Plank-Eye Disease

 ““Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” - Matthew 7:1

A woman arrived early at the airport and she had some time to kill. So she went to one of the stores inside her terminal and bought a bag of bite-sized chocolate chip cookies. She found a seat nearby and started reading a book. After a few minutes she opened the bag of cookies, ate one, and then put the bag back on the empty chair next to her.

A few seconds later, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man on the other side of the empty seat reach into her cookie bag, take out a cookie, and eat it. She thought to herself, “That dirty rotten thief just stole one of my cookies!” But she didn’t say anything. A minute later, she grabbed another cookie. And the man grabbed another one, too. This went on for about ten minutes—back and forth until there was only one cookie left. The man had the audacity to grab the last cookie, break it in half and offer her one of the halves. She snatched it out of his hand, gave him a dirty look and stormed off to her plane.

 Once she boarded her flight, she reached into her carry-on bag to grab her book—and there inside was her unopened bag of cookies. That man in the terminal wasn’t a dirty, rotten cookie thief after all. SHE was! She made the same mistake that all of us have made at one time or another: She rushed to judgment without having all the facts.

That story reminds me of the most quoted verse in the entire Bible, Matthew 7:1: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Not only is this the most quoted verse in the Bible, it’s also the most MISQUOTED verse. Surprisingly, it doesn’t mean what most people think it means. If you carefully read and think about the first five verses in Matthew 7, you’ll see that Jesus wasn’t forbidding all forms of judging. He was forbidding selfish, hypocritical judging. 

You see, the Pharisees and Jewish teachers had a bad habit of pointing out everyone else’s sins while ignoring their own sins. They condemned the evil they witnessed in others while making excuses for the greater evil in their own hearts. So, Jesus is placing a neon sign over others that flashes, “Caution: Judge at your own risk!” You see, it is better to “judge not” than to judge others while ignoring a glaring sin in our own lives.

The truth is: Jesus doesn’t have a problem with you or me helping someone identify and remove a splinter from their eye as long as we first identify and remove the plank from our own eye. In other words, you and I have no business pointing out others’ tiny faults until we’ve dealt with our own bigger ones.  As Pastor Jon Bloom reminds us, we should never take tweezers to someone else’s faults when we need a forklift to deal with our own.

Here in Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus is condemning a critical, fault-finding spirit. Some people spend so much time criticizing others without ever looking in the mirror to see their own goof ups. Some of us are so good at pointing out others’ sins without ever admitting that some of the stuff we do is even worse. Jesus says, “Don’t be like that.” Which leads us to our first of four lessons from the early verses of Matthew 7.

LESSON #1: Spend less time pointing out others' sins and more time correcting your own sins.
Your first priority is to work with Jesus to deal with your OWN sin. My first priority is to work with Jesus to deal with MY own sin. Only when we do can we be in a place where we can effectively help others deal with their sin.

LESSON #2: Remember, you're not the ultimate judge. God is. (v. 1) 
He alone will one day judge the living and the dead and pronounce a final eternal judgment on every person. So, when you go to point out someone’s fault or sin, make sure that you don’t forget who the real judge is. Evangelist Billy Graham said it really well: “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love.” 

LESSON #3: God will judge you the same way you judge others. (v. 2)
If you choose to judge your family and friends harshly … watch out. God’s going to judge you harshly too. If you’re critical of others, God will be critical of you. If you give others very little grace, God will give you very little grace. So, with that in mind, give people around you lots and lots of grace. Look for the best in them. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Cut them the same amount of slack that you would like God to cut you.

LESSON #4: Be kind and look for the underlying beauty in others. (v. 5) 
I heard about a young Christian woman named Maria who attended an international Christian camp. One night a group of campers discussed various strategies for leading people back home to salvation in Christ. Maria’s input caught everyone by surprise. She said, “Back home we don’t have missions or give out tracts. We just send one or two Christian families to live and work in a village, and when people see what Christians are like, then they want to be Christians too.”

