In my last post, fall down, worship Him, open our treasures, present gifts to Him, I focused on Psalm 72:14-15, and emphasized how we as Christians must be examining ourselves and growing in our understanding and appreciation of the love, mercy, and grace of God in Jesus Christ which saved poor, needy, and helpless sinners, so we might make a fitting response to such a wondrous, great Savior and the salvation He freely bestowed upon us:

Tonight, I'd like to pick up on the portion of those verses that emphasizes the gift of prayer, which God directs His people to render unto Him.

Prayer also will be made for Him continually...

Here we find two characteristics about the type of prayer God expects of His people, all the saints, those unworthy and undeserving souls He's redeemed by the precious blood of Christ from the power of sin, the flesh, the devil, and death.

• 1. It's prayer made for Him, for the Lord Jesus Christ.

• 2. It's prayer that's made continually.

I'd like to start with the second point. Prayer that's made continually isn't so foreign to us, at least not in our intellectual understanding, though perhaps not in practice.

Most Christians are familiar with this three word verse:

"pray without ceasing"
(I Thessalonians 5:18)

... as well as the example of the importunate woman in Luke 18:

Then He [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Avenge me of my adversary.' And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'"

Then the Lord said, "hear what the unjust judge said, And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

Some of us may be engaged in prayer fairly regularly; however, very often there's a problem with the content of our prayers, i.e. -  the focus and aim of our prayers doesn't line up with the first point – our prayers are not made for Him. It was only within the last couple years that that little phrase began to strike me:  for Him... for HIM... What does it mean that prayer be made for Him?

J.A. Alexander explained that praying for Him continually means we ought to be praying "for the progress and extension of Messiah's kingdom."

Matthew Henry wrote this about what it means to make prayers for Him continually...

Prayers shall be made for him, and that continually. The people prayed for Solomon, and that helped to make him and his reign so great a blessing to them. It is the duty of subjects to make prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, for kings and all in authority, not in compliment to them, as is too often done, but in concern for the public welfare. But how is this applied to Christ? He needs not our prayers, nor can have any benefit by them. But the Old-Testament saints prayed for his coming, prayed continually for it; for they called him, He that should come. And now that he has come we must pray for the success of his gospel and the advancement of his kingdom, which he calls praying for him (Hosanna to the Son of David, prosperity to his reign), and we must pray for his second coming. It may be read, Prayer shall be made through him, or for his sake; whatsoever we ask of the Father shall be in his name and in dependence upon his intercession.

How often are my prayers really for Him? How often are your prayers really for Him? How often do we pray for the progress and extension of Messiah's kingdom? How often do you find your heart crying out for the success of his gospel and the advancement of his kingdom? How often do you hear prayers like that requested and prayed in prayer meetings or coming from the pulpit in your church? How often do we put on a show of godliness, much like the Pharisees, we pretend we're spiritual, we may in fact make lots of prayers, but all the while we deceive ourselves into thinking we're praying pious prayers, but very few, if any, of our prayers are truly for Him. Instead, isn't it so often the case that our prayers are really . . .

• all about our name ... rather than His name

• all about our glory ... rather than God's glory

• all about our kingdoms... rather than His Kingdom

• all about our will ... rather than His will
  

Remember how Jesus replied when His disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Here's the first part of His response:

"When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven..."

Yes, I know the prayer goes on, and it's not like we shouldn't be praying about our own needs, but honestly, don't most of us, if left to ourselves, focus on ourselves in our prayers and give little to no attention to God Himself and the advance of His Gospel on the earth, in effect, leaving little to none of our prayers being made for Him? So long as we're (I'm) caught up and enamored and consumed with me, myself, and I, we are (I am) not going to be able to make for Him prayer continually.

He took me down ... so I might raise up prayer for Him continually....

A few years ago, God has began doing an amazing, strange, and wonderful work in my life over the period of last several years.

I wrote the following on my other blog here a couple years ago (http://deerlife.xanga.com/733786080/updateprayer-requests---october-7-2010/):

A few years back, the Lord had been trying to get my attention about my need to pray, and, well, I knew that in my head of course, since we all pretty much know we should be praying from the time we become Christians. And, as most of us have done at one time or another, I'd made resolutions to pray, but it took God repeatedly showing me (hammering me) over and over and over again about my total depravity, my total insufficiency and my total inability to do anything apart from Him. That included a lot of failures, frustrations, humiliation and tears. Until we come to the end of ourselves, we don't see the necessity of prayer and of our need to seek Him. So long as we can get by pretty well on our own, we won't get down on our knees in humble dependence and cry out to Him for living water and daily bread and His Holy Spirit. Thank God for His sovereign hand at work in drawing me to Himself through his loving Fatherly discipline.

