Banking On You | God Blog

Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.
- William Blake

Banking On You

Psalms of Delight...

Most of the Bible's Psalms give thanks to God on one or more levels. Commanded to do so, Christians aught to make the time to praise God for His glorious nature, creative genius and many gifts to mankind.

Psalms of Delight are written in concert with Psalms in the Night. Both series contain Modern Psalms meant to comfort and inspire those seeking the Omni-God revealed in Scripture.

Banking On You Summary

My greatest hope is in the goodness of God and authentic answered prayer. My greatest fear is that if we continue in our shameful behavior we'll soon find ourselves with neither.

Unthankfulness is a large part entitlement. Sadly. the original sin is alive and well in both Christians or our counterparts. Hardness of heart to the amazing marvels daily taken for granted, even in the face of horrific global need, unfortunately provides a shinning example. Before we ask more of the Lord we should examine our attitudes and actions carefully.

No mercy will be shown to those who show no mercy to others. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

- James 2:13 GW

Banking On You
Modern Psalm of Delight 6

I ask again today for permission to speak freely. While asking may be light years from receiving, it seem preferable to merely presuming. Particular since according to David, You:

"Investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking... I'm never our of you sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence." Psalm 139:1-4 MSG

Speaking of Your Book, You know I love it. truth be told, some parts more than others. Of course we all do, though we don't all admit it.

In fact, I wanted to remind You of a verse or two. Not because I think You forget but because I'd like to see greater fulfillment in my life and those of others.

Before we get into it, once again please forgive my and our many sins as I've already detailed in my daily prayer. Particularly forgive our unthankfulness and doubt in the face of our taking for granted such outrageous blessings and the answers to prayers of all past generations.

Okay. With the preliminaries out of the way let's get to it. Things aren't going so well down here. Not in my life, that of my family and for pretty much as far as the eye can see. We've discussed the specifics ad infinitum. Which is somewhat ironic given You've known the details before the "foundations of the world." Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do it. Happy to pray and keep on praying for everything great and small.

It's just we would be a lot happier to see a lot more answers. After seventy thousand hours of serving and seeking You I understand better than most there are conditions to answered prayer. Nevertheless, individually and collectively, outside and even inside the church are under Your judgment, I'm banking big time on Scriptures like:

"Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time." James 2:12-13 MSG

”The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:7-8

Unlike many Bible students I'm aware there’s a whole slew of "scary Scriptures" even spoken by Jesus' own lips in regards to His church. Little wonder the virtue of fear is well developed in both the Old and New Testaments. Even so, it seems to me that verses like these give us a promise of hope to rest genuine faith on. As in the great passage where You outsmart the Pharisees when they bring You a woman caught in adultery:

"As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 'Teacher,' they said to Jesus, 'this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?' They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, 'All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!' Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?' 'No, Lord,' she said. And Jesus said, 'Neither do I. Go and sin no more.' John 8:3-11

Man! If You came through so abundantly for an adulteress whom God's Law at the time demanded be stoned, what of the needs of your present day disciples? Particularly those who are broken before You over their share in Peter's 2nd great confession. Seems to me it's in all our best interest to fully answer Paul's greatest prayer and provide for us "exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or think" when it comes to the power we need to break through our spiritual impasse and get down to serious Kingdom business.

But if You'll forgive me for saying, we're about as far from true, no hype, Pentecostal power as we can get today. If modern Christianity came upon the lame beggar at the Temple Gate Beautiful the story would go much differently. About the best we could do would be to say: "Silver and gold have we none but here's a copy of the Four Spiritual Laws." If You were compiling modern day deeds You'd have to rename the Book of Acts the Book of Words.

What I'm saying is we need more of You and in a hurry. Truth is, we're running so low on the kind of faith that saves and disciples, delivers and heals that we rarely even ask for it any more. But I'm still asking. I'm still seeking. I'm still knocking. I'm banking heavy on many other Scriptures as well. One in particular seems appropriate. You said:

"Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence." Luke 11:5-8

Allow me blunt. It may well be midnight in more ways than one. You may be tucked up nice and neat in Heaven with all the apostles and saints that have come before. But You should know I aim to be "shamelessly persistent" until You "get up and give us whatever we need" to get this vital and eternal great commission done right.

I'm begging You to do so right now, before it's too late. I know You want to because You repeatedly said as much. And Lord, when it comes to Your word, we're all banking on it.

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