Prayer – Page 8 – LOVE | ACCEPT

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Thirty Two

Though we pride ourselves as otherwise, our perspective is limited. A few moments of darkness can cause despair and test our faith. To see the Lord hanging upon the cross was certainly one of those moments. To see Jesus release His final breath in the gloom must have sent minds racing. The body releases adrenalin to fuel our escape from fear and our heart races. The mind must quickly rehearse the truths that it has acquired to direct the next critical move.

Readers of the Old Testament have the advantage of seeing over and over how God reminds His people of all of the bondage that he has freed them from throughout history. Faced with silence, the psalmist remembers:

Will the Lord reject forever?

Will he never show his favor again?

Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? (Psalm 77:7-9)

We know these feelings, the despair from thinking that our unworthiness has overwhelmed God’s grace. In these moments we need to remember.

Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.

Your ways, O God, are holy. (vv 10-13a)

God does not change.

Grace and peace to you.

image kanelstrand

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Thirty One

We plead with God for mercy and security, ratcheting up the intensity when we feel that we might be treading on especially dangerous ground. When the voices were raised to free Barabbas, there is no doubt for whom we would have been calling. Like the psalmist in Psalm 140, we see ourselves clearly on one side:

Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men; protect me from men of violence,

who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. (vv 1-2)

Does the mirror tell a different story? The Cross offers salvation but it also acts like a mirror, requiring us to look deeply and to realize that we are the people of evil, the people who caused the Lord to be crucified. The observation of Lent is intended to focus our hearts on not only the glory of the resurrection but on the brokenness that lies within that made the Cross necessary. Perhaps our plea should be “Lord, rescue us from ourselves.”

Grace and peace to you.

image by Mance

Day 25 in the School of Prayer : Mature

In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. (Jn 16:23–27)

In the Christian life, spiritual growth proceeds in stages. We begin as infants overjoyed with our salvation and new birth and proceed into an adolescent, young adult stage that can last for some time as we assimilate what it means to live as new creations in the world. We learn, we test, we fail, and we rise again the challenge. The final stage is a maturity in which our fellowship with Jesus, the Spirit, and the Father are settled and our knowledge and wisdom can benefit the younger folks who are transitioning through their own stages.

Our life of prayer has similar stages. In our initial immaturity we learn to know the Father with our hesitant and largely self-focused petitions. Our growth phase is the period in which we learn to trust the Spirit to guide our prayer and our ability to intercede on behalf of others. The trust we gain is rooted in our understanding of the Kingdom in which we dwell and our role within it, allowing us to look away from ourselves and toward others. Finally, in our maturity our center is found in the will of God and the goals of the Kingdom. We trust our place in it, we understand the Kingdom to some extent, and we no longer need to worry about our daily needs.

As Murray says, “what our prayer avails, depends upon what we are and what our life is. It is living in the Name of Christ that is the secret of praying in the Name of Christ; living in the Spirit that fits for praying in the Spirit. It is abiding in Christ that give the right and power to ask what we will : the extent of the abiding is the exact measure of the power in prayer.”

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Thirty

We all know the feeling, even if we are unable to bring forth the words:

Why have you rejected us forever, O God?

Why does your anger smolder against the sheep in your pasture? (Psalm 74:1)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. (Psalm 22:1-2)

From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” –which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46)

God has not turned his back on you, it can only be that in some way, you have turned your back to Him.

Grace and peace to you.

image Sean Dreilinger

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Twenty Nine

In one week we will be in the first days of Passion week. It will a time of mixed emotions; the joy of Easter is tempered and sometimes shadowed by the horror of the extraordinary cost of the Cross. The one innocent man to have walked the face of the earth must be sacrificed that we might live. Jesus the divine reveals God to us in human form and yet, we still struggle to grasp the necessity of the cross. We work to make the juxtaposition of mercy and sacrifice understood by our hearts but lack the words.

The psalmist knows this duality well, speaking in Psalm 5,

You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;

In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple. (vv 6-7)

How rarely we see ourselves as those who speak falsehood or practice deceit and yet, like Nathan did for David, the Spirit reminds us that we are that man. We are the reason for the Cross, the reason that such an enormous cost must be paid. We continue forward toward Calvary in His mercy alone.

