Author: Megan Langan

Language of Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day four)

There are moments in life that are simply too big to fit into language. Sometimes our circumstances are so heavy, so agonizing that all we can do is fall at the Lord’s feet and groan. Other times, our joy is so great and overwhelming that the only sensical thing to do is shout and dance. Then there are times where we simply can’t find where to start. Language is amazing, but it is still limited. We know that there is no word uttered on this earth that can adequately describe God – because he is bigger than language too.

So if the God to whom we pray is bigger than language, and we experience moments in life bigger than language, then it must be so that prayer can happen without uttering a word. Sometimes our most meaningful moments of prayer are when we simply hold up our hearts before the Lord with shaking hands. We can do this because the Spirit that dwells in us and intercedes for us is the very Spirit of God himself. He is both that intimate and that cosmic. I am so glad that words can’t contain our God.

Devoted

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day four)

There are many times when church life in 2023 reflects this description of the early church. I have enjoyed breaking bread with many of our FBCSA family where that spirit of gladness and sincerity of heart was present. I have experienced the generosity of our members when they have given selflessly as I or my ministry had need. I have experienced that sense of awe as I’ve seen the Spirit move in miraculous ways in and through this body of believers. In fact, in the middle of writing this, the Lord used a coworker to give me an encouraging word right when I needed it.

And then there are moments – and often they’re just that, moments – when a ministry isn’t going the way you want it to, or you read a troubling headline about a pastoral or denominational failure, or the reality of having all things in common is a little grating, and you begin to wonder if the church has drifted from this vision in Acts.

But let me tell you, if we continue to devote ourselves to teaching the Word, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and, chiefly, to prayer, the Lord will continue the good work he started in the early church. He will make himself known to us just as he did with them. With Christ as the head of the church and our great high priest, that devotion will never return void.

Bigger

Re:Verse passage – 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 (day four)

The life of a prayer doesn’t have to end when it’s answered. Paul is asking his readers to reflect on how God has moved in their lives, and pray that that would multiply. Part of the practice of prayer is reflection – this helps turn our prayer life into a dynamic relationship with God, rather than a list of to-do’s for God.

When we reflect on what God has done and how he has answered our prayers, we begin to see that the impact of that answered prayer could be far bigger than we ever imagined. Part of the work of the Spirit is using that answered prayer to minister to the whole body, the whole community. When we spend time in reflection with the Lord, we’ll see how the Lord’s faithfulness to us is meant to be multiplied.

This is witnessing, isn’t it? We share what we experience of God – in real time. Witnessing is more than telling our salvation story, though it’s not less than that. We’re meant to continually witness to what we have experienced of God, trusting that he will multiply his faithfulness. An answered prayer is bigger than we realize.

“I’ll Pray for You.”

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 6:17-20 (day four)

“I’ll pray for you” is a common phrase around church. When we hear of a prayer request from someone in our Bible study class, or as we’re chatting in the hall on the way to worship, we respond, “I’ll pray for you.”

Many of us do bring that request to the Lord later in our prayer time. Sometimes we intend to but forget along the way. And sometimes, if we’re honest, the words are barely out of our mouth before our minds have moved on to the next thing. But if we’re not careful, we can make the phrase “I’ll pray for you,” into simply a nice sentiment.

Paul wasn’t asking for nice sentiments here. He’s assuming that his readers understand that prayer is the most powerful thing we can offer someone. When we put on the full armor of God, pray through the power of the Spirit, and partner with Jesus who intercedes for us at the very right hand of God, our prayers hold more power than this world knows what to do with.

Let’s consider the power that prayer holds this week, and pray for each other in that way. And if you’re worried you’ll forget someone’s request on the way home? Pray for them on the spot. Let us be a praying people.

The Way You Thought

Re:Verse passage – Esther 7:3-7 (day four)

Have you ever looked around at your life and thought, “This is not how I thought it would turn out”? I doubt that as a little girl, Esther dreamed with any seriousness of being a queen. I doubt that Mordecai foresaw the role he would play in saving the Jewish people. On the flip side, though, I doubt that Esther ever thought she would have to risk her life for a nation, and I doubt Mordecai knew that there would be a plot from the palace to take his life.

Things often don’t turn out like we thought they would – sometimes there’s more joy than we imagined, sometimes there’s more fear and grief. Sometimes life makes a lateral move – leaving us with apathy or disappointment we didn’t see coming. In all of it, though, the Lord is present. Esther shows us that if we have heads up, staying alert to the movement of the Spirit, the Lord will use us to do miraculous things to accomplish his purposes – things we never thought possible.

