Prayer for Today

A great prayer here.

Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 How long, LORD?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,

4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

When and where do we pray? (part 2)

Nelsman did a superb job in summing up the way we should view and interpret Jesus’ teachings on prayer in Matthew 6 (from the comments last week). Here is his comment in regards to praying in public and if it is ok or not:

Sounds like it on the surface, but Jesus prayed in the presence of the disciples in John 17, gave thanks for food for the 5 thousand in Mark 6:41, prayed for Lazarus in front of others in John 11:41. So this reads more like a warning to not turn a prayer into a performance "to be seen by men". Maybe Jesus is leading us into private prayer so we will not be tempted to go beyond a one on one relationship with the Father

It's some great thoughts on this matter. The key is the heart. What is the heart? It’s that area where choice and will come from. It is our motive for why we do what we do. If you read the first verse of Matthew 6 you can see that Jesus is talking about motive. Matthew 6:1 (NRSV) reads,

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heave.

I think it’s ridiculous and wrong to interpret Jesus’ teachings on giving, prayer and fasting apart from this first verse. It clearly connects to everything that follows. Jesus clearly teaches that it is all about the heart. He is telling us it is all about our motive.

I’ve heard Christians tell me that it’s ok for Muslims to pray in public but Christians are to go to a private place and pray. I’ve even heard some people say it’s wrong to do public prayer in church. Those two comments are examples of how NOT to interpret Matthew 6. If your reason for wanting to pray in public is ok you can pray whenever and wherever you want. Jesus has given us freedom to do that! Nelsman gave some great examples of Him praying in public.

So, if you ever hear someone state Christians are not supposed to pray in public you have opportunity (maybe even responsibility?) to correct them and bring them back to the heart of the matter. Take them to Matthew 6:1 and make sure they catch and understand the phrase “in order to be seen by them”.

When and where do we pray?

Sorry to miss last week, was in class all day Thursday and Friday. Matthew 6 is a fun passage of scripture to read. I’m curious as to how you interpret Jesus’ words in verses 5 and 6 in regards to prayer? So, here are a few questions to get you thinking.

- Is He saying we should never pray in public?
- What about praying publicly when the church is gathered?
- Does this mean Christians should stop praying for their meals while out to eat?
- Is Jesus saying God only hears our prayers when we pray in secret?

What do you think?

Prayer & Times of Trouble

Here's part 2 of what Jonah learned about prayer while in the belly of the fish.

What do we do when we find ourselves in troubling situations? How do we respond? Do we pray? Why is it that in times of trouble we find it easy to pray?

Read Jonah 2:1-7.

This leads to the second thing Jonah discovered about prayer:

Times of troube are great times to pray

In his time of trouble Jonah called (or prayed) to the LORD (v.1). I think he learned that times of trouble present us with great opportunities to draw near to God.

I was thinking about our situation in America right now with so many people being out of a job and/or laid-off of work. These are times of trouble. We are in a belly of the fish moment. Could it be that God has allowed this to happen (He hasn’t caused it) because He wants us to seek Him out in prayer? He knows that if we are in times of trouble, or in the belly of a fish, we will hit our knees in prayer. We have become so busy (with our work and activities) that we just haven’t had time to seek first the kingdom of God, so He has allowed us to be swallowed by a great fish. Like Jonah, He is allowing and giving us time (Jonah had 3 days of solitude in the belly of the fish) to spend seeking Him through prayer. The question is will we take advantage of it? Will we let these times of trouble drive us to our knees or drive us further away from God? I hope we will respond like Jonah and seek God in prayer.

Sometimes I think we feel guilty because we only pray in times of trouble. We use God like a band-aid. We only turn to Him when in trouble. I’m not saying we should continue to live like that because we miss out on so much, but I think God lets us use Him in that way to draw us near to Him and help us see that He can be trusted. That He is a good God. He has our best interests in mind.

Times of trouble are great times to pray. I hope and pray that during those times you can discover what the psalmist of Psalm 139 discovered.

Read Psalm 139:7-12.

Re-cap of what Jonah learned about prayer from his time in the belly of the great fish.

1. No matter where we are God hears our prayers.

2. Times of trouble are great times to pray.

The Belly of the Fish as a House of Prayer

I'm preaching today at a local nursing home on Jonah chapter 2 (I also preached this message last Sunday night at my local church). Here's part one of this message, I hope to post part 2 next week.

What Jonah Learned About Prayer in the Belly of the Fish

Opening: I want to focus in on what Jonah learned about prayer when he was tossed overboard into the sea and swallowed by the great fish that the Lord provided. Read Jonah 2:1-10. The first thing Jonah learned about prayer was that…

1. No matter where we are God hears our prayers.

Read Jonah 2:2. The Lord heard Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the great fish under the sea. Jonah thought he was getting away from the Lord. (cf. 1:3). Imagine his surprise to find out God could hear him from inside the fish?

A monk (Cassiodorus) from the 5th Century said this about Jonah’s predicament (being in the belly of a great fish). “The great fish was a house of prayer for the prophet, a harbor fro him when shipwrecked, a home amid the waves, a happy resource at a desperate time. He was not swallowed for sustenance but to gain rest.”

