My Thoughts Following a Prayer Breakfast

I attended the Indianapolis Leadership Prayer Breakfast this morning. This is the third time I’ve attended over the past four years. InterDesign had a table and I had the pleasure of meeting several of Charley Bellinger’s friends from a couple different YMCA branches and others. As a Christian man, I can’t help but be happy to hear that other Christians are praying for our City and its leaders. But as a Christian striving to model my life after Jesus and follow His word completely these type of events make me worry about others and question my ways. I’m glad to be motivated to study the word more; I want to be sure to rightly divide the word of truth:

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." – 2Timothy 2:15

The thing that troubled me most was the sinner’s prayer. This prayer as described in the Wikipedia article as a confession of sin and request for Jesus to enter your life. As a prayer, it’s not a bad prayer for us to make, certainly not a bad prayer for a sinner to be making. BUT, it will not save you alone. While Jesus has offered the grace of the father to all of us freely, He has asked us to pick up our cross and follow Him. We need to be sure and have faith and works (see James 2), not just one or the other. Whenever I hear a testimonial of someone reciting or repeating a sinner’s prayer and how God saved them right then I worry that the emotion of the love of God has masked what Jesus told them, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” – John 14:15. Jesus taught us “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” – John 3:5.

I will now go into my study and tackle a few of the other things that trouble my perception of what has been revealed through the Holy Spirit and what I witness other God fearing Christians do.