Home is where I pray

when-should-we-pray-for-god-to-take-us-home-hyg7lgm4

I have had one of those days again where I have read something and seen something I feel I have never read or seen before.

Then Jethro said, “You are not doing this right.You will wear yourself out and these people as well. This is too much for you to do alone. Now let me give you some good advice, and God will be with you. It is right for you to represent the people before God and bring their disputes to him.You should teach them God’s commands and explain to them how they should live and what they should do. – Exodus 18:17-20 GNT

Maybe because the word “pray” was not written but rather “bring their disputes to him.” Jethro recognized that Moses leadership including prayer. I have a leadership session to do in a month’s time and I will be including prayer.

“The Christian pastor is in some respects comparable to Moses, for he is set apart as a leader in the band of brethren; and as such his business is not only to teach the people but to plead for them with God.” – Spurgeon

Why?

Jesus cautioned us to watch, pray and stand.

“Be careful not to let yourselves become occupied with too much feasting and drinking and with the worries of this life, or that Day may suddenly catch you like a trap. For it will come upon all people everywhere on earth. Be on watch and pray always that you will have the strength to go safely through all those things that will happen and to stand before the Son of Man.” – Luke 21:34-36 GNT

Watch – the ability to recognise the signs rather than being caught in the worldview of the day. Pray always – so we do not allow the addictions to dominate our consciousness. Stand – rather than falling into the traps of the evil one.

One that I have seen more often is the individual, because of hardships, has turn on God. Job went through more than most and it was the youngest of his friends that speaks up in God’s defense.

How strong God is! He despises no one;
    there is nothing he doesn’t understand. – Job 36:5 GNT

The basic idea is that God does not hate me. God has something good in the situation even if no one else can see what that is.

But God teaches people through suffering
    and uses distress to open their eyes.

God brought you out of trouble,
    and let you enjoy security;
    your table was piled high with food.
But now you are being punished as you deserve.
Be careful not to let bribes deceive you,
    or riches lead you astray.
It will do you no good to cry out for help;
    all your strength can’t help you now.
Don’t wish for night to come,
    the time when nations will perish.
Be careful not to turn to evil;
    your suffering was sent to keep you from it.

Remember how great is God’s power;
    he is the greatest teacher of all. – Job 36:15-22 GNT

God has purposes in our pain – perhaps to save us, perhaps to teach us – perhaps to do something we will never understand. But he is good. Hating God doesn’t make it any better. In the end it is the worst of all decisions. So when your mountain doesn’t move don’t turn on God.

Here is why?

“I will make my home with my people
    and live among them;
I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.”
And so the Lord says,
“You must leave them
    and separate yourselves from them.
Have nothing to do with what is unclean,
    and I will accept you.
I will be your father,
    and you shall be my sons and daughters,
    says the Lord Almighty.” – 2 Corinthians 6:16b-18 GNT

I am home to the living God.

When I think of the way Solomon dedicated the temple and how Jesus began and closed His ministry within the temple walls, I realise that consecration and how grand the purposes of Jesus’ incarnation to purify and hallow the living temple of my soul really matters to me. Here is where it is leading me —

I can make myself a “den of thieves”or a “house of prayer” and there can be no idol.

“There must be an altar. And yet, how many of us are there in whose hearts an altar for self-sacrifice is a strange thing! Conclusion: Let us beware lest the doom of the old temple should be ours. Our souls through sin must incur a still more terrible ruin. – U. R. Thomas

If I am to be a temple of God, let me be holy and let me pray. 

Moving God

moving God

Moses first encounter with a lack of water put his life in danger – the people were ready to stone him. So he cried out to God.

Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord and said, “What can I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” – Exodus 17:4 GNT

Leadership puts us in those situations as unfair as they are and doing the right thing still matters.

“One of Moses’ most characteristic and praiseworthy traits was that he took his difficulties to the Lord.” – Kaiser

Whatever I do I need to back it up with some serious prayer and know what that looks like in my community. Joshua was the military man and Moses was the prayer man.

