GRACE WORDS

The Sovereignty of God and Prayer John Piper   I am often asked, "If you believe God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11) and that his knowledge of all things past, present, and future is infallible, then what is the point of praying that anything happen?" Usually this question is asked in relation to human decision: "If God has predestined some to be his sons and chosen them before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4,5), then what's the point in praying for anyone's conversion?"    The implicit argument here is that if prayer is to be possible at all man must have the power of self-determination. That is, all man's decisions must ultimately belong to himself, not God. For otherwise he is determined by God and all his decisions are really fixed in God's eternal counsel. Let's examine the reasonableness of this argument by reflecting on the example cited above. 1. "Why pray...

HAVE FAITH Without Faith It Is Impossible To Please God Faith is one area that in the Bible we are encouraged to hold fast onto. The Bible tells us; “But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].” (Hebrews 11:6 AMP) “But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38 AMP) In Hebrews 11:6 and 10:38 it is very plain that without faith you cannot please God and God will not have pleasure in you. This means that walking out of (not in) faith is very displeasing to God. Jesus rebuked the people for their faithlessness, and rebuked Hi...

“Try to learn what pleases the LORD.” (Ephesians 5:10 GNB) Praise the LORD! It is my prayer that having done all, at the end of my time here on earth, Father God will be proud of me and to say to me “ Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” (Matthew 25:34 Webster) It is so sad that people put more of their efforts on things which do not last; vain things, things which are seen and do not last, being temporary. We live our lives trying so hard to please everybody, trying to please people, and the truth is we will never be able to enough please everybody. We can never fully enough please the people around us that we live with or that we meet in everyday of our lives. Like a servant who by all means work to the best of his ability to please his master but to his surprise ends up being considered as lazy in the eyes of his master, as one who does nothing at all, so are we (children of God) in this world when we target to...