Category Archives: Prayer

What good will it do?

Posted on by

One of life’s great privileges is being able to talk to the Almighty. After reading the Old Testament and seeing how he kept a distance between himself and people to the point of causing whole mountains to shake, it’s astounding he allows us to approach him at all. He not only allows it, he encourages it, warmly inviting us to come into his throne room. He even suggests we “come boldly,” bringing requests. What changed from Old Testament to New?

Jesus came, that’s what.

As we celebrate his arrival again this Christmas, we’re conscious of the extraordinary benefits made available to us by his coming, but there’s none greater than being given access to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s free to us, but certainly wasn’t to Jesus, who paid our entrance fee.

One of my great joys during the last 20 years has been to sit with others for extended times in the throne room. This week while meeting with 4 women to pray over a list of requests given to us by the church and individuals, a spirit of discouragement flooded through me. As we got ready to pray, we divided up the long list into 5 parts, one for each of us to cover out loud while the others prayed silently. We do it this way each week, but for some reason this time I felt swamped by all the requests. There were 83 in all, many of which had 2-3 sub-requests within them.

How could we pray for them all in the 90 minutes available?

As the first woman began praying, my mind stayed stuck in the enormity of our task. My head was bowed, but my eyes weren’t closed. They were reading the list: physical maladies, emotional crises, relationship divisions, financial struggles. On and on it went. How could our little band of 5 accomplish anything significant for these hundreds of needy people?

My desire to converse with God was plummeting, but his desire to talk to me was still strong. And talk he did: “Do you think your invitation into my throne room is so you can show me what you can do for these folks? Or is it for Me to show you what I can do?”

And that’s all it took to pull me into the conversation.

I’m thankful for the reminder that prayer is all about God, not me. My part is just to approach him with confidence, believing he hears and answers the requests I bring. And sometimes he does it well before reaching #83 on the list: “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24)

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

 

A Good Guffaw

Posted on by

Yesterday, 6 long-term women friends got together for 24 hours at my sister’s cottage, gathering for the first time since April. Our intentions were six-fold: (1) to pull away from the pressures of everyday life; (2) to catch up on each others families; (3) to share a prayer time; (4) to hike at the beach; (5) to eat good food; (6) to laugh together. Although numbers 1-5 were meaningful, that number 6 was downright spectacular.

After sharing prayer requests, none of us felt like laughing. Among us were the heavy problems of surgery, disease, exhaustion, discouragement, and others. The load was heavy, but after we spent time turning it all over to God, it wasn’t difficult to switch gears and give ourselves over to number 6.

We hadn’t intended to get quite as hilarious as we did, but bringing out a “Catch Phrase” game was a good idea. None of us would call ourselves “gamey,” but once we got going in this contest of words, we had to force ourselves to stop at 1:00 am.

What is it about two hours of guffawing that’s so appealing? Science tells us it serves as an emotional balancing mechanism for stress.  Raucous laughter causes the brain to release something called endorphins, which can increase joy and even reduce physical pain. Indeed, we were feeling no pain last night.

Studies have shown that children laugh far more than adults, 300 times a day for them, 20 for us. Of course that makes perfect sense, but it’s a shame. God urges us to roll our burdens onto him in prayer and to trust his promises as true. The more we follow those instructions, the more we’ll find ourselves laughing.

Scripture tells us that even God has a good laugh once in a while: “The One enthroned in heaven laughs.” (Psalm 2:4) His laughter, however, is usually directed at those who rebel against him, a holy laughter linked with ultimate justice. In that way, our laughing and his are quite different, but then again, he doesn’t need an endorphin boost like we do.

The Lord’s gift of human laughter is so special that he gives us the know-how to do it even before we can talk. A baby’s first laugh brings monumental joy to parents, usually eliciting a laugh in return. It’s a happy, universal language that works well in every country, with every dialect, for every age. Even though some laughs are ha-ha-ha, some ho-ho-ho and others hee-hee-hee, we “get” them all.

Today while sitting in church, I realized my stomach muscles hurt. The 6 of us laughed so hard for so long last night, my abs mistakenly thought they’d had a work-out. Well, maybe they had, which would be just one more benefit of a good guffaw.

“There is a time for everything… a time to weep and a time to laugh.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1a,4a)

Squeaky Clean

Posted on by

Last week Louisa impressed me by washing all the windows in my cottage, inside and out. She carefully locked each one afterwards in preparation for winter winds and removed the screens, carrying them to the basement for storage. The window glass is so clean it seems there isn’t any at all, like we’re living among the trees. And it’s absolutely lovely.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our inner selves could be that squeaky clean with no smudges or smears?

Today at an early morning prayer gathering during which a group of us were interceding for others, God reminded me I needed to spend more time in prayers of confession for myself. He reminded me that just because I don’t shoplift or embezzle money or worship idols, I’m still guilty of sin, and it needs to be cleaned up every so often.

Job of the Old Testament is a tremendous role model for all of us. God’s description of him was “blameless,” meaning he lived a life without willful sin. But he wasn’t the only one. Dotted through Scripture are others of the same caliber such as both parents of John the Baptist who were also labeled “blameless.” And several others referred to themselves as being blameless before God.

Whenever I ask the Lord if he sees anything in me that’s blame-worthy, his answer is always, “Yes,” followed by the specifics. It’s as if he says, “The window to your soul has gotten cloudy. How ‘bout cleaning it off?”

All of us want to be clean before God, but it’s hard to agree with him about specific smudges. Most of us jump to defend ourselves, even to him. And maybe that’s the main reason he’s never referred to someone like me as “blameless.” Maybe Job and the others didn’t self-defend but instead quickly responded to God’s charges with ownership of guilt and immediate requests for forgiveness.

Each of us is born with a sense of right and wrong, along with a conscience to prompt us. We can choose to run from wrong or walk as close to it as possible. But God can look at our hearts as easily as I can look through my clean windows. He sees everything in there, and is keenly interested in all of it, though he’s looking at one thing above all others: our intentions.

Despite the smudges and smears on the glass, if our honest longing is to be clean before him, his response is always to pull out his supernatural Windex and work washing wonders within us. He deals harshly with willful sin but lavishes grace when our underlying purpose is to please him.

So, although I’d love to be “blameless” before God, until I get there, I’ll work on just being “squeaky clean,” much like Louisa’s windows.

Lord, “keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.” (Psalm 19:13)