DOES PRAYER WORK?

By Alan Scott

© 2020 Alan Scott

Yes.  It always does.  It always deepens our relationship with the Father!  So often we measure the impact of prayer by the result we see on the circumstances or person for whom we prayed.  If we don’t see the desired outcome, we are tempted to conclude that prayer must not work.  We think that for our prayer to work, we must be able to convince, manipulate, or bargain with the Father to change His mind.  We judge the effectiveness of prayer by whether we get what we asked for.  Prayer becomes a spiritual chore that we never quite master or enjoy. 

What if we were to measure the effectiveness of our prayers by how we have been changed?   Prayer always leads us into a deeper relationship of submission and dependence upon the Father.  As we pray for a particular need, we surrender to the Father’s purpose and will for that need.  If we don’t see the desired change in that wayward grandchild or have that unpaid bill miraculously paid, we still trust Him.  In our conversations with the Father about these needs, we gain confidence in His deep love for that grandchild.  As we pray about that unpaid bill, our surrender and trust to the Father’s wisdom and power will result in our experiencing His peace.  Peace always accompanies His presence and assures us that He is with us even when our circumstances seem unchanged.

The purpose of prayer is to deepen our relationship of trust and surrender to the Father’s will, not cajole or manipulate the Father to do our will.  Prayer is a privilege and opportunity of intimate fellowship that builds deeper trust in the goodness and faithfulness of the Father.  Jesus, who generously taught us to pray, modeled this relationship building prayer life in the Garden of Gethsemane.  As He faced death on the cross, He prayed, “…My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39, NIV)

When Jesus was asked by His disciples to teach them to pray, He gave them what we have often called The Lord’s Prayer.  In our worship services, we have often made these words a ritual of closing our extemporary prayer time by repeating together this prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, (for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.)” Matthew 6:9-13, NIV

What if we were to pray this model prayer at the start of our personal prayer time with the Father instead?  It would remind us and lead us to affirm that the foundation of our prayer is our surrender to His will.   As we bring our burdens, by name, in fresh surrender, we trust Him in deeper ways.   Imagine how this will change your testimony to your grandchild: “I have been praying for you and it has so deepened my relationship and trust in God for you.”

Yes, prayer works. It’s not a chore or duty.  It’s an opportunity for a richer relationship with the Father that leads to our comfort through His presence and peace!

How long, Lord?

By Alan Scott  © 2020

“My Child, pray through until YOUR…

…Worry becomes trust

…Injustice becomes compassion

…Unfairness becomes opportunity

…Sorrow becomes hope

…Anger becomes love

…Unforgiveness becomes healing

…Resistance becomes obedience

…Frustration becomes joy

…Fear becomes transformed into faith

…Pain becomes overwhelmed by My presence

…Weakness becomes overshadowed with My power

…Priorities become surrendered to My purpose

…Impatience with Me is lost in My faithfulness!”

The Opposite Of Pain

What is the opposite of pain?

The Lord brought this question to mind as I was walking out of the department store where I had made a quick stop for a last-minute item for a party at our house.  I quickly dismissed my initial answer…healing.  Healing is the solution but not the opposite of pain.  What is the opposite of pain?

I know many people who live with pain in their life, both physical and emotional pain.  Some of the pain is self-inflicted but much of the pain is the result of the actions of others.  Rather than live in this world of pain, what is the other side of pain? More questions quickly came to mind.

How do you leave the world of pain that wants to define your life? You can’t pretend that the pain never happened.  God can heal your pain, but the memory of pain can change how you live your life.  You can become defensive or insecure, fearing the potential hurts ‘out there’ in your future.  You can become embittered, choosing to hurt first the next time, inadvertently becoming the next ‘hurter’ for someone else.

Shortly after the first question came to mind, God brought His answer to my mind the same way.  I heard this thought that was not my idea, “The opposite of pain is peace.” Almost immediately, and before I could form my objections to His answer, He reminded me of Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

Wow!  What if that is true?  The opposite of living a life defined by pain or the memory of pain is… peace.  What if we could choose to be kept in the perfect peace that God promised to those who steadfastly choose to trust in God for their future and their life free of pain’s distraction from or challenge to our trust in God?

