The Bible is very comfortable with the idea that you can talk to God. Depending on the Bible version you look at ‘prayer’ is referenced over six hundred and fifty times!
Category Archives: Ken Noakes
Talking to God (Part 2 of 6)
Has your prayer life ever sounded like this?
Dear Lord and Father,
Help me now to come before your word and hear your voice. Help me – oh I forgot to lock the car! Sorry God, just got distracted. I pray that you would open my mind and heart and – I must remember to pick up some milk on the way home! Should I go out after church this week, it will be a busy week, maybe I should get home and get to bed instead! Whoops, get back to praying, Sorry God. Where was I? Something about opening my mind… oh that’s right, I pray that you will help me to obey what you want me to obey – I wonder if I will see Steve after church – oh not now, God help me to focus and I pray ….I can’t remember – well in Jesus Name Amen!
Is it just me, or are there times when you struggle to pray? Christians know they should pray, it is wonderful to have an open line to the only God of the universe, yet that doesn’t mean Christians always find it easy! Sadly, we often fail in the area of prayer, and it can lead to disillusionment and lack of discipline in this important area of the Christian life.
Faithful in Prayer (Part 1 of 6)
The earth moved! If I ever thought that prayer was weak, then all I needed to do was remember back to that day, to that prayer meeting, when the ground shook, and by the Holy Spirit, we spoke the word of God boldly!
It happened like this…
How can I trust that what was written down in the Bible is reliable?
If you could not be present, what factors would you find helpful to establish the truth of an event today?
What does a Christian do with the Bible?
What place should the Bible have in a Christians life? Any tips?
An essential Christian discipline is to read or listen to the Bible regularly through the week. It would be a shame if the secular news cycle had more of a voice into your life each week than the Word of God.
The battle to put the Word of God before the word of the world is ongoing. Each time you read or watch the news (an activity which in itself is not wrong), you subject yourself to the opinions of the journalist who is accountable only to an opinion that makes news! Our secular press are rarely accountable to anyone but their ratings – it is not difficult for truth to get lost or skewed in the pursuit of a growing readership.
How can the Bible be from men but also from God?
How is it that the Bible arrives in the form we have it?
The Apostle Paul, along with Timothy, writing to the church in Thessalonica said:
‘we thank God continually because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe’ (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
The word received, was handled down by God through those who had first heard it and their job was to tell others.
Of course that begs the question – how can the Bible be from men but really from God? How can we be sure that humans who spoke and wrote actually have the spoken and written word that God wanted them to express?
God makes himself known – look at his Word!
The clearest way to know God is to listen to what he says!
One of the first things that we learn about God in the opening Chapter of the Bible is that he talks. ‘In the beginning God created’ and how did he do that? By his word ‘And God said: ‘Let there be light’…., and then God said: ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters…, and then God said: ‘let there be sky’… and so it goes on for seven days (Genesis 1:1-2:3).
Each of the special acts of creation come about by the word of God. What he creates is new and wonderful and he does that by uttering his words.
If the significance of that is lost on you, give it a go! Test the power of your words. Create something by your words and only your words – ‘Let there be a ham sandwich’! How did you go? I think I can guess!
God makes himself known – look at ourselves!
Looking around, at the world we live in tells us something about God. Are there other ways that God makes himself known?
Another way you can learn something about God – is to look at ourselves. How he made us!
If he can make a Brad Pitt or a Meryl Streep or a Roger Federer or a Serena Williams or even a person who is you – then there has to be something amazing about him.
God makes himself known – look around!
If ‘God’ is truly Almighty, the creator, the reason for existence, the first cause of all things – as would be the nature of anyone who would claim to be ‘god’, then how do we know that? How does he make himself known?
One way to ‘see’ God is to look around – examine what you see. The world around has to be a source of information about God if he is the source of all life.
Grounded in the Word
Christians are people of the Word – the written and spoken word. I am not saying that Christians are just bookworms, but I am saying that at ground zero, a Christian is shaped by God’s Word. It informs, it motivates, it comforts, it rebukes, it sharpens, it directs and does so all by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you have just become a Christian you are faced with this big volume of 2 testaments, 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31,103 verses and you may think – is it worth it, how do I read it, where do I start?
And if you have been Christian for a while, then you may recognise the struggle it often is to read the Bible regularly and well – to let the Bible work on your heart and change your mind and apply to your behaviour. In short, to shape your life.
They are good concerns.
Yet, without the Bible, a person will struggle to grasp the fundamental Christian truth that while they were still a sinner, Christ died for them (Romans 5:8). Without the Bible it is impossible to understand what it really means to be Christian.
Don’t run away from the Bible – ground yourself with it!
For more in this Series:
Listening to the Word
Grounded in the Word
God makes himself known – look around!
God makes himself known – look at ourselves!
God makes himself known – look his Word!
How can the Bible be from men but also from God?
What does a Christian do with the Bible?
How can I trust that what was written down in the Bible is reliable?
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