Tag: prayer

Psalm 145

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            I believe that every person on planet earth needs a healthy robust theology.  We all have a theology, that is, some understanding of a god, God, or no god at all.  In addition, we all have basic needs in order to thrive and flourish in life.  Physical, emotional, and spiritual needs can be and are met in God.  His grace sustains the universe.  Yet, sometimes we might feel as if God is aloof, distant, or disinterested.  This is where generous attention to the biblical psalms can help us.
 
            Let this psalm buoy a solid theology for you:  “The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.  The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.  He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.  The LORD preserves all who love him.”  God actually bends his ear to hear us; he wants to listen to us acknowledge and cry out to him.  This is no indifferent God.  This is a God who hears and responds.
 
            I am taking time today to read this psalm several times over, to let it awash my soul with significant doses of truth and mercy.  There are simply times when all of us need to remember and be reminded that there is a God in heaven who is able, and is near to respond.  For true human satisfaction does not come through personal ingenuity or accumulation of more knowledge or more stuff.  Rather, our deepest desires and needs are fulfilled in the God who cares.
 

 

            Mighty God, you are both far and near, totally above us yet close at hand.  Preserve me with your mighty power so that I might not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity.  But in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of your purposes through Jesus Christ, my Lord.  Amen.

Psalm 80:1-7

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment


            Military defeat had come to the Israelites and they were in grief.  This psalm of lament is a prayer longing for God to come and restore Israel, to no longer look upon them with anger.  The people realized through their vulnerability that they needed God.  It is the Lord who would bring a revitalized nation.  “Stir up your power, and come to save us.  O God, restore us; light up your face and we shall be saved.”
             In an age when we have instant access to information occurring all over the world, it can be overwhelming.  Wars, famine, terrorism, displaced people, refugees fleeing and just trying to survive, women and children in danger, and governments only concerned with holding onto control – all these things (not to mention our personal challenges and adversity) lead us to cry out along with the ancient Israelites:  “Stir up your power, and come to save us.”
             Often in the midst of awful circumstances and emotional pain it is hard to focus with concentrated prayer.  This is where simple short prayers, breath prayers, can help.  Throughout the day we can utter “stir up your power, O God; come to save us.”  The intention of saying it over and over is not to get God’s attention; we already have it.  No, the purpose is to connect with the God who can truly deliver.  It is to be in constant touch with the One who can ultimately restore, renew, revitalize, and reform the world with justice and righteousness.  It is to be longing for the flourishing of the earth and its inhabitants again, and to enjoy walking with God in the garden of fellowship, peace, and goodwill.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.
             Mighty God, as I anticipate the coming of your Son, may your power be active so that there will a restoration of peace, security, and prosperity for all.  To the glory of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

1 Kings 8:22-30

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            I grew up in rural Iowa, a place with a lot of gravel roads.  In the seasons of Spring and Fall, the thawing and re-freezing lead to some impressive ruts in those roads.  It is difficult to avoid them since they nearly dominate the driving space.  When it comes to prayer, there are seasons of life where we can slip into ruts – times where focused wrestling in prayer is set aside by just going along with the rut of prayer that has always been done.  There are Christians who can pray wonderful prayers… over and over again with almost no thought to it, continually saying the same things anytime they pray.
 
            In today’s Old Testament lesson we have a prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Lord’s temple.  The two aspects of this prayer that jump out to me are:  Solomon reminded God of his promises to the covenant people; and, Solomon reminded God of who God is.  Solomon, as the wisest person to ever live, did not believe that somehow God forgot about his promises or had some sort of divine dementia about his basic nature.  But Solomon prayed with a kind of prayer that God delights to hear.  God likes it when we pray according to the promises he has given us; and, God enjoys it when we pray with a focused understanding of whom we are praying.
 
            So, then, in our prayers it would be a good thing to emulate the example of King Solomon.  Know the promises of God contained in the Scriptures, and pray that they will be confirmed in our lives, families, churches, and world.  Next, also pray with the intention of declaring what kind of God we acknowledge and expect to hear.  We serve a big God whose hugeness is continually above all things, and whose work is always continuing according to his decrees and words. 
 
