Prayer, What is it Good For?: Part 3 of 3

 

In closing out this short series, I want to encourage your thoughts and feed back in the comments below.  Also, I would like to put your thoughts on this blog.  If you have any thoughts on a topic write it down and we can dialogue over the blog.  I hope you enjoyed reading this short series, contributed by a reader. 

 

Jesus’ Prayer

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

This is a prayer of suffering, inner conflict, and yet also of willing submission.  This is neither just about him, nor just about his relationship with God.  What Jesus is struggling with here, I think, is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and to “love your neighbors as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). Practicing both commandments cost him dearly:  his life.

In this prayer, we do not see the Jesus who stops the storm, raises the dead, chases demons out, and feeds thousands with a couple loaves of bread.  This is the Jesus who had wept when Lazarus died.  This is the Jesus who would later say, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”  These very last words of Jesus on the cross according to two of the Gospels are not something we’d think the Son of God, who was, is, and will be, would say.  No, it sounds like utter despair, helplessness, and doubt:  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He felt forsaken and didn’t know why.  Less than 24 hours after his brave prayer, “not as I will, but as you will,” he still questioned the reason for his suffering.

I have prayed to God in similar ways.  “Please help me, God, but if this be your will, I submit myself to you,” so I’d pray, only to add later, “But why did this happen to me? Why do you ignore me?”

I often wondered about this teaching of Jesus about prayer:  “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).  Seemingly, it even worked with self-centered prayers of Jabez and Hezekiah, and perhaps with Agur as well.  But God did not remove the cup from Jesus.

So why pray?  What is it good for?  Does it make any difference?  Many people say that prayer is conversation between God and us.  I highly doubt it.  To me, conversation is two-way communication:  input, output; sending, receiving.  I can talk to a tree all day and perhaps “feel” its response to me, but I won’t call that a conversation.  I definitely don’t pray for God’s sake:  He already knows what I have to say.  I also don’t pray for other people’s sake, or being seen/heard by others (even though many people do seem to pray for that reason).  By way of Sherlock Holmsian deduction, I suspect that one prays for one’s sake.  This doesn’t necessarily mean being selfish.  I can pray for my sake for selfish reasons.  I can also pray for my sake for unselfish reasons.  Also, being selfish or not doesn’t seem to affect God’s response, as we see in Jabez’ and Hezekiah’s prayers and in Jesus’ prayer.

I think we pray because it leads us to hope and courage.  “That’s it?” you might say.  “That’s about it,” I say.  And it’s a big deal.  A huge deal.  A hope that the Mighty One of grace and compassion, of love and patience, is hearing us.  A hope that the Creator is understanding the sufferings of the created.

Such hope is the flickering light in utter darkness.  When the light stops flickering, the alternative is death, either physical or spiritual, or both.  I dare say that Jesus sought hope as well in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed to the point that “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).  When he said to the sleeping disciples, “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matt 25:41), I don’t think the statement was directed only to their sleeping.  His body was weak, and his spirit suffered, too.  Curiously, Luke records, “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him” (Luke 22:43) while Jesus was praying.  How did an angel “strengthen” Jesus?  Again, I dare say it was hope through which Jesus was strengthened.

I’m almost certain that every one of those who survived holocaust had prayed on each new day.  Not everyone who prayed survived, but those who survived prayed.  Speaking of the holocaust, I think the young girl Anne Frank beautifully summed up what hope does:

            “As long as this exists,” I thought, “and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless     skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy.” The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.

And this was her prayer.  If, as the writer of Hebrews says, faith is “being sure of what we hope for,” Anne was a person of faith.  Prayer can help us see, smell, hear, and touch hope, when it seems elusive, fragile, and flickering, because hope, along with grace, love, and compassion, is another name for God, whom we were born to seek.

So, prayer, what is it good for?  To me, it is not a means to an end, nor is it a means to “converse” with God.  Rather, it is a process through which we find hope, which strengthens us.  And in that strength, we will find God.  In that strength, we can become courageous to fight evil, whatever form it may take.  That process, I believe, leads us to communion with God.

Going back to what Jesus said about prayer, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,” it seems to me that he was talking about the assurance of hope.  God may or may not remove the cup from me.  I may never even find out why and feel forsaken.  But as long as I have the light in sight, albeit dim and flickering at times, I know I’ll be alright and maybe even be able to point that light to someone else to see….

