Why should we pray?

When we are finally over these extraordinary times, some of the scenes that will persist in my mind are those of hundreds of people in different countries kneeling in the streets calling on God. Others were praying loudly and  unashamedly as they walked a safe distance from one another during the exercise break from lockdown. And I still hear, in my mind, hundreds of voices in unison echoing through the streets singing “I Surrender All”.

Yet does prayer really change anything?

Actually, it might be pedantic, but I think we can be misled by saying prayer changes things. It can almost make an abstraction of prayer. It is God who changes things in answer to prayer. The focus is on God and the prayer has to be directed to the one true God. So, the real question is: Does God answer prayer?

In spite of many times when prayer seems to fail, I have no doubt it makes a huge difference. There are many instances where God changes circumstances in answer to prayer. For an eloquent expression of seven of these, may I recommend an excellent article by Greg Stier in his blog Gregstier.org

Prayer remains a mystery

There is still a mystery to prayer. I’ve no idea why prayer sometimes seems effective and at other times not. I long to see the day when God moves in power, such as we read about in the Book of Acts or in the great stories of revival. However, I have discovered the more I pray, the more God answers my prayers.

When I was in anaesthetic practice, I had the opportunity to pray practically all the time. I’d pray with my patients on my preoperative rounds, I’d pray with them again before I put them to sleep and I’d often pray in tongues for them while they were anaesthetised. Then, in the ICU I’d pray with my patients and their relatives, and pray with the nursing staff. With all that prayer, I often saw God come through in miraculous ways, with healings that were far beyond what mere medicine could achieve. Many of these are chronicled in God in the ICU and Prayer, Medicine and Miracles.

There were, however, times when I prayed earnestly and very little changed. So, the mystery remains, but what I do know is that nothing would have changed — the miracles wouldn’t have happened — if I hadn’t prayed.

So, how does that affect our approach to Covid 19?

I do believe praying for our loved ones — for their protection and healing — will make a difference. The more we pray the more likely we are to affect the outcome. And the more we commune with God and nurture our relationship with Him, the more we will pray with confidence that He hears us — as James says in Jas.1:6 “When he asks, he must believe and not doubt” — and the more we will learn to ask, not as beggars but as His dearly loved children.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the gift of prayer. Teach us how to pray in the midst of this storm, Lord. Protect those we love, especially ………(fill in the gap)…. Give wisdom to those who are making vital decisions in this crisis. May they make them with integrity and wisdom. Watch over those who are on the front line in combating this plague. Keep them strong in body mind and spirit, and let them act in compassion in spite of the huge pressure of all that needs to be done.

As we pray, may Your peace flood our souls, knowing that You are a compassionate God and all is under Your control.

In Jesus’Name

Amen

Making the main thing the main thing

Wow, the world is in turmoil. Insecurity and fear through the effects of the pandemic and lockdown have gripped so many.

Now, horrific footage of callous police suffocating George Floyd has sent our planet convulsing, with protests in every state of America and in 50 other nations.

And, unfortunately, other injustices have followed the reactions to his killing. Other innocent lives have been lost and businesses and lives destroyed.

I remember attending a series of lectures on Restoring Biblical Justice, during discipleship training for Mercy Ships. I was not looking forward to it. I expected a fairly angry man to give us a litany of injustices in the world and how we should fight them. (I had encountered quite a few people like that in the past.)

Instead, the man who came was filled with joy and the love of God, free from all the restrictions of anger.

I found myself thinking that this man must have an administrative position and not really see the injustices he was talking about — until he recounted stories of his walking past rows and rows of shop windows displaying children, some as young as five, who were up for sale for the night to lascivious middle aged men who chose them as sex objects as casually as one would select a packet of cigarettes.

How did he retain his joy and freedom of spirit when he was involved in such heartbreaking work, as he rescued these little victims?

His teaching changed my life.
  “Remember that you are there as an ambassador of Christ. If you let your preoccuption with the cause eclipse your commitment to Christ and your care for the individual, you’ll end up angry, embittered and burnt out. Keep your relationship with Christ uppermost, and your desire to reflect His image foremost.”

Listen to the words of Sheldon Vanauken in his wonderfully moving book, A Severe Mercy as he relates his life after his beloved wife died.

