Saturday 27 July 2013

Infected by the Spirit of prayer

I dream of Christian families and churches all across Canada being infected by the Spirit of prayer.

I need this wonderful disease as much as anyone.

James Banks, who wrote The Lost Art of Praying Together, said in an Internet seminar sponsored by RBC Ministries this week that "every church prays but there are few praying churches."

His point was that almost every church provides for some opportunities to pray - organized gatherings of some kind.  Perhaps it is only a few minutes after a small-group Bible study.

But a praying church is more than that.

"Where there is a culture of prayer, it drives everything else," he said.  "It is very natural or organic.  Often a person will say, 'Let's pray together.'  In a culture of prayer, there is a real sense of dependence on God."

In his own church, church board members spend part of their meetings in the church sanctuary on their knees before the Lord.

"We are interceding for the congregation.  We are praying about the decisions we have made."

In his North Carolina church, there is a prayer wall where people post their prayer needs.  There is a prayer walk through the eight-acre property with prayer stations carrying different phrases from the Lord's prayer.  People wander through, praying at each station.

There is prayer during church services, too.

Even better in my eyes is the fact that people will stop what they are discussing and pray.  In my mind's eye, I see two friends talking about a problem one of them is facing and they pray.

That is the Spirit of prayer in action.

In his book Prayer, O. Hallesby writes that prayer should be guided by the Spirit.  We, who are struggling with prayer, should begin by asking for the Spirit of prayer - and give him free rein.

As Banks says, prayer should flow naturally. We should be spontaneous, not programmed.

While true of church prayer, this is also true of prayer in families.

Often, my wife and I will stop what we are doing or discussing and pray for someone who has popped into our minds or conversation. We don't do it enough.

In effect, God drops these thoughts into our minds.  We must not ignore them.

There is an old adage: "The family that prays together, stays together."  This holds for any group of people, from families to churches.

May all believers seek the divine infection of the Spirit of prayer.






Sunday 21 July 2013

Keeping company with God

I like results.  Results feed my feeling of self-worth.

But, is that what following God is all about?

Today's results will quickly fade away.  And then what will be left?

For years, I have been wrestling with conflicting arguments for "being" and "doing".

As I have said before in this blog, I have been entranced with Brother Lawrence's little book The Practice of the Presence of God for many decades.  The 17th century French monk practiced continual conversation with God throughout his day.  For him, the most important thing in life was his relationship with his beloved Lord - not accomplishments.

But, can you be so wrapped up in your relationship with God that nothing gets done?

Somehow, I think that is the wrong way to look at things.  King David's psalms make clear that his relationship with God was paramount.  The psalms are prayers to the Father.

Yet no one could deny that David got things done.

He - and many others - stand out in the Bible story because they sought God first and foremost.

I am now reading a book that underscores this point.

Jan Johnson, author of Enjoying the Presence of God, tells how she was compulsive in her prayer time for many years - keeping long lists and insisting on doing everything she could to touch all the bases in prayer and worship.

In effect, she fell into a performance trap - trying to gain God's attention and favour through doing things.

I see myself in that mirror.  I believe prayer lists are good.  But sometimes I allow proper prayer procedure to govern my prayer time.

Johnson says she came to see that conversing with God in the ordinary events of the day was a great pleasure.  She realized that "I didn't need a great quiet time, I needed a God-centred lifetime."

"I saw that my responsibility as a Christian was to seek God's company, not to seek spiritual maturity."

In the end, I am convinced that "doing" flows from "being".

Jesus said in John 8:28-29 that he only did what the Father taught him.  He did what pleased his Father.

How can we know what pleases the Father if we don't have a close relationship with him?


Tuesday 16 July 2013

Worry and prayer

A friend asked a very good question the other day: What do you do when praying seems to increase anxiety?

I think most believers have gone through periods when they were overwhelmed with worry about a loved one or a critical situation threatening their livelihood.  Sometimes, we just want to forget about the problem for a few hours or days.

Occasionally, prayer does not bring relief.  Instead, we may feel it increases anxiety because a solution seems as far away as ever.  Prayer just underlines our helplessness.

The apostle Paul deals with this issue head-on in Philippians 4:6-7:

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Of course, Paul's advice not to worry about anything may seem glib when we're deeply preoccupied with our problems.  But it isn't when we explore it further.

For Paul, it was a matter of trust.  He believed God had his best interests at heart (Romans 8:28).  He had a plan for Paul's life and it was a plan for good.  Paul also had experience of being rescued by God in past scrapes.

As we're going through heartbreak, it's hard to imagine things working out well at some point in the future.  But God sees the big picture - we don't.

Paul's words show that he found release in prayer.  He was giving over his troubles to someone who could do more than he could imagine.  He was giving it over to God.

Paul found it helpful to give thanks to God for what he had already done.  Perhaps he recalled past events when God took him through stonings and imprisonment.  Perhaps he recalled his own dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.  He had ample proof that God loved him and was pleased with him.

As we thank God, we think of God, not our problems.  It helps to strengthen our faith.

The key to getting over the worry barrier is to persist in prayer until we find peace - the peace that Paul talks about.

Terry Laws, author of The Power of Praise and Worship, was bitter about his wife's tragic death in a car accident and questioned God.  His mentor Oral Roberts, whose own son had been killed in an accident, told him to praise God.

That seemed ludicrous.  But Laws decided to give it a try.  He spent hours praising God until he found release in a flood of tears.  God poured healing into his spirit and his life and ministry were changed.

Prayer, praise and thanksgiving are God's road to peace of mind.



Sunday 7 July 2013

Alarm bells in hell!

Prayer sets off alarm bells in hell - at least, some prayers do.

A good example is the story of Daniel in Daniel 10.

The chapter begins with the prophet Daniel receiving a vision.  He sees "events certain to happen in the future - times of war and great hardship".

When he received the vision he had already been in mourning for his people, Jews exiled in Babylon.   He had even given up rich food in a kind of fast.

But he did not understand the vision and sought God for an explanation.

Then one day, while walking by the Tigris River, he looked up and saw an amazing sight - a man in linen clothing with a gold belt, his body glistening "like a precious gem".

"His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches.  His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people."

The people with Daniel fled - terrified - leaving him alone.  He fainted.

Then, the angel - for that is who he was - touched Daniel and lifted him to his hands and knees.  He told Daniel to stand up and hear his message because Daniel was "very precious to God" and the Lord had sent him with an answer to his prayers.

The angel said God had sent the angel in answer to Daniel's prayer as soon as he received it.  But - and here is the really interesting part - the angel had been delayed for 21 days.

Why?  Because the "Prince of Persia" had blocked him.  The Prince of Persia was a servant of Satan's.

The angel called on Michael, the archangel, for help and they engaged in an epic battle, allowing the angel to complete his mission to Daniel.

For me, this is a vivid picture of the importance of prayer.  Daniel's prayer was so important that God sent an angel to deliver an answer personally and the Devil did his utmost to stop him.

As the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6, our battle is "not against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places".

Prayer that seeks to advance God's kingdom on earth shakes hell.  We don't see it with our human eyes but Daniel 10 makes clear that is what is happening.

We have a fearsome weapon in our hands - prayer.