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Another Sunday afternoon in progress, so that's good. At least it was when I started. Here it is Wednesday afternoon before I'm getting back to it. Not so much "busy" delays, but technical. My internet connection has been "wonky". Anyway, Rob started a new job this past week, so that will help us in multiple ways. I firmly believe that God wouldn't have opened this door only to shut it anytime soon. It's a job with a lot of details, but none are difficult. If any of you have been in Food Service for the Elderly, then you understand. Pray that things will progress smoothly for him (difficult co-worker), and for us. Also, I haven't really mentioned my cat on here. She's nearly 16 and showing her age. Her name is Kyra. (pronounced "Kaira") Pray that change of diet would fix her bloating. I would put all of this on the Forum side of my blog, but no one seems to look at that. Maybe I should remove the "members only" status, idk...
How many of you have felt like you carried the weight of the world on your shoulders?? If you don't maintain your responsibilities and care about everyone else maintaining theirs, then chaos would ensue, right?? I've never personally felt that way, although I've often related to Lucy Van Pelt in the Peanuts cartoon when she says, "The World would be a better place if everyone listened to me." LOL But seriously, I have great news for those of you who have felt that burden. Whether it related to the entire World*, or just your own life and circle of influence. We humans were never designed to carry that weight. That's God's responsibility as Creator. So how do we allow Him to do HIs job??* Our "old pal" James has just the thing. Let's look* --
James 5:13-18
New International Version
The Prayer of Faith 13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
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Pastor Matt first spoke between worship songs, in part, by reading from Psalm 108. It speaks of praising God for HIs steadfast love. I feel like he was making a connection there from the fact that God's trustworthiness lends confidence, not only to our prayers, but to the desire to pray.
So today's passage is about the Prayer of Faith. Let's explore first of all, what that means, and secondly, what it looks like. A good way to summarize it might be that, "Righteous 'pray-ers' have powerful and effective prayers.
To begin with, we recognize the fact that many of us are not comfortable/willing to ask for help. I put both words there because both may be true. It depends on the individual. Some people recognize that they need help, but don't want to impose. Others may be too proud to ask, and others still may not recognize the need at all. Pastor Matt shared a personal story here of a time he needed help. His sister-in-law and her family were visiting from out of state, and they all went out to dinner. Now some of you may know people who take "forever and 500 yrs." to place an order. Or you may be one of them... ;p Well, this sister-in-law is one of them. After a bit, Matt realized that he had an appointment with someone at the Church that evening, and the way things were progressing, he wasn't going to make it without help. He struggled with calling a friend, but finally relented and all was well.
A good way to think about prayer from God's perspective is that it's an invitation to embrace our weakness, frailty, vulnerability, and failure. It's an opportunity for humble submission and/or simple communion with Him. Literally, a time to recognize God as Emmanuel. God is with us all the time, but we don't always remember or acknowledge it.
Notice what it says in verse 13. We are instructed to pray both when we are in trouble and when we're happy. The clear message there is that we should pray all the time!! Of course, that can't be taken 100% literally*, or we would never be able to talk to each other. The point lies in recognizing God's goodness and power at all times whether we specifically take a pause to thank Him or reach out to Him in the moment. If you're happy, take a thought for praise. If you're sick, ask for healing prayers*. You'll notice 2 things about these instructions/invitation. No restrictions on either time or location*. We are welcome, nay, encouraged to pray in all situations!! We should never "triage" our prayers for God. There is absolutely nothing in our lives too small or too big for Him. He cares about everything in our lives even more than we do, although possibly differently than we do. He cares about my cat and Rob's job equally. The fact is, there is literally no time or place that God is not present and at work in our lives.
Now on to verse 14. "Is anyone among you sick? Call for the Elders..." This indicates God's love and power shown in Community. The American culture of rugged individualism can make it hard enough to ask for help at any time, but asking for help in prayer may be even harder. But we need to remember that, while the hierarchy of the modern Church is a man-made "structure", God still uses it to our benefit*. The entire point of having Elders in the Church is to aid the Pastor in his duties. It is their job to help in times of need. If you need someone to talk to in a confessional way, then do it. If you're sick or injured and need prayer for healing, that's all part of their job. You are in no way "imposing" on them. You are simply giving them something to do that they are already responsible for.
Remember, that even Jesus had moments of both individual and communal prayer!!
I realize there may not be many Pastors or Leadership people on here, but even those of you who are average lay-people can make observations about the strengths and weaknesses of prayer in your own Churches as a whole. If your Church is anything like mine, you may be great at caring about others, but struggle in asking for prayer*.
It's an unfortunate truth that some Churches may use the question of faith to shame people*. They might say things like, "the reason your prayers aren't being answered is that your life isn't right." That's not what Jesus taught at all. Jesus taught that, "even faith as small as a mustard seed", could move mountains!! (Mk.11:23-25) He also pointed to the Father as the object of true faith. So it's clearly about the "Who??" rather than the "how much". We need to recognize and embrace the truth that righteousness only comes from God through Jesus. It is the work of Christ played out in our lives, not living a good life to earn good results in prayer. It's the fact of what Jesus has accomplished, not what we have or haven't done that matters. As long as we are honestly doing our best to cover our responsibilities, then we shouldn't be judged as "unworthy" to receive help.