Do the people around you see how you live, work and love and want to be Christians too? Certainly, we would be more effective in leading people to Jesus Christ if we loved more and judged less. 

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service Sundays at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Don't Worry!

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” – Matthew 6:27 

I heard a story about a husband who got fed up with his wife’s constant worrying. Finally, one day he asked her, “Why are you always worrying when it doesn't do ANY good?” She quickly yelled back, “Oh, yes, it does do some good! Ninety percent of the things I worry about never happen!”

Well, the wife is absolutely correct that 90 percent of the stuff we worry about never happens. But her worry didn’t do a darned thing to stop bad stuff from coming her way, did it?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear he doesn’t want us to worry. In fact, he tells us so five times in Matthew 6:25-34: “Do not worry about your life” (v. 25). “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (v. 27). “Why do you worry about clothes?” (v. 28). “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” (v. 31). “Do not worry about tomorrow” (v. 34). So, Jesus doesn’t want us to worry. But why not?

Well, just before He shifts to the topic of worry, Jesus was talking about money, telling us, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (v. 24). Keep that in mind as you read verse 25: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” In other words, “If you’ve chosen to serve God instead of serving money, and you’ve chosen to love God instead of loving all the stuff in your house, and you’ve chosen to be devoted to God instead of being devoted to your stomach, I tell you, do not worry about these other things.” Life in the kingdom of heaven is infinitely more important than food. And our bodies in the kingdom of heaven are infinitely more important than clothes.

Jesus calls us to take our eyes off all the stuff around us and reorient ourselves to God. And if we are reoriented to God, there is no place in our lives for worrying about food, water, clothes or even tomorrow’s utility bills. In verses 26-30, Jesus points out how well God takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. After all, you’ve never seen an undernourished bird, have you? And have you ever had a weed growing through a crack in your driveway that’s greener than the grass on your lawn? Or seen wildflowers that look better than the flowers in your garden? Why is that? It’s because God is a better gardener than you are. (He’s definitely a better gardener than I am.) So, if God does such a marvelous job clothing a weed or a flower or a wild blade of grass, Jesus asks in verse 30, “Will He not much more clothe you”—and don’t miss the last five words of this verse—“O you of little faith?”

What is Jesus saying? He’s saying that worry demonstrates a lack of faith in God. Therefore, worry is actually a sin! Worry demonstrate a lack of trust God’s LOVE, because it implies that God doesn’t really care about my needs. Worry shows lack of faith in God’s WISDOM, because it implies that God doesn’t know what He’s doing. Worry demonstrates lack of trust in God’s POWER, because worry implies that God isn’t able to provide for my needs. It’s a sin to distrust God’s love, wisdom and power—and that’s exactly what you’re doing when you worry. So Jesus turns to us in verses 28-30 and says, “Trust God, and don’t worry!”

As Jesus says in verse 33: “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” if your priorities are straight—if you are heart’s affections and your thoughts are focused on God and His kingdom work, God will supply all of your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. If you’re serving Him, God will meet every need you have—guaranteed.

A recently licensed pilot was flying his private plane on a really cloudy day. He was low on fuel, and he was approaching the airport landing strip … but he couldn’t see it. And he didn’t trust his instrument panel. When the air traffic controller started to guide him through the landing process, the pilot began to panic. Then a stern voice came over the radio: “You just obey instructions. We’ll take care of the obstructions.”

You may worry because the refrigerator is almost empty … or your kids are going to need new shoes next month … or that you won’t have enough money next week to pay for what you need next month. But Jesus turns to you and says sternly, “You just obey my instructions. I’ll take care of the obstructions. And here are my instructions: Seek first the Father’s kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service Sundays at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Treasures in Heaven

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21

In India, monkeys are considered sacred. Most people refuse to kill them, so as you might guess, in certain parts of India monkeys are running loose all over the place. That presents a problem for the farmers who grow crops that monkeys happen to like—crops like bananas.

