Don't Pray?

Is there a time God tells us not to pray?

There are at least a couple times in the Bible where people's prayers actually displeased God because they were supposed to command a situation instead of ask for help.

When God gives a command, we need to go forward in faith. Jesus told the disciples to go to the other side of the lake. They received almost as stiff a rebuke from the Lord as did the wind and waves when they told Jesus the storm was going to kill them. After stilling the wind and the sea with His words, He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" (Mark 4:40). He was incredulous.

A similar story in the Old Testament is in Exodus 14 when Moses had received the charge to deliver God's people out of Egypt. With Pharoah and the mighty Egyptian army in hot pursuit, and the mountains on either side of them, Moses and the Israelites faced the seemingly impassable Red Sea before them. Who wouldn't have cried out to God in desperation in a time like that?

But God said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward." Then He added, "You lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it." The implication is that Moses would divide the sea as God's representative.

God wanted decisive action in both cases, based on His prior instructions. When God tells us to do something, we then have delegated authority to speak to whatever is our obstacle and command it to change or get out of the way.

We are emissaries of the Most High God. If a king issues a decree and his emissaries are sent to carry it out, they don't come back with their tail between their legs at the first sign of resistance. They have the power of the king backing them to enforce the edict.

So, too, we have the backing of all of heaven to enforce our Father's commands.

Entering the No-Time Zone

What difference does it make if I see the answer to my prayer the second I pray or sometime in the future? 

What I mean is, sometimes we are tempted to doubt and give up when we don't see the answer to our prayers immediately. We think the passage of time somehow means our prayers went unheard or our requests were rejected. That's a big problem, because if we give up, we won't see the answer to our prayers come about, even though God wants us to have those answers.

When I pray, it helps me to understand that God is eternal. He is not bound by time like we are on earth. When I pray, I am entering the realm of eternity, where God is. You could call it, entering the no-time zone.

When I pray according to His will (His word), I can know He has answered yes to my prayers. 

And this is the boldness we have in God’s presence: that if we ask God for anything that agrees with what he wants, he hears us. If we know he hears us every time we ask him, we know we have what we ask from him. (1 John 5:14-15, New Century Version)

So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. (Mark 11:24, New Century Version)

As soon as I pray, then, I can know it's a done deal. God has said yes. I can agree that it's done, even though I don't see it yet in my natural realm of existence. That's where my consistent belief that God has heard me and answered me keeps me steady so I don't give up or waver in my mind. It helps me to remember that prayer has been answered in the no-time zone, but there may be some delays in it getting to earth, where time is a fact of life.

Sooner or later, though, it must show up in my natural circumstances, if I don't give up. It can't NOT be realized, because God Almighty has said yes. He is never early and never late.. ...and you shall have them -- the answer! (Mark 11:25)

Olympic Gold

It is easy to be proud to be an American after the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The United States garnered nearly a record number of medals, 104 compared to second-place China's 88, and topped the rest of the world in gold medals as well with a whopping 46.

More locally, someone from our hometown whom my daughters attended school and played sports with participated in the heptathalon and made a very decent showing.

What's not to like about that? Yet, I had to ask myself, does the U.S.' prowess in the Olympic games reflect how Christians in America are doing spiritually? Are we excelling in this area too? As believers, we all have a spiritual race we are running, and this race has much higher stakes than any natural game.

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it,” Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church 2,000 years ago. And yet it still applies to us today.

What is God’s perspective on how we are running our race? Would we get the gold?

“And everyone who competes is temperate (exercises self-control) in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.” (1 Corinthians 9:25)

There is a race to be run, a race that God has ordained. Each of us is to run it with endurance, laying aside everything that keeps us from running the race as effectively as we can. The prize is nothing less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Hebrews 12:1-2).

The glory of the Olympic races are impressive, but the glory of this race – the race of a life well lived for God – has a glory that is incomparable. Whatever sufferings we go through to serve Christ with undistracted devotion will be worth it. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,” Paul wrote to the Romans, some of whom under the monster Nero, would face martyrdom for their faith.