So now, after all that time, the Holy Spirit has been softening my hard heart sufficiently so those seeds are finally beginning to sprout a bit, so I might really begin to understand in small measure the utter necessity of prayer and seek out time to spend with God in prayer. This calling to prayer intensified early in 2009 (I wrote about it here, and that was why I started up tent of meeting, my other website devoted to prayer for revival). And it has further intensified and expanded since that time. In short, God has been giving me more of a passion to be praying for and encouraging workers to be sent into the harvest and praying for His Gospel to go to all the nations; I've alluded to that in a few posts on naphtali_deer, my other blog (e.g. - see here and here). I'm not exactly sure where all of that is going in my life, but I am finally seeing that the Gospel going to the nations is for our joy, for the joy of the nations and for God's joy and is part of God's glorious plan to exalt Himself. About a week ago, I stood outside and looked up into heaven and said something like, "God, why did it take me so long to get this?!" I cry now as I consider this. I mean, I've been a Christian for almost 28 years now. Of course, I knew we should be supporting missions, I knew the Biblical teaching that God had a plan to save some from every tribe, every language, every people and every nation (e.g. - Rev. 5), but only when God and the mission of God got a hold of my heart did I really begin to see. (Not that I see all yet today, I know that...) As I've mentioned, I am a slow learner, but thanks be to God, He is persevering and longsuffering with hard-hearted and stubborn sinners like me and His mercies and kindnesses will follow us and pursue us and His Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will lead us in the way we should go. This is one reason I am so passionate about young people not wasting their lives. I wasted much of mine. I was lukewarm for too long. One minute of lukewarmness is too long! Thanks be to God, He has been gracious to me and has been working to restore the years the locusts of my self-absorption and spiritual dullness had eaten up.

I confess that I continue to fumble and slip and slide as I seek to go up to meet with Him on His holy mountain, but I know there is grace abounding for sinners like me there and He never casts out those who come to Him, He never despises those who are humble and seeking to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. I love to spend time with Him. And I know He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He has also begun to show me that If we are not asking hard things of Him, we are insulting Him and limiting Him. Also, if we are not persevering in prayer, we do not show we consider Him precious enough to spend time with Him and we think we are adequate apart from His resources. These are just a few scattered thoughts here. My heart is full of Him. He is faithful to hear and to save. And He is calling us to watch in prayer with Him so we will not grow faint. To whom else can we go? He has the words of eternal life. He is our life!

I'd like to expand a little more on that time of "hammering" . . .

First off, it was at a time over twenty years after I'd been saved, that God took me down, down, down as He demanded I forgive someone. In that process, He humbled me and began to show me as I'd never seen before my total depravity, my unworthiness, and my wretchedness. How little the other person's sin against me was in contrast to my own sin for which Jesus died. At that point, I was privileged to begin to glimpse God's glory, holiness, and goodness is saving me in ways I'd never seen before. (I write a little more about this in my posts here, here, and here.)

Not long after that time, God allowed me to fail big time. I had many hopes and dreams and ambitions that were all shattered –– and not only that, but *I* was shattered. Without going into detail here, but I will mention that this happened in the context of a local church situation (I don't say much about it since there was plenty of sin and plenty of mistakes to go around, including my own... please see my post Do you love the saints . . . ALL the saints? (reflections on church hurts)). But know this, whenever the sovereign God puts us (yes, puts us!) into such situations, and we get taken down and humbled like that, it is always for our good... As soon as our hearts are broken, our hopes disappointed, and our plans thwarted, that's a blessed mercy of God sent to us so we might become desperate for God, that we wouldn't just sing "I'm desperate for You" in a song on Sunday morning, and then forget all about Him the rest of the week, but that we would really become so desperate for Him, so excruciatingly hungry and thirsty for the living God, that to be in His presence would be the ONE THING we might seek, that we would desire Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength; that to behold His beauty would be our prevailing desire (~ Psalm 27).

Our God lovingly ordains circumstances and situations so we might begin to question everything and begin to pant and thirst for Him and seek His face in ways we've never done before –– for far too long we've taken Him for granted, and we need to shaken out of our lethargy and complacency and lukewarmness. All of this shaking is not haphazard, but comes out of our Father's deep, abiding, and persevering lovingkindness toward us... "for whom the Lord LOVES, He chastens, and scourges every son He receives" (see Heb. 12:3-11). The hotter fires and the higher waters, the famines and droughts, the blight, mildew and hail –– all of it is purposefully and graciously ordained by our covenant God to cause us to come to our senses, so we might run home to our Father, and delight and gaze upon our Bridegroom in a manner we've never done before. That's what God is continuing to do with us.

