Pray about everything

The apostle Paul urges us to pray about everything.

In one of my favourite Bible passages, he says in Philippians 4:6:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but, in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

I was reminded of this by something our pastor said yesterday.

He said he was going through a time of discouragement when he decided to take his son's bike for a ride in the fields of his farm.  On the way, he lost a bike pedal.

He felt badly and prayed about it.  As he went back to search for it, he looked down and saw the pedal in the fields.

For him, it was a sign that God cared for him and was with him.  It was a shaft of light in a dark time.

Mark Batterson, author of a really fine book on prayer Draw the Circle, puts it better than I can: "Prayer is the difference between the best we can do and the best God can do."

Batterson gives an example of someone who prays constantly in everything he does.

His friend, Ross Hill, is the founder and chief executive officer of Bank2, a community-owned bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the U.S.

Batterson says: "Ross defines business as mission.  And he's great at both."

The bank leaders anointed the doors of Bank2 with oil when it opened, praying for everyone who would walk in and out of them.  Board meetings begin with prayer; there is prayer when the bank recruits new employees; and Ross frequently prays for employees and customers in his office.

Bank2 took a big hit in the 2008 recession, but Ross says "we prayed through it".  The following year Bank2 was named the number 1 community bank in the U.S. by a leading American bank journal.  And in 2011 the bank was the number 7 mortgage operation in the country.

"Prayer is the difference between appointments and divine appointments," Batterson writes.  "Prayer is the difference between good ideas and God-ideas."

In the end, we must do as Paul did - take our anxieties to God and pray, looking for God's ways in the midst of our troubles.  His ways are always best.

Prayer and the presence of God

When the people of God pray together, God makes his presence felt.

There are a number of examples in the Bible - some of them quite spectacular.  For example, the glory of God filled the temple when Solomon dedicated the building in 1 Chronicles 7.  The temple was packed with worshipers as Solomon made promises to the Lord on behalf of the people and God responded.

And there are similar stories today.

Cheryl Sacks, author of The Prayer-saturated Church, writes:

"The greatest distinguishing characteristic of a house of prayer is the tangible presence of God.  As we draw near to him, he draws near to us.  We can sense and feel his presence."

I have read similar comments by Daniel Henderson when he was describing Arcade Church, the church he pastored in Sacramento, California years ago. 

In his book Fresh Encounters, he says visitors to his church often said to him: "The presence of God is in this place."  That, he says, meant more to him than any compliment about his sermons or the worship service or anything else in the church program.

Henderson, a key figure in the prayer movement in the United States, has written several books about the power and wonder of people praying together in worship and praise of God.

He and Sacks and a growing number of church leaders are calling on people in the Western world to return to praying together so that churches are truly "houses of prayer".  Jesus used that term to describe what the house of God should be - a house of prayer.

But group prayer is still low on the totem pole of priorities in modern church life.  And I would argue that lack of praying together yields bitter fruit - declining attendance, church infighting, broken marriages, acceptance of sin.

When we pray together, our faith grows and we join together in resisting the attacks of Satan on the body of believers.

Sacks suggests several ways praying together can help clear the way for God to make his presence felt in our churches.  Here are some:

• As we pray together, God will reveal areas of sin which need to be dealt with - and we must act on these revelations;
• Any major effort to evangelize should be covered in prayer.  Prayer is a weapon to clear the way for the Holy Spirit and a shield against Satan's attacks;
• It is often important to concentrate our prayer efforts on a single target.  We can seek God through prayer and fasting and then focus our prayers on what he is asking us to do as a church; and
• Church leaders should pray together to determine how Satan is trying to disrupt what we are doing for the kingdom of God.  Then, we can pray fervently together, renouncing any efforts by the evil one to foil God's work and praising God for Jesus' victory.

Taking these steps, we can come together as believers and draw close to the Lord.  And he will make his presence felt.

Finding God in pain

Like Elijah, I find that trouble, pain, and temptation sometimes drown out God in my mind and heart.

In a sense, I run away from God.

But God can't be driven away.  He is in me.

And, in the end, he speaks to me. 

For Elijah, we read in 1 Kings 19 that God spoke to the prophet in a still, small voice as he stood on Mount Sinai.  For me, it may be a prompting in my mind, or something in a book I'm reading, or a Bible passage, or a word from a friend.

The story of Elijah is instructive.  After defeating the prophets of Baal in a dramatic, supernatural encounter on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel threatens him with death.

Elijah, who has stood up to powerful opposition all his life, suddenly fears for his life and runs away.  Normally, the prophet goes to God first for help - but, this time, he runs.

Exhausted and deeply depressed, he arrives near Mount Sinai in the desert and asks God to take his life.

