Hope, Duty, and Love

God’s people give back to him. There seem to be three reasons we do so.

Some people give to God to get a blessing. And there is biblical support for this.

Other people give to God out of duty. The Bible commands it; they do it.

Other people give out of gratitude and love. God has blessed them; they bless God back.

1. Giving with hope, duty, and love.

I cannot judge other Christians from any moral high ground; in fact, it would be a sin for me to judge them. I will say that I have given for all three reasons. I have given too often for the first reason; not enough for the third. If God gives me more time on the Earth, I hope to give more out of gratitude, and less out of hope of gain.

And maybe, if God continues to bless me on Earth, I will learn to give back for all three reasons: hope, duty, and love, remembering that among "faith, hope, and love", "the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13.)

2. Praying with hope, duty, and love.

Everything believers do with God has something to do with hope, duty, and love. And none of these should be despised. When I pray, I pray because God commands it (duty). I remember to thank God and honor him with praise (love). I pray for his mercy, because I have some knowledge of my own wrongfulness and inadequacy (hope).

These three reasons to pray – hope, duty, love – seem to be a continuum from selfishness to unselfishness. And yet, in this, God meets us where we are. We are selfish. And we are needy. So the Bible encourages us to pray for wisdom. (James 1:15.) What is a prayer for wisdom but a prayer for ourselves? But it is a prayer to have something that makes us more godly, something that leads to prayers of love. In this circle, we pray for ourselves, and we get so that we might give to God.

3. Not despising the prayer of hope and need.

Jesus once contrasted the prayers of two men. One man prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. The other man prayed a prayer of hope and need. Jesus favored the prayer of hope and need over the prayer of thanksgiving.

The story is familiar to those who travel the Bible. A Pharisee and a publican (the keeper of an ill house) came to the temple to pray. (Some translations have the second man to be a tax collector – a despised man in those times.) The Pharisee was a man of spiritual accomplishment. He thanked God that he was not an evildoer, or even like the publican who also came to the temple to pray.

But the publican was ashamed. He beat his chest. He could not look up. He prayed, "God have mercy on me, a sinner." Just as God honored the sacrifice of Abel, but not that of Cain, so God honored the prayer of the heart-broken publican, but not the prayer of the spiritually-accomplished Pharisee. (Luke 18:10-14.)

4. Restraint in the prayer of hope and need.

But the prayer of hope and need must be bridled. It’s one thing to pray for wisdom or love or faith to rise in your heart. It’s another thing to pray for a Mercedes Benz. Why would God want to answer a prayer that makes you love the world and not himself? Love of God leads to salvation, which is what the one-who-takes-pleasure-in-the-death-of-no-sinner yearns for all. (Ezekiel 18:23.) Love of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, lead to death.

If a child asks for a fish, no parent will give him a snake. If he asks for an egg, no parent will give him a scorpion. The Gospel of Luke assures that God is like that. (Luke 11:11-13.) James 4:3 says, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (NIV) This is a good thing. If you ask for a scorpion, or a snake, or the riches of the world, you are better off if the answer is No.

But we can and should pray for our needs to be met. "Give us this day our daily bread" is famously part of the Lord’s prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples when one of them asked him to teach them to pray. (Luke 11:3.) And there is wisdom in the prayer of Proverbs 30:8-9: "[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." (NIV.)

5. Praying Psalms 143 & 145.

Psalm 143 is a prayer of hope and need. Psalm 145 is a prayer of love. In the past two weeks, I have been moved to learn both of them. Psalm 143 I learned in a day or two. I can pray it from memory now, though I chose not to learn the last line. I studied Psalm 145 over two days, and I am still learning it. When I pray it, I pray the parts that I know.

I was moved to learn these psalms when I retreated to the San Gorgonio mountains. And when I did not know what to pray, I could pray these in my heart and with my lips. Also, they are better prayers than my own.

I wish I had practiced learning psalms earlier. I regret that I despaired of God’s mercy for more than a decade, and that in this time I neglected God. This was sin. I am grateful to God that he has quickened me in recent times.

So today, as I pray, maybe I am both the publican and the Pharisee.