Prayer | Living in God's Shadow

Conversations About Others

June 3, 2020 by Tim

Did you know that we can live in God’s shadow and still have conversations about others? Yes, it is possible when we are having a conversation with God. Anyone listening to most conversations would ask, “Is it even possible to have a conversation without ever mentioning another person?” It is human nature to talk about other people. I believe that God wants us to have conversations with Him about others. I am aware this idea may sound far-fetched, but the reason for these conversations is not to pass on juicy tidbits of information to God. He already knows.

The key to understanding this is that scripture instructs us to pray for one another. The Apostle Paul lived this out. Throughout his epistles, he tells the readers many times that he is praying for them to be made complete in some aspect of Christian living. Paul was not gossiping about the people he was writing to; instead, he was praying for their spiritual welfare.

When we have conversations with God about other people, we should not be doing it to gossip to God. God is not interested in gossip. He already knows every person’s secrets. What God wants to hear is your requests on behalf of others. He wants to listen to your desire for their well-being.

We find examples of people making requests on behalf of others throughout the Bible. Abraham pleaded on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18:22-33) Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites several times. Jesus made requests on behalf of the disciples and even the believers of today. Yes, Jesus also prayed for the believers of today in John 17:20-21. Each of these cases is a situation where the person making the request did so without being asked to do so by the person for whom they were praying.

One thing I have noticed intercessory conversations with God is that they almost always are about other people. Elijah interceded on behalf of the kingdom of Israel, and God ended the three and a half year drought. Moses interceded for the Israelites, and God forgave the people. Intercession is the act of seeing others’ needs so clearly that you passionately converse with God about resolving the need, whether there is any benefit to you or not.

When we participate in intercessory prayer, we act out the fact that we believe that God hears and answers prayer. We demonstrate that we believe in prayer so strongly that we make passionate requests for God to benefit others. Moses is an example of this style of praying. While Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, the people started worshiping an idol. Following this incident, Moses pleaded with God on behalf of the people. He prayed, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin — but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” Exodus 32:31-32 (NRSV) Moses was not gossiping about the people, nor was he telling God anything God did not know. He risked his life and reputation for the people he led. Even though Moses was innocent of wrongdoing, he was willing to be identified with the wrongdoers if it would cause God to forgive them.

Living in God’s shadow changes us. Dwelling near God causes us to stop being focused only on ourselves. Allowing God to make changes in us helps us recognize others’ needs and make requests for God to resolve those needs.

Writing this blog has caused me to analyze what I believe and why carefully. It has also presented questions to me. The most recent inquiry was, “How often do you pray for the readers of the blog you write?” I realized that this was an aspect that I had not given any thought. God used this question to broaden my perspective and to cause me to recognize that only writing articles to encourage others to pursue Him was not enough.

I quote the words of the Apostle Paul, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” Ephesians 1:17-19. (NRSV)

I will remember my readers in prayer this week. I challenge you to intercede for someone this week as you try to live even more passionately in God’s shadow.

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Desperate Conversations With God

May 27, 2020 by Tim

Many times when we pray, it is because we are desperate. We have already tried our plan and have exhausted our ability to reason the problem away with no change in the circumstance. We believe that we are without options or at least without any options we like. We then tend to pray, “God, I am in a desperate situation here. Could You please intervene? Could you please get me out of this uncomfortable circumstance?”

We usually pray these kinds of prayers when we face cancer, bankruptcy, or other catastrophic events. However, no one blames you if you pray like this after a hard day with toddlers. If you have prayed something like this, you are not alone, and you are not the first person to have prayed that type of prayer.

Sometimes when we have these types of conversations with God, we are out of ideas or options of how to deal with the problem. Other times it is because we do not like any of the options available to us, and we would like God to create a more comfortable option for us to use to escape the situation.

I have enjoyed woodworking since my teenage years. Much of my work as a woodworker is repair work to antique furniture. There have been times when I have been working on a project and have run out of ideas about how to resolve a problem I am facing.