Also, during that time, I began to become dragged down by an increasing sense of my sinfulness and my failures. I became mired in doubt and despair and second-guessing over my past decisions and behaviors, and I had slim-to-no assurance regarding my sanctification. Though I knew I was saved, and though I knew I wasn't going to hell, there was something else I knew: I knew I wasn't really living at all. I was in a very similar to the place where God took Oswald Chambers:

"I see now that God was taking me by the light of the Holy Spirit and His Word through every ramification of my being. The last three months of those years things had reached a climax, I was getting very desperate. I knew no one who had what I wanted; in fact I did not know what I did want. But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud."

~ from David McCasland's "Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God" (Grand Rapids, Mi: Discovery House Publishers, 1993), 84-85

Perhaps you're in the midst of hot fires and high waters right now, and you have been for some time, or you're in a famine or drought, or you're being buffeted by winds or pelleted with hail... Know this:  God desire is that HE becomes your first and highest and chief desire, and that His will becomes your will, and that His desire for His name, His glory, His Kingdom and His Gospel might becomes your desire.

Psalm 27:4
One thing I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple.

Isaiah 26:8
Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
O LORD, we have waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Consider God's purposes for Judah as He sent her into 70 years' exile in Babylon:

Jeremiah 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

In the midst of prosperity, we can so easily keep spinning our wheels, staying busy, with things are looking relatively good on the surface, but all the while, our souls are withering and shrinking on the inside: –– we see no need to open up to Jesus, as we've become mired in self-sufficiency and we see no need for fellowship with Him (Rev. 3:14-22), we've lost our first Love (Rev. 2:4), we're waxing fat and forsaking the God who made us and scornfully esteeming the Rock of our salvation (Deut. 33:15); we're missing out on the one thing necessary (Luke 10:38-42):  we don't come to Jesus that we might have life, we don't sit at His feet like Mary and bask there, we don't wash His feet with our tears like the sinful woman, we don't put seeking God's face and dwelling in His courts and supping with Him above all else.

Up until those times of trial and testing, we've gotten along fairly well without that intimacy with the living God... but when God begins to strip away all we ever held dear, when He sends us into captivity, so to speak, we have no other place to turn but to Him. It is His desire that we might come to know Him as the Chief among 10,000, that our hearts would overflow with rivers of Living Water and good themes, and our tongues would be the pens of ready writers: "You ARE fairer than the sons of men! I had heard of You with the ear, but now my eye sees You, my mouth has tasted You!" O! Blessed discipline that leads us to His courts, so we might sup with our exceeding Joy! To come into His presence to be filled with fullness of joy and to sit at His right hand and know pleasures forevermore! That is life and life more abundantly! His love is better than wine! His love is better than life!

During that time, I'd begun to write a series of blog posts about Kingdom-obsessed people, and I soon realized there was NO way I could be obsessed with Christ and His Kingdom so long as I kept being burdened and pulled down by guilt over my sinfulness and second guessing my past decisions. I had no choice but to examine the work of Christ for my soul in more depth than I'd done previously, particularly in the book of Hebrews (see my posts on dealing with past sins & guilt here and my posts on looking in the rear view mirror here). I was seeking a firm assurance of forgiveness of sins and God's love for me; I was seeking strong consolation (Hebrews 6:18), though at the time, I couldn't have told you exactly what I was seeking. All I knew is that I was seeking relief and rest from the guilt, the failure, and the lack of hope. They were all so oppressive, all-consuming and overwhelming, and I found myself miserable, depressed and downcast much of the time. I was being weighed down and entangled, unable to press on to know Christ and to take hold of that for which He'd taken hold of me.

But then, one glorious day, four years ago this month, the morning of December 19, 2008, God broke through the darkness and gloom, much like Malachi describes: the Sun of Righteousness rose with healing in His wings!

There was no audible sound, but there was a word spoken by the Holy Spirit of God to lift up my downcast soul, as I knelt down in our dining room to confess that I was a loser and a failure. Those four words were more real to me than any words any other person has ever spoken to me.

During that year, while studying through The Life of Moses in Bible Study Fellowship, I'd been impressed with Moses' role as intercessor, as well as the function of the high priest in praying for the people, both of whom point to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest.

And then, during our Sunday School time, a verse from I Samuel 12 was impressed upon my soul, which was the real kicker:

"Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you..."