“I was one of those caught up in the mood and action of the 1960s, especially the Peace Movement (against the Vietnam War). Christ, I thought would surely have me oppose what appeared an unjust war. But the movement, whatever its ideals, did a good deal of hating. And Christ, gradually was pushed to the rear.”

We have every cause to speak out against the gross injustices that plague our fallen world — and we should — but let’s keep Jesus uppermost in our lives and in the way we respond to both the victims and the perpetators of injustice. His most powerful weapons in producing change were love, grace, forgiveness and healing. And how very effective those weapons are. They have persisted for over two thousand years and continue to win hardened, angry men and women with hearts of stone to His side, giving them sensitive, responsive, life-giving hearts of flesh.

It is as you stay close to Him and His ways that you feel safe in your inner being and make a safe place for others to feel His love through you.

From an apostle’s-eye view

I don’t suppose any of you can imagine the turbulent sea of emotions welling up inside me as I, as the One Jesus Loved, watched Him go.

In a sense I felt numb, almost as if all that had happened over the last 40 days were a dream. What a tumultuous time. Here we were, enjoying the exhilaration of being part of Jesus’ ministry, watching Him as He healed and preached and brought such joy wherever He went, when all of a sudden we were plunged into a breathtaking pattern of events that left me emotionally bankrupt.

It all started at the Passover Supper, when He washed our feet and then led us into the Garden. The meal had made me sleepy. I had no idea of the import of the hour, though Jesus urged us to pray with Him. It was only when the soldiers came that I knew something terrible was afoot.

My first reaction was terror, and I ran.

From then on I don’t think I have ever felt such deep emotions rock my soul.

There was:

Shock, as Pilate stood Him before the crowd. I didn’t recognise Him, so torn was He, and bruised and swollen after the scourging.

Anger at the injustice of it all, and deep gut-wrenching agony watching Him gasping on the Cross.

Love — deep, deep love — as He looked at me from the Cross and entrusted His mother into my care.

A guttural cry from deep within as He breathed His last and I watched my beloved Saviour’s tortured body relax in death.

Confusion as Peter and I saw an empty tomb.

Incredulity and joy when He appeared to us as we sat huddled behind locked doors.

Freedom and lightness as He taught us for forty days.

All these emotions in the space of just over a month.

And now we watched Him rise above the earth and disappear from our sight. We’d seen Him walk on water. We’d seen him calm a storm. But to see Him taken up in the air took me completely by surprise. He was talking to us, telling us to be His witnesses when the Holy Spirit fell upon us, and then He just …. floated upwards till the clouds hid Him. It was the most unreal sensation as we gazed at the place where He disappeared.

Yet, there was a sense of expectancy, which I’d like you to share with me. The angels, who appeared to us when He had gone, assured us He would return as He had left.

I urge you to share that expectancy. As His disciples, we had an inkling there would be some time before He returned; there were so many prophecies still to be fulfilled, but you? You are watching them unfold before your eyes.

Just take the following for example:

• If ever there was a time that people were lovers of themselves, lovers of money and sold out on mere entertainment, it is in your time.

• There is a plague sweeping your world.

• There is economic hardship, the full impact of which is still to be felt,

• there is the threat of more autocratic governments — even world governance on issues such as abortion, gender fluidity and LBGT rights.

• I’m sure a couple of decades ago it was unthinkable that Western countries would be persecuting Christians, and yet it is happening in Britain and the United States. Even in South Africa it is happening.

Yes, Church, today is the day you celebrate Jesus’ ascension to heaven. Please do celebrate it. In spite of it’s being downgraded so that it is no longer a public holiday, it is such an important day. As Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, He sent His Holy Spirit on all who believed. And how vital that is as we face the coming days.

But as you, in your mind’s eye, gaze upwards and picture Jesus rising, keep looking up with excited anticipation, not seeing Him go, but seeing His return. It cannot be far off.

Luke 21:28 “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Isaiah 64:4 “Since ancient times, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

Anticipating the fallout from Covid 19

Well, lockdown has eased enough to allow us to get out and about from 6-9am every morning within a five kilometre radius of our residence. It is wonderful to get some real exercise and to see everyone else enjoying the beautiful autumn weather here in South Africa.

What’s next?

Yet, while we appreciate the newfound freedom, there is apprehension in the air over the fallout from the lockdown and a deep desire to be back to normal.

