Remember

I read this from Luke 1:

Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

^{5 “}In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. ⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

⁸ Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹ And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth”

I really appreciated a few things from that reading. 

-          Zechariah was serving.  It was time for him to be on duty, so he was working.  He was walking in obedience to God.

-          Zechariah was praying for the impossible.  In spite of his wife being barren, in spite of their age, he was asking God for a child.

-          His miracle comes in response to prayer.  The angel says “your prayer has been heard.”  God answers our prayers.  The impossible is possible. 

-          God’s angels are mighty & powerful.  The sight of just one angel strikes fear in Zechariah.  Yet, it reminds me of 1 Kings 6:

¹⁵ “When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶ He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

God’s timing is perfect.  His power is awesome.  His plan results in joy and gladness.

Those who are with us are more than those who are with them!

 

A Praying Life

I spent a bit of time today searching my own blog.  I was trying to find the post where I wrote about Paul E. Miller's book, "A Praying Life"... only I don't seem to have written about it.  Ooops.

Tremendous book.

I'll share some:

"The second thing we must do in learning to pray is believe like a child.  Children are supremely confident of their parents' love and power.  Instinctively, they trust.  They believe their parents want to do them good.  If you know your parent loves and protects you, it fills your world with possibility.  You just chatter away with what is on your heart.  It works the same in the world of prayer."

"Imagine asking Jesus how he's doing.  He'd say, 'My Father and I are doing great.  He has given me everything I need today.'  You respond, 'I'm glad your Father is doing well, but let's just focus on you for a miute.  Jesus how are you doing?'  Jesus would look at you strangely, as if you were speaking a foreign language.  The question doesn't make sense.  He simply can't answer the question 'How are you doing?' without including his heavenly Father.  That's why contemplating the terror of the cross at Gethsemane was such an agony for Jesus.  He had never experienced a moment when he wasn't in communion with his Father.  Jesus' anguish is our normal."

"Efficiency, multitasking, and busyness all kill intimacy.  In short, you can't get to know God on the fly."

Those are just the first three quotes I opened to.  The whole book is quotable.  Engaging.  Encouraging.  Exciting.

Tremendous book.

Yesterday, a friend gave me a copy of it.  Since I already have one, she said I could share it.

Would you like to have it?

G Prays

Dear God,

I love Mom.

And I love Joseph.

Help Joseph to get back home.

Amen.

Surgery Bound

Our long-awaited surgery will happen this week.

If you are up for praying, here's the request:

- Healing for G's eye and full restoration of his vision

If you're up for some more praying, here are some other requests:

- G would stay healthy this week.  I've tried to keep him sheltered from illness.  Not Easy with a crawling-under-tables, hands-in-the-mouth boy.  He must be healthy to proceed with surgery.

- There to be no negative impact from the hole in the back of G's lens.  That it would miraculously close before surgery.  Or that debris would not fall through it back on to his retina.  Or whatever.

- G's retina would hold firm.  He had a normal (very scary) fall this weekend where he banged his chin.  Between that and the surgery.... We just need for that retina to stay attached.

- The new lens would be in stock at the hospital.  If they have it, they will be able to attach it straightaway and avoid another surgery.

- Wisdom for the medical team.

- Calm and peace for G during the recovery.

- G's brain to still be trying to connect with that eye.  We need to pray that the brain hasn't given up on it!

I know that's a lot.  Feel free to stick with:

- Healing for G's eye and full restoration of his vision

Thank you,
Heidi

Pray & March

I wanted to share my other favorite part from Steven Furtick's book Sun Stand Still.

The title of the book comes from Joshua, chapter 10.  That's where Joshua's army is battling the Amorites and God tells Joshua not to be afraid because He is giving the victory to Joshua.  Joshua's army attacks at dawn and fights all day.  Unfortunately, the victory isn't cemented by the time the sun starts to go down.  On page 14, Furtick writes:

"Most of us - even really good Christian people - would have called it a day.  I've done all I can do.  I've exhausted every option.  I've given it all I've got.  But Joshua wasn't most people.  He refused to go out like that.  That wasn't the way it was supposed to end.  This was where his audacious faith began. 

Joshua sized up the situation, summoned all his available courage, and delivered one of the most gloriously unorthodox prayers in the entire Bible:

O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. (verse 12)

Now can you see why I love this story?  Joshua had the audacity to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky.  To freeze time on behalf of his people."

God did it.  He stopped the sun.

Fabulous as that is, I just included it because you need the background to understand my real favorite part, from page 172 & 173.  There, Furtick confesses that he missed an important point on his first reading of Joshua 10.  He goes back and reviews the events for us:

"First, there's God's sweeping promise to Joshua:

Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand.  Not one of them will be able to withstand you. (verse 8)

Two verses later we see God start to fulfill his own promise.  Enemy soldiers flee.  Israel gives chase.  God joins in by hurling down hailstones on the fleeing Amorites.

And a couple of verses after that, Joshua prays his epic, sun-stopping prayer.

But hold up a minute.  Between the promise and the miracle comes an easy-to-overlook piece of information:

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. (verse 9)

An all-night march?  Lugging weapons and supplies through enemy territory in the dark?  Twenty miles uphill (scholars tell us) only hours before the biggest battle of the campaign?

Wow.

Suddenly I had a flash of insight about prayer.

If you're going to pray for God to make the sun stand still, you'd better be ready to march all night.

Joshua's big prayer wasn't a cop-out.  He didn't ask God to make the sun stand still while kneeling in the comfort of his tent.  He did it on his feet after an all-night march....

If you're going to have the audacity to ask God for something, you'd better be ready to act.  Audacious prayer must be tethered to practical obedience.  Or else it's not faith.  It's just wishful thinking and positive mental energy.  No wonder so many of our prayers aren't answered.  We pray for a miracle, but we fail to make a move."

Makes you want to pray / go / live, doesn't it?

Ordinary Audacious Prayer

I've been reading Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick.  Honestly, the book hasn't rocked my world, but there have been definite worthwhile parts.  I've got one to share tonight.

First, I have to explain that he refers to "juggernauts," by which he means "a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path."  Ok.  Now you're ready for the excerpt:

"[The great prayers of the Bible are] recorded in Scripture to set an all-time prayer standard for us.  To force us out of our defensive prayer posture.  To inspire us to rise up and begin to pray... like juggernauts.

Juggernauts like Moses, who stood in God's way and prayed that God wouldn't kill the Israelites after they worshiped the golden calf.

Juggernauts like the apostles, who asked for and expected miracles, and who spoke out boldly in the face of persecution so that the name of Jesus could be lifted high.

Juggernauts like Elijah, whose prayer both caused and ended a three-and-a-half-year drought.

You may push back on this, but I suggest that the prayers of these people are not abnormal.  They are not the exception.  At least they were never meant to be.  The tragedy of our time is that we have taken what was meant to be ordinary and made it exceptional.  We've put audacity on the highest shelf, out of reach, and declared it off limits.  James 5:17 makes the eye-opening statement:

Elijah was a man just like us.  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

It's too bad that most of us focus on the second part of this verse.  We're stunned by the superior power of Elijah's prayer life.  We'd love to have an ounce of his power flowing in our prayer lives.  But we don't have to wish.  That's the whole point of this passage.  We are just like Elijah....

Think about it.  Elijah had access to an all-powerful God who could stop the rain.  We have access to an all-powerful God who can stop the rain....  The only difference is that Elijah... had the audacity to pray prayers that lived up to God's character, God's heart, God's resources, God's will, and God's abilities."