Tag: prayer

Psalm 102.12-28

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
“God will turn to the prayer of the impoverished;
he won’t despise their prayers.”
 
            When you are destitute and hurting, it’s easy to feel alone as if no one really understands.  The healthy, the wealthy, and the powerful do not often take notice of the needy.  Whether you are in chronic pain, constantly deal with sickness, feel like you’re drowning in bills, or labor long hours in obscurity with little pay, or all of them at the same time, there is good news for you: God specializes in situations like yours.
            Contrary to popular characterizations of the Old Testament, God is merciful, gracious, and kind.  The dominant motif is not a God of wrath, but a God of steadfast love – a God who makes and keeps promises to his people.  His wrath is reserved for those who have the power and privilege to care for others, but, instead, fleeces them of what little they possess.
            This was the situation for the psalmist.  He didn’t have a clue why he was the victim – he just knew he needed God.  So, he turns to him – trusting that God is good for his promises – knowing that God will be attentive to his need.
            It’s interesting that we don’t get a wonderful or miraculous answer to the psalmist’s plea to God.  There is only pain, petition, trust, and hope.
            Sometimes, maybe for you oftentimes, all you have is faith, hope, and love.  Yet, and I’m just throwing out a notion for you to consider, if you have these virtues you are the one who is healthy, rich, and strong.
            God is attentive to your prayer.  God hears you when you adopt this psalm for yourself and pray it with some fervor and some flavor.  That he doesn’t immediately respond does not mean he isn’t planning something spectacular for you.
            To pray in a time of trouble is to dwell in the presence of God; to be in the presence of God is to find an answer to prayer that you might not have been looking for to begin with.

 

O God Almighty, sovereign of all and the One in whom is my hope: Help!  I pray to you alone.  I know you bend your ear to pay attention, so hear my prayer for mercy in the middle of my hardship.  You are always the same, even though everything and everyone else changes.  Be my rock in a time of trouble; in Jesus, through the Spirit.  Amen.

Isaiah 40:21-31 – Resourcing Our Lives

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Why do you say, Jacob,
and declare, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord
my God ignores my predicament”?
Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the earth.
He doesn’t grow tired or weary.
His understanding is beyond human reach,
     giving power to the tired
and reviving the exhausted.
 Youths will become tired and weary,
young men will certainly stumble;
     but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will fly up on wings like eagles;
they will run and not be tired;
they will walk and not be weary. (Common English Bible)
 
            Strength, endurance, and perseverance are vital resources which come from a reservoir.  One doesn’t simply will it into reality, and, poof! It is there.  No, these resources must be drawn from a source that is reliable and continual.
            Whenever you and I are persuaded to use an unreliable and/or limited resource, like our own, or some slick marketed one, we are not revived or restored to keep going.  It is in such a time we naively think God is absent.  “God ignores my predicament,” is the cry.
            God isn’t sleeping.  He isn’t out to lunch.  Heis not the problem.  It’s just that we thought we could handle our own junk.  We’ve got this.  Maybe for a while.  But then the strength runs out and weariness overwhelms us.  With no steady reliable resource to draw from, our thinking becomes distorted.
            The sovereign and majestic God is the One who gives power and life.   Placing our hope in Him is to plunge into an inexhaustible and gracious pool of strength.  God enables us to fly and soar above our human predicaments and our daily problems.  With the power God provides we can carry-on and follow-through with the demands, duties, and desires of life on this earth which God created for us.
            To draw from the deep well of God, it is extremely necessary to meet with Him on a regular and consistent basis.  If food and drink for the body requires multiple daily attention and time, then filling the soul is just as, even more, important.
            This need for spiritual food and drink is why I choose to engage in the Divine Hours, also known as the Daily Office, or Fixed Hour Prayer.  At certain set times in the day I break away from what I’m doing to give attention to the soul by drawing from the merciful resources of God.  This may be for you a fresh way to address your parched and needy soul.
Here is a link to the Divine Hours, based on the book of prayers compiled by Phyllis Tickle:
Fixed Hour Prayer

