But I will look to the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
Micah 7:7
Tag: prayer
The Deep and Secret Things
“If when I am able to discover something which has baffled others, I forget Him who revealeth the deep and secret things, and knoweth what is in the darkness and showeth it to us; if I forget that it was He who granted that ray of light to His most unworthy servant, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”
– Amy Carmichael
I once had a dream in which I saw how the selfish actions of one group of people loosed nasty consequences on other people like a multi-car pile-up. With a little research I found out the facts were in the public record, but most people were not aware of the evil that had been kept out of the light for years. I was shocked and upset by the dream and told a friend experienced in dream interpretation.
“The dream is not difficult to interpret,” she said. “The question is, why is God choosing to show it to you, and why now.” She smiled a knowing smile. “Ask Him.”
He was showing me the roots of a problem and giving me compassion for those whose actions I had trouble understanding. But what could I possibly do about it? As we chatted, the Lord and me, I realized it is not my responsibility to change people and situations. It is his, but he wants us to partner with him.
So often I feel like the child with a little lunch that Jesus used to feed thousands. My efforts are tiny in the face of an impossible task. All I can do is pray.
You know, sometimes, when we feel powerless, we say, “Well, all we can do is pray,” and sigh heavily as if it probably won’t do much good. But God is showing me prayer is not meant to be a last ditch effort. Prayer is a first response effort. Prayer is a means of coming into alignment with what God is doing.
When I asked him how to pray about a current situation where he is beginning to shine his light on hidden evil I heard, “Give me a powerful yes.”
My yes is powerful? How does that work?
Like a lunch of buns and fish.
I don’t know if we will ever know in this lifetime how often the darkness has been overcome by simple folk giving God their powerful yes in prayer, but I think we will be surprised.
Jesus takes what we offer and then multiplies. Our powerful little yes becomes his immeasurably mighty yes. He brings light to the deep and secret things and his purpose is to save, heal and release the captives.
Yes, Lord. Yes!
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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Until the Stream Runs Clear
Fall on your knees and grow there. There is no burden of the spirit but is lighter by kneeling under it. Prayer means not always talking to Him, but waiting before Him till the dust settles and the stream runs clear.
– F.B. Meyer
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Heart and Words
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words
than words without a heart.
-John Bunyan
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Creative, Not Reactive
Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.
(Psalm 37:7)
One night in a dream I heard, “Creation, not reaction.”
Then, “It is the nature of God to create, not react.”
My first reaction to crisis is to want do something. I need to feel useful.
And maybe a little bit less out of control.
Frequently my running around trying to fix things or trying to solicit help, or at least sympathy, has just complicated matters.
Until we experienced a natural disaster via our son and family when they became homeless after a flood, we probably would have reacted the same way as many well-meaning folk who felt a need to “do something.”
Some of the truckloads of used clothing and household goods they worked so hard to gather and ship to the beleaguered areas ended up in a landfill. Where does a town put this all low priority stuff when buildings have been destroyed? Where does the manpower to sort and distribute come from when every available person is shovelling knee-deep mud out of the kitchen or dragging mattresses saturated with sewage to the street? What seemed like a good idea ended up adding to the pain of loss.
I was very impressed by the Mennonite aid agency. After the big name rescue agencies left and the cameras and talking heads moved on to another story the Mennonites erected a building they could work from. They knew from experience that restoration was a long term commitment. Their actions were well thought out. They had a creative long term plan.
In matters of immediate threat to life rescue is essential. But I find when I feel pressured to react to hypothetical crisis (“If this doesn’t happen soon it could be really bad,”) the sense of urgency often comes from a source other than God. Sometimes the hardest action to take is to wait on God.
God chooses when to move. He does not react to the enemy’s attacks that goad us into rash reactions to his terrorist threats. God is in charge of the timetable, not the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.
His answers are creative and sometimes even shockingly counter-intuitive. Who sends a choir and marching band to meet an army hell-bent on your destruction? Who arranges for a prisoner accused of sexual assault to save an entire country from starvation? Who defends a people from genocide by setting up an orphan girl with an enemy king (a situation which in other times and places would have been called fraternizing)?
When our prayers are more about worrying at God (because he doesn’t seem to be taking the situation seriously enough) we are tempted to start dictating what he needs to do. Praying “precise prayers” without precise understanding of his intentions is trying to micromanage the Creator of the Universe. Good luck with that.
