A Pastor’s Prayer Journey
Two Preachers Sharing Prayers & ScriptureArchive for Adoration
The Battle Within: Lord I need your Help
Lord,
I see the sin that is all around me. I can call it by name, I can identify it for what it is. I see it clearly in others. I even judge them for their wicked lifestyles. I wonder why in the World would they continue to do the very things which are destroying them. I holler form the pulpit, I teach from the classroom and yet they do not listen. Why do they continue to be drawn to a life which will lead to destruction. Why would anyone play with the viper that will kill them. Lord why would I want to play with the venom of this World. As I look to others I realize that it is not them that needs fixed it is me. Lord I thought that the older that I got the more years I spent with you it would seem easier. I figured my sin would disappear or at least it would fade to the back. But it stands right in front of me. It is like a roadblock that I cannot move. It haunts me down. It slowly sucks the life out of me. And I know this. I know how destructive it is. Why have taught many great lessons on its nature. But why Lord am I so drawn by it? Why do I drink the cup which kills the soul. It is not like I don’t know. I do know. And I run full tilt towards it. I bathe in its misery knowing full well.
Lord I am sick. I am in need of the great physician. I do not want to play games anymore. I need you desperately. The more I draw closer to you the more the evil ones fights for space in my life. Lord I will not give up, I will not give in. Each time I fall Lord pick me up. I am sorry for I not only hurt myself I hurt you. Lord cleanse my thoughts. Change my actions. Lord God I need you. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day which I need your cleansing. Today is the day I need your forgiveness. Change my judgemental heart. Move in a mighty way. Lord you have defeated Satan at the cross. He has no power except the power I continue to grant him. May I grant him no longer. May I shut the door on him. May I call to the only one who truly loves me.
I will praise the Lord Jesus Christ because He truly knows my pains. I will praise Him because He is the only one that can heal me. The gods of this World glitter with a poison that only comes to destroy me. Praise to you Lord for you come to give life and have come to give it abundantly. Lord thank you for lifting up out of my filth. Praise to you Lord Jesus for you know my heart better than I do. Today I will declare his praises. Today I will let the whole World know that you reign. Praise the Lord and again I will praise Him. Praise him for there is no condemnation for the one who has put his trust in the Lord. Yes I have fallen time after time but you lift me up time after time. Thank you Lord. Thank you.
Prayer Thoughts September 30.2008
Prayer Thoughts September 30.2008
A Couple of weeks ago, our prayer team spent the week digesting Psalm 40. It is a beautiful Psalm and the week we spent with it proved especially timely due to some deaths that took place in and around our congregation. I grew to love this Psalm and appreciate it even more than before. It is a beautifully written and wonderful piece of poetry. Here are some of the thoughts I had following the ACTS pattern. Over the next couple of days, I will share three days’ worth of prayer thoughts from this Psalm. You will see the thoughts deepen over the three days as the Psalm was opened up to me.
A Adoration “God is the Rock.” You see, David here was in a place of vulnerability—this was a place where his enemies could take advantage of his weak position and destroy him. But David worships God because God heard David’s cry. I suspect his cry was, “Lord make my position secure, make my position one I can fight from.” The real discussion then is this: What sort of position did the Lord set him in that was secure? I wonder if that secure position was the Lord himself? After all, David did not say, “People will see me and run.” He said, “People will see the Lord and fear him and trust him.” Was the position this? David worships even in such a terrible position as this (v 3) with a new song. Well, who worships when the chips are down? Who sings a new song in an old position? Who rejoices when trapped in a slimy pit of mud? But that is what David did! (I also thought of Job and Jonah.) He sang a new song and gives all the glory to God. As a result, it appears that others too put their trust in the Lord. Prayer thoughts: How should we pray when we are faced with difficult situations? How can we trust God to establish our position? How can worship be a witness to others?
