Prayer

C.S. Lewis pointed out that prayer seems to be "hard-wired" into human beings.  It's totally in character for Him Who created us that He'd make us innately pray-ers, so fiercely does He desire our intimacy with Himself.

Lewis also pointed out that all who pray report the same experience.  Buddhists, Sufis, and Hindus as well as Christians say that prayer gives them a sense of "peace" or "transcendence."  Like those who embark on a voyage...whether tourists, sailors, pirates or merchants...the experience is the same for all who sail; land falling from sight below the horizon, the vessel's pitch, and the smell of salt-air.

"Departures are all alike," Lewis wrote, "It is the landfall that crowns the voyage."  In this, he wrote, Christian prayer is unique.

It seems too that Christian prayer is unique in that it is "traveling hopefully"...with expectation.

Jesus told us to have that expectation when He said "...whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive..." (Matthew 21:22).

Christian readers surely noticed that I omitted Jesus' qualifying words: "...if you have faith."

In Jesus' context, it seems "faith" means (as it always must) believing what Jesus says, and doing it...expect that our Father will honor prayer in Jesus' name.

Praying for Brazil

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Yesterday I suddenly, and very strongly, got the feeling that I should pray for Brazil.

It was completely out-of-the-blue.  It had absolutely nothing to do with anything I'd heard, read, or been at all thinking about.

So it seemed it could be an impulse from God, and I went to pray.

I think I'm pretty knowledgeable on a great many things, and on current events.  But I probably know as little about Brazil as about anything.  I have no idea what is happening nationally in Brazil: its societal stresses, natural disasters, or its spiritual or political character, in any but the most general sense.  And how do you pray for an entire nation anyway ?

It was exactly a situation when I was glad God gave us the opportunity to "pray in the Spirit."  I had absolutely no idea God's concern for Brazil....no idea what prayer for Brazil would be according to His will (I John 5:14-15).

I asked the Spirit to guide my prayer, make my requests accord with God's will, and I let my words flow.  I couldn't understand any of the words the Spirit gave me (though I sensed their intent of blessing), any more than I understood God's concerns for Brazil.

It was all of a piece, complete: what scripture means by "perfect."  That God let me pray His will of blessing Brazil, in words the Spirit gave me...according to His will.  "Perfect" that my ignorance...of His will, and of Brazil...could be made His instrument to bless Brazil, as it increased my faith, and my obedience.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

God is Saying . . .

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness, 
And to walk humbly with your God ?"

                                           --  Micah 6:8

Christians are praying wisdom and godliness for the incoming president.  We are praying wisdom, peace, and righteousness for America; and for the Church.  These prayers please God, "...who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:1-4).

But I continue to hear God say, increasingly and more insistently, that Christians MUST NEVER pray that the unrighteous policies and programs of the coming presidency will "Make America Great Again."

God's inviolable moral law is that doing unrighteousness will NEVER...CAN never...produce good results.

Acting against that law did not work for Adam and Eve.

Doing unrighteousness has never produced good results.  It never will.

And Christians must never pray it will.  Asking God to reverse the moral law guaranteed in His Own Character, and please let unrighteousness "Make America Great Again," is a prayer profoundly displeasing to God.

We risk God's extreme wrath to flippantly pray "God bless America," if we are asking Him to bless unrighteousness.

Micah tells us the Law by which God judges men's deeds.  It is the Law by which He judges men's political deeds.  It is the Law by which God judges all nations of men.

 May America do the righteousness God commands.  If America does unrighteousness, may we pray for forgiveness, and follow with deeds of repentance.  May we NEVER pray that God act against His Own Character, and His Own law...and His Own righteous judgement.