On Prayer and Praise
My friend Jacqui keeps reminding me about my blog, and how I haven't been writing much lately. It's true, I haven't. Maybe it's one of those seasons in life that flows swifter and deeper than words can capture. Or maybe I've just been too lazy to try. I thought about taking the short-cut for this one too--post a video and a few vague-but-deep sentences. But I'll do better this time--just for you, Jacqui! :)
In the last few months I've been experimenting with prayer. I hope that doesn't sound too scary. Don't worry, I'm not chanting or channeling or anything, but I think I have taken prayer for granted most of my life. It's been incredibly helpful during times on the battlefield (aka mission field) or other challenging times in life. But I'm thankfully not in a "survival season" right now, and so my new motivation has been to pray for others. They call it "intercessory prayer." I call it a potential recipe for impatience.
When you pray for yourself, you somehow find ways of measuring God's answers--feeling more peace, changing circumstances, maybe even a change in your attitude or abilities. But when you're praying for others, you kind of feel like you're flying blind most of the time. For example, maybe there's a moment when you feel a burden to pray for someone, so you do. Then you go on with your life, but you can't help but wonder, What happened?! Was a car accident avoided? Was there some kind of spiritual attack going on? But you can't exactly ask the person, "So...last Tuesday...say, around 3 p.m...Was there anything...different...going on?" I suppose you could, but it would probably be weird.
The point is, if it's hard to sometimes catch the clues on how God is answering prayers for yourself, it's even harder to see them when you're praying for others. And after awhile we go from "I wonder HOW God is answering?" to "I wonder IF God is answering?" If you're going to invest all this time in praying, you want to see results. That's the way it works in the real world. But this isn't the real world. This is God's world--God's Kingdom--and things work differently here.
The main difference is that in God's Kingdom, prayer is actually about...God. Imagine that. We might have great reasons for praying for ourselves or our friends or family or even major church or world issues. But if we forget WHO we are praying to...it's not prayer any more. It's not. It's just focused thinking on all our problems, rehearsing them over and over, as if our constant consciousness of the issue gives us more heavenly credit for a positive (and hopefully more speedy) answer. Or perhaps we're afraid God won't remember if we don't keep reminding Him. Maybe He wants us to really push Him--He wants us to convince Him, to really argue it out so He knows we actually care about what we're asking.
These are thoughts I've read, heard, and wrestled with in the last few months. At times it kind of made sense, I kind of felt like I was making progress...but then would fall back into discouragement, and mostly just exhaustion, feeling like I just could never be "good enough" at praying. If I was, then my I would be able to see my prayers answered, rather than hints and whispers and a whole lot of silence.
Last weekend, I turned a new corner in this journey. Believe me, this is just a new corner, I'm not saying I've conquered this subject. At. All. But my journey has taken me full circle to remembering that prayer is actually about...GOD. I have to start with Him...
If you haven't taken time in awhile to just sit with Jesus and enjoy Him without an agenda, you should try it. Really, we've got nothing to lose except our worries. It's ok to set our prayer request list down for awhile. He already knows, He's already heard, and He is already working on it. We can thank Him for that, and move on to what He wants most: our open hearts so He can refresh us with His presence, lift our burdens, and remind us that it's all going to be ok no matter what...because He is God.
In the last few months I've been experimenting with prayer. I hope that doesn't sound too scary. Don't worry, I'm not chanting or channeling or anything, but I think I have taken prayer for granted most of my life. It's been incredibly helpful during times on the battlefield (aka mission field) or other challenging times in life. But I'm thankfully not in a "survival season" right now, and so my new motivation has been to pray for others. They call it "intercessory prayer." I call it a potential recipe for impatience.
When you pray for yourself, you somehow find ways of measuring God's answers--feeling more peace, changing circumstances, maybe even a change in your attitude or abilities. But when you're praying for others, you kind of feel like you're flying blind most of the time. For example, maybe there's a moment when you feel a burden to pray for someone, so you do. Then you go on with your life, but you can't help but wonder, What happened?! Was a car accident avoided? Was there some kind of spiritual attack going on? But you can't exactly ask the person, "So...last Tuesday...say, around 3 p.m...Was there anything...different...going on?" I suppose you could, but it would probably be weird.
The point is, if it's hard to sometimes catch the clues on how God is answering prayers for yourself, it's even harder to see them when you're praying for others. And after awhile we go from "I wonder HOW God is answering?" to "I wonder IF God is answering?" If you're going to invest all this time in praying, you want to see results. That's the way it works in the real world. But this isn't the real world. This is God's world--God's Kingdom--and things work differently here.
The main difference is that in God's Kingdom, prayer is actually about...God. Imagine that. We might have great reasons for praying for ourselves or our friends or family or even major church or world issues. But if we forget WHO we are praying to...it's not prayer any more. It's not. It's just focused thinking on all our problems, rehearsing them over and over, as if our constant consciousness of the issue gives us more heavenly credit for a positive (and hopefully more speedy) answer. Or perhaps we're afraid God won't remember if we don't keep reminding Him. Maybe He wants us to really push Him--He wants us to convince Him, to really argue it out so He knows we actually care about what we're asking.
These are thoughts I've read, heard, and wrestled with in the last few months. At times it kind of made sense, I kind of felt like I was making progress...but then would fall back into discouragement, and mostly just exhaustion, feeling like I just could never be "good enough" at praying. If I was, then my I would be able to see my prayers answered, rather than hints and whispers and a whole lot of silence.
Last weekend, I turned a new corner in this journey. Believe me, this is just a new corner, I'm not saying I've conquered this subject. At. All. But my journey has taken me full circle to remembering that prayer is actually about...GOD. I have to start with Him...
- Remembering who He is and what He has done in my life and thanking Him for that.
- Taking time to see Him in Scripture, and sit in wonder at the way He has relentlessly showed up in our planet with so much love that we have never deserved.
- And remembering that He has heard my request. He heard it the first time. He heard it before I prayed and was the one who prompted me to pray about it. He has been caring for me and the people I pray for since before we were born. If I believe in His unlimited power, His ultimate love, and His infinite knowledge and wisdom, I can trust that He is working and answering and one day He will reveal it. No doubt, it will look different than I expect, but it will be the best answer I could ever, ever hope for those I pray for or for myself. And knowing that truth here and now--even before I see that answer--I can praise Him. That's called faith. And that is what moves the heart of Jesus like nothing else.
If you haven't taken time in awhile to just sit with Jesus and enjoy Him without an agenda, you should try it. Really, we've got nothing to lose except our worries. It's ok to set our prayer request list down for awhile. He already knows, He's already heard, and He is already working on it. We can thank Him for that, and move on to what He wants most: our open hearts so He can refresh us with His presence, lift our burdens, and remind us that it's all going to be ok no matter what...because He is God.
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