Subtracting in Order to Add

The followers of Christ at Immanuel Baptist Church are seeking to expand our participation in prayer. Most of us know more about prayer then we actually pray. The 33 Days of Fervent Prayer emphasis is seeking to increase our fervency and frequency in praying. Each day there is a Bible prayer read and a brief spiritual insight to consider. The Bible prayer for a recent entry was Psalm 51. Get your Bible and read it aloud now...before you read any further.

The spiritual insight to consider for this entry was the following excerpt from Jim Cymbala's book, Fresh Faith...

"If silver is contaminated with dross, it does no good just to add more ore to the pile. The silversmith will not be able to make something beautiful out of it, no matter how large the pile or how much effort is given. Something has to be removed. As long as impurities remain, the silver will not be shiny and smooth. We readily accept this truth in many areas, but spiritually we resist it.

"Many of us are quick to shout “Hallelujah” and celebrate God’s blessings. Others of us have a sound intellectual grasp of Bible doctrine. This is all good - but we can easily avoid the fact that all the noise and knowledge in the world will take us nowhere if there is unremoved dross in our lives. All the talking in the world won’t produce a godly life without the Lord’s intimate, ongoing
refining process in our hearts.

"Some of us are overextended financially. Others of us have a calendar that is way too busy. The only way to get healthy is to remove the indebtedness, to cut back the busyness. Whatever clutters our walk with God becomes the target of His purging process.

"So many of us think that the more we do and the more we acquire, the happier we will be. Wrong! This is why so many Christians do not see God’s purposes worked out in their lives. They can quote the Bible verse about the peace of God that passes all understanding, but don’t have life experience of what it means.

"Because God loves you, He will always be direct with you. He tells you the truth. He is absolutely ruthless in going after the things that spoil the flow of His grace and blessing into our lives. His process is to subtract in order to add. He will never make a treaty with our secret pockets of sin. 'That has to go,' He will insist. 'You cannot go on with that in your life. I cannot make a beautiful silver vessel with that dross still present.' We have to face the fact that, in order to be what God wants us to be, He will have to take away the things in our lives that don’t belong."

Ponder this truth and how it applies to your life. Then, have a session of prayer during which you ask the Lord to subtract the dross so that your purity increases.

(If you are interested in pursuing 33 Days of Fervent Prayer in your life, visit www.ibcwausau.org)