Avoiding a "rest" from prayer

In Proverbs 24:30-34 (NLT), Solomon writes,

I walked by the field of a lazy person,

the vineyard of one with no common sense.

I saw that it was overgrown with nettles.

It was covered with weeds,

and its walls were broken down.

Then, as I looked and thought about it,

I learned this lesson:

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest—

 

then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;

scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

These verses literally apply to our day-to-day employ, but they also have a dual interpretation regarding our spiritual lives. Simply put, rattling off something that sounds prayer-like is easy, but praying in "spirit and truth," as demanded by Jesus, is not nearly as simple. Such praying requires removing ourselves from human perceptions of space and time, and conversing with God on a spiritual plane.

Because deep, spiritual prayer is difficult, it's tempting to "take a day off" here and there. But the aforementioned verses in Proverbs 24 provide a stark warning: Don't take such rests!

Thou shalt see greater things than these

The last two verses of the first chapter of John's gospel have always intrigued me. (And I especially like the KJV phrasing of those verses!) To set the scene, as Nathanael meets Jesus for the first time, Jesus makes a reference to having seen Nathanael earlier sitting under a fig tree. Upon hearing this, Nathanael immediately proclaims that Jesus is the "Son of God."

As readers, we wonder: Is that all the evidence Nathanael needs? That's basically what Jesus says when he responds (John 1:50, KJV),

Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

I love the promise that Nathanael better brace himself, because much more impressive evidence is on the way. In verse 51, Jesus gives a hint of that coming evidence,

Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

This statement is a reference to "Jacob's Ladder," the portal between heaven and earth dreamed about by Jacob in Genesis 28. Jesus is telling his followers that he is that connection between heaven and earth, and, furthermore, that he is the fulfillment of everything discussed starting at the beginning of the Bible.

Powerful stuff packed into two verses. Let us reflect upon those verses today in our prayers.

Call unto me, and I will answer thee

In Jeremiah 33:3 (KJV), God says,

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

A short verse, but packed with powerful stuff!

First, God instructs us to pray to him. It's not that he needs our prayers, but praying puts out hearts in the correct, Godly frame of mind. And if we pray to him in that correct frame of mind, he promises to answer us!

But he promises more than just an answer! As a bonus, he promises to show us things, "great and mighty things," that we currently don't know.

All in all, Jeremiah 33:3 provides us powerful motivation to pray. So don't put this off until tomorrow, or even until the next hour. Pray now!

How will you race against horses?

In Jeremiah 12:1-4, Jeremiah questions the fairness of God's judgment. In verse 1 (NLT), Jeremiah asks,

Why are the wicked so prosperous?

Why are evil people so happy?

We all have, at one time or another, asked the same questions. Of course, asking such questions implies that we do not count ourselves among the wicked. Thus, when we find ourselves asking such questions, let's first step back and reassess our own behavior.

But God, in his response to Jeremiah, illustrates another problem with asking such questions. In verse 5 (NLT), God responds,

If racing against mere men makes you tired,

how will you race against horses?

I believe God is telling Jeremiah to stop worrying about the fairness of God's judgment. The world presents enough obstacles to our spiritual focus, so why is Jeremiah worrying about supposedly "wicked" people receiving their due punishment? After all, does God need any input from Jeremiah on judicial matters?

The message, therefore, is that our prayers should maintain focus on spiritual, heavenly concerns, rather than earthly issues. Let's leave issues to judgment to God.

"Praying" the Bible

When I pray, I often struggle to form the right words. For some reason, I tend to view prayer like a high school essay exam. I worry about grammar and sentence structure. Upon those rare occasions when my prayer achieves King James-like elegance (in my mind!), I pat myself on the back and declare my prayer successful.

But God doesn't care about those superficial concerns; he cares about the state of our heart! As Paul writes (Romans 8:26, NLT),

We don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

The most important detail in prayer is that we align our will with God's. But our human minds, limited and sinful as they are, often fail to grasp his will.

Here's where the Bible can help. Scripture is chock full of prayers that clearly align with God's will, and, therefore, we should not be embarrassed about borrowing those prayers, even word-for-word, if we must! Again, this isn't a high school composition class; who cares if we plagiarize a prayer from the Bible, so long as we're using it to focus our hearts on God's will.

Here's a beautiful prayer from Psalm 80:19 (NLT),

Turn us again to yourself ... Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

Try praying this today, while reflecting on what it means. And don't be embarrassed that you didn't write it!

God's temple

(When I first started this blog, I warned that I am not a theologian. I repeat that warning here, because material in this post touches upon deep theological issues. I apologize in advance if I get something wrong, or if I include material that is already obvious.)

David conceived the idea of building a temple in God's honor, but David didn't finish the construction. That responsibility fell to his son, Solomon. In 1 Chronicles 28:6 (NLT), Gods says to David,

Your son Solomon will build my Temple ... for I have chosen him as my son, and I will be his father.

As with many Old Testament prophesies, this one seems to predict two things. The first is literal and immediate: Solomon, David's son, will finish the temple. But the second is shadowy and distant, and would only become clear centuries later. Specifically, David's "son" -- his descendant Jesus -- would finish the most important temple of all!

To see this, consider Solomon's dedication of the temple upon its completion. In 1 Kings 8:33-34 (NLT), Solomon says to God,

If your people ... have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people.

Note that forgiveness of sin came from praying toward/in the temple. Now, turning to John 4, a Samaritan woman asks Jesus for clarification on this point. Why, she asks, do Jews stress that prayer must occur toward/in the temple in Jerusalem? Jesus responds (John 4:21-24, NLT),

The time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem ... For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

The implication is that the importance of the physical temple was soon to end, and it would be replaced by something far more important. Jesus further emphasizes this point when he remarks (John 2:19, NLT),

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

This theme reaches its climax in Revelation 21:22 (NLT), when John describes Heaven,

I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

So there we have it! No longer must we pray toward/in the physical temple. Jesus is that temple! Forgiveness of sin comes from directing our prayers toward/in him!

Accepting God's love

Chapter 2 of Jonah presents Jonah's prayer from inside the large fish. It's a short, but powerful prayer. Consider reading the whole thing.

Verse 8 (NLT) of that prayer contains an important thought,

Those who worship false gods

turn their backs on all God’s mercies.

Jeremiah 5:25 (NLT) presents a similar theme,

Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings.

Your sin has robbed you of all these good things.

By sinning, we turn our backs on God's love, and that's perhaps the scariest, most damaging thing about sin. In our prayers, let us acknowledge our sins and recognize that God's love is ours, if only we accept it.