The Lifting Up Of My Hands

We raise our hands up in the air for a variety of reasons.  When our football team scores a touchdown, we just might hold both hands up with the referee in the symbol representing the touchdown.  When we get excited, we might throw our hands up in the air, or do a fist pump or two into the air.  If we are told to surrender, we put our hands up in the air, but that is much more a sign of defeat than these others so far.

So it's interesting that the author of Psalm 141 would write the following words.  "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."  Here, the lifting up of my hands is for yet another reason.  It is the plea and supplication made to God.  Holding up the hands is like the prayer ascending before God.  It is seen as a sacrifice to the LORD God.

Typically, we think of prayer along the lines of asking of God, giving thanks to God, and the like.  The idea of prayer as sacrifice may be somewhat unusual to our thinking.  Sure, the giving up of our time may be the sacrifice we see, but is there more than that to it?  What kind of sacrifice is the lifting up of my hands?  What kind of sacrifice is the offering of my prayer?

As David wrote these words, it's very likely that his intent here is more along the lines of the giving of one's whole life to God.  When we lift up our hands to God, the prayer that we are offering is that of our very own selves.  We sacrifice our lives, our wants, and our hopes, and ask that God would give us His life, and make us to want those things that He wants.  We ask God to give us, not the hope that we would dream of, but the hope that He has prepared for us.  That is the sacrifice that we offer to Him, especially in this kind of prayer.

Lifting up hands during prayer is not a new thing.  The idea of sacrificing our own lives to God for His working and doing isn't new.  That's something, though, that we need constant encouragement to bring about.  Even though we know that Jesus' sacrifice makes us right with God, the struggle with our sinful nature makes us want to keep our hands down, and our lives to ourselves. 

May that lifting up of my hands be a willing indication of a life that wants to be lived according to God's will and design, because I am a new creation in Jesus!

What's the Right Way?

"Lord, teach us to pray."  Jesus' discipes, as recorded in Luke 11:1

What is the right way to pray?  It's a question that I have been asked on more than one occasion in life, and one that probably sticks in the mind of many people, yet never gets voiced.  And, truth be told, if you go to one of those Bible search websites and do a word search for pray or prayer, it can get even more confusing. 

Think about it.  In the Bible, we have different ways of praying emphasized in different parts.  In Matthew 5, Jesus says not to pray publicly, to be noticed by others, but to go into your room, and shut the door.  But then, we have places like some of Paul's letters which call for God's people to pray together, and even in some dynamic ways.  In 1 Timothy 2:8, he would even seem to be calling for men to pray in a particular way, with hands held up.  And yet, if we read in places like 1 Samuel 1:1-20, we see Hannah praying quietly before the "temple", likely the tabernacle of God, quietly and privately, yet in a public place. 

So what is the right way?  Well, from a place or posture standpoint, what the Bible seems to paint for us is a picture that there is no one set way or place.  That is left up to us, and really, it seems to place an emphasis that we can and should pray in any way, at any place. 

Does that mean that there isn't a right way to pray, then?  Well, I would suggest that we approach this question more from an attitude basis.  Is there a right way to pray?  Yes, in the way that we approach our God, asking for His will and His guidance be done in our lives.  We pray to God, asking that God would bring about those things in our lives that are best suited for the furtherance of His will and His design.  We pray that God would guide us according to His will, and that the things we ask for would bring further glory to Him, and not to merely to us.

In the end, it seems that the Bible would guide us more to the right attitude of prayer than to the right way or posture or place.  When our heart is set on God and on His will, anyplace is the right place, and any posture is the right posture.  Faith that God is doing His work seems to be that which is right when it comes to our prayer life.

Three Hours A Day?!?!?

"Let my prayer be counted as incense before You, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!"  Psalm 141:2

"...pray without ceasing..." 1 Thessalonians 5:17

"I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling..."  1 Timothy 2:8

There's a story that makes its way around on occasion.  It attributes something to a church father that I honor quite a bit, Martin Luther.  The story goes something like this.  One day, Luther was asked how he went about praying.  He told of how he would spend some number of hours in the morning in prayer.  So he was then asked, what do you do if it's a busy day, with a lot planned?  The saying goes that he replied, then I make sure to spend at least three hours in prayer!

