Praying Through

Praying isn't just saying a few words to some being you can't see and hope exists; prayer is intense conversation with the Creator of the universe, and your Redeemer. Jesus repeatedly admonished His disciples and followers to pray. He asked His disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. When He found them sleeping in Matthew 26:40, he asked Peter, "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?"

While the disciples were sleeping Jesus was praying so earnestly that the Bible says in Luke 22:44 that His sweat became like drops of blood. I doubt that anyone has ever struggled and prayed in the fashion that Jesus did at that point. He didn't just pray a little prayer and then come back to get the disciples and wait for them to come and arrest Him. He prayed for an hour, then checked on the disciples, then prayed some more, then checked on them again, and then prayed some more. He prayed all the way until his betrayer was close at hand; until it was time to go.

We as men should follow the example that Jesus led us in here to be leaders at prayer time. We should be the first to hit the altars at altar call, and the last to leave. We shouldn't be waiting for everyone's heads to be bowed so nobody will catch us going up to pray, and we shouldn't try to sneak away from the altars while everyone is still praying to go back to our seats. Prayer is never a thing of shame; it's our opportunity to approach God's throne and talk to Him.

Also, we should be staying in prayer until we're through praying; until the conversation with God is over. We don't have to quit praying because the guy beside us got up from the altar. What greater thing could we do, and why would we be so afraid and try to hide it? Men, I urge you to get in the altars and seek God. Make a prayer time at home and seek God. Let Him speak to you through prayer, and you will never regret it.

A Failure at Home

Do you consider yourself to be somewhat successful? God measures our success not only from the way we appear to others, but the way we live at home and follow His commandments in our houses. King Solomon, in all his wisdom, had some serious issues when it came to following God in his home. He was a great king, a leader among men, but failed when it came to leading his family.

Solomon is famous for having so many wives and concubines, according to 1 Kings 11:3 he had 700 wives of royal birth, and 300 concubines. 1 Kings 11:1-2 though shows us that Solomon was not following God's plan for the Israelites by choosing to marry the women that he did. In his later years, 1 Kings 11:4 says that his wives turned his heart after other gods. Solomon failed to keep the One True God the first priority in his home.

We see as we follow through 1 Kings 11:5-8 that he built "high places" for all his wives' gods. According to verse 5, he started following some of those gods himself. You can't force your family to become a Christian, and you can't force your family to get saved. There is no room for you in your home to pay homage to other gods, though. If you don't keep your resolve to follow God with your whole heart, and keep your resolve to lead your family in what's right, you will be led astray by those in your family who do not believe as you do.

1 Kings 11:9-13 reveals to us that since Solomon had turned from God and followed other gods, he would be punished, and would be unable to pass his kingdom to his son as kings normally do. This is why it is so important for us to follow 2 Corinthians 6:14, not getting ourselves tied to someone going the opposite direction. We don't get to choose all of our family, but those we do get to choose, we should carefully consider if they are following God, or if they're going to pull us off the path.

Responsibility of Provision

Are you your brother's keeper? What about the rest of your relatives? According to 1 Timothy 5:8 we are to provide, not just for our immediate family, but also for our relatives in need as well. According to this verse, to fail to provide for your family is to be worse than an unbeliever.

We as men have been given the responsibility to provide for our families. This provision is not limited to just food, a roof, and clothing, but extends to emotional and physical provision as well. Any time we start taking time away from the provisions of our family's emotional needs to try to "get ahead in life", we are betraying them for something far less important.

Sometimes, as men, it's easy for us to get caught up in providing for "a need" and leaving all the rest of the needs of our family behind. We choose to work 80 hours a week to provide for them monetarily, but we completely fail them in every other area because we're never there for them. We stop working to stay home and spend time with the family, lose our jobs and fail to provide for them monetarily. We get caught up in addictive behaviors that prevent us from providing for the needs of our family.

It's a very delicate balance that we as leaders must maintain, but with God's help it is possible. Often, if we'll take more time to pray with our families, all these things will more easily fall into place. If you find yourself having a hard time balancing things, talk about it. Talk to your family about their needs, and pray together about it. God will honor your prayer and faith in him, and your keeping of His commands.

Sinning in Secret

Do you do things in secret thinking that nobody knows? You hide the guilt and shame by actively participating in you church or religious organization, but deep down you just feel rotten? Thinking that nobody will find out is -at it's very best- a completely unfounded hope. Thinking you can hide it from God, your Creator, is simply ludicrous. But yet many men repeatedly conspire to hide their shortcoming or their "guilty pleasures" from the world, thinking that nobody will ever know.