Prayer, What is it Good For?: Part 2 of 3

Jabez’ Prayer

“Bless me and enlarge my territory!  Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.”

To me, this is the most selfish, self-centered kind of all prayers.  It’s the “me, me, me” prayer.  Bruce Wilkinson wrote a short book out of this prayer (and quite a bit of mileage, too), but I have no respect for this prayer.  How is this prayer different from that of a Shaman?  That of praying to a genie?  Yet, the Bible simply states:  “And God granted his request” (I Chronicle 4:10).  Only if life was that simple!  Bring a dollar bill, insert it in the slot, press the button, and grab what you desired: A vending machine prayer.

One of my least favorite biblical characters is neither Judas Iscariot nor Queen Jezebel, but King Hezekiah.  His prayer is in II Kings 20:3, asking for an extension of his life:  “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.”  Hezekiah is playing how-I-have-been-good-all-the-time with God.  He is seeking payback; the insurance proceeds after all the premium payments were made.  To him, God is a tool, a stepping stone through which he gets what he wants.  Again, I have no respect for him.  Yet, God’s response was: “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you” (2 Kings 20:5).

Many of us pray just like that.  We ask for blessings of good health, healing, safety, material abundance, and so on.  When we see what we wanted realized, we praise God for answering our prayers.  Otherwise, we give our own interpretations for the “unanswered prayers”:  God has bigger plans for us, God’s time is different from ours, we did not pray hard enough.  We may go further than that and say, “Maybe God doesn’t care.  Maybe my praying doesn’t matter.  Maybe God can’t do anything about it, either.  Maybe God doesn’t exist.”

I’ve heard of people whose prayers have been answered so timely, so precisely, so miraculously.  And I said to myself, “Why them?  Why not me?”

For a few years, I prayed to God for one thing:  Peace.  I don’t mean the world peace, but peace in my heart.  Battling depression and anxiety, I prayed and prayed.  I went to church frequently and prayed.  I prayed at night, prayed while reading the Bible, prayed in between.  I believed with my whole heart that God will answer my prayer.  As much as I disliked Hezekiah, I wanted to hear what he heard:  “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.”

I did not hear that.  I gave up.  Instead of praying, I got myself on anti-depression medication and found that it worked.  Later, I complained to my husband, “Why didn’t God answer my prayer?  I didn’t want to be on medication.”  He said, “I don’t know about you, but he heard mine.  I just prayed that you’d feel better.  And you do now with medication.”

So did God answer our prayers? Is He still answering?  Is prayer a means to an end, the “answer”?

Agur’s Prayer

“Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die:  Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

I’ve always been fond of this prayer.  If Jabez’ prayer is one dimensional, this prayer definitely is two dimensional.  What Agur asks for seems deceptively simple:  Honesty and daily bread.  But he asks for them for the sake of his relationship with God.  He does not trust his own ability to keep integrity, faith, and ethics when circumstances change.  He admits his potential weaknesses and humbly asks God for an optimal environment in which he can continue to have communion with God.  It is a passive prayer, still self-centered, but with God in sight.  The Bible says nothing else about this character, nor do we find out whether God “answered” his prayer.  But I doubt God’s answer or no-answer would have made much of a difference in Agur’s life anyway, as Agur’s prayer, I think, is more about his attitude, or philosophy, of life than about supplication.

Not as many as Jabezs, but there are enough of Agurs around us.  They are good citizens, hard working, God-fearing, and content.  I used to want to be one, until I found this attitude to be a bit too smug for my liking.  Love and compassion were missing….

Prayer, What is it Good For?: Part 1

A subscriber of this blog sent me this essay on prayer, and with permission I in turn share it with you.  This is a three part post that I hope will challenge your thinking about prayer.  I welcome any questions and comments of course, and your contribution to this dialogue.

PRAYER, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

In a Jerry Seinfeld show episode, there is one where Seinfeld tells Elaine, “Did you know that Tolstoy’s War and Peace was originally ‘War, What Is It Good For?’”  Gullible as she is, she goes around telling people, making a fool out of herself, “War and Peace was originally called ‘War, What Is It Good For.’”

I ask myself, “Prayer, what is it good for?”

