Church...praying

Church is pretty counter-cultural in a spiritual sense. Althoung we must engage with our culture, we also need to be aware of the spiritual forces and dynamics that drive those cultures. With this in mins it is imperative that we prayerfully engage. God obviously desires to engage culture through the missional thrust of the Church.

We must seek God. We must discern. We must be wise. We must be active. To do all this we must be praying. The Church must be praying - You must pray. I must pray.

Let us devote ourselves to prayer.

book: Youth ministry on your knees (Mike Higgs)

I wanted to recommend this book for it's simplicity and accessability to youth workers short of time for a weighty read - definately not weighhty, but it covers excellent ground.

It starts with the character and person of the youth worker. Your ministry will go as far as your prayer life. we expect God to bless us, without giving him his rightful place at the head of our ministries. He moves on to the issue of purity - living a clean life before God without falling into wrong patterns of living.

This book is also really practical in terms of creating a praying culture amongst young people, and the lastter part of the book focussed on mobilising young people to pray.

I know I've been challenged by this book and have just begun reading it through a second time. Enjoy it when you buy it.

Fransiscan Prayer

I'm not a massive fan of written prayers that become 'rote' prayers, but this one is one that i will learn and pray from my heart. It's a 'Fransiscan Benediction':

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who
suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Book: God On Mute (Pete Grieg)

I thought it was about time I started recommended some books - so here's the first:

I'm a huge fan of all the 24-7 prayer stuff, and this book is a warmly welcomed addition to their writings on the subject of prayer. It's refreshing to read a book with wit, warmth, honesty, vulnerability and sound theology within it's pages. Grieg manages to encourage us about the hard aspects of prayer, drawing on the example of Jesus' praying, as well as from personal testimony to ground it in today's reality.

I've read a few books on prayer and I'd rate it as one of the best.

Persevere in Prayer

Luke 11:9-13 (New Living Translation)

9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

These verses come in the context of Jesus teaching on prayer. Jesus moves from teaching us how to pray into encouraging us to keep on praying. He tells us:

Keep on asking!
Keep on seeking!
Keep on knocking!

Keep on keeping on - don't stop. Pray without ceasing.

How often do we stop seeking God because the answers don't arrive within our designated time-frame? - too often. Giving up in prayer has become our habit!
Perhaps this is why Jesus encourages us to persevere.

Jesus (the Son) then discloses vital information about the character of God (the Father). Jesus knows what he's talking about because his whole life is in dee intimacy with the father. He tells us that God desires to give to us even more than other fathers - even an evil father will give to their kids. Interesting that Jesus refers to 'evil fathers' - perhaps he's aware that we have created mental barriers in our minds towards God because of our hurts and disappointments. Jesus knows that we have each resented God, questioned God and doubted who he is - we have at times thought of him as 'evil', mean and harsh.

Yet Jesus shows us a different Father - a Father who will give if we keep on asking. A father we will find when we seek (cf, the lost son - luke 15). A Father who will open doors when we keep on knocking. A Father who will give us his very own Holy Spirit if we ask.

Are we asking, seeking and knocking to the Holy Spirit's presence and power in our lives?
How ardent is our desire for God's presence in our lives?
Where do we need to fix our relationship with God so that we can come to him as loving Father?
Will we persever in our talking with God until we see answers come down?

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened"

No trouble

Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me

Comfort. We all want to be in this state, yet often we find ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Jesus was aware of this and when his disciples were troubled in heart he advised them with the statement above. As I read the words I'm struck by how obvious they are - Don't let your heart be troubled!

I'm thinking 'like I have a choice'. As I thought about that it struck me that perhaps Jesus was saying we do have a choice. I read it like this:

Don't allow your heart to be troubled - guard your heart from trouble

There are two verses in the bible that say "Guard your heart". One is in proverbs. It says

'guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life'.

Tthe other is in Philippians 4 where Paul tells the Church:

Don't be worried about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends our understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus

Those words are life and beauty to our hearts. As we pray - as we focus on Jesus - God's peace enters our hearts and minds. We guard our hearts from trouble through trusting in Jesus in the place of prayer. Prayer focusses our heart on the solution and takes it off our problems.

God's peace is not a fabrication of our imagination - it is transcendent. Perhaps we need to persevere in praying until God's peace comes to guard our hearts from trouble.

Are we in an uncomfortable situation where troubles are welling up like storms around and within us?

Then let us pray...

After scribbling a few lines on worship I saw again this image. I don't know about you, but I often find myself 'begging' God for change (normally in myself!). I'm longing to see more of God's kingdom come into our daily reality. We can ask God for the obvious stuff (health, stuff, blessing, etc.), or we can pray as Christ taught us ("your kingdom come..."). When His kingdom comes it will mean 'change' but perhaps not in the obvious (and selfish) things we're regularly asking for.

Perhaps we will need to be the change. Perhaps this 'come-coming-not yet' kingdom will show us our need to be follwers of Jesus that love God wholeheartedly (with no regard for ourselves, but rather for God's agenda) and love others (viewing ourselves less highly than we ought and seeing others as highly as we should).

So we pray, let your Kingdom come...your will be done on earth as in heaven...