“The LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house stood beside him, urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, ‘While the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we tell him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.’ But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, he perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, ‘Is the child dead?’ They said, ‘He is dead.’

Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the LORD, and worshipped”  (2 Samuel 12:15b-20).

This is the account of the child born to Bathsheba and David after David took advantage of Bathsheba. After all the prayer, fasting for a week, and groveling on the ground pleading with God for the life of the child, when the child died, David worshiped.

Isn’t that odd?

In this pericope, we come to see the nature of prayer. Prayer is not about having our way, but surrendering and submitting to the sovereign will of God.

More than ever our world needs the prayers of God’s people. The prayers of the faithful for our country, our cities, and our churches are more vital than ever before. But praying is not about demanding God to heed our wishes and prayers. Prayer is letting God know what our desires are but ultimately submitting and surrendering to God and God’s will.

The reason why David worshiped when the child died is because God made his will crystal clear. David worshiped because God had answered his prayer!

Pray, church. Pray! Let God know what is in our hearts and what we would like to see happen in the world. Then surrender and submit to God’s will and God’s sovereignty, and worship. God is God. We are not.

God loves to hear and answer our prayers. God always answers our prayers. God may not answer our prayers the way we want them answered, but God always answers our prayers according to his sovereign will. And because God is a good and loving God, we worship!

That is the posture of prayer.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

There’s a battle going on in the world. It is fought not on battlefields, but through media, news networks, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok. The prize for which everyone is after is not more territory and lands, but the minds and hearts of people. There is a narrative that the educated, powerful, and the influencers of this world demand that others accept.

John Lilly is quoted as saying, “In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.”

Please read that quote again. It is so important that we get our thinking right; that we protect the minds of Christians.

It is absolutely vital Christ-followers protect and guard our minds and our thoughts. What we believe absolutely matters. When we are not careful to guard our minds, we allow narratives that are contrary to the revealed truth of God to seep into our minds. And before we know it, Christ-followers have a difficult time discerning between the truth revealed to us in Scriptures from the truth that the world is feeding us.

Friends, our baseline is the revealed word of God. That is the truth by which all others are measured by. Protect your mind by staying close to God’s word on a daily basis.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

“His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature.

“For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are your and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:5-8)

We close out our fruit of the Spirit study today. I’ve learned a lot studying the fruit of the Spirit with you over the last nine weeks. NINE WEEKS!!! Had no idea when we entered into this covid-19 world that we would be spending this much time without being able to see each other in person.

First, “Thank you!!!” You are an amazing church. It is such a privilege to do church with you all. Thank you for your faithfulness and resilience during unprecedented times.

Second, “I really miss you!!!” I miss worshiping with you. I miss running into you at Starbucks. I miss your hugs, smiles, and laughter. Know you are regularly in my thoughts and prayers because you are loved.

Finally, this brings us to the word of the day. Peter encourages the church to “make every effort to support self-control with endurance.” 

Self-control, self-mastery, self-restraint with endurance.

What apt words for our unprecedented times: self-control and endurance.

That’s the thing about self-control and endurance: self-control and self-restraint isn’t self-control and self-restraint without endurance. We do not have self-control, self-restraint, and self-mastery by doing it once. It is a never-ending practice of surrendering to the will of God that self-control, self-restraint, and self-mastery becomes an evidence of the Spirit of God working in us.

Little Church and Lakewoodgrace, we are in this for the long haul. God is at work in you and me to make us more like him as he develops the characteristics of the Spirit of God in us. Stand firm in your faith and lean into the presence of Christ as you allow the Holy Spirit to build up love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in you. And, I promise I will be doing the same thing.

Have a blessed weekend!

Pastor James <><