Welcome to
Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday, 7th April 2024

Rev Daniel Xi An Poon

When we don’t compare, we will have peace. However, it is very hard for us because we may grow up in a family where parents compare us to others. Eve failed because she compared herself to God and wanted to compete with God. We as adults also easily compare our children, spouse, or churches to others’. We compare against others based our performance, living standard, or work, because we do not believe God’s creation is “good”.

In the end of Luke 10, Martha was busy doing things because wanted to give the best for Jesus, but Jesus cares the relationship more than what we can do for him. When we too focus on doing, we will miss out the relationship. We don’t know how long we can stay in this world, or how healthy we can maintain for this life. We usually spend long time doing things for the sake of loving others, but in the end we always regret not spending enough time with the people we love. We like to use a “thing” to replace our love for our children, and therefore passing the wrong values to them, making them feel that money is the most important thing. The relationship between parents and children becomes further and further away. We want to achieve the “best” in our life, but we burn ourselves out because we will never achieve God’s best. That’s why Jesus taught Martha to focus on relationship rather than doing.

Luke: 11:1-4

Jesus showed us that He lived a life of prayer on the earth. At that time, those disciples who followed Jesus wanted Christ to deliver Israel from the Romans. After Jesus had told them that He would leave them soon, those disciples started to get worried, and having seen Jesus praying all the time with lots of miracles, they wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray.

1.To Live in the will of God

V1-2 We worry because things happen not according to our will, so Jesus taught us to live in the will of God. The disciple who asked Jesus knew about John the Baptist, so he compared Jesus to John. We also do not treat God as God but as our servant in our prayers, demanding Him to fulfil our will. If God doesn’t do the things for us, we may easily turn away from Him. However, when Jesus was on earth, He did not ask the Father to satisfy the Son’s desires but always do the Father’s will. To live the will of God, we first need to know what the will of God is. How much time do we spend on reading the Bible? When we read the word of God first thing in the morning, then we will know what’s God’s will for us for each day.

2.To believe God’s provision

V3 We must know that God is our Provider, and we proclaim this. When we have migrated to this country, we learn English and work hard to provide a better life for our family. God’s way is different to us. He did not create human beings first to work on the earth, but prepared everything well before human beings were created. When Jesus was on earth, even He wanted to stay in the temple to learn about the God’s word, He still went home with His earthly parents, because He knew it is not because of His doing that could fulfil God’s will. … when we believe that God will provide for us, we will not worry anymore.

3.To humbly stay under God’s covering

V4 We cannot forgive because we want to protect ourselves from getting hurt by others. But Jesus asked us to forgive, and we can receive forgiveness from God. If we do not forgive others, we are building walls around ourselves. Things that have harmed us happen because the devil was using those people to attack us, so we should not fall into that temptation. We do not love blindly, but with the wisdom from God. When we know the weakness of those who have hurt us, do not try to push them towards their weakness….. but stay wise when handling our relationship with them. Only when staying humbly under God’s covering can we receive true wisdom and know God’s will, then we can have peace and love.