Tag: saved

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Be Your Witness

Savior of All,
It isn’t complicated. I know my salvation. Countless others do not. Make me a witness. Present me with opportunities to point others to Jesus that are so undeniable and unavoidable that I absolutely cannot help but speak up, no matter how timid I might otherwise be. Then, open my mouth! Send your Spirit to cover me with courage, confidence, compassion, and clarity, so that I both honor you in how I make you known and pave the path by which your Spirit may allow the seeds of faith to germinate. Afterward, cause my heart to soar, not merely based on the outcome or results, which you alone are responsible for, but simply at the privilege of getting to make you known! Let such experiences continually kindle in me an increasing desire to be eager to evangelize. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Security of My Salvation

Friend of Sinners,
You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have no greater treasure than you and the flood of blessings you have consistently lavished on me. I am grounded in the confidence that I am yours and that my eternity will be spent in your presence, all thanks to the perfect work of your life, death, and resurrection. My salvation is sure and certain! Leave these truths imprinted on my heart, so that my days are marked with joy and peace. Allow the reality of my future inheritance to carry me through every present impediment or inconvenience. Let the confidence of my permanent home in heaven spur me on to make the most of my temporary home and time here on earth.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Be Real About My Sin and Your Grace

Forgiving Father,
There is no greater blessing than the assurance of salvation and knowing that it is a gift from start to finish. Sometimes, however, I allow that assurance to morph into overconfidence or arrogance, leading me to trivialize or downplay my own sin. When the certainty of my forgiveness convinces me to think that my sin is no big deal, I end up diminishing both grace and the gravity of your Son’s sacrifice for me. Let each of these be true: you loathe sin while also delighting in forgiving it. Guide me to have the same perspective, so that I despise my own sin and genuinely desire to overcome it, while also treasuring your generous, limitless grace and forgiveness.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Water

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(John 4:5-26)

The Word of God can be a challenging book to read. It can be difficult to see the big picture of how it all fits together. It can be frustrating to wrestle with why God thought certain sections were worth including in Scripture. Remembering where a certain narrative is recorded or which book includes this verse isn’t always so easy. Struggling with doubts about why the Bible is the one religious book we can trust, while all the others are man-made fabrications that lead people astray. It can all be overwhelming.

This is why it is good for us to sit alongside Jesus and the woman at the well. It’s as if we are right there with them, longing for a rest, taking some time to slow down, pause, and recover with the refreshing interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. After all, to make sense of the Bible, to sort it all out, is to see Jesus and spend time with Jesus. Only when we know him do the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place. Through time spent with Jesus, we get a glimpse into the window of the very heart of God.

We see a Savior packing all of the work of soul-saving and salvation into his short, three-decade-long life, taking time out of his ridiculously busy schedule for just one soul. To see him care so much, to be so invested in one heart, to cast aside all cultural taboos and any faux pas because the eternity of even one soul matters more to him than the opinion of others and how he comes off – this is to know God as he wants to be known. So let us enjoy our time together as quiet bystanders in awe of Jesus’ love for people, for individuals, as he provides exactly what this woman – and we – need. 

First things first, how and why did Jesus get to this point? Our account begins rather abruptly with a “so,” leaving us wondering what preceded. What preceded was an explanation of why Jesus had to be on the move. He had been in an area with a high population of religious leaders. They were starting to take note of Jesus’ influence, which was surpassing that of John the Baptist. It may have been that Jesus didn’t want to draw more of their attention and have to worry about more frequent interactions with religious opposition at this point in his ministry. It may have been that Jesus didn’t want to lend to the perception that he and John the Baptist were rivals. Or, since it wasn’t going to be too long before John the Baptist would find himself in prison, Jesus may have left to avoid a similar fate. 

On top of all of those considerations, geographically speaking, there were other roads Jesus could have traveled to avoid going through the heart of Samaria. Many Jewish people would do just that to avoid the unfavorable shadow of a “purebred” Jewish person having to have anything to do with a “mutt” Samaritan.

But right before this interaction, John records for us, “Now he had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). “Had to,” didn’t mean there were no alternative roads he could have taken to avoid Samaria, because we know there were. No, “had to” means that this encounter was divinely appointed. It was slated to happen on God’s eternal planner that Jesus would radically impact not just one woman’s life, but, as a result of this very encounter, that many in the whole town would eventually come to call him their Savior by faith.  

She was slow to get it at first, as we all are. But, given the circumstances, it’s understandable that she was not expecting any conversation to unfold with this weary traveler by the well. Not only did the man initiate the conversation with a woman, which was culturally uncoomon on its own, but she recognized, likely by his dialect, that he was a Jew, prompting her shocked response at being asked for a drink. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) (v.9). No upstanding Jew would have been willing to drink from the bowl or cup of a Samaritan. 

