God's Answer: Praying the Scriptures About Todays Problems

By Jim Greene

Gods Word, the Holy Bible, is more than a history book or even an instruction manual. It is a personal love letter from God to his believers containing very specific promises.

Gods answer seeks to link your concerns with his promises and help you pray back the Scripture, his own words, to Him.

Jim Greene is a layman Sunday school teacher who challenges himself and his class to enjoy a closer relationship with God.

This book, along with his others, Unlocking Your Spiritual Greatness and A Place of Faith, are practical guides to that closer relationship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449753245

Jim Greene

Jim Greene makes his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. His countless hours in the outdoors and over two thousand miles backpacking have often blessed him with topics to write about. As a layman Sunday school teacher, he challenges himself and his class to strive for and enjoy a closer relationship with God. Jim’s first book, Unlocking Your Spiritual Greatness, provides an eye-opening explanation of the Christian disciplines as Christ-modeled activities and the path to spiritual greatness through a seven-week daily devotional study. Jim’s second book, Thoughts on Mountain Climbing, is his personal journal covering years of dreams, disappointments, triumph, and sage acceptance as a fifty-four-year-old Tennessee backpacker takes up mountain climbing. It is as much about dealing with goal setting and personal development as it is mountain climbing.

Book preview

God’s Answer

Praying the Scriptures About Todays Problems

Jim Greene

Author of

Unlocking Your Spiritual Greatness

Christian Disciplines for Daily Living

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Copyright © 2012 by Jim Greene.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All scripture references, unless otherwise indicated or noted as paraphrased are from the Holy Bible, New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978,1984, By International Bible Society. Used in accordance with Zondervan Publishing House guidelines.

Other books by James H. Greene, Jr.

Unlocking Your Spiritual Greatness 2005

Thoughts on Mountain Climbing 2011

A Place of Faith, 2012

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-5323-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5322-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5324-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012909172

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/23/2012

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Introduction

Section One      Prayer

Chapter 1      Understanding Prayer

Chapter 2      Your Covenant Prayer

Chapter 3      God’s Word on Prayer

Section two      If You Feel…

Chapter 4      Anger

Chapter 5      Condemnation or Guilt

Chapter 6      Dissatisfaction

Chapter 7      Discouragement

Chapter 8      Doubt

Chapter 9      Depression

Chapter 10      Fear

Chapter 11      Lonely

Chapter 12      Sick

Chapter 13      Worry and Anxiety

Section Three      If You Need…

Chapter 14      Confidence

Chapter 15      Discernment

Chapter 16      Encouragement

Chapter 17      Friends

Chapter 18      Forgiveness

Chapter 19      Patience

Chapter 20      Peace

Conclusion      The Way from Here

About the Author

I would have despaired

Unless I had believed I would see

the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

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Blessed be the Lord,

Who has given rest to His people Israel,

according to all that he promised.

There has not failed one word

of all his good promise.

1 Kings 8:56

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Heaven and earth will pass away,

but my words will never pass away.

Matthew 24:35

Dedication

To My Sister Susan

Who Understands, Who Encourages,

Who Knows what it is to hurt and to help.

To all who are searching for

God’s Answer.

Acknowledgements

This book is similar to my previous one, Unlocking Your Spiritual Greatness in that it has come together over a period of years and is absolutely a God-inspired work. I simply am not smart enough to hatch the idea behind it and incubate it into existence by my will alone.

Keeping me grounded has been the Parlor Sunday School Class at Union Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which I am proud to be a member and privileged to teach.

Challenging me to seek a continuing deeper relationship with Jesus has been my pastor, my friend and my brother in Christ for nearly thirty years, Leonard Turner.

I especially acknowledge my sister Susan who saw the worth of this work first and encouraged and in fact pushed me to be true to God’s leading and get God’s Answer into printed form. She knows what it is to hurt while encouraging and inspiring others at the same time. She is a God-fearing, Christ-modeled lady. I look forward to seeing her story in print soon. It is to her this book is dedicated.