I recall one day when I was working on a project and was mystified by how to solve the difficulty I was facing. I stopped and prayed. I said, “Jesus, I don’t know what to do to fix this problem. You were in a carpenter’s shop when you were growing up. What would you suggest I do to be able to complete this project?” Within just a few minutes, a previously unthought-of method popped into my head, enabling me to complete it. I had exhausted my options and asked God to make an option. I have found it helps me to pray as though Jesus is standing right there.

In the book of 2 Kings, I read about a king of Judah named Hezekiah. While he was king, the army of another country tried to conquer the land of Judah. This foreign army sent threats to Hezekiah and tried to influence him to surrender. They even sent a threatening letter to King Hezekiah. It was a challenging time. The choice seemed to be, would Hezekiah surrender and allow all his people to become slaves to a foreign power, or would he try to fight against an army that was vastly larger than his army? Hezekiah prayed a prayer of desperation. (You can read his actual prayer in 2 Kings 19:15-19) God’s answer to that prayer was a third option that was beyond Hezekiah’s ability to produce. The opposing army suffered defeat without Judah’s military, even going into battle, and the king of the foreign army went home. When the foreign king arrived home, his sons assassinated him. You can read the details in 2 Kings 19:20-37.

I recognize that most of us are not facing a foreign army, but we all face times when it seems like there are no acceptable options. There are times when I find myself praying, “God, I need a win today. I have had so many areas where the situations are challenging lately, and I am starting to lose hope that things will get better. Please help me to get something completed successfully today.”

Sometimes my desperate prayers are a little more self-serving. “God, please help me to complete my to-do list today even though it has two days worth of work on it! You see how hard I am trying and how much I need to get these projects done.”

Thankfully I am not the first to pray a prayer that some would view as somewhat selfish. King Hezekiah prayed for God to extend his life. (2Kings 20:2-3) He reminded God of all the good he had done and of how he had dedicated his life to following God.

God knows the attitude of our hearts when we have desperate conversations with Him. God answered King Hezekiah’s prayer and granted him an additional fifteen years.

I am guilty of making one-day to-do lists that really should be two day’s work. I am amazed by how much I have accomplished after a prayer for help with my oversized to-do list. I believe that the answer to why God answers some of these prayers of desperation, that onlookers would call selfish, is found in the words of Jesus. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11 (NIV) God likes to give good gifts.

God understands desperate prayers. He comprehends the reason for the prayer and the situation, causing us to pray with desperation. Desperate prayers show our true feelings, motivations, and the fact that we realize we do not have the answers in ourselves. We recognize that we are not all-powerful and need help when we have these desperate conversations with God. When we do not have the solutions to the problems we are facing, we express our true beliefs about God.

Desperate prayers express faith that God has help for us in our times of hopelessness. It seems that many times, these conversations that we have with God when we are in a difficult place, help us to remember our need for Almighty God. Perhaps the situations that bring about the prayers are designed to remind us of our need to live in God’s shadow. When we do not face hard times, we tend to forget that we do not control every aspect of life. It is when we face hard problems that we remember our need for the Creator of the universe.

Living in God’s shadow places us in His care during both the good and the bad times. It enables us to live confident of His assistance, whether life is easy or hard.

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Conversations of Faith

May 20, 2020 by Tim

Faith is a word that is defined by the context of its usage. I can say, “The Christian faith,” and I am talking about the doctrinal statements of a group. If I tell someone to “keep the faith,” I am telling them not to doubt whatever we are discussing. For those pursuing God, the most commonly used definition of the word faith is being convinced of the validity of God’s word and promises to the point of taking action. This point of view seems to be the idea contained in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (NRSV Bible)

Faith that we can have a relationship with God and that He hears our prayers is the foundation of Christianity. Pursuing God requires us to believe (have faith) that He is who He says He is. (Hebrews 11:6) Lacking this faith makes it impossible to pursue God.