 

Set me free, O God, from the bondage of my sins, and give me the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to me in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Psalm 147:1-11 – An Ode to Divine Love

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Lord treasures the people
who honor him,
the people who wait for his faithful love. (verse 11, CEB)
 
            Early each morning I rise, take the dog for a short walk, make a cup of coffee, then open the life-giving message from the God of the Bible.  I read out loud – slowly, mindfully, carefully allowing the words to seep and make their way down into my soul.  The Holy Spirit of God gently nudges, sometimes forcefully hurls, me toward a verse, phrase, or word from the text.  Contemplating, ruminating, thinking about the Holy Scripture begins to set the trajectory of my day.  God is throughout the hours, as I move from one to the next.  Sometimes very much at the forefront of my thinking, other times in the background shaping how I speak and act, and always on my heart enlarging it and filling it with his grace.
            Most of life is lived in the mundane.  The banality of life is the norm.  While others run from prayer to prayer looking for miracles and the next big spiritual hit, the one who is patient… waits… and honors God… has a treasure within which transcends language or outward fanfare.  The settled conviction of the person in continual communion with the God of the universe peacefully waits for faithful, steadfast, committed, divine love.
            There is no description for such a divine/human spiritual relation which exists, giving patience to the penitent and joy to the heart of God.  Such love exists beyond the plane of daily news crises and the continual hum of the crowd.  Indeed, the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, has stooped to cup his hands and treasure his creature.
            The great medieval mystic, Teresa of Avila, said: “Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.”

 

            Patience is not a bore, and to wait is to be at peace because God is in it.  It is good to be full of him.

Psalm 35:1-10

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Sometimes you just have to tell it like it is.  There is a time to do your best in putting up a good face and dealing with people who don’t ever stop gossiping, slandering, and trying to get their way.  But there is also a time to call such behavior “evil” and cry out to God for help.
            Psalm 35 is a classic prayer in the category called “imprecatory psalms.”  The term “imprecatory” means to call down a curse on a person or group of people.  Maybe this surprises you that there is such language in the Bible.  In fact, there are 18 such imprecatory psalms which make a clear petition to God for him to turn the evil back on themselves that they inflict (or try to inflict) on others.
            I’m a believer in making simple observations about the biblical text.  Let’s observe a few things about such psalms:
1.      David asks God to deal with the evil behavior of powerful people.
Unlike most of us, David went through a time in is life where there were powerful people who were literally trying to hunt him down and take his life.  As much as we might speculate whether David wanted to take matters into his own hands, the fact remains that he didn’t.  David relied on God to execute judgment.
2.     David did not hold his feelings back in describing exactly what he wanted God to do.
There is nothing sanitized here in the psalm.  David was understandably upset.  He did nothing wrong, yet he was being chased like an animal.  David said it plainly to God: “attack my attackers;” “aim your spear at everyone who hunts me down;” “send your angel after them;” “surprise them with disaster;” and, “let them fall and rot in the pits they have dug.”  Whatever you might think about how a proper Christian ought to say and pray, imprecatory curses might not be your first thought.  But here they are, out there for us to read in the Holy Bible.
3.     The psalms are the prayer book of the church.
That includes the imprecatory psalms.  Yes, they ought to be prayed by us right along with psalms of praise, thanksgiving, and song.  I want you to think what might be a radical thought for you: We ought to include imprecatory prayers in our regular rhythms, routines, and rituals of prayer.
 
            Evil will not have the last word.  God opposes the proud and the arrogant who step on others to get their way.  But he gives grace to the humble, that is, those who look to him for justice and righteousness; are open about their feelings of hurt and upsetedness; and, lift-up imprecatory prayers which are biblically consistent.

 

Saving God, you protect the helpless from those in power and save the poor and needy who cry out to you.  Mighty God, turn back on those with slanderous tongues, gossiping words, and sinful actions the evil they intend to inflict on others.  Let them fall into a deep black hole for which they cannot get out and harm anyone again; through King Jesus, our Savior, in the assistance of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.