Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 7 (day seven)
I count 5 spiritual disciplines utilized in our text this week that we rarely attempt:
v.2 the lament prayer – We sometimes find it impolite to come before God emotionally, when the freedom of uninhibited prayer is exactly what we need. There are numerous examples of lament psalms that are great guides for difficult prayer (e.g. Psalm 6 & Psalm 55)
v.3 Repent + _______ – we hear the call to repentance in Scripture. The next step is to rid your life of that which you are repentant of. You may need to physically destroy an item that is causing you to sin further or reminding you of your former ways.
v.5 & 9 intercessory prayer – when you are praying for yourself do not forget to pray for others.
v.6 fasting – this is a perfect uncomfortable reminder that we need God more than we need food. Why not skip lunch occasionally, to pray, and let your hunger pangs point you to heaven?
v.12 commemorate – In the text Samuel marks God’s faithfulness with a stone. It is good to find a small item that will remind you of what God has done in a specific instance. Some people like to pick out a small stone from an important spot and keep it in their pocket, others like to write a specific verse on a small sheet of paper and keep it on their dashboard, there is no limit to what you can find to remind you of what God has done.
I hope you can find the time this week to try one of these 1 Samuel 7 spiritual disciplines out in your personal walk with God. I know they will increase your faith. Be adventurous in your faith and try these kinds of new things. These new things have worked for thousands of years.
Thank you for citing these 5 spiritual disciplines and application for each. Lament prayer seems to be more personal and intercessory prayer seems to be more focused at the corporate level. I do think it takes practice to be able to incorporate these 5 spiritual disciples naturally into our daily lives.
Through Scriptures, God provided each type of prayer for a specific purpose. I truly feel we need to be familiar with each type. From my perspective, we may use more than one or in combination of several types at any given time. It is important for us to understand the scope and limitations of each type so to make sure we use them properly and for impact.
It is never easy to pray either for ourselves or for others. I do think we need to pay attention to what outcomes we expect from God and use the right type of prayer to communicate with God for achieving intended results.
I pay particular attention to lament prayer as it seems to be the best communication strategy to relieve to God what has upset us or disappointed us during our most difficult times or in unsettling situations.
Phuong Callaway’s insights: Prayers of lament may look like prayers of complaining, but they can still be prayers of faith, because this type of prayer refuses to let God go even in the hard times.
Please read, Pouring Out Your Heart in Lament to God, for gaining further understanding of what lament prayer is:
http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/prayer/pouring-out-your-heart-in-lament-to-god.html
I am convinced that our faith will be strengthened when we incorporate all spiritual disciplines and various types of prayers as God taught us in scriptures and make them our culture of prayers.