We tend to confuse faith and presumption. Presumption tends to be based on our thoughts and wants. We consider how to make things convenient. Unfortunately, when we presume, we tend to plan schemes that are inside our abilities to perform. Presumption usually holds our egos and plans as having a higher value than pointing others to God. True faith considers what God wants and freely declares, “I do not know how God will do it, but I know that He will.”

My definition of faith is a wholehearted belief. It is when you believe something so entirely that you rest in it as fact. The strength of the conviction causes you to take action. Faith is trusting God to lead us down the correct path even when we cannot see any sign that a trail exists. Praising God for answers He has given in the past often helps to strengthen our faith today.

Years ago, I felt called to start a Spanish language church service. I knew very few Spanish speakers at the time, but in faith, I started the service. God rewarded my faith-filled actions by providing a congregation of Spanish speakers from people I did not know.

A prayer of faith is a purposeful conversation with God. Sometimes I find myself going through the motions of conversing with God, but my mind and heart are disengaged. Have you ever listened to your prayers? It is a good idea to listen to what we are saying to God. Are we giving Him orders? Are we mindlessly saying words? If our answer is yes, then we have to ask, “Do we believe with all our heart that God hears and answers prayer?” Faith is not about placing an order like we would at a fast-food drive-up window. A strong relationship with God enables us to believe that God is hearing our requests and working on our behalf. I have not found anywhere in the Bible where ordering God around was ever considered an exhibition of faith.

Bringing requests to God in prayer, convinced that He will respond, appears to be the methodology of faith illustrated in scripture. Jesus instructs us to ask in faith. (Matthew 21:22) The teaching expressed in both Matthew 21:22 and John 14:12-14 states that we can ask for anything, and God will do it. Common sense tells us that we would not request that God help us to break the Ten Commandments or anything else that would dishonor God. Therefore we should consider what our motivations are when we make requests to God. Are we looking for an easy way to get what we want without work?

It is easy to pray, “God, please put unlimited funds in my bank account.” Much more difficult is a prayer that says, “God, I want to honor you with everything you have given me. I am trusting You to supply all my needs.” Exhibiting faith does not mean sitting in a chair and hoping. Instead, it is actively taking advantage of the opportunities God provides.

As I review my life, I recognize many times when God rewarded my prayers of faith. If I prayed about a financial need, the answer would often be an opportunity for paying work. Housing needs meant that I still had to go out and look at housing opportunities.

About twenty years ago, my wife and I were looking to buy our first house. We had never experienced owning a home before, and we had just moved to the county where we hoped to buy. We prayed, asking God to help us find a house that fit our needs. We believed that God would supply. Our prayers and beliefs did not stop us from talking to real estate agents or from driving around areas we liked looking for ‘house for sale’ signs. Our faith that God would provide moved us to the action of looking for the provision. Faith is evidenced by living in expectation of the answer to our request. We are sure that God will answer our prayers; we just do not know how or when.

Hebrews chapter 11 gives an extensive list of people from the Bible who exhibited great faith, and some of them lived in expectation for a considerable time before they received a result from their prayers. Think of Abraham, who seems to have waited more than a decade before Isaac was born. In some cases, the faith-filled prayers of some received no result until after their death. Joseph, the son of Jacob, the patriarch, in faith, believed that his fellow Israelites would leave Egypt and return to where they had been living before coming to Egypt. While the answer to his faithful prayer did come, it was more than 400 years later.

Exhibiting faith does not mean that we never have doubts, that we are never impatient, or that we never try to control how things work. When my wife and I were trying to find a house to buy, we faced setbacks that made us have doubts. We had found a home that seemed to be the answer to all we needed. We called our real estate agent to put in an offer on the house and found out it had just been placed under a contract that morning. We faced the temptation to ask, “God, what are you doing? We have been asking You, God, to help us find a house. What do we do now?” We continued to look at houses but found nothing that would work or that was in our price range. About two weeks later, our real estate agent called us and said, “That house you were interested in is back on the market, the sale was not able to be completed. Are you still interested in it?” We assured her we wanted to place an offer. After the seller agreed to sell to us, we found out that we had only outbid our competition by a small amount. We marveled at how God had answered our prayers.

