STRETCHING PRAYER MEETINGS

Today I want to speak to those of you who lead prayer times and prayer meetings. You have a great responsibility in helping people focus on God in prayer. Most of you are aware that the great tendency in corporate prayer meetings and possibly in private prayer is to focus on ourselves, our needs and immediate desires. Let me suggest that the next time you lead a prayer time that you try to stretch the prayer requests people lift to eternal perspectives.

You need to begin by praying about this for several days before you come to the prayer meeting. You might also stir some excitement about such a prayer meeting by announcing in advance what you are planning to do, explaining how you plan to do it.

I would warn you not to complain about how people have prayed in the past. Even in petty prayers people enter the presence of God Almighty. You can tell them, "We will pray for every request, then we will try to stretch it to an eternal perspective."

Explain this again as you begin the prayer meeting. I think all prayer meetings should begin with praise. As you invite people to lift praises explain the difference between praises to our wonderful God and thanksgivings for specific things He has done in our lives. You can lift thanks as well, but you need to help people see that God is great even when He does not give us what we think we need.

Then as people lift requests start stretching them. Different groups and different prayer times need to operate differently, but if it is possible you need to word these petitions. Suppose someone asks prayer for an aunt having surgery. You might pray briefly for a successful surgery and healing. Then ask rhetorically, "How do we stretch this prayer toward eternity?" You might then suggest that you pray for the lady to know she is in God's hands. You might ask that God give her a powerful witness of God's grace to the doctors and nurses.

After you have stretched several prayer requests begin inviting people in the group to stretch prayer requests toward a divine perspective.

I am not leading a prayer meeting right now. But I wish I were. I would like to try this and see how people respond. If some of you try it out, let me know what happens.

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PRAYING YOUR POLITICS 1

Last week I started a new blog, Thinking in The Spirit, http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/. I began writing about the relief and refuge of repentance. Next week I will continue that theme. But this week, and every other week in the future, I want to return to Watching in Prayer.

This being an election year in America, I want to talk to you about praying your politics. What does this mean? How do you apply this dictum?

If you get serious about doing this, you will of course pray your thinking. Nearly all of us feel like what we believe our country needs is being threatened. And I believe you need to do that even if I do not agree with your politics.

But let me ask you if you are praying for your morals. How important are your morals to you? Are you tempted to focus more on the economy or your comfort, your own benefit above what God declares to be right or wrong?

Do your morals include compassion? Compassion is the most critical thing Jesus spoke of concerning judgment of the nations.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” 

Matthew 25:31-46

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PRAY FOR ME

This has seemed strange to some of you when I have done it in the past. But it is crucial that I ask my readers to pray for me and for my blog. This is important because all wisdom, all discernment and all knowledge come from God. If He does not speak through my writing, no one will benefit.

This is true about anything you read, anyone who teaches or any preacher you listen to. Pray for God to speak to them. And ask Him to speak through them. I have a particular request this week, although God may impress you to pray something entirely different for me.

Here is my request. I am considering starting a new blog. I think I will call it, "THINKING IN THE SPIRIT." If indeed I do this, I will write one week in my WATCHING IN PRAYER Blog, and the next in THINKING IN THE SPIRIT. Pray for clear guidance for me in this matter.

God bless you.

Dave

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IN THE LORD

The Apostle John trembled as he was given this wonderful promise from heaven.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them."

What does it mean to die in the Lord? Whatever it means, I am sure you know the only way you can die in the Lord is to be living in the Lord when you die. This is one of those verses that are so full of truth that it continually spills out on you. God is so anxious to give this promise to you that you cannot read it without hearing His voice speaking to your heart.

This phrase is very like Paul's modest depiction of himself as "a man in Christ." (2Cor.12:2) Being in Christ means being swallowed up in Him. Most pertinent to this blog is being in communion with Him. Are you listening to Him? How much time do you spend each day in prayer.

Being in communion with Christ means being in fellowship with His church. A primary way God speaks to us is through the church. Of course He will speak to you through the teaching and preaching in the church. And God has often spoken to me as I spoke to Him in worship. God also speaks to us through other people in the church. If you allow Him to, the Lord will speak to you through someone who is less mature spiritually. But I believe we experience our closest fellowship with God when we pray together with other believers in church.

Are you in communion with the Lord?

ABBA, FATHER

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

Galatians 4:6

This is one of the most powerful statements of prayer in the entire Bible. It is a wonderful statement of intimacy. You may be aware that Abba is a Hebrew word. That is only partially true. It was, in fact, an Aramaic word. Hebrew was the language taught in the synagogue. It was the language of the Torah, the Old Testament law. But in the days of Jesus Aramaic was the language spoken in the home. Abba does mean father, but it might more accurately be translated, "Daddy." It could be translated, "Dada."

