RELATION OF LOVE TO ANSWERED PRAYER!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JULY 25, 2020.

SUBJECT: RELATION OF LOVE TO ANSWERED PRAYER! 

Memory verse: ""A new commandment I gave to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13 vs 34.)

READ: Matthew 7 vs 24 - 27:

7:24: Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 

7:25: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

7:26: "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:

7:27: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and heat on the house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

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INTIMATION:

Jesus gave us the new commandment to govern our new creation life; that we should love one another as He loved us. Observing to do the new commandment is likened to building on the rock—a solid foundation. It means to be a hearing, responsible disciple, not a phony, superficial one. Practicing obedience becomes the solid foundation to weather the storms of life. The Sinai Law taught that one was to love his neighbor as himself (Leviticus 19 vs 18). One’s love of his neighbor, therefore, was based on his love of himself. However, Jesus emphasizes an intensity of love that is different; a love that has no conditions. It is a self-sacrificing love that extends beyond any conditions of one’s environment, and thus simply acts out of a selfless attitude.

You also remember that James speaking in his Book 1 vs 22 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." This lover here is a doer of love. He lives in the love realm. It is not the old Phileo love, but the new kind of love that Jesus brought, "Agape" and so we love in deed and in reality. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth and persuade our hearts when we stand before Him in prayer.

Let us now also join this to First John 5 vs 14 - 15, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His Will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us , whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." If we walk in love, we are walking according to His Will, and we never pray out of His Will. And because we are walking according to His Will, He hears us, and the assurances of receiving our petition is therefore, given.

The apostle John gave two conditions upon which prayer is answered. (1) We must ask according to the will of God, for God does not work contrary to His will in answer to prayer. (2) We must ask upon the condition that we are obedient to His will, for God work’s through the lives of those who are carrying out His work in the world. If we ask of God on these two conditions, we can have confidence, or boldness that God will answer our prayers. We can have confidence that God will work in our behalf in order to accomplish that which is in the best interest ps of His children (Romans 8 vs 28)). When we are confident that God hears our prayers, then we will see His answers.

Walking according to His Will leads us right into the heart of the Father. This love life permits us to walk into the very presence of the Father. You may go into the throne room and stand in His presence and make your petitions known in that name, and as sure as you do, the petition is heard. Unless we walk in love and have yielded to the lordship of love, God cannot manifest Himself through us. The ability of God is realized only in love's freedom to act. Selfishness imprisons love.

The two lives Jesus compares at the end of the Sermon on the Mount which is the passage we read today, have several points in common: the two men both build, they both hear Jesus’ teaching, and they both experience the same set of circumstances in life. The difference between them isn’t caused by ignorance but by one ignoring obedience to His Word. Externally, their lives may look similar, but the lasting, structural differences will be revealed by the storms of life. 

The immediate difference in your life when you follow Christ may not be obvious, but eventually they will turn out to affect even your eternal destiny. Most people do not deliberately seek to build on a false or inferior foundation; instead, they just don’t think about their life’s purpose. Many people are headed to destruction not out of stubbornness but out of thoughtlessness. They hardly stop and think where their lives are headed, and the consequences of ignoring the Word of God.

In the new creation, you have become doers of love; hitherto, you were doers of selfishness. We have consented to the dethroning of the control of the flesh. Prior to the new creation, our physical bodies have sat upon the throne of our lives. Now we are crowning our spirits, or to put it more clearly, we are recognizing the lordship of Jesus Christ and crowning Him as Lord of our whole being.

Prayer: Abba Father, Your love nature has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit which is given to me in the new creation. O Lord, let me receive mercy and grace to walk in love, and be helpful in time of need, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!