Author name: Tom Stuart

Is it time you took a rest?

5 Comments / News & Reflections, Overcoming, Relationship with God, Uncategorized /

For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him! (Isaiah 64:4 NLT)

There is a foundational spiritual principle for realizing inner peace, transformation and breakthrough in life. And it is this, it only happens when we choose to rest and let God do the work. This is a simple truth but it is not easy to do because it is counter intuitive to human reason and how the world operates.

The fact remains, in the spiritual realm and in God’s kingdom it is all about His work from beginning to end. Our relationship with God, His choice of us, our acceptance and forgiveness, our very sonship is based upon His work and not ours. Paul writes “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes (trusts) in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,” (Romans 4:4-5 ESV)

In God’s economy the operating principle for increase is not driven by earning, but by receiving. Therefore it is God’s delight to “gift” His creation with good things like righteousness and salvation. The main thing that requires of us is not work but trust. There is a big difference between those two, working versus trustin. When that understanding first dawned on me as an unredeemed struggling sinner, and it actually happened when those two verses out of Romans jumped off the page into my heart at a home bible study, it rocked my world. I felt liberated from the frustration and inability on my part to earn acceptance from God and I found myself rejoicing in that fact that what I could not do for myself, God had already done and was offering it as a free gift. His only requirement of me was that I trust Him to do it – to cease from my work and trust Him do the work.

Recently I had to have a minor surgery on my hand. It required submitting myself to anesthesia and the care and skill of my doctor and those who attended him. I would not have done it if I had not trusted the surgeon to do what I could not do myself. Because I was “out” during the whole procedure, it could be said I was ceasing from my labors in “resting” while I trusted him do all the work. As a result, I have become the recipient of a new and better functioning hand.

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Could it have been avoided?

Overcoming, Prayer /

The senseless mass murder at the Naval Ship Yard in our nation’s capital this week raises many questions. Not the least of which “could it have been avoided?” Many things, as with past massacres such as the Newtown School shootings less than a year ago, are under consideration that shoulda woulda coulda been done to prevent such tragedies. But I have not heard, at least through secular media, even a hint or suggestion that it could have been avoided through prayer. To even suggest that prayer might have headed off such a tragedy doubtless jars the sensibilities of some, but let us stop for a moment and consider it as a possibility.

In the bible, both Old and New Testaments there are numerous accounts of earnest, concentrated prayer being made where tragedy was thereby averted Jerusalem’s last minute deliverance from its own imminent demise when surrounded by the Assyrians during the reign of King Hezekiah was a direct and miraculous answer to prayer. And the Apostle Peter’s eleventh hour escape from prison and certain death directly coincided with a prayer meeting that was focused on his behalf. (2 Kings 19 & Acts 12:5-16)

And even more noteworthy is the fact that throughout the Bible God actually encourages individuals to take up positions as watchmen in prayer specifically for the purpose of being a safeguard against evil. Many of the prophets, including Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah and Habakkuk were specifically called by God as watchmen to intercede on behalf of God’s purposes in the nations. God told Isaiah “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest till He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” (Isaiah 62:6-7 NIV)

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The Life of Jesus – Our Call to Prayer

Prayer, Uncategorized /

The most compelling argument ever presented for cultivating a praying lifestyle is found in studying the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus was both the quintessential pray-er and the world’s unparalleled expert on prayer. There are well over 100 verses in the gospels that recount His personal prayer habits, His teachings on prayer and thankfully many of His actual prayers.

We know that His life was punctuated by prayer from the beginning of His ministry to the end and He did it as naturally as breathing. He was praying when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him at His baptism in the Jordan River and He was praying with His last breath from the cross. He was want to spend both late nights and early mornings in prayer. And it was not unusual for Him to pull all-nighters when wrestling with weighty decision like His choice of the twelve apostles. (Luke 6:12=13)

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The Transcendent Power of the Lord’s Prayer

Prayer, Relationship with God /

“Our Father . . . give us . . . forgive us . . .lead us . . .deliver us.”

This past week I was one of approximately 150 unlikely people drawn together by a mutual desire to support the family of a dear saint who suffered an untimely death. At such times there is an understandable awkwardness, in part due to the diversity of those in attendance and the fact that many, although they knew the deceased, do not know one another. When we gathered in the funeral home chapel, and the service proceeded, as is often the case, one could hear a pin drop save for the voice of the pastor conducting the service.

Toward the end of the service, the pastor invited the congregation to stand and join her in the saying the Lord’s Prayer. I must say, given the mix of people in the room, the wide age span, obvious diversity of religious backgrounds and solemnity permeating the room, I did not expect much response – perhaps at best a perfunctory mumbling recitation by a few who knew the prayer and professed a Christian faith. I was genuinely and pleasantly caught off guard. The entire gathering, almost with gusto, prayed the entire prayer from memory without a hitch and the volume and deep resonance of the blended voices filled the room. It was as if the lid of a pressure cooker had been taken off releasing a pent up expression of corporate faith and love. The atmosphere in the room changed with the confession of that timeless prayer. In some mysterious way it bound everyone together in a shared grief for the passing of a loved one and the hope of eternity and the resurrection. It was, at least for me, a holy moment worth treasuring and meditating upon.

Why, in what is increasingly being called a non-Christian culture, does the Lord’s Prayer still have such a wide base appeal and effect? There are probably a number of reasons that could be cited. I will limit my attempts to answer this question to two.

First the Lord’s Prayer reveals some very compelling qualities about the God to whom Jesus was instructing us to pray.

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4 Things I am (Re)Learning about Prayer

4 Comments / Answers to Prayer!, Prayer /

Those of you who read this blog with any regularity have probably noticed that most of my posts over the past months have been on the same topic. You may have been wondering what happened to Tom? His blogs used to be more interesting, now all he talks about is prayer. . . . boring!

Well back on March 16, nearly five months ago now, something did happen. That morning when I was meditating on Jesus’ words “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17) I felt the Lord speak to me as clearly as I have ever heard Him. From deep within my spirit the Holy Spirit gave me this simple repetitive prayer for myself: “Make me a house of prayer. Make me a house of prayer. Make me a house of prayer . . . .”

Since the Bible calls each individual believer in Christ a temple of the Holy Spirit I had a stark realization. Before the Church, big “C”, and churches, little “c”, can become a house of prayer, each believer must first become a house of prayer. And that includes me! I have been praying this prayer daily ever since.

It has had a marked effect upon my life. The more I have prayed it, the more the desire to pray has grown within me leading to a more consistent and deeper prayer life than I have ever experienced. In the process I am discovering that my perspective and understanding of prayer are undergoing a subtle transformation.

Here are four things I am seeing with greater clarity:

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