More encouragement to pray

Hi First Friends! It's stormy weather here today. Hope you're staying dry. I'm praising God that the storm has weakened. During the hurricanes a few years ago we got our worst damage from a tropical storm, so I tend to get a little punchy when I hear those words.

I received a note today from Susan Hill regarding the Moms In Touch prayer event at the ROC this Saturday. Whether or not you plan to attend, I thought this quote from one of the ladies in the group was a terrific encouragement to pray.

"These moms, like you and me, care deeply, yet know well the reality of the pressures on our kids in these crazy times in this crazy beach town. We choose to deal with this stress and feeling of lack of control by bringing our cares each week to the foot of the cross, and handing them over to our GOD who can help. We've been doing this for years, and have seen countless prayers answered.

Fast forward to this Saturday, and get a glimpse of this group and hear the stories of moms like you and I, as we join together for a morning of prayer. Across the nation, thousands of moms will be watching via video and praying together. Be assured you can participate as a SPECTATOR only!! You will not have to talk or pray in front of the group!!! Just come and be blessed by seeing how our mighty God can be a victor over anything in your child's life!! "

I love the way this event encourages us to deal with stress by taking it to the cross. Isn't that a great reminder for the holiday season?

Don't you love her for saying "You will not have to talk"? It's funny to think of being a spectator at a prayer event. We were all raised to keep our eyes closed. However, relieving yourself from talking during prayer time can be powerful. One of my favorite verses on prayer has always been Ecclesiastes 5:2. Go look it up. Don't forget to wear your slippers. When I walked across the kitchen just now to get my Bible I stepped on a bean from dinner. Yuck!

Did you read it? Doesn't that go against everything we usually say about prayer in Sunday School? Now read verse 7. Wow, right? So different from the way we usually pray. Let's take traveling as an example.

In our usual method of prayer you must make sure God knows which airline you are flying on, and you have to make sure He has your flight numbers. You cover the time, the date, cities of departure and destination. Then you must give some attention to the people in the seats on either side of you. You can thank Beth Moore for that. You must cover the pilots and their families. You'd rather be praying for your own family, but you know that they are better served by you keeping your plane in the air. This is one way to interpret "God cares about the details" and it's valid. There is no wrong way to pray. When I'm already upset, though, this method exhausts me. I'd truly rather take my chances with the Department of Homeland Security than get up and look at my calendar so that I don't inadvertently wind up praying for someone else's flight.

Here's how I picture the Ecclesiastes method of prayer with air travel. You sit down for quiet time and can't focus because you're so worried about the flight. Push your Bible to one side or place your finger on a verse you can meditate on. Now. Ask yourself this question. Which do I fear more: death or God? Tell God something simple like, "I'm frightened, and I want to fear you more than I fear this." Now wait. Sit there with your finger on your verse and don't talk any more. When the worries creep back in ask yourself the question again. Open your eyes to read your verse and repeat the steps. See what happens.

Susan's event is this Saturday from 9 to 1 and it's free. Just let them know you're coming at www.Momsintouch.org.

Do You Pray Better Than a Fifth Grader?

First off, my apologies if this title makes your stomach tight. I know, and you know, that prayer is not a contest. If you’re praying at all, you’re doing it right. However, I had a prayer experience this week that had me thinking about that game show where the grownups compete with school children and the way that some things change and some things stay the same, especially concerning prayer.

Let me explain. Wednesday night at Awana we did a prayer walk. If you have ever helped with Awana, or been in the church when Awana was going on, then you know that it is not for the faint-hearted. Combine an after dinner hour in midweek with confined spaces and varying degrees of hunger and hosility. It makes for a sweaty, cranky bunch. They all need to get a spanking and go straight to bed. I’m talking about the leaders mostly, but some of the children too. It serves the purpose, I guess, but it’s not pretty. You don’t automatically think, “We should try a worship service.” Unless you are Miss Jean. For last week’s activity time, we had a prayer walk in the chapel.

I’m no stranger to prayer walks with children. It’s one of my favorite tricks for burning off that last 30 minutes before parents come to pick them up from VBS. It gets them moving, changes their scenery and lets them do something real. As I said before, I think that all prayer is real whether or not everyone has their eyes closed or is quiet or is pretending to be a ninja or whatever.

My Wednesday night attitude, however, doesn’t generally allow for a lot of creativity or good feelings or flexibility. I need to get in the zone and get the job done. So full of myself and my humanity, I marched my three little charges up the giant staircase and into the chapel to pray without ceasing for thirty minutes until I could go home.

It was pretty much as I had expected. They were into it for a while. They took turns reading the cards and bowed their heads. But then one wanted to go this way and one that way; they started fighting over who could stand where. One had to go to the bathroom, and one wanted to pray for her family members, specifically and in great detail, at every single station. More and more groups poured into the chapel and started moving through the stations. The volume level went up. Some got a bathroom break so we did too, and then we got done with the stations and sat down on a bench to wait.

Maybe it was the low lighting. I started looking around and watching and got that still, small feeling in my chest that God needed me to pay attention. Y’all, I’m not kidding. All those children walking around praying reminded me of us. You know, the grownup church. They were jockeying for position. There were fights over who got to be in a group with whose friend. Some think they can’t pray, and some think they really can. They were bored. They had the world weariness of a group of God’s children who have seen it all and done it all but are too weak to do anything different.

Usually these displays of our fallen nature render me sad and depressed, but this time somehow it made me smile. I can’t explain it. I think Jesus showed up for the Awana prayer walk. Those children, they were beautiful. They laughed and fought and talked and walked and complained and wrote and hugged and hit each other. They prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. And they were us.

They prayed even though they were bored. A few were into it, but most prayed because there wasn’t anything else to do and someone was leading them. You could tell they weren’t going to pray when they got home. Isn’t that just like us?

We will never grow up. We will continue walking, fighting, posing and pretending. We know that everything we do is temporary and we want to do something real. And that is why we must pray. Prayer brings Jesus down from the realm of eternity into our everyday. Grace falls and changes us, as they say, from a common use to a holy use. I tell you if God can make me smile at Awana, He can make your kitchen table glow like the ground under the burning bush. Like the faces of the children in the chapel. I think the glow is always there. The glow is His presence. It’s just that when you pray, He invites you to glimpse it.

Just in case you’re not convinced I’m adding some verses on prayer that I’ll be mulling over this week. Join me, won’t you?

Luke 11:1 (A good catch phrase. To be repeated several times a day as needed.)

Luke 18:1-17 (The publican probably is most closely related here. How cool that it’s attached to the story about Jesus and the children. Have you ever been taught the story of Jesus and the children as being about prayer? I don’t think I have.)

1 Thes. 5:17 (Always a friendly reminder!)