Now, ready to hear, he is instructed to go to the top of the mountain.  There God questions him in a quiet voice and gives him his marching orders.  Rather than taking Elijah's life, he shows his confidence in the prophet by giving him more work to do.

Sometimes, we are like Elijah and willfully ignore God in our crises.  Perhaps we feel our problems are too big for God to resolve.  Or, we don't want God to tell us to take a different course than we have planned for ourselves.

But God will be heard.  When he speaks, we need to listen.

We hear much better if we are in the habit of praying and communing with God like Elijah.  Many people have benefited from "practicing the presence of God" - easy conversational prayers with God as we go through our days.

As we pray regularly, we begin to connect the dots between something said yesterday and our concern today.  We hear God speak.

Praying because you care

Praying is most powerful when we pray from the heart.

Moses is a good example.  When God was upset with the Israelites, Moses pleaded with the Lord for his people - and for God's own reputation.

I am fascinated with Moses as a man of prayer - and I've written about him before.

But I'd like to concentrate now on his passion for God and for his own people.

The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is filled with stories of Moses as intercessor.  As E.M. Bounds pointed out in his book Prayer and Praying Men, even Pharaoh recognized Moses as a great praying man - he begged him to ask God to stop the plagues on the Egyptians.

To my mind, the most impressive of Moses' prayers is in the Book of Exodus when the children of Israel rebelled against God by creating their own golden calf as an idol to worship.

In Exodus 32:10, God says he will destroy the Israelites and start over again with Moses alone - creating a new nation from Moses. 

A lesser man might have said: "Okay, God.  Who am I to disagree?  After all, they're a very pigheaded and troublesome people."

But Moses reacted by appealing to the Lord on the grounds of God's reputation in the sight of the Egyptians.  He was concerned that the Egyptians would accuse God of evil intent.

Moses did not take God lightly.  Through a long, intimate relationship with the Lord, he had come to know him well. God even said that he was the one man he trusted among the Israelites.

So Moses pleaded with God because he wanted to uphold him - to glorify him - before everyone.  He was committed to God - heart and soul.

But his heart also went out to his people.  He reminded God of the promises he had made about making Israel a great nation.  He asked God not to destroy the people.

Some died because of their rebellion, but the nation as a whole survived. 

Moses went further and called on God to accompany them to the promised land.  He could not bear the thought of being abandoned by God.

He said: "How will anyone know that you look favourably on me - on me and on your people - if you don't go with us?  For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other peoples on earth."

That is a man who cares.  He could not imagine being without God's presence.

As I read this story in the Bible, I realize how shallow is my praying.  Part of that is lacking the zeal that Moses had.  And that flows from taking the easy way in life.

Moses came to his love of God through spending time with him and getting to know him better every day.  And God planted within him his deep love for his own people.

It strikes me that, as I seek God more, he will stir within me a greater love for others.  After all, God is love and is the source of our own love.

The big picture

When I pray, do I have my eyes on the big picture?  Or, do I narrow in to the problem of the moment?

It's a question I ask myself as I ponder the words of a speaker at a conference I attended last weekend and of a book I was reading yesterday.

Both the speaker and the writer were talking about worshiping and praising God.

I loved the picture that Steve Wilkins gave at a "Deeper Life" conference at Circle Square Ranch in Arden, Ontario, near Ottawa.

Wilkins, a leader at All Nations Church in Ottawa, was talking about the whole universe joining in praising God.

He pointed to Ephesians 5:17-21 where the apostle Paul speaks of being filled with the Spirit.  Paul calls on us to "sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ".

When we do that, we are effectively joining all of creation in praising the Lord.

Indeed, his point is biblical. In Psalm 148, the writer calls on the sun and moon and angels to join in a paean of praise to God.  In Luke 19, Jesus tells the religious leaders that if his followers did not praise him as he entered Jerusalem, "the very stones would cry out".

In Revelation 5, we see the great picture of tens of thousands of angels singing their praises to God.

In effect, Wilkins says, "your worship makes you align with everything that's going on in the universe".

There are times, he admits, when we don't feel like praising God.  But, like David, we need to say: "Praise the Lord, O my soul."  The Lord is always worthy of praise.

When you praise, says Wilkins, things change.  God's greatness and his attributes grow in your mind and heart and the daily issues diminish.  You begin to tune in to where God is leading you.

When we are praising God, we are giving him glory.

This, says Charles Spurgeon in The Power of Praising God, should be our ultimate aim in everything we do.

"This should be the single desire of the Christian.  I take it that he should not have twenty wishes but one.  He may desire that his family be well brought up, but only so that God may be glorified forever."

Spurgeon adds: "May this [God's glory] be the foundation of every enterprise into which you enter and your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chilly."

I needed to hear that.