Prayer at Resurrection

A few weeks back, I had a conversation with one of our staff members about her prayer life.  She had a very practical story with how she entered into a meaningful prayer life with the God who created, redeemed and sustains her.  A friend of hers had mentored her by inviting her to treat God as if God were a friend that she was going to have coffee or tea with and, in the midst of that fellowship, just share your thoughts and “downright gut-wrenching issues” that are weighing on your heart.

So that’s exactly what she did.  One afternoon she put on some water to boil, poured two cups of tea and imagined that God was sitting down across the table from her as she had a conversation with God.  Now, do you think that God’s presence was only her imagination or was God truly sitting right across from her as she sipped her tea?  How pleasing it must have been for God to be invited to tea with this wonderful child of his!

In truth, she said it felt a little weird at first for her to pray in this way but, through her vulnerability, she found herself connecting with God in a way that she had never felt before!  Perhaps its time you invited God to join you for coffee or tea?  Or if coffee or tea is not your thing, then you might try writing an email to God or cooking a meal with your Lord.   Maybe you might even take a drive with God sitting in your passenger seat.  You may feel a little bit crazy when you first try this form of prayer, but I imagine you will connect with God in a deepening way just as my friend and colleague did.  I hope that you might share your experience on the prayer blog (http://prayer.blogs.cor.org/) if you try out this prayer discipline over the next week.

Brother Lawrence was a monastic “lay brother” in a Carmelite Priory in Paris who came from humble and uneducated beginnings in the 17^th century.  Because of his lowly status in the priory he was assigned to work in the kitchen.  Over his years in the kitchen, he learned to discipline himself to be in a constant state of prayer while he accomplished his day to day tasks.  He believed that, no matter how mundane the task, anything could become a medium for experience God’s loving presence in his life and in the life of others.  He wrote, “We can do little things for God;  I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and [with] that done, if there is nothing else to call me (no other responsibilities), I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king.  It is enough for me to pick up a straw from the ground for the love of God.”

Sounds nice, doesn’t it?  I wonder if it is possible for us to obtain this kind of prayer life – where everything we do seems to be for God and we are cognizant of that fact.  It’s certainly worth striving towards.

I know a Financial Advisor whose mission statement is to “bring glory to God by helping people find contentment with their finances.”  Some may think this far-fetched but I know this man and I find myself often envious of his relationship with God.  I know another business man who has a daily prayer meeting with a group of his colleagues each day during lunch.  These are people who strive to find God in the every day… in the mundane.  How might you find ways to “do little things for God” throughout your day?  How can you make seemingly mundane things prayerful?  If you cook, you might pray over the food you are preparing – that it might bless those who receive it.  If you work in customer service, perhaps you pray a brief blessing for the customer during a lull in the conversation.  I invite you to be creative as you make the little things in life more prayerful.

Bishop Reubon Job writes of the founders of Methodism, “Charles Wesley’s hymns always begin on earth and end in heaven.  So it also is with John Wesley’s theology.”  This journey from earth to heaven is one that we will all make some day but there are many opportunities for us to bridge the gap between the earthly kingdom and God’s heavenly kingdom in the here and now.  In all aspects of our prayer lives I hope that we are praying thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We ought to employ this ‘journey’ in our prayer lives as we begin with the reality of where we are and what’s going on in the earthly sense and invite God’s grace to transform it into a heavenly reflection of God’s kingdom.  In Revelation 21, John of Patmos writes,

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals.  He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away… See I am making all things new.”

Let us pray for that!  I invite you, in your prayer lives, to pray in the circumstances of where you are in life and to end your prayers with an invitation for God to transform it into something heavenly.  God, take this world and make it yours… thy will be done.  Amen.