Three hours a day in prayer, especially when it's a busy day??  That sounds strange to ears influenced by our way of life in the west.  After all, we tend to think that time is money, and that our time is valuable, and not to be spent wasted in things that don't bring some form of tangible value to us.  So three hours of a day dedicated to prayer sounds insane, especially when there are "bettter" things that we could be doing.

Now, I'm not here to argue how accurate this story may be, or even to try to explain how Luther might define an hour of prayer differently than what we might think.  But if you look simply over the three quotations above, one thing is clear.  God looks for and calls for our prayers.  Not so much as a "Talk to Me!!!" kind of command (although that is in there!), but as an invitation. 

In fact, Luther seems to have had a pretty good grasp of that invitation.  In his explanation to the opening words of the prayer we know as the Lord's Prayer, he gives this thought.  Our Father who art in heaven.  What does this mean?  With these words, God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that, with all boldness and confidence, we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.

Notice how it's much like a father who wants to hear his child speak to him.  That's what God looks for from us.  Sure, at times we don't want to talk, and the command needs to be reiterated to us.  Other times, we don't ask for nearly as much as our father wants to give, and so He reminds us to ask, because He is generous.  Other times yet, we find that we babble on about things that really don't have much meaning, and He loves to hear from us at those times, but He also reminds us that He looks for us to be specific and focused when we talk to Him.

Three hours a day?  Actually, that sounds about right.  The question really is more along the lines of, Do I value my relationship with my Father enough to talk to Him often, even up to three hours a day?

Living The New Life

One thing I often get asked about are ways that a Christian can live out their faith in a way that extends beyond the self.  How do I live my faith without being offensive, but with a desire to see opportunities to share that faith in witness to Christ Jesus to others?  It's a good question, and one that I love to hear from people.  It means that their eyes are open to more than just their own standing with God.  It demonstrates a heart that yearns for others to know the great gift of forgiveness and new life that we have received in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Since this is something that continues to come up in ministry, I'm going to start a new weekly "series" of sorts.  I'm planning on calling it "Living the New Life."  I call it this because these kind of questions and answers aren't ways that we make ourselves right with God, or even that we do to please God.  Instead, I see these as ways that the new self, created by God in the water of baptism, wants to live before God and before neighbor.  So don't take these as ways to improve yourself, or to be in better standing in God, but as ideas for what opportunities the new life has to live out our faith in Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer.

Today I want to start off with something that may seem really simple, and may not even seem to be all that impactful.  Yet, I see it as one way to watch doors open by the Holy Spirit, and a way in which our eyes and hearts can become even more open to the opportunities that God presents in life.  The suggestion: a prayer walk.  And no, I don't mean something that you get a lot of people lined up for, and then going around praying out loud as though you're part of a parade.  I mean a personal or even small family sized prayer walk.

A lot of people have gotten into the "getting fit" trend.  Walking is a great way to do it, and I know of a lot of people who go for a walk on a daily or weekly basis.  So this suggestion merely adds one element to it.  As you walk, why not offer up prayers on behalf of the people, businesses, our households in the area that you are walking through?  If you walk through your neighborhood, why not ask God to pour His grace into those households?  Why not ask Him to open up doors where you can demonstrate your neighborliness in Christ to that household?  If you are walking through a park, why not ask for God to show His grace to the people or families that you pass?  Likewise, if you walk through a mall, you can do the same thing, and even extend it to the businesses in the venue.

Again, this seems like a small thing.  Yet, the new life in you in baptism wants to demonstrate love for neighbor, and prayer is one of the ways to demonstrate that love.  And you never know what will happen as God listens to your prayers.  He may even put one or two of the people in your path with an opportunity that the Spirit is creating.  He may simply be opening your eyes and heart up to those that you may not have thought of as neighbors before.  He could simply be preserving those for whom you pray, planning to work through the impact of another, and yet preserving them in line with your prayer. 

It may seem small, but our God often does great things through small means and packages.  Praying is natural for the new life that God has created in you through your baptism.  And, if you were looking for an added benefit, walking is also good for you, demonstrating some good stewardship of the body that God has gifted to you by His grace.