What if, when pain’s memory rises again, I stand against pain and before God and declare:

 “I choose to trust you God!  I stand against pain’s attempt to distract me from steadfastly choosing to trust You!  You will keep me in perfect peace!  Pain is real, but Your peace is perfect, complete, and life changingly more than real.  Supernaturally real! Pain is distracting but Your peace is the reward of my choice to trust in Your truth and not in pain’s lies.  I steadfastly choose to trust You by an act of my will, whether I feel like it right now or not!  AMEN!”

Pain is not where God wants me to stay.  I don't have to settle for anything less than a life in perfect peace.  Perfect peace is where God has promised to keep us who trust in Him and who do not give up choosing to trust Him.   

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” Isaiah 26:3, NIV

My Friend Is Sinning

My friend is sinning and I know he knows I know.  It is not a secret anymore.  It hasn’t been for some time.  Somewhere along the line, he and other sinners thought that if the world didn’t call his sin a sin anymore, that the terrible bondage that sin brought on his spirit would be lifted.  He forgot that the world calling it sin isn’t what makes it sin.  It is sin because the God who made us says it is sin and what He says is sin is only the stuff that destroys us and our relationship with Him.  It destroys us whether we think it does or not.

Redefining sin is not new.  Everyone has tried it.

“I didn’t hit him, Mom, I just tapped him!”

“I wasn’t angry, it was righteous indignation!” 

“I wasn’t lusting, I was just admiring God’s creation!”

“It wasn’t sin, it was only a mistake ‘cause I didn’t intend to do it.”

My friend says that I am afraid of sin.  He says I am sin-o-phobic.  Oh, I used to fear sin.  It was that “thing” that I just couldn’t seem to control.  I didn’t want it but I couldn’t shake it.  Then I thought that maybe it was me.  You know.  It was just the way God made me.  But then I thought, wait a minute.  God made me!  Sin did not!  Why should I let sin define who I am.  What does this sin know?  I think I will let God define me and my potential!

I do not claim that I am free of sin, but I am happy to tell you I am free from sin.  It no longer has its impossible hold on me.  It doesn’t scare me into silence.  It doesn’t hold me in its terrible trap of lies about me.  Its claim that because I have sinned that I am defined by that sin, no longer keeps me bound to that sin.  Christ has set me FREE!  Can you hear it in my best Mel Gibson voice… FEEEEDOOOOM!  No sin can separate me from the love of God!  Take that, sin!

Sin had its moment.  Oh, yeah!  It had God right where it wanted Him.  The crowd was with sin.  Yelling.  Calling for God’s death.  They had Him.  No one wanted Him.  He wasn’t popular.  Lies were told about Him.  They killed Him.  Buried Him.  It seemed like sin’s claim of ultimate power was finally proven true.  Then God rose from the grave!  Setting the captives of sin free once and for all!  Proving that sin’s claim of control over you and me was once and forever a lie.  God is our way of victory over the lies of sin’s power in our lives.

God convicts me of my sin and I am thrilled.  I don’t want that sneaky stuff in my life.  When I agree with God about my sin and repent, turn from it, renounce its claim to rule my life, God sets me free.  I invite God to cleanse me of its residue in my life and keep exposing any remnants in my life.  Conviction.  Repentance.  You guys are my friends.  You lead me to God’s truth about his power over sin.

My friend is sinning.  You see, he is afraid of his sin.  His braggadocios defense of sin or redefining sin is really his own sin-o-phobia.  I have been there friend.  It will not lead you to the freedom you seek.  It is only in Christ that I no longer fear sin and its power to dominate my life.  I am not afraid of you or your sin.  I am afraid for you.  But I will never give up hope for your freedom.  I love you, sinning friend.  If I can find the way out in Christ, so can you. 

Is It Just Too Late?

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.  (James 4: 13-17, NIV)

I got connected recently to a stray website while checking about time.  It was a Calendar and Time Zone calculator.  I was about to leave the site when I notice an interesting calendar feature.  If I put in two dates, it would tell me how many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes or seconds there were between any two dates.  Now since I was near a birthday for me, I was curious what it would tell me.  I knew the years.  But it promised to tell me how many seconds I have lived!  Are you ready?  I have lived:  3026 weeks or 21,185 days or 508,440 hours or 30,506,400 minutes or . . . 1,830,384,000 seconds!  In a little over 5 more years, I can hit 2 billion seconds of life!

That seems like a lot of time to have gone by.  Have I wasted it?  Is it too late for me to accomplish more in my life for God?