At that point I knew there was no getting out of it! The call to prayer was clear and compelling. And since that time I've been burdened to pray for reformation and revival in the Church (please see my post Naphtali News: the Ministry of the Word & Prayer). But prior to that point in time, because I was so obsessed and so overwhelmed with my own stuff:  with me, myself, and I:  with my own sins, my own guilt, my own failures, my own doubts, my own second-guessing, etc., etc., I couldn't even begin to think beyond myself, and I couldn't begin to pray for Christ and His Kingdom as I ought, much less pray continually for Him.

My point in writing of my experience is that I hope it might lead you to examine yourself to see what is hindering you from making prayer for Christ and His Kingdom continually, as you ought.

Until I received that felt assurance in my soul, I wasn't free to begin to make prayer for Him continually. I call it a felt assurance because it went beyond the doctrinal, intellectual, mental understanding which I already had through the study of the Scripture. Jonathan Edwards makes the distinction between "having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness" (see Edwards' "A Divine & Supernatural Light" here). Though I previously knew in my head I was forgiven, I had no true sense of the love of God in the heart. God's love was a bare-bones intellectual concept to me, not a living reality. Though I previously knew God loved me, I wasn't able to experience and enjoy and exult in the love Christ had shown me or begin to experience the freedom that Christ had bought for me, to be free from the burden of sin and guilt, and to be assured of His ongoing work of sanctification in me, to really know that God was for me and not against me, to be assured that God was working all things for my good, and so on... But once I had that sense of the sweetness of God's love imparted to my soul that day, I was free, really free in my heart, soul, mind and strength to begin to pray as the Psalmist describes:

We all have burdens, and we will continue to have burdens, but whenever those burdens, be they past, present, and/or future concerns, cause us to be inordinately focused on ourselves, we can't ever be free to make prayer for Him continually as God desires, as God demands, and as God deserves. We need to let God continue to examine us. We absolutely cannot at any cost allow any of our "stuff" to stand in the way of our making prayer for Him continually.

My challenge to you today is for you to open your Bible and to pray to God and to ask the Holy Spirit to examine you and to examine your prayers.

• Are your prayers being made for Him?

• Are your prayers being made for Him continually?

• What is preventing you from praying for Him continually?

The Church here in the west... NOT bright, NOT burning... "There are sorrows we must pray to feel."

God's desire and His very own prayer for His Church is that....

her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
The Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory.
(Isaiah 62:1)

Let's be honest: here in the western world, for the most part, we are not bright and we are not burning. We are no shining witness to the unsaved world. The salt has lost its saltiness. The light is under the bushel. We are not to despise the day of small things, but we are in the day of small things, and we need to recognize that fact.

Do you see these things? Are you burdened for them? Are you praying about them?

The prophets were. Take Jeremiah, for example:

Jeremiah 8:21 "For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; Astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?"

9:1  "Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!"

Earlier this year, John Piper made this comment on Jeremiah 9:1:

"There are sorrows we must pray to feel."

Perhaps you first need to pray to feel these sorrows, so you might begin to burdened, and then you might begin to make prayer for Him continually.

Jeremiah 4
19 O my soul, my soul!
I am pained in my very heart!
My heart makes a noise in me;
I cannot hold my peace,
Because you have heard, O my soul,
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.
20 Destruction upon destruction is cried,
For the whole land is plundered.
Suddenly my tents are plundered,
And my curtains in a moment.
21 How long will I see the standard,
And hear the sound of the trumpet?

Jeremiah was burdened to the depths of his soul for the people of God and for the cause of Christ in the world. The King James Version has verse 19 starting this way: "My bowels! My bowels!" Has your soul ever been so grieved for the state of God's Church and for the name of Christ? Have you every been pained in your very heart that the Church today is a reproach to God and a byword in the world? Are you so constrained with love for Christ and His name and renown in the world that you cannot hold your peace, but have a holy compulsion to pray day and night like the watchmen set on the walls of Jerusalem?

Isaiah 62
6  I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall never hold their peace day or night.
You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
7 And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Isn't that a description of the prayer that we read of in Psalm 72?

Prayer also will be made for Him continually...

Prayer made FOR HIM... and prayer made CONTINUALLY...

In marked contrast, however, it seems today that the walls are filled with watchmen who are silent, rather than making prayer for Him continually. They are self-absorbed, focused on their own needs, and blinded to the current condition; they are slumbering rather than watching in prayer... Loving to slumber! They are silent, they are dumb, dumb dogs, greedy dogs! Strong words, are they not?

Isaiah 56
10 His watchmen are blind,
They are all ignorant;
They are all dumb dogs,
They cannot bark;
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yes, they are greedy dogs
Which never have enough.
And they are shepherds
Who cannot understand;
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his own gain,
From his own territory.