Prayer and Intimacy

A number of years ago, I read a book with my wife and a few other couples.  In this book, it talked about developing a prayer life together as a couple.  I remember one of the assertions that the book made.  It said that there is nothing more intimate than developing a prayer life together with each other.  At the time, I struggled a little bit to understand what the author meant by that saying.  After all, saying a prayer together at mealtime doesn't seem all that intimate.  Neither does offering a brief prayer to God just before falling asleep at night.

As the years have gone by, I've grown to understand a little bit more about that statement, though.  I would be the first to admit that my prayer life has lots of room for expansion.  And as I think about that, I think I start to realize the connection between prayer in a marriage, and the intimacy that the author wrote about.

Imagine praying with your spouse (or, if you aren't married, your boyfriend/girlfriend, and as you read the rest of this post, when I say 'spouse', you can substitute boyfriend/girlfriend).  It's kind of easy, and not very intimate, to simply ask God to watch over you during the day, or to keep you safe at night as you sleep.  Doesn't seem very likely to build up your intimacy with each other, does it?  However, think about asking your spouse to pray for an area of sin in your life that you are struggling with.  That starts to get intimate.  After all, we often try to cover up some of our weaknesses or our sinful attractions from others, including our spouse.  It takes a great deal of humility to ask your spouse to pray for an area of your life that they may or may not know about. 

A part of intimacy is learning about the intimate secret spots that we each have in our lives.  As we start to pray about those along with our spouse, we truly are inviting a greater intimacy into our relationship.  We're baring our soul for them to see.  Truthfully, this is a difficult thing to do.  We don't always like what is hidden in our hearts and minds, much less want someone else to see it.  And yet, as we share those things with our spouse, and as we approach God in prayer with them, we invite closer intimacy with our spouse.

If you start thinking that your marriage or relationship could use some greater intimacy, how about thinking about this kind of prayer life as part of that growth?  It might be easiest to start with some smaller things, and then work to build up to those bigger things that may present more of a struggle.  I would highly suggest this, not only to married people, but to pre-marriage relationships.  What better way to prepare for marriage than in developing a prayer life together, as well as growing in your intimacy with each other?  I really do wish more couples would engage in such practices before they even start thinking about marriage.  I honestly believe that more marriages would be more intimate and lasting than what we typically find around us today.

The Sacrifices of Lent: A Dedication to Prayer

Every year, as Lent rolls around, I choose a topic or theme for both my Sunday messages and my Wednesday messages.  This year, for the midweek theme, I am taking God's people through a look at prayer, specifically looking at some of the times we are told about Jesus praying in the Gospels.  We then look for parallels in our prayer lives, or see if there is something that we can learn and implement that would be useful in our prayer life.

Today I don't want to spend a lot of time giving thoughts or ideas about prayer.  Instead, I simply want to focus on the sacrifice that it takes to dedicate ourselves to prayer.  I have frequently heard people say that they wish they had a stronger, more fervent prayer life, and I often find myself wishing the same thing.  And then, when you read through many of the prayer books out there, you end up feeling even more guilty because the author drives home the importance of prayer and basically lambasts everyone who isn't doing it in that way.

What kind of sacrifices are called for when it comes to an active prayer life?  That depends on what you hope for your prayer life to look like.  For someone who is just getting started, it may mean sacrificing a few minutes of time in the evening to actually start doing it.  For a seasoned veteran of faith, that sacrifice may mean taking extra time to pray for individuals who are in need of prayers, or who expand their prayer circle beyond their own selves and families, but to different parts of the world.  In other words, part of the sacrifice involves the growth of our prayer life, looking not only to deeper needs that we see or experience, but also growing the group of individuals or missions that we pray for.

Again, my goal here is not to make you feel guilty about your prayer life, nor to give you some sort of "guide" on what your prayer life should look like.  The main question for today is, what sacrifices are you prepared to make if you desire to expand your prayer life?  As you think about them, make any adjustments that you see, and then keep lifting those prayers up to our God, who is our mighty warrior and who rescues us from our sin.

Why pray if God knows my thoughts?