Several years ago, the journalist-spiritual writer Philip Yancey wrote a book titled, “Prayer:  Does It Make Any Difference?”  I went to the library and asked the reference person to find the call number for Yancey’s “Prayer” for me.  “The title has too many entries,” she said.   Of course.  So I said, “Try ‘Prayer, colon, Does It Make Any Difference?”  I meant the subtitle that follows the generic title.  And I heard her saying, “I don’t know.  I’ll tell you in a bit.”  Confused, I looked at her and realized that she misunderstood my addendum as to mean, “Try colon after ‘Prayer.’  Did that work?”

Does prayer really work?  Does it make any difference?

There are many prayers in the Bible.  There are many kinds of prayers in the Bible.  The most famous of all probably is The Lord’s Prayer, taught by Jesus himself (Matthew 6:9-13).  And he taught us this prayer because he did not want us to “babble.”  There’s also the prayer of Mary praising God after Gabriel delivers the message of the virgin birth and Elizabeth blesses her (Luke 1:46-55).  Again, there’s the triumphant prayer of the barren Hannah (I Samuel 2), after she gets what she wanted:  a son.  Psalms consist of various types of prayers:  praise and thanksgiving, hope and despair, vengeance and humility.

I like categorizing things, and I categorize prayers, too.  Job’s prayer right after he lost everything he possessed was that of submission and acceptance:  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21).  Compare that with Jonah’s prayer:  “Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live”! (Johah 4:3).  It is like a teenager’s rebellion against her parents, one with an attitude.  Again compare that with David’s prayer of repentance after his adultery with Bathsheba is found out:  “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight….  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:4, 17).

I’ve long been intrigued by three prayers in the Bible:  the prayer of Jabez (I Chronicles 4:10), the prayer of Agur (Proverbs 30:7-9), and the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39, 42).  Each one is distinct in its nature and reveals the character of the one who says it.  They also illustrate what we do when we pray.

Greetings From The Dark, Frozen Tundra of Neptune, NJ!!

Boy, it sure seems like the frozen tundra!!  We’ve been without power for a week now.  Sleeping in the cold is getting old.  But in a weird sort of way, I’m getting used to it.  Hurricane Sandy dealt a blow for sure, but I’m happy to report that through all this ‘suffering’ I’ve actually lost 5 lbs. and gained 12 lbs. of lean muscle!!!  Isn’t that incredible???

Naw, I was kidding, I didn’t gain 12 lbs. of lean muscle.  But methinks I did lose my sanity in the cold.  But life goes on!!  As soon as I regain power and internet I will be resuming the devotions.  In the meantime, please be patient.  How am I sending this to you now you ask?  I had to journey far, to a wondrous place with warmth and many books, to a place they call ‘The Alexander Library at Rutgers’ to send this post out to you, my friends.

Through all of this, please be reminded that, life is more than what we eat or drink or wear, more than about heat and cold.  While Sandy was destructive, it was also a reality check for all of us.  I am hoping that we’ve all learned what it means to be in need if nothing else.  I hope we all learned how truly vulnerable we really are, but are told never to admit, to our shame!  Already slogans are popping up everywhere in the aftermath of this hurricane that go something like this: “Regain, Rebuild, Recover.”  How about ‘Reflect, Reconnect, Reestablish’?

Homes can be rebuilt for sure and towns reconstructed.  But broken lives and relationships are harder work than putting up a roof or mending a broken fence.  Reflecting upon our vulnerability, reconnecting with each other, while we reestablish our trust in God, is a worthy exercise in the storms and trials of life.  The whole purpose of faith is to give us tools by which we can do these things.  So build up your lives for greater storms than Sandy that may or may not come.  Either way, you’ll be ready.

Peace

A Reason for Hope

As Hurricane Sandy approaches our shores, we’re once again reminded of how fragile and vulnerable we are.  This is a time of great anxiety and stress for many people.  But I want to encourage you to be different, set apart, ‘holy,’ as your Father in heaven is holy.  One thing is for sure; the storm is coming.  That is no reason to be alarmed.  Remember the words “Fear not, for I am with you.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  These words should comfort you now more than ever.  And if they do not, then we have to get ourselves out of the way and put our faith and trust in something or Someone else.

