We live in a consumer culture, we take so much more than we receive. In fact, we have such a wealth of consumables that we tend to think very little of what we take in. I’m thinking in particular about the modern connected world, where news and views, opinions and art are all freely available in such quantity that we become almost numb to what we receive.

For the believing Christian it’s not just the quantity of the content that is the problem, it is the source of it: this present world is the source of most of the information and entertainment that we consume, and this present world is diametrically opposed to the Christian faith.

What do we do? We pray with the psalmist:

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” (Psalm 119:18 NIB)

And, as we pray, we seek with all our hearts, and by His grace to consume only that which is edifying to us, and pleasing and glorifying to God.

Despite his reputation as the weeping prophet, the book of Jeremiah is full of hope. God promises that we will be His people, and He will be our God! What a promise! But the problem has never been with God, it has always been with us. In Jeremiah chapter two we are told that Israel have committed two sins: they have rejected God and all that He has to offer and they have turned to seek their own satisfaction from that which is of their own creation.

This is original sin – in the Garden of Eden Satan told Eve that she would become independent of God by taking of the forbidden fruit. She would be able to determine her own desires and make her own way in the world – her source of satisfaction would be of her own making, and no longer of God.

Of course, if God is who He claims He is, then this act of seeking to be satisfied in anything or anyone but Him is the greatest sin, the most offensive offence, the grievous hurt. To reduce ourselves to seeking to please ourselves outside of God is the essence of all that went wrong in Eden.

But, Jeremiah is full of hope as God assures us that He will ultimately deal with our sin, and the underlying attitudes that drive it. By His grace and through His Spirit He will draw us to seek our satisfaction in Him alone once again!

“and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord” – Jeremiah 31:14

It’s an incredible promise, given our penchant for turning our backs on Him, but He is faithful:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” – Jeremiah 31:3

This hope is what inspires us to seek Him afresh, by His grace, for His glory, and for our complete and utter satisfaction!

How do we approach God when we come to Him to pray. Do we have a wish list on our minds? Do we have a list of completed requests to say ‘thank-you’ for? Do we have a major problem that we want God to take care of? All of these are completely legitimate in their place, but how do we start? How do we commence the conversation?

The example of Revelation 4:8 is a great place to begin. This is a picture of heaven and demonstrates the worship of those already in the Presence! What a privilege for those creatures to worship night and day before the throne of God Almighty!

But the Bible tells us that having put our trust in Jesus Christ we can, on the basis of His shed blood, approach the throne of God with boldness! When we get there we can only begin with the words of those creatures who are already there:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

This will get our hearts and minds straight before our Creator, this will put our own requests in perspective, but most importantly, this will give God the glory and honour that is His by right and that should rightly come from us, His people. So, let us pray…

How often to we read James 4:7 and jump immediately in our minds to the second half of the injunction? Our own pride in our abilities latches on to the idea that if we just resist the devil hard enough it’s a done deal – resist him and he’ll flee, right? Wrong.

The second half of the verse is the second half for a reason. In order to be able to resist the devil we must first submit ourselves to God. Way back in the Garden of Eden the devil was telling mankind that they could ‘do it on their own’, that if they just aspired, tried, reached out it would all come to them. The Bible makes it clear that on our own strength we can do nothing of value, nothing truly good.

This is why it is essential to first submit ourselves to God. This is a personal thing – no-one can do it for you, but this is the first and vital step. We have no authority over the devil, but God does. Once we submit ourselves to God it is His authority by which we resist the devil and His authority that forces the devil to flee as we resist.

So, let’s get it the right way around. Rather than saying to ourselves ‘I must resist, I must resist’, concentrating on the problem, let’s start with ‘Lord, I submit to You’ and by His grace we can and will resist the devil until he flees from the God who promises to live within us with His power and authority.

“… there is no longer any offering for sin.” – Hebrews 10:18

The book of Hebrews is one long, cumulative argument for the superiority of the New Covenant over the old one. One failing in the Old Covenant was the need to repeatedly make offering for sin – it was never complete, never done with, there would always be something else come along that required a fresh offering.

Hebrews 10:12 & 14 show that Jesus’ single sacrifice is effective for all time:

“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” – Hebrews 10:14

So, there is therefore no sacrifice to be made, there is no longer an offering for sin, because the offering has been made fully and finally, for all time by Jesus Christ. I am free to draw near with a true heart and in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:22)! I am washed, clean!

On this basis, we stand before God with empty hands – there is nothing that we could bring that would satisfy Him – but Jesus has already satisfied Him, so, we come, empty handed yet boldly, no offering, but full assurance.

If this is the case, then surely we must avail ourselves of this amazing new and living way!