The picture above is titled "Der eingeschlafene Nachtwächter." I have some German roots in my ancestry, but I don't know German. I put the title into my translation widget, and it gave this English translation:

"The fallen asleep night watchman"

We're not to be "fallen asleep night watchman"! What an oxymoron! In contrast, the Scripture exhorts us to be

praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints... (Ephesians 6:18).

The Greek word translated "being watchful" or "keep alert" (ESV) is agrupneo (ag-roop-neh'-o):  ultimately from 1 (as negative particle) and 5258; to be sleepless, i.e. keep awake:--watch. see GREEK for 1 see GREEK for 5258.

The second root word there (5258) is the Greek hupnos (hoop'-nos), which is the root of our English word "hypnosis". hupnos: ... sleep, i.e. (figuratively) spiritual torpor:--sleep.

Have we fallen into a hypnotic state? Have we become mesmerized and entranced with the world and the things of this world, that we're not praying day and night as we ought for our Lord? Are we loving self more than loving God? Are we loving our kingdoms more than loving His Kingdom? Are we loving our will more than loving His will? No wonder prayer is not being made for Him continually! No wonder the Church remains in the state she is!

Have we fallen asleep, having lapsed into a state of spiritual torpor and sleep in regard to Christ and His Kingdom –– all the while we are lively and zealous and excited about earthly concerns? Are we working mightily and lustily to store up treasures here, while giving our left-over prayers, time, energy, money and resources to storing up treasures in heaven? Where are our affections: are they set on the earth or on things above? The frequency and the content of our prayers reflect the true heart of our affections... "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45b).

Spiritual torpor! Sleep! My friends, as children of God, we ought not be languishing or wasting our lives in spiritual torpor or sleep. Our God neither sleeps nor slumbers. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, ever lives to make intercession for us. God forbid we sleep, lie down, or love to slumber like the blind watchmen. Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when He returns? God forbid the Lord Jesus meets us at His second coming and calls us dumb dogs!  May God give us grace that we may not keep silent, but cry out day and night for Him, to make prayer for Him continually like the importunate woman and the alert watchmen. May we give the LORD no peace or rest until He makes His Church a praise in the earth once again. Our Bridegroom longs to hear our prayers made for Him:

Song of Solomon 2:14
"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your countenance,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your countenance is lovely."

"The intercession of Christians ... is the leaven which is to leaven the whole earth with Christianity."
(Thomas Chalmers)

* Please see my follow-up post to this one:  an advent of a different sort for the "glorious progress of the work of God" (includes Jonathan Edwards' account of the latter days of the Great Awakening).

* Please note:  if God has given you a sight of the ruined state of the Church and a burdened heart to pray for her reformation and revival, please comment below and/or contact me (via my WP site). Also, please see my post here, as well as my blog devoted to prayer for revival: tent_of_meeting.xanga.com.

Related posts:

The Watchman's Song – "Day and night, night and day"
Then Abigail made haste (complacency & devotion)
postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)
Postcards from England: Do you care?
Do we care more for manatees than for His flock?
Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
"I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)"
Do My Prayers Glorify God?
As the Visible Disappoints
All things (even bad things) work together for good...
Our Twisted View of God

Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

Information on the Hebrew and Greek words is taken from Strong's Concordance.

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Parable_of_the_Unjust_Judge.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_Spitzweg_022.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

In the midst of the overflowing appeals for charity stuffing our mailboxes (both real & virtual) this season, we are often led to question ourselves... Am I giving what I ought? Am I giving out of a right heart? Are my motives pure, or am I giving to be seen of men? Am I a cheerful giver? etc., etc.

In Psalm 72, we find a wonderful verse tucked away which describes some of the gifts that the redeemed of the Lord ought to be presenting to Him. ... But before we get there, I'd like to set the stage...

Though Psalm 72 is not considered by all a to be a Messianic Psalm (don't ask me why), this royal Psalm finds its ultimate fulfillment in the everlasting, universal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ: the One greater than Solomon –– the King of kings and the Lord of lords Whose reign has been from everlasting to everlasting and Whose dominion will be from sea to sea, all the way to the ends of the earth; a Kingdom in which every knee in heaven and under earth will bow to Him and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God His Father, and all His enemies will lick the dust (~ see Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:9-11; Psalm 2).

