Prayer & Privacy

Privacy. The word has taken on many connotations in our society, and to a certain extent, we even have a right to it based upon the "penumbras" of the 14th Amendment, or so we are told. Yet privacy is vital to a healthy prayer life.

Christ made a point of withdrawing from the crowds and even his disciples in order that he could seek and commune with the Father in privacy. See, e.g., Luke 5:16 ("But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."); Mark 1:35 ("Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."); Matthew 14:23 ("After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone"). In fact, Christ was quite direct on this point:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matt. 6:5-6.

The obviousness that a private area affords is quietness and minimum distractions. A private area given to prayer also serves as a means of preparing one's mind, spirit, and soul with direct communication with the Almighty--who is worthy of all reverence. A private area also affords one the best opportunity to clear one's mind, to free one's thoughts from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Yet, it is the solitude of a private prayer setting that provides one with the greatest opportunity of all. Namely, the opportunity to listen. Not to speak aloud, but to listen. It is this aspect of a spiritual walk, the willingness to listen, that makes privacy a must in one's prayer life.

Christ took very seriously His pursuit of the Father's will. In order to do so, He at times was forced to withdraw to settings of solitude. We, mere creations of His, ought to seriously consider doing the same.


Soli Deo Gloria

Pray? Why?

Prayer is an integral part of our spiritual journey. But, one must ask, why? If you were to stop and analyze your recent prayers and do a survey of your specific requests, could you answer the question of why prayer is so vital for our spiritual well being?

I ask the question only because a review of my own recent prayers reveal a troubling tendency. My prayers, more often than not, take the form of petitions. Asking for specific needs and desires, of course, is an important part of praying. See, e.g., Matt. 7:7-12. But praying encompasses far more than mere petitions or requests. For, if praying was solely concerned with such things, it would be difficult to discern why praying is so crucial (after all, God knows what we need before we even ask. See Matt. 6:7-9.). It is interesting to note that the only time in the Scriptures (that I can tell) that Christ prays for His own desires, and not for someone else or to seek the Father, His prayer was not directly granted. See Matt. 26:38-39, 42.

It seems, then, that spiritually nourishing prayers encompass much more. The essence of prayer, its purpose, is to draw the individual nearer to God. Praying is a time for us to listen; to express our true thoughts and emotions; to seek the face of God; a time to carry out the second greatest commandment by praying for others; a time to better understand one's self, one's short comings, and how they might be overcome. Ultimately, prayer allows us to spend intimate and quiet moments with God. As with any living being, the amount of quality time that you spend together is directly proportionate to the quality of your relationship.

If you have ever spent any amount of time around a young child walking through the toy aisle crying "I want, I want, I want" then you understand how tiresome such moments can be. I hope that our prayer life is not similar. There is a time for expressing our wants and needs. But, in looking back on your own recent prayers, can you answer the question why?


Soli Deo Gloria

Prayer & The Mystery of Setting

As much as we don't like to admit it, our surroundings have an affect on us--for better or worse. With this in mind, it is interesting to note that Christ regularly withdrew into His creation, typically into nearby mountains, for the purpose of spending time alone in prayer with the Father. See, e.g., Luke 6:12 ("One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God"); Mark 6:46 ("After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray."); Matt. 14:23(a) ("After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.").

Christ certainly did not have to go into the wilderness in order to be alone with the Father. He could have simply withdrew into a back room and instructed His disciples that He did not want to be disturbed. Yet, this is not what Christ did. It should cause us to wonder, then, what it is about God's creation that caused Christ to withdraw there in order to seriously pursue the Father's will.

While it serves as the greatest conceivable canvas, the creation afforded Christ with more than mere aesthetics. There is something about the pure splendor and majesty--the wildness--of creation that affords mankind the opportunity to draw closer to God. Whether it is a cabin tucked in the blooming meadows of a mountainside, or a shoeless stroll across the cool sand of an enduring beach, or a hike through the delicate desert, this undisturbed tranquility provides us not with the opportunity to speak louder, but the privilege of listening more attentively.

I recognize that the practicality of the hustle and bustle of modern life is not always conducive to taking such trips into the wilderness to seek the face of God. Yet, even a half an hour at a nearby park, lake, or walking/hiking trail can do wonders. When we reach our boiling point from the demands of everyday life, spending time alone with God in His creation can do wonders for revitalizing us and giving us a renewed sense of purpose for our existence.

Simply stated, spending time in God's creation rejuvenates our spirit and soul unlike any other setting known to man.


Soli Deo Gloria

A Few Posts on Prayer

The topic of prayer has been heavily brewing in my mind lately. So, in the next few posts, we will broach the subject of prayer. We will discuss a few interesting aspects of prayer as well as a troubling tendency concerning the theme of our prayers. As always, your feedback is welcomed in either the comments section or in e-mails.

Soli Deo Gloria

Stop & Evaluate

How often do we really stop and evaluate the current path we find ourselves traveling?

Too often, I come across people that are, more or less, zombies. There is a distant look in their eyes, devoid of any meaning or purpose. I cannot help but wonder what is the source of hope these people have in their lives. I see them leading a life, the fruit of which is non-existent.

I, of course, am not immune from this syndrome. As a safeguard, I make a conscious effort to periodically evaluate my life--my habits, tendencies, reactions, judgments, beliefs, passions, my vocation, as well as those things I love and desire. Essentially, I attempt to evaluate all of the "things" that comprise the person I am and, especially, those things that shape the person I am becoming.