So, years ago, a certain farmer came up with an ingenious way to capture monkeys without killing them. The farmer drills a hole into a coconut and places a banana inside it. Then he ties the other end of the coconut to a tree. Before long a monkey will come by, smell the banana, and reach into the coconut for an easy meal. But with his fist clenched around the banana, he can’t fit it back through the hole of the coconut. And even when the farmer walks up to the monkey to grab him, the monkey refuses to let go of it.

Silly monkey! At any moment he could be free by simply letting go of the banana. But he is imprisoned by his own greed. You and I are a lot like monkeys aren’t we? We like to hold on to our stuff, and we don’t like to let go of it, even when it imprisons us. If you’re a monkey lover, you’d probably love to somehow get that dumb Indian monkey to understand that if he’d just let go of the banana, he could be free. Unfortunately, you don’t speak monkey. But Jesus does speak human. And in the Sermon on the Mount, His words can get us dumb humans to understand that we’re only hurting ourselves when we cling to the stuff inside our coconuts. Jesus lovingly urges us to let it go.

In Matthew 6:19, Jesus tells His followers, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” Jesus is reminding us that all the stuff we own is temporary. And because it’s temporary, its ability to bring us pleasure is temporary. As theologian William Barclay put it: “All purely physical pleasures have a way of wearing out. At each successive enjoyment of them the thrill becomes less thrilling. It requires more of them to produce the same effect. They are like a drug which loses its initial potency and which becomes increasingly less effective. A man is a foolish man who finds his pleasures in things which are bound to offer diminishing returns.”

So, storing up treasures on earth is a really bad idea. And in verse 20, Jesus tells us where we should store up treasures: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” But what does it mean to store up treasures in heaven? Well, it doesn’t just mean to do good stuff here on earth for God so that God will do good stuff for you one day in heaven. And it doesn’t just mean to use your stuff here on earth for God so that He’ll give you better stuff in heaven.

What does it mean to store up treasures in heaven? It means to invest everything you have—your time, talents and treasures—in God’s kingdom work. (I like to call them the three T’s.) Many Christians throw something into the offering box and think that’s good enough for God. Others are scared to give God a whole 10% tithe, so they offer God some of their time and talent instead. But Jesus calls us to give all three T’s to invest everything we have in God’s kingdom work. Our cars are to be available for kingdom work. Our homes are to be available for kingdom work. Our clothes and our food and our toys are to be available for kingdom work. Even our weekends are to be available for God’s kingdom work.

In verse 21, Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be with you.” In other words, our money goes where our heart goes. We spend our money on what we care most about and prioritize. There’s nothing wrong with owning nice things—as long as those nice things don’t own US. There are umpteen different things that you could do with your time and your talents. Where you choose to use your three T’s reveals where your heart is. Honestly, Jesus doesn’t need your money. He doesn’t need your talents. And He doesn’t need your time. But He wants it … because He wants your heart. Jesus asks each of us in verses 19-21, “Where is your treasure?”

So, in a nutshell, Jesus is saying: “If your eyes are focused on material things, and your thoughts are focused on material things, and your heart finds its joy and purpose in material things—then money is your god. And if money is your god, you’re just like a monkey whose hand is stuck in a coconut. As you selfishly cling to the stuff of this world, you’ll end up losing everything that really matters. Only what you release to God and use for His kingdom work will last.”

You’ve got a clear choice. Serve God or serve money? Jesus asks, “Who are you serving?”

I hope and pray that God will always find us on duty—investing our time, talents and treasures in God’s kingdom work. Loving people. Serving those in need. And the greatest work of all—leading people into a saving relationship with Christ.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service Sundays at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

What's Fasting All About?

“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes fromthe mouth of God.’”
  – Matthew 4:4

Skipped any meals lately? Some people skip meals to lose weight. Others fast as part of an internal detox. Still others do it just because they feel like they’re too busy to stop and eat.

