Live Righteously

Are We Preventing God’s Blessings in Our Lives? I would dare say that we are.

Yesterday I was just sitting reading and my dog came up and wanted some attention. So being in a spiritual mindset (I was reading about evangelism) I prayed to the Lord to have my dog go away for a bit. But then I did something really stupid and contrary to my prayer… I reached down and started to pet the dog. Now why would I reach down to pet him and give him love if I want him to go away?!?!? I have no idea.

Now this made me start thinking, how many times have we prayed that something would happen in our lives when we are doing something completely contrary?  How often do we limit the power of prayer in our lives? Do we say “Lord, please remove this temptation from me!” as we’re reaching our hand into the cookie jar? Do we say “Lord, please  heal me of this disease” as we’re deliberately disobeying the doctor’s orders?

Seriously, how often do we do this?!?!? I am going to start examining my own requests and actions to see where I am praying but acting contrary to what I have asked for. I encourage you to do the same and then take action to behave in a manner in accordance to your prayers and requests.

Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Biblical Concepts, How to Live, Power of Prayer, Today

This morning I woke up (as I occasionally do) with a praise song repeating in my head. The lyrics that I kept repeating were “So what can I say, What can I do, But offer this heart O God, Completely to You”. I had to look it up to find out that it is Hillsong’s “The Stand”. Hillsong, thank you for writing such a great song and so many others like it.

So after I got up and started thinking, I wondered how do we really offer our hearts completely to God? What does that look like? Is it something permanent or something that we must do every day?

Having no answers but only more questions I sat down to eat breakfast and read my bible passage of the day. Un-ironically, the passage was Galatians 5:16 - 6:18. What a godsend! That was exactly what I needed to read and God knew what it. God knew what I would be reading and he placed the song in my head to get my mind going first thing in the morning! I am not surprised that he does this, but excited. I love it when I really feel the Lord speaking to me.

Galatians 5:16 in the N.I.V. tells us “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” So I started wondering, how does one live by the spirit? Well, we know that the Holy Spirit lives in all who believe in Jesus Christ and are called to Him. Ok, so I have the Holy spirit, but how do I live by it? I am convinced that the way we live by the Spirit is through constant prayer.

By constant prayer, I don’t mean that we pray and do nothing else but that, in our daily lives, we pray when we have time. We should pray when we are driving, when someone makes us angry, when we don’t know whether we should go left or right… We should pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit in all circumstances. Prayers don’t have to be long, drawn out, well thought-out with lots of long words. We would do well to remember Peter’s prayer in Matthew 14:30, “Lord, save me!” There are only 3 words to this prayer but it was said in honest desperation and the Lord answered him and saved him. When we are angry or don’t know what to say, a simple “Lord, give me the words to say” will do wonders for us.

As I write this and pray about what to write, I am becoming more and more convinced that to live in the Spirit simply means that we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives and we submit to God’s will for us. And we submit by praying, listening and obeying. This is a lesson that I truly need to learn. I need to obey. And obedience to Jesus Christ is the only way to live righteously.

To whoever is reading this, I thank you for reading. I thank you for being interested in what I have to say and I hope that this helps you as much as it does me. Much of this isn’t written for others as much as it is written for me, that I may come to understand more about my own faith and I may grow in that faith. If you are encouraged by what you read here, please send me a comment. I’d love to know that you are being encouraged by my ramblings.

God bless you,
Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Biblical Concepts, Holy Spirit, How to Live, Power of Prayer, Today

I need God’s guidance for my life. I have made so many problems in my life worse by simply thinking that I could fix them on my own. If I act without God’s guidance, whatever I do is certain to fail. I have learned that from real and practical experience.

God is perfect and He has a perfect will and plan for my life. I just need to know what that plan is. But, how can a person know the mind of God? To know the mind of God, a man or woman must speak to God and then allow God to reply. A conversation is of no use to either party if only 1 person is allowed to talk. So how do we learn to let God reply to our prayers and petitions?

I just finished reading a book called “God Guides” by Mary Geegh. It is such a quick read, at only 60 pages, that I started and finished it in the same night. The gist of it is how Mary, who was a missionary in India, continuously asked the Lord for guidance and she listened for the answer. The method that she used can almost fill a whole page of the book. So after she gives us the “how to” she then gives many pages of inspiring real-life stories about how she was instructed by God and what happened when she did what she was told. A major theme of the book is simply Listen and Obey.

I have decided to follow Mary’s example and seek God’s guidance in my life. I want to add people to the fold of God as she was in her book. The way that God used her, and the people she ministered to, to enlarge his kingdom is beautiful. It was not a preachy way but a practical way of winning converts through changed lives and common sense.

You can purchase the book from Mary’s family for $3.50 at God Guides.

God Bless you,
Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Books, Life-Changing, Power of Prayer

I recently heard a quote that, in essence, said “if the holy spirit left the churches of the United States, 95% of church activities would continue as they were before”. That is sad. That means that we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our lives and that we are just going about blindly, trying to do what our own sinful hearts and minds think is right.

As I write these posts, I often pray that the words I use will not be mine but will be what God wants me to say. I want Him to be glorified by what I write. I want His truth to be what you read and not just my own nonsensical ramblings. After I pray about what to type, I am often told to change a sentance or even remove entire paragraphs. That happened a lot in my Prop 8 Was I Wrong post. Whenever I got ahead of myself, I was corrected and told to fix what was wrong. And that is a perfect example of both living with and without the Holy Spirit.

I know many Christians who do not pray except when times are tough. If they are sick, taking a difficult exam, they don’t have enough money to last them through the month… When times are though they pray but not when times are good. Ephesians 6:18-20 says “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

So if we don’t pray how can we possibly know the Lord’s will for us? How can we possible be lead by the spirit if we don’t have communication with God? How can we even think that we are doing the right thing if we don’t ask for wisdom and guidance? The simple answer is that we can’t and without prayer, the Christian faith is impotent.

I pray that everyone who reads this blog would take time to pray for themselves and their friends, their family and their church leaders, your missionaries and political leaders, for those who preach the Word and those who listen. May everyone who reads this take time to pray and cultivate a prayer life. In the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, I pray. Amen.

God bless you,
Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Holy Spirit, How to Live, Power of Prayer

Galations 2:20 states “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is not an easy concept to grasp for a new believer and the longer I am a Christian, the more I desire to fully understand it. In all actuality, I have a basic understanding of it but what I really want is to realize it, to feel it, to experience it and fully accept that Jesus Christ lives in me. And I believe that is the key phrase. “…what I really want is to …  fully accept that Jesus Christ lives in me.”

I haven’t fully accepted that Christ lives in be because I haven’t given up my right to my own life. I still hold on to it like a little kid holds on to one toy when his mother is giving him a better one. In my mind I know that what God wants for me is FAR BETTER than what I want for myself. But, in my heart, I still want to control my own path and destiny.

Why, if I know that the second thing is better, do I still hold on to the first thing? Pride. The simple answer is pride. I am, and have always been, a prideful person.

I pray that the Lord would see fit to teach me how to live in the knowledge of His love and power in my life, that He would show me what it truly means to trust Him, that He would show me how to relinquish control over my life and give it to Him.

Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: About Me, Biblical Concepts, How to Live