I wonder how many times we end up in the belly of a fish, a bad place, but a place that has potential to become a house of prayer if we let it but we don’t realize it? Our house of prayer could be a hospital bed. A wheel chair. An empty room. A waiting room. A long car ride alone. Jonah’s situation, being in the fish’s belly, teaches us that all of these places can become a house of prayer if we let them. Are we willing to let them? The secret is that no matter where we are, our prayers reach God’s ears.

I’m reminded of the children of Israel and their captivity in slavery to the Egyptians. In Exodus 2:23-25 it talks about them praying and God hearing their prayers. The next chapter in Exodus is about God calling Moses from the burning bush. God hears our prayers. There are Christians right now, around the world, which are in dungeons, holes in the ground, and prisons, whose prayers are being heard by God.

A Roman senator (Paulinus of Nola) and Christian poet who lived during the 4th Century wrote this about Jonah’s time in the fish, “His body was constrained by the great body of the fish, but the bonds of earth did not constrain the flight of his mind. Though enclosed in that belly, he broke out of his prison by prayer and reached God’s ears.”

Some places (like my church’s prayer room) can be better suited for prayer, but the truth of the matter is God can hear us anywhere.

The Early Christians (Acts 2:42d) understood you could be heard by God anywhere. They were no doubt familiar with the story of Israel in captivity and how God heard His people's prayers and the story of Jonah's prayer from inside the fish. I love the story in Acts 16. Re-cap some of the events leading up to this story. Paul and Silas are thrown into the inner cell of prison and what do we find them doing in verse 25? Praying. We know God heard their prayers because there was an earthquake and a jailbreak.

God hears us anywhere we are. Do not forget that. If you do, go and read Jonah 2:1-10.

The Advent of my life

Well, four and a half years of youth ministry is behind me now. Youth ministry was an incredible learning experience for me and I’ll miss it and the wonderful people I built relationships with. However, like Christians looking forward to what’s to come during this Advent season, I’m looking forward to what’s to come as I transition into the direction I believe God has been nudging me. I have officially transitioned into a new area of ministry at my church, discipleship and sr. adult ministries. It probably sounds funny to some of my youth pastor friends that I’m moving from one end of the age spectrum to the other (I jokingly tell people I have a fountain of youth group now!), but it’s exactly what I have been wanting to do for a little while now.

One of the things I’ve begun to do in discipleship ministries is teaching on conversational prayer. This isn’t something new in that this concept of praying was developed fifty years ago by a woman named Rosalind Rinker, but it is new in that I’ve never heard of it or practiced it until I read her book this past summer. Her book, Prayer: Conversing with God, is an excellent guidebook if you want to pursue conversational prayer. It was even named by Christianity Today as the #1 book that has shaped evangelicals. She bases conversational prayer on Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them.”

Here is a summary of the three stories that led to Rosalind’s discovery of conversational prayer.

Story #1 – 15 years old and has a choice to go to a party or a cottage prayer meeting on a cold snowy night. Chooses the latter and is amazed by everyone praying. She feels she should pray out loud during prayer meeting but is scared to death to do it. She finally does it and feels Jesus’ presence in a special way. This teaches her that when you pray out loud with a group you can feel God’s presence in a special way. She understands Matt 18:20 better now.

Story #2 – Now not afraid to pray in public. Goes to a prayer meeting in China and realizes everyone is making little speeches to God, feels like she has to start her prayers in a special way, use lofty language, to top the person that just prayed. She talks about how easy it was for her to get distracted while someone else was praying. She gets a desire to pray in way that is different and more inclusive.

Story #3 – She is praying with a close friend and realizes while her friend is praying that her prayer has already been answered (praying for peace between a lady and her sister-in-law). So, she interrupts her friend’s prayer and says, “We thank you God for already answering that prayer. This lady has already forgiven her sister-in-law”. They both stop after this and a moment of revelation comes. What if they prayed one or two sentences and then stopped to let the other person add something to the prayer? What if they went back and forth for several minutes talking/praying over the same person and/or situation?

All of this leads her to discover conversational prayer. In a nutshell, here are the basics:

The basics to conversational prayer

1. Bring up one person and/or situation at a time.

2. Each person prays two or three sentences only about the particular person and/or situation. Everybody in the group will go back and forth praying only 2-3 sentences.

3. Only move on to next person and/or situation when you feel at rest, or peace, about the person and/or situation. It helps if you have person in the group act as the leader and when there is several seconds of silence the leader thanks God for hearing their prayers and closes in a final word of prayer. When the leader finishes, another individual in the group brings up another person and/or situation to pray for.

It really was a neat thing to be a part of a group that prayed conversationally. You are all involved and in-tune with one another and God’s Spirit. When you finish praying you feel as if you have really prayed thoroughly for the person. It’s an awesome experience! I think this would work for any age group and is also a great teacher of how to pray. If someone struggles praying aloud or in front of people (which most people do), this helps them overcome that fear and learn to pray. It’s easier to say 2-3 sentences of prayer than to pray for 3-5 minutes. I encourage you to buy the book and practice it!

You will be rewarded.