Living Story Grace

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” James 1:5-8 The Message

Continuing our theme of prayer, I think praying for parking spaces as a way to indicate our utter reliance on the Lord is okay, but I know for sure that praying for wisdom is an absolute essential of the Christian life. How many situations will confront you today with the opportunity to make a choice? How many circumstance changes will force you into a position of either despairing or resting? We need wisdom every moment of our day. Listen to what Eugene Peterson says in his introduction to James:

“…Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with.

The letter of James shows one of the church’s early pastors skillfully going about his work of confronting, diagnosing, and dealing with areas of misbelief and misbehavior that had turned up in congregations committed to his care. Deep and living wisdom is on display here, wisdom both rare and essential. Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For, what good is a truth if we don’t know how to live it? What good is an intention if we can’t sustain it?

According to church tradition, James carried the nickname “Old Camel Knees” because of thick calluses built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer. The prayer is foundational to the wisdom. Prayer is always foundational to wisdom.” Eugene Peterson, Conversations

When I first became a Christian at 15, I prayed for everything. I remember specifically seeing Jesus sitting next to me during an Algebra II test and asking him if he would help me with the answer to number 22. My mother teased me for praying for parking spaces, and I think eventually began to pray for them herself. Now I will stop in the middle of a conversation with one of my kids and just ask God for whatever it is they are needing in a tough situation they are describing — help understanding environmental science, wisdom for a conflict, a parking space at the Auburn library during exam week…Is it wrong to pray for the little needs in life? Is that just selfish?

I was encouraged by Paul Miller’s encouragement that to become like a little child is to tell God about everything. He writes about a spiritual writer who said it was selfish to pray for trivial things.  He told his mom, Rose-Marie Miller, the 82 year-old missionary about this point, and she responded, “Well, how else would you find a parking spot?” This woman, as a missionary her whole life, had learned she was utterly dependent on God for everything. As we have said before, the answer may be “no,” but to ask is to show that you truly believe God is a personal God who supplies our daily needs.  Read what Rose-Marie wrote in her journal when she and her husband were doing missions work in post-Idi-Amin rule in Uganda:

Words simply fail to express the almost total chaos of a country after eight years of a brutal civil war. When we use the bathroom, if we are fortunate, the toilet will flush — if not you get the fire hose from the end of the hall — if you are too late, then you find others have used it before you — so you learn to pray for water.If it comes on in the middle of the night, you fill the tub so you can wash in the morning…

You pass a building bombed out. You pass through dirty streets praying as you go that no one will take your wallet.

You meet some Asians in a hotel. They are very interested in your weaving project so they say, “We will help with the material but we don’t have transportation,” so again you pray.

The temptation to be aware of self and its utter limitations is strong. There are times when I pray, “Lord, I can’t go through the day.” in Paul Miller, A Praying Life

[Remember the seminar at West End church in Nashville Oct. 29-30 or read the book for sure!]

The point is to see how desperate and dependent we are on the Lord and Giver of Life for every moment of our day. Try it today. Pay attention and pray for all sorts of things. Let me know if it makes you feel more selfish or more aware of the futility of your self-reliance:)!

A follow-up on prayer with an excerpt from A Praying Life by Paul Miller.  Yesterday I mentioned Scotty Smith’s sermon on prayer, and anyone anywhere near Nashville should know Paul Miller will be doing his Praying Life seminar on October 29-30 at West End Community Church.

“If God is sovereign, then he is in control of all the details of my life.  If he is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for good.  If he is all-wise, then he’s not going to do everything I want because of I don’t know what I need.  If he is patient, then he is going to take time to do all this.  When we put all these things together – God’s sovereignty, love, wisdom, and patienc – we have a divine story.

People often talk about prayer as if it is disconnected from what God is doing in their lives.  But we are actors in his drama, listening for our lives.  But we are actors in his drama, listening for our lines, quieting our hearts so we can hear the voice of the Playwright.

You can’t have a good story without tension and conflict, without things going wrong.  Unanswered prayers create some of the tensions in the story God is weaving in our lives.  When we realize this, we want to know what God is doing.  What pattern is God weaving?”

What difference does prayer make?

Why pray if God knows everything?

Last week’s sermon by Pastor Scotty Smith at Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN, addressed some of our deepest questions on prayer. Today I’ll just address one.

Pastor Scotty was pretty passionate about the subject, and as I began giving attention and intention to every little prayer, I saw why.

He said, and I quote, “If I see one more book on Amazon on ‘how to get God to answer your prayers, I think I will vomit.” I should mention the context.  He was expressing his frustration at this idea that we somehow manipulate God through our prayers and get God to do what we want.  Prayer is NOT about manipulation; it is about knowing the heart of God!

Here’s the good news/bad news Pastor Scotty preached:

GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS.

HE DOESN’T ALWAYS ANSWER THEM THE WAY WE WANT.

Thinking about this one concept changed the way I prayed.  A silly example will illustrate how constant communication with God affects our understanding of who He is.  Last week, when my dogs got out of the house and bolted toward Scenic Highway at 5 in the afternoon, I asked God to bring them back.  When they didn’t return immediately, I went out in the car to look for them.  I didn’t find them.  I suddenly realized I had left the charcoal starter for the grill lit, and my house might burn down.  I needed to go home.  I prayed with conviction, “God, please bring my dogs home, NOW please.”

I could pray with conviction NOT because I knew He would do what I wanted, but because I knew He would, will, does answer prayers.  He might say ‘no’ and then I would pray for more patience and less fear.  But I was a desperate woman, home alone, with a fire that needed tending and dogs that needed hunting.

I know you’re not going to believe this, but when I came back in from tending the fire, my dogs were at my back door.

Here’s another thing about prayer for another day:

When we pray intentionally, we learn something about the heart of the LORD who answers prayers.

What do you think?  How have you seen God answer prayers – yes, no, maybe, yes, but not the way you thought, no but better than you dreamed…wait – a really long, hard, painful wait…

Share your stories!

Here’s a quick read to send you off to a stunning Saturday. Oh, Lord, show us the wonder of your world everywhere today. Let us say “Do it again” with passion!

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
— G.K. Chesterton