If life hasn’t turned out the way you thought, that doesn’t mean the Lord is not near. He has not left you. How might the Lord be working in the circumstances you find yourself in? If you wake up to the movement of the Spirit, what surprising Kingdom work will lay before you?

 

Dichotomy

Re:Verse passage – 1 Kings 19:3-8 (day four)

We tend to think there is a dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical. We experience mountain top “spiritual” moments, but then life quickly returns to worrying about things that are much more “physical.” Elijah experiences these things back to back. He has this wonderful mountain top moment with the Lord, but then is quickly brought into the visceral experience of running for his life, feeling exhausted and hungry, lonely and depressed.

But this is a false dichotomy. I don’t believe the Lord created us to live in this divided way. As we see with Elijah, the Lord was very near when the mountain top moment had evaporated, ministering to him through food and sleep. Eating and sleeping are not unspiritual. Prayer and worship are not non-physical.

Let’s ditch this divided way of thinking and simply walk with the Lord, inviting him into every inch of our lives. Romans 12:1 (MSG): “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

Idols

Re:Verse passage – 1 Kings 18:30-39 (day four)

In this showdown between God and Baal, the Israelites worked with all their might to get a showing from their idol. They called, but no one answered. They leapt and danced before the altar, but nothing stirred. They even sacrificed their bodies, pouring their own blood on the altar. Verse 29 gives us a haunting image: “…but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.”

We may not be as familiar with Baal, but we are all guilty of flailing before an idol in an attempt to get what we need, to find satisfaction, or to find meaning. We call out for the approval of others to boost our confidence, but their response gets lost to the wind. We leap and dance before the altar of money, but nothing ever comes to satisfy us. We pour ourselves out for status and prestige, but we’re only left bleeding. When we sacrifice to the idols of the world, there is no voice, no one to answer, no one paying attention.

But when we remember the Lord and draw in close to him, as Elijah encouraged the people to do, we’ll find that God will make himself known to us every time, and we will lack nothing. The Lord shows up in a way that nothing and no one else can do. As it says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Murky

Re:Verse passage – 2 Samuel 18:6-11 (day four)

If there was ever a perfect snapshot of the human condition, it’s this one. This story doesn’t have a clear hero or villain, but rather a host of imperfect people working out the results of their sin in a high-stakes arena. David is a poor example of a parent and lets his personal affairs nearly destroy the nation of Israel, but he loves his son regardless of his actions. Many of us have had the experience of caring for someone to a fault. Absolam is vain and conspiratorial against his own father, but he is fueled by righteous anger over things in his past. Trauma can put a dark lens over our worldview. Joab is disloyal to the king and seems to have a thirst for revenge, but he makes a decision to end a war that could have taken more Israelite lives. We’ve all experienced the burden of a conflict of values.

Life is a like this much of the time – right and wrong are made blurry by sin and trying to find the path forward is like trying to see through mud. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” The path forward looks murky now, but have hope. There is no amount of sinful mud that will stop our God from making all things new.

Inadequacies

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day four)

When the Lord calls us to face something big or start something new, we often convince ourselves that our current condition is not enough. We think we need to somehow add to ourselves in order to be up for the task, so we feign a confident persona, or look to worldly ideas for self-improvement, or try anything to appear as the person we think we should be, rather than who we are. We convince ourselves that we don’t have what it takes, and we try to fill in the gaps, often in vain.

David didn’t fall for this lie, though. He knew that winning this battle had nothing to do with his ability, and everything to do with God’s presence. When Saul told him that he was inadequate, he tried on the clunky armor and realized it would hinder him, not help him. David walked confidently in the knowledge that he had all he needed – the Lord was with him, and the Lord had already gifted David with all the abilities he needed to take down Goliath.

When you’re staring down your next giant, don’t turn to those clunky strategies of the world. Turn to the Lord, he has already given you all that you need.

Counted In

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 16:5-13 (day four)

At first, David wasn’t even brought into the room when Samuel came to his family’s house. He wasn’t just last on the list for who might be anointed as king, he wasn’t on the list at all. Over and over again throughout Scripture, we see God choosing the person that the world would never even consider. That concept is woven into our Savior’s DNA. God intentionally made his Son’s family tree full of people that the world had counted out.

But when this occurs in our own life, we still get surprised by it, don’t we? We might even become angry when we see God moving through someone that we hadn’t considered worthy. It gives us some cognitive dissonance when God works through someone with opposite political opinions, someone who’s culture we don’t understand, or someone who rubs us the wrong way. Our human nature wants to count people out, but God wants to count people in.

Who have you counted out lately? The Lord is most likely doing a work to count them in.