Rejoice, Remember, Rest...

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Some of the most memorable words of Paul's letter to the Philippians are found in these verses. He begins with an exhortation: Rejoice! Find joy in the Lord, in His character, His power, His desire to do what is best for you. Second, he reminds us that the Lord is very present in each and every circumstance. It is not like we have to go search for Him because He is hiding from us. He is near - only a prayer away.  Thirdly, as we appreciate His person, presence, and the privilege of prayer, we rest in His peace, entrusting our requests to Him. It is not some sort of "magic formula", but it is a clear understanding of how prayer "works." He is always able. He is always near. We need to always talk with Him. 

Praying for Others: Begin with the Good Stuff

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 1)
Many of us have been taught some sort of acrostic like A.C.T.S. or P.R.A.Y., which are to remind us to begin our prayers by adoration or praise for the person and character of God.  Why should our praying for others be any different? In the opening paragraphs of most of his letters, Paul begins with mention of his praying for his recipients, and the fond memories he has of them.  Such is the case here, where he remembers their faith, love and hope - these great quality characteristics. Later he tells them what they can do better at, but he begins with the positive.  What if we did the same? What if we thanked God for the positive abilities, characteristics and memories of the ones we are praying for, instead of diving right into either their sins or sicknesses? Would it not turn our hearts toward a greater love and respect for them? Think about the difference it might make in how we pray for politicians doing things we are opposed to, co-workers who drive us nuts, and family members who make us cry.  A challenge to me and to you: may we begin our prayer for each person of something good about them, and pray for them in love. 

Is God Hiding?

“Come, everyone who thirsts,

    come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

    come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

    without money and without price.

2 

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

    and delight yourselves in rich food.

3 

Incline your ear, and come to me;

    hear, that your soul may live;

and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

    my steadfast, sure love for David.

4 

Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,

    a leader and commander for the peoples.

5 

Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,

    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,

because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,

    for he has glorified you.

6 

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;

    call upon him while he is near;

7 

let the wicked forsake his way,

    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In the middle of this passage, in verse 6, we have a parallel thought: Are there times when God is not in?  Is he ever "out of town" or hiding from us?  Sometimes it may seem that way when we pray. But it is us, not Him.  He begins with an invitation: "Come, come in your neediness to the supply house and see what God is willing and wanting to do and to give."  Then He gives the key words: Listen, Call, Seek.  We are the ones who have turned our back, gone astray, and stopped the conversation. We are the reason it sometimes seems like He is hiding. We are thinking "too low," while He has high thoughts, goals, plans and purposes. Let us listen to His compelling words and listen, call on Him, and seek His face.

Prayer: The Consistent Response

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
As Paul lays out a series of exhortations as to how we as God's people should conduct ourselves, what wraps these three threads together in a chord is consistency.  No matter what life's circumstances bring our way, we should: maintain a sense of hopeful joy; respond with patience; stay in constant communication with God.  The last one will definitely help with the first two. Since Jesus is our hope and the Joy of the Lord is our strength, talking with Him through every situation will feed those characteristics in our lives.  Waiting on the Lord in prayer will give us patience to weather all the storms of life.  In my thinking, "constant" is even more consistent than "continually" - it is the normal, the state one is in. It is not moment by moment, but second by second and everything in between. It is always thinking, talking, and even feeling that God is "in the room" ready, willing, and wanting to talk about what is going on.  May we engage in and enjoy that conversation throughout the day. 

Keep on...

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7)

One of Satan's favorite weapons is discouragement.  He wants us to give up - to give up on living as a follower of Christ, to give up on the salvation of the lost, to give up on prayer.  Of course, the first two follow on the heels of the third: if he can get us to stop talking with and listening to God, we will be out of touch with God's directions and the influence He wants to make on those with whom we interact.  So Jesus says keep on asking; seek a deeper relationship with God; don't stop knocking.  You're not a pest; you're persistent.  God is not AWOL; He's all-wise.  Let's frustrate Satan today: keep asking, seeking, knocking.   

Prayer - not a one-time thing

22 “At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.25 “So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’ - (Deuteronomy 9)
Moses is giving his challenge to Israel before they enter the promised land after the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.  This paragraph talks about one of the many times over the course of those years they had rebelled against God and he interceded for them.  This particular time it was for forty days and nights, but it a real sense Moses prayed for them for forty years! And then he wasn't sure they would make it in! Prayer is not just for a season, but a lifetime.  Individuals and situations for which we pray may "go on the back burner" at times as other issues and problems demand more attention, but when God lays someone or something on our hearts, they are ours for years to come. What and how we pray for them may vary, but the burden does not.  Moses made it.  So can we. 

