Week 2, Radiant Prayer, Day 7: Revealed In Jesus
(Read 2 Peter 1:12-21)
A Future Transfiguration for Us -- Peter wrote about the Transfiguration in his final epistle. Peter, who once wanted to build a tabernacle for the Elijah, Moses, and Jesus on the Holy Mountain, at the end of his life, realized that his own physical body was a tent for his soul. “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent…” Peter surely remembered Moses speaking with Jesus about the Lord’s “exodus” or “decease”; he used the same word in 1 Peter 1:15 that was used in Luke 9:31.
Peter was saying, “Why would I want to stay in this ‘tent’ when I have an eternal 10-star accommodation waiting in Heaven for me?” His earthly tent would soon be upsized for a heavenly mansion. This once swaggering, overly self-assured fisherman suggested building three earthly tabernacles for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus just so they could “sit for a spell.” Trade God’s Heavenly Temple for an earthly thatched-together tent? Not even Chip and Joanna Gaines could convince that trio into a such a “Fixer Downer”!
Do you see old Peter winking his eye in his final epistle? He seems to say, “As long as I am here in this feeble tent of a body, I want to ‘shake you until I wake you’ to see where Jesus went and where I am going.” He was an eyewitness of the Transfiguration. He did not follow “cunningly devised fables”. Peter heard God’s voice from Heaven. He was there when Jesus received honor and glory from the Heavenly Father.
Even as wonderful of an experience as that was, there something more glorious than the Transfiguration. “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed,” (1 Peter 1:19, ESV). That word, shining like a lamp in darkness, is the “prophecy of Scripture” when it is rightly interpreted by the Holy Spirit. We need to line up every experience with the Word of God. We do not need to have our own “private interpretation” of the Word of God, but correctly understand the Bible through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.
When we pray, we should test all things by the Word of God. And when we read the Word of God, we should test our interpretation of it by prayer and seeking God to open our eyes to its meaning. Prayer should reflect spiritual radiance in our hearts. Too many people trust their experiences more than the prophetic Word of God. Paul said that even Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light,” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
How can we combine “listening to Jesus” and reflecting God’s radiance from prayer? We can pray God’s Word back to Him. Read a passage of Scripture then paraphrase it in a prayer. For instance, read, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we will be content,” (1 Timothy 6:6-8), and “Give us day by day our daily bread,” (Luke 11:3), then pray God’s Word to Him, like in the prayer below.
Pray this prayer to God: “Dear Lord, help me to be content. Thank you for my daily food, for my clothing, my shelter, and all my basic needs. I pray in faith in You alone, I will seek to work for You and that one day you will transfigure me for eternity. Amen.”
Click here for Day 15, Morning.
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