December 13: What to Pray For
Today in My Utmost for His Highest: http://www.myutmost.org/12/1213.html
Dear Jesus, Today's reading just gripped my soul! How amazingly relevant to all that is going on in the lives of the children of my heart!! These words just seemed to leap off the page when I read them: "In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession means filling up "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," and that is why there are so few intercessors. Intercession is put on the line of - "Put yourself in his place." Never! Try to put yourself in God's place."
We are taught by worldly values to empathize or try to feel what the other person is feeling, yet that attitude can be extremely harmful because we will focus only on eliminating whatever feels bad. It is easy to see the wisdom in ignoring feelings if we think of examples like a child undergoing chemotherapy, or someone choosing to cut off a foot to stop gangrene. Of course, those things feel bad, but we understand that the pain is necessary to save a life. We must train ourselves to realize that God's focus is always on redemption, even if that first brings on pain! May we never try to hinder God's plan for us or another person, but intercede until we are sure that we have the mind of Christ!!
Teach us the spiritual depths of Paul's teaching in I Corinthians 2: 14-16: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things... But we have the mind of Christ."
Dear Jesus, Today's reading just gripped my soul! How amazingly relevant to all that is going on in the lives of the children of my heart!! These words just seemed to leap off the page when I read them: "In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession means filling up "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," and that is why there are so few intercessors. Intercession is put on the line of - "Put yourself in his place." Never! Try to put yourself in God's place."
We are taught by worldly values to empathize or try to feel what the other person is feeling, yet that attitude can be extremely harmful because we will focus only on eliminating whatever feels bad. It is easy to see the wisdom in ignoring feelings if we think of examples like a child undergoing chemotherapy, or someone choosing to cut off a foot to stop gangrene. Of course, those things feel bad, but we understand that the pain is necessary to save a life. We must train ourselves to realize that God's focus is always on redemption, even if that first brings on pain! May we never try to hinder God's plan for us or another person, but intercede until we are sure that we have the mind of Christ!!
Teach us the spiritual depths of Paul's teaching in I Corinthians 2: 14-16: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things... But we have the mind of Christ."
posted by Jane at 5:16 AM
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