Written Word

Pray, Church! The World Is Fast Going to Hell

It’s not a matter of being clannish and praying only for members of your own clan (family). What is at issue here is that we the Church have to add to the responsibilities God has already laid upon us to bring our offspring up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Eph. 6.4) We can at times take on non-biological additions to our family when we voluntarily – because of the love in our hearts and/or when directed by the Lord – assume someone as our prayer burden because of their evident need in any area. There was no umbilical cord attaching them to us at birth, but there is a stronger emotional attachment that sometimes lasts a lifetime.

As we go about our daily business there are others to whom we may become emotionally attached because of the evident need(s) in their lives and love will not let us ignore these glaring needs. I have often become aware of a tragedy (and there is such an abundance of these pitiful episodes in the world today!) and felt impelled to pray for persons involved. Depending on circumstances, I may not add them to my “official” list, but I will pray for them as long and as often as I feel the burden on my heart.

There may be a tendency to pull back at times, even in the direst of needs, because  I am already overwhelmed by the sorrows of others – how can I bear this additional burden? We are only human and there is only so much a human can bear; only so many sorrows he can take on without shattering into a thousand jagged pieces. The griefs and unbearable burdens of a world overwhelmed with a staggering load of them are seen and heard every day on television and the radio.

You and I, we don’t momentarily pull back from the daunting list of needs and hurts and sorrows that are drowning the world because we don’t care. It’s just that we already have a sizable prayer list comprised of family and friends and we fear any additions to it will stretch our memories and our faith beyond their capacities. The list, we reason, will become unwieldy and so become ineffectual.

I have an answer to that concern, but be advised that I am not trying to fit you into my mold. Every believer in Christ is a unique individual and should not be forced to be like another believer, even a “perfect” one, in every detail. Following are two or three suggestions that may be helpful to you, perhaps with some tweaks to make them fit your personality or way of doing things.

1. When your prayer list grows larger than your memory, write down a list of the names and their specific needs (briefly). When you pray lay the list before God, not that He needs it, but that the list helps your belief and aids your faulty memory.
2. As you go before the throne of God, if your memory falters, consult the list and then pray for the needs in your words of the moment. Don’t parrot the words you have already written – that would be too mechanical. Get the name and the needs into your heart and pray the effectual, earnest prayer of the righteous servant of God. Believe me, it will be very effective.
3. As you go about your daily tasks, write down any additional names that grab your emotions and your attention. The names and needs listed should not be those that are of the garden variety. That is, they should not be the short-lived needs that we all have and that God supplies in His wisdom and will. You will surely be moved by great tragedies and sorrows that break your heart. These call for great faith and much prayer and you should list them only if you choose. Perhaps you will not choose to list them because you know they are so distressing they will stay in your memory without any aid.
4. Pray to God that He will bless you to pray in the Spirit often. It’s true that we don’t know how to pray as we should. We need God’s assistance in praying through us in sighings that convey a world of meaning and/or in other tongues. But to pray for these needs, you must first feel them deep within you and the Spirit will take over from there. But you must have a heart of compassion. If there is no feeling for the needs of another, there will be no praying in the Spirit for them. I did not flatly say you would not pray in the Spirit, just that when your heart is moved deeply for something or someone, God will see your compassion and give vent to your feelings by causing you to pray in words that are unintelligible to you but that carry a world of meaning to God.

If item #4 above is not clear to you, please read what Paul has to say about the matter of praying “in the Spirit”:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” (Rom. 8.26, 27 NIV)

The Church (or the Holy Spirit who inhabits its members) is the only thing that holds back the wrath of God from a fuller demonstration of its terrible effects in the world. Our presence here and our prayers rising constantly before the throne of God are like a dam holding back the waters of a flood. But the waters are rising fast and the fateful day will soon come when Christ shall call His people (the dam that is now holding back the wrath of God) away from this world to be with Jesus. Then, my sinner friend, what will you do?

Meanwhile we who have the Spirit of God within us are praying daily for the soon coming of our Lord and we are urging all who hear the call of the Spirit in their hearts to come quickly to Jesus who alone can save you from the wrath that will soon hereafter engulf this earth. Hasten, my brother, my sister, your wick is beginning to sputter as it nears the end of your present hope. I can give you no guarantee that God will grant you another reprieve after He calls His children out of this cauldron of trouble. Grace for you may be near the end.

Doing What Is Required of Us

Without meaning the statement literally, we say at times, “The Lord and I have it in control” – meaning: God has everything in His strong hands. We know our only part is in giving assent to what He does. Without my consent God will do nothing for me; He will not overpower me to help me emerge from a distressful situation. He will not honor His promise that I shall rout a thousand foes determined to destroy me. When I cease to yield to His will, I am then on my own.

It is analogous to the Israelites’ relationship with God in their battles against their enemies. God required the Israelites to arm themselves and to train for warfare, but in the end it was God who made them victorious over their foes. And when they forsook their God, He forsook them, and all their training and armament could not achieve a triumph over even the smallest and weakest enemy.

Jehovah declared, “I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” God will withdraw His hand in a tentative manner from our affairs when we turn from Him, but He is still the gracious, loving Savior He has always been and He will not soon utterly abandon us to a well-deserved fate. God bears long with His people – and with mankind in general – but He is also a God of justice and righteousness and He will not tolerate our willful sinning forever. There comes a cutoff point, otherwise He is not the God He has always been.

In this great Jehovah God who came to men as Jesus there is a mind-blowing mix of many varied traits, some of which seem to contradict one another. But appearances are not always as they seem. The same God who declared that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” is the One who died in the sinner’s place. But on the reverse side of the coin, the God who died for the sinner is the one who will eventually consume the sinner if he rejects the salvation purchased for him at such a great price.

God does not change; our relationship to God changes. There are certain angles from which we see the tender, loving side of God; but when we move to a perspective that is oppositional to God, we see the stern, judgmental and wrathful aspect of God. It is not God’s responsibility to be sure that we maintain the right relationship or perspective of God; that burden falls on our shoulders.

God in Christ gave His all on Calvary: what more could He do? And we are reluctant to make the smallest of sacrifices for Him because it would inconvenience or distress the flesh or hurt our pride or “damage” our frail psyches! We, mankind, are no doubt a most pathetic people.

 

Who Is This God We Serve?

What a question to ask of a people who supposedly are faithful, loyal subjects of “God.” It is possible that the majority of church-goers have never looked at God face-to-divine-Face. Many have never seriously pondered this majestic Being they serve. Who is He and how did He get tangled up with abject sinners like us?

Who is God but God? He is God – up, down and across the invisible worlds of human imagination and the visible worlds of the universe. There is no place or concept that can successfully shut Him out. He is simply, inexplicably and incontrovertibly – God. The smallest and meanest minds cannot wish Him away just because He does not square with their lifestyle; the greatest intellects cannot reason him into their trick bag of myth or wishful thinking. He is God and He has no intention of disappearing.