Call Upon Him in Truth

“The Lord is righteous in all His ways

And kind in all His deeds.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He will also hear their cry and will save them.

The Lord keeps all who love Him,

But all the wicked He will destroy.

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,

And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.” (Psalm 145:17-21 NASB1995)

 

What does it look like to “call upon” the Lord? It is not words only. It is not just giving God our prayer requests. It is us drawing near to God, wanting to hear from him, to hear his teachings, and to know his will so that we will do his will, in his power. It is an intimacy of relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the spiritual husband of his spiritual bride, the church, the universal body of all who are of biblical and genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

 

And what does it mean to call upon him “in truth”? No fakery. No just going through the motions of religious practice and “saying our prayers” routinely, hoping that God will answer our prayers. But this is about bowing the knee to God in humble submission to him in surrender to his will and purpose for our lives with a desire to know him intimately, to know his will and purpose for our lives, so that we will now obey him in doing what he has for us to do.

 

And so by faith in him – a faith which comes from God, is authored by God, and is persuaded of God, and is not of our own doing – we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Sin must no longer have mastery over our lives. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death, but if we obey God, its end is eternal life with Christ, our Lord (See Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 6:1-23).

 

And what does it mean to fear the Lord? It means to stand in awe of him, to revere him, to honor him as the Holy God that he is, to serve him, to bow the knee to him, and to surrender our lives to him in submission to his will and purpose for our lives. It is to put sin to death in our lives daily, by the Spirit, and to walk (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to his commands in holy living (see Luke 9:23-26; Romans 8:12-14). It is to give our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy unto God (see Romans 12:1-2).

 

And to be holy is to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed by God to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, according to the will and purpose of God for our lives, by the grace of God, in the power of God, as we cooperate fully with God’s work of grace in our lives. And his grace is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives until he returns (see Titus 2:11-14).

 

And when this says that he will fulfill the desire of those who fear him, it is because if we truly walk in the fear of the Lord, in honor of him, in respect for him, and in obedience to his commands, our desires are no longer going to be of the flesh, but God’s desires will now be what we long for. We will want to do what pleases him, because we love him. We will want to serve him with our lives because he is our life! And it is that he will fulfill in us.

 

And because we are serving the Lord Jesus with our lives, our Lord will keep us in his care. Yet, many of those who reject the Lord Jesus and his gospel message, taught in the correct biblical context, will be those who oppose us and who fight against us and who falsely accuse us of wrong we did not do, and who will aim to discredit us so that Jesus Christ will not be honored, and so that many people will reject the truth of the gospel in favor of the lies.

 

But their aim and their purpose will largely be to discredit the gospel of Christ taught by Christ and by his New Testament apostles, in favor of an altered gospel message, which can go many different directions, all of which are contrary to the teachings of Christ and of his apostles in the New Testament, if taught in their appropriate and biblical context. For any kind of distortion of truth is going to lead people to follow the lies and not the truth.

 

The biggest lie being told today, though, is that we can believe in Jesus, have all our sins forgiven, and be guaranteed heaven when we die, but regardless of how we live – no death to sin and no obedience to God required. Some will cut these out altogether, while others will teach them more as something that is optional, that we “should” do, but that if we do not do, that it will not keep us from being saved or out of God’s heaven.

 

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

 

Pray, Pray, Pray 

 

Based off Various Scriptures

An Original Work / September 6, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

Pray that eyes may enlightened be,

So they may know Christ.

Pray that they may Him better know,

Strengthened by His pow’r.

Pray that they may grasp

How wide and long

And high and deep

Is Christ’s love.

Pray that they may be filled

To the fullness of God’s love.

Pray with thanksgiving.

 

Pray for an open door for me,

So I may share Christ.

Pray when the gospel is proclaimed –

Shared with clarity.

Pray words are given me so

I declare the gospel fearlessly.

I pray for you to be active

Sharing your faith, too.

Pray continually.

 

We oft not know for what to pray,

So we ask for help.

The Spirit intercedes for us –

Words cannot express.

Just keep on praying for the saints

With all kinds of requests to God.

Pray they may have faith to

Please their God in ev’ry way.

Pray with joyfulness.

 

https://vimeo.com/119259373

 

Call Upon Him in Truth

An Original Work / June 30, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love