We often talk about storms in our lives metaphorically.  In this part of our world we rarely talk about storms literally.  But today we are.  Whatever is true as a metaphor is all the more true in the literal.  So again, remember the reason we have hope, the promise of God’s Presence and Peace.  And this spiritual…

“Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand, Precious Lord,
Lead me home”

A Bad Boy I’ll Always Be…

I know, I know… I’ve been bad.  My last post was June 20.  But I’ll have you know that since then I’ve been busy.  Honest!  I’ve moved from Vernon to Neptune, packed, unpacked, ran like a deranged fool around the house in my boxers screaming ‘I gotta meet the deadline!!  I gotta meet the deadline!!’ until I woke up in front of the refrigerator, a kosher pickle in one hand and a handful of mayonnaise in the other. I hate when that happens… My apologies about the visual, I know you didn’t need that so early in the morning (or any other time of day).  That’s just my way of saying that I hate moving.

Let me update you on what’s up with the Blog.  I haven’t heard from anyone about what book we should do next.  Nope, not a soul.  But I know what everyone was thinking… ‘Revelation!!’  We’ve been over this already haven’t we?  Well, since I’ve pretty much mauled down the apostle known as Paul, I thought we should return to our roots and study the gospels.  What do you think?  I think a good expose on what Jesus taught his disciples to guide us along would be a great thing.  I know you agree…  lol.

So, starting next week, I will begin with the Gospel of Matthew on Monday.  Oh, that’s the thing I mentioned in the last post.  Morning Devotions will be on Mondays and Thursdays going forward.  By the way, I thought you would like to know that we have readers of the blog from England, Canada, South America and Africa!!  Isn’t technology something else??  Welcome to our readers from around the globe.  I hope you didn’t find that pickle and mayonnaise things too weird or creepy for a ‘spiritual’ blog.  Haha!!

Hope you are all well!!  Leave a comment!

Peace…

Oops!! Typo…

I left out a key word in a sentence on the post “Rock the Boat!! Part Deux…”  Toward the end of the post the part about religion and relationships should read…

“God has not created us for the purposes of religion, but relationships.”

Another Blogger Exclusive!! I Love the Dialogue!!!

Here is a sample of a response to the devotional titled “Rock That Boat!!”  I wanted to share it with you for our mutual edification.  First the response from a reader, followed by my response.  Feel free to comment below.

“I don’t understand how we  can believe in Jesus’ birth, or death, or miracles, or him as the son of God if we ( who are not divinely inspired) start disbelieving in what the bible teaches us about the life and mission of Jesus..  If I am to start picking and choosing which scriptures I don’t personally believe, I may as well throw out the whole bible, and start following Buddha, or Mohammad, or Allah. The trinity is the core belief of Christianity, as is the resurrection. Maybe that’s not ‘real’ either. I would seriously question someone’s belief in Christianity if they didn’t have those beliefs.”

This is a difficult topic to absorb.  There are so many things we believe as Christians rooted in traditions more than actual truth, things that over time have been accepted as doctrine and authority.  For example, the doctrine of the trinity was never taught in the Bible, like say, the sacrament of communion.  The beings of father, Jesus and the holy spirit were mentioned, even references of Jesus saying things like ‘the Father and I are one,’ but the concept of the trinity, three ‘gods’ in one was a theological concept formulated and adopted later as a response to the growing need to specifically articulate what Christians were to believe in the second century (specifically against the Gnostic movement).  This situation really became significant when emperor Constantine became a Christian and wanted to unite the Roman empire under the cross (325 C.E).  That’s when Christianity became the state religion, and everybody was forced to abandon their religion for Constantine’s new found faith.  In the process, the Christian church assimilated many pagan beliefs and traditions, reinterpreting the Bible to suit the new context.  Some of what we practice in the church today like Christmas, Easter, are pagan practices absorbed by around that time because they couldn’t convince their new ‘converts’ to abandon them.  So many of our beliefs today are rooted in the decisions made about what Christianity is or isn’t at the Council of Nicea back in the fourth century.  (BTW, did you know that at the time of this Council, there were hundreds of other writings; gospels and letters, some supposedly written by the original disciples of Jesus, in wide circulation at the time and accepted as the authoritative word of God by the Christian community across the Mediterranean but were rejected by the Council because they didn’t conform to the intended design.  Most of these writings are lost forever, but what little remains is known to us as the ‘New Testament Apocryphal writings.’  Think of all that we’re missing out on!!)