Take note, however, of how Jesus responds – not just to this inquiry, but to each concern the woman expresses. Rather than diving into a treatise on the past and present relations between Jews and Samaritans, Jesus begins to direct the conversation to the one thing that mattered most. She needed to understand and ultimately believe that he came to bring her not what she thought she wanted, but what she needed: eternal salvation. 

Even as Jesus steered the conversation toward the spiritual, referring to the “gift of God,” making mention of who was asking her for a drink, speaking of “living water,” and finally even mentioning “eternal life,” still her reply demonstrated she wasn’t tracking. “The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water’” (v.15). Figuratively speaking, she was still looking down into the well, when Jesus was leading her to look up to the heavens. She was stuck on the physical and temporal, while Jesus longed to turn her attention to the spiritual and eternal. 

You ever have that kind of frustrating conversation? The one where you are gradually trying to ease your way into a tough or challenging discussion that needs to happen, and the other person doesn’t pick up on what you’re really talking about? More often than not, those situations are our own fault, because we’re not speaking clearly and we’re expecting the other person to do the heavy lifting in the conversation. We’re trying to avoid saying what we should actually just come out and say and hoping the other person picks up on it and connects the dots. Then we’re the ones who get angry when they don’t, when it’s really our fault that we aren’t communicating clearly. 

This case, though, was not one of Jesus lacking clarity in his communication; rather, it was an example of the chasm that exists between fallen sinners and a righteous God. If you need a reminder of how wide that chasm is, just look at how thick the Bible is! We’re so obtuse and spiritually clueless that God needed to record one account after another to show us our lost condition. He needed to cover every possible path someone might think they could pursue, only to arrive at a dead end every time.

In its simplest form, God’s law is easily summed up with the word “love.” “Love me,” God says, “and love your neighbor.” That’s it! But for us to see how miserably we fail at it, God records take after take throughout history of people failing at loving him and others perfectly. To our shame and embarrassment, he has to spell out specifically the countless ways we violate his command to love.

Jesus’ next request of the woman shows just that. “He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back’” (v.16). In an effort to officially shift the conversation into the spiritual realm, Jesus brings up her current living situation, knowing full well it will raise the issue that needs the most attention: the condition of her heart. That’s what God’s law does. It reveals what we think is hidden. It shows what we think can be covered. It displays what we feel can be tucked safely away unnoticed. And she realized it.

Her reply shows that her awareness has shifted from the physical to the spiritual. “‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem’” (v.19-20).

Some take the view that the woman was attempting to change the topic away from the matter of her adultery. However, it seems just as plausible that she realizes the conversation is a spiritual one, her sin has been exposed, and now she is naturally focused on what to do about it. So she asks about the right way to worship, presuming that must be the way to go about it. She wants to see if this man, who is obviously a prophet, may have insight into the right way to worship. 

By nature, that’s how we operate, isn’t it? In some way or another, when we do wrong, get caught or called out, or just plain feel guilty about it, we naturally resort to thinking about what we must do to make everything right. Indeed, though it may not revolve around a building or a Sunday morning service, for many, that’s really their understanding of worship, isn’t it? Many view worship as the required activity that we have to keep up with to counter all of the ways we’ve violated God’s law of love. We want God to just tell us how to make things right so we can carry on with our lives. 

But Jesus shoots down that idea when he explains to the woman that she’s asking the wrong question, and that worship isn’t about finding the right location, but about something else entirely. He explains that “salvation is from the Jews” (v.22), and as such, what matters far more than location, religious rites, or even right behavior, is worshipping “in Spirit and in truth” (v.22 & 23). In other words, worship that is pleasing to God is not a matter of doing the right thing, but of having the right heart. And Jesus qualifies that by adding that it’s also a matter of truth. Because without the truth, our hearts would only succeed in driving us further away from God. 

So what is the truth? Jesus made it known to the woman with his final big reveal. The Messiah – the Savior – she was waiting for, was the very one to whom she was speaking! He alone could promise to satisfy not just dry lips and a parched throat, but a dehydrated soul, with his living water that wells up to eternal life. Jesus could provide what none of her past or current relationships ever could: a heart cleansed and purified by the living water of salvation. 