            One way of moving our prayers out of the ruts of familiar language and thoughts is to journal them.  Writing our prayers can become for us an act of worship as we slow down enough to craft a response to God that is thoughtful and connects us with him beyond the rote and routine.
 

 

            All-consuming God, the highest heavens cannot contain you, for you above all creation.  Yet, you have stooped to notice us, small as we are with our wants and needs.  Thank you that in Jesus Christ all your promises are found and fulfilled.  May I know Christ more intimately, and serve him more passionately with the spiritual power of prayer you provide.  Amen.

Christian Contemplation

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
           There is a great deal of loneliness in this world.  Increasingly, more and more people live alone.  As job hours build to crazy levels, disconnection occurs simply out of having no discretionary time to spend with others.  So, for many people, taking the time to sit in the presence of God and forget about the clock seems almost absurd.  It is as if contemplating Christ is some luxury instead of a necessity.  But it is a vital Christian practice. 
 
I propose that just maybe the reason why so many Christians, churches, and ministry organizations have contemplation off their spiritual radars has to do with how we view our relationship with God.  Communicating with God is a great privilege, and made possible through the Lord Jesus Christ.  In Christian contemplation we do not just pray to get something; we seek to adore God and enjoy being in his presence.  God longs for our companionship.  Yes, you read that right.  God delights in us.  He wants to be with us.  This weird notion that God always wants something from us is one-dimensional and truncates the true knowledge of God into a business transaction where we give God obedience and he answers our prayers.
 
If that is your typical understanding of how we relate to God, consider the beginning of humanity.  God enjoyed “walking in the cool of the day” with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8-9).  The original garden is portrayed as a paradise because it was the place where God and his creatures simply enjoyed being with one another.  We must come to grips with the reality that becoming spiritually mature means learning to love God for who he is, not just for what he can do for us.
 
Contemplative prayer has as its singular goal being with God, period.  It is about allowing time to melt away into an enjoyment of God, and God’s enjoyment of us.  If this seems strange, mystical, or medieval, it is only because contemporary evangelicalism has strayed far from the streams of living water offered through the kind of prayer that contemplates the grace and love of God in Christ.  Maybe you can only view God loving you if you are living a perfect life.  Remember this:  there is nothing you can do to make God love you more or less.  It is high time we relax enough to receive the wondrous reality that God loves us for who we are and not for what we can give to him.
 
God longs to be with us!  The “Jesus Prayer” is a simple and ancient prayer that combines the prayer of the tax collector from Luke 18:13 (“God be merciful to me, a sinner”) with the earliest confession of the church (“Jesus is Lord”).  Put it together, and the Jesus Prayer is:  “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  It is meant to be a means of entering into the presence of God and experiencing communion with Jesus.  Repeating phrases from Holy Scripture are some of my favorite ways of engaging in contemplative prayer.  I like personalizing Philippians 3:10, “I want to know you, Lord Christ, and the power of your resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in your sufferings.”  Using the biblical book of psalms is a wonderful place to express the desire of our hearts toward God, and to drink in his love for us.  Over time the repeated words begin to fall away into a deep connection with God.
 
Again, if I seem to be sounding like some reclusive monk locked up in a remote monastery, I can assure you that I am not in any such place.  I am a busy pastor who has more responsibilities that he ought to have.  But I do neither my church nor my God any favors by constantly working with no time set aside to connect with the reason we are to engage in this Christian work to start with:  to know Jesus to the very core our beings.  None of us are brains-on-a-stick meant to check off on a list of beliefs; then, go on our merry way being uptight, anxious, and worried about everything under the sun because we did not let those beliefs sink down into the marrow of our spiritual bones.
 

 

God is huge, and he is full of huge love for his creatures.  The Western church must begin to allow the fog to lift so that we can walk with God in the garden of the soul.  How will you and your church allow God into your lives to make this happen?  The answer to that question might just be the very thing you have been looking for all along.