As we read through the Bible, we get a lot of words that describe what God is like.  We hear words like "holy" or "just", and some make more sense to us than others.  We have a pretty decent idea of how to describe if something is just or not, but we have a harder time describing holy.  Some are more believable than others, too.  We read that God is kind and loving, though our lives sometimes don't seem to reflect that love and kindness as we face various struggles and trials.

Another description of God is that He knows everything.  He is all-knowing, or as the Latin phrase would say, omniscient.  God knows what all will happen, what all has happened, and what is happening throughout this world at the current moment.  Yes, He even knows what the ants in the hills are doing, and which leaves fell to the ground, and what that droplet of water in the middle of the Indian Ocean is doing.  And that also means that He knows what we are thinking at any given moment.  He not only sees what we are doing, He peeks into our minds and sees our thoughts.

Which brings up an interesting question.  Why do we need to pray, then?  If God can see what I'm thinking, if He knows the questions or requests I have in my mind, then why do I need to pray about them, either out loud or in the silence of my mind?  It kind of seems unnecessary, in one sense.  He already knows.  Why do I need to take the time to put my thoughts in order, to to make the formal request of Him?

I suppose there are a great many answers to that question.  I know I have read books that talk about the need for prayer.  Some say it's for our benefit more than God's, so that we actually know what we are thinking and asking.  Some say it's cathartic for us, as though it takes the burden off of us once we have asked.  Others say that it's a breathing part of our lives as Christians, that we are living out our Christian faith as we pray.  And I know that there are good and valid points to all of these thoughts.

I would go so far as to say that there is an element of all of these in God's command to pray, but that there is also something else at work that perhaps reaches even deeper.  It's about growing in our relationship with God as we pray.  It's not like God needs to hear our voice or our thoughts in order to respond, though He does take great delight in responding when we do take the time to formalize our prayers in such a way.  But God really wants us to have that living, breathing relationship with Him, which is part of the emphasis on prayer.  As you talk to someone, you establish relationship with them.  And we shouldn't be surprised to learn that the same principle applies in our relationship with God.

So take time to pray today.  Do it because you have things you want to ask from God, or to get things off your chest.  But do it also because you want to grow and deepen the relationship you have with Him.  Talk with God.  Sure, sometimes our prayers are lighter and don't have too much substance, and at other times, they are very weighty.  The thing is, God dearly loves that we establish that relationship with Him as our dearly loved Father, just as He assures us that He is our dear Father who loves His dear children.

"Natural" Disasters and Prayers

Today our thoughts and prayers are with the millions of people who have been affected by hurricane Irene on the east coast.  I know quite a few people out that way, and have been thinking of them and praying for them as they weather the storm.

It seems like events of this nature often serve as rallying points for prayer.  A huge storm hits and causes people to be relocated, damages property, and puts people without power and food, and we rally with prayer.  Someone we know gets very sick, and we rally with prayer.  Someone has to make a big decision in life, or comes to a turning point in life, and we rally with prayers.  And this is a very good thing.

I believe that it's good for us to have times of more intense prayer.  Yet, at the same time, I often wonder why we need something "big" to stir us up in our prayer lives.  I know we humans are awed by the "big"ness of something, and yet, I cannot help but think that there are so many small things in life which call for an equal fervency to prayer.

One line which I learned growing up has to do with what I know as the second commandment.  The commandment says not to take the name of the LORD our God in vain.  The meaning which I learned says that we should "call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks."  And I think that this is instructive for three fairly significant reasons.

First, call upon God in every trouble.  While it is natural for something larger to bring out greater feelings and emotions in us, that probably is not the best impetus for prayer.  God wants to hear everything, not just the big things.  Calling on Him in every trouble may mean talking to Him when major things happen, and when "minor" things happen.  God wants to hear from me about the aches and pains from a good, long run just as much as He wants to hear from me about my concern for the people on the coast affected by the hurricane.

Next, praise.  One of the tendencies I have witnessed in people is a great desire to pray when things go wrong, but not necessarily to give thanks when things go right.  Just think of it this way.  Did you praise God that the sun came up this morning?  Or that you could get out of bed?  Or that you had food for breakfast?  Or that He has provided a job by which you have income?  Praise of God isn't something that is reserved only for Sunday mornings, but for everything in life.

