Prayer in Time of a Severe Illness

This coming Sunday, I once again am offering the individual prayer for health and healing to worshipers.  It is a prayer for the healing of body, mind, and spirit.  I am doing this prayer in conjunction with Psalm 6, the text for my message on Sunday.  The psalmist cries out:  "O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror."  (Psalm 6:2)  The psalmist was at the point of death.

In time of illness, we might make use of the medical profession.  We must remember that their work is considered part of the healing arts. In addition, we can draw upon divine help and ask God for intervention. 

There is nothing wrong with asking for divine help.  King Hezekiah was sick and at the point of death and offered up prayer to God. (2 Kings 20:1-6)    He had been confronting an invasion from the Assyrians.  Yet, the king still felt he had a mission to fulfill.  As a result, he prayed and the prophet Isaiah came and told the king that 15 years would be added to his life.

When we do pray in the case of a severe illness, might it not be okay to ask God for more time, believing that we have a mission to fulfill?  We might feel our work on Earth is not yet done.

The main thing here is that we ask in faith.  What a powerful resource we have in prayer and also know that we are praying, too, for God's will to be done in our lives.

Ash Wednesday Prayer

Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent and is also a time of introspection.  We come to look more closely at our own sin and how we have fallen short of God's expectations.  This day ought to put in focus more the need for a Savior and also that we would be more appreciative of Jesus' suffering and the giving up of his life on the cross.

While we might look at our own sin, we also hope to be changed in order to live more in God's ways.  Lent is a time of renewal.  We would hope maybe to see what needs to be changed in our lives.

The traditional psalm for this day is Psalm 51.  It has the words:  "Create in me a clean heart, O God."  (vs. 10)  I hope that this would be your prayer on this day.  It all starts with the heart, i.e. from the inside.  Once we have been renewed from our hearts, we can make the outward changes.

Commit yourself today to this prayer and let God renew you.

Praying for Missionaries

The other day I received in the mail a copy of the 2013 Missionary Directory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  I was quite overwhelmed by the number of people who are serving in foreign fields!

As I was thumbing through the pages, I started thinking about the commitment (and possibly sacrifice) these missionaries are making.  They have decided to uproot themselves from our land to go to another place where they have to adjust to the dynamics of another culture, such as with food, language, and social customs. They might not enjoy many of the conveniences we have here in America.

Yet, their work is to bring and show God's love in Christ to others.  This is a tall order.

I would think that these folks of our ELCA serving as missionaries need our prayers.  They might be thousands of miles away. We might not be aware of their stories, yet we know they are serving the Lord and witnessing to Him.

Can you take a moment to remember in prayer those who are serving in the foreign fields?

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

We are now in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which extends from January 18-25.  Prayer is needed.since often times there is competition among congregations, or congregations do not agree on certain points of doctrine and become isolated and are not able to worship jointly or participate in cooperative ministry.

The theme for this year's week of prayer is "What does God require of us?"   The words are taken from the prophet Micah, who in response to this question wrote: "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
 
I personally believe that we will find unity in recognizing our common hope in our Savior Jesus Christ.  With him, we can see where we can help others in their brokenness, especially where there is injustice.  Can we work together as churches for doing some positive work here?  Maybe there is some wrong that has been committed or a group of people in need are being ignored.  Can churches working together address these problems?

What about loving kindness?  How we treat one another in the body of Christ is significant in our witness to outsiders.  Can we show kindness to one another and also to those outside the church?

Then, we are to walk humbly with God.  Humility is that disposition that frees us from acting in an elitist or egotistical way.  We can acknowledge our wrongs to one another and move forward together in miission.

These goals are not easy, which is why prayer might be in order.  Will you take the time to pray for Christian unity?

Praying - and the Passage of Time

In this Advent season, I was reflecting on the words of the angel to Zechariah, who had been serving as priest in the temple.  The angel said to him:  "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard."  Luke 1:13.  The words that followed from the angel indicated that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son and whose name is to be John.

I started to wonder, considering that Elizabeth and Zechariah were up in years this certainly was a shock.  Had they actually been praying well into their old age?  Did they really believe that God would send them a child when Elizabeth was well beyond the child-bearing age?  Maybe they had given up and maybe not.

Whether they did or not, God knew their prayers and right at this time in their lives brings an answer.

It made me think of the scenario where we might have given up on our praying for something we have eagerly desired.  That doesn't mean that God has forgotten our fervent pleas for what we truly wanted.  We all live in the wildness of our God, who can do beyond what we ever can imagine!

What is your attitude toward prayer?  If a prayer has not been answered after a period of time, do you call it quits or do you still live in expectation?

Thinking Aloud with God in Prayer

I have always thought of prayer as best when being conversational and informal as opposed to presenting a monolog to God.  A monolog can turn out to be very stiff and formal.  God has given us the privilege to come in prayer; and moreover, to do it as a child would speak informally to one's parent.  Yes, we can pour out what is deep within our hearts to God.

Therefore, we can speak very frankly and directly in terms of letting God know exactly how we feel.  I believe this is one of the gifts of prayer.  We don't have to feel as if we are millions of miles away from our Creator.  We can speak to God as if God were standing right next to us and whose ear is attentive to our every word.

I came across these words in Psalm 30 the other day that really hit home to me about prayer.  "To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication: What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit?  Will the dust praise you?  Will it tell of your faithfulness?  Hear O Lord, and be gracious to me!  O Lord, be my helper!" (Psalm 30:8-10)

The psalmist is using basic logic.  If he has died, he can no longer praise God.  In other words, the psalmist was pleading to God to be saved when in danger because then he could continue bringing praise to his Creator.  While I have never made such a statement in prayer, it made me think of how we can be at times very frank with God.  It shows our intent and our love for all that God means to us.

So, how is your praying?  Have you ever been very frank and upfront with God?

From Pain to Confidence

Sometimes its hard to have any confidence or encouragement when things aren't going well.  We are apt to think the worst.  Moreover, we might feel that our resources are limited or have run dry.

David, in writing one of his psalms, found himself in a situation where he was praying for deliverance from his enemies.  At the beginning he wrote:  "How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long."  (Psalm 13:2)  He was very blunt with God.  He felt he was on the verge of being forgotten.  (vs. 1).

Have you ever felt like this?  Whatever you are up against seems to be overwhelming.

Then at the end of the psalm there is a different mood.  David writes:  "But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation."  (Psalm 13:5)  It's having confidence in the midst of undergoing a great trial.  Perhaps, this is the paradox that people of faith have.  While the situation might seem to look hopeless, there can still be confidence that the situation can turn out okay.

It's more than just luck.  It's trusting in the God who has made heaven and Earth.  It is knowing that God's heart is always beating for you.  That's God's steadfast love!

So, when you pray, you can pour out your heart to God.  Let God know exactly how you feel; but then you can express your hope that you will prevail.