The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Clean Hands
When you pray, do you ever feel like the echo of your own voice is the only response? There are several factors that can hinder our prayers like this, two of which are sin and spiritual warfare.
Psalm 24:3-4 designates the conditions of holiness by which we are able to enter God’s presence in prayer: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully.”
Once we have been saved by grace, everything about our life with Christ should follow intentional choice on our part to obey and imitate Christ. 2 Timothy 2:22 exhorts us to “flee also youthful lusts…follow righteousness, faith, charity, and peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” 1 Peter 1:13-213 specifies how to do that. What better way to prepare our minds for the act of following Christ than by studying and knowing the Word of God, the Bible:
“Wherefore [prepare your mind for action]. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as He which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of how you live because it is written, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy.’
And if you call on the Father who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear/reverence [knowing that] you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain way of life received by tradition from your fathers. But [you were redeemed] with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by Him do believe in God that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently because you are born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.”
The spiritual warfare that surrounds us is dealt with in the same intentional way:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds: Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Co. 10:3-6).
We learn from Old Testament history about the many people who have gone before us in obedience to God based on faith in the promise of God as handed down from generation to generation primarily by word of mouth. Hebrews 11, the “faith chapter”, lists a few of those who obeyed God’s Word and direction by faith. The list is followed by this declaration towards learning the lessons of history:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. [Let us be] looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:1-3).
Finally, in John 15:3-4 Jesus encouraged His disciples to the strength of holiness that comes from an intentional focus on walking closely with Him according to His Word: “Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me.”
