Prayer: The window on the soul

Hey… this is my second Small Group blog looking at the focus of Lent. This week we looked at how prayer is central to our walk with God. Prayer and answered prayer build’s our faith and helps us to press on in our journey…

God is in the business of celebrating life… since the beginning of creation; God marvelled at his creation and saw that it was good. He also saw man as his ultimate creation… We were made in his image, and with the breath of the Holy Spirit, we were born to be in relationship and unity with God and with each other.

We should be joyful of our place in creation… We were birthed in love, and are parented in love. Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. As we learn to put our trust in him we begin to experience changes in our lives by first recognising the things in our character that need to be refined. When we see these areas, it is important for us to place it at the cross. If we confess our sin, Jesus is faithful to forgive us our sins and will purify us from all the wrong we do (1 John 9).

So how big is our God? Is he capable of dealing with all of the things hidden away that we want to keep separate from our conscious thought? Some of this stuff is areas of our lives that perhaps we are ashamed of. The pain of past hurts; the damage done by well intentioned people who misunderstood our needs and gave poor advice; selfish people who have used and abused us; constantly giving of ourselves without acknowledgment for the service we offer... there are endless combinations aren't there?

The stuff that seems to be cemented within the core of our very being like a heavy weight; the times when we are by ourselves, when our soul tends to shudder; when we think about that time when... Well God wants to be in that too. Some stuff is repetitive. Areas of our lives that we keep returning to again and again almost like a default programme – we suddenly find ourselves in the place we hate being in, having missed all the signals that pushed us down the cul-de-sac in the first place.

We have the things that are done to us and the things that are done by us. With God there are no blind-eye’s as Admiral Nelson is famous for (pretending not to see something in plain sight – in Nelson’s case he chose to NOT see a flag to withdraw from battle); choosing to ignore. Making a choice is being in a state of rebellion. When we choose how we want to behave against the established protocols or etiquette of life; or fighting against Gods order. Our souls have been born into a state of rebellion since the fall – we make poor choices.

When presented with the gospel, we heard that there was a new way to live. Jesus made a number of statements about himself that those who are in rebellion with God, and those warring with their internal conscience over the scars they have picked up on life’s journey, can find hope. Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life… He said that all who are weary and heavy laden should come to him and find rest… Jesus said that he whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. In Jesus there is no shame in bringing to him our internal battles and leaving them.

We do this through prayerful contemplation in who we are, in what we have become, and in what we hope for in the future. We recognise that there are areas in our lives we need God for! As we grow in faith, we are willing to give to God that bit of our life we are willing to surrender to him. Pride is not a modern phenomenon but is often a root in why we won’t give up our buried past… it’s too painful isn’t it. We try to survive as best we can. Our sometimes random behaviour, bouts of depression of self doubt, low esteem and anxiety are all natural emotional states that can be dealt with positively. We cannot do this alone – but we try to.

God doesn’t want us to be this way. He wants us to have life in all of its fullness. Sometimes it is healthy to feel anxious when involved in a perilous activity like parachuting. We need the adrenalin rush to cope with the anxiety… we need the security of the parachute to quell our fear and an object in which we can place our trust, the law of gravity, and the toggles that act as the rudder to guide us to the safe landing point.

Taking the leap of faith with God is the same anxiety we experience when we give up harmful behaviours, negative emotions and the baggage of life that we pick up, or are put on us. Faith helps us to give up that thing in our lives that harms us – were dealing with our emotions it is going to be painful. Does our emotional pain and our response to that pain define who we are and what we would become?

God doesn’t want to be just the parachute; he isn’t some psychological crutch; he wants to be the air in which we fall through! The abandon of free falling without feeling restricted by sin is the climate that God wants us to be in. There are boundaries to the journey (gravity and direction of travel) that God has written throughout his word that instruct, encourage and empower our choices. God places us into a carefully constructed safe haven described by Jesus: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul… And love your neighbour as yourself. If we are doing this on our journey, then we are on the right track!