Grace and peace to you

image Leonard Matthews

Day 24 in the School of Prayer : In My Name

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:13-14)

Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 15:16)

Evangelicals have made a habit of concluding all prayers with some form of the phrase “in Jesus name” with only a vague notion of why they do so. In many cases, it has taken on the veneer of a magical incantation, as if by including these words the prayer is guaranteed to be fulfilled. Kind of an abracadabra for Christians.

And wrong.

A person’s name is how we know them. Our family and friends are not disembodied beings that we know by their features; the big one, the red haired one. We know them by their names and associate all that they are to us in that name. Say the name of your wife or husband. Not only do you see his or her face in your mind but you get the full sense of your love for that person. You feel exactly what they mean to you.

So it is with the name of Jesus. He’s not just a man. He is Lord. His name represents all that that means to us. Praying in His name says two things. One, we are His representatives, serving Him and what we do carries the full force of His Lordship. Second, when asking for what we need to accomplish His will, we ask in the full force and credit of our Lord. What we ask to fulfill His will is not denied. The empowerment we desire to fulfill His will is not denied.

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Twenty Eight

Fear is rooted in judgment. We fear being judged inadequate or our lives being judged not worthy of continuing. We fear the criticism of man. Fear paralyzes us and causes us to seek refuge in hidden places.

We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds.

You say, “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly.” (Psalm 75:1-2)

The Cross grows bigger day by day as we walk toward Easter. What have you to fear? God has overcome all and made you an heir. What can man do?

Grace and peace to you

image jmtimages

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Twenty Seven

But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. (Psalm 3:3-4)

Is your walk toward the Cross hesitant? Do you still live in the fear of the world that you had when it had you in its grip? Freeing ourselves from that bondage is a challenge that some never defeat. We live as though God has extended his grace to us as a one-time event and then left us to fend for ourselves.

God is our foundation and our ever-present shield. We have nothing to fear and He calls each of to live our His glory in that fashion. We are liberated creations, surrounded on all sides by the shield of the Lord. Nothing can snatch us from His hand.

Grace and peace to you

image by Loci Lenar

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Twenty Six

Looking forward to Calvary our thoughts are often limited to the salvation that it brought. While we are rightfully reminded of the horrible cost of grace, we are not pressed to consider whether or not our practice of a grace-full life is commensurate with the scope of that grace. If we read Psalm 54 from the NIV we will see,

Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.

Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth. (vv 1-2)

Save, vindicate, hear, listen; words that our hearts have processed so many times that we can allow them to be diminished in scope. Save me Lord! Turn my path from Hell to Heaven. To be redeemed means so much more than a ticket punch. The Voice book of Psalms retells the verses of the cry, retaining the idea but expanding the power of the language,

Liberate me, O God, by the authority of Your Name.

Vindicate me through Your legendary power.

Hear my prayer, O God; let the words of my mouth reach Your sympathetic ear. (The Voice, Psalm 54, Verses 1-2)

What does it mean to be liberated rather than just saved?

Grace and peace to you.

image zoe

Lent Spent with the Psalms Day Twenty Five

It’s easy to say ‘don’t be afraid’ and an entirely different thing not to be afraid, isn’t it? We trust in our unseen Father and in the grace that he extends to us. We’re challenged when something that can be seen and touched offers an alternative confidence. Which path will we follow; the one that leads to Cross or the path of our own making?

God knows our mind, he knows when we’re considering the alternative. Despite our outward appearances, where we try to make the world believe we have not doubts, God knows our heart. Can we embed it in our hearts such that we can walk fearlessly into the darkness that surrounds the Cross?

But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge. (Psalm 94:22)

We can process that statement, even repeat it to others but can we get rid of our doubt? Confidence replaces doubt as we grow closer in our relationship with God. The more time we spend with Him, the more we hide His word in our hearts, the more we see His truths in action, the more we will know that,

"For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. (v 14)

We will walk toward the Cross He ordains for us without fear..

When I said, “My foot is slipping, your love, O Lord, supported me.

When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. (vv 18-19)

Grace and peace to you.

image rejik