11/08/2022
We go to our mountains, our upper rooms, and our quiet places to pray because we feel close to God there, and feel like we are doing what Jesus Christ taught us, but something else occurs here… we are transformed spiritually, and often times physically. Jesus was strengthened at Gethsemane, and changed in appearance when on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. What is it about us that is changed in our prayer closets, quiet places, and on our own sacred mountains? What occurs within us in our close moments of prayer with God, and during our peaceful walks with Jesus down our own thoughtful roads to Emmaus? Do we visit these places with great expectation? Do we anticipate the quickening, and joy of an encounter with the divine?
“Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.”
Luke 9:28-29 ESV
It seems that we may have come to that place in the world where the fervency of our prayers may have been lost, or at very least diminished. We say rote prayers as if we are speaking to our television sets, praying to God as if He were a far off thought, and referring to Jesus as a character in a story. Let’s ask ourselves… when was the last time we wept, sweated, bled, or our hearts burned as we prayed? When was the last time that our hearts were allowed to break for someone as we prayed in intercession for them, or we fell on our faces in total submission as we entered our place of prayer?
“And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
Nehemiah 8:6 ESV
“They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?””
Luke 24:32 ESV
Are we losing our ability to find God by growing faint while climbing His mountains, or have we become lame as we walk our personal road to Emmaus? Have our quiet places fallen prey to the chaos of the world, or our sweat, tears, and prayers dried up?
I was reading a devotional message this morning and there was an ominous quote by Pastor Joseph Parker, a nineteenth century English preacher, that I want to share…
“If we, as the church, do not get back to spiritual visions, glimpses of heaven, and an awareness of a greater glory and life, we will lose our faith. Our altar will become nothing but cold, empty stone, never blessed with a visit from heaven.” - Joseph Parker
These are dire words of warning for the church, but are they also a prediction regarding the future of our personal faith as well? Do we still expect to commune with God when we pray? Do we continue to look for Jesus as we walk through our day? Or, have all of God’s mountains been leveled, our roads of faith allowed to be swallowed up by desert sand, and the quiet places where spiritual whispers were once passed, drowned out, and engulfed, by the sound of of the earth’s quaking and the dark one’s roar? This is a dire warning indeed! Are we staying the course of faith?
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for leading us to the places where we can speak freely with you in prayer. Thank you for the mountains, roads, and quiet places where we can reach out and touch you. Help us Holy Spirit when we struggle in our ability to pray, and seek to remember the location of the secret places where we meet God. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loves us, and wants to converse with us. Praised be your name for every place where we meet with you, and hear your voice calling our name. Merciful are you who raises up mountains where we can hear your voice, and clears the roads where we will walk with you, and Jesus. Your grace abounds, and your glory shines forth as you transform our faith from a tiny seed within us into a giant tree that lifts us up to hear the breeze of your breath speaking to us in your branches. Wash over us like living water, and establish our roots in eternity with you forevermore.
Rich Forbes