PRAYER UNTETHERED

Yesterday I wrote about Scripture-less prayer having real world consequences. In the best case scenario, we ask for the wrong thing and the worst consequence is wasted time. Ours and God's.

It is when we "hear God's direction" through our untethered prayers that the consequences can become destructive - to ourselves and others.

What is the best way to be certain the voice we hear is really God's? I would say we can have confidence when the instructions, tone, and priorities align with God's voice and character as expressed through his word. 

I feel strongly about this for good reason. I (and my wife) have been on the receiving end of serious repercussions of untethered prayer.

But I will share here only my own experience (though my wife had it worse) and I will leave all names out. 

The lack of proper discernment in prayer, in a nutshell, was one of my main beefs with the mission organization which sought to discipline me on the basis of false accusations from a co-worker. 

The process was quite drawn out. And painful.

Throughout, the leadership of the organization said things like "We prayed about this and we believe God is saying ... ". And "We prayed long and hard about our response and we have decided to ... " 

The implication was that if they had "spent time in prayer", the matter was settled. Their discernment was not to be questioned. Even if their conclusions ran counter to Scripture. (Not to mention, common sense.) 

Every time I tried to direct attention back to Scripture, my complaints went unaddressed.

I said things like "The Bible says 'you shall not bear false witness'. How many of the accusations must be proved to be lies before you throw out my accuser's entire testimony?" 

- Silence.

"The Bible says if we feel a brother has sinned against us, we should go to him personally. Why is the organization encouraging and upholding anonymous accusations?" 

- Crickets.

"You say you are seeking reconciliation and yet the anonymity makes reconciliation literally impossible. (Punishment, on the other hand, is very doable.)" 

- Nothing.

And finally "Jesus says, 'Let your yes be yes and your no be no'. Do you think it is right for you as a Christian organization to force my silence about all of this nonsense by requiring me to sign a legally-binding document written by your lawyer? Under threat of termination for not signing?" 

- - - Well, we didn't actually wait for a response on that last one. Melissa and I resigned when presented with that legal document. (Writing the things contained in this blog post - even speaking them - would have gotten me fired ten times over!) 

Take it from me, prayer untethered from Scripture is destructive. 

Discernment in prayer requires deep familiarity with Scripture. 

PRAYER WITHOUT FOUNDATION

Yesterday, I wrote about how my increasing discipline towards reading and studying Scripture is leading me to desire greater discipline in prayer.

This is a healthy progression, for sure. 

Developing a good understanding and appreciation for Scripture can prevent our prayer life from going astray. Without a biblical foundation for our prayers, we are likely to waste time and effort in asking for the wrong things (best case scenario) or act unwisely based on faulty discernment of God's voice in answering us (worst case scenario).

The classic example of what I mean is the man, struggling in his marriage, who goes off to pray in solitary. He returns to tell his pastor, "God is telling me to get a divorce because I am not happy."

Isolated from Scripture, it is difficult to distinguish between God's direction and wishful thinking.

Or between God's direction and Satan's lies. 

Hopefully that man has a good pastor, who replies, "God is undoubtedly telling you no such thing. Let's turn to the Bible." 

CONVICTION

I knew there was danger in increasing the time and attention I was giving to Scripture.

I knew it might alter my perceptions of reality. (Which can be a little scary, but nothing I can't handle.)

And I knew it might convict me. On multiple levels.

(Because that is one of the Bible's main jobs.)

And I hate to admit it to myself - much less to you - but I knew one of the things I would eventually be convicted on was my prayer life.

This has been a long time coming.

My prayer practice has ebbed and flowed over my entire life, but it has never, ever been stellar. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe I am finally ready.

And so I am open to hearing from you - What practices have you found useful in drawing you deeper into prayer?

LOPSIDED CHRISTIANITY

The Apostle John urged his “dear children” to “not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)

The stress is on the word “and”:

Love with actions AND in truth.

In recent decades the American church has split into two camps: Actions OR Truth.

The authors of Churches that Make a Difference*, summarize this divide well:

“One branch, quoting the Great Commission, claims nothing is as important as leading individuals to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.” 