Living in God’s shadow requires us to have faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 (NRSV Bible)

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Conversations With God

May 6, 2020 by Tim

Do you ever have conversations with God? Have you ever vented your feelings to God as you would to your best friend? My conversations with God have covered almost every imaginable topic. Yes, I have talked with God about politics, the weather, and religion.

We often try to make our prayers, eloquent lists of requests, while we hold little hope of hearing any response. Perhaps it is that we do not expect a response. Therefore we are surprised when God answers prayer. We often act like God will not be able to handle our raw emotions.

Some of the most intense conversations I have had with God have been in challenging times. Times when I would ask, “God, do You know what You are doing? God, do You have any idea what is going on? Have You forgotten me?”

I became the pastor of a small church upon graduation from college. Several years passed, and my wife let me know that we were expecting a baby. Things went as planned for the first 36 weeks of the pregnancy. Then the unexpected happened. We visited the doctor for a routine checkup, and the doctor discovered that the baby had a heart rate so fast it could not be counted by just listening to it. The news got worse when the fetal heart rate monitor was used to try to count the heartbeat. The baby had a heart problem. This condition caused part of the heart to beat at a regular rate while the other part of the heart attempted to beat at twice that speed. We were transferred to a hospital about an hour away from our home to try to treat the problem. The doctor decided that the best thing would be to deliver the baby by caesarian section. I was there and watched the operation. I will never forget seeing the baby for the first time. She was a rosy pink, had dark hair, and a set of lungs that let us know that she did not like being removed from the warmth of the womb. The nurses immediately whisked the baby away to the neonatal intensive care unit to have her heart worked on.

I was able to visit the baby several hours later. I was shocked when the nurse pointed her out to me. The pink, squalling baby I had seen in the operating room now looked lifeless, the pink skin was now a mottled purple, and the breathing was only happening because of a ventilator. Everyone there stayed far away from me like they did not want to have to help me understand what was happening. I believed the baby was probably dying.

There was not anyone I could call to walk with me through this time. I was the pastor, the leader of the church. Leadership lends itself toward isolation. As a leader, you are walking out in front of everyone else. I felt the pressure to be a perfect example. My frustration and fear boiled over at God, and I asked, “Is this really how You behave? Are you just going to tease my wife and I with this baby? You are going to let us go through all we have experienced these last few days and then take the baby away? I have tried to follow You faithfully, and this is how You reward us? God, what are You doing?”

God was not offended when I lashed out in rage about the situation I did not understand, and His plan that I could not see. He was not upset with me for being angry. God recognized where I was and what I was experiencing. He understood the context of my questions and accusations.

Prayer does not have to be pretty. There is no requirement to be eloquent. Your prayers may be full of pain and rage. Times, when you are not even able to express what you are feeling and thinking your prayers, may sound incoherent to other people listening, but God understands what you are saying. Our prayers are not just background noise for God.

I wonder what Elijah thought as he prayed for rain to end the drought in Israel. He had just seen God answer a short prayer with fire that even burned up the water around the altar. Now Elijah was praying for rain. He sent his servant to look out across the sea for rain clouds. The servant saw only clear skies. What did Elijah think as he continued to pray and sent the servant the second and third times, then a fourth, then a fifth time? I wonder if he thought, “What is going on God, You answered my short prayer for fire, but You are not answering me now? You are going to make it look like that last prayer was a fluke.” Elijah continued to pray and sent the servant the sixth time. Then on the seventh time, Elijah sent the servant, there was a report of a tiny cloud in the distance. Elijah knew that the answer to his prayers had come. (Read the complete story in 1Kings 18:16-46)

I do not claim to understand God fully, but I do know He hears our prayers. He loves to give good things to those who ask. (Matthew 7:11) God did allow our baby to recover from her problems. She did go home with us. She has grown up and served as a missionary in South America. I rarely think of her, but what I remember that almost lifeless baby in the hospital. Her life is a miracle. I remember the days when I lashed out at God, and He supported and comforted me. He understood my angry prayer, even though it was not in a composed and measured tone.