The 2012 Olympians trained and exercised self-control over every aspect of their lives in order to compete and perhaps win a medal that will rust and tarnish over time. They denied themselves legitimate pleasures and luxuries in order to harden their bodies and minds for the intense competition. They were in peak condition in order to give themselves the best chance to excel. All of this they did with one goal in mind – to be a winner. Many, like our hometown friend , did not expect to be in the top three finishers of the competition, but were simply thrilled to make the Olympics and fulfill a lifelong dream.

We can be thrilled to be in the race God has ordained for us. We exercise ourselves in godliness, which is profitable for every part of our life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8).

Negative circumstances are an inevitable part of athletics. There are injuries and other unforeseen roadblocks. If the athlete becomes discouraged and drops out, there is no possibility of glory. Joy is the secret ingredient that kept Paul going despite numerous obstacles in his race. He would not allow negative circumstances to move him off of his course, including the knowledge that his actions would likely bring about his martyrdom. (Acts 20:24) He was determined to finish his race with joy, and we can too.

His prize and ours is an imperishable crown and the joy of hearing Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

A Lesson From Uganda

I just finished watching the documentary, “An Unconventional War,” put out by the Sentinel Group, about the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda, which reigned with terror for decades in this region. Although the gruesome details of this story are familiar to many, this film documented the lesser known account of how prayer and spiritual warfare brought down the Satanic powers backing this rebel group.

Much of it was difficult to watch. I was tempted to turn it off several times, but the victory of the praying church, spearheaded by the parents of abducted children, was worth waiting for. At the time the documentary was filmed (2005), Joseph Kony and the LRA had abducted 25,000 children, turning them into sex slaves and killers, sometimes forcing them to kill or mutilate their own family members. Eighty percent of the region’s population had been displaced because of the terror.

Amidst all of the horrific stories, one particular interview stood out in dramatic relief. It was an interview with a mother whose teen daughter had been abducted from her preparatory school. She related how not long after the abduction, she had gotten word that her daughter had been impregnated by one of the soldiers. The mother expectedly was heartbroken, but also bitter with anger against the injustice done to her child. As a Christian, she prayed fervently for her daughter to be delivered, but one night while crying out to God, she heard Him tell her that if she was going to pray while full of bitterness, she might as well not pray. It wasn't doing any good.

I knew that was a true principle from the word of God (Mark 11:25), and yet I recoiled as she told the story. “God,” I almost shouted. “It’s only natural for her to feel this way! How can you tell her to not be bitter?”

And then the Holy Spirit’s thoughts came to me: “Of course, that is the natural way to feel, but it's impossible to fight spiritual battles with natural weapons. To live in bitterness is to play right into the enemy’s hands and render you powerless. Only forgiveness and love give you the upper hand.”

This woman did forgive, get the upper hand over the enemy, and became a leader in the powerful prayer movement in Uganda.

As I pondered my own life of prayer, I had to admit that many times I harbored rancor in my heart, or at the least strong disdain, when praying for my country. The corruption, dishonesty and political maneuverings that I see make it easy for me to be disgusted with our elected (and unelected) representatives. There has been so much bias in the media, it’s hard to believe anything presented there without a good measure of cynicism.

Nonetheless, God’s word commands me to pray for my rulers and those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2). This women’s interview – and the Bible -- tell me that I need to get my heart right first if I want my prayers to be effective. Our country is in tremendous need of prayer. The evil that terrorized Uganda may be more blatant than what I see in the United States, but evil is of all types is going on relentlessly here , only cloaked in darkness. Our prayers have to be just as relentless -- and effective -- to bring light to the darkness, so that the darkness has to flee.

  

The Great Pretender

When I was young, I was great at pretending. Maybe you were too. I could see myself as a princess, decked out in the finest royal robes, or as a great deliverer, like Joan of Arc, coming to the aid of the oppressed. What happens to our imagination as we grow older? We use it to picture the worst things that could happen. It becomes filled with negativity about what we don’t want to see in our lives because we have been beaten down by circumstances, afraid to get our hopes up.

I don’t believe God created us with an imagination so that we could use it to worry! Man is His unique creation, with the ability to picture a different circumstance than what he now finds himself in. It's time to consider how to use our imagination for its God-given purposes.

