fellowship along the way. It is exercise non-strenuous enough that we don't tire quickly -- a relationship for the long haul.

• Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:22).

• So did Noah (Genesis 6:9). 

• The psalmist pleaded with readers to walk with God and expounded on its delights. (Psalm 81:13; Psalm 89:15). 

• Prophets Micah (Micah 4:5).

• Zechariah (Zechariah 10:12), and

• Malachi spoke of the same thing (Malachi 2:6). 

The challenge to walk with God is still ours today, as a group (the church), and as individuals.

I have, in my collection of e-books, the old classic Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray: Devotional Classics: Andrew Murray George Muller Collection. The subject of the whole book is intimacy with God. I've highlighted many spots. Here are some of Murray's thoughts that, I think, shed light on walking with God:

"Abiding in Jesus is nothing but the giving up of oneself to be ruled and taught and led, and so resting in the arms of Everlasting Love" (Location 216).


"Your body is His temple, your daily life the sphere for glorifying Him: it is to Him a matter of deep interest that all your earthly concerns should be guided aright. Only trust His sympathy, believe His love, and wait for His guidance--it will be given" (Location 515).

"Abiding in Jesus is not a work that needs each moment the mind to be engaged, or the affections to be directly and actively occupied with it. It is an entrusting of oneself to the keeping of the Eternal Love, in the faith that it will abide near us, and with its holy presence watch over us and ward off the evil, even when we have to be most intently occupied with other things. And so the heart has rest and peace and joy in the consciousness of being kept when it cannot keep itself" (Location 847).

"We are so easily led to look at life as a great whole, and to neglect the little to-day, to forget that the single days do indeed make up the whole, and that the value of each single day depends on its influence on the whole" (Location 913).


"Each day of faithfulness brings a blessing for the next; makes both the trust and the surrender easier and more blessed. And so the Christian life grows: as we give our whole heart to the work of each day, it becomes all the day, and from that every day" (Location 941).

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to walk with You today -- in the same direction, at the same speed with time for fellowship along the way. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 126

The Bible Project VIDEO: Amos (Read Scripture Series)







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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Divine prayer-Helper

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Romans 8:18-39


TO CHEW ON: "Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered." Romans 8:26

The verse I chose as our focus today is both mysterious and comforting. Mysterious in that it raises several questions:

• Is the Spirit praying here, or are we?
• What activity, on our part, does this deep intercessory prayer involve?
• Does this "groaning which cannot be uttered" mean that this is silent prayer or...?

My Bible's footnotes about this passage shed some light. About Romans 8:26 it says:

"The Greek word translated helps is used in Luke 10:40 where Martha wants Mary to come and help her. The word does not indicate that the Holy Spirit prays instead of us, but that the Holy Spirit takes part with us and makes our weak prayers effective.


[...] If vs. 26 refers to "groaning" of the Holy Spirit which we cannot hear, then the verse simply gives encouragement that the Holy Spirit prays for us and adds effective prayer when we do not pray effectively. But if, as seems more likely, the verse refers to our "groaning" in prayer, then it means that those sighs, groans, loud 'cries and tears' - Hebrews 5:7- and other expressions of our hearts and spirits in prayer are taken by the Holy Spirit and made into effectual intercession before the throne of God" - Wayne Grudem, commentary on Romans in the New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1562.

And that's where the comfort lies. For when we are so overcome with grief or confusion, or outrage, or empathy or any number of emotions that all we can do is blubber, the Holy Spirit translates our inarticulate communication into effective intercession.

So let's bring our deep emotional issues to God, even if we don't know what to pray for or how to frame our prayer in words, confident that we have a divine prayer helper.

PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, thank You for this promise of your aid in our prayers. Help me to take You up on Your promise to intercede effectively and accurately when I don't know what to pray for. Amen.

MORE: More on the Spirit and prayer

"Unquestionably, all of us need massive help with praying aright. So set is our flesh against praying at all that the Helper's first task is to create in us even the basic desire to pray. He is the One who also spotlights for us the prayer-need or topic for prayer by creating a 'concern' within us" - Catherine Marshall (quoted in Prayer Powerpoints p. 100).

"Acknowledge you can't really pray without the direction and energy of the Holy Spirit. Ask God to utterly control you by His Spirit, receive by faith that He does, and thank Him" - Joy Dawson (quoted in Prayer Powerpoints p. 98).

"We wish to pray in the spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh, and this is impossible" - Andrew Murray (quoted in Prayer Powerpoints p. 98).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A nobleman's faith

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 4:43-54

TO CHEW ON: "Jesus said to him, 'Go your way, your son lives,' So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way." John 4:50

Last night I couldn't sleep, so I grabbed my Kindle and spent an hour or so with Andrew Murray (a bundled collection of his writings I began reading long ago but haven't gone back to for quite a while).

When I came to this morning's Bible reading and discovered I had just read, last night, Murray's exposition of the very story that came up today, I couldn't help but think his thoughts are something I should share here. Thus, many of the ideas below come from this South African saint (All quotes are from The Master's Dwelling in Devotional Classics: The Andrew Murray, George Muller Colection - Kindle locations 3207 − 3275).

In typical fashion, Murray identifies teaching points in the story:

"Let me point out to you the three aspects of faith which we have here: first faith seeking; then faith finding; and then faith enjoying. Or better still: faith struggling; faith resting; faith triumphing."

• Faith seeking/struggling:

This Gentile nobleman walked six or seven hours from his dying son at Capernaum to Cana in Galilee. He came on hearsay (Jesus' first miracle - changing water to wine - happened at Cana). He didn't have the faith of the centurion, who demurred when Jesus offered to go to his house, saying His word was enough. This man repeated twice his desperate invitation for Jesus to come to his house.