But for Christians, there’s the practice of Biblical fasting—something a lot of us may be missing out on. You see, a biblical fast isn’t just about simply not eating. Biblical fasting involves replacing the food with something else—namely, prayer and a deeper study of God’s word. So, if we’re skipping meals, but we aren’t praying and reading God’s word more, that’s not biblical fasting. That’s dieting. You can pray without fasting, but you can’t fast biblically without praying.

If you do a Bible study on fasting, you’ll discover that it’s mentioned dozens of times in the Old Testaments and over 20 times in the New Testament. And God’s followers fast and pray for a variety of reasons. Here are three quick examples:

Example #1: Jesus fasted and prayed before he began his public ministry (Luke 4:2). Jesus set us a great example. Fasting and prayer focus us and empower us for what’s up ahead. When we are at a crossroads in our life and we’re about to begin something new and important, it’s a really good idea to spend some time fasting and praying. Before you begin a new job, it’s a good idea to fast and pray. Before you begin a new school year, it’s a good idea to fast and pray. Before your wedding day, before your child is born, before you have surgery—fast and pray. 

Example #2: Jesus urged his disciples to pray and fast for spiritual breakthrough (Mark 9:29). In Mark 9 we read about a boy who was demon-possessed. The demon made him mute, thrash around on the ground and foam at the mouth. Nine of Jesus’ disciples had tried to drive the demon out but they had failed. So, Jesus stepped in and drove out the demon. Later that day Jesus’ disciples asked, “Why couldn’t we drive out the demon?” Jesus answered, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” And some Biblical manuscripts include the two extra words “and fasting.” So, Biblical fasting can intensify our prayers to bring about spiritual deliverance when nothing else works.

This is such an important benefit of fasting and prayer. There are times when Christians get caught up in an addiction. Willpower doesn’t work, self-help methods don’t work, and the tear-filled pleas of loved ones don’t work. Even normal prayers don’t work. Oftentimes, when nothing else works, a season of fasting and prayer will work. And underneath many other physical, psychological and relationship problems, there are root spiritual problems. Seasons of prayer and fasting can address these root spiritual problems like nothing else can.

Example #3: The Church at Antioch prayed and fasted for God’s clear guidance and direction (Acts 13:2-3). As the Christians sought God through worship, prayer and fasting, God told them to set aside Barnabas and Saul for the mission field. And as a result, the single greatest Christian missionary of all time, the Apostle Paul, began the first of his three missionary journeys. Fasting and prayer tune our ears to God’s voice and prepare us to obey His clear guidance and direction.

As we’ve seen in these three examples, fasting and prayer can focus us and empower us for what’s up ahead. It can usher in spiritual breakthrough. And fasting and prayer can reveal God’s guidance and direction. But I believe it all boils down to this: Biblical fasting is a necessary part of a radical reorientation toward God.

In Isaiah 58:6-9, God laid into the people of Israel when their fasting had become meaningless. God told them, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I.”

God is saying that fasting has ALWAYS been about giving up something GOOD to gain something that is infinitely BETTER. Giving up food has never been the end goal. It’s just the starting line. As we give up some good food in order to reorient ourselves to God, who is much better and more fulfilling than the greatest meal we’ve ever eaten, He leads us to give up other good things for what is even better. As we fast from food, God also leads us to fast from injustice and oppression. He leads us to fast from hoarding our food while others around us go hungry. He leads us to fast from a closet full of clothes when the homeless around us need some of those clothes.

In short, as we fast and pray, God helps us take our eyes OFF ourselves and the temporary things of this world, so we can experience a radical reorientation to God. Food is good, but God is infinitely better. So, we fast and pray.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service Sundays at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

3 More Prayer Requests from Jesus

 “Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” – Matthew 6:11-13

I think most of us understand that there’s a wrong way to pray. For example, this year’s Super Bowl was an absolute slaughter. At halftime the Chiefs were down 21-6 to the underdog Buccaneers. And by that time, you can guess what many Chiefs fans were doing, especially those who had bet on the game: They began praying for a miracle. After all, they had a lot riding on that game: money, pride and bragging rights. Do I even need to say it? That’s the wrong way to pray.