Finally, give thanks.  Saying thank you is one of the best acknowledgments when someone does something for you, or gives you something.  When you give, and no thanks are returned, it smacks of ingratitude.  If you go out of your way to present a nice gift to someone, and they act as though it's nothing special, you are likely to wonder if they really view it as a gift.  And since everything in this life is a gift from God, giving thanks to Him is only appropriate, no matter how big or how small.

I want to encourage you to be praying for the big things in life, such as when hurricanes strike and affect to many people.   But I also want to encourage you to be praying for more than you may be right now in life.  Yes, bring troubles to God, both large and small.  Also, remember that God is to be praised for who He is and what He has done.  And give thanks for the many gifts that He continues to pour forth into your life!

Spiritual Discipline: Prayer

Have you though of prayer as a discipline?  There are a lot of books out there about prayer, and most approach this gift from God as something that begins with us.  True, Jesus does tell us that we are to pray, but God's desire in prayer is not like the giving of a report to your boss.  It's more like the conversation that you had with your mom and dad when you got home from school and something exciting or scary or bad had happened.  It's that desire to simply share what went on that day, to have them share in the joy and wonder and fear of life.

When we think of prayer in this light, that makes it a less daunting task.  We've heard pastors and others telling us to develop a prayer life, making it seem like another item on the to-do list.  While free-flowing prayer is a great thing, there is also the intentional planning out of time and the organizing of thought that takes place.  If you are married, you probably have to carve out time to spend with your spouse to talk about the day.  With our busy schedules, the same thing also goes in our conversation with God.

The biggest thing God tells us about prayer is that He simply wants us to be doing it.  It may be from the heart, or it may be written out.  It may be really deep thoughts that you share, or surface level chatter.  The thing is, God wants us to have that conversation with Him.  Yes, for some of us, it may require more discipline than it does for others.  That's okay.  It's a gift from God, and He wants us to recognize it as such, even when we struggle to fit it in the daily schedule or routine.

One of the joys of this gift is that there really isn't a right way or a wrong way to pray.  True, some things we share or ask for may be more appropriate than others, but in the end, the acknowledgment is that everything comes from God, even the gift of prayer.  So why not think of some time today to talk to your great Father, who is eagerly awaiting your conversation with Him?

Prayer and God's Word

What does prayer have to do with learning from the Bible?  After all, can't anyone who can read understand what the Bible says?  Well, yes.  We can all use the common definitions of words and understand grammar and sentence structure.  From that perspective, we can all understand what the Bible says in its most basic of meanings.

But there is a deeper level.  Paul writes about this in 1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."  In other words, there is the basic meaning, and then, there is the meaning that God's Spirit guides us to understand.

That is why Martin Luther, in the preface to the compilation of all his books in German, wrote this about how we read the Bible: "But kneel down in your little room and pray to God with real humility and earnestness, that he through his dear Son may give you his Holy Spirit, who will enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding."

In other words, both Paul and Luther emphasize the need of God's Spirit to truly understand what the Bible teaches us about God.  This is why Luther sees prayer as vital to understanding God's Word.  The Christian prays for God's Spirit to help him or her understand what God intends through what is written.

So next time you prepare for any study of God's Word, it may be good to ask God to give you His Spirit, to guide you in understanding what God is saying through what you are reading. 

Spirituality and Meditation

"I'm spiritual, but not religious."  "I believe in Jesus, but not in the church."  Perhaps you have heard these expressions before, or even thought them yourself.  In the current day and age, many seem to perceive that being spiritual and being part of a Christian church simply are not compatible.

I have recently began to take a great interest in what it means to be spiritual and to be a Christian.  As a Lutheran Christian, I am looking at these from that particular perspective.  Thus, part of my "research" has been in looking at what Martin Luther had to say about being spiritual and a Christian.

Essentially, Luther summed up the development of the Christian's spiritual life by centering it on God's Word.  He specifically looked at texts such as Psalm 1:2, "...his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night."  From such meditation, and from looking in-depth at Psalm 119, Luther came up with three primary "rules": prayer, meditation/reflection, and then the struggle with the Word and the world.

We'll spend time this week looking at each of these, and considering how they play a part in the spiritual life of a Christian.  I welcome your thoughts on what it means to be spiritual and a Christian.