The other side “stresses that the calling of Christians is to care for those who are poor and to seek justice.” 

Sider, Olson, and Unruh conclude: “Both sides have it partly right - but neither has the whole picture.” (p. 45)

The result is what they call “lopsided Christianity”. 

As always, Jesus should be our role model. He found no conflict in balancing his time and attention between preaching the message of “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near” while also feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and setting the oppressed free from the demons seeking to ruin them. 

Love in action AND truth.

This is what gets me excited about serving with Mission Resource International. It might seem like such an organization is bound to be a bit slanted toward "loving in action". What some would call (sometimes with a sneer) the "social gospel".

But I am finding that MRI actually strives to maintain balance in the work God has called us to. Yes, the Lord has given us the privilege to serve in places where we see hungry people fed and willing people employed.

But we have also seen lost people finding the Savior and local churches strengthened. 

And THAT sort of holy balance is exciting to me.

___________

*Ronald Sider, Philip Olson, and Heidi Unruh, Churches that Make a Difference, 2002.

GHOSTWRITING

I found out this week that a friend of a friend is making an extra $5,000 a month writing for other people. While living on the mission field!

"Ghostwriting".  

And he's doing it part-time.

And you know what? If I made $5,000 a month at anything, it would be the highest paying job of my entire lifetime. By a significant margin.

(Which, I suppose most people would think is pretty sad for someone who is 53.)*

So I start asking myself, "Why can't I do that?"

A voice in the back of my brain then generates a list of reasons why I can't. 

But you know what else? I am slowly coming to the conclusion that there is only one thing stopping me from doing the same thing as that friend of a friend.

And it's not any of the items on that voice's list. 

It is the voice itself. 

*************************

* Those people might be right.

PARENTAL ADVICE WIN

It is a few minutes after 3:00 pm. My daughter's school day has ended and she has entered the school auditorium by now, God willing. 

As I write this, I am anxiously awaiting a verdict. Was yesterday's parental advice to Sarah wise?

Or did we set her up for trauma?

Sarah came home from school yesterday torn. Her school is pulling together a musical in the next few weeks and Sarah would love to be one of the background dancers. 

But even the background dancers have to audition. And that involves singing a solo in front of an audience of 40 classmates and adults. 

A daunting prospect!

The thought of it left Sarah bouncing between "I can do that" and "I am going to embarrass myself to death". 

After texting a friend later in the evening, she came to the kitchen and announced, "My friend isn't going to audition, so I have decided not to do it either. I am just going to be a part of the crew - backstage. Such a relief!" 

In that moment, I recognized myself in her: looking for an excuse to back away from what I feared might happen. And missing a golden opportunity.

And so her mother and I both spoke up. I think Sarah expected to hear "Well, it's your decision ..."

Instead, we repeated our confidence in her ... and urged her to face her fears.

This morning, although she lost a night of sleep, Sarah said she was going to audition after school.

****

It's now 10:00 pm and I am happy to report that Sarah stuck around after school - for almost three hours - and then took her turn on the stage and sang her song. 

She said her stomach was in a knot all day. She had considered backing out but then decided all her anxiety would have been for nothing. 

Now we wait to see if she made the cut.

For dinner we celebrated with some Chinese take-out from Yee Kee. 

Sarah was exhausted but nothing could wipe that smile off her face all evening. 

AN EXPERIMENT

I launched a little experiment today, Tuesday, February 8, 2022. 

Gonna grow some green beans. 

In sand. 

I have high expectations, but it's going to take a couple of weeks before I see anything interesting. 

It's one of those things where I have heard something that seems too good to be true. So now I need to see for myself. 

If this turns out to be something, you are going to be hearing a lot about it from me in the coming weeks and months and years. And it will spawn further experiments. 

But for now, I am going to patiently watch and pray. The beans won't even sprout for 6 to 8 days. 

Sorry to be so vague - I am leery of getting my hopes up. But this has the potential to be so much more interesting than it sounds right now. 

I will report soon ... when and if there is something to say.