Now my granddaughter, Eva, will reach her first birthday soon.  The calculator says that she has lived just over 31.5 million seconds!  What has she done with all those seconds (other than learn to melt her grandparents heart with a smile over Skype!)?  Have they been wasted?  Is it too late for her?

Well, Eva, I guess someone might ask you what you have accomplished with your 31.5 million seconds.  Have you invented a new machine?  Have you started a world changing charity?  Have you made your mark on your chosen career?  Of course not.  You have been growing and learning.  You have been falling and picking yourself up.  You have been crying and laughing.  You have been watching and loving your parents.

There have been times when I have thought it was too late for me to do what God wanted me to do.  (Have you ever been there?)  I have let too many seconds tick by, too many lost opportunities.  I have seen others who have already done it sooner and better.  I tried it and it didn't work or wasn't received well.  I have been pretty harsh in my judgement of accomplishments with my time on this earth.

As excuses go for not doing what God wants you to do, time is a good one.  I can blame the past.  I can procrastinate to some unknown future.  Or, I can say now is the time to obey.  Now is the time.  "If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. (unless they plan to do it tomorrow or now know its too late to try)

It is not too late…
…to go meet that new neighbor
…to make those cookies
…to read that Bible verse
…to call that friend
…to pray with my kids
…to witness at work
…to ask forgiveness long overdue

Not if I am willing to…
…repent to God of my sin of disobedience
…humble myself to my neighbor and co-worker that I should have done this sooner
…take a small step each day toward a big obedience
…let God redeem my time of disobedience
…let God draw on the lessons He has taught me during this "wasted" time
…risk stumbling one more time as I learn and grow

So, its OK Eva, we know a lot has been going on during this past 31.5 million seconds.  It hasn't been wasted.  I know your future is unknown and full of possibilities.  But when you are tempted to give up, to be overwhelmed to the point of stopping, just focus on today.  I am praying for your "today."

God, what good do I know you want me to do today?  Now on to the next seconds of my life.

Ministry Happens or Catching the Wave of Providence

Have you ever given up or were about to give up because your plan didn't come together.  Most of us live our lives with the illusion that life is linear and we can plan everything out and control all the variables with hard work.  Hard work is an essential to anything worthwhile, planning is important but perhaps Spirit-led adaptability is an overlooked  aspect of your life and mine.  I came across a quote from an author who describes these as "Goose trails" (I am not sure I have ever used that expression before!)

"When we don’t pace ourselves, we tend to miss divine appointments right and left. In fact, they seem like human interruptions. We get so consumed with trying to get where we think God wants us to go that we put on spiritual blinders and miss the Goose trails He wants to take us down. The key is slowing down your pace, taking off your sandals, and experiencing God right here, right now.

...Spiritual maturity has less to do with long-range visions than it does with moment-by-moment sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And it is our moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that turns life into an everyday adventure."  (Excerpted from Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson)

I almost dismissed this as perhaps just one more excuse I could use for not planning well or anticipating change well.  Then I came across a different author.  He is a pastor of a very successful and growing church in the United States.   He describes his experience while speaking across the country and coming to the realization that what worked at his church was not necessarily what would work in other situations.  

"In many church growth stories, while leaders later point to principles that "got them there," they underplay the power of serendipitous, providential events of which they were able to take advantage. " (Dave Browning)

He used an interesting phrase to capture this thought, "Opportunistic Leadership: catching the wave of Providence."  Events that we believe are serendipitous are still in God's providential hands.  They only seem serendipitous to us.  What if God was working through your interruptions?  What if only we saw them as our failures and inabilities and God saw them differently as new opportunities for Him? 

I often wonder if I will ever be sure whether they were my failures in planning and execution or God's interruptions.  Could it be that it doesn't matter now?  I need to humble myself to God's plan, and ask Him to correct or instruct me from this point on.  I need to look around and see how He wants to use today.  Does He want a new direction?  Is there someone to whom I need to minister or something He needs me to do at this interruption/failure point.  

God wants to redeem our plans, our time, our failures.  Ministry is always about Him.  Don't stop planning and working hard in ministry.  Just stop seeing every interruption as your failure (or every success as your success).  Catch the wave of what He is doing, trust Him, and get used to being humbled by a God who sees and plans in ways beyond our understanding! (The watch what He can do through a confident, humble people!)