Praying for God to Open Doors

^{The Voice.Col.4.2} Pray, and keep praying. Be alert and thankful when you pray. ³ And while you are at it, add us to your prayers. Pray that God would open doors and windows and minds and eyes and hearts for the word so we can go on telling the mystery of the Anointed, for this is exactly why I am currently imprisoned. ⁴ Pray that I will proclaim this message clearly and fearlessly as I should.

Dilgence and Inclusivity

Ray Stedman writes:

…The apostle has two things to say about prayer. The first is: “Keep at it” — “continue steadfastly in prayer.” The reason, obviously, is that prayer is essential to your Christian life. Prayer is dependence on God, and that is the name of the game! If you don’t pray, then you are not expressing any dependence on him at all.But, though it may seem so at first glance, he doesn’t mean, “Now, set aside a certain part of your day for prayer; set a schedule, and be sure to keep it.” I am not demeaning that; some people are able to do it, and it is an excellent practice, but that is not what he is really saying.

The Greek word the apostle chooses for steadfastly means “to be ready at all times.” In Mark’s Gospel, there is an incident which illustrates this. In the third chapter, Verse 9, we read that Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they should crush him. The word for ready is the same word translated steadfastly in Colossians. That is, “Always be ready to pray, because prayer is such a vital link with the Heavenly Father, whose life is available to us continually, that in every circumstance you need to pray.” That is what Paul is saying. “Be ready to break into prayer — in your thought life — instantaneously, at all times, because that is the way we ought to live.”…

…The second thing Paul says about prayer is, “Include others in it.” “Keep at it, and include others in it — especially me,” he says. “Pray for us also that God may open to us a door for the word.” Here he recognizes the body of Christ and the fact that we are members one of another. We need each other. This great apostle says that the opportunity for him to declare the message of Christ will be given to him by others: “You pray for me,” he says, “and that will open a door. God will open a door when you pray for me.” The opportunity of opening doors for each others’ ministry is given to every one of us. You can open a door for me; I can open a door for you — if we pray for one another…

Setting Aside the Time

Charles Stanley writes,

No matter where we are in our Christian walk, most of us will admit that our prayer life isn’t what we’d like it to be. Our attempts to make room for prayer in our busy schedules are often short-lived. And when we do manage to spend time with the Lord, we find ourselves easily distracted by random thoughts, our own desires, and the demands of the day.

Instead of giving up in frustration and settling for a sporadic devotional experience, we need to realize that prayer was essential to Christ and should be to us also. The road to a deepening prayer life begins with a commitment to make it a top priority in our day.

We follow through by setting aside a daily time to pray and read from God’s Word. Then we need to find a location that minimizes interruptions. Since we’re already busy, sacrifice may be necessary to make this happen. We might have to wake up earlier, give up a favorite activity, or use our lunch hour.

Scripture is a key factor because it teaches us about our Father’s character, promises, and priorities. The Word of God shifts our thoughts from worldly cares and pleasures to a focus on Him. Through it, we are reminded of His importance to us and our desire to please Him. Then we become ready to ask in accordance with His will and hear what He has to say.

Developing a habit of prayer may require sacrifice, but it’s worth the cost and effort. Spending time in the Lord’s presence is the best way for us to know Him better and love Him more.

Paul Prays for Quality of His Delivery

Warren Berkley notes a specific aspect of Paul’s request,

…But observe further this meaningful phrase: “as I ought to speak.” Paul wanted them to pray to God that he would speak effectively. In addition to content, Paul wanted God’s help in delivery. It is one thing to give the facts as they are. It is another to give them in good order, with appropriate passion and with challenge to the hearer to act. Paul had an interests in everything about the process of preaching. He wanted God’s help to open the door, and he wanted God’s help in effectively delivering the gospel.

Everything in this passage highlights the value of prayer in association with preaching the gospel. If we ask God to help us in various earth-limited endeavors, how much more should we ask Him to guide and direct our efforts to get the gospel into the doors around the world…

 

Muttering, Murmuring and Musing Over God’s Word

This is only the second time we’ve included something in full by Bruxy Cavey, teaching pastor of The Meeting House in Oakville just west of Toronto, Canada, and author of the book re(Union): The Good News of Jesus for Seekers, Saints and Sinners (Herald Press) though we’ve included quotations from him at other times.