One place we can use our imagination is regarding what the word of God says about us. The promises of God may seem so far from our experience. How do they become real? It starts in our imagination. We can see ourselves the way God has declared us to be, and at first it may seem as though we are pretending, even as we did as children. It's OK to be like a child! Jesus told us to humble ourselves like little children if we wanted to experience God's kingdom. In obedience to Jesus’ command, we can humbly say, “What God's word says about me is the truth, so that’s what I can imagine I am.”

I don’t believe that Joshua, after learning about the death of the venerated leader Moses, felt equipped to fill the great prophet's shoes. Even this impressive leader was not able to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land; so who was Joshua to do so? God saw him as well able to accomplish the task:

“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.” (Joshua 1:5-6)

I have to believe there was a gap between how God saw Joshua and how Joshua saw Joshua. It was going to take Joshua’s imagination to start to fill that gap. He had to accept God’s view of him, allow it to begin filling his mind and heart, which would then allow him to begin acting as the great leader God had created him to be.

God gave Joshua (and us) the key to keeping the correct vision of himself within his imagination: “Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7)

We have to observe to do whatever God has said in order to experience God's success and "prosper wherever we go." It's not a strain or impossibility to be able to obey God, but the key is in meditating on what He has said and seeing ourselves doing it.

It’s God's will that picture ourselves as being who God says that we are! There is nothing dishonest about obeying God's word. In fact, we can "pretend" that what seems unreal to us from God's word is very truth -- because it is.

Don't Wait to Enjoy Your Life

What is standing between you and happiness?

Is it a health issue, a problem relationship, stress on the job or no job at all? Is it financial woes, your spouse or not having a spouse? Most of us make the mistake of waiting until we hear the good report from the doctor or pay all of our debts off, buy that dream home or find the "right" person, to allow ourselves the luxury of a peaceful mind and a happy heart.

We are missing the chance of experiencing many peaceful, happy days in between.

Meanwhile, we feel we don't have any choice but to be wrought up, anxious, stressed, and irritable -- less than happy -- while circumstances are not the way we want them. After all, that's what any good, self-respecting person with any common sense would do, even though our worry and fretting don't do anything to change our circumstances for the better.

It is God's strong desire for us to be at peace and rest, to be content and happy, every day of our lives regardless of our circumstances. He doesn't enjoy seeing us upset, worrying, wringing our hands and in despair. We are His children.

It is possible to live every day of our lives peaceful and happy because of a gift God gives us called faith. Faith doesn't keep negative circumstances from coming into our lives. Faith in God and in His promises means that we can know God is on our side and working out everything for our good (Romans 8:28).

God has also given us a special gift unique to man to implement with our faith -- imagination. With it, we can see ourselves with a better future than what we are now experiencing. The world tells us to be sure to live in reality and only consider what you can now see, but God tells us to live by faith and not by sight -- NOT by what we can now see.

We can use our imagination to see our lives the way we want them to be, put our requests before God according to His promises, and then use our faith to believe that such a wonderful future will be ours. This isn't pie-in-the-sky. God wants to meet our desires and wants us to rest in His goodness, and His plan is far greater and more glorious than even we can imagine. This is how we can obey the Bible to rejoice in the Lord always.

Let's work with the Holy Spirit to paint a better future in our imagination, trust in God's goodness to bring it to pass and be happy every day of our lives!

The Journey

I don't know how many times I've read or studied Hebrews 11, the Hall of Fame of the Old Testament Heroes of Faith, but recently in reading this passage something new popped out at me. I noticed how much traveling or moving or changing locations was involved in describing these heroes' lives.
Here are some examples: Enoch was translated to heaven; Noah traveled on a ship for a year; Abraham journeyed to an unknown country; he and Isaac climbed Mt. Moriah to sacrifice what God had prescribed; Joseph prophesied about the exodus of the Israelites and made plans for his bones to be carried out of Egypt; Moses’ parents sent him down the river in a basket; Moses fled the comforts of Egypt for the desert; the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground; the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho.
All of these actions or movements were a result of their faith. They moved or traveled or changed location because God required it of them and ultimately they trusted God.
To me that really gives new meaning to the idea of faith as a journey. We run the risk of being stagnant spiritually unless we are willing to step out in faith. We won’t get anywhere unless we will allow faith to move us.
Fear keeps us paralyzed and immobile whereas faith frees us.
What kind of journey is God calling you on this year?
Will you go?