Being honest with God

Sometimes it's good to reach the end of your rope.

That's when you pray honestly without any pretence.  You pray out of need.

The prophet Elijah did just that after fleeing Queen Jezebel who threatened to kill him after his victory over the prophets of Baal.

Ruth Haley Barton uses the example of Elijah in her book Invitation to Solitude and Silence to talk about the transforming power of God when you come before God alone in silence, stripped of all illusions.

She picks up Elijah's story in 1 Kings 19 after Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him following his victory over the prophets of Baal.

As I mentioned in my last post, Elijah collapsed under a broom tree in the wilderness, told God he'd had enough and asked God to take his life.  But God let him sleep, sent an angel to feed him and then the prophet walked for 40 more days to Mount Sinai.

There, God asked him the great question: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Ruth Haley Barton says this is what God is often asking us.  It's a question that catches our attention and forces us to examine ourselves and our motives.

Elijah answered that question by being totally honest.  He poured out his frustrations.  He told God that he was the only one of God's prophets still alive and that he was now being hunted.

In his words, there was an implied criticism.  In effect, he was saying: "God, I have been faithful, but nothing is going the way it should.  You have abandoned me."

God responds by giving him new marching orders, his final tasks before rising to be with the Lord in heaven.

Barton says she came to a point in her own busy life where she felt she had to stop and come before God in silence and solitude.  She was disappointed with herself and with others.  And she felt alone - like Elijah.

As she came before God, she was honest about her feelings and her confusion and disappointment.  And God began revealing thing about herself that hurt.

She says this moment of revelation can be painful, but the result can be transforming.  We find ourselves being led back to the path God has chosen for us - as Elijah did.

I realize that I am not totally honest with the Lord.  I see my many of my weaknesses, but I cover them with activity and excuses.

But I must be honest and wait for the "still, small voice" that spoke to Elijah at Mount Sinai.

The body and the spirit

How important are our bodies in prayer?

More important than we think.

I tend to focus on my spirit and my mind when I prepare for prayer.  Am I in a right relationship with God spiritually?  Am I distracted by other things?

But John Bisagno, author of The Power of Positive Praying, says: "The spiritual condition of the believer can be closely related to their physical condition."

He adds: "God cares about the body he indwells.  If you would sincerely know the will of God, first offer him your body as a living sacrifice."

Bisagno was echoing the apostle Paul's words in Romans 12:1:

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him."

When I am misusing my body, I am misusing the temple of the Holy Spirit - not a good thing to do.  Misuse can involve anything from sexual sin to neglect of the body.

Ruth Haley Barton, author of Invitation to Solitude and Silence, realized she needed to pay attention to her bodily demands when she hit the brick wall of exhaustion.  She was so busy that she found herself too tired to pray.

She notes how God dealt with Elijah's exhaustion in the great story of the prophet fleeing from Queen Jezebel who was out to kill him (1 Kings 19).  Elijah had just won a great victory over the prophets of Baal and Jezebel was furious.

Elijah stopped running after a long journey and prayed that he might die.  As Barton says, this is "dangerously tired".

"God did not waste time trying to deal with him intellectually or even spiritually, because it wouldn't have done any good," Barton writes.  "He began by dealing with Elijah's physical weariness and depletion - he let Elijah sleep."

Then, when the prophet woke up, God sent an angel with food.  After another sleep, he was ready to go on to Mount Sinai where God spoke to him and commissioned him for his final tasks as God's emissary.

Barton says her spiritual director saw her need for physical recovery - more sleep, better eating, and time apart.  She had become depleted and any attempt to pray and study the scriptures proved frustrating.

"There is a very deep kind of refreshment that comes when we incorporate rest into our times alone with God," she says.

"When I am dangerously tired," Barton states, "I can be very, very busy and look very, very important but be unable to hear the quiet sure voice of the One who calls me the beloved."

I love Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Jesus knows our needs.  He knows we are human and have our limits.

He knows we need rest - physical and emotional.

He works with us best when we are rested and not distracted.

Our bodies are important. 

Paul and prayer

Paul's power as a messenger of God was fuelled by prayer.

I need only look at the example of this great apostle to understand why my own prayer life - and my spiritual life - is so weak.

No one today questions the fact that Paul was one of the greatest Christian missionaries - and evangelists - that this world has ever seen.

Paul prayed constantly.  He prayed when things were going well and he prayed when he was being beaten, jailed and left for dead.

He prayed for everyone.