I’m just now getting into a book entitled Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers that another staff member recommended to me.  According to the co-authors, this book is about “the marriage of prayer and action.”  They continue to say in the Epilogue that “we need to pray like everything depends on God and live like God has no other plan but the church.”  This may be a controversial idea to many – that God has no other plan but the church – but, what if this is true?  Truth be told I tend to lean in this direction.  This becomes a pretty lofty responsibility, however, and God’s plan could certainly backfire if the church fails to ‘show up’ in both prayer and action.  What do you think?  How are prayer and (our) action related to one another, and how do you discern that your actions are God-willed?  I’d love to hear what you have to say about all of this and about how prayer has played a role in your efforts to do no harm and how it has encouraged you to action as you seek to do good.  So my “prayer tip” for you this week is: get involved in a conversation with other believers about prayer.  Leave your comments here and offer your comments and insights.

My schedule is very busy at times and it can be difficult for me to nurture all of the relationships I have with friends, family and loved ones.  I don’t always have the time to spend an hour on the phone with my parents and sometimes don’t get together with my friends for weeks.  One way I keep in touch with them, however, is through short little updates throughout the day – a text here, an email there or perhaps a quick comment on their facebook page.

In our relationship with God, there are moments when we may not have time to “pick up the phone” and spend an hour in conversation with God. What we can do is keep the connection alive throughout the day with little updates here and there – this certainly goes a long way in nourishing this most important relationship we have with our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.

If you have a moment to send a friend a text, check your facebook page or send a quick email, you certainly have time to spend a moment with God.  A lot of little moments can add up to a deeply connected relationship – perhaps these little moments are what Paul was talking about in 1 Thessalonians 5 when he wrote “Pray without ceasing.”

May your days be filled with many little moments.

– Pastor Michael Maroon, Pastor of Prayer and Congregational Care

Watchman Nee was a famous Chinese Christian who was severely persecuted under Chinese communism.  He had a wonderful perspective on praying in line with God’s will.  He believed that God would not do God’s Will until we prayed and asked God to do it – that God would not want to interfere with the free will of humanity unless we invited God into action.  What we often do, however, is invite God to do our will without getting to know God’s perspective.  This is no different than how we can often be in all relationships – often thinking that we are right before we even hear out others.  Part of our prayer lives should be asking God for God’s perspective on whatever we are praying for, and then spending time listening through meditation and scripture.  As we gain insight from God about God’s perspective, it is then that we can invite God into action in our lives and the lives of those around us.

Pastor Michael Maroon, Pastor of Prayer and Congregational Care

This week at Resurrection we will look at several stories that show God working in the lives of women to bring big changes in the world. Brave women kept Moses alive as a baby. Ruth began the family line of David, into which Jesus would be born generations later. These women were not superstars or leading citizens of their time. Just the fact that they were women marked them as insignificant in their culture. Yet their actions changed many lives forever.

Sometimes it is easy to see God working through our prayers.  We pray for healing, and receive the good news that the cancer is gone, the illness has vanished.  We pray for a change in circumstances and that change comes, or for guidance and feel a new peace about our direction. However, in our ongoing conversation with God, answers to prayer are not always so black and white. Not all prayers are simple requests where the answer must be “yes” or “no.” Like any conversation, the changes that occur in our lives most often do not stand alone, but are woven into the fabric of day to day living.

A journal can help us see how God is working in our lives. By journaling your conversations with God, you can look at the record of these conversations and often see answers to prayer in the “big picture” of your whole life.

A journal is a personal document, so there are not any “right” and “wrong” ways to journal. You can begin with a pad of paper, a notebook, or one of the beautiful blank books found in book and gift stores. It is a good idea if it is bound together in some way so you can flip back through the pages. For a period of time, say a month, write your prayers, concerns, thoughts. Don’t just write requests. Add praises, worship, questions–all the things that would be part of a normal conversation. Periodically, find a quiet place and go back and read everything you have written. Pray before you begin and ask God to show you what you need to learn from your journal. Ask yourself questions like these:

• What did I pray about most?
• What was my tone?  Have I been joyful, sad, angry, confused, excited?
• Is there, as they say in Celebrate Recovery, a hurt, habit, or hang-up that appears regularly?
• What seems to bring me the most joy?
• If I had to name a theme for the last month of my conversations with God, what would that theme be?
• What questions do I feel are still unanswered?  What new questions do I have?