Apparently, the selling of land and donating to the church was a common practice as a sort of "fund-raiser" in the early New Testament church (Acts 4:34-35). Ananias in Acts 5:1-2 conspired with his wife to sell a piece of land and say that they were giving all the money they made to the church, but keep some of the money for themselves. But, according to Acts 5:3-4, Peter immediately knew, and confronted Ananias about his lie. Then, upon hearing Peter's truthful accusation, Ananias fell down dead (Acts 5:5-6).

It's important to note that at this point in the story, already a good number of people have found out about the treachery. Most importantly, it's important to note that God already knew, and Ananias was severely punished. Acts 5:7-10 continues the story, with Sapphira (Ananias' wife) coming into the church three hours later, not yet knowing her husband was dead. She also lies, and she also falls down dead.

The story unfolds from the very beginning as a man, the spiritual leader of his home, incites his family to lie. From that one secret sin they thought that nobody would ever know, both he and his wife died. It's important to remember that there are consequences when we sin, even when they aren't immediately apparent. The last half of Numbers 32:23 is often repeated, but has been proven true time and again, "You may be sure that your sin will find you out."

Leading by Example

A lot of us think that we should just immediately be thrust into a position of leadership. We feel this way about church, school, work, and home. We think that we're the man and we should be in charge. The best way to get to that position though is by showing that you can fulfill that position: leading by example.

David recognized the need for men to lead by example, and in 1 Chronicles 11:1-2 we find his method for leadership. He had been anointed king many years before, but King Saul had still held the position of king. Even when Saul was king though, David had been leading the armies of Israel. He began the pattern of leading the armies as a great warrior as a small boy when he killed Goliath.

David had been living a life of leadership from a very young age, seizing every opportunity to lead by example. This is the proper ladder to a position of leadership. This is how you make it to the top with the proper mindset to stay at the top. You have to work for it and prove yourself every step of the way.

The Life and Leadership of Jesus Christ

Quite obviously to cover the entire life and leadership examples of Christ would be far more than would be feasible in a single post, but we'll touch on some of the highlights. One of the primary focuses of the New Testament church throughout the Bible is teaching the Word of God. We find Jesus doing this already by the time He was just 12 years old in Luke 2:42-47. And we see this continues as an example in several other verses as well (Matthew 4:23, Matthew 7:28-29, Matthew 28:18-20). We're supposed to teach and preach boldly and with authority. We're supposed to call others to follow Christ (Luke 19:5-10, Luke 5:27-28, Mark 1:16-18).

Going hand in hand, we see that Christ's example was that of unselfishness (Romans 15:1-3), providing for those in need (Luke 11:9-10), and serving others (Mark 10:43-45, Matthew 20:26-28). These are powerful examples. Jesus wasn't just a leader, He was a servant of those who followed Him. He was also a friend to those who followed Him (John 15:15), and He loved them (John 13:34-35, John 15:13). So often as men, it's easy for us to bow down to serve others and show others love, but this was the example that Christ set for us.

One of the greatest examples that we overlook as men that was set for us by Jesus was to not try to do everything ourselves; we need to let other people help (Mark 3:13-15, Luke 10:1). Jesus didn't try to fulfill the Scriptures foretelling His arrival all alone. He chose great men to assist Him in His work. If Jesus needed other people to help bear His load, how much more do we need others to help us?

The final example that Christ set for us was that of not leaving our work half-finished. Jesus finished all that He was intended to, and did so in a complete fashion. John 18:9 tells us that Jesus lost none who was given to Him to save, and John 17:4 and John 19:30 both herald that his work here on earth was completed. His life on earth was short, but it was lived exactly as intended, and completely fulfilled God's will without fail. May that be our testimony when we die: our work was completed, and we were great leaders for God.

A Call to Leadership

Who has God called to be leader in your household? What about your workplace or school, or maybe in some other area of service? Young people reading this, this is not to say you should overtake the authority of your parents and teachers. Church members, this is not to say you should overtake the authority of your pastor, your boss, or even your Sunday School teacher. As Christians, God calls each and every one of us to a form of leadership. For some, this is more obvious: pastors, teachers, deacons. What is your form of leadership, and are you being an effective leader?

In looking at the Biblical examples, God never calls everyone to lead the same thing. God calls a single person out to lead at a particular thing. God called Abraham to follow Him and raise a nation. God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan. God called Joshua to lead the armies of Israel into victory in Canaan. God called David to kill Goliath.

If all of the Israelites had been called to kill Goliath, we would not have the story of a small boy with a sling killing a mighty giant; God would get no glory from it. We might have had a few verses that a giant taunted the Israelites and they all rushed in and killed him, but that's not nearly as powerful of a story. These are just a few very simple examples. In many cases, the men ended up with other leaders under them, and they became leaders of leaders.