This is actually Part One of a three part series. At the end you’ll see links to the other two sections. Meditation is controversial in some circles, including some people I know personally; so I trust you’ll be open as you read this. You’ll find each article starts out with some information from the broader marketplace of ideas about meditation, but then leads to an examination of what scripture teaches.

Still. Here. (1 of 3): Why Meditate?

Are you “STILL. HERE.”?

My Dad had a beautiful and gentle spirit. My sister told me about the time she checked in with him while he was having his daily time of stillness and quiet with God, praying and reading Scripture. She asked him what Bible verse he was reading and he told her. The next day she found him at the same place and same time and asked him the same question and he gave her the same answer: it was the same verse. She checked in on him the next day, and he was still reading that very same verse. So she had to ask: “Dad, why haven’t you moved on to another verse yet?” My Dad responded, “I don’t think God is finished talking to me through this one.” My Dad knew how to be “STILL. HERE.”

Welcome to the first of three posts on the spiritual practice of Christian meditation.

For many Christians, we feast on Scripture, devour books, pig out on podcasts, and consume blog posts under the banner of “more is better.” It’s all about volume, volume, volume.  While there is a time and place for the breadth of our spiritual study, our generation is most in danger of neglecting the depth of our spiritual connection with Christ.

You’ve heard of the “slow food” movement. At The Meeting House we’ve been experimenting with a slow soul food movement of our own: a pace of presentation in our Sunday service that is more gentle and meditative, allowing us the time and space to mentally and emotionally “chew” on the truth of the teaching of Jesus. This is nothing new – Christians have been mediating on the truths of Scripture for centuries. But for many Christians today, meditation is a completely new practice. I find this first of all exciting, because it means that many of us are on the verge of a revolutionary shift in our spiritual life.

This “STILL HERE” meditation practice isn’t just about a different way of structuring Sunday sermons, but a challenge to adopt a new (for some) spiritual practice and to practice that practice daily for three weeks minimum, and three months preferably. (Do you hear that Meeting Housers? Don’t give up!)

But why is meditation so new for so many Christians? I think Christians sometimes make the mistake of assuming meditation is the spiritual practice of other religions, like Hinduism or Buddhism, and therefore must not be a very Christian thing to do. And that is silly. This “guilty-by-association” approach to figuring out what is acceptable in life is the way of the Pharisees, not the way of Jesus. (I’m just glad we haven’t abandoned prayer because Muslims do that, or given up on Scripture study, because our Jehovah’s Witness friends do that, or stopped memorizing Scripture because we know some atheist friends who have memorized parts of Shakespeare. You get my point.)

It’s time to boldly do and be all that Jesus calls us to do and be, including being disciples who “abide” in his teachings and make room for his teachings to “abide” in us. Jesus said that his disciples are called to “remain” in him where the Greek word, meno, means to dwell, to abide, to stay, to move in and do life together with Jesus. In the same passage (John 15) Jesus also says that he wants to “remain” in us, and then tells us one way to welcome him inside – by allowing his “words” to dwell in us.

Study?  Yes.
Memorize?  Absolutely.
Meditate?  It’s time.

Elsewhere Jesus says –

If you abide (Gk,meno) in my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
~ Jesus (John 8:31-32)

Most of us know the last bit about the truth setting us free, but we haven’t learned to spend time abiding in the truth that brings freedom – the teachings of Jesus.

The ancient Israelites knew the importance of “abiding” in the teachings of the Torah. After Moses died, God commanded Joshua –

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
~ Yahweh (Joshua 1:8)

King David agreed that a key to true prosperity was meditating on God’s teaching. In his very first Psalm, David writes –

Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.  That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
~ King David (Psalm 1:1-3; also see Psalm 48:9; and all of Psalm 119)

The Hebrew word for “meditate” is hagah, which means to mutter, murmur, and muse over something. The image is one of a cow chewing her cud. Have you ever noticed that when you see a cow she always seems to be chewing something? That’s because cows must chew their food twice in order to digest it properly. A cow eats a lot of grass in a day (volume, volume, volume), but then regurgitates smaller portions (called cud) and re-chews them before swallowing the cud into a different part of the stomach. What a beautiful image of the place of meditation in our spiritual diet. (Okay, okay. I know “beautiful” is not the best word to describe the image of a cow regurgitating its food for a second go around, but it felt like the right word at the time.)