Friends, it isn’t easy. We are tired. We are worn out. We are thirsty. But don’t make matters worse by seeking to satisfy your thirst with worldly stuff that will only leave you in a worse condition. Drink up. Guzzle in all the grace you can. It will not run out. It will not fail to quench your thirst. It will not disappoint. It will leave you, too, with a clean conscience and a heart that is whole. Less of what will only leave you thirsty again and more of what will never leave you thirsty. More of Jesus and the living water only he can provide. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Rely on Grace Plus Nothing

Loving Redeemer,
Your Word clearly teaches that we are not saved by works, but by grace, through faith. Although we know and believe that, we can so easily slip right back into our own self-righteousness. We cannot rid ourselves of that part of us that yearns to make our salvation a combination of grace PLUS something – anything – on our part. But if salvation is by grace AND anything else, then we are robbed of the certainty of our salvation! Our best efforts bring us no closer to salvation than the most vile deeds of the unbeliever. The work of salvation is yours alone. Give me a faith that clings to that truth, rejoices in it, and finds peace in it. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Certainty of Salvation

Saving Lord,
While each day has plenty of uncertainties and unknowns of its own, I thank you that my eternal salvation is not one of them! The Bible spells it out so clearly that even a child can understand and believe that you love us so much that you sent Jesus into this world to live and die for us. In Jesus every perfect requirement of heaven has been met. In Jesus every condemning sin has been paid for and canceled. Though faith in him I am never wondering where I stand with you, because he came and carried out all that was necessary for me. Let me find joyful security in my salvation every single day, and lead me to make it known to others in every possible way.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Prioritize My Salvation

Lord of Salvation,
Nothing should concern us more than the matter of our salvation. Scripture paints such a terrifying picture of hell that we must conclude that Satan and sin are nothing to be trifled with. Yet the same Scripture points to the clear certainty of salvation solely through the work of our Savior. It leaves no doubt for anyone seeking the answer to the question of what happens to us after this life. 

Keep us from allowing other concerns and distractions in our lives to crowd out the matter of our salvation. Although Jesus took care of it entirely for us, Satan tries relentlessly to take it away from us. While he cannot undo the work of salvation carried out by Jesus, Satan can convince us that our busy schedules don’t permit the time it takes to keep us close to Jesus. Since he cannot take salvation away from us, he tries to take us away from our salvation. He does this by trying to cut us off from Word and Sacrament. Help us fight that battle daily and remain tethered to you by faith, so that our salvation is never in jeopardy. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Asking – and Answering – the Question That Matters Most

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(Luke 18:18-30)

A great question can have a huge impact in a variety of settings. One of the qualities of exceptional leaders is that they ask great questions. In being coached and in coaching other pastors, the value of great questions that force hearers to reflect deeply or differently cannot be overstated. In the classroom, students learn well when teachers ask great questions and teachers can better tune in to the learning needs of students when students ask great questions, too. 

In Luke 18, Jesus was faced with a great question. In fact, Jesus was asked the greatest question anyone can ask: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v.18). There is no question more important than this one. It both acknowledges an afterlife and also seeks out assurance for what happens to us after we die. This question assumes there is more than just this life and the one asking it wants to be confident of his place in the life to come. 

As great a question as this most important question is, it’s also terribly frustrating that precious few people are asking it today. Why is that? If it is the most important question- and it is – why aren’t more people asking it? It would be lovely to conclude that more people aren’t wrestling with it because they are already confident of the answer.

But sadly, a much more likely reason is that they are simply indifferent to the answer. They don’t care. Perhaps some have thought about what happens when they die and may or may not have their own answers, but so many are perfectly content not giving this most important question the time of day. Chalk it up to the same level of indifference our culture has with so many other important matters. Meanwhile, we wouldn’t dare miss out on the “important” stuff like a scathing sports tweet, the latest celebrity hook-ups or break-ups, or some political rant.

But, rather than lament why so many in our society are content to stick their head in the sand rather than wrestle with this question, let’s focus on you. Are you asking the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” More importantly, are you confident in your answer? As our faith increases, so does our confidence in the answer to that question. 

Speaking of confidence, the man who approached Jesus in this chapter of Luke didn’t seem to lack it. Yet, while he certainly seemed to have confidence in his own standing, there’s no reason to presume he was being disingenuous or that he had some agenda in asking the question. He was asking the right question, the question that matters most. And he wanted to be sure of the answer.

Jesus’ initial response isn’t what we might expect. One might suppose that Jesus could have answered the ruler’s question very simply: “Believe that I am the promised Savior and eternal life is yours.” That would have made for a short and sweet encounter and the man may very well have gone on his way.

But the man would have gone on his way with a jaded idea of what was required for heaven. As we see his dialogue with Jesus play out, the man had a misplaced confidence in his own efforts. And as far as salvation is concerned, when man’s efforts – whether they be great or small – are combined with God’s grace, the result is hell. There is no room in the salvation equation for works plus anything else. So Jesus didn’t give him the good news of the gospel, for it would have done more harm than good. The man first needed to see how much he needed Jesus.