Prayer is an essential aspect of living in God’s shadow. If we do not converse with God, we will not live close enough to reside in His shadow. Join me as I examine other aspects of talking with God in my next few posts.

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That Place Called Prayer

February 15, 2020January 22, 2020 by Tim

I still fondly remember some of my friends from when I was in third and fourth grade. At that time the friendship was strong. Conversations took place at every opportunity. It has been several decades since I last saw those friends or even spoke with them. Those friendships are only memories now. Life has taught me that friendships without conversation tend to wither away. I have found that my relationship with God works very similarly. When I stop conversing with God in prayer, my relationship starts to wither and my faith in Him starts to shrink.

My last blog post discussed the fact that God has provided us with a map that will lead us into His shadow. The starting point for that map was to humble ourselves before God. As I examine the route, laid out in 2 Chronicles 7:14, the second point on the map is to pray. It is interesting to note that God does not ask for our prayers first. He asks for us to humble ourselves before we start talking. Maybe a proud heart would only want to tell God what to do. Perhaps it is that a proud heart is not willing to receive instruction, not even from God. When we are proud and pray, we ask God to fix our brother or sister before He works on us. Living in God’s shadow must be done on a personal basis. We cannot do it for others and others cannot do it on our behalf. When we are humble and we pray, we ask God to fix us.

Usually we think of prayer as humans talking to God, but I believe that prayer is intended to be a conversation. A conversation has two participants. One talks the other listens and then the roles reverse. Sometimes we forget how conversations work when we go to prayer. When that happens we do all the talking, none of the listening and then run to the next thing on our schedule. Our prayers sound something like:

“Hi God. I need this list of things and would you please help this list of people with their various needs? Thanks. I gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

I must admit there have been multiple times in prayer that my prayers have sounded similar. In those times I have distinctly felt God was asking me to sit down, be quiet, and listen to Him. When I followed His instruction God showed me things I had been overlooking or perhaps even ignoring. Possibly, the fact that God had already been moving in the situation I was praying about, or the comfort that the entire situation is in God’s control, or even the advice to step back and let God handle the problem. I only learn these things by allowing prayer to be like a conversation where each party speaks and then listens to the other. I believe that the Bible is full of evidence that God wants conversations with the humans He created. This was certainly evidenced in both the stories and the admonitions in the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament. God wants to talk with you, are you willing to listen to and talk with Him?

When I talk to people, sometimes they only half listen and are easily distracted by other things, or occasionally they just wait for me to stop talking so they can tell me the opinion they had arrived at before I started talking, or sometimes they hear only what they want to hear. Unfortunately, there are times I find myself listening to God the same way others listen to me, therefore I don’t hear what he is saying.

When I talk to God, He truly listens. He hears my words, knows my attitude, and understands my intent. He knows if I am angry, sad, or happy. He knows if I am looking for revenge or am pleading for grace for myself or someone else. He knows if I am trying to fillibuster or if I am trying to repent for inappropriate actions and thoughts.

When my children were little they would climb into my lap and talk. It was interesting to listen to their account of what was going on in their world. Sometimes their accounts matched the events I had witnessed. Other times their perspective made their account sound like an event I had not witnessed. Interestingly, when they felt they had been heard they would begin to relax and settle back against me; they were then ready to hear me, to allow me to deal with the problems they could not even comprehend, let alone deal with on their own. The injustices, the bullies, and the fears had all been turned over to their father and were now his to deal with. I think prayer is very much like this. The Almighty wants to hear our account from our perspective and then He wants us to settle into Him and relax as He gives us comfort, advice, instruction, or correction. He wants us to allow Him to guide us and to deal with the problems we face. As I read the Bible I find that God is a God of conversation and relationship who is interested in our well-being, not a God of checklists of do’s and don’ts. He is a God who wants you so close to Him that you are constantly in His shadow.

Praying with a humble heart changes us and prepares us for the next step on the map, seeking God’s face.

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