Another wrong use of prayer is to take someone else on a guilt trip. Instead of confronting them face-to-face, we choose the passive-aggressive approach and pray in front of them. “Lord, thank you for Jennifer. But I pray that she’ll stop being late all the time.” Or, “Father in heaven, help John to stop being so rude to me.” Most of us parents, at one time or another, have performed some guilt-trip prayers in front of our kids. After all, why confront them with their bad behavior when we can just pray for them at the dinner table? Friends, that’s another wrong way to pray.

But in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins teaching us the right way to pray. He says, “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:9). And He proceeds to teach us The Lord’s Prayer. There are six prayer requests in this short prayer. Many Christians assume the first three requests in The Lord’s Prayer are focused on God’s needs and wants—“Hallowed by Your name,” “Your Kingdom come,” and “Your will be done”—while the last three requests focus on our needs and wants. But that’s only partly true. The last three prayer requests are very personal and practical, but each one still stems from a desire to see God’s name honored, God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done. Let’s take a look.

Jesus’ 4th Prayer Request (v. 11): “Give us today our daily bread.” Many ask, “What does Jesus mean by ‘daily bread’?” Well, we know that “bread” is a common symbol in the Bible, usually used as a synonym for food. So, Jesus’ 4th request in The Lord’s Prayer most likely boils down to this: “Our Father in heaven, give us the food we need today for our sustenance and support.” Or, as the New Living Translation puts it: “Give us today the food we need.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Give us this month the food we need.” Or even “Give us over the next few days the food we need.” Jesus wants us to express our dependence on God every day. 

Jesus’ 5th Prayer Request (v. 12): “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” In Jesus’ day, Jewish teachers used the word “debts” as a synonym for “sins.” So, Jesus is teaching us to pray that God will “forgive us for our sins, as we also have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” And if you’re wondering if Jesus is actually saying what you think He’s saying, the answer is YES … HE IS. Jesus is teaching us to basically pray, “Father in heaven, please forgive me for my sins. But only forgive me to the extent that I have already forgiven others who have sinned against me.” And all God’s children say, “Uh-oh!!!”

In case we miss what Jesus is saying here, He clarifies this 5th prayer request later on, in verses 14 and 15: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Is Jesus actually saying that God will refuse to forgive us if we refuse to forgive others? Bingo! That’s exactly what He’s saying. Think about it: How can we possibly expect God to forgive us for a sin that we fully intend to commit again and again--tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that?

So, according to Jesus, this is the right way to pray: “Our Father in heaven, You are a God of great mercy and forgiveness. So, as we follow in Your footsteps, we have shown mercy and forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. Now, that we ourselves aren’t holding on to any unforgiveness, please forgive us for the sins we’ve committed against You.”

Jesus’ 6th Prayer Request (v. 13): “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” The Bible teaches us, “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone” (James 1:13b). So what does this prayer request mean? Here’s a great insight that I learned from Pastor John Piper: “All our experiences are tests from God and are temptations from Satan.” He goes on to explain, “Pleasant Experiences – God wants us to thank Him. Satan wants us to idolize the pleasure. Painful Experiences – God wants us to trust Him. Satan wants us to curse God.” Learn to think of everything that you go through in life—whether it’s good, bad or ugly—as a test from God and as a temptation from Satan.

I pray that you’ll take these prayer requests to heart and pray them daily, alone AND with your family. Express to God your complete dependence upon Him to meet your needs today. Forgive others first, and ask God for forgiveness second. And finally, ask God to deliver you from anything—even blessings—that might pull you and your family away from God.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service Sundays at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

3 Prayer Requests from Jesus

“This, then, is how you should pray.” – Matthew 6:9

The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon of all time, delivered by the greatest preacher of all time—Jesus Christ. And right in the middle of this ground-breaking message, Jesus gives us a model prayer to follow when we’re speaking with our heavenly Father. It includes six prayer requests in all, and today, I’d like to take a look at His first three prayer requests with you.

