Praying the final step or the glue

praying the final step or the glue

Many times I find myself in situations where I wish there was a pillar of cloud rising up and moving out and then stopping and settling down where I need to be. Same as the pillar of fire at night.

The Israelites moved their camp to another place only when the cloud lifted from the Tent. As long as the cloud stayed there, they did not move their camp.During all their wanderings they could see the cloud of the Lord‘s presence over the Tent during the day and a fire burning above it during the night. – Exodus 40:36-38 GNT

In many ways His Spirit leads me today. Yet, in the midst of making life impacting decisions I find myself praying and listening and I ask for pillar of cloud and fire to rise up so I can be sure of where I am going.

What makes this bearable is that I know God wants me to go in the right direction – make wise decisions. He does not hide His will from me. I believe that is why He enjoys when I spend time talking to Him about things that matter to me. His Holy Spirit will lead my thoughts, will guide my desires and I will make the right decision at the end.

What a confidence for me to have when I pray. God leading and guiding as I pray and follow Him.

I should enjoy prayer more. It is necessary and I believe essential to my everyday life and not just when I need to make that amazing, life-changing decision. It is hard to wait sometimes. Sometimes I go do my thing and then ask the Lord to walk with me. Most of the time I want to pray first, asking God for wisdom and understanding before I more forward.

We may make our plans, but God has the last word.[a]

You may think everything you do is right, but the Lord judges your motives.

Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out. – Proverbs 16:1-3 GNT

I want prayer not to be my final step but rather the glue that holds the whole plan together. When I do I may find myself experiencing the power of His resurrection and I may find myself sharing in His sufferings.

All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. Philippians 3:10 GNT

Where He leads me I know that this prayer of Paul’s will end up being mine as well – koinōnia 

“The fourth rule is that, thus cast down and overcome by true humility, we should be nonetheless encouraged to pray by a sure hope that our prayer will be answered. These are indeed things apparently contrary: to join the firm assurance of God’s favor to a sense of his just vengeance; yet, on the ground that God’s goodness alone raises up those oppressed by their own evil deeds, they very well agree together. For, in accordance with our previous teaching that repentance and faith are companions joined together by an indissoluble bond, although one of these terrifies us while the other gladdens us, so also these two ought to be present together in prayers. And David briefly expresses this agreement when he says: “I through the abundance of thy goodness will enter thy house, I will worship toward the temple of thy holiness with fear” [Ps. 5:7]. – Calvin

Come and pray

desperate-praying-silhouette_si

I came across the summary of the items in the Tabernacle and saw incense once again. It reminded me of the importance of worship.

The gold altar; the anointing oil; the sweet-smelling incense; the curtain for the entrance of the Tent. – Exodus 39:38 GNT

My prayer life is a vital part of my spiritual worship connecting me with my God. It pictures me approaching my Father and having a time of fellowship with Him allowing me to get to know Him more. As I share my life with Him, He shares His glory with me and walks with me in my poverty and my needs.

I do not pray alone for the Holy Spirit enables me and intercedes with me.

The incense reminds me that I can approach God the way I do because of Jesus, my High Priest. I dare approach as boldly as I do to obtain mercy and find grace in my time of need.

To find a regular time of prayer is key for me. Jesus did this often – so much so He was predictable.

Judas, the traitor, knew where it was, because many times Jesus had met there with his disciples. – John 18:2 GNT

Prayer is also a natural outcome of my thirst for God.

The Lord is pleased when good people pray, but hates the sacrifices that the wicked bring him. – Proverbs 15:8 GNT

I am encouraged to pray as I reflect on knowing that God delights when I do and in return my soul is satisfied.

Prayer becomes my antidote to complaining and arguing.

 Do everything without complaining or arguing,  so that you may be innocent and pure as God’s perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky. – Philippians 2:14-15 GNT

I thank God for everything that is right, never forgetting that He does answer prayer. I think God would much rather me come to Him and pray than to hear me grumble.

“To this let us join a third rule: that anyone who stands before God to pray, in his humility giving glory completely to God, abandon all thought of his own glory, cast off all notion of his own worth, in fine, put away all self-assurance—”lest if we claim for ourselves anything, even the least bit, we should become vainly puffed up, and perish at his presence. We have repeated examples of this submission, which levels all haughtiness, in God’s servants; each one of whom, the holier he is, the more he is cast down when he presents himself before the Lord. Thus spoke Daniel, whom the Lord himself commended with so great a title: “We do not pour forth our prayers unto thee on the ground of our righteousnesses but on the ground of thy great mercy. O Lord, hear us; O Lord, be kindly unto us. Hear us, and do what we ask . . . for thine own sake . . . because thy name is called upon over thy people, and over thine holy place” [Dan. 9:18-19]. – Calvin

 

 

 

 

Distracted or selfless in prayer

Distracted or selfless in prayer

The bronze altar, from the days of the Tabernacle, represented judgment. Sin offerings were sacrificed there so it was not located in the Holy Place, but rather in the outer court where everyone could see as they entered. In fact, it would be the first thing one would see as they entered.

When I think about my own time with God I have to ask myself – what is my priority, my focal point, when I enter into my time of worship? Am I thinking about yesterday or the worries of tomorrow? Is my mind a million miles away when I take time to read His Word? Is my heart just not in it today? Are my eyes fixed on the Sacrifice?