Here are a few quotes from his letters to young churches to illustrate his view of the importance of prayer:

• "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
• "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Philippians 4:6)
• "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone . . . " (1 Timothy 2:1)
• "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers . . . " (Ephesians 1:16)
• "I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." (1 Corinthians 1:4)

I draw several lessons from these quotes and Paul's own life.

• Powerful prayer takes time.  Paul prayed continually.  That means I must be praying often during the day - continually bringing everything to God.
• God wants us to pray.  In the 1 Thessalonians passage, he declares that constant prayer and thanksgiving is God's will for us.  Clearly, God is not asking us to do something useless - God acts as we pray.
• Giving thanks should soak our prayer time.  Thanksgiving shows that we see God's hand in our affairs.  We thank him for his gifts and the fact that he is working all things to our good. (Romans 8:28)
• We must look outwards in our prayers - praying to God and thanking him for others.  Frequent intercession for others is an act of love that pleases God.  And it changes us, making us self-giving rather than self-centred.
• Prayer is action.  When we pray, we are doing something to meet the issues we are concerned about.  

Paul's praying life brought him close to the heart of God.  The Holy Spirit stopped him from going into the province of Asia and, through a vision, led him to enter Europe - a major step in the spread of Christianity.

Paul understood how essential prayer was to his mission and he sacrificed time to do it.

I must be willing to make the same sacrifice.

Prayer moves the world

What's the most important task of the Christian church?

It's prayer, says Paul E. Billheimer, author of Destined to Overcome.

Billheimer himself recognizes that "few of us really believe in our hearts that prayer is where the action is".  But he presents a strong case that it is.

There is certainly scriptural support that prayer is vital in God's eyes.

In Ezekial 22, we read about God's plan to punish Israel for its sins - a judgement he will carry out because no one interceded for the nation.

"I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn't have to destroy the land, but I found no one," the Lord says.  "So now I will pour out my fury on them, consuming them with the fire of my anger."

In Matthew 18, Jesus makes the amazing statement: "I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven."

He goes on to say: "I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you."

The key, Jesus adds, is that we must be his followers.  If we are, we can be sure that he is among us.

For me, this means that what Jesus wants is the driving force behind prayer that changes things.  In other words, we must seek God's mind and then pray God's will.

Billheimer declares that Christian believers are being trained in this life to rule with Christ in the life to come.

He refers to Revelation 3:21 where Christ says: "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne."

Prayer is the means by which we enforce God's will on earth and prepare for ruling under God in eternity, says Billheimer

As the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6, our battle as believers is not with flesh and blood, but against dark forces outside our human vision.  Satan and his minions are working to thwart God's plans as much as they can.

Paul tells us to equip ourselves with spiritual armour such as the word of God and finishes with these words: "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

As Paul saw it, prayer matters.

It should matter to all believers.

One step at a time

I'm learning that patience and trust are essential in my prayer life.

Like many others, I get easily discouraged when my idea of a spiritual breakthrough is slow in coming.

Every once in a while, I find myself returning to the words of Minnie Louise Haskins in a poem written more than 100 years ago on the eve of a new year:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
"Give me a light
 That I may tread safely into the Unknown."
And he replied, 
"Go out into the Darkness
And put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you
Better than light
And safer than the known way.

King George VI of England quoted those words in a broadcast at the outbreak of the Second World War - a time when no one knew what horrors had just been unleashed.

I can expect fear and discouragement to melt away when I put my hand trustingly into the hand of God.

In fact, the Bible is filled with stories of men and women who plunged into the darkness, not knowing what was to come.

I think of Daniel and his three Jewish friends - Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  All four were Jewish slaves taken to Babylon, subject to the whims of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Their outlook was grim.  Indeed, we read in Daniel 2 that the king was so furious with the failure of his wise men to interpret a strange dream that he threatened to kill them all, including the four Jewish young men.

So, Daniel and his friends prayed and God gave the young prophet the interpretation of the king's dream.

Later, the king threw Daniel's three friends into a fiery furnace when they refused to worship a gold statue as God.  But the Lord spared them unscathed with a fourth man - an angel - walking among them.

And finally, Daniel was tossed into a lion's den by a later king - Darius - and survived when an angel shut the lion's mouths.

All four rose to high positions in the government and Nebuchadnezzar and Darius acknowledged the greatness of God.

Think of it: Four young slaves became high government officials while remaining true to God in a dangerous world.  Not one of them could have imagined the ultimate plan God had for them.

They could have turned away from God and compromised with their captors.  But they trusted God and were ready to die for him.

I need to remember this lesson as I pray.

Like Daniel and his friends, I need to trust the Lord to take me forward to his destination.

One step at a time.