Obedience

Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted on account of righteousness, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Paul, in Hebrews chapter 11, speaking of those who in ancient days went against the “mainstream” and sought obedience to God, explains thus:

“36 And others received trials of mockings and scourgings, then further of bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were cut in pieces - having died by slaughter of the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, being afflicted, being mistreated, 38 (of whom the Society was not worthy,) wandering upon deserts and mountains and in caves and in the holes of the earth. 39 And all, being accredited through the faith, have not acquired the promise 40 of Yahweh, foreseeing for us something better, that not apart from us should they be perfected.”

In other words, they had not acquired it in the flesh, but they will be together with us in the last day.

Conformity to Yahweh

Prayer

Yahweh knows what we need, what we have done, and what we need to repent of, as well as what we shall be rewarded for. When we pray, it should be for our benefit, that we are able to walk in His will and to be guided by His Spirit, rather than after the ways of the flesh and the world. We should pray that His Will be done – even if we certainly should know that it shall be, while at the same time we should pray that we are able to “stand in the evil day” as Paul put it at Ephesians 6:13.

Ecclesiastes 5: “1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”

Do not “babble on repeatedly just as the heathens”, for it is absolutely vain.