WAITING IN PRAYER

What do you do when you have to wait a long time for something to happen? With the quarantine over Covid19 many of us are finding more time on our hands than ever before. Waiting can be difficult, almost painful. Many years ago, I served as a student summer missionary in Uganda. Possibly the most striking difference between the East African culture and the one I grew up in, was that people had little concept of hurry. I used to joke that I sometimes needed to get off alone and just hurry.

However, God has been teaching me that my inability to slow down and wait in the Lord is a major hindrance to my spiritual life. This is a common problem in the west. We can remedy this by devoting wait-time and more to prayer.

In the garden before the cross Jesus asked some of His disciples if they could not even watch with Him for one hour. He wasn’t talking about binge-watching TV. He told them and us to watch and pray. As you develop the change of temperament required to stay in God’s presence, you may find yourself seeking opportunities to “be still” in prayer. Let me suggest some ways to pray when you are waiting that may develop into greater spiritual discipline.

Begin prayer on the majesty of God.
Jesus began the model prayer with praise⁠—Hallowed be Thy Name. Nothing transforms an anxious spirit or boredom into joy like praise.

Pray for the Kingdom of God.
From praise Jesus shifted His prayer to the kingdom. You can make arrangements to pray for missionaries or unreached people groups while you are waiting in a long line at the store or elsewhere. On your smartphone you can carry lists of mission needs to pray for regularly.

Pray for yourself.
Jesus told us to pray for our daily bread. It is worthwhile to try to discern what your needs really are. One of those needs is spiritual growth. Seeking spiritual growth will surely involve examining yourself and confessing sins. In the Lord's prayer Jesus told us to ask for forgiveness as we also forgive those who have sinned against us. You will need God to work in your heart to love and forgive people who hate or misuse you. Are you asking God to work in your heart?

Focus on other people.
You can pray for others around you, maybe in the grocery store line. You could develop the habit of praying for everyone around you wherever you go. That is sometimes easiest when you have to wait with nothing else to do.

You may not need a smartphone or a written list to pray for those in your extended family. You can also pray for the members of your Bible class or your entire church roll when you are forced to wait.

Your most valuable praying may come in the word of God.
One of the ways to pray for a full hour is to pray through the Lord's Prayer. As you pray, “Hallowed be Thy name,” spend time lifting the wonder and Majesty of God. Then pray for His Kingdom in your life and across the Earth. Go through the whole prayer expanding on every part. You can do this with many Scriptures.

I recommend Scripture memory as a prayer discipline. This is a great way to fill wait time with powerful prayer. Three kinds of prayer come automatically when we are memorizing scripture. Ask God to help you memorize. Then ask Him to plant His word in your heart to transform your life. And while memorizing, God will often bring people and needs to mind. Take time to pray for each of them.

Your quarantine can become a wonderful time when you spend each moment of it in prayer.

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SELAH

Selah is not translated in our English Bibles. We just have the transliteration of the Hebrew word. But if you follow its usage, you can get a good grip on its meaning. It is used at the end of each stanza of Psalm 46. I have italicized it for you.

“God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy habitation of the Most High.

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;

God will help her when morning dawns.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

he utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Come, behold the works of the Lord,

how he has brought desolations on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

he burns the chariots with fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!”

The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah”

Literally, Selah means, step up. It could have been a musical notation. I like the speculation that it was used when the people ascended Mt. Zion with singing. As they came to a pause in the music, they would all take a step, or several steps, up. They would pause to take a step nearer to God.

There is a delightful little poem in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

“Selah bids the music rest, 

Paused in silence soft and blessed;

Selah bids uplift the strain,

Harps and voices tune again;

Selah ends the vocal praise,

Still your hearts to God upraise.”

But as I said, whatever the meaning of the word, the most telling thing about selah is where it is placed in the text. Selah is a call to be still and know God.

Selah is used as a pause to reflect. 

We are to stop and think about what God is saying to us in what we just read in the Psalm.

Selah gives a pause to pray.
Scripture reading should be bathed in prayer. We need to pray for God to open our eyes and hearts to see and hear what He is telling us. We need to ask Him to plant His truth in our hearts to transform our lives.

Selah brings a pause to listen.
Are you aware that God will speak to you personally in His word? We need to stop to remind ourselves that God is speaking as we read. Selah reminds us to stop and listen

Selah is a pause to understand.
The more we think about and meditate on Scripture the more the Holy Spirit of God explains to us. Our Lord speaks personally to you in His word. You need to be still and know what it means that He is God.

Selah is a pause to absorb.
In several of the parables of Jesus we see that the word and the kingdom of God are planted into our hearts. In Luke 13:19 Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed sown in someone’s garden, that grows to become a tree so that the birds make nests in its branches. This can certainly be applied to the kingdom of God being introduced to a tribe, a people group, or a city. But I think the Holy Spirit also applies it to each of our lives. James 1:21 calls us to, “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save our souls.”