It's also important to realize that praying for God's Will is not a "cop out". Like saying, "whatever, Lord, I don't care." Or it shouldn't be. What it is meant to be is nothing more or less than humble submission to the outcome of our prayers, no matter what that means. I know it pretty much sounds like the same thing, but it's the condition of our hearts that makes the difference here. We are simply acknowledging God's ultimate wisdom, timing, and power above our own if our hearts are right. Because really, prayer is a cooperation with God to fulfill His mission of ruling and reigning in love here on Earth. We are engaging with God's working both in us and through us. His purposes work in both the shaping of our World, and in shaping us*. If our hearts aren't right, then we are not going to be willing to participate in His Will. Now that being said, prayer can work to align our hearts ahead of accepting His Will for a given situation. And if that's where you need to start, then that's okay. God meets each of us where we are at. It's the act of calling on Him that matters most.
Verse 18 has us looking back on Elijah as an example of a righteous man whose prayers were powerful and effective. His stories in 1 Kings 18 of confronting King Ahab and defeating the priests of Baal are 2 of the most powerful among any presented in the Bible. Imagine praying for Famine to ruin an entire economy for years or Fire from the sky to prove God's power!!?? Impressive, right!!?? Elijah simply believed God and took part in His plan for renewal in the land. Now even though none of us are likely to be in such extreme situations, we can use Elijah's example to give us confidence that God is not only willing to answer any request we have, but more than powerful enough to accomplish anything we need. None of us are disqualified for being to much or too small for God to handle our stuff. The only thing is that we cannot treat prayer as a "peripheral practice", but as an anchor for our faith. -- God Bless!!
Footnotes --
Weight of the World -- Turn off the news and enjoy life more!! I barely pay enough attention anymore to know half of what's going on. I just try to know who to vote for and leave the rest alone... That being said, I've been reading "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis lately, and totally embrace his quote that says, "One cannot make man good by law, but it takes good men to make good government." If we don't want others forcing things down our throats, we shouldn't be forcing anything down theirs. 'Nuff said!!
"Let Him do His job" -- I just saw a post earlier this week that explained that, "be still and know..." Actually means "let go" in the original Greek and Hebrew. So when we say, "Let go and let God", that's more accurate!! (now if I could find that adjustment for the header on my Forum page...)
I realize this is out of order from the Bible, but it's just the way God led Pastor Matt to share it...
Taking things literally -- that can be a challenge for me at times, as someone whose life is officially known as High Functioning PDD. I may or may not take things literally, just depends on the moment...
I firmly believe that our healing was accomplished on the Cross and all we need to do is recognize that and take the authority Jesus gave us over it. "by His stripes we were healed..." Is. 53:5 and 1 Pet. 2:24. "All authority..." Matt. 28:18. I still recognize that God gave some people the gift to become Doctors, however. Mary Baker Eddy wasn't wrong in her initial beliefs, it was just that she allowed her advisors to push things too far.
No limits on time or location -- I recently happened upon a post on Pinterest that was the image of a chart, listing possible instances of "wasted prayer." If you google images of this, the chart will show up. I looked up each verse on it, and found it to be wrong in all but maybe 2 verses. Just pathetic that someone could be so wrong in their interpretation, and worse yet, publicize it as truth... As we saw a while back, Teachers get judged more harshly!!
God uses man's "set-ups" to our advantage. I cannot resist speaking to this in light of Christmas. Some people think that we should not celebrate Christmas due to its Pagan origins. I have just one thing to say to those people. I remind them that God literally based the entire Jewish Sacrificial system on the Pagan practices of the surrounding countries!! I know that the Bible has verses about God hating Pagan practices, but I also recognize the context of those verses. Those were about putting ritual above worship. They were not about the practices themselves. At least not all of them. It was also the point of giving the Israelites a separate identity from their neighbors while establishing the new Nation.
My Church has a practice we engage in once in a while called, "Family Prayer". What happens is this -- the Pastor (or Leader) asks people who need prayer to raise their hands if they're comfortable doing so. Then those nearby either go over and lay hands on them or simply reach out toward them and pray. This way, people are both feeling supported and showing support in our Church Family.
Using the question of faith to shame people. One of my former Churches did this. Sadly, it was the same one that strengthened my faith in healing.
God shapes us -- Fruit of the Spirit shapes our lives. (Gal. 5:26)
Prayer practices -- Pastor Matt closed by sharing his own basic structure for prayer times. - Silence to quiet the mind. - Reading/praying from Psalms (words can be hard, but Scriptures are a form of God's grace to give us a starting place) - Talk. Praise and Requests. - More silence. (for listening) The beauty of this is that there's no time frame. It can be used for any length of time you give it.
Music -- no rights, as usual...
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