The Prayer to End All Prayers

Friday, May 31, 2024

The Prayer to End All Prayers – Revelation 22:20 Submitted by Kay Crumley

I was referred to “25 Powerful Prayers of the Bible” by Kevin Halloran and have been using those as scriptures for starting points in writing the recent devotionals. I have come to the end of that list. The final scripture reference is in Revelation. This was one I found challenging to ‘flesh out’ for a devotional. However, I was given two other references this morning that I believe God has provided as ideas to expand on this passage. 

Revelation 22:20 is at the end of the book of Revelation. He who testifies about these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen!  

Come, Lord Jesus! 

The emphasis in the final prayer by Halloran is on the fact that we are ready for the Jesus to return. We live in a world full of pain and sorrow. Many may feel there is so much evil in the world that we can no longer endure it. We often cry for an end to injustice, trafficking, racism, sin, and all evil. That will not end while we live in a fallen world. As a result, we may join John in begging Jesus, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’  

There are two truths we can learn from Revelation. Jesus is coming soon, and life with Him in God’s eternal Kingdom will be our future.  

Revelation 21:3-4 describes what the new heaven and earth will be like. 

3Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: 

Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, 
and He will live with them. 
They will be His people, 
and God Himself will be with them 
and be their God.  
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 
Death will no longer exist; 
grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, 
because the previous things have passed away. 

 

We will live with Him just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. He will be with us. He will comfort us; all pain and sorrow will be gone. Can you just imagine the hand of God wiping away your tears? If so, isn’t that enough to cause us to long for and shout with John ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’? 

 

However, the truth is that our timing is not His. No one knows when Jesus will return, Matthew 24:36. Jesus will return as promised but we may never see that return. What are we to do in the meantime? Trust His promises, believe the gospel, and share with others the truth of Jesus Christ. We are given the command to ‘go and tell’ about who Jesus is and what He can do for this lost and dying world, Matthew 28:19-20. 

 

John, the author of Revelation, reminds us in the Book of John how we are equipped to follow the commands of Jesus. John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. The Spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit. We who have repented of our sins, believed the gospel, and followed Jesus have the Holy Spirit living in us. He is who will guide our words and deeds if we are listening to Him. He is our teacher. He is who empowers us to follow Jesus in our day to day lives. Those who long for the day when we will be in the presence of God and have all our pain and grief erased must spend time with Him daily while here on earth.  

 

How does this all fit together? Revelation tells us that the followers of Jesus will spend eternity in His presence worshipping Him. There will be no needs that aren’t met. There will be no sorrow or tears in the majestic presence of God. But, before we can experience that great day, we must follow Jesus while here on earth. That is something that can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can’t earn our salvation by any other name but that of Jesus. Followers of Jesus are being led to all truth, have an intercessor, and the peace that only can come from knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then, we can confidently shout ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ knowing we will be in Glory with Him.  

  

The Path to Restoration

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you return to the LORD with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.  1 Samuel 7:3 

The Path to Restoration

The Israelites were in trouble. They had been living in sin, oppressed and depressed, and God was silent. His absence was felt by everyone. Samuel was the only way they heard from God at all. Samuel had been raised by Eli, the priest and father of Hophni and Phinehas. Even though Eli’s sons were wicked and immoral, God had protected Samuel, preparing him for his purpose as he grew in stature and favor with                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the Lord and with men. Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man. 1 Samuel 2:26

Israel began to lament as they realized their situation. Samuel called a revival and they all gathered to rededicate their lives to God. They confessed and renewed their commitment. At this gathering, Samuel gave them some things they needed to do to find restoration with God. 

Repent and Return - If you return to the LORD with all your heart…
Repentance is turning away from sin and turning to the Lord. When we engage in sin we have to turn away from God to do so. To restore a relationship with God we must turn away from the sin and look to the Lord. Repentance is a change of mind leading to a change of action. It is not just being sorry, it requires action. It is action that is a result of Godly sorrow. Israel repented and returned to God and God redeemed and restored. They had to acknowledge their weakness and failure. We are never too far gone for there to be restoration between God and us. When we humble ourselves before Him and confess our sin, He will redeem and restore. 

Remove All Idols - remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you…
The first thing they needed to do was to get rid of all the false gods. God is a jealous God and He shares His throne with no one and no thing. The Israelites had physical false gods that they were worshipping instead of Yahweh. We also can have false gods, though they are not usually in statue form. They come in the form of things and people and even food, drugs, and alcohol. Whatever we depend on or live to please is an idol. Just as with the nation of Israel, there is no place for idols in our lives. They must go for there to be restoration with God. What do you need to let go of so that you can restore your relationship with God? 