Eternal redemption was purchased and secured through the shedding of Christ's precious blood:

Hebrews 9:11  But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12  Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

And eternal redemption is received by grace through faith in Christ's precious blood:

Romans 3:21  But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Before I go on to talk about our giving gifts to Jesus, you need to examine your own soul. Have you received God's free gift of eternal redemption, eternal life? That's the first and vital thing because apart from believing on Christ, Jesus Himself tells us that our default state is this: "condemned already" (John 3:18). In Romans 6:23, the apostle Paul tells us "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." If you have more questions about this, please read through the first several chapters of Romans and/or leave a comment below and/or message me. (You may also find it helpful to check out the linked posts on salvation at the end of this post.)

Only after that's settled can you begin to consider your own giving. Your eternal soul is at stake. There will be a day of judgment when Christ comes again, and Jesus warns us: we will either be raised to everlasting punishment or eternal life (Matthew 25:46 - BTW:  the Greek word there for "everlasting" is the same as the word "eternal." In other words, for those of you who have read Rob Bell and believe him –– you are sadly mistaken and deceived into thinking there is no eternity in hell. My friends, if you die apart from Christ, you will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, where your worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Matthew 25:30, Mark 9:48 ~ and yes, those are quotations from the Gospels –– they are the words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the one who is coming again to judge the living and the dead). Today is the day of salvation; harden not your hearts. May God give you ears to hear Him and come to Christ and flee the wrath to come!

Apart from having Christ's perfect righteousness credited to us through faith, God considers all our best attempts at trying to justify ourselves in the eyes of God to be as "filthy rags." And, in fact, the thrice holy God looks upon us in our fallen state and considers each and every one of us as "an unclean thing" (see Psalm 64:6; Romans 3:9-20). In other words, no matter how good you may look on the outside, no matter how many good deeds you may have performed, no matter whether you've been relatively successful at keeping your own nose clean, no matter if you've been baptized, no matter how many church services you've attended, no matter if you're a church member, no matter how much you've given to the poor, etc., etc.  –– none of that matters in the eyes of God in terms of your standing before Him. After those verses I quoted above from Romans 3, the apostle Paul writes this in verse 27: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law."

And in the verses following, Paul explains the way of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is for all peoples, for both the Jews and the Gentiles. We've all been born into Adam, we are all credited/imputed with his sin (original sin), and we all are in need of salvation. In other words, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter your nationality, no matter your family upbringing –– your own works can never justify you, they can never give you a right standing before God. A holy God cannot look upon sin or abide even a speck of sin in His presence. All of our best works can never atone for our sin. Malachi 3:2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?" Only through the shedding of Christ's blood is there forgiveness of sins. Each one of us needs to come to Christ to have the slate wiped clean through the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from the guilt of all our sin (past, present, and future), and to have the pure and perfect righteousness of Christ imputed/credited to us, so we might be able to stand before God blameless and unashamed in the day of judgment. Romans 5:18  Therefore, as through one man’s [Adam] offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s [Christ's] righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s [Adam's] disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s [Christ's] obedience many will be made righteous.

Now, back to Psalm 72...

The Psalmist is looking forward to Christ's Kingdom and Christ's eternal redemption of the poor and needy...

For He will deliver the needy when he cries,
The poor also, and him who has no helper.
He will spare the poor and needy,
And will save the souls of the needy.
He will redeem their life from oppression and violence;
And precious shall be their blood in His sight.
(v. 12-14)

Luke 7:44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?
I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet,
but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.
45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.
46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.
47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

Who are we but dust and ashes, and yet! –– while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! As we gain a spiritual sight of our Savior as the all-surpassing treasure, we cannot help but freely offer all our treasures to Him, to break our alabaster flasks in extravagant, overflowing, lavish worship, just as the sinful woman did with her alabaster flask (Luke 7, Mark 14, Matthew 26)...  just as our Father did when He gave His only begotten Son to die in our place; just as the Lamb of God did when He willingly laid down His life for His sheep; just as our God, who was rich in mercy, did when He bestowed His gift of salvation upon poor, needy, and helpless sinners like us; just as our God does, as He freely pours out the gift of His Holy Spirit on all those who ask Him. Freely we have received from Him, let us freely give to Him, for He alone is worthy! Worthy is the Lamb who was slain! Worthy of all we have and worthy of all we are! Like the wise men who saw the young Child, may the Holy Spirit bless us with a spiritual sight of the glories of the Savior and of His gift of salvation, so we might be constrained by the love of Christ to fall down and worship Him, and open our treasures and present gifts to Him!

