Time In The Prayers Of The New Testament
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same purpose. The Apostle Paul emphasizes this truth. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith –and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:6, 8-10). We come before the throne to worship him and we leave his throne to serve him in the works he has prepared for us from before time. The purpose for which we have been made and saved is to worship and serve him. The fact that God has given us access to his throne and his kingdom makes us kingdom representatives. We are to be agents to extend his kingdom to the world in which we live. The children of Israel had created in their minds a dichotomy between their worship of God and their daily activity in the society in which they lived. They committed a fateful mistake that the modern church has also committed. The voice of God through the prophet Isaiah emphasizes this. “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen….Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. ‘Come now let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’ ”(Isaiah 1:15,16-18). The concept of the throne and the kingdom of God will