EMBEDDING PRAYER INTO OUR DAILY LIVES – Part 2 of 3

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”  (Romans 8:26 NIV)

Another way to accept the Spirit’s invitation to pray is what might be called “paper prayers.” Hezekiah was king of Israel when he received a letter from the much more powerful king of Assyria. The Assyrian king demanded the capitulation of Israel and warned Hezekiah not to trust in God. He warned that resistance meant that they would have to “eat their own filth and drink their own urine” before they died.

Hezekiah took the letter, went up to the temple, “and spread it out before the Lord.” Then he prayed, beginning by remembering God’s greatness: “O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see.” (Isaiah 37:16-17a)

What piece of paper would you spread out before the Lord? Maybe it is a financial statement that is overwhelming. Maybe it is a divorce certificate or a medical diagnosis or a pink slip or a flaming e-mail. Any piece of paper that causes distress can be an invitation to prayer, a candidate to be spread out before the Lord. 

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

#6111

THE MOST HIGH GOD – Part 1

“Let them know that You, whose name is the Lord -- that You alone are the Most High over all the earth.”  (Psalm 83:18 NIV)

Mountains have always been God-places. A mountain, if you think about it, is where heaven and earth come closest to each other. And there is something transcendent about a mountain. A mountain is a place of vision. In ancient times the remoteness and inaccessibility of mountains gave them an aura of mystery and power. Still today they produce a sense of wonder and awe that there is a higher reality. We are mountain climbers. We are mountain seekers.

Height is always suggestive to us of transcendence and power and vision. We venerate height. In the ancient world, altars were generally built on "high places," where sacrifices would be offered by high priests. Even today we speak of high ideals and high achievements, and politicians run for high office. People of greater height actually make higher salaries than shorter people. When someone becomes pretentious, we tell him to get off his high horse. We use drugs to give us a sense of temporary transcendence, give them names like "ecstasy," and say they make us "high." When we become addicted, we seek the help of a higher power.

Great heights inspire us, but they also humble us. They speak to us of our own smallness. No matter how hard we try, human beings are unable to refrain from worship. [Dostoevsky  wrote,] "The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great."

-- John Ortberg in “Faith & Doubt” 

#5649

GREAT IS OUR LORD

“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.”  (Isaiah 147:5 NIV)

Who or what seems greater than God?... Just as a potter is greater than the clay or an artist is greater than his painting, God is greater than His creation.

There’s nothing in my life or in yours -- no circumstance or crisis, no habit or heartache, no sickness or grief, nothing visible or invisible -- nothing that’s greater than God!... No king or ruler, no preacher or teacher -- no one is greater than God.

What are you facing that’s greater than you are? A habit? A person? A problem? Something beyond your ability to handle? God is greater!

Put your focus and your faith in the One who has authority over everything!

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”


#4800

THE GREATNESS OF GOD

“Praise the Lord, you heavenly beings; praise His glory and power. Praise the Lord's glorious name; bow down before the Holy One when He appears. The voice of the Lord is heard on the seas; the glorious God thunders, and His voice echoes over the ocean. The voice of the Lord is heard in all its might and majesty.”  (Psalm 29:1-4 GNT)

If you don’t see the greatness of God then all the things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can’t see the sun you will be impressed with a street light. If you’ve never felt thunder and lightning you’ll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God you’ll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures. 

-- John Piper


#4480

THE MESSAGE OF GOD’S GRANDEUR

“For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”  (Psalm 95:3-7 NKJV)

Psalms presents a world that fits together as a whole, with everything upheld by a personal God watching over it.

This message, above all, leaped out at me during my frustrating attempts to read the Psalms in Colorado.  I could not fit together all the contradictory messages I was reading, but the magnificent wilderness setting at least affirmed the message of God's grandeur, His worthiness.  Wilderness brings us down a level, reminding us of something we'd prefer to forget: our creatureliness.  It announces to our senses the splendor of an invisible, untamable God.  How could I not offer praise to the One who dreamed up porcupines and elk, who splashed bright green aspen trees across hillsides of gray rock, who transforms the same landscape into a new work of art with every blizzard?

-- Philip Yancey in “The Bible Jesus Read”

#4327