If you have never journaled your prayers, give these suggestions a try and expect to see new answers and ways God is moving and working in your life, and new topics for your ongoing conversation.

–Jennifer Creagar, Resurrection Prayer Ministry

This week in worship at Church of the Resurrection, we will hear about Esther, who had some very big decisions to make.
Sometimes life puts us in a place where we just don’t know what to do. We turn to God in prayer, but how will we recognize the answer?

C.S. Lewis said, “I pray not to change God’s will, I pray to change me.” A big part of our ongoing conversation with God is the change it brings about in our hearts, minds, and actions. When we are stuck, a good question to ask is, “How is God working to change ME in this situation so that I will be more like him, following his will more closely?”

It is more common to pray asking God to change the situation. Esther could have prayed, “God make Haman change his mind so I don’t have to risk my life by addressing the king.”  She could have prayed, “God, please protect me here in the palace from the terrible thing that is about to happen to all the Jews in the kingdom.”  We don’t really know – maybe she did.  We do know what happened. Esther changed. She became brave and faithful and stepped forward to save her people and her family.

Praying to see the change God wants to bring about in us is a very scary thing. But God has promised us change for the good.  In Jeremiah 29:11-14 God said this to some of his people who were living in danger: “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

God promised to listen. He also promised we will find him when we seek him, but we must be ready to accept the change that comes with finding his perfect will.  Look how well the change worked out for Esther!

Jennifer Creagar – Prayer Ministry

In a dream one night, God appeared to Solomon and, in genie-in-a-bottle fashion, God said, “Ask!  What shall I give you?” (1 Kings 3:5).  What Solomon asked and prayed for was profound.  Solomon responded by saying, “Therefore give to your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.  For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” (1 Kings 3:9).  Scripture tells us that this was pleasing to the Lord.

Often times we petition for many things, but how often do we petition for wisdom and understanding?  How often do we pray for discernment?  If you are struggling with something in your life and you have been petitioning God to bring an answer that you’ve predetermined to be the appropriate answer from God,  I want to invite you to open yourself up to praying a bit differently.  Pray for Wisdom.  Pray for Understanding.  And pray for Discernment.

In verse 13, The Lord says to Solomon, “See I have given you a wise and understanding heart.”  My prayer is that God would answer your prayer much in the same way.

- Pastor Michael Maroon

In Richard Foster’s Book, Prayer, he talks about what prayer is, and also what prayer isn’t.  He writes,

Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics.  That puts us in the “on-top” position, where we are competent and in control.  But when praying, we come “underneath,” where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent.  “To pray,” write Emilie Griffin, “means to be willing to be naïve.”

Naivety is hard work for proud and accomplished people.  It takes discipline to transition yourself out of the ‘I have to know it all’ mentality that is required to look and seem competent at work or with our children.  Yet, Foster argues that this transition is important for us to have a healthy prayer life.  Can we ever really get there though?  In catch-22 fashion, Foster argues that the only way we can get to this prayer-life of surrender is through prayer and by praying honestly about where we are in life. What makes this catch-22 possible is God’s transforming grace that is present in our prayers.

So, this week, I invite you to pray as you are.  If you find yourself in need of ‘prayerful incompetence’, then I encourage you to pray this prayer that Foster has provided for us.

“Dear Jesus, how desperately I need to learn to pray.  And yet when I am honest, I know that I often do not even want to pray.  I am distracted!  I am stubborn! I am self-centered!  In your mercy, Jesus, bring my “want-er” more in line with my “need-er” so that I can come to want what I need.  In your name and for your sake, I pray.  Amen. “

Pastor Michael Maroon