Question: What Pleases God? What does he Require and desire of Us?
What is going to Keep us from temptation?
Answer:
Pslam 102:17 "he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer."
Psalm 141:2 "May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.
Proverb 15:8 "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight."
Jonah 2:7 "While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple."
Colossians 4:2 "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;"
Mark 9:29 "And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."
James 5:15 "and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him."
1 Corinthians 7:5 "Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."
Ephesians 6:18 "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,"
Revelation 5:8 "When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."
Etc..
PRAYER is the MOST important thing in a Follower of Jesus. FAR more than scripture reading. FAR more than Fellowship.
Not to say that God DOES NOT want us to fellowship he does there are a FEW verses in the bible about that. Not to say God doesnt Want us reading the bible...he WANTS us to study scritpure...SOMETIMES...there is ONE(maybe two) verses about that...But What is the MOST important thing(aside from obedience) that God wants from Us. TO SEEK HIM in the SPIRIT, in PRAYER. That is what the bible is. A Picture of Obedience. And Dissobedience comes from a LACK of Prayer. Sin doesnt rise because you stop reading the Bible. SIN rises becasue of lack of Prayer. Seperation from the Presence of God doesnt happen becasue You DONT talk to fellow Christians. It happens becasue you IGNORE GOD. How do you NOT ignore God? PRAY. So he can SPEAK TO YOU. He WILL give you wisdom, and knowledge. But you CANT gain WISDOM, and KNOWLEDGE by your own studies. That is leaning on your OWN understanding.(Proverbs 3:5) and NOT Gods. How do we have GODS understanding? From the Spirit of GOD.(1 Cor 2:10-11) and HOW do we stay in the spirit of God? PRAY! Jesus Prayed ALL the time. HE is who WE should pattern our lives after. Prayer is THE most important thing you can Do. Otherwise you will not have the power, the strength, or the knowledge to overcome Temptation. There are Popular Sayings among Christians:
"Satan wants to keep you from Church!"
"Satan wants to keep you from The Bible!"
Or
"Satan Wants you to keep from being active in the Work of God!!"
I've heard them allot Growing up, and I STILL hear them allot. Well Those sayings are Wrong.
Look at the "Church" its FILLED with Sin.
Look at your modern Bible Scholars, They are on thier fourth mariage. Or Worse.
And why? Becasue of what Satan REALLY keeps us from.
Satan does NOT want you to pray.
Satan Doesnt care if you talk to people about Jesus. Satan doesnt Care if you Read your bible. He Reads it. Satan Does NOT care if you go to a Building with song singing and hand clapping. He Might go with you.
But there is ONE thing that the Devil HATES and WILL try his darndest to keep you from. Prayer. Seeking the face of God. Praying for yourself. For others. and Just being silent in the spirit and seeking the Face Of God. Gaining more and more Of and FROM The LORD Jesus Christ. So dont let him stop you. Get off The Couch and Pray. Get off the Computer and pray. Turn off the T.V and Pray. Get out of Church and Pray. Put down the Bible(its not going to walk away) and PRAY!
Pray ABOUT EVERYTHING and then dont stop. and then after that Pray some more. Then after that, be still, and sit in the presence of the MIGHTY GOD and just be with him. Becasue HE wants to BE with you. The ALMIGHTY CREATOR actually WANTS to be with little 'ol you. And SATAN will stop at nothing to keep you from that.
" You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (John 5:39-40) NIV
" Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they that testify of me. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life" KJV
"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me, and you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life." NASB
"You pour over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life." HCSB
" You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." ESV
" You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." NKJV
" You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life." NLT
" You search the scriptures because you think That in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life." NRSV
" Can you search and investigate and or over the scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these perry Scriptures testify about Me! And still you are not willing but refuse to come to Me, So that you might have life." AMP
" You search the Scriptures for you think in them You have everlasting life. And they are the ones witnessing concerning Me. And you are not willing to come to me that you may have life." LITERAL
" You search the Scriptures because you think in them life everlasting you have, and those are the (ones) witnessing about Me. And not you desire to come to Me, that life you may have." WORD FOR WORD
Hey brother, William, Brother Two Sparrows, How are you guys?
I posted this(which i wrote a few weeks ago...to someone else) today, after being led by Jesus to do so. I wish i could further explain that. I cant. so i wont try haha.
I know your comment wasnot directed at me, but i must ask, what do you mean man cant desire God?
There has been a discussion/debate going on for weeks now on this site. There are a few zealous Calvinists that are trying to convince everyone that man lost the ability to accept the offer of Salvation through Jesus as a result of the fall in the Garden of Eden. And that before a person can respond to God they are picked unconditionally, then born again, bestowed with grace that is impossible to resist, it is then and only then can they are persuaded to accept Jesus. That was what PJ's post was about, basically sarcastic humor.
Nothing against no one as a person, but as far as doctrines go, Calvanism is kinda ....um...screwy...well all doctrines are(Armenianism as well)
Its the Whole "I was baptised into pauls baptism, I was batised into Johns!" thing repeating over and over again.
Doctrines do nothing but make further rifts in an allready divided body. Its bad enough that we have denominations, but in those denominations we now have different "Belief systems" 'cept no body is asking Jesus in all this. Becasue Most(not technicaly saying anyone here is...) Follow man, and not God. Thier interpratation of scripture becomes there Idol. Thier Doctrine, moreover themselves become the be all end all. All that sometimes with out truly knowing completely what they beleive.
AMEN, Brother! I couldn't agree more. That is exactly what I have been saying for weeks. You can tell the Calvinists, there the ones with their fingers in their ears.