C Confession David always seemed to have a lot to confess to the Lord, but in these verses he also had a lot to confess to the public, to the congregation as well. His confessions run deep and are honest announcements of who he is, to whom he belongs, about the depth of his confidence in the Lord God. He confesses that the Lord is wonder-full and that there is no one like him. It is the Lord who blesses and makes whole those who are not. David says the Lord has done too much for him to even begin confessing it all. This is all positive confession. David confesses that he desires to do the will of God—in fact, that it was written of him that he would do just that. He proclaims the salvation of the Lord before the great assembly. He refuses to seal his lips—that is, it iis impossible for him to remain silent about what God has done: His faithfulness, his righteousness, his love, his mercy—all this he proclaims before the great assembly. Finally, he confesses his sin before the Lord and he recognizes that not all is well when it comes to David—his sin was all around. Even though lifted out, David still very much need rescuing. Prayer Thoughts: The confessions here are very much positive and in keeping with the theme of worship. How can confession of the Lord’s attributes form the foundation of our confession in prayer?
T Thanksgiving David has a myriad of things for which to thank God. It is amazing that any occasion or experience is a reason to praise—and, seemingly, never a reason to forget to give thanks. Maybe it’s here, “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is Great!”” They say great because they are thankful—not just because he is great. They say great because his greatness is not at all impotent, but it is powerful and mighty to save those who long for a power that is able to rescue them. And they didn’t worship the greatness—instead they worship the one who is Great, the One who is the source of greatness. There is a reason for proclaiming that the Lord is great: His saving power. How much thankfulness resides in our heart? Do we recognize God as the reason to give thanks? What I find amazing is that David, regardless of his predicament, always found a reason to give thanks. His heart was inclined towards thanksgiving. Verses 14-16 describe someone who is beset on every side by enemies and yet David is still someone who can give thanks. Prayer Thoughts: Can we do the same? Maybe we should write out a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving. David may not specifically use the word ‘thanks’ in this Psalm, but the Psalm itself is an offering of thanksgiving as he remembered what the Lord had done for him.
S Supplication David’s petitions throughout this Psalm are rather clear. A) That all who sought his life be put to shame and confusion. B) That all who desire his ruin be put to disgrace. C) That those who mocked him would be ashamed of themselves. D) That all who seek God would be glad and rejoice. That they find in Him the source of happiness. E) That those who seek salvation acknowledge the Lord. F) That the Lord think of David. G) That God not delay in rescuing him from his trouble. David prays that those who seek his life would have their words of derision (‘Aha, Aha’) turned into words of worship (‘The Lord is Great!’). Here is a man who petitions the Lord for help, for mercy, for all out deliverance. This is the sort of help that comes only from the Lord. He is a man of faith. Prayer Thoughts: How often do we put our hope and trust in anything but the Lord. David, regardless of the trouble, put his hope in the Lord. He asked the Lord for anything (‘do not delay’) and had the confidence to ‘wait patiently on the Lord’).
These are all very preliminary thoughts from the second day I prayed this Psalm. As I noted above, the thoughts will be deeper and more diverse in the next two installments. Thanks for stopping by and sharing in these prayers.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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Prayer Thoughts for September 8, 2008
Prayer Thoughts for September 8, 2008
Friends,
This will be my third installment of ‘prayer thoughts’. I’m glad to share them with you and encourage you, if you wish, to leave a thought and share your own. Replies are easily accomplished here at WordPress. This week’s prayer Scriptures came from 1 Samuel, Joshua, Isaiah, and Matthew–all chapter 7s. Pray well, friends.