Jesus’ 1st Prayer Request (v. 9): “Hallowed be Your name.” Now, “hallowed” isn’t a word that we use every day. The closest word to it in everyday English is Halloween, which has absolutely nothing to do with what Jesus has in mind here. The word hallowed comes from the same Greek word as holy, which means “to be set apart.” So, to be hallowed means to be regarded as holy or to be set apart from everything else. But if we draw the conclusion that hallowing God’s name is just a matter of regarding God as holy in our minds, we have missed Jesus’ point. God is not interested in hearing us say with our mouths, “Hallowed be Your name” unless we really mean it in our hearts. If our hearts don’t mean it, then God’s ears don’t want to hear it.

Here are a few synonyms for “hallow” as Jesus uses the word in The Lord’s Prayer: revere, honor; esteem, value, treasure and love. With that in mind, what is Jesus’ first petition in this great prayer model? It’s this: “Our Father in heaven, we want Your name be revered here on earth. We want Your name to be honored among us. We desire to esteem and value Your name more than any other name. We want to treasure You as the highest priority in our lives and love You will all our hearts.”

If we’re just praying with our mouths and not with our hearts, our prayers will always be shallow and weak. But our prayers come alive when they are prayed from a heart that truly desires for God to be honored, valued, treasured and loved here on earth just as He is in heaven. Once you understand what it means to truly pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,” Jesus’ next two prayer requests make perfect sense.

Jesus’ 2nd Prayer Request (v. 10a): “Your Kingdom come.” This second petition touches on two key things. First, it focuses on Jesus’ present Kingdom expanding now. As Jesus walked this earth, wherever He went, He took some of the best parts of heaven with Him—mercy, grace, kindness, truth, compassion, and unconditional love. And if you and I are followers of Jesus Christ with the His Holy Spirit living inside us, we also take some those parts of heaven with us wherever we go.

So, when we pray, “Your Kingdom Come” what we should mean is this: “Father in heaven, because our hearts long for You to be revered, valued, treasured and loved, we ask that You expand Your kingdom wherever we go. This world we live in has pushed You away long enough! So, Father, won’t You expand Your kingdom in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, and in our church. Everywhere we go, loving Father, grow Your kingdom through us.”

This second petition also touches on Jesus’ future kingdom covering the earth. Jesus is urging us to be forward thinking, to say as John says at the end of the Book of Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus.” As Christ’s disciples, we are determined to expand Jesus’ kingdom today in our corner of the world. But at the same time, we long for the day when Jesus Christ will come down once again and restore complete order, peace and righteousness to this old earth—as it is in heaven.

Jesus’ 3rd Prayer Request (v. 10b): “Your will be done.” This petition goes hand-in-hand with the prior one. As God’s kingdom is established, His will must be done. As with the first two petitions, when we pray this prayer, we must be ready and willing to live it out. Yes, we want God’s will to be done in the White House, but first God’s will must be done right here in our house. Yes, we want God’s will to be done in our neighbor’s backyard, but first God’s will must be done in our own backyard.

With each of these petitions, we are asking God to partner with us to hallow His name, to usher in His kingdom and carry out His will. If you’re like many Christians, you’ve probably wondered at times why God doesn’t seem to answer your prayers. Why is that? Well, if you and I aren’t willing to roll up our sleeves and make it so in our own lives, the words of our prayers are empty. But when we’re willing to surrender our treasuring of ourselves to our treasuring of God; when we’re ready to scap our own kingdom in order to expand God’s kingdom; and when we’re prepared to push aside our will in order to carry out God’s will—you’d better believe that God will answer our prayers.

