3. Praying from Experience. Psalm 61:3-5

Text: “For Thou has been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.”

Psalm 61:3.

Good morning sheltered Christian!  Amid all the storms and vicious circumstances of life; the Lord God Jehovah has been your refuge and mine.  In Christ Jesus, we are Eternally secure.  Let us give Him all the praise and all the thanksgiving of our hearts?  Hallelujah!

“With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm...as we go sailing Home.” (Chorus)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  (Or Corona Virus?) ...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us...” Nothing! “...shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

‘NOTHING’ MEANS NOTHING! NOTHING SHALL SEPARATE US FROM CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD!

True Christians, born again of the Spirit of God, can pray most confidently, due to the fact that we are praying from past and present experience of God’s grace in our lives, and in the lives of ‘His people’.  Thanks be to the Lord it is so! 

“And she (Mary) shall bring forth a Son, and thou (Joseph) shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save HIS PEOPLE from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

Please take note: The God-breathed, inspired, Scripture in question does NOT say that Jesus shall save ALL people from their sins – only ‘His people’; those whom the Lord God Almighty has preordained to save, from before the foundation of the world.  All others shall be totally, and Eternally, LOST.  (John 6:37)

Repentance, making a full 180% degree turn away from Satan, self, and sin, to a 180% degree following hard after Christ Jesus, and serving the Living Lord God, is only in God’s gifting to us to do so!  Unless the Lord grants us this gift of repentance, and faith to believe (trust) in the Atonement Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross – sinners cannot ever be saved.

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive (physically fight and fuss); but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure (according to His Sovereign will) will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

“Jesus saith unto him, (Thomas) I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”  (John 14:6)

Repenting from our sins, and knowing Jesus in a Spiritually born-again experience, IS ‘...knowing the Truth...’ – as the Scriptures teach us clearly, ‘...the Word (Christ Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and TRUTH.”  (John 1:14)

If repentance, as defined above, is God’s gift to sinners, then we cannot be Eternally saved without this gift from God.  Similarly, FAITH, being the ‘...gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast...’ (Ephesians 2:8-10); it follows that without God’s gift of saving faith, no sinner can ever be Eternally saved.  The Lord God grants such Eternally vital gifts to ‘His people’ alone.  All others remain reprobate, rejected of God, and shall perish in a Christ-rejecter’s Hell forever. This is the Word of God.  God’s Word is His written will.  God’s will is always done.

“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish...except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”  (Luke 13:3;5)

Those who have been blessed with faith in Christ, and God’s gift of true repentance from sin, and Eternally saved – shall suffer persecution!  This persecution is a promise from God!

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus (all true Spiritually regenerated Christians) SHALL suffer persecution.”  (2 Timothy 3:12)

Furthermore, concerning the subject of ‘praying from experience’, having suffered many many bouts of personal persecution, slander, gossip, terrorist murder bids; terrorist death-threats, over the past 43 years of my experience as a born again Christian; and having been rejected, ridiculed, shunned, and deceitfully opposed by many others actually professing to be Christians, and ‘leaders of the church’ – my prayers are prayed with strong confidence, due to the vast experience with which I have been blessed while suffering under such hindrances and oppositions.  The Lord God always looks after, takes care, of ‘His people’.

Verse 3. “For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. Experience is the nurse of faith.  Sweet is it beyond expression to remember the loving kindness of the Lord in our former days, for He is unchangeable and therefore will continue to guard us from all evil.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 269)

Verse 4. “I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever. Hewers of wood and drawers of water in the tents of Jehovah are more to be envied than the princes who riot in the pavilions of kings.  The best of all is that our residence with God is not for a limited period of time but for ages; yea, for ages of ages, for time and for Eternity: this is our highest and most heavenly privilege: I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever.  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 269)

Verse 4. “I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. Experience of past answers to our prayers, gives us more faithful confidence that the Lord will continue to bring us through all other trials and profound tribulations – even this deadly pestilence of global Corona Virus which is unleashed upon our disobedient nations worldwide as I write this Bible exposition (21/3/20).  Having been protected by God over the past 43 years, and 33 years before I was redeemed – I can pray now with more confidence that, the Lord not only hears my prayers, but answers them, often even before I can utter the words.  What a Saviour and Lord!

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”  (Isaiah 65:24) Our Lord God Jehovah, cares for ‘His people’.

Verse 5. “Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy Name. Fearing the Lord God Jehovah, the Spiritually regenerated Christian should have nothing else to fear.  Come, the threat of poverty!  Come, the threatening of violent man!  Come, sword, or gun, or bomb, or dagger!  Come, the most deadly and contagious Corona Virus!  We, the followers of Christ Jesus, have absolutely NOTHING to fear.  If God’s will be perfect, then God’s perfect will be done! Glory to His gracious, Holy, loving, merciful and generous kindness!  Even so, Come Lord Jesus, the Spirit and the Bride say, Come!  Amen, so be it, Lord God.

Thought: If God be unchanging, the experience of past prayers answered by Him, should more than inspire our full confidence in all our daily prayers to Him now.  “...I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye...are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6) Glory!