Invocation: Lord, God, Thous has given me another day, a day to live in Thy service and for the good of my fellow-men. I am indeed a poor tool in Thy hand and deserving to be cast aside. Forgive me all my sins for Jesus’ sake, and by Thy Spirit grant me the fitness to work for Thee this day. I beseech Thee to make me mindful, dear Lord, that I am but a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. Let me not devote my efforts today to purposes that are unworthy; let me not merely gather treasures for this world; let me not serve Mammon. This life is but a vain show; let me not search for an abiding city here. But, Lord, fasten my heart and hope on the life that is in Thee and let my striving and my desires be directed to the treasures of Thy love. As long as I am in the land of my pilgrimage, hold Thou my hand; keep me from every false path. If I should stumble in sinful weakness, grant me repentance and faith. For Jesus’ sake. Amen. (From Lutheran Book of Prayer, prayer for Wednesday Morning, page 31, Concordia Publishing House, 4th ed. 1941)
Adoration
2 Samuel 7:1-29 The hardest thing about this passage is that God told David ‘no.’ David wants to build a ‘house’ for God—that is, a temple. First Nathan tells David to go ahead; then Nathan has to go back and tell David ‘no.’ I imagine this was difficult for the prophet. It’s almost like Nathan didn’t really feel like dealing with this issue so he just presumed upon the Lord and told David to do whatever he wanted. God rebuked Nathan in a dream and he had to go back to David the next day. But the thing that is most difficult is that God told David ‘no.’ The answer to David’s prayer was ‘no.’ The movement of David’s heart was stilled when the Lord told David, through the prophet, that someone else would have the honor of building His house. Instead, in a great ironic twist, the Lord tells David, “The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you” (v 11). Kind of makes one wonder what is more important, doesn’t it? Is it more important for us to build a house for God or for God to build a house for us? (See Psalm 127; 1 Peter 2). I also found interesting the comment in verse 18: “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said.” I wondered: “where did David go in to?” What about his posture? Does this in any way relate to what the Hebrew writer wrote, “ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” The short and long of this is that David was told ‘no’ by God, and yet David’s response was one of worship. The question for our prayers is thus: How do we respond when God tells us ‘no’? (I will explore this a little more deeply when I write about last week’s prayer thoughts from Psalm 40.)
Confession
Joshua 7:1-26 This is another troubling story because it just doesn’t seem to fit well with our modern sensibilities: why was Achan’s entire family destroyed when it was, apparently, only Achan who sinned? Worse, perhaps, is that author begins this way, ‘But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things’ (things under the ban, 7:1). The Lord’s anger burned against the people who, with the very tiny exception of Achan, had no idea why they were being punished, why God was angry, or even that God was angry. First, however, is that Joshua confessed, and the Lord rebukes Joshua essentially saying, “This is not a time for confession or repentance; that time has passed. Get up!” It was time to root out the sin from Israel. I find it amazing that Achan hid the things under his tent—as if he were trying to lay a new foundation for his family built on the banned wealth of the heathen. Not only that, but Achan was trying to keep all this a secret, hidden. I wonder if things would have gone differently for Achan if Achan had confessed. I can’t believe that Achan didn’t feel the heat after Joshua announced that Israel would present themselves the next day. He had to tell the people, “Go, consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, ‘There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies unless you remove them.” I think Achan had a chance—and he did not take the opportunity to do what was right. Even the next day he had every opportunity: Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family, man by man. He made all those people go through this project and, I suspect, confessed only because he was caught at the end. I think he showed disdain for the Lord’s Word by refusing to come forward sooner. His sin was not just coveting, but also idolatry and disdain for the Lord. Confession is a significant aspect of our prayer life both positively and negatively. The short and long of this is is simply this: We may hide our sin for a while, but it will eventually be revealed.
Thanksgiving
Isaiah 7:1-17 Key to these verses is verse 9: “If you will not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” But this was not the way of Ahaz. Ahaz demonstrates that he did not want the Lord’s deliverance. He did not want the protection of God, so he rejected the Lord; he disobeyed. The Lord told him to ask for a sign and Ahaz steadfastly refused and, thus, announced his own rebellion against the Lord. The fearless king was a shaking man. The Lord promised deliverance, but Ahaz did not believe the word of the Lord nor did he take YHWH at His word. What is worse than rejecting the word of the Lord? How many times have any of us prayed for the Lord to give us a sign of his will, his intentions, his desires only to be rejected? Here is Ahaz—with the power to ask for anything he wants and he rejects the opportunity to see the Lord’s deliverance. So that is how Ahaz thanked God. I wonder: How do we thank God when he promises deliverance? Did Ahaz not hear: The Lord had promised a Deliverer! A Deliverer! And Ahaz could only reject the Lord’s offer and the Lord’s word and the Lord’s command. But in typical the Lord type fashion this Deliverer will be nothing like what anyone of them expected: A child, the Deliverer would be. The Lord will deliver Israel with a child?! It’s rather absurd—but this boy will be a sign of the Lord’s Deliverance: “God is with us.” We can be thankful that ultimately it is Jesus of Nazareth who is Immanuel. Ahaz may have seen a temporary deliverance, but the prophecy here fully anticipates a fuller, more complete deliverance. The New Testament declares that it is in Jesus that this is true. So we walk by faith even though things may seem a bit upside down and backward and less than encouraging. We can be thankful that God has asked us to walk in faith instead of in strength. In strength we would surely fail; in faith we surely fail, but in faith we stand because there is no other way to stand. We are thankful for God’s deliverer.