But practically speaking, It’s not a question of picking and choosing what to believe.  My point is, ALL of scripture has power, just not in the literal sense.  In fact, as I always preach, the ‘word of God’ has the power to change lives by setting people free.  Unfortunately, the way the Bible was read and taught historically has done nothing but ‘imprison’ people in cells of misinterpretations and understandings.  Concepts that were once relevant to people in the first or fourth century but does not apply to people living in the 21st Century.  Theology even changed so much in the fourth century from the first.   For example, the imminent return of Christ, which Paul (especially) and his contemporaries believed so strongly was a point of hot contention even when Paul was alive.  The first century Christians didn’t even agree on what was going to happen.  Paul said Jesus was coming back tomorrow, John and other disciples said it was ridiculous.  By even as early as the second century, the Christian movement had to reinterpret Paul’s writings to fit their context because clearly Paul was wrong and Jesus had not returned as Paul said he would.  To be clear, Paul was wrong.  In fact, he was wrong about a lot of things.

What it comes down to for me, is this: We do not need to believe in everything literally, whether it’s the bible we’re talking about or science, but especially the bible and other ancient texts.  Most Christians today don’t believe that Adam and Eve were real historical people, nor that a man named Noah built a boat to house animals.  But at one point nearly, if not ALL Christians did believe it literally, just like they ALL believed that the earth was flat and was at the center of the Universe.  They were all sincere in what they believed, and they were ALL wrong.  So if we can understand the story of creation and the flood as allegories or metaphors for something more profound about the human nature, then what else are we taking literally today, in the 21st century that we should be taking symbolically?  That, is the question I am raising.  I am not suggesting that anyone ‘disbelieve’ anything in the Bible but rather, to REALLY believe it for what it means for us today.  Just as a side note, I hold no belief in Christianity, I believe in Christ.  Extending that further, I don’t believe in doctrines or religion, I believe in people, and in relationships.

Having God moments is great.  But do we need to suspend our intellect to have them?  I don’t think so but maybe I’m wrong and Paul was right.  And maybe the world IS flat and the universe as we observe it doesn’t even exist.  I don’t view faith and reason in conflict but in concert.  They do not have to be enemies as so many have tried to make them out to be.  Faith is a subjective reality, but we still have senses and sensibility to observe and think objectively to inform our subjective faith.  That is what I’m saying.

I hope this helps the dialogue.  Thank you again for your response, I know that what I’m proposing is difficult to accept.  But in the world we live today, this kind of analysis and questioning is so important because so many people need God, the ‘right’ God, the TRUE God, not our fabrication of him.  We need to introduce people to the God of Presence, the God of Peace.

The End is Just Another Beginning

This is an exclusive to all who ‘follow’ the Morning Devotions Blog, (aren’t you lucky?).

These days everybody at church and people in the community who know I’m moving asks me the same question, “are you excited about the change?”  Why just today, I was asked this thrice.  I don’t quite know how to answer this.

Here’s where I am… I think.

I. Don’t. Know.

Maybe I should just say ‘yes,’ or ‘no’ and shut the hell up.  But my mind won’t stop spinning when I’m asked.  I know, I know… it’s just a simple question.  But is it?

The question for me really is, how do I honor the people with whom I have relationships while acknowledging that I have a future somewhere else?  How do I delicate express that while it is ‘sad’ to rotate relationships from the front to the back burner, that I have no choice if I am to be useful where I am going?  This ain’t no teenage break up.  It’s more like a parent who is adopting new children, except that he’s leaving the children he already has to go live with the ones he’s adopting.  You get what I’m trying to say here?  It’s not so simple is it now?

A pastor is a parent in many ways, like it or not.  And any parent should be questioned of their worthiness if they place his needs before the children’s.  Even when the child is ready to become an adult, the parent reluctantly relinquishes the role of guardian and teacher.  Any parent who refuses to do so must be brought up on charges of smothering.  I reluctantly relinquish my role of shepherd, guardian, teacher, and friend to release my children for new and exciting opportunities for continued growth and maturation.  That’s what this transition means to me, as of this moment…

I am fulfilled in most ways.  Are there things I wish to have experienced in Vernon?  Yeah…  But do I have regrets?  Definitely not.  I have grown, deepened, & broadened in the essence of who I am.  The greatness in that is, it is done and finished.  It is mine forever.  What I have gained can never be taken from me.  But it’s just the foundation for future stories and lessons to be written and learned.  So it would be an epic failure for me to stay where I am, in comfort, and slowly become mediocre and lukewarm.  Blech!!!

I believe that’s where I am.  But people don’t want to hear all that when they’re just looking for a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’  I guess in that light, I’m just thinking way too much about all of this.  So the answer is… ‘maybe.’