Jesus is never stops interceeding for us. With joy. How is he praying in your crisis?
Can you drop the frantic unproductive busyness, clear the noisy fearful voices from your head and wait patiently for the voice of peace to whisper to your heart? What is he wanting to create in you in the midst of all this? What is he wanting to create in your sphere of influence through you?
Be still. Wait.
This is going to be good.
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Grace Like Rain Pouring
It’s raining. Again.
This may be the coolest, wettest July I have experienced in years. Our grandchildren are here and we have not been able to hike or go to the beach even once. The sun comes out and by the time we get our act together it’s raining again.
Now when you live in the middle of thousands of hectares of fuel in the form of forest summer rains are usually welcome – except when you want to go to the beach with the kids. This is unseasonable. Different.
This morning I read about an explanation of the Greek words of a phrase in Romans 5:20 – “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” The tense here means sin that is continually increasing. It also means grace that is continually increasing exponentially more.
Grace upon grace upon grace…
This has been a week where we have seen sin increase. Shootings, riots, the murder of innocents, the fall of trusted leaders, the exposure of faulty foundations, division, exploitation, panic…
It’s horrible actually. To all appearances sin is increasing and there is nothing we can do about it except (as some propose) to await for for evil to gain so much control over the world that God will zap his people off the planet and leave the rest to their own devices.
The good news is: grace is also increasing – faster and bigger. He has plans for our good. He is not defeated.
(And no. I do not define grace as license to sin so let’s just get that out of the way right now. Grace is the means by which we are changed to become fully who God intended us to be.)
I asked the Lord (trying not to use my pouty voice), “What’s with all this unseasonable rain? At the moment it is so loud on the roof it’s drowning out our conversation about how terrible the news is today.”
Then I hear a line from a song:
“Hallelujah! Grace like rain falling down on me…”
Thank you, Lord! Grace in abundance like showers that keep coming and coming and coming is available when sin in abundance keeps coming. But grace is greater. Greater than evil. Greater than despair. Greater than pain and loss. Grace that is greater than all our sin.
When we are tempted to return hate for hate grace enables us to return good for evil. The fruit of the Spirit has to be a supernatural response from heaven or it is merely more human effort. And seriously, how have our own efforts been working for us in this season?
It’s time to turn from our own methods, access the grace for change that flows from the throne of God. It’s time to see the salvation of our God. This is the season of abundant rain.
God has more for us than we can ask or even think.
Just ask.
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Come What May…
I have heard a song in the night. Abba (Father God) sings over his child.
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time
Come what may, come what may…
(From “Come What May” Songwriters David Baerwald, Kevin M Gilbert, Rudy Amado Perez)
Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
(Matthew 7: 7-10 NASB)
Our heavenly Father sings over you. Can you hear Him?
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Just Ask
“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
(Jeremiah 33:3 NASB)
I am learning to pray about how to pray before launching into giving God advice. Sometimes I am surprised at his response. Very surprised.
In 2 Kings 6 enemy army strategists complained that their plans were continually thwarted. The prophet Elisha seemed to have inside information on troop placement. “The prophet tells the words you speak in your bedroom!” they whined to the general.
God doesn’t give you an assignment without providing the tools and intelligence to do it. We don’t all work at the level of someone like Elisha, but even as toddlers in God’s Kingdom we have access to the very throne of God. We can ask. God encourages us to ask.
As we observe the systems of men falling to corruption, revenge, and more of the hatred and lack of honour for others that caused the problems in the first place, many people are calling out for a concerted prayer effort. They quote: “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7.14)
But how do we pray?
Ask!
Humility is the ability to say, “I don’t know. But I know who to ask.”
Prayer is about communication with the One who knows and loves us perfectly. It’s about relationship. Prayer is not like ordering from an Amazon wishlist. Prayer is leaning on the chest of the Creator of the Universe and listening to what is on his heart.
There is a war going on most people are not aware of. A war in high places. A war in the spiritual realm. A clash between two kingdoms in which one has already been defeated but has not yet relinquished its hold on all territory.
I don’t usually hear about troop placements, in case you were wondering. I do hear about God’s overwhelming love for hostages of the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy. Jesus came to set the captives free. He invites us to intercede the way he is interceding.
Do you feel the call to pray for your nation or other nations? He is ready to show you great and mighty things which you do not know about yet.
But you will.
Just ask.
Charis: Subject to Change 