A weak leader will ultimately breed a weak following. In Deuteronomy 31:6 we find Moses addressing the people of Israel before he is to die, and he tells them to "be strong and courageous" and have no fear of their enemies. Immediately after this, he turns to the newly called leader, Joshua, and repeats this command to him specifically in Deuteronomy 31:7-8. He is reaffirming to the leader that he has the responsibility of setting the example for the people to follow. The people know what to do, but it rests on the leader to show them by example how they should do it.

When people first started following my examples, I didn't even realize it. I was callous and set some pretty poor examples. God has guided me slowly into a place to set a better example for others to follow. Just the simple realization that others really did watch what I do brought a lot more weight down on my head to set a proper example for them. I'm not perfect by any means, and I still go astray from the example I should set, but with God's grace and guidance, my leadership will improve. What kind of leader are you turning out to be for those looking at you for an example?

The Beginning of Compromise

In the last post I wrote, we examined the result of Lot's hesitation and bartering with God. We saw how the ultimate result was that Lot ended up exactly where God told him to go in the first place, but that he lost people that he was responsible for by not leading his family in the way God had appointed. But how did Lot get to the position he was in? When did this all come about?

In Genesis 13:5-8 we see that Abraham and Lot's herdsmen were fighting over the land, because between the two of them they had too much stuff for the land to support them. So Abraham decides that it would be best to separate in Genesis 13:8, and gives Lot the choice of where to go in Genesis 13:9.

And Lot chose the plain of the Jordan, where Sodom and Gomorrah were (Genesis 13:10-11). We see in Genesis 13:12 that Abraham went to Canaan, but Lot had ignored that the land he had chosen was already corrupted by sin, and chose to pitch his tents near it. We know that God already knew how this was going to end, because in Genesis 13:14 God promised all of the land to Abraham, even the land that Lot had chosen.

By the time we get to Genesis 14:12, Lot had moved from having his tents near Sodom, and was now living "in" Sodom. Sodom was overthrown and Abraham rescued the people and their goods (Genesis 14:11-17). We see that Abraham was already aware of the problems, and in Genesis 14:21-24 that Abraham refused to take anything that the king of Sodom offered as a reward. It is never uplifting to God when a man profits from service to the world, or from service to sin. According to Genesis 14:18-19 Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek though, whom Abraham had also rescued.

So we can see through this that Lot's problems had arisen a long time before he lost his wife to sin. We see that Lot chose something that looked good, ignoring the taint of sin. And once he had chosen to possess the land containing sin, he pitched his tents right next to it, eventually moving into it himself. Whatever the sin in our lives that we've chosen to pitch our tents next to, we need to remove it from our land, or we're going to end up living in it. We must as men for the sake of our families remove all sin from around us, not ignore it because everything around it looks pretty. If we can't eradicate it from our land, then we need to get as far from it as we can, fleeing to the mountain.

Going Half Way

Today we're picking up the story of Lot as he flees from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:15-17. Here we see the angels of the Lord as they've spent the night with Lot, and now they tell Lot it's time to get out. Lot has lingered and lived in his sin for so long that he has grown accustomed to it, and we see that he's hesitant to leave. The angels actually have to take him and his family by the hand and lead them out of the city. In Genesis 19:17, the angels tell Lot to not look back, don't stop, and flee to the mountain.

We've seen God's mercy and grace, and Lot's hesitation to obey now, but he continues his pattern in Genesis 19:18-20. He begs not to have to go to the mountain, using excuses about the city being smaller, or the disaster overtaking him. Already God has shown him favor by taking him out of the city of sin, and he lacks the faith outside the gate to trust God to get him to the mountain of safety. Instead, he dares to know as much as God, in that he finds another place, closer to the sinful condition he had been living in, and begs to go there instead.

Genesis 19:21-25 goes on to show God's mercy in allowing Lot to safely arrive in Zoar (a small city believed to have been as close to Sodom as Sodom was to Gomorrah) before raining down his wrath upon not just Sodom and Gomorrah, but all of the cities in the plain, saving only the city Lot had begged to flee to.

Then, in Genesis 19:26, we find that Lot's wife looks back, back to Sodom and Gomorrah, and is turned to a pillar of salt. Because of Lot's hesitation in following the word of the Lord, and his pride in thinking he could live so close to his sin and not effect his family, his wife was lost. We as men are responsible for ensuring the safety and salvation of our families. We have to follow God's instructions, even if we dare to think we're strong enough to resist temptation, lest someone who depends on our guidance is unable to resist.

Ultimately, we find in Genesis 19:30 that Lot ends up leaving Zoar in fear, and taking his remaining family to the mountains where God had originally told him to go. Lot was responsible for his family, for their very souls, and in his hesitation and pride, he let one of those closest to him slip through the cracks. When God in His grace and mercy sees fit to pull us from the depths of our sin, don't compromise, don't go halfway. We need to follow all the way, and remove ourselves far from our sin, lest one of those we're responsible for falls into the trap of our temptation.