Have you ever been in prayer and found yourself unable to express yourself to God in words? In that moment did the Holy Spirit well up in you, and with a moan, a groan, a sigh, or even in a deep tearful silence, did you feel a connection with the Lord that was far beyond your ability to express in words, or even understand the depth of? This is prayer at its very foundation. This is the language of the soul. Have you experienced it?
Pastor Ben Anderson of Christ Church Nashville shared a picture of a beautiful fall scene on Facebook, and attached a verse from Isaiah 55 to it. Together they inspired me to write today’s devotional… and prayer…
Speak to us oh Lord, let your voice call us from unrighteousness, and return our hearts to you. Let every sin fall away, and your joy fill the void left by our passing iniquity. In your Son Jesus is our trust, and in your love our hope. Speak to us oh Lord from the halls of your mercy, and sing from the towers of your grace. Let your redemption comfort us in our darkest nights, and warm our hardened hearts in the winter’s chill as we shiver in the world.
What is this time we live in now, and is it unlike other times that have come before? Are there not righteous men and women who worship, and those countries, people, and persons who turn away from God? Is this new? No! The question for each of us is not one of the overall world, or the heavenly places that stand in opposition to it, and it isn’t of the greater spiritual strategies in the war between good and evil, no, it is in our own faith, and its effectiveness in our personal day to day skirmishes, in our hand to hand struggles as we wrestle against the world we wake up to each morning. Are our words, those we have spoken today towards God, and Jesus, the words of praise and worship, or do we say that the faith of man is in vain?
As Christians we all believe that Jesus, the Son of God, was born, lived, suffered, died, was resurrected, and ascended into Heaven. We all trust that by believing in Him that these things will happen, and are happening, to us as well, but we are often uncertain about why, how, or what comes next. We think about the joy, the peace, the rest, the singing, and all of the other things going on in Heaven, but more than all else there is one thing that awaits us… we will be seated there at the right hand of God with Jesus. You see, all of this has been done, and is being done by God… by His mercy, but moreover by His grace, and because He loves us.
When we are set upon by trouble, and we are pierced through by life’s talons, what is it that we scream out in pain? When we are struggling in the world, and are wounded, do our cuts cause us to cry out desperately in our suffering like a young hare in its distress? In those darkest moments do we doubt God, and ask Him loudly, “Why have you forgotten us?”
The human mind is a wonderful thing, and when there is constant noise or conversation going on about us it can block those things so completely that it is as if they did not exist, but despite our amazing ability to focus, it is still not perfect. So, there is no substitute for experiencing real peace, and quiet… especially when we want to enter into the spiritual realm, and be alone with God. Do we have that time, and place, set aside where we can separate ourselves and hear only the voice of God, and experience His breathing as His life moves into, and out of, our bodies? Solitude is not realized by being separated from everything, no, it is not being completely alone, but being alone with God… He is the life in us. Do we have a place where we are being born, and reborn in Him?
When we pray to God, do we ask of Him in the name of Jesus? So many of us think that this simply means that we are to say the words “In the name of Jesus I pray.” as we conclude our prayers, but it is much more than that… it is praying as if we were Jesus Himself. Do we pray in this way? Do we pray as heirs and joint heirs, with the full righteousness of Christ, and ask only for those things that conform to the will of our Father? Jesus was not born to be a symbolic of God on earth, but to speak with the full authority of His Father… do we pray with the full authority of Jesus Christ when we pray in His name, and what does that mean?
Is God making us into something that will dramatically change the world in which we live? Then, as we are pulled across the people and places in our lives are they being transformed by us? Are we the tools that winnow them like wheat, separating what is good and useful about them from those parts that are not?
We can’t wait on God, or do the other things of faith unless we trust in Him first. How can we believe that our Father will bless us unless we trust Him to be true to His Word? How can we believe in His divinity, and who He says Hr is unless we trust in what He tells us? So, do we trust in Him as we should? When we first came to believe that he was the one true God, and that Jesus Christ was His Son did we trust this to be absolutely true? Or, were we simply saying we believed as if repeating these words would provide us with an insurance policy to be used in case it really was true? Do we trust God, and Jesus, as they have told us to do?
Where were you when Jesus first tweaked your heartstrings, or God called you to do a work for Him? Were you seeking them? Had you gone to the holiest place you knew of, and called out to them? Or, were you simply going about your everyday life in the world when you first began to hear their voices? Did you go to a mountaintop searching, or just happen to find yourself in a nondescript place that was made holy because God came to you there? More often than not our encounters with God, and Jesus, occur in unlikely places where we least expect to meet them… are we ready? Will we know them?
Throughout time the people who lived out their lives in this world have been confronted by events that have challenged them as they have struggled to remain hopeful. This place has much beauty, and we can be certain that pleasures and blessings abound in abundance here, but this is also Satan’s present home, and he confronts us daily with hardship and tragedy as he seeks to destroy our faith, and our hope in God. So we struggle each day to maintain our hope, but where does it come from? Our Hope comes from the Lord, and moreover, He is our hope. Do we experience this divine hope?
By our fallen nature we are not born righteous, but as we look up towards the righteousness of God in Heaven, our faith begins to grow from the good ground He tends within us. The question becomes this, do we seek God and the righteousness that He provides us to be turned, both night and day, into the soil for our hearts, or are we satisfied with spreading our seed across the world and accepting whatever might struggle to rise up from the depleted soil left by our sinfulness? Which of these is our delight, and in which garden is the seed of our faith planted?
When we rise up in the morning and set about doing whatever it is that we will do that day, what is the first thing that crosses the threshold of our home as we step into the world? When we are preparing to go on a journey, a pilgrimage, or even a short trip, who goes before us to prepare the way, or who do we depend on to guide us? When the Israelites traveled they were preceded by the Ark of the Covenant, and were led by a pillar of smoke during the day, and fire at night. In other words, God went before them and led them always. Can we say the same?
We suffer the ailments and troubles of the world, but we will overcome them in this place with the help of our Lord God. He is good, and He will show us the vastness of His goodness if we are willing to wait upon Him. Do we believe? Do we believe with all our heart so that we can know without a doubt that He is with us, and that we will see His goodness here in the land of the living? David believed in this way, and his faith encourages us to do the same.
Prideful Christians, we have all known one or two in our lives, and Heaven forbid we are one. We see in them a holier than thou attitude where we should find the distinct humility of Christ. Our boasting should never be in our own faith, and belief, but in Christ, and He crucified. Too often we see the palm fronds lying on the ground, and the fine colt on which Christ rode into Jerusalem. We hear the cheers, and forget the jeers, and neglect the sting of the whip. In the midst of our pride we forget that the cross was His true glory. We forget what it means to pick up our own cross and follow Him into the spit of the crowd, and that only by suffering as He did can we boast in Him. Does our faith make us proud, or does it point to our own Cross on Calvary?