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Pick out some men to go and fight the Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on top of the hill holding the stick that God told me to carry.” Joshua did as Moses commanded him and went out to fight the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites won, but when he put his arms down, the Amalekites started winning. When Moses’ arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on, while they stood beside him and held up his arms, holding them steady until the sun went down. In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites. – Exodus 17:8-13 GNT

I like the idea, like Jesus, Moses removes himself from the battle and goes to a quiet place – on top of a hill. Interestingly I note here the obvious perspective that comes from doing this.

Our church has prayer meetings every night of the week during the first week of every month. Few show up. I like to participate because I know it encourages those who come and the pastoral team that host the evening. I think everyone likes the idea of not having to pray alone. I like what I see with Aaron and Hur. They notice the power of prayer, they know they can participate – they do – and the battle is won. Lots of lessons and encouragement here.

The narrative has two morals. Continue to pray, even when weariness and boredom set in. And rely on others to help me pray when I are tempted to quit.

This little verse in the middle of nowhere reminds me to keep it all in perspective especially when I am praying among others.

They cry for help, but God doesn’t answer,
    for they are proud and evil.
It is useless for them to cry out;
    Almighty God does not see or hear them. – Job 35:12-13 GNT

If I am praying using all the right words in hoping to impress God, or if the people that may be praying with me, I should not be surprised when God is not moved.

“For the Word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart . . . the heart’s distrust is greater than the mind’s blindness. It is harder for the heart to be furnished with assurance [of God’s love] than for the mind to be endowed with thought.” ― John Calvin

 

 

Petition for the lost

prayer-petition

The story of the Israelites being fed manna and quail never cease to amaze me. I still remember my world religions teacher trying to explain this story and how it really happened – priceless – and I am being sarcastic. The story teaches me how to ask. There is actually not much to be said about the actual words used. God notices my needs and He provides for me and meets them. The people of Israel saw it every day for years. The real lesson I am being taught is – asking comes with a precious gift – trust. Will I trust Him when I ask and hear His response? Will I observe the Sabbath? Will I pick up a double portion the day before knowing that it will not spoil because He said it would not? Will I trust Him over my own reasoning?

I have been having more of those conversation today than I can recount ever having before.

It is the same when I trust Him to bring those I love to a knowledge of who He is – I have to trust Him.

For if the gospel we preach is hidden, it is hidden only from those who are being lost. They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. – 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 GNT

Satan spends his energy blinding people from seeing Jesus for who He is. Knowing this helps me when I pray as I yield them up to Him knowing that He is in absolute authority and I can trust Him. May God give faith to overcome the unbelief that invites the blinding.

Chorus:

To see the Law by Christ fulfilled,
To hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child
And duty into choice.

William Cowper, Olney Hymns

 

Unity as we turn to prayer

hands-grieving-praying

Christians from many different traditions see the hand of God active in the ending of enslavement to the power of sin. It can be a very uniting experience of the saving action of God which brings freedom. I have seen the seeds of revival born in such experiences. When I read about the song of triumph over oppression from Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15:1-21), I also think of the hymn, The Right Hand of God.

Jesus tells us to always pray and not lose heart for this very reason.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged. – Luke 18:1 GNT

The story goes like this —

“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. And there was a widow in that same town who kept coming to him and pleading for her rights, saying, ‘Help me against my opponent!’ For a long time the judge refused to act, but at last he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, yet because of all the trouble this widow is giving me, I will see to it that she gets her rights. If I don’t, she will keep on coming and finally wear me out!’” – Luke 18:2-5 GNT

Why is it that people think Jesus is comparing the judge with God – it has absolutely nothing to do with a comparison. It is a story about how to pray and how to never stop praying.

Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them? – Luke 18:7 GNT

There is basically a choice being offered to me – either I pray or I become discouraged – my choice.

In describing the type of prayer I should be offering Jesus shares another story.

Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. “Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. – Luke 18:9-10 GNT

What a way to measure my heart – who represents me the most as I look how I pray? Anyone else find it hard to determine who was praying correctly before Jesus’ points out how God viewed their prayers? One was a religious leader, respected, and the other worked a hated profession open to lying and stealing.