• Faith finding / resting:

Jesus met the nobleman where he was, even with his imperfect faith, assuring him, "Your son lives." But that was enough for him. He was content and went home.

About this, Murray makes this telling little observation:

"When God gives me a promise, He is just as near me as when He fulfills it. That is a great comfort. When I have the promise, I have also the pledge of the fulfillment."

• Faith enjoying/ triumphing:

We know the story, how the man's servants met him, told him his son was better and he, checking on the time of the improvement, discovered it was at the exact time he was talking to Jesus. He could have dismissed the healing by rationalizing it away as coincidence. But instead, he took it as Jesus' direct answer to his prayer.

"He believed with his whole house. That is to say, he did not only believe that Christ could do just this one thing, but he believed in Christ as his Lord. ... If there had been a division among the people of Capernaum, and thousands of them had hated Christ, this man would still have stood on His side. He believed the Lord...He took up his position as a believer in Christ; and his wife, his children, his servants—he gathered them all together and laid them at the feet of Jesus."

How does this story relate to me, two thousand years later? How do I come to Christ and how does He come to me?

Murray answers:

"He comes to me in His precious word, and just as He said to the nobleman, 'Go thy way home, thy son liveth,' so Christ comes to me today and He says, 'Go thy way, thy Saviour liveth.' "Lo, I am with you always.' 'I live and you shall live also.' 'I wait to take charge of your whole life. Will you have me do this? Trust to me all that is evil and feeble; your whole sinful and perverse nature—give it up to me, and I will take care of it.'"

Murray's explanation of this story has me asking several questions:

- Do I, do we, come to Jesus with our problems?
- Do we take His word at face value?
- Do we acknowledge His answers as miracles, or explain them away as coincidences?
- Do we let His miracles (little or big) convince us that we should put Him on the throne as Lord, like the nobleman did? Or after a crisis, do we go back to living the same self-directed way as before?


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for Your presence in my life, by Your Word and by the Holy Spirit. Help me to see and acknowledge where You are working. May these things build my faith and fuel my loyalty to You.


MORE: More from Andrew Murray:

"If you want power in your house, if you want power in your Bible class, if you want power in your social circle, if you want power to influence the nation, and if you want power to influence the Church of Christ, see where it begins. Come into contact with Jesus in this rest of faith that accepts His life fully, that trusts Him fully, and the power will come by faith to overcome the world; by faith to bless others; by faith to live a life to the glory of God. Go thy way, thy soul liveth; for it is Jesus Christ who liveth within you."

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Faith graft

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Galatians 3:1-14

TO CHEW ON: "This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect in the flesh:" Galatians 3:2-3

If you had the possibility of getting a university degree either by earning it with studies or having it bestowed as an honour, which would you choose? Personally, though an honorary degree would be nice, I think I'd choose the work way, just to have the satisfaction of knowing I had earned it and was worthy of that degree. It's that way with a lot of things in life.

There's something in us humans that loves being capable. It's hard for us to accept others doing something for us. However, establishing and maintaining a relationship with God ia not in the category of something we can do for ourselves.

Earlier in Galatians, Paul has explained that we can't earn our salvation. In today's reading he goes on to say it's just as impossible to be sanctified ("made perfect in the flesh") through works.

Andrew Murray in his book Abiding In Christ, addresses our dilemma:

"A superficial acquaintance with God's plan leads to the view that while justification is God's work by faith in Christ, sanctification is our work, to be performed under the influence of the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. But the earnest Christian soon finds how little gratitude can supply the power. When he thinks that more prayer will bring it, he finds that, indispensable as prayer is, it is not enough. Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our sanctification to be appropriated by faith alone."

He goes on to explain this "appropriation" as a tree graft:

"If I want a tree made wholly good I take it when young, and cutting the stem clean off on the ground, I graft it just where it emerges from the soil. I watch over every bud which the old nature could possibly put forth until the flow of sap from the old roots into the new stem is so complete that the old life has, as it were, been entirely conquered and covered by the new. Here I have a tree entirely renewed -- emblem of the Christian who has learned in entire consecration to surrender everything for Christ, and in a wholehearted faith wholly to abide in Him."

Murray suggests that if the gardener talked to the tree, this is what He would say:

"Yield now yourself entirely to this new nature with which I have invested you; repress every tendency of the old nature to give buds or sprouts; let all your sap and all your life powers rise up into this graft."

And the grafted tree would say to the Gardener:

"When you graft me, O spare not a single branch; let everything of the old self, even the smallest bud, be destroyed that I may no longer live in my own, but in that other life that was cut off and brought and put upon me, that I might be wholly new and good." (Abiding In Christ - Chapter 9 - Kindle version).

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this grafted-in life that You make available through the finished work of Jesus. Help me, by faith, to live this way. Amen.

MORE: Grafting
The picture of a plant graft could also be implied by Jesus when He talks about us abiding in Him in John 15:1-8 (in fact, that is the passage on which Murray's book is based). Grafting is an interesting process. As you read this Wikipedia explanation of plant grafting, look for ways it is like our life in Christ.

"Grafting is a method of asexual plant propagation widely used in agriculture and horticulture where the tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with those of another...

"In most cases, one plant is selected for its roots, and this is called the stock or rootstock. The other plant is selected for its stems, leaves, flowers, or fruits and is called the scion. The scion contains the desired genes to be duplicated in future production by the stock/scion plant.

"In stem grafting, a common grafting method, a shoot of a selected, desired plant cultivar is grafted onto the stock of another type....

"For successful grafting to take place, the vascular cambium tissues of the stock and scion plants must be placed in contact with each other. Both tissues must be kept alive until the graft has taken, usually a period of a few weeks. Successful grafting only requires that a vascular connection take place between the two tissues.

Read the whole article.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.