Supplication
Matthew 7:1-29 So we are not to judge or at least we are to be generous in the way we judge. That is, careful; gracious. It has been pointed out elsewhere that even the generous must decide who the ‘pigs’ are when we are sowing pearls. Discerning, yes; overly judgmental and haughty, no. We must, before we discern, judge ourselves. We must be harder on ourselves than we are on others. In a sense we must be our own worst critic. I ere on the side of caution here, or at least I try. Perhaps Paul’s dictum would suit all of us well: “It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of people’s hearts. At that time each will receive their praise from God” (1 Cor 4:4b-5). Yet, still we pray that God strengthen us and enable us to discern the ones before whom we should and should not cast our pearls. Verse 12 says: “In everything do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Well, what would we have others to do us? Would we have them judge us, reject us, turn us away? Or would we have others love us? Interestingly enough Jesus says that this ‘golden rule’ sums up the Law and the Prophets and yet later he also says that to Love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and to love our neighbor as ourselves, these also sum up the Law and the Prophets: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands” (22:37-40) So we pray: Lord help us to be ones who fulfill the Law and Prophets in perfect Love: Love for you, love for others. There must be a connection between these two verses (7:12 & 22:40) that is deeper than mere coincidence. How shall we fulfill these thing? How shall we love? Lord help us love! But Jesus goes on, too, and says that we should be mindful of the road we are traveling. It is a narrow road we travel, one that we could easily fall off of if we are not careful to mind our own steps. He says we should be mindful of those who are false prophets: By their fruit you will recognize them. He doesn’t say that we should go around pointing them out to others; he says by their fruit we ourselves will be warned and we should take precautions. We should pay attention, yes, but it seems that we are to be mindful of our own walk and our own salvation lest we get sidetracked. So we pray: Lord help us to be discerning about who we follow. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear because indeed, as Jesus said, there will be many who are not true. Finally, we end right back where we started: House building. The Lord told David, “I will build your house.” Now here Jesus warns us about the foundation of the house we will build, “Don’t be stupid. Don’t build on a bad foundation. If you build on my word, you will have a house built by the Lord. If you don’t, your house cannot possibly stand.” So we pray: Lord may we be attentive to your Word. Lord, we pray that you build our house according to your plans and your blueprints. Incline our hearts to your Word. We bless you, our Father.
Benediction: Lord we bless you and thank you for you Word which builds our house, narrows our walk, promises us a Deliverer, searches us and reveals our secrets, teaches us how to worship. Lord, teach us to love like you.
Semper Deo Gloria!
Technorati Tags: Confession, prayer, Matthew 7, Isaiah 7, Joshua 7, 2 Samuel 7, Supplication, Thanksgiving
Prayer Thoughts September 5, 2008
Prayer Thoughts for September 5, 2008
Friends,
Continuing my series of prayer thoughts following the ACTS outline, I offer up these prayer thoughts from four new passages of Scripture: Revelation 18-19, Psalm 38, Psalm 95 & 100, Ephesians 6:10-20. Please remember these are not deeply exegetical studies. They are prayer thoughts on Scripture in the early morning hours. Pray well!