We can grow in our love for God because we see him at work in our lives. We see him at work in our life by offering to him those things we have already mentioned and leave them in his hands. Sometimes the change is instant. We still see today God’s miraculous intervention in the lives of the people…

Prayer is where we meet with God in our most vulnerable times… What, you don’t hear God when you pray…? How long did you wait in his presence to hear what he has to say? On a superficial level we might pray for a car park space… But if we want to see more of God at work, how often do you seek God in prayer… we need to trust him with our intimate thoughts. A place we can put down our mask(s) before God who like any parent, already instinctively knows of our need before we ask. This is both an emotionally scary and profound moment because we are giving of our selves… Jesus talked about dying to self – Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

God gives us free will to disclose what we are prepared to offer of our selves. God is ALWAYS knocking on our door (Rev 3:20) – He really does want us to live a fulfilled life, whatever our circumstances, however life is treating us… we have to open the door prayerfully and with hope. We cannot stay in the same place forever if we wish to remain healthy. God honours our integrity by not interfering – he knows how much we can bear but at the same time, longs for us to reach out to him in faith. Prayer calls down heaven to earth… as we petition God with our requests, we enter into a relationship; a dialogue. We use our understanding of the truth of scripture and the promise’s God has made to his people to trust that he will work through all things for good.

Our desire should be to turn to God no matter what. We need to develop sensitivity to what we need and what God’s will is for our lives. If we can tune these two in to each other, then we can endure; we can learn to become resilient; not just survive and get blown from pillar to post; to live abundant lives, enjoying every moment.

Jesus says in a parable that you don’t put new wine into old wine skins… We can’t keep asking God to fill up our old nature with his spirit so we can survive another day. Rather we should seek to be born again by the renewing of our hearts and minds through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He is our comfort in time of need; our counsellor in times of confession; and the power by which we live.

None of this is easy to do… life is hard! We believe in a supernatural God who has won us for himself through the actions of his son Jesus. We have to learn to live a naturally supernatural life – depending on God to help us in the every day. Jesus led by example. He got out of bed early to wrestle in prayer; he observed what his father was doing and followed his lead; he was filled with the Spirit, yet understood the need for dialogue with his father.

We, like Jesus are designed to tune into God. Spending time with our father as Jesus did, keeps our souls in check. Spending time with our father builds relationship with him and helps us to develop understanding. Learning to listen helps us to hear God’s voice during the day. It makes it easier for us to hear the guidance he offers to us. It makes it easier for us to process what we hear, and it prepares our hearts and minds to respond to God’s call for our life. So start slowly and work up. Bringing the small things to him, will then make it easier to bring the larger things to him because our faith will have been grown by seeing answer’s to prayer. So start today.

The Chi Rho is an ancient early symbol for Christian's

The X and P are greek letters for the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ

In English, this word translates as Christ - I rather like it.

It starts with an impression...

This is my first blog. Each week I prepare a talk for our small group. A bunch of Christians who meet informally in our home. We sit and share our lives and ask God into those situations so that it may go well with us. Today, our reflection is on the season of Lent.

It starts with a look, a thought, an idea that you dismiss. But then it gathers momentum in your mind and you revisit the theme you thought you had once dismissed. The thought gains gravity as you think through the possibilities, or linger too long on something you wouldn't normally entertain. Our minds now active with inventive thought and the seduction of the forbidden. The thought becomes an impulse; the impulse an action; then the deed is done and cannot be withdrawn, leaving us with a short term experience, perhaps living with the regret of the emotions we now have.

We all choose how we want to respond to the stimulus that this life presents to us. Some go with the moment and seize each and every opportunity because it may never come again. Some are reserved and a little more inquisitive... thinking through consequences of actions; would it leave us exposed to hurt or abuse, or our emotions dulled by the experience.