Before our first grandchild was born our family talked about grandparent names. Although I admit it is not as clever as some, I wanted to be called, "grandfather." My wife immediately said, "The poor little thing won't be able to say that." I answered, "I will answer to whatever she calls me." And sure enough, my grandchildren call me, "Gaga."

Abba would have been the first effort of a baby to say its father's name. The significance of Mama, Dada or Abba is intimacy. The baby saying that word is not asking for the car keys. She wants her parent's arms. She is clinging to your neck. The Holy Spirit inspires us to cry out for God's embrace.

Such a prayer is also passionate. You may note that the English Standard Version quoted above follows this statement with an exclamation point. That is because of the force of the word, "cry." The word Abba is only used once in the gospel accounts. In Mark 14 Jesus used this word to cry out to His Father as He sweated blood "with loud cries and tears" in the garden before the cross.

Abba is also used in Romans 8:15 which also says by the Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father." In the same context Romans 8:26 says the Spirit intercedes for us with groaning. We live in a groaning world. Romans 8:20 says creation itself was subjected to pain and frustration. The godly response to this world of suffering must include passionate prayer. And it is crucial to see that this verse is calling us to supernaturally inspired prayer. If the Holy Spirit is present in your life, He will inspire you to cry out, "Abba, Father," to our God. 

WITHOUT A DOUBT

Matthew 21:20-22

“When the disciples saw it they marveled, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’”

Frankly, powerful statements that Jesus made like this about faith unsettle me. Does this promise mean if I believe hard enough, God will enable me to rob our local bank and cause the bank guard to wither when he tries to stop me? Does it mean I can have a pink Cadillac, if I drum up enough faith, saying, “I believe! I believe! I believe!”?

Such declarations tend to make us uncomfortable because we do not understand what faith is or how to acquire it.

Biblical faith responds to God. It rests on what God’s word says and on what God speaks to our hearts. Romans 10:17 says,

“Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Paul, of course, is referring primarily to hearing the gospel.  But Jesus clearly told us no one could come to Him without the Father drawing. (John 6:44) This is not simply hearing the gospel from another person or reading it in the Bible. We must hear God speaking to us through the Bible or another person. As we respond to the gospel, we enter a relationship of faith by which we continue to hear God speak and trust in Him.

In Romans 12:3 Paul writes,

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Paul goes on to list different spiritual gifts that God calls us to trust him for. God may or may not call you to turn the Potomac River to blood or part the Mediterranean Sea for refugees to walk through on dry land. But if you grow in hearing God's voice, you will be amazed at what He will do through your faith in Him.

I need to say, I have trouble believing God for what He desires to do in and through my life. I want to cry out with the man in Mark 9, “I believe; help my unbelief!” I think that man, in his desperation, grasped the key to growing faith. He asked Jesus. Jesus develops our faith as we seek Him and spend more and more time listening to His voice.

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STRUGGLING IN PRAYER

All prayer is not a struggle, but some of the best prayer is like Jacob wrestling with the Lord.

There are several reasons we must struggle in prayer. They are diverse enough that they could not be covered thoroughly in a single blog entry. I will pray about writing a series of blogs on this important subject. But for now I want to overview the issue.

We need to struggle in prayer because of the condition of the fallen world where God has assigned us to minister. In Joel's powerful call to prayer we read,

"Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;

Wail, you who minister before the altar;

Come, lie all night in sackcloth,

You who minister to my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

We need to struggle in prayer over the condition of our country, our city, sometimes our churches. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Have you wept in prayer over someone you love who is rejecting Christ. Have you fasted before God because of things were terribly out of His will?

We sometimes need to struggle to discern God’s will. Have you prayerfully poured yourself out over scripture and circumstances to clearly hear God’s voice?

I also have to struggle over my will. In a sense this is struggling over the will of God. Only saying it that way sounds like God is the enemy. But as a child of God, He is no longer the enemy. He is on my side against the selfishness and foolishness of my sinful nature.

It is almost blasphemous to compare my struggles with that of Jesus in the garden before the cross. But He showed us the right attitude of prayer. Even as Jesus was asking if there were any way "the cup" could pass from Him, He surrendered to His Father’s will. And after He had spent time in the presence of God, Jesus made peace with God's will even though it would cost Him everything. The struggles God leads you through are never so difficult or so crucial. But they are important. And they are a necessary part of spiritual growth.

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