Adoration
Revelation 18-19 For a praise section, these verses are rather, well, odd. They speak primarily of Babylon. Babylon is the epitome of all that is dark, wrong, and unholy about the world. But I think here that Babylon is more than a small locality; that is, I don’t think we can pin down Babylon and say, ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is’. Babylon is all around us. It is everywhere. This is why early on, we hear, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.” Isaiah said, “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds” (3:10). There will be protection for the righteous which means that the righteous need not fear the devastation that falls upon the earth, that crushes Babylon. It will not go well for the unrighteous-they have nothing to look forward to; sadly. But the righteous must live in that place-even as Lot lived among those of Sodom and Gomorrah, even as Israel lived among the Egyptians, even as Christians lived among the Romans. “Come out of her, my people.” God will remember the crimes of Babylon, but better he will remember his people and He will bring them out safely. He will call them out by name. And they will go out to be with Him. Those who are called out of Babylon will rejoice mightily. The people of God are not entirely unscathed: There will be casualties, “In her was found the blood of prophets and of God’s people, of all who have been slaughtered on earth.” (18:24) But God will be the vindication for those who have lost their lives. And even so, ‘after this’ (19:1), John hears ‘Hallelujah!’, what sounded like ‘the roar of a great multitude.’ This song is much like the song sung in Revelation 4-5: “Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” Well, how can we not worship? This is true worship: In the midst of grief, devastation, sadness-we can still worship God because he has not forgotten us or the wrong done to us by those who belong to Babylon. Yes Lord we worship you for you have not forgotten us!
ConfessionPsalm 38 I ask: Is there some connection between his sin he confesses at the beginning (4) and the hardship that he recounts for the reader all throughout the Psalm? Well, there is, at least, a connection between his physical unrest and his sin: “Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.” By the time we read the mid-point (verse 13) David has simply run out of words. Before the Lord he has become silent, unable or unwilling to speak or say anything else. Before God we are without excuse. Before God we are without answer and all we can do is wait: “Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.” Confession must recognize this powerlessness before God. We stand, if we stand at all, by his mercy and grace. We are without excuse and yet here is the Prophet still putting his trust in God and having faith that God will indeed rescue him. David minces no words. He lays his life bare before God knowing that there is no way to hide anything from God: “All my longings lie open before you Lord, my sighing is not hidden from you.” Open book before the Lord. Lord, I confess my iniquity trusting that my advocate, the Lord Jesus, will speak on my behalf.
Thanksgiving
Psalm 95 & 100 (100) We thank the Lord because we know the Lord. We come before the Lord in a spirit of thanksgiving. We enter his presence with all sorts of offerings of praise of thanksgiving and thanksgiving becomes our worship. But how can our worship be anything less than an offering of praise? An offering of thanks? Thanksgiving is the offering of humility. It is the acknowledgement that what we have and are has not come from within or of ourselves: Thanksgiving is the offering of humility because ‘it is He who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.’ (95) How does one sing for joy and give thanks to God when one knows at the end of the Psalm: ‘they shall never enter my rest.’ It scarcely makes sense to give thanks when one knows that the end is not at all pleasant. So how does this Psalm begin the way it does, ‘Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song’ and end with, ‘So I declared oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ What is the lesson here with respect to thanksgiving? Do not harden your hearts. Lord, we give thanks. Soften our hearts that we might not grow weary and, bickering with and jealous of one another, fail to give you thanks.
SupplicationEphesians 6:10-20 What strikes me about this passage is this: There is a battle going on all around us; there are weapons to be wielded; and, more, we are on the front lines. But sometimes it appears that we do not even have to attack-not necessarily as much as we might think. Instead we need to stand (13-14) or kneel (18-20). But if we do charge we charge forward. There is no protection for the back, only for the front. And when we charge headlong into the front-lines we pray and that sword out of the mouth (Revelation 19) becomes a weapon by which the Lord conquers through us. Our petition, Lord, is that you would give us the courage to fight this battle. That you would give us the courage to stand, to kneel, but never to run. Our supplication is that we will discern the nature of the true battle. Lord may we properly use the weapons you yourself have armed us with against the enemy and not against one another.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Stop back again for more prayer thoughts.
