prayer

A Good Word from Dietrich

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“Christians are persons who no longer seek their salvation, their deliverance, their justification in themselves, but in Jesus Christ alone. They know that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces them guilty, even when they feel nothing of their own guilt, and that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces them free and righteous even when they feel nothing of their own righteousness…

Because they daily hunger and thirst for righteousness, they long for the redeeming Word again and again. It can only come from the outside. In themselves they are destitute and dead. Help must come from the outside; and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing us redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. But God put this Word into the mouth of human beings so that it may be passed on to others. When people are deeply affected by the Word, they tell it to other people. God has willed that we should seek and find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings.

Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them. They need them again and again when they become uncertain and disheartened” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

That’s called community. If I read my Bible right, community is not optional for the believer. It’s required. It’s essential. If I really want to do more than tread water spiritually, I need brothers and sisters around me who can encourage and exhort me toward godliness in all areas. If I want to prosper, I need to be in a place where people gather together to sing, pray, hear God’s Word proclaimed, and give.

My pastor always says that the first person you lie to is yourself, so you need other people around you who will remind you of what’s true, whether you feel it’s true or not. Tonight was a good example as we broke bread together for the first time on a Wednesday night at The Church at Avenue South. It was a good Baptist gathering, so there was fried chicken, of course. But also there was plenty of fellowship.

Life can be a bit of a grind sometimes, so it helps to have people who speak life into you and lift you up in prayer. Some days, you will be in a good place, so you can return the favor. The beautiful thing about community is where I am weak, you can be strong for me, and where you are weak, I can be strong. In all our collective weaknesses, we find God’s strength is perfected.

I look forward to the next few weeks of fellowship and Bible study at my church. It will be a break from the norm, but sometimes that can be a really good thing.

Useless Time

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“The world says, ‘If you are not making good use of your time, you are useless.’ Jesus says, ‘Come spend some useless time with me.’ If we think about prayer in terms of its usefulness to us – what prayer will do for us, what spiritual benefits we will gain, what insights we will gain, what divine presence we may feel – God cannot easily speak to us. But if we can detach ourselves from the idea of the usefulness of prayer and the results of prayer, we become free to ‘waste’ a precious hour with God in prayer. Gradually, we may find, our ‘useless’ time will transform us, and everything around us will be different” (Henri Nouwen).

I guess in a sense that prayer is useless, speaking in human terms. We like to measure success and progress in tangible terms. We want to be able to check all the boxes on our to-do lists and see the results of what we do all day.

But prayer is different. We may pray and from our limited perspective nothing seems to be different. We may not hear an audible voice from God. We may not even sense God speaking at all. In fact, we may feel exactly the same after as we did before.

But when you look back over a month or a year, you can see you’re not who you were then. The people, places, and things you prayed for may not be different, but you are. You see a little more with God’s eyes and have a bit more of an eternal perspective on your life.

Sometimes, it’s good to detach from the world and simply to be still. You don’t need to ask God for anything. Sometimes, you don’t even need to say anything. Just sit at Jesus’ feet and breathe in and out slowly and above all pay attention. Be mindful in your silence and ready to obey whatever you hear from the Lord.

It may seem useless to a world that glorifies busyness, but in eternity’s perspective, nothing is more important than time spent in prayer.

The Purpose of Prayer

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“Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don’t pray more” (Oswald Chambers, in The Place of Help).

Oswald Chambers also said something else that I’ve thought a lot about over the years. He said that prayer doesn’t so much change the things around me as it changes me and I change things. I think maybe I’d say that when I pray for God to change my circumstances, what I really want is a shortcut out of the difficult season. God wants me to endure the season so that I am changed by it.

It’s like the old story of the cocoon and the butterfly. If you “help” the caterpillar out of the cocoon rather than watch it struggle, you deprive it of the strength it needs to fly. When we pray for God to take us or those we love over an obstacle rather than through it, we are robbing ourselves of sweetness of learning to know God deeper through the struggle and coming out of it more like Jesus.

I don’t think my problem is not praying enough as much as it is praying the wrong way. I still pray to God like I used to write to Santa Claus back in the day. I have my list of what I want, and when the list is over, I’m done. But prayer really is so much more than getting from God as it is getting to know God. And getting to know myself in the process.

“Prayer is not getting things from God. That is a most initial stage; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God: I tell Him what I know He knows in order that I may get to know it as He does”(Oswald Chambers, Prayer: A Holy Occupation).

