“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”” (Matthew 22:37–40, ESV)

It is one thing to agree that the Two Great Commands should be operative in my life, it is entirely another for them to actually be operative. It is one thing to give assent to these commands, it is another thing to put them into action.

I thought about this during worship this morning (I’m writing on Sunday night). In our hymns and songs, we sometimes sing songs that are more aspirational than actual. In other words, we sing of things as we would like them to be but are not currently there.

I have a similar response to the two great commands. I give assent to them being true and right. I aspire to put them into practice, but I fall short on implementing both of the commands. I want to love God with my entire being, but too many things distract me from carrying through on it. I agree that I ought to love God that way but fail to put action to my inclination. I am resigned to the fact that I will never be whole-hearted in my devotion to God. I want to be, I seek to be, I try to be, but I fall short.

This is why I am glad that God saw fit to include Romans 7 in the Bible. I am glad because I find that I am in good company when I face my inability to carry out the commands. It turns out that the Apostle Paul shared this struggle with me. This fellowship gives at least partial comfort.

But like Paul, I can cling to the words in Romans 8:1, which tell me that even in my failure I am not condemned by God if I am in Christ Jesus.

For now, I will continue to have a gap between my assent and my action, but it will not always be so.

One day, Jesus will return or I will go to meet him and all will be put to right. The gap will be eliminated. Assent and action will be simultaneous.

What a relief that will be.

Last week I was challenged by a church planter who said, “we need to have a theology of conversion along with a theology of compassion.”

This statement struck a cord with me.

Jesus clearly articulated a theology of conversion. Matthew records Jesus as beginning his ministry with the statement, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Repentance is a key component to conversion.

We also see Jesus, all throughout the Gospels, living a life of compassion. Jesus met the physical and spiritual needs of those he encountered in his mission on Earth. A statement such as “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) demonstrates Jesus’ sense of compassion.

Without the theology of compassion, it is unlikely that non-believers will be willing to hear our theology of conversion. Jesus met the obvious need while pointing to the greater need. The greater need being a restored relationship with God. For example, in John 4:7-15, Jesus turned a conversation about water (an essential need) into a conversation about eternal life.

To live out a theology of compassion without pointing to the need for conversion provides short term relief but ignores the eternal.  If Jesus is who he said he is and if what he said about eternity is correct, then the stakes are very high and the eternal destiny of of those to whom we minister should weigh heavily in how we minister.

Both the theology of compassion and the theology of conversion must be operational for effective ministry to take place (Tweet This).

I read this paragraph this morning and thought it too good not to share:

“Prayer, in many ways, is the supreme expression of our faith in God and our faith and confidence in the promises of God (Tweet this). There is nothing that a man ever does which so proclaims his faith as when he gets down on this knees and looks to God and talks to God. It is a tremendous confession of faith. I mean by this that he is not just running with his requests and petitions, but if he really waits upon God, if he really looks to God, he is there saying, ‘Yes, I believe it all, I believe that you are a rewarder of them that diligently seek you, I believe you are the Creator of all things and all things are in your hands. I know there is nothing outside of your control. I come to you because you are in all this and I find peace and rest and quiet in your holy presence and I am praying to you because you are what you are.’ That is the whole approach to prayer that you fin d in the teaching of Scripture.”

– Martyn Lloyd-Jones from The Assurance of Salvation.

This morning, I started reading The Assurance of Salvation by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which is an exposition of John 17, and ran across this paragraph:

“. . . I would argue that our Lord would never have uttered this prayer audibly unless he had intended that we should hear it and that we should be able to study it and, above all, that w should be able to grasp its teaching. He did not merely pray to God, he prayed audibly to God, and the disciples heard him. Thus the prayer was preserved, and it seems to me that in this we have a wonderful illustration of the kindness of our Lord in allowing his disciples to hear this prayer and in arranging that it should be recorded in this way.”

Earlier this week, I wrote about pitfalls in praying which broached the topic of corporate prayer. Having this in mind, what struck me about Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ comment is his emphasis on Jesus praying audibly. He prayed aloud and in the presence of his disciples.

If (since) we are comforted by hearing Jesus pray, it stands to reason that we can also be comforted and a comfort to others through praying together (Tweet this).

It is refreshing to know that someone is praying for you. It is more refreshing to hear him doing it. It is also encouraging to be in agreement with another through prayer. To know that another has the same concern and is also seeking God for intervention is helpful.

Even in giving thanks, hearing what someone else is thankful for is helpful. The expressed gratitude of others challenges my own self focus and ingratitude.

So while there are pitfalls in praying in a corporate setting, it is something that still should be done. The rewards are much greater than the risks.