← The Daily Blade: Joby Martin & Kyle Thompson
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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.
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All right. This week we are looking at an assortment of prayers from the Valley of Vision, which is a collection of puritan prayers and devotions. Today we're tackling a prayer called Man's Great End. I'll read it here. Lord of all being, there is one thing that deserves my greatest care, that calls forth my ardent desires. That is that I may answer the great end for which I am made to glorify thee who has given me being and to do all the good I can for my fellow men. Verily, life is not worth having if it be not improved for this noble purpose. Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind. Most men seem to live for themselves without much or any regard for thy glory or for the good of others. They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue the riches, honors, pleasures of this life, as if they suppose that wealth, greatness, merriment could make their immortal souls happy. But alas, what false delusive dreams are these. And how miserable ere long will those be that sleep in them. For all our happiness consists in loving thee and being holy as thou art holy. Oh, may I never fall into the tempters and vanities, the sensuality and folly of this present world. It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast, empty nothingness. Time is a moment, a vapor, and all its enjoyments are empty bubbles, fleeting blasts of wind from which nothing satisfactory can be derived. Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee and to reject as delusion a great name here or hereafter, together with all sinful pleasures or prophets. Help me to know continually that there can be no true happiness, no fulfilling of thy purpose for me apart from a life lived in and for the Son of thy love. I mean, guys, I'm, like, giddy. I'm, like, giddy with these prayers. I'm absolutely loving, enjoying, just, you know, reading through these and recording these this week. So, but let's go ahead and dig in a little bit more into this one. So for me, the key line of this prayer is this. That is, that I may answer the great end for which I am made to glorify thee who has given me being and to do all the good I can for my fellow men. So, guys, we were made to One, glorify God, and two, care for our fellow man. Sound familiar? It really should. And if you need a refresher, let's go to Matthew 22. So to set the scene here, the Sadducees were trying to trap Jesus and Jesus verbally smacked them around. So now the Pharisees want a shot at the title. So they get a lawyer invol and they try to jam Jesus up. So let's go to verse 35 of Matthew 22. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So guys, this is just an absolute master class from Jesus. So the question is supposed to result in a singular answer, one answer. But he gives the lawyer two answers. He proclaims that we don't just properly love God in just one way, but in three ways. With our heart, with our soul and our mind. And he equates the commandment a loving God to the commandment of loving our neighbor, with which also addresses the vertical and the horizontal elements of the law, which the Pharisees surely thought he would ignore. I mean, this is just absolute perfection from Jesus. But guys, my main point for today is that all of us, yes, Joby and I included, have wrestled with or are currently in the process of wrestling with our place in the world. You know, you know, what is life for? Why am I here? What's my purpose? Well, you know what? What purpose do I serve? Well, Jesus tells us, and this puritan prayer reminds us we are here to again, one, glorify God and two, care for our fellow man. We are here to love God and our neighbor. So if you're lacking in either of those areas, might I suggest that you get yourself in check. See you back here tomorrow.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help, equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.