Walking with God and Avoiding Obstacles to Progress – Purity 1408
Purity 1408 07/23/2024 Purity 1408 Audio Podcast
Purity 1408 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the silhouettes of a pair of trees at twilight time comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene upon returning to my countryside home from an evening’s walk back on April 20th of this year.
Well, its Tuesday, but for me it’s as easy as Sunday morning because I am at my countryside home with my wife this morning. Due to my shifted work tour, I have the day off from my secular day job and was happy just to be in TammyLyn’s presence even though it was a “school night”. This morning I was pondering using my day off to go to the beach but my weather app indicates that rain is in the offering so I will probably make my way back to my place down by the river for a day of rest, prayer, and study.
While that may sound like a mini monastic retreat, in truth that’s just par for the course because Christian books, videos, and podcasts make up a good 80-90% of what I guess you could consider as my form of “entertainment” and my “prayer life” is a semi-continuous state as I try to “keep on walking and talking with God” throughout my day by living in the context of my faith and by conversing with the Lord as I go about my business, usually asking for God’s thoughts, guidance, revelation, and forgiveness depending on what I encounter.
Walking in the Spirit is living by faith, and I have learned that life is best done in the company of the Lord. So I talk to Him and seek His presence comfort, love, and wisdom whenever I am conscious of the need for Him, which is always. Before Christ, I used to do a lot of “self-talk”. Now I talk to God and the great thing is that, in ways that are sometimes subtle or quite loud, He talks back. So I ask Him for help, thank Him for who He is, what He has done, and what he is doing in my life and in the world as part of our ongoing conversation of “prayer”.
The other day one of my life-coaching clients came to the realization that he doesn’t have to try to establish himself or please God through his performance. As far as the Lord is concerned, he is a child of God who is accepted, secure, and significant, and he is beginning to understand that about himself and that God is more concerned with his character and becoming the person He created Him to be than He is about him “being somebody” according to the world’s standards of success.
Through the material I have provided him to draw from, my client is drawing closer to the Lord and is seeing how when his focus shifts from God to the world, his anxiety and worries increase and steal from him the rest that the Lord invites us into. He is realizing that because of his turning to his phone or other technology for entertainment or news and because his thoughts are turned toward the world or the uncertainties of the future, he is always distracted or worried and he is discovering the peace that comes from unplugging and resting in the present moment with His thoughts turned to God and His goodness, grace, and presence.
Through his examination of his experience, my client is learning how to walk in the Spirit and is discovering how an effective life in the Lord’s presence works. It’s simple but it’s not necessarily easy because we have been trained to live according to the world’s performance-based patterns and unless we are intentional about seeking the Lord the peace he has for us will be difficult to find.
I hate to keep borrowing from other resources but good teaching is good teaching and frankly, I don’t consider myself to be an expert by any means, and the whole of “my ministry is sharing with others what I have learned so, today I am again sharing from Dr. Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries for today (https://www.intouch.org/read/daily-devotions) because we not only have to know how to make progress in our walk of faith, we also need to know what to avoid – or what obstacles can prevent an effective life of faith, or an effective life of prayer. So, Dr Charles Stanley writes about:
“Avoiding Obstacles to Effective Prayer
“Some of David’s prayers are recorded in the book of Psalms. He praised the Lord, confessed sin, and cried out about his troubles. To pursue a rich prayer life like David’s, we must avoid certain hindrances, such as:
• Wavering faith (James 1:5-8). Doubts about God’s character or dependability diminish our trust in Him. Therefore, we must not allow feelings to dictate what we believe.
• Wrong motives (James 4:3). We can’t expect an affirmative answer when petitions are motivated by selfish desires. God wants us to pray for His will to be done—not ours.
• Conflict in relationships. Being resentful or argumentative with others will affect communication with the Father.
• Lack of generosity (Proverbs 21:13). God is displeased when we ignore people’s needs or give begrudgingly.
• Indifference (Proverbs 28:9). Apathy to the Scriptures is another stumbling block. God has given us the Bible so that we might know Him and serve Him wholeheartedly.
If your prayers have not been answered, consider which, if any, of the above issues may need correction. Then, try personalizing the prayers that you read in the Psalms or elsewhere in God’s Word.”
Amen. In our walk of faith, we have to examine what we are doing and make corrections as we go. So as the 20th-century philosopher and rapper, Ice Cube said, “check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self”, and if you are checking boxes on any one of these obstacles to effective prayer, repent and get right with God in that area to see what progress you can make to become more and more like the person He created you to be.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on False Prophets, Teachers.
Revelation 2:2-3 (NKJV)
2 I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;
3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.
Today’s verse falls under the twelfth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on False Prophets, Teachers.
12. Jesus commends the church that tests what it hears, and will not tolerate false teachers.
Today’s verses encourage us to test and examine those who would claim to be apostles and to be true to God’s truth by working for His purposes knowing that our Heavenly Father sees us and knows our labors.
There are in certain faith circles those who claim the “office of apostle”, small “a”, stating that they are “sent ones” and generally have church planting on their resumes to substantiate their claims to that office. Whether or not the office and title of Apostle (big or small a) is still active or should only be reserved for the original disciples, is a matter of debate and as far as I am concerned as long as we are working for God’s kingdom purposes I am not particularly concerned with what we call ourselves. However, I do care about how you represent God’s kingdom and how you use your title to work for the Lord.
Jesus told us that whoever desires to be great would be a servant to all and He rebuked the Apostles for their debates of who was the greatest, so if someone is calling themselves an apostle to “lord it over others” as someone to be “highly exalted”, I wonder if they know that we are to be humble. So be wise and discerning regarding those who say they are apostles and examine their works to see if they have labored for the Lord’s sake or for the sake of themselves.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
MORNING READING: GALATIANS 5
“Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh.” – Galatians 5:16
“Walking” presupposes:
Life. So the apostle says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:15). There must be the initial life.
Exercise and Effort. This exercise and effort must not be the energy of the flesh; it must be the appropriating of faith, the faith which appropriates the filling of the Spirit in obedience to the command, “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).
Progress. The man who walks makes progress. This walking is in contrast to standing still. Moreover, progress is the admission of failure. He who sees no failure in his life makes no progress. Progress in the spiritual sense is progress in the personal experience of the Holy Spirit. And when He overcomes failure in one’s life, then there is no more fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh.
May I walk, O Lord, daily by Your side.[1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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