Prayer practice

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It keeps happening, I find myself thinking about prayer, then without realising I find myself “practicing” and then it’ll hit me that at no point was I consciously directing any of it towards God!! Doh :S Maybe i’m a bit crazy, however whilst looking up meditation, it did make me question whether I need be so hard on myself…

Meditate definition from wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia – Christian_meditation#Theology_of_Christian_meditation

Could what i’m experiencing be considered a vague form of rehearsal and hence at a stretch an aspect of meditation…?

Jeremiah 9:23-24 – Big up the boasting

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Jeremiah 9:23-24

This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”

declares the LORD.

How ace is that. God wants us to know and understand him. He wants us to be proud of our relationship with Him and basically wants us to big him up! Its fair enough like, God is good and is worthy of all the credit that we can possibly direct his way!

Do we feel confident enough to boast that we know God? Do we want to boast about His character?

The fact is God is delighted when we do. :)

Never lay down the shovel

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John Piper puts forward the analogy of our faith as being a furnace which is fueled by grace. The shovel which supplies fuel to fire, ie grace to faith is prayer. As i’ve thought about it over the last few months i’ve become more and more convinced that the analogy holds. Prayer is wonderful, critical for our faith and enables us to live life to the full. Without it we’re spiritually missing out not to mention the joy to be experienced as one knowingly spends time with God.

I’ve often wondered why it is that the devil seems so determined to stop us praying when it can seem to provide such little benefit to us anyway? I mean realistically I can get by ok without it right? What does he know that I don’t…? I can but conclude that he knows the power of prayer far more potently than I do… If he can stop me praying he succeeds in breaking down the moment by moment communication within the most important relationship i’ll ever have, that with God himself. The sad thing is that I can so often offer no shred of resistance.

I recently had a great bible study with some guys. At the end there was a real desire to take God seriously again. It was glorious to see, because at the heart of it was a renewed passion for God. I couldn’t help but think though that surely to be sustainable, there has to be more behind this good intention that just simply a person’s will to do it. I mean consider the low success rate of new years resolutions.

I remember that part in Nehemiah where he reminds the people of the “Joy of the Lord” being their strength, and I believe its the same for us. Its this joy which sustains these good intentions, our prayer life, provides moments of peace during times of stress. Its this joy which provides the motivation as we look to reach out to our friends and gives us a reason to smile! We deserved to die and now we have eternal life!

The following from a book i’m reading at the moment outlines the human desire for relationship as follows:

We want to be with people we know well and who enjoy being with us. We long for close, fully satisfying relationships.

How can joy pour forth from our relationship with God if we don’t invest in it? God desires so much for a relationship with us, and yet all too often we can offer up some token gesture lip-service we deem required to keep things ticking over, without our hearts being in it. Life-bringing, sustaining joy flows from an intimate relationship with our God which we maintain and build upon through prayer.

It doesn’t need to be a drag, its a relationship with a living God! Keep the faith, pray joy pray joy pray! Awesome.

Christmas day

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On christmas day morning we went up Shaftoe crags. While photos were taken mum was used as a hat stand. Modelling Am’s hat was worth whipping out the phone for.

Mum

I don’t remember the last time it was just the 6 of us for christmas day, but it happened this year as Grandad spent it in hospital with grandma. Late afternoon we went in to hospital and entertained with the guitar before driving down to Stockport to see the Greens.

Home at last

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Finally home for christmas, been looking forward to it for weeks. As per normal, mum tries to fit in all those appointments that should have been met donkeys ago.

At 10am I got drained of a pint of the red stuff and because it was christmas they were giving out presents. Asda shower gel… oh yeah baby. 11:30 was the dentist. The last 2 days of using the electric toothbrush paid off big time as my teeth were branded “beautiful” (in the manly sense obviously!), though certainly no reflection on the last 6 months worth of slack brushing. Anyways, next up was a game o tennis with Zand, Jonny and John. A year without practice meant I was a bit poo (minus a pint of blood probably didn’t help either), but Zand and me did win 7-5, 6-1. There were glimpses of potential, but the forehand was everytime an erratic, unpredictable disaster :P.

Early afternoon we went to see G’ma in the hospital a la post stroke rehab ward. I thought she was on pretty good form. She didn’t have much control of her left hand and her speech was quite slow. Being the first time i’ve seen her, i’ve really nothing compare progress to. People are hopful she’ll make a fairly good recovery, although the critical question is whether she’ll regain enough mobility to live at home again?

