Prayer – Page 3 – LOVE | ACCEPT

Deciphering the Plans and the Necessity of Prayer

Few are the Christians who have not heard that God has a wonderful plan for your life. The verse that is given most often as evidence of this truth is found in Jeremiah, chapter 29. Here, he is writing to the exiled Israelites who, in their colossal failure to live up to their end of the Covenant, have found themselves dispersed among the nations. In verse 11 he writes these well known words,

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Doubt and confusion reign in the life of the believer however when the unending good and prosperity seemingly promised fail to materialize, travail and poverty filling the spaces. This doubt is poison to the soul, hardening it and turning it toward bitterness. The reason for this struggle to link the promise to the reality is that we stop reading at verse 11, ignoring the concomitant call to prayer in the verses that follow.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jer 29:12-13)

Prayer, consistent, repentant soul-deep prayer, is a requirement for the Christian seeking to understand how their reality, good or bad, reflects the plan that God has for your life. Without prayer, your soul is not prepared to comprehend how your cancer is to be viewed as a blessing. Without prayer, the spirit does not understand the true purpose of a financial windfall. Without prayer, the Church flails about, toying with the practices of the culture, trying to ‘Christianize’ them from afar without getting dirty in the process. Without prayer, our connection with God is tenuous at best. Without prayer, the voice of the Holy Ghost is lost in noise that fills our lives.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

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The Foundation of Prayer

“Audacious prayer, which perseveres unflinchingly and ceases not through fear, is well pleasing unto God,” wrote Luther. “As a shoe maker makes a shoe, or a tailor makes a coat, so ought a Christian to pray. Prayer is the daily business of a Christian.” Martin Luther

“God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” John Wesley

Prayer is central to our identity as Christians. It is a distinctive that speaks volumes about the singular nature of our faith. We have personal communion with the God of the universe. Our prayers are not issued into the void in hope that some anonymous deity will take pity upon or show favor toward us. We speak directly to God and he will speak to us.

No spiritual discipline has meaning without prayer. Training ourselves to pray effectively is a primary step that is to be mastered before the other disciplines are attempted. When we live a Christian life without prayer we deprive ourselves of the strength, power and transformation that any other discipline might bring about.

To pray is to change.

A foundational truth regarding prayer is that it is simultaneously natural and unnatural. We do not naturally come to prayer and we must be intentional about pursuing it. Prayer requires effort and a long period of apprenticeship. Unlike the apprenticeship of a silversmith however, our initial prayer has power and effect. God knows our abilities and His grace extends his patience with our first, faltering words.

We must sit at the feet of the Master and learn to pray just as His first disciples did. One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1) These will be our words as well, Lord teach us to pray.

Grace and peace to you.

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Prayer, Walnuts and Rice

“…pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thes. 5:17-18)

How is this possible in our busy days?

Several years ago at our Bible study, the leader gave each of us a jar with unshelled walnuts, and rice filled in around them. They were a gift meant to remind us how to do it—how to fit prayer into our overfull days—which she then demonstrated.

Read the rest of this fantastic piece by Marcia Morrissey here

Psalm 109 ~ Do Not Remain Silent

But you, O Sovereign Lord, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. Psalm 109:21-22

May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. vv 10

This, the last of the imprecatory prayers in the psalter, leaves the modern reader troubled. As people of grace prohibited from calling down a curse upon our enemies and called to love them, the verse after verse of God-directed prayer for vengeance seems out of place in the Scriptures. We attempt to minimize it by forming a pseudo-dispensation between the God of the Old Testament (Angry, Wrathful) and the gentle, loving God of the New Testament. But, are we right in doing so?

David pens this psalm as King, with responsibility for his nation and her people. Rather than mete out vengeance himself for the enemy he describes, he trusts in God to pronounce justice as He sees fit. He chooses prayer (v4) rather than might, trusting in the sovereign God to handle the accuser (v26).

The presence of evil and the troubles that we must face in this life are understood by Christians of a mature faith. We remain in an unredeemed world, fallen and filled with the consequences of sin. Our hope is not a leap into darkness however; we have been graciously told the ending and the glory that awaits. Until that moment, we pray for and love our enemies, hoping that God might save some.

Grace and peace to you..

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Lord’s Day Morning

From The Valley of Vision – A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

O Maker and Upholder of all things,

Day and night are thin; they are also mine from thee–

the night to rid me of the cares of the day,

to refresh my weary body,

to renew my natural strength;

the day to summon me to new activities,

to give me opportunity to glorify thee,

to serve my generation,

to acquire knowledge, holiness, eternal life.

But one day above all days is made especially for thy honor and my improvement;

The Sabbath reminds me of thy rest from creation,

of the resurrection of my savior,

of his entering into repose,

Thy house is min,

but I am unworthy to meet thee there,

an am unfit for spiritual service.

When I enter it I come before thee as a sinner,

condemned by conscience and thy Word,

For I am still in the body and in the wilderness,

ignorant, weak, in danger, and in need of thine aid.

But encouraged by thy all-sufficient grace

let me go to thy house with a lively hope of meeting thee,

knowing that there thou wilt come to me and give me peace.