Selah pauses to remember.
It takes time and effort to fix God’s word in our minds. We will need to remember that God has said He is a very present help when trouble comes. We need to remember the stream that makes our hearts and cities glad.

Selah is a pause to tremble.
Considering that God has spoken to us, and that He is God over all our circumstances, should cause us to tremble. If you do not tremble before the Holy God, you do not understand.

Selah lets us pause to rejoice.
God is gracious, loving, mighty, and glorious! His people should rejoice as He draws near to speak to our hearts.

Selah is a pause to praise.
We need to exalt His name along with the nations. We need to stop where we are to praise Him. We will exalt His name forever!

Selah pauses to commit.
Unlike the person spoken of in James 1:24, who glances at the mirror of God's word and promptly forgets what he saw, we are to take time to commit ourselves to obey what God tells us in His word.

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http://theanchorofthesoul.blogspot.com/
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http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

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BEHOLD!

We seldom use the word behold in common speech. But it is a crucial word in Scripture and an essential concept for our spiritual lives. I could have posted this on my thinking in the Spirit blog, but particularly because of the passage I have chosen, I believe it fits Watching In Prayer better.

Behold is used three times in Jacobs encounter with God in Genesis 28:12-14. I have italicized them to emphasize its significance.

“He dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’”

Let me give you some applications of the word “behold,’ especially as it is used in this passage.

SEE
The foundational meaning of the word behold is simply to see. Here it means to see God. In Hebrews 11:27 we read that Moses endured because he saw Him who is invisible. Behold means to see the work of God. In John 5:19 Jesus said He could only do what He saw His Father doing. John 5:20 says the Father loves the Son and shows Him what He is doing. Behold is a command to see on a spiritual plane. We read about Stephen in Acts chapter 8. As he was being stoned for the gospel, the heavens were opened and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said “Behold, I see.” But those who were intent on stoning him were not willing to look.

HEAR
Behold also calls us to pay attention to what God has to say to us. God spoke to Jacob standing above the ladder in his dream. And God will speak to you if you listen. He can speak to you in any way He chooses. He can speak in a dream. He will consistently speak to you in His word, in the fellowship of the church, in circumstances, and in all of these things, you will hear Him speaking as you pray.

THINK
Behold is a call to grasp the significance of what God is showing you. Jacob got it. He realized what God was saying to him. Realizing that God is speaking will open your heart you more and more meaning as you focus on what He is telling you, especially in Scripture. In Deuteronomy 6:6-9 God commands us.

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

BELIEVE
Beholding expects believing. When God speaks you need to recognize that He is real and that He is really speaking to you. In John 12 when Jesus prayed that His Father would glorify His name, a voice came from heaven saying, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The people standing there were amazed. Some said, “An angel has spoken to him.” But Jesus said, No. “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.” God is speaking to you.

EXPERIENCE
Behold calls us to experience the presence of the Lord. We seldom sing Surely The Presence in our churches. Its words come from verse 16 of Genesis 28.

“Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. 

I can feel His mighty power and His grace.

I can hear the brush of angel wings. 

I see glory on each face.

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.”

Of course, these last words point us to the promise of the presence of Jesus any time we gather in His name. I have never sung the second verse of this song.

“In the midst of His children the Lord said He would be.

It doesn't take very many.

It can be just two or three.

And I feel that same sweet Spirit that I’ve felt so many times before

Surely I can say I’ve been with the Lord.”

There is a special promise of His presence in church. We are also in His presence any time we are listening to His voice.

TREMBLE
In verse 17 Jacob says he was afraid. He said what we should say every time we gather in church. “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
When you are in the presence of the holy God you ought to tremble like Jacob did. He was terrified. But it was not an earthly fear. He experienced the joyful fear of God.
The third verse of Surely The Presence sings.

“There's a holy hush around us as His glory fills this place

I’ve touched the hem of His garment

I can almost see His face

And my heart is overflowing with the fullness of His joy

I know without a doubt I’ve been with the Lord"

WORSHIP
And that leads us to worship. When we see Jesus like John did in The Revelation, we too will fall on our faces before Him. If you do not worship, you have not experienced the reality of God.

Finally, the word behold calls us to
OBEY
The more time we spend in the presence of God, the more we desire to obey whatever He tells us to do.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/
http://theanchorofthesoul.blogspot.com/
http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/
http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

Website
http://daveswatch.com/

YouTube
https://goo.gl/PyzU

Amazon Author's Page
https://www.amazon.com/David-Young/e/B008C7VLAQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1