Resolved to Pray: The Intro

"There are a lot of things you can do to fix your situation after you pray.  But there is nothing you can do to fix the situation until you pray.  Whatever it is you need God to do in your life, it happens after prayer."--H.B. Charles, It Happens After Prayer

The nerve of men who claim theology isn't practical!  It was my theological inquiry into Christ's ascension--one of the least talked about aspects of Christ's ministry--that rudely jarred me into a renewed resolve to pray more fiercely than ever.  I have found, however, that God's providence doesn't generally reveal itself one color at a time. 

I think that my studies on the topic of ascension, reading Donald S. Whitney's Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life with a younger brother in Christ, and the upcoming month-long prayer vigil at my church have slowly been blending together and stewing like a good soup.  I'm grateful to God for this season of faith and how it's manifesting in greater zeal to pray.  

In the next few blog posts, I'd like to address what I've found to be the greatest and most frequent hindrances to prayer in my life.  I pray that as I share how the Lord has been working mightily by His Spirit to empower and encourage this my growth-spurt in prayer, He'll do the same for you.  

Ascension: The Day After

"Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem--a Sabbath day's journey away.  When the arrived they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.  All theses were continually united in prayer along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers."  Acts 1:12-14

At the marketplace in Jerusalem, the Apostle John ran into his cousin Yusef who asked, "You told me last week that the Crucified Rabbi from Nazareth was alive!"   John replied, "Absolutely!  We were with Him on the Mount of Olives just yesterday!"  "Well, where is He now?", demanded Cousin Yusef.  And in the first ever usage of "what had happened was", John explains, "Well... see... there was this cloud, right..."

Yes, as the authors of The Ascension: Humanity in the Presence of God have aptly stated, "the ascension seems like bad evangelism strategy."

In the last several days, I've been reading books like the one already mentioned and also Derek Thomas' Taken Up To Heaven to help me answer the mind-boggling questions as well as wrap my mind around the enormous blessings that I have on the topic of ascension.  But just yesterday, while I was listening to a very helpful sermon on Luke 24:50-53, I was challenged to look at the reactions of the Apostles to what they witnessed in the ascension of Christ.  Certainly, they were joyous and worshipful at what they saw, but as one who wasn't present that day, it made me wonder what my reaction should be.  As I searched further for a response, I instead discovered a resolve: prayer.

I don't know if the Apostles actually understood that Jesus was taking them to the Mount of Olives in order that they would witness His ascent/departure.  I can only imagine the awe of that moment when the cloud came and took Him out of their sight.  But I do know that one minute, Jesus was there and the next He was no longer physically present with them.  When the last high-five was slapped, someone had to realize that the party had ended.  At least that phase of it.

What do you do the day after Jesus ascends to heaven?

"All these were continually united in prayer..."  Every believer now lives in the day after the ascension of Jesus.  And while there are many differences between we who live today and the Apostles of that time, we are alike in this way: we have our marching orders.  We are to preach the gospel, make disciples that make disciples, instruct and train mankind everywhere to obey Jesus and His teachings, and to baptize them into the family of God.  How are we to be enabled by the Holy Spirit to do these things to the glory of Christ without fervent and regular prayer to the Father?

Whatever other response you may have to the ascension may the Lord grant you a heart to faithfully pray for Christ's kingdom to advance through the gospel and His church.

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.