Tag: prayer

Psalm 55:1-15

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            We all know of the modern day proverb, ‘the squeaky wheel gets oiled.’  The saying is often used in reference to someone who is loud, even obnoxious, about what they want.  In today’s psalm, David cannot avoid the squeaky wheel.  There are people in his face.  All we know about David’s enemies from the psalm is that they were nursing a grudge against him for something.  David was hurt and betrayed.
 
            So, David prayed.  “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!  Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan, because of the noise of the enemy… in anger they bear a grudge against me.”  David felt the ache of certain persons speaking against him.  For whatever reason, they had an axe to grind and were determined to make David’s life difficult.
 
            Although, like David, we sometimes feel like flying away and being at rest from the turmoil, we must deal with the insults, the untrue and half-true rhetoric of others.  The way David confronted the problem was primarily through prayer.  When David prayed, it was never a quick on-the-run sort of prayer to God in the rush of dealing with all his kingly duties.  Instead, David offered specific, agonizing, timely prayers asking, even begging God to not let the violent speech and actions of his enemies prevail.
 
            Out of the range of possibilities that we could do in response to sins of the tongue against us, prayer needs to be the primary weapon.  Heartfelt, passionate, detailed, and pointed prayers need to be offered to the God who hears the righteous in their grief.  If you are in such a position of being oppressed by another, a sage way to begin addressing the situation is through praying the very same psalm that David did when he was under duress.
 

 

            Listening God, you hear the cries of the righteous.  Give ear to my plea.  I cry out to you for respite from those allayed against me.  I ask for justice so that the wicked and the unrighteous do not have their way in this world.  In the mighty name of Jesus I pray.  Amen.

Psalm 26

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Although we are several millennia removed from the Old Testament world, we still share a great deal of solidarity with our believing brothers and sisters throughout the ages.  Times may change, yet the basic nature of people remains the same.  Evil is still evil; and, integrity has permanence.  Maybe because I am a pastor, I see the inner workings of sin more than the average Joe.  And I will say that evil still exists, and it is every bit as ugly as it was in biblical times.
             Followers of Jesus throughout the world still stare into the face of wickedness, and of those who would seek to do them harm.  Even in this enlightened age, in this modern Western world I live in, there are those who twist the truth, and try to bend every circumstance to their own advantage, not caring whom they damage in the process.  If you know this to be true, and you are or have experienced the slanderous breathings of devious persons, then Psalm 26 is for you, my friend.
             Although the psalmist had to endure situations he did not deserve, his response was twofold:  he was determined to walk with integrity, no matter what others might do or say to him; and, the psalmist left room for God to work instead of paying back evil for evil.  It would be good to pray along with this psalm, “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering….  As for me, I shall walk in my integrity:  redeem me, and be gracious to me.”
             The lectionary repeats the same psalm every three days, every week, for a reason – to encourage us to pray biblical prayers that allow truth and sound theology to permeate our spirits and sink deep into our needy souls.  And those prayers are perhaps most needed when we are undergoing the adversity of human evil.
             O Lord God Almighty, prove me and try me; test my heart and my mind.  Your steadfast love is before my eyes and I walk in your faithfulness.  Do not sweep my soul away with sinners.  Be gracious, merciful, and kind to me today and always for the sake of Jesus Christ, your only Son.  Amen.

The Price of Prayer

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry Blog1 Comment
 
 
All of the Christian life is grounded in two important theological truths:  God is good; and, God acts powerfully in the world for good.  Prayer is based in the conviction that God is concerned to hear us; and, that he is able to respond and answer.  Prayer might be something that we can engage in at any time, but real God-focused, God-honoring prayer has a price.  It will cost us time, effort, vulnerability, and following through with action.  Biblical prayer is not just throwing up some private requests, but is an activity that requires something of us as a community of believers in Jesus (James 5:13-20). 
 
            The entire church is to pray – all of us, the happy and the suffering, the healthy and unhealthy.  More specifically, the New Testament letter of James tells us that the leaders/elders of the church are to pray for those who are “sick” (James 5:14).  The word James used refers not just to a physical illness, but also to those who are weak and weary, those who are completely worn down because of their life circumstances.
 