Serve Only Him - direct your hearts to the LORD and serve Him alone…
This goes back to the idols somewhat. We cannot hang onto our idols and serve Him too. When we serve Him, we serve Him with our whole life and that means giving Him our whole life. It is all or nothing. We can’t pick and choose what we let Him have and keep what we don’t want to let go of. He gets it all. Partial commitment leads to partial service and the serving of two masters which God says is impossible and will lead to conflict in our life. Our service to Him is a direct display of our obedience and commitment to Him.

God does not choose to step out of our lives. We make that choice. We put Him on the shelf or in the junk closet with all our other junk. He does not belong there, and we will not experience His presence and Power until we follow the steps for restoration and put Him back where He belongs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Defined By Christ

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.  But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices…  Colossians 3:5-9

 Defined By Christ

When we become Christians, we start down a new path in life. Most of the time when we start something new, we have to get rid of at least some of the old stuff. Starting a new life in Christ will change your life ethically. There will be things that you used to partake in, that now cannot be a part of your life if you want to start a new life and grow in Christ. Anything you used to do that is against God’s word and desire for our lives should automatically be out.

Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, 
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry…

We are to consider ourselves dead to immorality such as impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed – which is all idolatry. The core of all sin is idolatry because we are putting these before God and anything that we replace God with is an idol. God deserves first place in our lives, and He cannot share the throne of our lives with anything or anyone if we are to have a right relationship with Him.

But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices…

The list above was primarily sins that we commit outside our body – or physically. This list is more about our heart: anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, and lying. All prejudice, racism, and slander are gone when a new heart is in control. When we give our heart to Jesus and the Holy Spirit takes us residence in our hearts, He controls our heart, our motives, our speech, etc. as long as we let Him. It is when the “old man” comes, and we give him control that we have problems. 

One other thing that we must let go of so we can thrive in our new life in Christ is shame over where we have been. If we cannot let that go, it will hinder us from growing or moving forward in our new life. Shame is powerful. It is hard for us to think that God loves us despite what we have done. In fact, He loved us when we were doing it and He knew we would do it before we even did it. He forgives us but we have a harder time forgetting and forgiving ourselves and accepting His grace. 

We must shift our thinking from finding our identity in who we were to finding our identity in who we are in Christ. If we carry shame with us, we find our identity in our shame. A shame-based identity is Satan whispering in our ear constantly while we try to pretend he is not. It is the underlying thought that we are not worthy because of what we have done. We can’t stop shaming ourselves because of bad decisions and wrong choices we have made in the past. We may not even realize that it is shame, because to us, it is truth. But the real truth is that in Christ we are new creatures, with new identities. In this new identity we are ready to grow in Him and to be used by Him. 

Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.  Colossians 3:10-11 MSG

The Handwriting On The Wall

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. … They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Then the king's face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together. Daniel 5:1-2,4-6 

The Handwriting On The Wall

One of the most well-known phrases from the bible comes from this text.  A lot of times in business, sports and just in life, everyone seems to know or have heard the phrase, "The handwriting is on the wall."  This phrase is normally spoken when it is clear that without intervention something is inevitable.  It is a warning to do something now to stop a later consequence.

Here we have a man named Belshazzar who was the King of Babylon at this time.  Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. This young man was around to witness what happened to his grandfather when he failed to take heed to the voice of God.  He was around when his grandfather was told by Daniel to stop worshipping idols, to stop sinning, to do what was right and be merciful to the poor.  Belshazzar knew that his grandfather's biggest mistake was thinking that he had obtained all his success on his own.  His grandfather had failed to listen to Daniel the prophet and ended up losing his mind so badly that he finds himself eating grass with the cows every day. Wow! The Bible says he was wet with dew and his hair grew as long as eagle feathers.  His nails grew and became like bird claws and he was in a terrible state for seven years.  Yet when his mind finally returned to him he praised and worshipped the most High God.  This man had lost his mind because he had forgotten who allowed him to become great. This is a good time for me to tell you that God’s Word says in him we live and we move and we have our being.

Many times we may gain success in life but we must remember who the praise goes to.  Without Him we could do nothing, without Him we would fail.  God allowed his grandfather to go through a terrible situation to bring him to the understanding that he needed God always.

Now Belshazzar is on the throne and he finds himself falling into the same trap that his grandfather fell into and he is terrified of what his happening.  One of the greatest mistakes in life we can make is not making mistakes but failing to learn from our mistakes or the mistakes of others.  

If we would learn from our mistakes we would not fall for the same trap that the enemy presents to us each time.  Many times we make the same mistakes because we are not paying attention to the consequences of others or even our own pain. We live for the moment like these men and we tend to think things won't happen to us like it happened to our predecessors. Yet if we look at the Bible it's amazing how history repeats itself.  The biggest mistake is not learning from our mistakes and the second half of that is our failure to keep God in the forefront of our lives. There comes a time when “the handwriting is in the wall” and we must deal with consequences.  

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. 1 Corinthians 10:5-6