Special thanks to Judy Perkins, without whose computer skills, editing expertise, creativity, patience and deep theological understanding God’s Answer would not have moved beyond an untidy draft copy. She truly is a pearl of great price and I am fortunate to have met her.

As I initially put pen to paper a few years ago, the words certainly were Biblically accurate and theologically correct. As the prayers within were composed, they came from a third person perspective as I tried to write from the viewpoint of one who needed help in some area, seeking to identify with that person. They were accurate, but perhaps not personal, at least not to me. After all, who would bear their soul for the world to see in the form of an intimate prayer? Yet now I have experienced God’s grace as this work has ministered to and buoyed its humbled author. How do we know God is real? We all have to answer that question for ourselves. Peter said to be ready to defend your faith both in season and out of season. What he meant was to know what you believe, in fact, to know in whom you believe. Though inspired, these pages had their origin in week upon week of intensive research, yet now they are alive and link my heart to God’s. I feel His presence as I read them and I pray they do the same for you. Only a very real God could do that.

I must acknowledge that the most credit for this work goes to God himself. He designed and created the world and gave His only Son so that I may enjoy His presence for all eternity. If that was not enough, He has directed this work from its inception.

Praise God!

Prologue

There is a concept that I’ve embraced over the last few years that if believed throughout the Body of Christ would literally change the world in which we live. I call it A Different Way of Thinking. Taken from Hebrews 5:13-14, 6:1-2, the instruction is to move from an elementary, even juvenile faith to a process of growing to spiritual maturity. Sadly, many Christians, rarely, if ever, experience the abundant, victorious, purposeful, Spiritually Great life that God referred to in Jeremiah 29:11.

The experience Christians are seeking is one of more. We want more peace, more assurance, more confidence, and the kind that marks the lives of more mature Christians. Yet the lives we live often exhibit the traits of an "infant, not acquainted with the teaching of righteousness." At the very core of more, is peace, not a passive, content peace, but an active confident peace.

Most Christians believe they can call on God in an attitude of what I call Hopeful Expectation. We understand what it is to expect something, but we could get a wrong idea about Hope. Hope is not wishful thinking anymore than faith is belief. We say our hope is in the Lord, our hope is in Jesus, but that doesn’t or shouldn’t mean we hope that He could or would or will save us. No, that Hope is complete; it is irreversible and based on His promises to us. However, in regard to Hopeful Expectation, we often hope that we will get what we want or have prayed for. Faith is the evidence of things to come. Think about the word, evidence. It means solid, factual or proven. It is something you can believe in. Our attitude about hope or faith needs to be one of Confident Assurance, not wishful thinking or hopeful expectation.

David had a clear vision of what Hope in the Lord, meant when he faced Goliath. The spectators that day only saw one giant, but the truth is that the giant that stood with David was far greater than the one opposing him. Had they seen the truth that David knew, that would have been a day of revival instead of a day of battle. That same truth, that same giant is with us today as was with David long ago. Greater is he that is within us than he who is in the world. This is not wishful thinking, it is not hopeful expectation, it is the bedrock of our faith, and it is the spirit or essence of Confident Assurance.

God has made many promises and they are recorded so we won’t forget. Elementary thinking is that God produced the Bible for us and that we should read it. Mature thinking is that we should apply His promises to our lives in an active, obedient faith that screams, God is trustworthy and I can obey and not worry.

God is near when we pray. He is with us always, and He will never leave nor forsake us. He has very good plans for us, yet we walk in weakness, fear and worry. It seems easier for us to believe the threats of the evil one than the promises of God. The way we live our lives is a personal choice. We often times blame our situation on chance or circumstance, but in reality the choices we have made for ourselves dictate the direction of our lives. It is a personal and deliberate choice we make to live and seek honor from God instead of man.

Introduction

Where to begin? What can we rely on as truth? Who has the answers to life’s problems? The hymn by J. P. Coats asks the question like this: Where Could I Go? And the answer is… but to the Lord. Yes, God is where we go and Jesus is the way to get there. In fact, He is the one and only way for us to gain happiness and contentment now and peace for all eternity. So we believe that our journey begins in the truth that Paul expressed to Timothy when he said that all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting