Finally McHenry’s third activity to develop an interceding heart was to go the distance.
Here are the questions that I pose to myself as I read this:
1) Am I willing to pour myself out in prayer? Jesus poured himself out for me; will I do likewise?
2) Am I willing to keep praying even when there doesn’t seem to be an answer?
3) Am I listening to the truth of God or the discouragment/perspective the the enemy in this situation?
4) Am I listening to God for directions on how to pray? Or am I imitating the way that others pray because it seems like they do it “right”?
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
We cannot interceed for others without compassion.
This is not a quality that is second nature. Human nature is a pretty demanding self-centered nature. And while we can be moved with compassion for a few people or for very brief moments, God asks us to broaden our field of vision and die to ourselves. We have to be trained to see the needs of others over our own needs.
McHenry writes it this way:
“When we are filled with the Spirit, we’ll have the compassion of Christ within us. We’ll then see the diseased, the harassed, and the helpless so that we can pray they’ll be healed by the Healer, comforted by the Comforter, and shepherded by the Shepherd.”
McHenry acknowledges that intercession may not be the most normal response of our hearts. Yet it is a call on our lives, so how can we cultivate intercession? She gives three ways.
1. Prayerwalking – the discipline of praying over homes and businesses as we walk past them.
Now I have to admit that I’m not out there walking like I should be, which is probably why I’m outgrowing everything I own. But I take and change prayerwalking into prayerdriving as I chauffeur people around town. I pray for businesses as I pass and ask God’s blessing over them. I ask Holy Spirit to teach me how to pray for my city and then listen and hear his prompting. One of the most surprising directions for prayer came to me as I drove past the state pen one day. The phrase “house of singing” came to my mind. So now every time I drive by, I ask God to do a miracle in there and to change if from a “house of punishment/despair/crime/discouragement” into a “house of singing/redemption/joy/salvation”.
I also find that as I drive around the city, I sing over the city too. There is one song by Misty Edwards that has these lyrics in it:
People get ready;
Jesus is coming.
People get ready;
Jesus is coming.
He’s not a baby in a manger anymore.
He’s not a broken man on a cross.
He didn’t stay in the grave
And He’s not stayin in heaven forever.
He’s Alive!
He’s Alive!
He’s Alive!
While the people I pass may not hear me sing (unless the windows are down), the powers of darkness are very aware that I am declaring that their kingdom is a defeated kingdom and THE KING is coming back soon!
McHenry takes a look at the life of E.M. Bounds in this chapter. As Bounds served as a medic during the Civil War, lack of medical supplies often meant that the only thing he could offer the wounded was prayer. McHenry says, “he never left the battlefield of intercession…and was convinced that intercessors could hold the spiritual line of the nation with their prayers.” Changed forever by what he had witness, Bounds carried the heart of an intercessor for the rest of his life.
Intercession in this chapter takes two forms. One is prayer for individuals that God brings to us and the second is prayer for a nation.
Here are two quotes about personal intercession:
“When God calls men and women to a life of intercession, he is calling them to a life of sacrifice – a sacrifice of time, emotional energy, or even their lives.”
“Interceding – praying on behalf of others – may be the toughest kind of prayer, because it can break the intercessor’s heart.”
But possibly the most important quote to me was this in response to Hebrews 7:25:
“In a fractionally small way then, we imitate Christ as we give of our time, focus and energy as we pray for those around us. We go to God for others, just as Christ goes to God for us.”
We survived the rush of graduation activities, and have moved into the easy days of summer. For a great detailed account connect to Steve’s blog here and for pictures here.
What is it about Pomp and Circumstance? They could play it at an obedience school graduation and I’d get choked up.
Way to go Caleeb!!! We are proud of you! Study up on Proverbs 2. (Yes, the whole chapter.)
One of my favorite shows on TV is Everybody Loves Raymond. There is an episode where Ray and Debra go out for dinner and worry because they don’t have anything to talk about about. This goes around in our house too. I just don’t mind being together and being quiet. Somebody else though seems to think I have secret plots going on in my mind. He can’t quite figure out that I just enjoy being together and being quiet.
McHenry writes about coming to this point in our communion with God. She compares it to a camp fire:
The best part of a fire, though is when the flames are settled and the sparks have stopped flying. All that’s left is a warm glow that provides a sense that all is right with the world. Perhaps when our prayerful conversation with God also quiets, we then truly experience intimacy. Similarly when we are not speaking it doesn’t mean our conversation with God has ended. Instead, it may have entered a deeper state of knowing.
The quiet passionate heart may be the deepest waters of all. In here God tucks us under his wings and holds us close to His heart. Luke 13:34 The one thing that I have learned with the 117 baby chicks at our house is how vulnerable and tiny they are. Right after they came to live with us, we had a bit of a cold snap. I got up three times that night to look out the window and be sure the heat lamps were still on. If that is my heart for baby chickens, what how deep is God’s heart for me.
Lord, let me sit here for a time and feel the weight of your wings settle down around me.
This chapter wasn’t the direction I thought it would be. My thought was all about the passionate dynamic things that get done when we are in constant communication with the father. This chapter had the focus was primarily on avoiding the formluaic prayers and the ways that prayer has always been done in favor of truely listening to God and praying in the way He leads you moment by moment.
I loved this quote:
Our day of prayerstreaming with God may begin as a discipline, but it should then flow naturally. A stream begins with the purpose to head down a hill but is interrupted with rocks and fallen logs that make it move right and left – or even pause in a pool. We head to prayer as we awake – perhaps as a discipline with a list or perhaps just with a longing heart. From then on it is like falling down hill. We won’t control every moment with the next request on our list.
McHenry advocates again in this chapter that we need the discipline of time in the Word and time set aside for God, but not that we ever get done with our time and think we can simply check it off the list and be done.
Spurgeon is the focus of this chapter and there is a quote from him: If I seek in prayer the good of my fellow creature, and then go and try to promote it, I am practically praying for his good in my actions.
Pray without ceasing leads to loving with actions.
Where is it that you want to go today, God? Who will you put in the path of my course today?
Sorry can’t let this one go! This could be the best illustration I have ever heard on how to commune with God. It is a quote McHenry used from Richard Foster.
Communion with Him isn’t something you institute. It’s like sleep. You can’t make yourself sleep, but you can create the conditions that allow sleep to happen.
Just a couple more quick thoughts from the chapter on the Abiding Heart. (There’s so much good stuff in this chapter.)
“We are a restless people. We want action-packed thrillers, not movies based on conversation. When the pastor goes over thirty minutes, we’re checking our watches. Our restless nature spills over into our relationship with God as well. Abide means to remain stable or fixed in a state or to continue in a place.”
(What? There are pastors who only preach 30 minutes or less?) Abiding means waiting and the Bible tells us that those who wait upon the LORD with gain strength. So the practice of praying without ceasing means that I will be stronger.
Abiding in Christ means to live contentedly and expectantly. Seems like a conflict to me but McHenry shows that we have to be still/contented where we are knowing that God is working out a greater thing for us. Which is where the expectation comes in.
Today I meditate on allowing the LORD to teach me to wait and to expect all at the same time using these verses.
1 Timothy 6:6 godliness with contentment is great gain
Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God
Psalm 25:5 You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day
Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength
This chapter is so good, that I can’t quite process all my thoughts without writing the great American novel. It also connects to the post I did on Friday about being a prisoner of hope. So here’s a little testimony to go with the abiding in Him chapter.
Last fall we got notified that the IRS was going to audit our 2005 income taxes. Even when you have not done anything wrong, the word audit is pretty intimidating. I got all in a snit and a bother and the stress of this weighed heavy on me for several weeks.
One Saturday morning, I came to prayer and my dear friend Gay came up to me with something in a bag. She told me that she had been in Walmart and God had told her to give this to me. I opened the bag and inside was a coffee mug with a penguin on it. Penguins are my FAVORITE and I really appreciated the fact that of all the mugs in the store God had directed her right to the one I would have picked up for myself.
But God wasn’t done with me. I went home that afternoon and as I was cleaning, I felt the LORD tell me to look at the mug. Then it hit me again that penguins are my favorite, and that I am God’s favorite. It blessed me and I thanked Him for the reminder. But God wasn’t done with me yet. He said to me, “LOOK at the penguin.” And it hit me. This penguin was praising God. He had his little face turned to the sky and his wings were lifted up. God showed me through a gift that if I will turn and praise Him no matter what is going on, that since I am His favorite, He will take care of me.
So the discipline of learning to always look up and praise (or abide in Him) even when I am afraid or the circumstances around me look like the waves did to Peter when he got out of the boat is a huge lesson for me. I have been working on this daily since the end of November, and you know what – it’s working. The fear and anxiety are not the hallmark of my days. And somehow the hard times seem to be shorter than they have in the past.
Oh and by the way, even though 75% of the people who get audited end up having to pay more taxes, the IRS ended up owing us $147 since we had under-reported our church giving. Hmmm…giving to God paid out in the end.