The Better Asker

21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11)
During His earthly ministry a lot of people asked Jesus to perform miracles - mostly of healing the sick or driving out demons from loved ones. Martha had sent such a request to Jesus on behalf of her brother Lazarus, but Jesus took His good old time getting there, and Lazarus died.  In this exchange when He did arrive, there are a few interesting things. First, Martha does not ask Jesus to do anything. She believes He can do anything, yet does not ask. Second, she proclaims her faith in Him as the Messiah.  Faith in Jesus of some sort is always in the picture when He granted requests.  Third, Martha proclaims Jesus to be able to ask God for anything, seeing Him as our intermediary. He is the "better asker," so that we go to the Father through Him.  It's like a family of children wanted some request from their parents, like going out for ice cream. They first talk among themselves as to which one of them the parents would be most likely to listen to: the youngest or cutest or most articulate or the one whom had not been in trouble that day. There is no better one through whom we can ask God than Jesus. He is interceding with God on our behalf. This is most clear-cut and important when it comes to big things, preposterous things, like raising the dead. As you pray today, in Jesus' name, remember why you are doing so: to recognize He is the Better Asker, the one interceding at the right hand of the Father for us. Then ask big, according to the Father's will, and see Him answer.

Asking in Agreement.

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (I John 5)
John had been paying attention. He had listened to Jesus' words in the upper room about prayer and in Matthew 18 when He talked to them about asking in agreement.  This is not a personal choose-what-you-want vending machine, but a corporate command: this is how we find out what God's will is and get in tune with it: ask together.  Notice that John says "we" not "I."  It is based on our common faith and union in Christ.  He "tunes us in" to His plan, and promises to provide what is needed for it.  As many great prayers by individuals we see in the Bible, when things really get going is when others join in: when Moses had two others holding up his hands, when the 4000 were praying the same thing as Elijah, when the 120 joined the disciples in the upper room. Ask together. 

Big, Simple Prayers

27 

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

    whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

    of whom shall I be afraid?

2 

When evildoers assail me

    to eat up my flesh,

my adversaries and foes,

    it is they who stumble and fall.

3 

Though an army encamp against me,

    my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

    yet I will be confident.

4 

One thing have I asked of the Lord,

    that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

    all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

    and to inquire in his temple.

5 

For he will hide me in his shelter

    in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

    he will lift me high upon a rock.

(Psalm 27)

David had one big prayer: The presence of the Lord.  This prayer began when he was far away from Israel, before the tabernacle was brought to Jerusalem, and long before he received the vision to build the temple there.  He was hiding in the darkness of caves, on the run from both Saul and the Philistines, longing to be able to go back home and make the pilgrimage to where the tabernacle was, and worship.  It was a big request, involving many miles, numerous obstacles, an a lot of waiting. In fact, he never did worship at the temple.  But God was answering his prayer, bit by bit from that first day forward. He never stopped praying that prayer, even when he was forced out of Jerusalem by his rebellious son. He kept looking back saying "I want to be where you are, wherever I am.  That is a big, simple prayer we all can make. It was a prayer Jesus reinforced when he talked about going to prepare a place for us in the Father's house and which Paul brought out in refocusing our attention on being with the Lord instead of these temporary tabernacles we live in now.  As you pray today ( you are going to, right?), simple tell Him: "I want to be where you are; help me to know that you are here with me."

What's Your Superpower?

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5)
We live in the day of multiplied superheroes. Many times a year a new one appears on the big screen.  They come in all shapes and sizes with various imaginative and powerful abilities.  Then there are the rest of us. But wait! James tells us about this man called Elijah who is just like us, yet did great things, whom we can be like. How? Praying fervently, righteously, humbly in community with others. He showed signs of weakness, admitted his fears, and even became tired; yet, he took on evil and corruption in powerful places, seen and unseen, and won.  His superpower was not his own, but the Lord's. That same power is available when we pray today. Go be that superhero. 

Big Prayers that Lead to More Big Prayers

22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart; 24 you have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. 25 Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ 26 Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David my father. (I Kings 8)
When he was king, David had many conversations with God. Over the course of years these times led David to have a big vision to build the Temple in Jerusalem.  But God made it clear he was not going to see that vision fulfilled. Still, David prepared everything as if he would.  He did not stop pursuing it. On this occasion, Solomon has seen the fulfillment, commemorating it with a grand celebration. He prays more than once during the celebration, here going on record. He begins by praising the character of God, then boldly reminding God of another promise made to David: to keep a descendant on the throne.  It is in a sense an even "bigger" prayer.  Why do I say that? Building do not sin and go astray; people do.  Saul had. David had. All have.  You never know what will happen when someone gets in power.  Buildings just sit there; people can change, for better or worse.  So this is a bigger, bolder prayer.  We need to be praying "bigger" still - for people who will change for the good, serve God well, and carry on the work He has begun. 

Ask, Don't Tell...

Thus says the Lord,

    the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:

“Ask me of things to come;

    will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?

(Isaiah 45:11)

God wants us to ask, and to ask big.  He always has.  He has revealed Himself, which in itself tells us He wants to tell us a lot about Who He is, what He has in mind, and how we fit into the big picture.  What he is not waiting for is for us to try to tell Him what to do and how to do it.  He is not our personal vending machine or genie in a lamp.  To treat Him as such is a misunderstanding of our relationship with Him as Parent/child and creature/Creator.  So He invites us first to get that relationship in order, then ask away about the things mentioned above.  Ask Him.  Don't try to tell Him what to do.  Really, that makes no sense at all.