For burning offerings, he made an altar out of acacia wood. It was square, 7½ feet long and 7½ feet wide, and it was 4½ feet high. He made the projections at the top of the four corners, so that they formed one piece with the altar. He covered it all with bronze. He also made all the equipment for the altar: the pans, the shovels, the bowls, the hooks, and the fire pans. All this equipment was made of bronze. He made a bronze grating and put it under the rim of the altar, so that it reached halfway up the altar. He made four carrying rings and put them on the four corners. He made carrying poles of acacia wood, covered them with bronze, and put them in the rings on each side of the altar. The altar was made of boards and was hollow. – Exodus 38:1-7 GNT

When I eavesdrop on one of Jesus’ prayers in John chapter seventeen, moments before He will be betrayed, beaten and crucified, Jesus takes time to pray on behalf of His disciples. And then another step…

“I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in me because of their message. I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me.” – John 17:20-21 GNT 

When prayer rises above myself, somehow there is more focus to my time with God. This kind of prayer is reflected in Paul’s life too. He opens his letter to the church of Philippi with a prayer.

I pray that your love will keep on growing more and more, together with true knowledge and perfect judgment, so that you will be able to choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ. Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce, for the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 GNT

Paul also models what selfless prayer looks like. The end game for both Paul and Jesus were similar – spiritual growth, live up to their full potential and be ready to stand before God and to be found to have lived a life pleasing to Him.

I am challenged to pray selflessly, even in difficult circumstances.

“Let this be the second rule: that in our petitions we ever sense our own insufficiency, and earnestly pondering how we need all that we seek, join with this prayer an earnest—nay, burning desire to attain it.” – Calvin

 

 

Pray as the Spirit leads in the battlefield survival strategy

A man holds up a Bible to dark shadows

I love the idea that prayer is my key to kingdom advancement. In that same vein it offers me my battlefield survival strategy. Sounds cold but in reality it is a blanket of warmth offering peace when there seems to be none. Can prayer make it possible to get through life in one piece? Can prayer become a source of solace and power instead of fault and guilt? I believe when God created the altar He did so in order to create a significant move to celebrating the times when the people gathered together for prayer (incense).

He made an altar out of acacia wood, for burning incense. It was square, 18 inches long and 18 inches wide, and it was 36 inches high. Its projections at the four corners formed one piece with it. – Exodus 37:25 GNT

It is a reminder to me that God desires me to come to Him in prayer – acknowledging that He has a divine purpose for my life. He wants to hear my voice and enjoys when I spend time with Him.

Jesus has a clear purpose in John 16:16-25 in teaching me how to pray when wrong things come my way. I want to leave this portion of scripture for you to read in order to allow God to speak more into your life. As I read it this morning I received some great encouragement and I know it was specifically meant for me. I could in no way understand all the needs others would have, but that they would be different from mine.

In some ways it is very similar to this verse —

When hope is crushed, the heart is crushed, but a wish come true fills you with joy. – Proverbs 13:12 GNT

I begin to look what I hope for the most, what I pray about the most. I see myself falling short and I hope to be my best so I can set a good example of what is real. I wonder if God is ever going to respond to a certain prayer that has been going on for some time, there seems little change, and somehow my hope is slowly vanishing.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Waiting I have found is a good thing. It does not crush my heart to wait. A delay in God responding is not an indication that He will not answer, but rather a perfectly timed response to my prayer.

So this is how I respond and so thankful for Paul’s encouragement.

Do all this in prayer, asking for God’s help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God’s people. – Ephesians 6:18 GNT

 

 

Let the first rule of right prayer then be to have our heart and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into converse with God. This we shall accomplish with respect to the mind, if, laying aside carnal thoughts and cares that might interfere with the direct and pure contemplation of God, it not only be wholly intent on prayer, but also, as far as possible, be borne and raised above itself. I do not here insist on a mind so disengaged as to feel none of the gnawings of anxiety. On the contrary, it is by much anxiety that the fervor of prayer is inflamed. Thus we see that the holy servants of God betray great anguish, not to say solicitude, when they cause the voice of complaint to ascend to the Lord from the deep abyss and the jaws of death (Psa 130:1). What I say is that all foreign and extraneous cares must be dispelled by which the mind might be driven to and fro in vague suspense, be drawn down from heaven, and kept groveling on the earth. When I say it must be raised above itself, I mean that it must not bring into the presence of God any of those things that our blind and stupid reason is wont to devise, nor keep itself confined within the little measure of its own vanity, but rise to a purity worthy of God. – Calvin

 

Prayer and action in coming to the Father

prayer and action

How many times did Jesus mention the Father as He prayed in John chapter fourteen?

Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.” – John 14:6 GNT

I love the invitation that we can come to the Father through Jesus.

And I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father’s glory will be shown through the Son. If you ask me[d] for anything in my name, I will do it. – John 14:13-14 GNT

And I love the promise that He will answer and will respond to our ask.

My mind today is on the work of God in my town and how I am called to respond.

A city becomes great when the righteous give it their blessing; but a city is brought to ruin by the words of the wicked. – Proverbs 11:11 GNT

Can I imagine how I can benefit my town through my prayers rather than my debates? Prayer changes things. I believe my town is preserved and prospered because of those who are praying for it. Prosperity depends on my prayers. and my actions as I serve my community.

The same is in my own life. I always fight sin and temptation. It is a spiritual battle.

So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy. – Ephesians 4:22-24 GNT

The idea of getting rid of my old self is not a passive undertaking. I cannot just pray about it and walk away thinking my job is done. Prayer without the pursuit of holiness puts me in a bad place. I am called by God through the power of the Holy Spirit and able to obey God through the same Spirit. I can grow in my holiness as the Spirit of God works in me and the more I have Him dwell in me the more I can war against the sin that wants to set up camp within me. I am not only called to salvation, put to a pursuit of holiness and wholeness.

I repeat here what I previously said in reference to the Lord’s Prayer: if in the midst of such thoughts the Holy Spirit begins to preach in your heart with rich, enlightening thoughts, honor him by letting go of this written scheme; be still and listen to him who can do better than you can. Remember what he says and note it well and you will behold wondrous things in the law of God, as David says. – Luther