Grown-Up Prayer Requests, Part 2: K Street Christians and Reverse-Lobbying

The history of lobbying is an interesting one.  As Ellen Arnold explains it, President Grant liked taking walks to get away from the stressful environment of the White House.  Looking for a change of venue/scenery, the retired Union general would make his way to the Williard Hotel (still in existence today) and smoke a cigar in lobby there.  Being a creature of habit, others began to take note of his routine and preferences.  Individuals with their ear to the street began to approach him in the lobby with his favorite kind of cigar and segue or transition into the particular legislative item they sought to influence him with.  President Grant called them lobbyists... and the name stuck.

Of course in our day, there are some other names that come to mind when someone mentions the topic of lobbying or lobbyists.  But this is to be expected since even on a good day, lobbying involves the use of education, influence, and yes, manipulation to "encourage" those with power to act on behalf of one and not the other.  Sinful and flawed humans seek to gain leverage and access to the clout and control of other sinful and flawed humans who enjoy positions of power.  The result is inevitable: sinful and flawed means will necessarily lead to sinful and flawed ends.  No matter how well-meaning, the best laws and intentions of mankind ultimately lead to yet more abuse and disorder by those willing to twist even what is good.

But lobbying the Lord through prayer is altogether different.  First of all, it is for sure that God is absolutely holy and beyond corruption.  Secondly, the Lord is the source of all truth and knowledge.  Therefore, any time we take to tell Him about our situation, requests, or condition is merely for the sake of our own need to confess our sins or to express our need for His gracious and mighty acts on our behalf.  Thirdly (yes, even in blog-posts, there's always three) and most important, the lobbying effect is reversed.  Instead of us seeking to influence God to work on our behalf, lobbying the Lord leads to a completely different goal.

We do not expect God to bow to our rights and privileges as Kingdom Citizens.  Instead, spiritual maturity leads us to submit our will to His in an effort that we might serve His purposes in the earth with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.  It's reverse-lobbying; He does not come under our sway, but with transformed hearts and His grace which enables, we get a glimpse of His glory and see our plans as poor and pathetic in comparison.  Then it makes all the sense in the world to lay down our agendas, putting our hand to the plow to join His.  In summary, where the typical lobbyist looks to use a politician, the Lord's lobbyists offer themselves to be used by Him for His glory.

So hopefully I've set this up well enough to start a more intense look at the scriptures.  My next blog entry, Lord willing, will begin a five-part series on Bible passages highlighting the Lord's Lobbyists and their grown-up prayer requests.  Stay tuned...

Grown-up Prayer Requests, Part 1

The last few months of fatherhood have been exciting and rewarding.  As my wife and I count down to our daughter Jael's 2nd birthday next Wednesday, its only natural to reflect on the milestones we've seen over the last 51 weeks.  One of the many milestones is the beginning of clear speech.

For sure, Jael has learned ways of getting her point across before she discovered words.  But its exciting to witness how she makes the connection between words/names and the objects and persons they describe or refer to.  I have also taken note of the first word that I have heard her use with extreme emphasis and intentional regularity.  That word?

EEEEEAT!

She knows what shoes are and if I ask her to go get her shoes, she'll gladly get them.  But she won't say "shoe".  She knows what brushing her teeth means, but she won't say "brush" or "teeth".  She's aware of other words too, but she hardly uses them.  But when it comes to food and eating, she's got that locked.

It makes sense, of course, because it's an immediate need.  It's also a legitimate need.  Not to mention the fact that it also brings her great pleasure to eat just about anything that her mother lovingly provides.   Since hunger comes suddenly and is both imperative and pleasurable to address, it is all important to learn how to attain the answer for all three.  We can see then, how a child is motivated to learn how to communicate with the goal of satisfying these three things.

All this was coming to mind during the month of June for me since our church was in the midst of a month-long prayer vigil that coincides with weekly guest preachers each Wednesday to create what we call "June Jubilee", a month-long revival at the year's mid-point.  We gather every morning at 6AM to corporately embrace God's invitation to "come boldly to the throne of grace" with a unified theme each day from a provided devotional thought.  The hour-long session goes something like this: 3-4 individuals lead in prayer for the first 30 minutes, then we break up into groups of three (triads) where each person takes a few moments to pray for the other two triad members, then one big circle with a final prayer given by one person.

I learned a lot about prayer as I listened to different persons lead.  Without being overly critical of any particular style, approach, pattern, or even choice of wording, I was at times amused, appalled and even convicted by a kind of prayer that reminded me of Jael's limited verbal expression/interests. In other words, how many prayers are only concerned with the immediate, self-indulgent needs of the individual praying?

So here are the questions I'm asking:

Do my prayers reflect or gauge my spiritual maturity?

Does my praying mindset reflect a growing biblical perspective of God, myself, and my world?

Is God waiting for me to grow up in prayer with requests that go beyond immediate needs in the same way that I can't wait for Jael to start telling me about something other than her cravings?

What would my prayers sound like if they reflected the priorities of someone OTHER than myself... like maybe God's priorities?

Hmm... sounds like a good blog series coming up.