“…Scripture without prayer has no soul; prayer without Scripture has no substance.”
– Eugene Peterson
I’m coming to agree with Eugene Peterson, perhaps we cannot disentangle prayer from God’s Word, there is a twining together, as God embodies His Word.
Scripture becomes the seeds for my prayers. “The seed is the Word of God.” (Luke 8: 11)
I’ve been surprised at how little Christians expect to see answers to prayer. I remember a church prayer meeting I attended, a very small group of perhaps 12 prayer warriors were gathered together near the front of the church sanctuary, not too impressive of a group, just the steady few committing to pray, out of perhaps 200 members. We were given a list of community and world needs and asked to pray in groups. I was happy when one of the few women I knew who was sitting in the wooden pew in front of me turned around and asked me to join her and her husband.
After our prayer time, she said “You pray with conviction. Like you really expect an answer.” I responded, “Of course,” but I was surprised. This woman was the leader of the Women’s Bible Study and Women’s ministry. I know she fully believes God’s Word, yet she appeared to be lacking confidence that God was listening and would answer our prayers. I’m wondering how common that is among all of us? I’ve often thought that joining a prayer group is probably akin to joining the chess club in High School, not the most popular event.
Of course, there are times when both Christians and non-Christians alike pray, like with my son-in-law’s battle with incurable Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Who wouldn’t pray? If there is any chance, no matter how small, that a miracle might happen, you gotta pray! But how convinced are we, even as Christians, that God answers even those prayers of desperation?
[Read more…]I’m starting with a confession because this is where this all began for me. There were four to five years that I only read the Psalms when I read the Bible, which I do up to an hour a day. Let me clarify, I could have read from other books of the Bible, but, somehow, my heart drew me over and over to the Psalms, almost exclusively. I was drawn to them. I couldn’t make myself stop.
Every day after my time in the Bible, I’d promise myself – ‘Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll read the Gospels, or Isaiah. I’ll read any other book besides the Psalms’. Then, tomorrow came, and I found myself opening up my Bible to the Psalms, yet again. I poured over the Psalms, I couldn’t get enough. I ate them as only a hungry person can.
[Read more…]Entering the church at my dear friend’s wedding some 28 years ago, I was met by an unexpected sight – a live cow stood in a stall, directly behind the front doors – in the center of the entry hall; right next to the guest book. It might have been the smell I remember best.
The point of the cow was to tell everyone that this was a ten cow wife.
No ordinary woman, but a precious and treasured woman, worth not one, but ten cows.
The bride had grown up as a missionary kid in Africa where her dad was a long time bush pilot. My friend had stood out among the native tribes – with her long ash blond hair and sweet disposition – she was seen as a catch. Her dad had been approached on several occasions with offers of marriage for his beautiful daughter, once being offered the large sum of a whole ten cows as a bride price.
Valentine’s Day is later this week and I was delighted yesterday when my 3 year old granddaughter proudly presented me with the tiniest envelope, maybe 2 by 3 inches, and in it was the tiniest card bearing a Disney ‘Frozen’ image, and in the space on the back of the tiny card was a scribble. I might have missed it if I wasn’t looking closely for it – but I knew, my sweet grand-daughter would make her mark for me somewhere on that card.
Well, these thoughts today are my scribble of love to God – small and insignificant, but coming from my heart. I think of the words from one of my favorite Psalms 103 – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name..”
This post truly began over five years ago, around the time I began blogging. I happened to be reading Isaiah, my favorite book in the Bible, and I began noticing the theme of what I call –
God’s amazing ‘promises of re—‘. [Read more…]
