The Everyday Prayer

“All my friends are waiting for me to slip. . .But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.”  (Jeremiah 20: 11)  Sounds like Jeremiah needed some new friends.  So many disappointments.  His story is helpful to those of us who have unanswered questions.  If God is involved in our world, why not MORE involved?  Why does He allow bad things to happen, bad people to prosper?  Like Jeremiah, we never get a full answer.  What we get, instead, is the assurance that God will be with us.  (cf Jeremiah 1:8)  People will abandon but He won’t.  He will strengthen us in suffering but not exempt us from it.  Is this enough?  Ultimately, yes.  There is no other path.   I am looking forward to seeing you in a few hours.  When we gather for worship, we remind the world of a the savior who was willing to die and left a cross that we must also carry.  He promises to be “with us” as we do.  I love you.  Don

“Give praise to the Lord”  (Jeremiah 20:13)  “Cursed be the day I was born”  (Jeremiah 20:14)  I don’t know whether you have highs and lows in your spiritual experience.  Jeremiah did.  I know a pastor who also does.  From one day to the next, the contrast can be rather dramatic.  The key is to process both in honest prayer.  How thankful we should be that God is neither offended by our anger nor embarrased by our praise.  He, “requires truth in the inward parts”  (Psalm 51)  All sides of our emotional lives are welcome before this eternally wise and calm God.  Today, as you pray, will you ask yourself, “am I being totally honest with God?”   “Are the things I am saying  what I really feel/want/believe, or what I hope to feel/want/believe?”  Tomorrow when we gather for worship, may emotions of every kind be lifted up to Him.  Praise.  Protest.  It just has to be honest.

“When I am right give me courage.  When I am wrong give me humility.”  It can be the most discouraging discovery of all.  Opposition often comes from people in the church.  Jeremiah’s critics were not “non-believers” (not in their minds at least).  They were priests and prophets and people of his city who were deeply concerned about Jerusalem.  (Jeremiah 26:8)  They were also WRONG about what needed to be said and done.  Jesus experienced the same.  The majority is not always right.  Conflict is not always wrong.  Loving God more sometimes means loving people less, and bearing the burden of criticism and anger that inevitably comes.   Perhaps this is why God teaches us to pray when we are alone with Him.  He is preparing us for the times when we, like Jeremiah, will have to stand with Him as our only source of strength.  God help us.  It seems to be part of the path.

“Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them”  (Jeremiah 26:3)  This is the great power of the human race, the great hope for every nation, church and family.  If we turn, God will also.  Perhaps you have been concerned with a sense of the gathering storm of God’s disapproval and discipline on our nation.  Perhaps you know that things are not right in your family or heart.  Change!  Turn!  Amend your ways!  (Jeremiah 26: 13)  Rely on God!  Move from self-sufficiency to dependence and trust!  Count on His forgiveness!  Most people never discover the liberating power of this truth.  “If any may be in Christ, he is (will be) a new creation.”   Say to yourself this morning, “I am NOT STUCK.  I can change.  God will help me”  When we change, God, in his relationship toward us, changes too!

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength so that we despaired even of life.”  (2 Cor. 1:8)  It is a necessary reminder for us who are followers of Christ.  Even faithful people have very low moments.  Our text this week (Jeremiah 20) is painful to read.  Jeremiah is a believer so disappointed and lonely that he is accusing God of tricking him into ministry without disclosing how painful it would be.  ( These are true feelings, not true facts if you read Chapter 1)  Anyway,  Hebrews 5:8 says “he learned obedience through the things he suffered.”  For many of us this is the moment of failure.  We stop following when it becomes painful.  We never “get through” our low times, our dark nights.  More on this tomorrow.  I am praying for you and with you.  Don

“Those who sow in tears will reap with joyful shouting”  (Psalm 126:3)  We are reading Jeremiah this week.  He is known as the weeping prophet.  Without any argument, he had a hard life.  It is strange to consider, then, that one of the verses we know best from this man is an expression of unbounded hope.  “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare, not calamity; to give you a future and a hope”  (Jeremiah 29:11)    What a positive vision!  Perhaps Jeremiah knew what we sometimes forget.  Before joy can come tears have to be shed.  Before the harvest, hard work.  Before victory, sacrifice.  As we pray together, today, will you be sensitive to the points of the Lord’s prayer that are most difficult for you to sincerely say?  Difficulty is often the door toward God.  Avoiding hard things usually means that we never get past them.  I am praying with you this morning!  Don

Does God ever lead us onto difficult paths?  Does He send us into conflict and expect us to be faithful even at the expense of our happiness?  Our reading this week is in Jeremiah. (20 and 26) Called to speak for God to the nation of Judah just before their defeat and destruction by Babylon, Jeremiah encountered the resentment of his peers for what many considered to be an “unpatriotic” message.  Over the course of his ministry he was mocked, resented, threatened, criticized, and arrested.  As I study this week, I will measure my own willingness to speak truth when it is unpopular–even unpopular with other believers. (Most of Jeremiah’s opposition came from within “the church.”)  I will remember Paul in conflict with the Judaisers.  I will think of the criticism of the Pharisees and the courage of Christ.  Sometimes we can have peace OR progress.  One.  Not both.  I will be praying for you this week.  It is a privilege to be your Pastor.  Don

The requirement is clear.  Those who desire God must humble themselves.  The key verse in our FBC family reading plan this week is “because your heart was responsive and you HUMBLED yourself before God when you heard what He spoke. . .and because you HUMBLED yourself before Me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you declares the Lord”  (2 Chronicles 34: 27)   The real problem in our lives is pride.  The necessary question is ” What does humililty look like?”  Like prayer.  Like surrender of control.  Like praise.  Like not getting my way and not fussing that I don’t.  “He must increase.  I must decrease” said John the Baptist in a powerful expression of this timeless spiritual truth.  Only the humble (self humbled!) ever experience the true mercy and goodness of God.  I am looking forward to seeing you in a few hours!  Lord helping us, we can be small together.   I love you.  Don

As I write (Friday morning) the weather forecast is for rain!  It is a hopeful feeling.  Humans need hope.  It is oxygen of the soul.  In the face of a bleak prophesy re. his nation, young King Josiah still hoped.  He knew the mercy of God.  He knew that God had heard his cry for repentance.  So, he hoped for others!  He reached out to them to lead them to find hope too.  It is an inspiring story!  Do you have hope this morning? (Look at the nation, look at the church,  at your own heart.  Then look to God.  Do you?)  Do you believe that God’s promise and preference is to show mercy to those who return to Him?   Are you praying and reaching out to others to show them the path to safety?  “Three things remain; faith, HOPE, and love” (1 Corinthians 13) I will look for you tomorrow at church.  It looks like it is going to be a great day!

Is personal peace enough?  Once a believer is saved and safe (and his family) is it permitted to relax and enjoy the ride?  I have been impressed this week with the heart of King Josiah. (Thanks for reading the Re verse passage in unity with the FBC family)  2 Chronicles tells of his concern for the nation of Judah even after Huldah prophesies that he himself will be spared. “Your eyes will not see the evil that I (God) will bring on this place (Jerusalem)”  Like Abraham (Genesis 19) pleading the mercy of God, and unlike Hezekiah who in similar situation is satisfied to save his own skin (read 2 Kings 20 for this sad report),  Josiah presses forward to explore the available mercy of God for others.  He cares about His nation.  Today as we pray the Lord’s prayer will we do the same?  We will spread our net of concern over a wide circle?  Followers of Christ have a larger goal than personal peace.