~Friendship~

What kind of friend are you? 

My last devotional was on Daniel and the decision that he had to make. This week I’d like to take another lesson from the book of Daniel to share with you all. Reading through the book of Daniel, I found that a lot of his success was because of his friends. In Daniel chapter two, King Nebuchadnezzar had a weird dream, but when he woke up he forgot what his dream was about. This really bothered him, so he called in all of his wise men, the Chaldeans, magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers to see if they could tell him what he had dreamed and what it meant. Of course they were not able to tell him what he had dreamed, and they were definitely not able to tell him the meaning of the dream.The king furiously ordered that all of the wise men should be put to death. Daniel heard the order, and quickly requested that the king not kill those men, but instead give him some time to see if the Lord would show him the dream and the interpretation of it. What was the next thing Daniel did?  He went to his house and told his friends what had happened and asked them to pray. By this we see that, first of all, Daniel had loyal friends who would stop everything they were doing to pray for him. Second, we see that they had a walk with God. Daniel knew that they had a connection with the Lord and he needed their prayer support right then. He needed them to get ahold of God and plead on his behalf. 

Are you that kind of friend? Do you have those kinds of friends? As the story continues to unfold, we see the Lord answer their prayers just in time, giving Daniel both the dream and the interpretation. Daniel then headed over to the kings palace, and humbly told him everything. Being exceedingly thankful, the king made Daniel a great man (rich), gave him many gifts, and set him over the whole province of Babylon. Most of us know that as the end of the story, but its not! The last verse of Daniel chapter two says “Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.” Daniel could have taken all of the credit for the interpretation, but he knew that he owed it all to the Lord and to his friends. He basically told the king, “Ok, its fine if you want to raise me up and make me great and all, but you need to make my friends great too. They did the greatest part by praying, so how about if we set them over the affairs of the province of Babylon?”  The Bible doesn’t say he said it like that, but thats how I have imagined that the conversation went. 

So let’s recap. Are you being, and do you have the types of friends that:

1. Have a close walk with the Lord.

2. Would be there when you need them most.

3. Have a prayer life, and pray for you often.

And last but not least, are you being the friend that:

4.  Takes all the credit for something done? Or do you make sure that others rise with you?

Going back to the question at the start: What kind of friend are you?

<Anna>  

On Purpose, and With a Purpose.

On Purpose, and With a Purpose.

“…he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Most Christians either treat God like a genie in a bottle that they can rub and get their wishes, or they treat Him like Santa; they want to sit on His lap and give Him their wish list. They list out the things they want or want to happen in their lives—most of which are self-seeking. But neither of these describe what God is, nor is that how He works. If we are to seek the Lord diligently in prayer, we must first understand what prayer is, and what God expects from our prayer life. 

When the Disciples asked Christ to teach them to pray in Luke 11, He gave them a model prayer; it covered several specific areas…

1.      He expects reverence (Hallowed be thy name…)

2.      He expects us to be focused on His will (Thy kingdom come…)

3.      He is interested in our NEEDS, not wants (our daily bread…) Not donuts

4.      He expects us to be interested in showing grace, like He does to us (… forgive every one)

5.      He expects us to be interested in finding the exits from temptation, not excuses to sin (lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil)

So then, what does it mean to seek Him, and how do we do it diligently?

To do something diligently means we do it On Purpose, and With a Purpose. Not flippantly and haphazardly, but with a serious effort.

I remember when Matthew was young, I would have him go look for his shoes. Matt would look around—on the ceiling, on his bed, on top of the toy box… he wasn’t diligently seeking his shoes, he was just wasting time looking around, pretending that he was looking.

So, we must ask ourselves; is that our prayer life? Are we diligently seeking God, or are we pretending?

When we are diligently seeking Him, it means that we have an intentional prayer life. Not only that we come to Him with reverence, but also with the boldness that, as the children of God, we can have since we are assured that He cares for us, and wants what is best for us.

If we ever expect to get answers from God, we must be seeking Him—on purpose and with a purpose.

“Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying.”

― Paul E. Billheimer

-Written By Guest Poster: Steve C. Roberts