But I wonder if ‘normal’ will be what we knew it to be before Covid 19? And do we really want that? Many people have expressed how much they’ve enjoyed extra family time, time to spend on their hobbies. Likewise, the resurgence of wild life and cleansing of our atmosphere and rivers has shown us just how much we are damaging our world in our scramble for “stuff”.

We’ve been sacrificing what’s important for material ‘stuff’

It has made many of us realise that actually, we are sacrificing things of true value  to earn the money we need to sustain a lifestyle and provide for the family.

A lesson from George Muller

This is not a modern problem, though perhaps it is worse than it has been in the past. No doubt many of you have heard of George Muller? Starting in 1836, without soliciting for funds, he built five orphanages at an estimated cost of £100,000 each. He purely trusted God to provide. In his lifetime he cared for over 10,000 orphans, giving them a fine education and finding employment for them. He also founded schools, distributed over 280,000 Bibles and nearly 1.5 million New Testaments. Without any government assistance and with no fund raising of any kind, it is estimated that over £1.3 million (about £103 million in todays terms) passed through his institutions.

You have probably heard of him, but did you know his motive for starting the first orphanage was to demonstrate to his parishioners that they could trust God to provide?

He saw the menfolk working long hours, neglecting quality time with their families to provide for them (sound familiar?) and filled with anxiety over their future. George Muller had been living by faith, trusting God for his own needs. He held no collection each Sunday, but merely had a box at the back of his church where people could place money if they desired. He never made his needs known, save to God. And he saw God come through all the time. He wanted his parishioners to learn to trust God in the same way, so he started an orphanage as a living demonstration of what God can do. And God was faithful providing far beyond his humble beginnings of an orphanage in his own home.

God speaks loudly through His Word

The book of Isaiah is filled with exhortations to trust God in the midst of trouble. He predicts problems for those who deny Him and chase after other ways of sorting out their troubles, but is full of assurance to those who trust Him. Listen to this, as an example:

Isaiah 33: 14 “The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless”

This is the state of many hearts in this present crisis. Yet hear His word to those who faithfully trust Him and walk in His ways:

vs. 15 “He who walks righteously and speaks what is right” … (words of faith)... “who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes”……..(are committed to God and His ways)“……..his bread will be supplied and water will not fail him.”

I believe God is giving us an opportunity to trust Him as never before. Let’s prove ourselves faithful in trusting Him so that He can prove Himself faithful in providing for us.

For My ways are not your ways…

Facts, false news, science, opinions…

Wow, I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’m getting acute aversion in the pit of my stomach whenever I get another WhatsApp, FB post or Tweet on information about the virus. Was it a leak from a Chinese laboratory dabbling in germ warfare? Was this an experiment that was exported to China from America after it was banned in the US? Did it come from strange animals sold in the Chinese market? Is it a plot by China to dominate the world’s economy? Is it primarily a blood disease?………I have stopped reading/listening to these things now, because I am sure of one thing.

The ultimate truth

Whatever the truth behind this pandemic, the ultimate truth is that

(i )God is in control and

(ii) all things work together for the good of those who love Him.

However this started, whatever the motives of man, God is ultimately orchestrating His plan and it is exciting to anticipate what He is doing, scary as it might be along the way.

An example from Easter

We have just celebrated Easter and that par excellence shows how God was in control of a scenario that was brought about through jealousy, religious hypocrisy, hatred and cruelty. To the disciples on the ground, it must have seemed to be out of control, yet in hindsight we can see that history was tilted upward through that act. And the motives of the various players were merely incidental. I can’t wait to look back on this momentous episode in the history of our planet and see, in hindsight, what God was doing.

Ultimately it is not what you know about how this happened and what the science is behind the illness that will affect us. It is Who you know who can bring you through. The more we get to know Jesus, the more the other facts fade into the background.

Scripture shows the way

The book of Isaiah is filled with passages contrasting the fate of those who trust in God in times of trouble with those who trust in other things to get them through. Psalm 91 is a wonderful psalm that seems to have been written especially for today, yet its promises are addressed specifically to those who trust in God.

Instead of using our forced confinement to fill our minds with all the gossip and speculation about Covid 19, let’s use it to get to know the One who created the universe and you and me better. Then this time will be one invested in healing our land and ensuring our well-being for all eternity.