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Recently I was in Ethiopia and was privileged to be part of a prayer meeting in which the people were praying specifically for missions. It really was an amazing meeting. There were pastors, missionaries and church members.

I was struck by how the different people in the meeting prayed. Keep in mind that I could not understand the words of the language. What I could understand, though, was the seeming attitude in their prayers that spilled out in the way they spoke.

[pullquote]

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

—Matthew 6:5-7[/pullquote]

God: Feared Ruler

A couple of people prayed in a way that seemed too familiar. They prayed as if they were carefully slipping into the room of a ruler whom they feared, but maybe not respected. It is a way many of us are taught to pray. We are given formulas for approaching God as if a protocol minister were preparing us to enter into the throne room of an angry king.

We should certainly take our prayers seriously and with gravity, yet we should also see God as someone who loves us. God is not looking for an excuse to beat us over the head with His scepter. He has invited us to approach Him with confidence through the authority of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Televangelist Prayer

One of the ladies who prayed sounded like a televangelist yelling at her audience trying to convince them of their wickedness and need for repentance. The problem is that she was speaking to God. It almost sounded like she was angry at Him and trying to coerce Him into granting her petition. This reminded me of the story Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14 about the proud Pharisee and humble tax collector in which Christ said the humble one would have his sins forgiven.

Approaching God with confidence is appropriate, but there should be some reverence mixed in. When you go to God flippantly, or with the idea that you are the boss telling Him what He should do for you, then you have crossed the line from confidence to arrogance. That is exactly the perceived attitude that came through this lady’s prayer. I say “perceived” attitude because I really don’t know the lady, her heart or even the words she was saying, but I think the way we speak tells much about our attitude and thoughts.

God: Respected Friend

One older pastor prayed as if God was in the room with him. He spoke in a respectful way that seemed to exude an understanding of holiness; yet his prayer was confident as if he were speaking to a friend.

I appreciated his balance of respect and closeness to God. Prayer was obviously not something new to this man. His prayer was like talking to a friend he greatly respected and trusted.

We should pray to God as a king, judge, respected elder and friend. The proper attitude in prayer is somewhere mixed into the middle of all those ideas.

Theocracy

Israel was set up as a Theocracy. This is a type of government whose leader is God. Though God did not come down and sit on a throne, He always led the country by speaking through a designated person. A clear start for this type of leadership is seen in Moses when he was told by God to help free Israel from Egypt. Later the spokesperson was Joshua. Yet God had been leading Israel in this way for centuries.

Judges

After Joshua died the people of Israel preferred not to listen to God’s leadership and they went their own way. God sent various men and women in the book of Judges to lead the nation back to a better relationship with Him. However, one of the common phrases in the book of Judges is “they did that which was right in their own eyes.” They did not want to seek God and His leadership.

Samuel

Samuel, as priest, became the spokesperson for God. When he was old the people rose up and said that they wanted a king to rule over them so that they would be like all the other nations around them (1 Samuel 8:5). They began to look at the world and imitate their leadership style. Israel had grown tired of God.

Samuel went to God to tell what was going on (like God didn’t already know). The old priest was pretty disheartened. But God assured Samuel that it wasn’t Samuel’s leadership they were rejecting, they were rejecting God (1 Samuel 8:6-9). They wanted a finite, fallible man and not an all knowing, perfect and holy God leading them. Man could be bought and controlled. God wasn’t going to change no matter how much they tried to bribe Him.

King

God said  that they could have a king, but He also warned them through Samuel what a king would mean. A king would take many of their children to be slaves and servants as royal guards, military leaders and field workers. Their daughters would also be taken as servants to cook and bake for the king. Their best fields would be seized by the king as his own land. And then, on top of all the king took (not purchased or hired) he would then enact a 10% tax on everything they had (1 Samuel 8:11-18).

Even after this full explanation they said they still wanted a king. For what purpose? “That we also may be like all the nations…” They were tired of God leading them and they wanted to be like the world.

Your King?