My soul is drawn out to thee in longing desires

for thy presence in the sanctuary, at the table,

where all are entertained on a feast of good things;

Let me before the broken elements, emblems of thy dying love,

cry to thee with broken heart for grace and forgiveness.

I long for that blissful communion of thy people

in thy eternal house in the perfect kingdom;

These are they that follow the Lamb;

May I be of their company!

Amen

Marana Tha!

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At the Sound of the Bells–Praying the Daily Office

In Constant Prayer – Robert Benson

This entry in Thomas Nelson’s Ancient Practice Series centers on the spiritual discipline of praying the Daily Office, a regularly scheduled set of prayers to be recited by members of the Church. Benson introduces the practice, making it accessible to the great swaths of the Evangelical Church that have moved a good distance from our liturgical heritage. His irenic spirit is evident throughout as he teaches the meaning, practice and application of the Office.

In Constant Prayer stands apart from most other prayer guides currently filling the shelves that focus on attitude, preparation, proper approach and the journaling of answer. Mr. Benson opens the door to a prayer life that encompasses the whole of our day, rather than the prayer by appointment that has become our modern standard. The Daily Office consists of a series of prescribed prayers, praises and scripture readings that are to be lifted to God at specific hours of the day. It is rooted in ancient practice that has struggled to survive in the modern workaday world.

Robert shares the methods and sources of the Office in a most winsome fashion that is appealing to both the contemplatives and the analytics within the Church family. Far from a droll manual of prescriptive steps (since anyone opening the The Book of Common Prayer can figure out the mechanics), he allows us brief glimpses into the benefits that he has accrued as a result of integrating this spiritual discipline into his life. Unlike many prayer works that leave the average Christian feeling as though a life of prayer is unattainable by anyone other than spiritual giants, Benson’s invitation leaves you on the final page unable to wait to become a regular participant in the process.

Thomas Nelson graciously provided this copy for review.

Psalm 108 ~ Awaken the Dawn

My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul.

Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 108:1-4)

In a short cry for physical aid, the psalmist calls us centuries later to consider the urgency of our spiritual motivation. Are we driven to rise in the darkness, to awaken the dawn in fervent worship? Do we linger in the comfort of our bed, seeking additional moments of slumber, delaying our appointment with God until a more convenient moment? Many are the nights in which the Lord beckons us awake, seeking our company and wanting to share a moment of communion with us. How will we respond?

Grace and peace in the Spirit of the Lord to you.

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Psalm 107–Do Tell

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story – those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. (Ps 107:2-3)

The culture that we have developed within the Church puts an emphasis on the shiny, clean you. Reborn, redeemed? Give effusive thanks for that, Christian!

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. (vv8-9)

The psalmist reminds us, however, of the value of recounting the journey prior to redemption. Others benefit directly and indirectly from the journey, from seeing the hills and valleys overcome. They gain a deeper perspective on redemption when they see sin beaten, sin removed, sin forgiven and washed clean. The psalmist tells of the wandering, the failure, the enslavement, the loss and greed—all forgotten by Yahweh in an instant when His people focused their devotion on Him.

Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. (v43)

Grace and peace to you.

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Psalm 106 – How Quickly

But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test. (Ps 106:13-14)

To read the Old Testament is to thumb through a catalog of mankind’s many failures. As much a diary as it is a mirror, the pages are rife with grotesque and subtle reminders of our own tendencies. In the two psalms that conclude Book IV of the psalter, the psalmists rehearse Israel’s repeated incidents of glorifying and celebrating God for his mighty deeds, followed by a meteoric descent into the waters of the Lethe.

Psalms 105 and 106 must be read together to gain the full impact of the psalmist’s purpose. Where 105 catalogs God’s unending faithfulness to the people who are called by His name, 106 reminds hearers of the incessant unfaithfulness. The juxtaposition of the two is jarring, and we cannot help but marvel at His Love and Israel’s failure.

And the myriad failures in our own lives.

Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin. (v43)

The Christian has little excuse for continued purposeful rebellion. The Spirit serves in His role as paraclete in countless ways, one being the early warning when our tendency toward corruption threatens to affect our behavior. We can avoid repeating the history of our family line by becoming more aware and responsive to His whispers, warning us off of unglorifying speech, thoughts and behaviors.

Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. (v47)

Save us, Lord our God, from ourselves and our bent toward failing you. Let us give thanks and praise for your redemption and your power to live out the new creation you’ve begun in us.

Grace and peace to you.

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Psalm 105–Don’t Know Much About History

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all his wonderful acts. (Psalm 105:1-2)

The awe of the sovereign God of the universe is sufficient inspiration to invite the totality of our worship. He is the God of all creation, the giver of life and the sustainer of souls. Worship-worth/ship-should be the natural relationship between created and Creator.

Then the mind gets in the way…

The brain tells the heart to justify the worship. Give me a reason, it says. The psalmist knows this tendency well. To call Israel to worship he rehearses the glory of Yahweh’s interactions with His people.. Glory in his holy name…Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.

He remembers his covenant forever..He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree

They wandered from nation to nation…He allowed no one to oppress them

Have you spent the time allowing God to remind you of your history together? The wonders that He has worked in your life, the trials he has sustained you through, the love He blankets you with. The act of rehearsing your history may be a personal motivation that deepens your worship to depths you have yet to experience.

Praise the Lord. (v45)

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