Or take WORSHIP. Prayer is real. The skeptic may sneeringly ask, "Who is there to hear you when you kneel alone in the silence of your closet and speak your heart's requests - or when you bow in the public sanctuary with other worshipers?"
But we know that our Father indeed bends His ear to hear us whenever we pray in truth to Him. None of us doubt this. There is reality in prayer. But is our praying itself real?
The danger with all of us is that we fall into formalism - that we utter words of petition in which there is no true heart desire, no actual supplication. It may startle some of us if we question our own souls, after any season of private or public prayer - to have to confess in how small a part of it our whole being was absorbed and engrossed. When God listens while we pray - what does He hear?
An English preacher asks: "If at the close of any public service, if on rising from private prayer, the question were seriously put to us, in the heart; 'What have you done; what has been asked; what has been sought; what has been desired; what has been wished or felt in this act of devotion? What, therefore, in the supposition that God answers prayer, may you now expect as the result?' How often must the confession be, 'Nothing, nothing - my heart was not involved. The very object of our worship, God Himself, was to us an unreality; our conception of Him, our shaping and framing of the thought of Him, was even like that dumb idol of which Isaiah tells - a thing lifted into its place, and helplessly set there, speechless to its suppliant, and powerless to save."
There surely is something startling in this, if such words as these describe our experience. We need to give solemn heed to this whole subject. It is possible for us to go through forms of devotion regularly and decorously - and yet never really pray at all, our lips speaking words which are not born in one's hearts.
It is of vital importance that we seek to free our worship of all unreality. We should utter no word in our supplications before God, which is not laden with a deep and true desire from our heart of hearts. If we plead, "Nearer, my God, to You" - the holiest yearning of our soul should be in the cry. When we speak thanks in our worship, the pure incense of gratitude should be in the cry. When we speak thanks in our worship, the pure incense of gratitude should rise in the glad accents of our praising words. Whatever we say when we are on our bended knees before God in the act and attitude of prayer - should be the truest, realest utterance of our heart's desires. Unreality in praying, is irreverent mocking of God!
~J. R. Miller~
(The End)
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(Octavius Winslow)
One fiery trial, sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, has done more to break up the crusted ground of the heart, to penetrate beneath the surface, to dissect, and winnow, and separate--than a lifetime of reading and hearing could have done.
Oh, what secret sins have been detected,
what carelessness of walk has been revealed,
what spiritual and unsuspected declension of soul has been discovered
--all leading to deep self-loathing, and to the laying the mouth in the dust before God!
"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You!
Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:5-6
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A Divine Demonstration of Love
To better understand divine love, consider its opposite —false “love,” which sets limitations and always withholds something. This so-called love clings to control and gives only in order to manipulate. It is emotionally detached and unwilling to be vulnerable.
Genuine love, on the other hand, respects people as they are. It means understanding who the other person really is and loving without restriction. If you must be in control and your heart is not 100% in it, you’re missing true love.
Looking at the love of Jesus Christ on the cross, I see the most perfect demonstration of love anywhere. The Savior showed us how unlimited His love is: He gave His life for us and withheld nothing (Rom. 8:32)! He did not give His love to manipulate us but instead gave us free will to accept or reject Him. And He loved us with vulnerability, already knowing His love would be rejected—even ignored or mocked. In loving with His whole heart, Jesus was willing to be turned down.
If you’re ever unsure about what true love really looks like, turn to the cross. Jesus gave His best—His all—to love us so that we could become children of God (1 John 3:1).
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