We don’t live in a theocracy in any government today. However, as individual Christians we have a God who wants to live and reign in our lives. He requests not just 10%, He wants our whole lives. Yet He doesn’t do it by force. He allows us to choose to serve Him. He gives great blessings and guidance in return for our service. But how many of us are like Israel and choose to reject God as sovereign and want to have the same type of leadership the world has?

One of my favorite stories in the Bible comes at the end of 1 Samuel 15. This is a few years after a king was chosen and “old Samuel” was even more advanced in age. The people had said they didn’t want an old man ruling their nation who was not able to go out to war and fight. Yet in the final verses of chapter 15 Samuel chops up an enemy king with a sword. Though I have never done that, I can’t imagine that it would be an easy task. Samuel sounds like a pretty spry young man to me.

I was in a mission conference last week where one of the missionaries gave us a nice outline on how to pray for missionaries. He took Matthew 9:38 as his passage. His main goal was to get us to think about the needs of missionaries and how we should pray for them.

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Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Matthew 9:38[/pullquote]

Pray for Missionaries to be Sent

• Not much explanation to that. The point is that God is calling and wanting to send them, but are they willing to go and are they getting the help they need to get there?

Pray for Missionaries to be Sustained

• Pray for them Physically
• Pray for them Spiritually
  • That they would hold their personal walk with God to be vitally important
  • That they would preach boldly
  • That they would witness effectively
• Pray for them Mentally
  • For language studies
  • For legal matters in the country
• Pray for them Emotionally
  • Particularly in the area of culture shock
• Pray for the Morally
  • Temptation does not stop when you arrive on the field
• Pray for the Socially
  • Their relationship to other missionaries
  • Their relationship to government
  • Their relationship to nationals
• Pray for them Domestically
  • That they would be good parents
  • That they would be good spouses
• Pray for them Financially

Pray for Missionaries to be Successful

• Being what God wants them to be
• Going where God wants them to go
• Doing what God wants them to do
• Accomplishing what God expects them to accomplish

I talked about praying for missionaries in another post. I think the different ways we can pray for missionaries is very helpful.

These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

—Proverbs 6:16-19

Recently while a preacher was talking about training and raising children he said something that completely caught me off guard. He stated that sometimes when children act shy it is a matter of pride when it is not shyness at all. What he meant by that is a child can use the ruse of shyness to manipulate those around him and project to others that he is the most important person. At first I was skeptical of calling it pride, but then I began to think about what pride is and how it can be manifested in our lives.

[pullquote]Pride: a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

—Dictionary.com[/pullquote]

When the Bible speaks of pride I immediately think of someone with a haughty or arrogant spirit. This is someone who is boastful or vain. But don’t miss the subtle ways that pride can conceal itself in one’s life.

Busyness

While listening to the Life of a Steward podcast recently I heard the host mention that busyness can be caused by pride. Busyness isn’t always because of pride, but that is one of the potential sources of it. It could be because you feel like you are the only one who can do a job right. No one else quite measures up. That is pride.

You might be busy because you desire for others to look at your accomplishments. Maybe your sense of value (pride) is wrapped up in how full you can cram your schedule. Or you feel superior to others when your calendar needs suspenders to hold all your appointments in place.

Pride is an attitude that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19). Busyness, to the point of not being able to rest and honor God, leads us to exalt ourselves and ignore God’s command to take a Sabbath break. God’s people were exiled in the Babylonian captivity because of refusing to allow the land to have its Sabbath year of rest (Ezekiel 20).

Being a diligent worker and a faithful servant is not what I am talking about. God expects us to work. But when your motivation is from a sense of superiority to others, then your busyness can be a sign of pride.

I’m Not Good Enough

I recently had a dream from which I awoke irritated with my friends in the dream. [No, I don’t take my dreams as God giving me new revelation. But this dream illustrated something that I have often thought about.]

A group of friends and I were on a trip in which our bus broke down and we had to stay over a weekend in a place we had not planned. There were 20 to 25 people on this trip. A church graciously offered to let us sleep in their building. During the Sunday morning service everyone who normally sang in their choir had to be out because they were needed to serve in other aspects of the ministry.

I offered to the pastor that our group could fill his choir loft and help lead his church in worship. My friends and I were not particularly musically inclined (but neither was the choir in the church). Serving in this simple way could have been a way to thank the church for their generosity to us.

