Giving Thanks
With the oxygen of appreciation of the life God gives us every time we inhale, every exhale should carry elements of thanks for the mercies, goodness and grace of God that sustain us and bless us on our way. A life of prayer without thanks is akin to a speech impediment in communion with God. Thanks is the reflex of humility that recognizes with the apostle: "What do we have that we have not received?" (1 Cor. 4:7) May the Lord bless this day to give thanks to Him in the hearing of family and friends and train us each and every day to give thanks in all things with the perfect diction of His sanctifying grace.
Psalter Prayer
One of my favorite moments in The Wizard of Oz was when Dorothy opened the door of her house, freshly deposited by a tornado in the land of Oz. What greeted her was a world brilliant in color, a display of beauty, wonder and richness.
That serves as a picture for our prayer lives. We are often satisfied (or resigned) to black and white prayer, prayer that’s important but lacking. Our God and Father, however, bids us to prayer rich in fellowship with Him, broad as the range of life itself, with depth that looks beyond fixing the circumstance to the purpose of God in it.
God provides for that prayer in the psalms. The psalms allow us to pray: 1) pleasing to God, 2) comprehensively, 3) honestly, 4) reflectively, 5) redemptively, 6) beyond the limits of our own imagination and resources, 6) enlarging our vision of God, 7) addressing subjects we might otherwise neglect, 8) with sustained and deep satisfaction. Praying the psalms will fill our eyes with the variegated glory of our God and the sufficiency of His grace in whatever we face, changing us, changing our world.
Dorothy did not really live in a black and white world, any more than did our great-great grandparents (despite photographic evidence to the contrary). That’s just the way the movie watcher would see it. So with us in our prayer lives, God has something more for us He wants us to see. He beckons us from our stunted monochromatic prayer to full-spectrum prayer in relationship with Him. To lead us in that sort of prayer, our God has given us the psalms, not only as songs for all seasons but prayers for all reasons, stretching our communion and communication with God to fit the irregular contours of real life.
Look for a new feature on the CHOP website coming in 2010 called “Psalter DPG.” Right now the CHOP Ministry Manual leads participants through 72 days of prayer as part of the Daily Prayer Guide (DPG). The plan is to build two 72-day DPGs based on the psalms, eventually employing all 150 psalms as templates to direct CHOP participants in prayer toward growing in the knowledge of God, reaching those around them for Christ, praying in light of spiritual opposition, and interceding for those laboring with them in prayer.
That serves as a picture for our prayer lives. We are often satisfied (or resigned) to black and white prayer, prayer that’s important but lacking. Our God and Father, however, bids us to prayer rich in fellowship with Him, broad as the range of life itself, with depth that looks beyond fixing the circumstance to the purpose of God in it.
God provides for that prayer in the psalms. The psalms allow us to pray: 1) pleasing to God, 2) comprehensively, 3) honestly, 4) reflectively, 5) redemptively, 6) beyond the limits of our own imagination and resources, 6) enlarging our vision of God, 7) addressing subjects we might otherwise neglect, 8) with sustained and deep satisfaction. Praying the psalms will fill our eyes with the variegated glory of our God and the sufficiency of His grace in whatever we face, changing us, changing our world.
Dorothy did not really live in a black and white world, any more than did our great-great grandparents (despite photographic evidence to the contrary). That’s just the way the movie watcher would see it. So with us in our prayer lives, God has something more for us He wants us to see. He beckons us from our stunted monochromatic prayer to full-spectrum prayer in relationship with Him. To lead us in that sort of prayer, our God has given us the psalms, not only as songs for all seasons but prayers for all reasons, stretching our communion and communication with God to fit the irregular contours of real life.
Look for a new feature on the CHOP website coming in 2010 called “Psalter DPG.” Right now the CHOP Ministry Manual leads participants through 72 days of prayer as part of the Daily Prayer Guide (DPG). The plan is to build two 72-day DPGs based on the psalms, eventually employing all 150 psalms as templates to direct CHOP participants in prayer toward growing in the knowledge of God, reaching those around them for Christ, praying in light of spiritual opposition, and interceding for those laboring with them in prayer.
Witnessing Wisdom
What's the difference between truth and wisdom? Truth is timeless. Wisdom is contemporary. Wisdom is timeless truth applied temporally in the context of our struggles with life lived before the face of God. When we ask God for wisdom, as James urges us to do, we don't ask for new revelation. Rather, we ask for guidance and illumination of His Spirit in bringing the truth given us by God in His Word to intersect with our lives in order to interpret the times and instruct our efforts to honor God in them.
As we walk in our life-spheres as witnesses for Christ, we need both to exegete the Scriptures and exegete the people and circumstance in which we engage those people. This sort of witness requires great wisdom and implores God for that wisdom to stay real and relevant for Christ. What do I say? Lord, grant me wisdom. How do I say it? Lord, grant me wisdom. Where do I begin? Lord, grant me wisdom. How much do I say? Lord, grant me wisdom. Whatever question we face, whatever challenge meets us, our reflex in the face of our weakness and pride and ignorance must be to ask our God for wisdom. That plea can take place on the front line where a response is needed, or formed in the prayer closet through studied reflection.
I'm not a golfer myself, but I enjoy watching it sometimes. I am amazed at how creative professional golfers can be. They analyze the lie of the ball, the need of moment, the stance and stroke required, and factor in all the variables appropriate for the shot to be made. I'm particularly intrigued when they do unorthodox things, like strike the ball with the toe of the club rather than the face, all to achieve a desired result dictated by seasoned judgment. That seems to be a good picture of wisdom. Wisdom is not ordinarily gained on the fly (although I have seen God do some pretty amazing things in the moment), but proceeds from developed discernment, instructed insight and practiced experience. That impromptu golf shot on the TV screen has likely been practiced and practiced and practiced again away from the camera's eye.