            James provides a clear chain of responsibility.  The onus is on the sick person to contact the elders of the church.  James clearly puts the need for communicating the situation on the person who is undergoing the trouble.  For many people, this is humbling and difficult, so they do not do it.  But prayer has a price – it will cost us some openness.
 
            When the needy person communicates the trouble, then the elders are to anoint the person in the name of the Lord and offer a prayer of faith on his/her behalf.  It is the leadership’s job to pray.  In the Bible, anointing with oil was a deeply symbolic act of encouragement in which a tangible thing was being done in order to lift the person from the trouble.  Physical ailments of bodily sickness; sinful problems of anger or bitterness; spiritual struggles of doubt; emotional challenges of depression; anything and everything that would cause a lack of health could be prayed over and people could be anointed and encouraged.
 
            Prayer for James was not a strictly private affair; it was a communal activity.  I want us to entertain the notion that if we are not experiencing healing, wholeness, and health whether it is physical, relational, or spiritual, then maybe God is calling you and I to not only personal private prayer, but corporate prayer offered by the elders of the church.  It is not just the prayer offered by one solitary individual that makes the sick person well – it is the collective faith prayer of the church’s leadership on the troubled person.
 
            The goal of prayer is healing in its complete form:  physical, mental, emotional, relational, and, of course, spiritual.  Effective prayer results in reconciliation with others, and a restoration to the community of faith.  To bring those who wander from the truth back – to realize a return of a prodigal – will result because of prayer (James 5:19-20).
 
            In the past ten years, the American church has experienced a pronounced slide of people out the door.  According to Christian pollster, George Barna, 25% of the U.S. population now identifies themselves in the religious category of “none.”  They have no religious affiliation.  Many of them have left churches.  You already know this.  You know it because this is not a statistic to you.  You know some of the “nones” personally.
 

 

            What will you do about it?  Wish it were different?  Lament it?  Complain about it?  Or will you and your church pray with heartfelt, earnest, passionate, deliberate, sustained, and believing prayers so that prodigals will return and those who have wandered far from God will experience the grace of Jesus Christ?  Bring them back.  Do it with prayer.

Esther 4:1-17

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Queen Esther was a Jewess.  Normally, this would not have been a problem in the ancient Media-Persian kingdom ruled by Ahasuerus.  But it was not a normal kind of time.  The top aide of King Ahasuerus was an arrogant man, Haman.  Haman so loathed the Jewish people that he connived a way to get the king to issue an edict in which a holocaust of horror would be unleashed against the Jewish people so that they would be destroyed. 
 
            Esther found herself between the proverbial rock and hard place.  Neither the king nor Haman knew that she was a Jewess.  If she revealed herself, Esther could be killed.  On the other hand, if she used her position and influence in an inappropriate way by entering the king’s presence without being summoned, Esther could be killed.  There was no good option.  But in the kingdom of God, there is always an option.
 
            Being thrust into an impossible situation through circumstances not created by herself, Queen Esther came to the point of decision:  she would approach the king, but she would do it with all the prayer and fasting of her people behind her.  Esther had all the Jews in her city gathered for a three-day fast on her behalf.  Then, she would face the king and deal with the adversity that she did not ask for.
 
            When confronted with the face of evil; when dealt a set of circumstances you do not deserve; when hissing tongues breathe slander about you; when there seems to be no possible solution to your problem and no apparent possibility of hope; then, what do you do?  Everyone, at some point in their lives, faces a quandary beyond their ability to handle.  It is at such times, God is at his best.  If we will confidently face those times with all the humility we can muster through devoted fasting and prayer, who knows?  Perhaps God will show up and turn the tables….
            Sovereign God, you see and know all things.  Yet, I don’t always know you are there and I don’t always see you working behind the scenes.  When devious people plot behind my back and situations rise up to my neck, I look to you so that the plans of the wicked will not come to pass.  May the righteous thrive and not be destroyed.  May the mighty name of Jesus prevail.  Amen.