Tag: Praying

Morning Musing: Exodus 19:7-8

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“After Moses came back, he summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. Then al the people responded together, ‘We will do all that the Lord has spoken.’ So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes it’s hard to fully appreciate how something works until you’ve seen it working a different way. When we want to engage with our heavenly Father today, all we have to do is talk to Him. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, He’s always near, and because of Jesus’ constant intercession before Him, He’s always ready to hear. It’s incredible if you think about it. But familiarity can breed contempt, so let’s take a quick glance at how things used to work. Spoiler alert: it’s not the same.

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The Gifts of Advent: Luke 1:13

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“But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever prayed for something and didn’t get it? That can be a disheartening experience. We pray, and pray, and pray, and…nothing. Eventually we start to wonder why we should even bother. I mean, we’ve been praying for minutes and nothing has happened. Or maybe you’ve been praying a bit longer than that. But then we find all kinds of encouragement in the Scriptures to turn to prayer. The various authors obviously considered prayer to be quite a gift. Let’s talk about this next gift of Advent and if it really is.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 14:15-16

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Prayer is important stuff. Vitally important. One of the things I find myself telling my congregation more and more frequently lately is that prayer is one of the three essential things you need to be pursuing regularly and intentionally if you want to grow in your faith (the others are engagement with the Scriptures and a local body of Christ). I have several times heard messages about prayer that rightly remind folks that prayer is not a substitute for doing something. In many cases, it is the something we most need to be doing if we want to see positive changes come to a hard situation. Prayer is essentially for getting God involved in a situation to make things happen. What we see here, though, brings a much needed balance to all of this. Let’s check out God’s response to Moses and the Israelites’ panicked cries to Him when they spotted the Egyptian army bearing down on them.

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Digging in Deeper: Amos 7:1-6

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“The Lord God showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the spring crop first began to sprout – after the cutting of the king’s hay. When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, ‘Lord God, please forgive! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?’ The Lord relented concerning this. ‘It will not happen,’ he said. The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. Then I said, ‘Lord God, please stop! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?’ The Lord relented concerning this. ‘This will not happen either,’ said the Lord God.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is the point of prayer? And just what can prayer accomplish? And what does our prayers’ being answered say about God? All of these are questions raised in this deceptively challenging passage. This morning, let’s think together about what it means that God “relented” in punishing Israel here and what that means for us.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 13:18-19

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“Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything. And I urge you all the more to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Why do we pray? What should we pray for? There is wisdom on this throughout the Scriptures. Here, we see a couple of things as specific examples. With only one more stop on our journey through Hebrews, this morning, let’s take a look at the author’s final prayer request and talk about prayer in our own lives.

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