I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah

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I Issac take thee RebekahI’ve just finished it this week. Its pretty short, a very easy read written simply for those striving for a lasting, loving marriage, whether for the present or in preemptive preparation.

It reads quite like a long sermon as he ambles purposely through the betrothal and marriage of Issac and Rebekah. It doesn’t go into huge depth but offers a very much God-centered, biblical view of the subject.

Very much worth a read especially as it won’t take you long.

There were a few things which really stood out for me…

Will and emotion (p30)

He suggests that we’re prone to exaggerating the separation between the emotion and the will, when infact we should be looking to preserve the grand union between them. Theres a great line on page 30:

“Without the will, marriage is a mockery; without emotion, it is a drudgery. You need both.”

My heart goes along with that. They’ve been a source of confusion in the past, able only to see them as opposing viewpoints, with most people seeming to have bias towards one over the other.

Temptation (p80)

There was a part which shed some useful insight into temptation based around Matthew 4:1-11 which details how Jesus was tempted. The devil makes temptation appear as a natural desire, but when he tempted Him with “the kingdoms of this world” its important to notice that what he was offering was neither his nor his to give, instead he was offering an “enchantment of the eye”… “to go for the shell of existence while loosing the essence of one’s being”.

Ready for marriage? (p97-105)

This was a very much practical section where he makes 3 main points:

  1. Do you truly have the maturity to sacrifice your selfishness for the responsibility that lies ahead?
  2. Get the best pre-marital counseling possible.
  3. Preparation and commitment to conflict resolution.

He also says on p97 that when he was married, he remembers pondering whether he really loved the girl he was marrying.

Don’t rush (p111)

Just the simple idea that if marriage is as grand as the bible intended it to be, then its worth it to wait until you are ready for that right moment… for the right one.

Importance of prayer (p120)

He suggests that the individuals prayer life is the key to discerning his or her character, going on to say that

“It is self-evident truth that a person who truly prays and seeks God’s wisdom in life recognizes the sovereignty of God and is committed to seeking God’s wisdom in life’s important choices. It is important to to understand that it is a prayer life that build character that honors God”

Memorizing scripture (p128)

He talks about the importance of studying God’s word, its greatest single purpose being to make us “wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15 KJV). He suggests that learning studying and memorizing scripture “make an inscription in the very soul”, and when God needs to speak to us it gives him a context within which to reach us.

Family life and being a man (p145)

He observes that there are fewer and fewer examples of godly men for young men to follow going on to say that and there is little doubt that men have led the way in the dereliction of duty to the family.

“mothers raise boys; fathers raise men” (Dr James Dobson)

Us men need to stand up and be counted…

More than WYSISYG?

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Last Sunday, shorty after church had started, a guy near the front began to what I thought was sneeze. Pretty quickly though it became obvious he was in fact repeating “sh*t” over and over again, and after repeated “quiet words” by the stewards a few of the Carrubbers holy heavies figured he best be moved. In the end there wasn’t much resistance, he just cackled and laughed as they walked him out…

Whilst all this was happening the whole A/V system went into meltdown (which hasn’t happened once in the 5 years i’ve been there…). The service kept going regardless, un-acknowledged from the platform, but caused obvious disruption.

Ephesians 6:12 came to mind:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Walking back I was more shocked and surprised than I should have been given how clearly the Word teaches us to expect such things. I remember reading somewhere (probably CS Lewis) that one of the most effective tactics of the devil is to lead us into believing that he doesn’t exist. After a bit of thought I have to admit that when the rubber hits the road my default reaction when confronted by the supernatural in my day-to-day is often one of cynicism, preferring to write circumstances off as mere “coincidence”. I mean what is coincidence anyway?!

The devil will try everything within his power to strip God of credit, to distract from His sovereignty, and to deceive us into concluding that reality be exclusively that which we can see around us. Its not often that he sticks his neck out so blatantly, preferring to prowl in the shadows “undetected”.

Its a shame that it took such a tangible demonstration to remind me of the battle we’re involved in and of the devils prowling nature, and even as I write this i’m still tempted to explain away his influence as a string of mere coincidences… which no doubt he’d be very keen for me to do.

Not quite sure what i’m trying to say, t’is all a bit of a ramble…