Blue, do they have a prayer? – Checking the Clues 3
- Purity 538
Purity 538 09/30/2021 Purity 538 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo of a pink and orange
sunrise sky comes to us from a friend who was up early and decided to share
their view near their home in upstate New York on social media this past Monday. If that all sounds a little vague, it is
because although I thought I recalled the particular friend that shared this
photo, this morning I find myself with somewhat of a mystery on my hands as I
am not sure of the friend, or possibly ex-friend that shared this photo.
Recently, I decided to “downsize” my FB friends list to “tighten my
circle” to just include actual friends and acquaintances or people who I have had
some interactions within the recent past.
Last night at my discipleship class, we discussed how the world can cause
us to feel insignificant or offer ways to feel significant.
The number of your FB friends is one barometer that we could use to make
ourselves feel better about ourselves. Last week I had approximately 700
friends. While that number might seem high to some, I know others that have
over a thousand friends, some with over two thousand. So by that standard I could either feel pretty
good about myself or feel like I wasn’t as good as others. But honestly, did that number make me a better
person or more loved? No, it didn’t.
Because I recently have found the person who will be my significant
other for the rest of my life and I was aware of the shallowness of “friendships”
that made up those 700 friends, I
decided I wanted to feel a little more insignificant in the world’s eyes I
guess and unfriended around 300 people or things since last week. And you know what? I don’t feel like I am half
the man I used to be by that almost 40% decrease in “friends” because my value
is determined by God and who I am in Christ.
God doesn’t care about the number of friends or followers you have He
just cares that you make Jesus your friend, Lord, and Savior. And when you do that He also cares that
follow Him.
So this morning as the namesake of the kid’s show, Blue’s Clues, has
been tromping through my imagination, as we investigate the “clues” that would
reveal that someone was a “real” or authentic Christian, I was joined by our blue
and furry friend during my morning prayers.
Blue’s murmuring indicated that the topic of prayer would be the next “clue”
that we look for and examine to determine if it could help us determine if someone
who claimed to be a Christian actually was a Christian.
As a reminder, this search for the “clues” of authentic Christian faith,
was motivated by the desire of several friends to find a Christian life
partner. We are not to cast stones or
disparage the practices or lack of spiritual practices in the other members of
the body Christ. Everyone’s relationship
with God is highly personal and we have the liberty in Christ to choose to
worship and relate to God in the ways we choose. We are not creating a check list of necessary
things that “make” someone a Christians. We are merely looking for ways to
discern how someone’s profession of faith compares to their practices. Are they for real?
Christ said that we would know His disciples by their fruit and so in
our search for a life partner we want to be sure that the fruit growing in our potential
partner’s lives are being watered by the word of God and not by the dry cisterns
of the world.
Discipled Christians, Christians who are “walking in the Spirit”. or believers
living by a Christian worldview or lifestyle can have a wide variation in their
prayer practices.
So in our evaluation of our supposed “Christian” friend, we should
observe and question the role of prayer in their lives. Looking and not asking is probably the best
tactic to get your initial impression of someone’s prayer life. So what do you see?
Do they pray? Do they talk about prayer? Do they have a regular prayer
practice? Do they pray at church? Do they pray over meals?
The presence of unprompted or noncompulsory prayer or a verified prayer
practice outside of corporate gatherings in someone’s life could be an
indicator of authentic Christian faith.
While charlatans may go to great lengths to appear holy in front of the grandstands,
they may reveal themselves by having little or no prayer in their lives when
nobody is looking.
Do they offer to pray for others? And if they do offer, do you get the
impression that they are actually praying for them?
People who believe in the power of prayer will generally offer to pray
for others and when they offer, they will add the person to their prayer list
or pray for the other person immediately.
If people are not offering to pray for others, we could question whether
they actually believe in prayer, or the God who answers them.
Do they pray out loud? If they prayer out loud, what do their prayers
indicate about what they know and believe about God?
Jesus warned us about people who pray out loud and in public because
they may just be doing so to appear spiritual to others, feel good about
themselves, or seek to manipulate people.
The content of the verbal prayers can reveal quite a bit about what the
person believes theologically and can even give us insights into their
personality, sincerity, and intelligence.
Do they pray silently?
Perhaps the hardest to draw any conclusions from are those who pray
silently. Silent prayers could indicate an intense and devoted faith or could
just be an outward expression of an empty practice. If you see someone praying silently with
their eyes closed and you catch them “peaking” and looking around and then
closing their eyes again, you may have discovered a sign that the person isn’t
as devout as you thought they were.
So what do all these things say about someone’s faith?
While we can gain some real insight into the possible levels of devotion
and maturity of the person we are observing, only God can know their
hearts. Just because someone hasn’t developed
a robust prayer life doesn’t mean they don’t have faith in Christ.
So we shouldn’t judge someone too harshly because of the observations we
glean from their prayer life, but we shouldn’t dismiss what we see either. God gave us eyes to see and minds to make conclusions
based on our observations and we would be wise to use what He has given us to
make wise decisions when it comes to committed relationships.
