Fanning the Flame
What do you do when men don't pray? That question is not prompted with any chauvinistic overtones, but arises on the heels of a men's retreat I was involved in organizing for the men of my church. The topic this year was prayer. The retreat itself was extraordinary, made so by the working of God's Spirit through our speaker, T. M. Moore, who exposed us to prayer as participation in the unseen things of Hebrews 11:1, inviting us to a deeper, richer relationship with Jesus Christ, fuller participation in the heavenly realities that are ours in Him and involvement in His kingdom. I am convinced this was just what we needed to hear. My prayer is that the direction and momentum established at the retreat would flow out in changed lives, changed homes, a changed church and changed community. But that's not the way it usually works with retreats, is it? We get fired up but the demands of real life smother the budding flame, depriving it of oxygen. But where does the oxygen come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit. So as men lisp prayers of help from God, He gives His Spirit to fan the flame. We need to cry out to our God in frustration and dissatisfaction with our prayer lives pleading with Him to do as He promised in Zechariah 12:10, to pour out upon us a spirit of grace and supplication. May He incite us to pray and inflame our hearts for the passionate pursuit of knowing Him.
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4 comments:
I wish a few of the churches from the Presbytery could get together for a retreat like that. Prayer has been on our hearts quite a bit lately as well.
It is an interesting pattern that when we cut out all of the distractions we are able to delve deeper into the things of God. It seems as though we have a natural propensity towards a theological/secular dichotomy.
It's an easy task to pray when we have no distractions and others are around us to support us in prayer...but we are called to a much more difficult task - bringing Christ into all of our life, even amid the distractions.
We can learn quite a bit about ourselves by paying attention to what distracts us from God in our daily lives.
We can have wonderful experiences at retreats, but they still tend to be very much focused on self - "I had a great experience"..."I felt God's presence"...I, I, I. That may be a reason that God does not allow them to be sustained...and perhaps that's why we want them to continue on longer than they do...we are still very much in love with ourselves.
May we never seek God because we love ourselves and want to be puffed up in our emotions! May we seek Him because of who He is, and because we have a true comprehension of our utter need of Him in every area and in every second of our lives.
Retreats do tend to be focused on self, which can certainly lend itself to abuse. However, God does bring us to focus on ourselves in the mirror of His Word to see where our image does not reflect Christ.
Good point, Stan.
It's just a shame that it, many times, stops at self without going further.
I believe the perspective should be something like: God, self, others, and then back to God starting the circle over again.
Retreats "tend" to be: God, self...that's it, nothing much beyond. And that's one of the reasons, in my opinion, the effects of retreats are short-lived.
There can't be any sustainable growth in Christ if it doesn't grow into the lives of others beyond ourselves.
Many Christians see themselves as a piece of gold. It doesn't breath anything into the lives of others, but just says "look at how pretty i am," "i'm so very special."
Whereas what we should be is more like a plant, breathing life into others even as we live and grow ourselves.
This is not the fault of retreats...it's the fault of our natural Adamic inclinations. But being a new creation in Christ we should be growing into an other-centeredness.
Every time i read Philippians 2 i'm convicted that many of us still don't get it. We're quick to see what Christ gave up for us (sometimes), but slow to see that He's done the same for the rest of the elect. Ought we not to give our lives for our brothers and sisters? Yet all too often we don't even sacrifice our schedules for them.
And there is so much need in the Body of Christ.
On the topic of selfishness, you may be interested to read a couple of posts i did on a friends blog...
http://thereformationunderground.blogspot.com/2009/10/selfishness.html
http://thereformationunderground.blogspot.com/2009/10/fruit-of-selfishness.html
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