Topic 1: Prayer affects our soul: will, emotions, mind.
The Scriptures we
studied this week show us how to cooperate with God through relationship, which
is prayer. Our
part in this relationship is to believe and seek God with all our heart; God's
part is to hear and answer. I believe He
always answers, but He does not always give us what we pray for; rather, He
gives us what we need to grow.
This prayerful relationship touches our soul:
First, our will is conformed to His will because we pray.
- Our part is to abide and ask according to His will (more on this in the next post related to Topic 2, proving the will of God).
- Our service is to be the sacrifice, just as Jesus was the ultimate Sacrifice. Being a sacrifice means I choose by an act of my will to let God use me as He chooses. God chose to use Jesus as the Sacrifice for sin, and Jesus chose by an act of His will to cooperate (Luke 22:42). When I am a willing sacrifice, I will be satisfied with however God chooses to use me to further His kingdom.
Just a
little FYI. In sign language, there are
two different signs for the word "use." One sign has a negative connotation; the
other, positive. When God
"uses" us to further His kingdom, of course, He is not using us in
the negative way but in a positive way for our benefit and His glory.
Second, our emotions won't rule us because we pray.
- When anxious, we should pray (Phil 4:6) with thanksgiving. Now, of course, that doesn't mean we won't have emotional responses to things; but it does mean that our emotions will be in check and useful for helping us to identify a problem rather than out of control while attempting to solve a problem.
Third, our mind is renewed because we pray.
- We are not to be conformed but transformed (Romans 12:1-2).
It's very
easy to see when people are conformed to something. Wherever people's minds focus makes them who
they are, and they often look a certain way.
- If their minds are focused on pleasing their church group, members of that group all look the same (often homeschoolers can be easily identified by their dress as well).
- If people's minds focus on drugs or alcohol, they begin to participate in activities that fulfill their lusts for these stimulants. The more they participate in these activities, the more they look like alcoholics and druggies… and even smokers' bodies are often wrinkled, their skin yellowed, and their voices sound like smokers' voices.
- If people's minds focus on body image exclusively for their own glory, they often dress in ways to expose their body parts.
- If people's minds focus on immoral sexuality, they engage in activities that fulfill that lust and they begin to have a certain look or a certain way about them or speak in vulgar language that reveals what's in their minds.
The good news of the gospel is that when people's minds are renewed to
Truth Who sets them free, they will be transformed/metamorphoō (3339) like a caterpillar to a
butterfly. Thank You, Lord What hope for those we love whose minds are
not yet renewed to TruthHimself.
What hope
for us who are disciples but struggle in areas.
As we renew our minds, TruthHimself will set us free. As we change what we think in our minds, our
fuzzy "caterpillar" thoughts will be placed in cocoon and rearranged
or metamorphosed into freeing thoughts that will no longer keep us
captive. We will be transformed as our
minds are renewed because we pray and seek the One Who can set us free.
Yes,
indeed, prayer touches our soul-- our will, our emotions, and our mind.
Lord, as
You teach us to pray, we thank You that You touch our souls deeply.
Linda
Moderator
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TruthHimself/
No comments:
Post a Comment