There are many types of meditation, and most of them can be quite helpful for our mental and emotional well-being. You can easily do some of your own online research, and what you’ll find is that things like anxiety, stress, irritability, anger, and aggression are decreased, while things like awareness (of God? of others?), empathy, compassion, self-control, and ability to focus are all increased.

While there are many kinds of helpful meditation, all types can fall into one of two basic categories:

• APOPHATIC MEDITATION – letting go of content, releasing, emptying, un-thinking.
• KATAPHATIC MEDITATION – Focused thinking, deep contemplation on specific content.

Apophatic meditation is a fine form of meditating and a lot of mental and physical good can come from that, but it isn’t what we’re talking about here. Our “STILL HERE” meditation is kataphatic meditation: a focused meditation, where we chew over and over again on one aspect of something God seems to be saying to us through a reading in Scripture.

When I was little I learned to be afraid of meditation because, as I was told, it was a way of emptying our minds which would leave us vulnerable to demonic attack or even possession. I’m not kidding! I bought it for a while, before I realized that Christians who meditate aren’t kicking out the Holy Spirit, but making space to experience more of God’s presence. And especially through kataphatic mediation, God has given us a tool to help us absorb more of his Word, to focus our hearing on what the Spirit might be saying to us, and to abide in the teachings of Jesus in a deeper and richer way. (Take THAT Devil!)

Last thing: remember that meditation isn’t about the experience of meditation itself. It isn’t a matter of how and who we are emotionally or psychologically throughout the meditative experience. Meditation is about who we are becoming when we are not meditating and are engaging with people around us. A Christian who meditates is a Christian who is learning how to be more focused on and responsive to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through the teaching of Jesus. And that is someone who will live and love more like Jesus in their daily interactions with others. Meditation for the win!

In our next post we’ll cover the basics of how to start a regular “STILL HERE” meditation practice. But for now, you can at least warm up your meditation muscles by reading a teaching of Jesus more slowly, inviting the Holy Spirit to highlight his truth to your heart.

Christian education is valuable. The process of study and inquiry is like typing important information into your brain. Meditation is like hitting the “ENTER” key.

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…continue reading…

♦ Part Two — Still. Here. (2 of 3): How to Get Started

♦ Part Three — Still. Here. (3 of 3): What’s With all the Breathing?

 

Personal Accountability

^{The Message, Prov. 2717} You use steel to sharpen steel,
   and one friend sharpens another.

Currently there are different ideas about the concept of having personal accountability, or more particularly, the idea of having an accountability partner.  I am quite sure that, as with so many areas of Christian endeavor, there are pluses and minuses to systems of this nature.

However, I think those of us who live much our spiritual lives online need to be especially challenged in this area, simply because we may find ourselves deriving spiritual fulfillment from the Christian sector of the internet, at the expense of other types of ministry that would give us more personal contact, and would leave us less likely to be anonymous, or to pretend we are something other than we are.

Accountability is particularly stressed in men’s ministry.  Pastor B. J. Rutledge recently shared ten accountability questions with his men’s group, but if you’re woman reading this, I believe B. J. has rewritten this to have more general applicability.   This appeared on his blog under the title, Accountability is a Non-Negotiable.

This past Sunday [November 13th] we talked about overcoming those Fatal Flaws that have the potential to destroy your influence, marriage, family and life.  One of the four keys to overcoming Fatal Flaws is accountability; it is non-negotiable.

A number of you asked me about the Accountability Card used for years in my Men’s Small Group.  Here are the questions if you’d like to make your own card or a similar card.

1.  Did you spend quality & quantity time seeking God?  Share a Quiet Time highlight.

2. Did you talk with, communicate with, pray with and encourage your wife regularly?

3. Did you spend special time, encourage and pray with each of your kids regularly?

4. Did you expose yourself to any movies, videos, magazines, internet sites, etc, that were immoral, pornographic or encouraged lust?

5. Did you interact with a (man/woman), in any way that was not pleasing to God?

6. Did you memorize your verse for the week?  Share it with me.

7. Did you attempt to share the love of Christ with anyone this week?

8. Did you demonstrate integrity and Christ-likeness in your business or ministry affairs this week?

9. Did you just lie to me about any of these?

10.  What are some of your struggles right now?