Semper Deo Gloria!
Prayer Thoughts September 2, 2008
Prayer Thoughts for September 2, 2008
Friends,
I mentioned I would be doing these posts. Here is the first. These will be brief prayer thoughts from selected passages. I will follow the ACTS format and use a different passage for each letter. I typically read the same four passages of Scripture for 7 days and write new thoughts each day that I read from them. I don’t limit myself to these passages nor do I feel particularly compelled to write on each one every day. I let the Spirit lead as He will.
Adoration
Habakkuk 1-3 This is a book of lament and complaint. It is styled as prayers to God with answers. Habakkuk gets the first and last word in this short book. I noticed when I was reading through the book that Habakkuk, for all his complaints, does end with a high note of praise. I think it takes quite a lot of courage to continue to worship and praise the Lord even when the Lord says, “I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told…I am raising up the Babylonians!” That had to be a shock: “Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment?” that would be hard to swallow. The question is how will we respond when such things confront us? Can we respond with worship and praise as did Habakkuk? Can we ‘resign’ ourselves to faith? Can we, along with the prophet, say, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen, and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior”? Can we say that? Shouldn’t we?
Confession
Daniel 9:1-21 What struck me about Daniel’s confession is that it is firmly rooted in Scripture. He examined Scripture and Scripture examined him. He knew about the 70 years from reading Jeremiah, but he also knew of the sins of the people from reading the Law. “Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth.” Daniel spends a lot of time being examined by the Scripture (Law, Law of Moses, etc.) in this long prayer he prays. Not only does the Scripture prompt Daniel’s prayer, but he prayers the Scripture too. What happens to us when we read Scripture? Do we allow Scripture to scrutinize us? Do we put ourselves under its judgment and allow ourselves to be corrected by it? This is a serious aspect of our confession before God both positively and negatively.
Thanksgiving
Revelation 4-5 There are three important things to notice about Revelation 4-5. First, the throne dominates the scene. It is the first thing John sees and everything he speaks of in these two chapters is spoken of in relation to the throne. Things are in front of, around, on, or beside the throne. Second, the Lamb receives the same praise as the ‘someone’ (4:2) on the throne. They are worthy of worship, both, equally. In chapter 4 the Creator is worshiped and in chapter 5 the Redeemer is worshiped. But they are worshiped with similar words and phrases and songs. Finally, I noticed that everyone is ‘busy’ in this scene. The four living Creatures, the 24 elders, the people from every nation and tribe and language, the myriads upon myriads of angels. Everyone is doing something. And what is that ‘something’ they are doing? They are giving thanks to the one who sits on the throne: “Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.” (4:9-10) Thanksgiving in the throne room is first nature.
Supplication
Acts 4 23-31 There is one main supplication in these verses that I think should dominate our prayers: “Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” How much more do we need such prayers now? “Stretch out your hand” is Exodus language. It’s the same thing Daniel prayed, “Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a might hand…” (9:15). How much more do we need such prayers now? How much more do we need this sort of boldness of Moses to march into Pharaoh’s court and speak the Word of God? How much more do we need the courage of the early Christians to stand in Roman Colosseum’s and proclaim the Gospel? How much more do we need the boldness of Habakkuk to preach the unpopular message that we will probably not be altogether happy with the way God is going to ‘solve our problems’? How much more do we need the boldness of John who declares that ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ means God’s throne will dominate our vision and everything else will be spoken of in relationship to that throne? How much more do we need that sort of courage now? This is our prayer.
Stop back again for more prayer thoughts.
Semper Deo Gloria!
Developing the Language of Prayer
Friends,
It is time now to begin updating this blog on a regular basis. I have decided that for my part I will be taking a slightly different approach to what is posted here now and instead of doing what I was doing-which there was and is nothing wrong with-I will begin posting thoughts, insights, and ideas from my daily prayer walk.