That may also have something to do with why Jesus initially keyed in on the term “good.” Jesus wasn’t trying to avoid the man’s question. In fact, he was likely prompting him to think very carefully about what significance he was attaching to the term “good” in addressing Jesus that way. However, regardless of what the man’s intent was in using that description, look at Jesus’ response: only God is good. 

That should have made something clear to the man asking what he must do to get to heaven (in other words, “How good do I have to be?”): no one is good enough. But he missed the point, as made clear by his response to Jesus bringing up the commandments: “All these I have kept since I was a boy” (v.21). While the overconfidence oozing from the man’s reply is obvious to us, based on his upbringing and understanding of the law, he probably legitimately figured he was measuring up to God’s expectations for him.

There’s a part of us that is right there with him. “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” (v. 20). We’ve mostly kept those commandments, on the big stage, at least. Sure, a few small things here and there, but all-in-all, when we think of how others demolish these laws with their sins, we’ve only “bumped into” them a bit. No affairs. No murders. No breaking and entering or grand larceny. No lying under oath. No dishonoring our parents in a way that tarnishes the family name. See, it’s not so hard for our thinking to line up quite well with the self-righteous ruler, is it? 

So Jesus does him a favor and makes a more pointed application of the law. Jesus pointed out that he was still lacking something: he needed to sell his stuff.

To understand how Jesus was helping the man diagnose his sin, consider a visit to the doctor to treat an ankle injury. Suppose you injured your ankle and wanted to see if it was broken. How helpful would it be for the doctor to ask you to move your elbows or your knees to see if something was amiss? How helpful would it be for him to apply a little bit of pressure to different spots on your forearm, asking each time if that hurt at all? In order for him to be able to help you, he’d have to be treating the right part of your body. 

Jesus did just that by applying pressure to the ruler’s spiritual sore spot: his wealth. And Jesus’ effort hit the mark. “[Jesus] said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy” (v.22-23). The man’s reaction demonstrated that the law accomplished its purpose. It exposed his sin. It showed where the man’s heart truly was. It didn’t belong to God. It belonged to his stuff, and his sorrow showed it.

Had the man measured up to the kind of goodness required for heaven, his response would have been delight. “Is that it? What a great opportunity it will be for me to richly bless the less fortunate, for I have far more than I need. I will gladly give away every penny of my wealth so that it can serve those in need.” For an example of this, see Zacchaeus’ response to Jesus and the good news. The gospel prompted Zacchaeus’ generosity. But in this case, the law had a completely different effect on the ruler. It prompted his despair.

The man seemed like a prime candidate for heaven, based on his own confidence in having kept the law, but now Jesus was saying it was easier for a camel to thread the eye of a needle than for a guy like this to get into heaven. Understandably, that shocked those listening. “Those who heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’” (v.26). Jesus’ hearers must have concluded that if it’s impossible for a pretty upright fellow like that to get into heaven on his own, then what chance of eternal life does anyone else have?

And that is exactly where God wants everyone to be at some point in his life. Hopeless. Helpless. Having the realization that nothing we could ever hope to do and nothing we could ever hope to be is enough to assure us of eternal life. On our own, we are… on our own. The awareness of our inability to be good enough, to try hard enough, to be enough leaves us absolutely and completely desperate. 

To those who have been there, who have experienced that, the words of Jesus that come next are life and deliverance. They are hope. They are just what despairing hearts and ears long to hear: “Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’” (v. 27). What is impossible with man? The ability to save himself. What is possible with God? Salvation. 

And it isn’t just possible. It isn’t just plausible. God actually did it! God did what the rich ruler couldn’t. He did what we couldn’t. He got the job done – completed it 100%.

How refreshing in a half-done and undone society like ours! We hire a contractor for this or that project, and only 90% of the job is done, yet he claims he’s finished. The coworker or classmate submits their portion of the work or assignment that is “mostly” done, leaving you to finish it up. Into a “partially-done-is-good-enough” world, God came in the flesh and completed 100% of what was necessary for our salvation, from start to finish. 

Unlike the rich ruler, Jesus didn’t have to fudge the law’s standards just to pretend he had kept most of the commandments, but he kept every one. Unlike our best efforts at trying to make up for wrongs, which could not even on our best day come close to paying for even the smallest sin, Jesus paid for every sin with his very life. And the impossible continued when he defied death and rose to life again, making the impossible possible and guaranteeing our resurrection, too. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Indeed, it has been accomplished in full by God. 

So we have the answer to the question we must ask, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Not a thing. Jesus did the impossible. Jesus did it all. Believe it.