Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Luke recorded, "One of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'" Luke 11:1, NKJV

Oh! Come on now! The disciples didn't know how to pray?
They were, after all Jewish men, so prayers were a part of their daily lives.
Examples of prayers of confession, petition, thanksgiving, praise, recollection and intercession are found throughout the Testaments. The practice of prayer was also observed in pagan societies.
Morning prayers were a normal ritual, as expressed by the Psalmist, "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." (Ps. 5:1-3)
The psalmist's prayer demonstrates several elements of prayer. My dictionary suggests that to pray is to ask for interposition and judgment, to cry or call out, to seek (the face of) to request, to inquire, (of an oracle) to intercede, to pour out one's heart. To pray is also to ask humbly and earnestly, an act of adoration. John the Baptist taught his disciples a way of praying. The Pharisees made a show of public prayer. The disciples were emersed in a society steeped in prayer and prayers, and of practices both pious and pompus.
For one thing, the Pharisees publicly prayed loudly and long, wearing the prescribed phylacteries (small leather cases that contain four passages of old testament scriptures) one on the forehead, and the other on the left hand. (See Mt. 23:5)
The intended purpose for the phylacteries was to serve as a reminder of what the Lord had done for them by bringing them out of Egypt, and that "the Lord's law may be in your mouth." (Ex. 13:8-10; 16) In essence, these prayers were more "How great I am," rather than, "O LORD, how great Thou art!) Jesus denounced the practice.
Jesus obviously engaged in a type of prayer that differed quite noticeably from the practices in vogue. Rather than rote recitation (routine or repetition carried out mechanically or unthinkingly) Jesus' prayers were a two-way conversation with His Father. Each prayer was fitted to the need and the occasion. Jesus also prayed in the common Aramaic language, rather than the more formal Hebrew.
So, Lord, how do you do this? Teach us to pray like you do, rather than like what we have been seeing and doing.
Think about the "Model Prayer" as a framework, the skeleton for your petitions. Flesh it out; use it as an anchor, a blueprint, a starting point. Pray in a spirit of adoration and reverence. Express your longings for God's kingdom to come, share your joys and sorrows, plead for your needs (not wants.)
Pray in a spirit of forgiveness; to forgive and be forgiven.
Pray in a Spirit of praise. Pray!
January 21, 2007

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Lev. 19:18, NIV

The king’s horse drowned in the river. Enraged at the insolence of the river, the king threatened so to break its strength that in the future even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and, dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions, and setting his army to dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid of so great a number of hands, but not without losing thereby the whole summer season.
(Cyrus Captures Babylon Account in 539 B.C. Herodotus, Book I, para 189-191)
An extreme reaction? King Cyrus never-the-less acted in spite to thwart the river, dividing it into 360 channels
Another Persian king, Xerxes, fighting against Greece, decided to cross the Bosporus, building a boat bridge with each boat connected to the other with planks. This bridge would be over a mile long and required a perfectly calm sea. On several attempts winds and rough seas broke it apart. Frustrated and enraged, Xerxes ordered that the Bosporus receive three hundred lashes with a chain. Properly chastened, the sea remained calm and the bridge was completed.
The kings Cyrus and Xerxes, acting out of petty ill will, attempted to irritate, annoy, or thwart the forces of nature. Now that’s spite!
Yes, I’ve been hitting the Word Books again. As usual, one good word leads to another, and spite has some juicy synonyms, beginning with ‘malice,’ and increasing in severity: malevolence, ill will, malignity, spleen, and grudge.
MALICE implies a deep-seated often un-explainable desire to see another suffer.
MALEVOLENCE suggests a bitter persistent hatred that is likely to be expressed in malicious conduct.
SPLEEN suggests the wrathful release of latent spite or persistent malice.
GRUDGE implies a harbored feeling of resentment or ill will that seeks satisfaction.
The Bible speaks often about the downward path of malice. Paul advises to rid oneself of malice; see Eph. 4:31 and Col. 3:8. Peter, also, calls us as Christians to be holy (1 Peter 1:13-16) and to rid ourselves of malice (2:1).
The old maxim to “cut off the nose to spite the face” speaks well to the perils of spite. Harboring ill will, nursing a grudge, plotting revenge, all stem from anger that ulcerates the soul. We are in danger of cutting ourselves off from the body of Christ. Rather, as Jesus counseled, forgive others their sins (Mt. 6:15.) Turn the other cheek. (Mt. 5:38-41) Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Paul, to Timothy: 1 Tim. 5:15.
July 13, 2003