An Evening Prayer

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“Lord, we come to You not because you are our last hope, but because You are our first love.

We’re not waiting to come to You only when we think there’s nothing else we can do. We’re coming to You *before we do anything at all* because waiting on You is *wisest* of all. We trust You to work all this out in Your good time — because that will be the best time, and You are only good and You hold all time. *Kneeling the most lets us stand the bravest.* Tonight we kneel and lay our painful problems in Your hands and thank You for the perfect peace You put in our hearts.

In Jesus’ name, Amen. #EveningPrayer#RestinginHisWord” (Ann Voskamp).

Lord, I confess that I only come to You when I need something. Often, You are my last resort. I acknowledge that when everything is going well, I simply don’t see my need for You. It’s only when life gets difficult and stressful that I finally manage to look up to You.

Thank You for being patient with me. You have shown me more mercy than I deserve. If You treated me the way I treat You most of the time, I probably wouldn’t be here. I’d definitely be a lot worse off than I am.

But Your word says that You are faithful even when I’m faithless. You continue to work in me even when I don’t work at all. You honor Your promise to complete what You started in me even when I make promises to You that I don’t keep.

I know that I can look back and see growth. I can see change. I can see that in the past, my lackadaisical faith wouldn’t have bothered me nearly as much as it does now. I can see that I am more committed to You than I was last year or in the last decade.

Lord, make me more like You. Period.

A Mic Drop Moment

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“Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I almost want to make this a mic drop moment and end this post here. There’s such a misconception about prayer being a way to inform God of what He didn’t already know or to ask Him for things He wasn’t aware that I needed.

Prayer isn’t about getting God to see things from my point of view but getting me to see things from God’s point of view. It’s not so much about answers as it is about awareness of God’s presence. When I pray, I’m acknowledging in that moment my deep need and God’s deeper provision.

What would I want from God apart from Himself anyway? As the old song says, “I’d rather have Jesus than riches untold.”

It’s like when Job asks all these questions to God. When God responds, He doesn’t answer a single one of those questions. Instead, God asks Job some of His own questions. At the end, what Job realized was that he needed not answers but God’s presence. He needed to know God hadn’t left him or forgotten about him.

My own prayers can easily become rote and full of requests. They can almost sound like the letters I used to write to Santa Claus before Christmas with my list of everything I wanted under the tree that year. They can be very me-focused when the idea of prayer is to get me very God-focused. It’s to help me see God’s purposes and plans for His entire creation and not just my own little world.

Sure, God answers prayer, but that’s not the main point of prayer. My character being transformed into the character of God and my will being transformed into His is.

Live Gladly

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“The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love”(Julian of Norwich).

I think one of the biggest turnoffs to faith is people who profess Christ but spend most of their days with sour faces and unpleasant dispositions. If you truly have been made alive by the grace of God, shouldn’t you be filled with joy?

I get that people have bad days, but even on the bad days there is good. Even the worst days have a little bit of good in them. I don’t think people should fake being happy when their lives are falling apart, but I think that people who know the peace of Jesus should live like it and live like it matters because it does.

I knew a man once who was a former pastor and a greeter at a church event I attended weekly. I found out that he was dying from cancer, but every time I asked him how he was doing, he would say he was fine. He never complained or whined. He showed up as long as he was able and served with a smile because he knew that cancer would not have the last word.

Looking back, I feel a bit ashamed because I know I probably complained about my life to a man who was in a battle way worse than anything I’ve ever faced. Still, he was gracious to me. He showed me Jesus in the midst of his own pain and suffering.

My prayer is that I can be like that. I hope I can exude joy so that people around me who don’t know Jesus will want to know where that joy comes from. That’s actually my prayer for all of us. May we be living billboards of grace whose lives preach just as good of a sermon as any words we could ever use. May our words and deeds (not one or the other but both) tell of a good God and a gracious Savior who can save anybody at any time.

My Prayer (Written by Someone Else)

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“Dear Lord, you are the first of the just. You lived the righteous life. It is because of you that your heavenly Father keeps this world in existence and shows his mercy to us sinners. Who am I, Lord, to expect your love, protection, and mercy? Who am I to deserve a place in your heart, in your house, in your kingdom? Who am I, Lord, to hope in your forgiveness, your friendship, your embrace? And still this is what I am waiting for, expecting, even counting on! Not because of my own merits, but solely because of your immense mercy. You lived for us the life that is pleasing to God. O Lord, you are the just one, the blessed one, the beloved one, the righteous one, the gracious one.