That he shall be honoured and beloved by all his subjects (15): He shall live; his subjects shall desire his life (O king! live for ever) and with good reason; for he has said, Because I live, you shall live also; and of him it is witnessed that he liveth, ever liveth, making intercession, Heb. vii. 8, 25. He shall live, and live prosperously; and, 1. Presents shall be made to him. Though he shall be able to live without them, for he needs neither the gifts nor the services of any, yet to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba--gold, the best of metals, gold of Sheba, which probably was the finest gold; for he that is best must be served with the best. Those that have abundance of the wealth of this world, that have gold at command, must give it to Christ, must serve him with it, do good with it. Honour the Lord with thy substance. 2. Prayers shall be made for him, and that continually. The people prayed for Solomon, and that helped to make him and his reign so great a blessing to them. It is the duty of subjects to make prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, for kings and all in authority, not in compliment to them, as is too often done, but in concern for the public welfare. But how is this applied to Christ? He needs not our prayers, nor can have any benefit by them. But the Old-Testament saints prayed for his coming, prayed continually for it; for they called him, He that should come. And now that he has come we must pray for the success of his gospel and the advancement of his kingdom, which he calls praying for him (Hosanna to the Son of David, prosperity to his reign), and we must pray for his second coming. It may be read, Prayer shall be made through him, or for his sake; whatsoever we ask of the Father shall be in his name and in dependence upon his intercession. 3. Praises shall be made of him, and high encomiums given of his wisdom, justice, and goodness: Daily shall he be praised. By praying daily in his name we give him honour. Subjects ought to speak well of the government that is a blessing to them; and much more ought all Christians to praise Jesus Christ, daily to praise him; for they owe their all to him, and to him they lie under the highest obligations.

In commemoration of Richard Baxter's (1615-1691) 397th birthday, here are some excerpts from the first portion of his book, "The Causes and Danger Of slighting CHRIST and his GOSPEL:  Or, Eternal Salvation made light of by Multitudes, to whom it is freely offered."

Matthew 22:1  And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3  And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6  And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Matthew xxii. 5-.
But they made light of it.

. . .

That which carnal Hearers make light of, includes in it, Christ himself, and the Blessings, which he bestows.—Concerning Christ himself, the Gospel declares his Person and Nature, and the great Things he has done and suffered for Men, his redeeming us from the Wrath of God by his Blood, and purchasing a Grant of Salvation for us. The same Gospel makes an Offer of Christ to Sinners, that if they will accept him on his easy and reasonable Terms, he will be their Saviour, the Physician of their Souls, their Head, and their Husband.—the Blessings which Christ bestows upon Sinners, are the Pardon of all their past Sins, and Deliverance from the Wrath of God, and a sure Way of obtaining Pardon for all the Sins they shall commit hereafter, provided they obey sincerely, and turn not again to the Rebellion of their unregenerate State. They shall have the Holy Spirit to be their Guide and Sanctifier, to dwell in their Souls, to help them against their spiritual Enemies, and conform them more and more to a divine Likeness, to heal their spiritual Diseases, and bring them back to God. They shall, also have a right to everlasting Glory, when this Life is ended, and their Bodies shall be raised up to partake of it at the great Day. Besides these, they shall have many excellent Priviledges and Means, abundant Preservation and Provision in their Way, and the Foretaste of their future Joy. All these Blessings the Gospel offers to them that will accept of Christ on his reasonable Terms. For this is the Record, that God hath given to us eternal Life; and this Life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath Life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not Life [I John 5:11-12].

     The Sin of making light of Christ and Salvation appears in the following Instances.

1. When Men take no great Heed to what the Gospel declares, as if it was not a certain Truth, or else was a Matter that little concerned them, or as if God had not written it for them.

2. When the Gospel does not affect Men, or go to their Hearts; but tho’ they seem to attend to what is said, yet they are not awakened by it from their Security, nor doth it in any Measure excite such holy Emotions in their Souls, as Things of such everlasting Consequence ought to do. We tell Men what Christ hath done and suffered for their Souls, and it scarce moves them. We tell them of keen and cutting Truths, but Nothing will pierce them. We can make them hear, but cannot make them feel. Our Words stop in the Porch of their Ears and Fancies, but enter not into their inward Parts. It is as if we spake to Men that have not Hearts. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the Heart of this People is waxed gross, and their Ears are dull of hearing, and their Eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their Eyes, and hear with their Ears, and understand with their Heart, and should be converted, and Christ should heal them [~ Matthew 13:15, Acts 28:27; see also Isaiah 6:9-10].