After you have gathered some data on the person’s prayer life through your
observations, the best way to know feel about prayer and their faith in general
is to discuss it. When you talk about
prayer or any aspects of faith with someone, listen what they say, how they say
it, and also consider what they are not saying. Our conversations with others
can give us great “clues” as to who they are and what they believe.
So prayer, or lack of prayer, in someone’s life could be a great “clue”
to tell you whether someone is an authentic Christian but before making any
quick judgements about someone’s faith and character look for other “clues”
that will solve the mystery of whether this “Christian” who has come into your
life is for real and the one who will walk with you toward the Lord for the
rest of your days.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
1 Thessalonians 5:8 (NKJV)
8 But let us who are of the
day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a
helmet the hope of salvation.
Today’s verse encourages
us to put on the armor of God and to be serious about our Christian walk.
Ephesians
is usually the scripture that is pointed to when we mention the armor of God
but as we can see in today’s verse, Paul uses similar language in Thessalonians
to encourage us to walk by faith.
The
breastplate of faith and love and the hope of salvation that is to be our
helmet demonstrate that our hearts and minds are to be covered by the truth of
who we are in Christ. The faith we have
in God’s love and His promise to save us are the means by which we can walk
through this world with peace and confidence.
God’s
love for us and the promise of salvation makes us accepted, significant, and
secure and the Apostle Paul is directing us to “clothe ourselves” with these aspects
of our faith every day.
The command
to be sober indicates that we should take our faith seriously and really live
it out. For the application of our faith
to our lives is how we can experience the fruit of the Spirit.
So keep
walking and talking with God. Remind yourself of his love for you and the fact
that you have the hope of salvation ever since you placed your faith in Christ.
So we have the hope of salvation for ourselves, but we can also share that hope
with the world around us.
As
always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with
their walk.
Today we continue to share from June Hunt’s The Blended
Family’s God’s Recipe for Success.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and
to support her work. If you need this title you can find it online at several
sites for less than $5.00:
II. Characteristics
The French, known for their exquisite breads and pastries, have a saying,
"Mauvaise brioche, mauvaise maison." If the dough is not good,
nothing else will be either. Making a good brioche is not difficult, but it
requires patience and a basic understanding of the properties of the dough.
Brioche dough is unusually heavy from the weight of so much butter and eggs. It
takes longer to rise than ordinary bread, and the dough will be very sticky and
hard to work with. Failures are inevitable when you're learning to make
brioche, as well as when you are learning the properties of blended families
and how to work with them. Relationships get sticky and hard to deal with. But
as any chef will tell you, failure is the beginning of wisdom and
understanding.
"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is
established." (Proverbs
24:3)
Stages of Blended Family Adjustments
A. Fantasy Stage... Unrealistic Expectations
- The
dream of gaining happiness and wholeness through a new marriage
- The
dream that I won't make the same mistakes I made in my first marriage
- The
dream of marrying a model parent who will love my children
- The
dream that I will love my spouse's children as my own
- The
dream that our love is enough to conquer all problems
B. Factual Stage... Reality Sets in
- The
dream of a unified family life is not reality.
- The
guilt, jealousy and anger from former relationships are damaging to
the new relationships.
- The
children are mourning their lost parent and are not accepting the
stepparent.
- The
transition to a new family becomes more difficult than expected.
- The
problems seem too difficult, accompanied by a strong temptation to
give up.
Argument:
"You're not my mother."
Answer:
"You are so right. However, I am the mother in this home."
Argument:
"You're not my dad. I don't have to do what you say."
Answer:
"Your mother and I have talked about this, and we have agreed that this
decision is best for you."
C. Fruitful Stage... growth and Maturity
- The realization
that a blended family is not ideal; there will always be a unique set of
family problems
- The realization
that mistakes will be made, but God uses mistakes to build character and
strengthen the family unit
- The realization
that it is going to take the cooperation of both partners to overcome
difficulties and make the marriage work
- The realization
that it takes time, and it may be years before there are any signs of
unity or smooth functioning relationships
- The realization
that God will use this blended family as a source of spiritual growth, a
means of healing the past and a demonstration of His unconditional love
Question: "I have two children by another
marriage, and my husband has three. His thirteen-year-old son lives with us,
and I have an eleven-year-old son and a fourteen-year-old daughter. This is the
second marriage for both of us. We seem to constantly disagree on discipline
issues. It seems that my children have to make the most adjustments. My husband
rarely disciplines his son, yet he is very critical of my children and their
behavior. This is causing a lot of anger between us, and I am not sure our
relationship will survive. How can we overcome the serious differences that are
dividing our family?"
Answer: It
is common for each spouse to put his or her child's interests first. But when
the children's interests are first, over that of the other spouse and his or
her children, it becomes a recipe for dissension. Although blended families
such as yours tend to be very difficult, there is hope. Both you and your
husband must be willing to agree on appropriate behavior and discipline for all
the children. Do absolutely nothing until you can apply the policy to which you
both agree. Ultimately, you will begin to discipline by taking each other's
feelings into account. As you learn to agree in other areas of conflict, you
will begin learning how to act in the interests of all family members.
"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to
the interests of others." (Philippians 2:4)
Biblical Counseling Keys: The Blended Family: God's Recipe for Success.
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via
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