But, to my irritation, when I suggested that my group fill the choir loft they refused to do so. In the dream I lectured the 4 or 5 friends who did join me for the choir about the others in the group having a prideful spirit. I was literally preaching to the choir. The ones who were humble enough to serve received my wrath about not being a servant.

When I awoke from my dream, and after calming down from being agitated, I thought it was a good reminder to me how that I need to be willing to serve others whether I think I am good enough or not. I should serve where God gives me opportunities.

Often pride hides in the fact that we don’t feel qualified to do what God wants us to do. Isn’t that the whole story of Gideon in the book of Judges? God wanted Gideon to understand that he could not do the job by himself. He had to rely upon God. One of the main points of the story is that Gideon could not take any credit (pride) for how God worked because it was obvious that it was not Gideon who accomplished the task.

Not Trusting Others

Trusting other people is hard at times. Especially if you are someone in authority over others. If you can’t trust those around you, especially those who follow you, then you are going to be stifled in your ability to lead. I am not talking about abusing your power and authority, but sometimes it is necessary to delegate tasks to other people. Allow them to carry the load…even if that means they may fail.

Pride comes into play when you fear they will do a poor job and make you look bad. You are not concerned about the learning and growth potential of the event, you are only concerned with how you will appear to your peers or the authority over you.

Step away from your pride and help others grow.

Other Hiding Places

Pride can be hiding in plain sight in many other places. Sometimes it can be hidden in seemingly innocent attitudes. Though hard to spot at times, it is possible for someone to have a false humility that fears stepping up into leadership and authority because they enjoy sitting back and watching others fail.

Share in the comments below how you think pride can conceal itself in other traits.

Both Eve (in the Old Testament) and Jesus (in the New Testament) were tempted by Satan. The temptations were different, but Eve could have handled the temptation in the same way Christ did. However, she did not and the results were drastically different.

Eve’s Temptation

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

—Genesis 3:1-6

Jesus’ Temptation

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

—Matthew 4:3-11

How They Handled the Temptation

Let’s look at the way Jesus handled the temptation first. It gives us insight as to how the temptation should be handled in the first place.

Jesus’ Response

Jesus responded to the temptation by quoting God’s Word. Jesus knew what God had said on the subject. Of course He did, He is God. The beautiful thing is that He relied on God’s written Word–not just on what He and God privately knew. Jesus responded by quoting the revealed Word of God. He responded in exactly the same way we can to temptation.

During the first temptation Jesus responded using Deuteronomy 8:3. The second ruse of the Devil is that he tried to trick Jesus with verses from the Bible (Psalm 91:11,12). Knowing that Satan was misquoting and misusing God’s Word, Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. During the third temptation Jesus quoted other verses from Deuteronomy (6:13,14).

Eve’s Response

The first thing Satan said to Eve was, “Did God really say that you can’t eat from every tree?” Eve responded by misquoting what God said. She was unsure of God’s Words. She said, “We can’t eat from one of the trees. We can’t even touch it! If we do, we will die.” Is that what God said? No. Her uncertainty about the absolute Word of God caused her to begin to have doubts about the truth of God’s Word.

Satan responded by mocking what God had said. Yes, God did say they would die. But now that Eve was faltering on whether God really said what she thought He had said, she was on shaky ground to know the truth. She was powerless to confront Satan because she had already started to believe a lie.

Your Response to Temptation

Jesus responded by quoting the Bible back to the tempter with authority. Jesus had absolute confidence in the Word of God and knew it perfectly. Eve was unsure about what God really said. As a result she caved to the temptation.

How well do you know God’s Word? Many times people believe lies about the Bible their whole life. They assume that something they heard in Sunday School class as a kid was true. Maybe it was taught in a simplistic manner and lost some of the details. Maybe the teacher didn’t really know what the Bible was saying. More likely than not, if the last time you actually studied the Bible was in a Sunday School class as an 8 year old, then you have probably jumbled up a few things in your own mind.

Take time to find out what the Bible really says. Study God’s Word, don’t accept everything you hear from others about the Bible. Find out for yourself it it is true.