3. Men make light of Christ, when they have no high Esteem for him and Salvation by him, but whatsoever they may say with their Tongues, or may speculatively believe, yet in their serious and practical Thoughts they have a higher Esteem for the Things of this World, than they have for Christ and the Salvation he hath purchased. It is despising Christ, to account his Doctrine but a Question of Words and Names, like Gallio; or a Superstition of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive, like Festus; or to ask the Preachers of the Gospel, as the Athenians did, What will this Babler say? [Acts 18:12-17; 25:13-27; 17:16-21]

Men make light of Christ, when being informed of the Truths of the Gospel, on what Terms Christ and his Blessings may be had, how it is the Will of God they should believe and accept the Offer, and how he commands them to do it upon Pain of Damnation; and yet they will not consent, unless they could have Christ on Terms of their own. They will not part with their Portion in this World, nor lay down their Pleasures, Profits, and Honours at the Feet of Jesus, to be content to take only so much of them back, as is consistent with his Will and Interest, but think it a hard saying, to be resolved to forsake all for Christ. ’Tis a high Contempt Of Christ and everlasting Life, when Men might have their Part in him, if they would; but they will not, unless they may keep the World too, and are resolved to please their Flesh, whatever be the Consequence.

It is also a making light of Christ and Salvation, when Men will promise fair, and profess their Willingness, to have Christ upon his own Terms, and to forsake all for him; but they nevertheless cleave to the World, and to their sinful Courses, nor will suffer their Practice to be changed by all that Christ hath done or said.—This is the Sin of making light of Christ and Salvation.

CHAP. II.

Thy Christ is made so light of.

IT may seem a Wonder that ever Men, who have the Use of their Reason, should be so foolish as to make light of Things of infinite Importance. But the Causes are such as these—

1. Some Men understand not the Meaning of the Words in which the Gospel is expressed; and how can they value what they do not understand? Tho’ we speak to them as plainly as we can, yet they have so estranged themselves from God, and the Concerns of their Souls, that they know not what we say. It is with them as if God in just Judgment had said, With stammering Lips and another Tongue will I speak to this People [Isaiah 28:11].

2. Some understand the Words we speak, but not the Matter, because they are carnal. For the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God, for they are Foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. [I Cor. 2:14] The Things of the Spirit are not well known by bare Report, but by spiritual Taste, which none have but those that are taught by the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the Things that are freely given to us of God. [I Cor. 2:12].

3. Carnal Minds apprehend not a Suitableness in these spiritual and heavenly Things, and therefore set light by them. Tell them of everlasting Glory, and they hear you, as if you, as if you was persuading them to go and play with the Sun. The Affairs of another World are out of their Element, and therefore they have no more Delight in them, than a Fish would have in the pleasantest Meadow, or a Swine in a Jewel. They that are after the Spirit, may mind the Things of the Spirit; but they that are after the Flesh, do mind the Things of the Flesh. [Romans 8:5]. . . .

 7  But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8  Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9  Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

My friend, are you making light of Christ?

Do you have a higher esteem for the things of this world than for Christ and the salvation He purchased?

Have you made your fair promises and professed your willingness to Him ––
and yet all the while continued to cleave to the World, and to your sinful Courses?

Do you delight in Christ –– or do you consider Him as a fish would the pleasantest meadow and a swine a jewel?

Source: Richard Baxter's "The Causes and Danger Of slighting CHRIST and his GOSPEL:  Or, Eternal Salvation made light of by Multitudes, to whom it is freely offered," 1763 edition, abridged by Benjamin Fawcett. Accessed 11.12.12 from <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/baxter/causes.html>. I added the Scripture references in brackets, as well as the surrounding Scripture text from Matthew 22:1-14.

Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teachings_of_Jesus_29_of_40._the_man_without_a_wedding_garment._Jan_Luyken_etching._Bowyer_Bible.gif - Author Phillip Medhurst, Photo by Harry Kossuth. Copyleft: This is a free work, you can copy, distribute, and modify it under the terms of the Free Art License - http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en

More on Richard Baxter:

• Richard Baxter on "inward defects" and the "need of a higher work"
• the minister's examination: "Who is my master?"
• thoughts on necessity (Richard Baxter, myself)
• Happy Birthday, Richard Baxter: Reforming pastoral ministry

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• Resurrection Sunday: Two Responses to the Son (Psalm 2)
• Bible Reading: Lamentations 1:12-Is His Sacrifice nothing to you?
• Have you believed with your heart ... all your heart? (The Ethiopian Eunuch - Acts 8:37)
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• Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from George Whitefield
• Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from Jonathan Edwards
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• "Saving faith is wanting Jesus" ~ Are you loving His appearing or this present world?
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• Why preach the Gospel? # 1: Bad men need Good News!
• Why preach the Gospel? # 2: Dead men need Life!
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• At Calvary: Can you say, "I'm with Him"?