Wisdom is timeless truth applied temporally in the context of our struggles with life lived before the face of God. The wisdom God gives us is not simply academic but is realized in the trenches of life in prayerful dependence upon Him. There we find our route to wisdom in witness.
As we walk in our life-spheres as witnesses for Christ, we need both to exegete the Scriptures and exegete the people and circumstance in which we engage those people. This sort of witness requires great wisdom and implores God for that wisdom to stay real and relevant for Christ. What do I say? Lord, grant me wisdom. How do I say it? Lord, grant me wisdom. Where do I begin? Lord, grant me wisdom. How much do I say? Lord, grant me wisdom. Whatever question we face, whatever challenge meets us, our reflex in the face of our weakness and pride and ignorance must be to ask our God for wisdom. That plea can take place on the front line where a response is needed, or formed in the prayer closet through studied reflection.
I'm not a golfer myself, but I enjoy watching it sometimes. I am amazed at how creative professional golfers can be. They analyze the lie of the ball, the need of moment, the stance and stroke required, and factor in all the variables appropriate for the shot to be made. I'm particularly intrigued when they do unorthodox things, like strike the ball with the toe of the club rather than the face, all to achieve a desired result dictated by seasoned judgment. That seems to be a good picture of wisdom. Wisdom is not ordinarily gained on the fly (although I have seen God do some pretty amazing things in the moment), but proceeds from developed discernment, instructed insight and practiced experience. That impromptu golf shot on the TV screen has likely been practiced and practiced and practiced again away from the camera's eye.
Wisdom is timeless truth applied temporally in the context of our struggles with life lived before the face of God. The wisdom God gives us is not simply academic but is realized in the trenches of life in prayerful dependence upon Him. There we find our route to wisdom in witness.
God's Prayer Book
There is little more invigorating to prayer than using the words of God Himself to fuel it. One of my most serendipitous (if a firm belief in the sovereignty of God will allow such terminology) discoveries is the volume by Kenneth Boa, entitled Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship. The book guides prayer in all its moods using the word of God. I have yet to use it without being profoundly affected by the life it breathes. Another resource for prayer that I use regularly is The Psalms for Prayer by T. M. Moore. The psalms give us voice in all situations of the human condition in communion with God, leaving no God-appointed target for prayer unattended. However, allowing Scripture to direct our prayer lives means more than reciting prayers, even with fruitful minds and resonating hearts, or interacting with God along the lines of His inscripturated revelation. Scripture itself is a school of prayer in that we hear the voice of our personal God as the speaker, as He pastorally ministers to His people in relationship with them. A primary value I see in my book, The Prayer of Jehoshaphat: Seeing Beyond Life's Storms, is the tutorial it provides for engaging God expectantly in the trenches of life, not just parroting a prayer but learning from the context that produced it to interact with God to give us a bigger view of Him, a better view of ourselves, and a broader view of His grace sufficient for us in whatever we face. God's prayer book doesn't just give us prayers. It makes us pray-ers.
Threadbare Prayer
Recently I was pulled aside by a man who wanted to talk. We sat down together. He hemmed and hawed a bit and, finally, he made this admission to me: "I don't know how to pray." He cited his Roman Catholic background where most of his prayers had been rote and mechanical. He had been reading about prayer recently as part of a group study and realized there was something about prayer he did not have. This man was 91-years-old.
That was part of his embarrassment. He had walked with the Lord for many years and realized how immature his prayer life was. I assured him his request was not unusual and reminded him of Jesus' disciples' request to Him. They had no doubt prayed for years, but upon seeing Jesus' prayer, realized their own was lacking. Hence their request: "Lord, teach us to pray."
Jesus did not chide them. Instead, He gave them a framework for prayer that lifted their eyes beyond their own parochial concerns and threadbare prayer to point them to a tapestry of prayer dense with the thread count of a rich and variegated fellowship with God--prayer filled with praise and thanks and lament and confession and reflection and struggle and intercession and thirst and pain and hope and faith and urgency and weakness and frustration and all those other things that make up real life under the weight of fallen world but with the reality of new life in Christ. Part of my counsel to this dear saint was to show him some examples of prayer given us by God in His Word.
My guess is that God has plans for him to lead him into a life of prayer and deepened fellowship with Him. Why is that my guess?--because of the evidence of humility and Spirit-induced desire that prompted him to shake off the bonds of embarrassment and search for fuller communion with the God who had taken him as His child. Of course, the baby step in that direction is itself the plea, "Lord, teach me to pray."
That was part of his embarrassment. He had walked with the Lord for many years and realized how immature his prayer life was. I assured him his request was not unusual and reminded him of Jesus' disciples' request to Him. They had no doubt prayed for years, but upon seeing Jesus' prayer, realized their own was lacking. Hence their request: "Lord, teach us to pray."
Jesus did not chide them. Instead, He gave them a framework for prayer that lifted their eyes beyond their own parochial concerns and threadbare prayer to point them to a tapestry of prayer dense with the thread count of a rich and variegated fellowship with God--prayer filled with praise and thanks and lament and confession and reflection and struggle and intercession and thirst and pain and hope and faith and urgency and weakness and frustration and all those other things that make up real life under the weight of fallen world but with the reality of new life in Christ. Part of my counsel to this dear saint was to show him some examples of prayer given us by God in His Word.
My guess is that God has plans for him to lead him into a life of prayer and deepened fellowship with Him. Why is that my guess?--because of the evidence of humility and Spirit-induced desire that prompted him to shake off the bonds of embarrassment and search for fuller communion with the God who had taken him as His child. Of course, the baby step in that direction is itself the plea, "Lord, teach me to pray."
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