Try this in the coming week: Pray every day. And when you do, pray for God’s name to be treasured and loved  by you and by those around you. Pray for God’s Kingdom to come. And pray for His will to be done in your little corner of the world.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service tomorrow at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Pray Like Jesus

“When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.” – Matthew 6:6 

When you were a child, you may have been taught a short prayer.  It might have been this one: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” That’s a pretty scary prayer, for kids, don’t you think? It made kids want to sleep with one eye open: “Oh, no! If I fall asleep I’m gonna die!” Here’s another familiar one: “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” But that 10-second prayer was evidently too long for some kids, so they shortened it to: “Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub. Yay, God!”

For a 3-year-old, memorizing a simple prayer is a good way to learn to pray. But if you’re 15, 25 or 65 years old, and you’re still praying canned prayers that sound like a broken record, then you haven’t really started to pray. This is nothing new; it was going on in Jesus’ time as well. That’s why, in His great Sermon on the Mount, He set out to teach us the RIGHT way and the WRONG way to pray.

In Matthew 6:5, Jesus begins telling us the wrong way to pray: “Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.” In those days, when Jewish men prayed in the synagogue, they would often pray standing with their arms lifted in the air. That was a common prayer position in a worship service and in private prayer as well. But on a public street corner, it stood out like a sore thumb. It was a position that screamed out, “Look at me! If you want to hear a prayer that will knock your socks off, listen to me pray!” And Jesus says plainly, “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”

In other words, the “attaboys” that flashy pray-ers get from other people are all the reward they’ll ever get. They won’t receive any reward from God. The wrong way to pray is to pray in a way that makes YOU the center of attention.

In verse 6, Jesus explains the RIGHT way to pray. As the New Living Translation puts it: “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Simply put, the right way to pray is to pray discreetly and privately—motivated by a heartfelt desire to spend quality time with your Father in heaven. In other words … pray like Jesus. 

In Matthew 7, Jesus continues: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” In those days, pagan worshipers would string together long, unintelligible phrases and repeat them over and over as a mantra. Jesus says, “Many hypocrites’ prayers are like that! Their prayers are full of words, and some of those words sound really impressive. But their prayers are meaningless. They claim to be talking to God, but they’re actually just putting on a dog and pony show for people. They’re just … babbling.”

Now, you and I can babble almost as badly as the pagans. Before lunch on Sunday: “Dear God, bless this food that we are about to receive to the nourishment of our bodies. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” And the same thing before lunch on Monday. Then, before bed on Sunday: “Dear God, thank You for this day. Help us to get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed in the morning. Forgive us for our sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”  And the same thing before bed on Monday. It becomes meaningless babbling!

Why on earth do we pray the same tired old prayers? We could never get away with saying the same tired old lines to people we're in a deep relationship with. If you spoke to your spouse every day with the same tired old language that you speak to God every day, would they think your words had any meaning whatsoever? Parents, if you spoke to your kids every day with the same tired old language that you speak to God, do you think your kids would feel loved?  

At times in our lives, we’ve all heard Christians stand up in church and pray beautiful, eloquent prayers. And we’ve thought to ourselves, “Wow! I wish I could pray like that!” But Jesus turns to us and says, “No! I don’t want you to pray like that. You are a unique child of mine, and our relationship is special. So, your prayers to Your Father in Heaven should be special. They shouldn’t sound like anyone else’s. Don’t worry about using the right words. Just talk with God like you’re talking to your Daddy who loves you more than anything in the world.”

Your Father knows what you need, and He is waiting for you to bring that need to Him. He wants to listen to your needs and meet them. He wants to hear you praise Him for who He is to you, and He wants you to thank Him for the unique blessings that He’s sent your way. And He wants to share His heart and thoughts with you as well.

You need to spend quality time with God—every day—just the two of you. He is waiting for you to come to Him. He is waiting for you to pray like Jesus.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service tomorrow at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.