The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed,[a] ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’I tell you,” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.” – Luke 18:11-14 GNT

God shows up in the temple and one says look at my righteousness and the other says look at my humility. One is looking for brownie points and one is hoping that God sees he does not have a self-righteous bone in his body and is hoping beyond hope that God will show him mercy.

I believe I am also called to pray and come alongside my Jewish neighbours.

Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds. But it can be removed, as the scripture says about Moses: “His veil was removed when he turned to the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 3:15-16 GNT

May I not only turn to the Lord in prayer but may I bring others with me. May we all be united in our faith together.

“That’s the ground motive of Spirit-directed, Christ-mediated prayer—to simply know him better and enjoy his presence. Consider how different this is from the normal way we use prayer. In our natural state we pray to God to get things. We may believe in God, but our deepest hopes and happiness reside in things as in how successful we are or in our social relationships. We therefore pray mainly when our career or finances are in trouble, or when some relationship or social status is in jeopardy. When life is going smoothly, and our truest heart treasures seem safe, it does not occur to us to pray. Also, ordinarily our prayers are not varied—they consist usually of petitions, occasionally some confession (if we have just done something wrong). Seldom or never do we spend sustained time adoring and praising God. In short, we have no positive, inner desire to pray. We do it only when circumstances force us. Why? We know God is there, but we tend to see him as a means through which we get things to make us happy. For most of us, he has not become our happiness.” – Timothy Keller

 

 

 

 

 

Unite for one purpose

unite

I do like the way God reacts to Moses reaching out to Him in prayer before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The people look at Moses and see a man full of faith, but before God he cried out in desperate prayer. This was a good form of leadership but what did God have to say about the praying? I find this quite fascinating that God was telling Moses to stop praying and start doing. This was a time for action and if Moses had the need to talk to God along the way – terrific – but in the meantime start moving.

The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out for help? Tell the people to move forward.Lift up your walking stick and hold it out over the sea. The water will divide, and the Israelites will be able to walk through the sea on dry ground.I will make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will go in after them, and I will gain honor by my victory over the king, his army, his chariots, and his drivers.When I defeat them, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” – Exodus 14:15-18 GNT

I found these three interesting quotes that made sense —

“There is a time for praying, but there is also a time for holy activity. Prayer is adapted for almost every season, yet not prayer alone, for there comes, every now and then, a time when even prayer must take a secondary place.” – Spurgeon

“There is something more to be done than to pray. We must not only crave God’s help, but be forward in the course whereby to make way for God’s help.” – Trapp

“There is a favourite sin, of which he has long been guilty; he does not give it up, but he says that he will pray about it. God says to such a man, ‘“Where fore criest thou unto me?” Give up thy sin; this is not a matter for thee to pray about, but to repent of.’ The man says, “I was asking for repentance.” Ask, if thou wilt, for repentance, but exercise it as well.” – Spurgeon

We are talking about faith here – are we not?  The apostles asked for their faith to be increased and some think that is a great prayer to pray and one that we should pray.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Make our faith greater.” – Luke 17:5 GNT

I believe they forgot to keep reading.

The Lord answered, “If you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it would obey you. – Luke 17:6 GNT

There is no need for more for all we need is what we have, however, I am sure I miss the point on more than one occasion – I need to use the faith I have.

Satan does have a plan, he has designs, strategies and an agenda to take away the little faith we have and destroy the unity that comes to the Church that comes through our faith in Christ. It is our call to come against those schemes.

When you forgive people for what they have done, I forgive them too. For when I forgive—if, indeed, I need to forgive anything—I do it in Christ’s presence because of you,in order to keep Satan from getting the upper hand over us; for we know what his plans are. – 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 GNT

When it comes to faith, we need to pray that we stay united and not applaud disunity or division. Forgiving and restore require action on our part. To be reluctant to do so humiliates the repentant sinner and perhaps could drive them to despair. May the Holy Spirit unite our hearts, through prayer, when it comes to the restoration of a believer.  That is faith in action.

“Nothing serves to verify the intimacy and constancy of the Redeemer’s preoccupation with the security of his people, nothing assures us of his unchanging love more than the tenderness which his heavenly priesthood bespeaks and particularly as it comes to expression in intercession for us.” —John Murray