If you know at the end of your life you will look back and value certain things, then these are the things that should become your priorities in the present.


Soli Deo Gloria.

Post-Christian Era

I have seen a number of references lately describing our current era as "post-Christian." I have to admit that I find this label a bit troubling. Although most such references have been in academia, I have seen a few in popular culture as well.

I can live with the notion that a majority of our populace no longer embrace Christ as the Truth. Although this makes me uncomfortable--as a long-term rejection of Christ cannot lead to good consequences--it is not what I find to be troubling. After all, we can work towards altering the hearts and minds of the people.

The troubling aspect of this label is the mockery it gives with respect to the truth-value of Christianity. Implicit in this label is the idea that we have "evolved" in our thinking. That is, mankind has come to a point in our understanding where we have moved past the truth-claims of Christianity. We no longer need to live by the bonds and superstitions of Christianity. We, after all, are living in the post-Christian era, or so the argument goes.

He Who Is transcends all generations, as does His truths. To suggest that we have reached a point in our "understanding" where we no longer need the faith is what I find troubling. It is because of its basic assumptions that I refuse to adopt the label post-Christian as it applies to this era or any other.


Soli Deo Gloria

The Power of Music

Music is a phenomena that we do not entirely understand or appreciate. The sound of a song can bring back a myriad of memories. Music also has the ability to alter our current state of emotions--from melancholy to joyful or, if we are not careful, to a state of depression or even anger. It also has the power to alter our current thought process, sending us down a path of contemplation that we may not have otherwise ventured.

There is something about music that seems to reach into the inner recesses of the human soul. We certainly see this in the lives of Saul and David: "And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him." I Samuel 16:23 (or you can read the whole chapter here)

Each time David played the music from his harp for Saul, the spirit sent by God to cause Saul distress would depart. Now, the reason why God would send a distressing spirit upon Saul is, perhaps, for another blog entry. But one cannot help but see the affect that the playing of music had on Saul's spirit.

It is this phenomena that should cause us to pause and reconsider the types of lyrics and melodies we are subjecting ourselves to. I am always a bit troubled when I hear the justification echoed that "well, I am not listening to the words, I just like the way it sounds." It is incorrect to assume that we can separate the words from the music. In any event, such a state of mind ignores the affect that music has on the listener.

I hope we will pause to consider the type of music that we subscribe to and, in so doing, I hope we will take note of the influence that such music has upon us.


Soli Deo Gloria

True Beauty Revisted

Over the weekend, while engaged in serious pursuit of rising rainbow trout, I had a bit of an epiphany if you will.

It occurred to me that our celebration of beauty in others is misplaced. Instead of celebrating the beauty of another, it is the beauty of God's design and, ultimately, God Himself that is worthy of celebration. For it is in the creation, the design if you will, that reveals true beauty--the Creator.

Perhaps this explains my hesitation in labeling the artificial as beautiful. The tanning and highlighting and such things alter and distort God's intended design and creation.

Soli Deo Gloria.

True Beauty

What are our standards by which we judge whether or not something or someone is beautiful? The answer to this question, at least the one that our culture would suggest, is a bit troubling. Let us take the beauty of a woman as an illustration.

By what standards do we use to determine whether a particular woman is beautiful? Is it as simple as her waist size, cup size, and the color of her hair? In fact, these days it is difficult to find a woman that does not have highlights in her hair--usually in the form of blond highlights. I do not raise this to chastise such women, but to ask the question of why does a woman feel compelled to die her hair an unnatural color in order to feel beautiful? And why do men find unnatural hair color attractive?

I see the hair dying phenomena stemming from a much deeper problem--our standards of beauty. Women feel compelled to conform themselves to an image of beauty that is unnatural and, in most cases, simply unattainable. Men are not much better, as we have adopted these standards of beauty and, as a consequence, we expect our wives to look as such or we are more attracted to women that do.

So, then, what is true beauty? In terms of physical characteristics, true beauty passes on a parallel track with design. That is, God created men and women with varying shapes, sizes, and figures--and he did so for a particular purpose. To assert that one must attain an artificial color by means of tanning or an artificial hair style by means of dying is a distortion of beauty as God intended it--true beauty. To adopt such standards is a tragedy, both for ourselves and our loved ones that we are holding to such standards.

Physical characteristics aside, the most important aspect of a beautiful woman is a sincere heart for the Lord. By this I mean that there is something about a woman truly loving God and desiring to serve Him that is simply beautiful. It cannot be matched by any other characteristic.

Perhaps we should revisit our assumptions and pre-suppositions concerning what makes a thing (or person) beautiful, all the while seeking to recognize the design that permeates the world we live in.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Jonah's Anger, Our Insight

It is often in moments of anger that we allow ourselves to freely express our true thoughts and feelings--often, however, to our own demise or shame. For the prophet Jonah, his pronouncement out of anger painted an insightful portrait into the character and nature of God:

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Jonah 4: 1-3.

Jonah, a well known prophet and man of the Lord, knew the true heart of the Lord--gracious, merciful, abundant in lovingkindness. Because of this, he refused (at first) to minister unto the Ninevites because he knew that God would show mercy unto them--a nation Jonah did not want mercy shown unto. The Lord in fact did show mercy unto the Ninevites, which angered Jonah.

It took a moment of anger for Jonah to finally confess why he did not want to go to Nineveh. The Lord, of course, knew all along. Even though it provided us, the readers, with insight into the character and nature of God, I hope that we will not wait until moments of anger or frustration before we come to grips with our true thoughts and intentions.

Soli Deo Gloria.