I have been using the simple prayer acrostic A.C.T.S. for about the last week or so in conjunction with prayer bulletins I have been preparing for my congregation. Here’s how this works. First, I prepare a ‘prayer bulletin’ for my Saturday morning prayer team. This bulletin includes several Scriptures that we will read each day throughout the coming week. The Scriptures follow the above acrostic (A.C.T.S.). These Scriptures are read and prayed each day for the next week and then on Saturday mornings they are read again together with the prayer team and prayed.
I will post those thoughts here (probably not daily, but more often than I have been posting here). Sometimes these thoughts are homiletical (preaching) thoughts, sometimes they are worship thoughts, sometimes they are particular questions or insights, or even exegetical thoughts. There is no particular rhyme or reason to them. They will be different each day; they will be the same each day (that I post). Most importantly, they are the thoughts that grow out of my prayer time and they are the thoughts (from Scripture) that guide and shape my prayer time.
As for the acrostic, A.C.T.S. In case you do not know what those letters stand for, I’ll demonstrate for you briefly. Perhaps you will find this a helpful outline to use in structuring your prayer time. It need not be so rigid although I do believe this particular pattern is most helpful and instructive. It properly places necessary elements in a proper position to approach the Lord. Again, this is not commanded, it is merely helpful. True prayer, I believe, comes not just from the shape of the prayer or the words that fill the prayer, but from the attitude of the heart that approaches God with boldness. In other words, I believe this outline is particular helpful and useful, but it is not absolutely essential.
The ‘A’, then, stands for Adoration. This is, in modern parlance, worship, praise, giving glory to God. It is first because it is the most natural expression of our being. Hallelujah is one of the most frequently heard terms on the planet even if half the time people do not have any idea what they are even saying. Adoration comes first because, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name.” Worship comes first because in the presence of God, what else can we do? This is what the angels do, this is what the four living creatures do, this is what Peter did when Jesus gave him a load of fish. Worship is what we do. It is what we are wired, so to speak, to do. Our first and most natural response is to worship. And even when we are not so consumed with worshiping YHWH, we will worship something or someone. The world is filled with idols for this very purpose. We begin prayer with worship also because it reminds us of what we are doing. Prayer is response and that response is worship. Prayer is not always a petititioning (although it never excludes petition) but it is always worship. Prayer is always acknowledging the one to whom we pray and as such it is worship. Prayer is acknowledged dependence upon the one to whom we pray.
The ‘C’, then, stands for Confession. I’m willing to bet that most Christians do not spend enough time in confession. But I want to make this clear at the beginning that confession has a positive and negative aspect to it. On the one hand, negatively, we confess our sins. We humble ourselves and confess to God our transgressions. We are David in Psalm 51 and Psalm 38, “I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.” Or David in Psalm 32, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Powerful is confession; greater still is the One who forgives us and reassures us of forgiveness. We do not confess in order to be forgiven, but we confess and acknowledge forgiveness already given by grace. We confess that we might continually acknowledge God’s gracious and efficacious mercy. But confession also has a positive side to it as well.
On the other hand, we make a positive confession. For example, 2 Corinthians 9:13: “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, people will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.” Here is an example of a positive confession by the Christians. Other examples exist too, say in Romans 10: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus’ is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” These are just a couple of examples of positive confession that must accompany our prayers. It is necessary to make confession not just because it reminds us of ‘who we are,’ but perhaps more importantly because it reminds us of who he is and who we are praying to. It grounds us, centers us. It keeps us aware of the presence into which we dare enter.
Well, this is all far too simplified and condensed. I suspect that there is far more too this development of prayer language than I have actually written of. Be assured, however, that this is what I am interested in developing here: A language for prayer. I am interested in taking the tools that I have received (from the Scripture, from literature, from the Spirit and not necessarily in any particular order) and putting them to use. “Prayer is language used in personal relation to God” (Eugene Peterson, Answering God, 12). I happen to agree with Peterson that the best language we can use to relate to God in this sense is the language he has already given us in Scripture.
So as this series of notes develop, as I continue to dig deeply into this language, we should see more and more Scripture appearing on the page. In the next installment of this series I will examine the ‘T’ of ACTS which is thanksgiving.
jerry