I pray that your Father, the Father of all people, the One who created me and sustains me day in and day out, may recognize in me your marks and receive me because of you. Help me to follow you, to unite my life with yours and to become a mirror of your love. Amen” (Henri Nouwen).

I’m thankful that it’s not my works or my efforts or my anything that will get me into heaven one day. One day, God will look at me and see His Son Jesus. He will see the marks of the nails that Jesus bore for me, and on that basis, He will let me in.

Thank You, Lord, that I am saved by grace through faith. It’s nothing that I did that made me right with You, but only what You did for me. I am eternally grateful. I am eternally in Your debt. May the rest of my life in this world and in the next be an offering of thanksgiving to You. Amen.

How to Pray

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“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 6:7-13, The Message).

Lately, I find myself praying through the Lord’s Prayer quite a bit, especially when I can’t think of anything to pray on my own. It’s easy to pray through a line at a time and whatever comes to mind next. For example, I might pray “Our Father in heaven, above all that goes on here on earth, completely sovereign over all things yet intimately concerned with all my needs . . . “

You can pray through the entire passage like that. Sometimes, God will bring to mind another verse, like God working all things together for good in the place where you pray for God’s will to be done. Sometimes, I just pray through the Lord’s Prayer without any additional commentary.

It’s not about getting it perfect. I think God hears me just the same when the words flow as when I stumble all over myself trying to pray. The Bible says that God hears even when all I’ve got are groans and sighs too deep for words. Besides, it’s not like I’m telling God what He doesn’t already know.

I think that prayer isn’t giving God new information, but helping me see it from His perspective. I’m taking it to God, and sometimes it changes my circumstances, and other times it changes me in the middle of my circumstances.

I’d like to be able to pray for hours and hours, but I think God’s okay with me offering up short prayers throughout the day. I think the idea is to keep the line of communication open and always have a mindfulness of God wherever I am and whatever I’m doing.

No Matter What

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“Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust him. This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, ‘If I trust him, he’ll give me such and such,’ but ‘I trust him. Let him give me or withhold from me what he chooses” (Elisabeth Elliot, God’s Guidance: A Slow & Certain Light).

It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to bargain with God. Something along the lines of “I’ll trust you if you will give me a) a job, b) a spouse, or c) lots of money.”

It feels more like a transaction than faith. If God does X, then I’ll do Y. The trouble is that I’m in no position to bargain with God. He’s the Eternal Lord and King of the Universe who has every right to destroy me because of my sin, and I’m the one who’s only alive at this moment because of His grace.

The truth is that if all God ever did was to save me from an eternity in hell and leave me alone, that would be way more than I deserve. That alone would merit my praise from now until 10,000 X 10,000 years have passed.

But that’s not all God did. He has sustained me and blessed me and been with me through every kind of joy and sorrow, triumph and trial. All He asks in return is my allegiance. My loyalty. My surrender. Me.

It’s not wrong to ask God for things, but the more I spend time with God and in His word and the more I grow in Christlikeness, the things I ask for change and my desire to have them changes.

God doesn’t owe me anything. Even the next breath is a gift. I owe God everything, more than I could possibly ever pay in a million lifetimes. Yet all God asks for is me. I think that’s a good enough reason to trust Him no matter what.

The Will of God

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“Outside the will of God, there’s nothing I want. Inside the will of God, there’s nothing I fear” (A. W. Tozer).

That’s where I want to be, but I’m not there yet. If I’m honest, I must confess that I probably have desires that are outside of the will of God. I also understand that anything outside of the will of God that seems good to me probably won’t be.

I love the fact that God in His plan factored in dummies like me. I don’t mean that I lack intelligence or common sense, but sometimes I can be thick-headed when it comes to the ways of God and what He wants for me. I think all of us are that way to one degree or another.

The problem is that I think too highly of what I want and not highly enough of what God wants. If I truly knew what God wants and saw what God sees, I’d want what God wants. I’d love what God loves. I’d ask for what God wills to give me.

So in one sense praying for God’s will is dangerous and in one sense it’s not. It will definitely take you out of your comfort zone and bring you to places and people that you would not have chosen for yourself. It’s also the safest place you can be outside of heaven.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses).