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The 19th century Scottish mathematician and pastor, Thomas Chalmers, wrote,
My God, suffer me not to let go my hold of Thy good providence.
It’s safe to assume that the life I lead these days as a fumbling bachelor doesn’t always necessarily lend itself to a good night’s sleep (looking for employment again and slaving away over my never ending book project can get tedious and tiresome, and my bursts of writing inspiration in which my bad case of writers block dissipates are more likely to happen at night when the sounds of the day disappear and my mind is quieted).
So, there I was last night, laying there praying and attempting to listen with thoughts of numerous hurdles racing through my little brain Read the rest of this entry »
It must be our anxious care, whenever we are ourselves pressed, or see others pressed by any trial, instantly to have recourse to God. And again, in any prosperity of ourselves or others, we must not omit to testify our recognition of God’s hand by praise and thanksgiving. Lastly, we must in all our prayers carefully avoid wishing to confine God to certain circumstances, or prescribe to him the time, place, or mode of action. In like manner, we are taught by [the Lord's] prayer not to fix any law or impose any condition upon him, but leave it entirely to him to adopt whatever course of procedure seems to him best, in respect of method, time, and place. For, before we offer up any petition for ourselves, we ask that his will may be done, and by so doing place our will in subordination to his, just as if we had laid a curb upon it, that, instead of presuming to give law to God, it may regard him as the ruler and disposer of all its wishes.
-John Calvin
I was praying recently and all sorts of thoughts started racing through my head. Anyone who has been praying for any amount of time knows what I am talking about. But I’m not talking about the laundry list of things we have to do after we finish up our conversation with the Creator of the Cosmos. I’m talking about the thoughts from the accuser—our accuser. He whispers, your prayer isn’t long enough, it’s not about the right stuff, it’s not sincere enough—and on and on. And if we listen long enough to the bogus accusations, sooner or later we’ll throw our hands up and quit.
Not to trivialize prayer, but I think it can be likened to every day examples in some instances. It is said that when you get on a motorcycle everything else around you gets tuned out because of the focus it takes to operate a bike safely out on the open road. Well, whatever it takes—we need to find out what our motorcycle is and jump on it when it comes to prayer.
And rising very early in the morning,while it was still dark, he [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1:35, The Message Bible)
If Jesus had to separate himself from the every day distractions of life in his attempts to spend time in prayer—doesn’t it make sense that we might need to do likewise?
The fewer the words, the better the prayer.
-Martin Luther
Homer Simpson, the knuckle-headed star of the animated comedy The Simpsons prays, Dear Lord, The gods have been good to me. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here’s the deal: You freeze everything the way it is, and I won’t ask for anything more. If that is okay, please give me absolutely no sign. Okay, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. Thy will be done.
Unfortunately that sounds more like our praying than we like admitting.
Apparently Jesus did some of his own teaching on prayer.
”And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes. (Matthew 6:5-13, The Message Bible)
Our praying isn’t about our ability to pray prayers that are more eloquent, and it certainly isn’t longer prayers we need.
Prayer is about God hearing from us, and more importantly, our hearing from him.
Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.
-Martin Luther
Recently the following ended up in my email. I don’t remember who sent it, which news agency reported it (if any)—or if it is really true—but the story serves a purpose either way.
In a small Texas town (Mt. Vernon), Drummond’s Bar began construction on a new building to increase their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up till the week before opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.
The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in its reply to the court.
As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he commented, “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that does not.”
I have wondered of late about why it is that we pray so little. And my conclusion has been rather off the wall maybe, but to me, it makes perfect sense. We know oursleves well enough to know that our praying can’t be all that impressive to God—try as we might to impress him, impress ourselves, and impress others with it. So, we don’t pray knowing that we just can’t make the prayer grade if you will.
1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1, ESV)
Lord, teach us to pray.
What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God’s eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard.
-C.S. Lewis
Praying isn’t meant to be a show. It’s intended to be a conversation—between us and God.
Prayer consists of several things—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication to name a few. But something I think it entails that we tend to forget, is honest conversation. God knows the truth before we tell him (if we ever do)—and one of the reasons prayer can seem like such a chore is because we are so busy trying to avoid talking about just what it is that is bothering and worrying us, and even what may be plaguing and tormenting us.
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, The Message Bible)
You see, God hasn’t posted a long list of prayer rules on some locker room wall for us to adhere to. We pray when we don’t have an hour to set aside— when we are battling fatigue or doubt—and when we might be really struggling in our battle against sin. God wants us to come to him in prayer all the time as Paul reminds us. To imagine that we can get ourselves clean enough, ready enough, or be serious enough to have God listen to us, let alone accept us—isn’t only silly, it’s flat out offensive to him.
Jesus is our advocate and it’s only because of his worthiness that we can come in the first place to a place of prayer.
And have a conversation with God Almighty.
Remember that even if you make the right choice, you’re forgiven. -Unknown
I haven’t done a very good job of confessing my sins to anyone lately even though the Bible says it’s a good idea—and whenever it’s me verses the Bible, well, let’s just say I need to think less of what I think and more of what it says.
And my blog certainly isn’t my confessional booth.
The reality is this: Lately I haven’t even been confessing my sins to God as I have been busy trying to ignore them and I know that seems like a perfect strategy to a good number of people—as if maybe ignoring our sin is to deal with it effectively. But that approach doesn’t help me in my walk with God I have learned. So I was out taking a walk here on a beautiful Michigan July afternoon today and I got to talking to God and he hadn’t forgoten my name even though I had been putting off talking to him for longer than I will admit. After thanking him again that I was still alive after a stormy few years (as I find myself doing on a pretty frequent basis for a guy who doesn’t pray near enough—thanking him that is). And then I began to confess a few sins he already knew about so I lumped them together and just said something pretty close to this; You know I have a lot to ask forgiveness for Lord. I ended in mid-sentence before I ever finished my thought as I sensed that God just may have had something to say himself in response to my prayer (as if I needed to stop talking before he could seal my lips and roar back at me if he wanted to).
Do you want to know what God said to me?
I’m not going to tell you just yet.
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again. (James 5:16-18, The Message Bible)
Maybe you think it’s too easy to be forgiven and that we should have to climb a flight of stairs on our hands and knees in our skibbies in the freezing cold every time we sin. If you do, I feel sorry for you—God’s mercy can’t be bartered for. I told you that I’d tell you what God said to me so I will—he didn’t say anything. I didn’t need him to, I knew right then and there when I started speaking the words what he might say to me. It was clear: Although I might have a pile of sins—he has more forgiveness than I have sin and my going on about them wouldn’t be needed.
And what God says to every one of us who trust in his mercy, is simple—the fountain of his forgiveness never runs dry.
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