Our impulsive actions that are a response to the life around us, can be anything from a physical flirtation, a look, or a thought or action; maybe something that we shouldn't do but the risk is too tempting. Who's going to know what we have looked at or what we are thinking...

We have all sown seeds of deception in our otherwise ordered routine's of work and play, with many signals seeming subtle or harmless. The season of lent is a period of time modelled on the 40 days that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, or the 40 years the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, or the 40 days of rains of the flood of Noah. Each a reminder that as human beings we need time to think, reflect and order our lives... to cast off our old self to put on the new. To cleanse our soul of the toil of living in our modern society, with all of it's complexities and wonder.

For the Christian, Lent allows us to focus on what Jesus promised for us, whilst examining how our world view has become distorted over the year. The effect of sin, where we decide to do our own thing in rebellion to the teaching's of Jesus, needs to be reset. During Lent, our minds, bodies and souls need to be examined through a mechanism that stops distraction. The ancient tradition of fasting; to deprive our body of food in order to remind us of our purpose of examining our true-self, and help us focus on the meditation of our heart, is something that Jesus endured. He was successful because he knew scripture - he understood what the scriptures meant for his life, and he understood the promise and purpose of God for his life. Jesus endured the temptation of the flesh; of the folly in pursuing glory and in the testing of his father's will.

#NT Wright speaks of a car that has been misfueled. It can run for a moment before the fuel cloggs up the internal components of the engine, leading to costly repair. He also mentions the mechanic who can find the cause of the problem, repair the error, and get us moving again. This is a great analogy for Lent.

During the year we pick up habits and behaviours that are not helpful in the formation of our character in this life, nor does it allow us to exhibit our true-self to those we share our journey with. The hurt and stress that we can carry around with us, starts to invade our actions and we operate 'out-of-character.' Some of us get so used to behaving is such a way, that we cannot see how destructive it can be. Many of us forget the spiritual dimension to our actions and cannot understand at times why we feel low. Others throw themselves into the next new trend, hoping to ignore that which is gnawing away inside... it feels good for a while, we live in the moment.

God wants us to sustain healthy and vibrant lives, celebrating this life that we have and our purpose within it. Each one of us is connected through a family of believers whose purpose is to restore and lift each other up... no man is an island.

So Lent is about resetting the barometer of our lives so that whether their is fair weather or storms, high pressure or low, we can react with a calm peacefulness, knowing that the past has been forgiven, and the present that leads to our future is already secure. #NT Wright says that their are four areas in our life that we need to address:

1. Causing an offence against known rules - protocols; we know we should not have done that; we seem to have lost some of our humanity in causing the offence in pursuit of our own way.
2. Sin - an old word that simply means rebellion; choosing to do your own thing regardless of what is correct
3. Guilt - the things from our past that we have not let go of. It may be too painful, or you may think that the cause of the guilt somehow defines who you are... so you hold on to it, not being able to forgive yourself, or the actions of others
4. Deceit - trying to cover up that which we now to be wrong or an untruth... putting on a mask and trying to get on with life as though nothing is wrong.

Psalm 32 is a way to meditate through these four checks. First it reminds us that our belief and faith in Jesus will release us from the pain felt as we confess what is not right with us. God is big enough to deal with all of our questions, doubts and our failings, through the actions of his son Jesus. The season of Lent reminds us that Jesus too was tempted by all that life could throw at him. We can have faith in the integrity of Jesus and his teaching, as well as in his action's. Jesus knew his purpose was to help us all be rid of the 'stuff' we do wrong to others and to ourselves... we prayerfully lay them at his feet, and make a decision to stop doing those things that are simply wrong. His sacrifice cleanses us from all of our faults and renews our spirit.

Turning away from the things we know are harmful to our character, and the world in which we interact with, is achieved by accepting the free gift of the grace of God. We can be set free - to be reborn. God cleans up our engine, refuels us with his spirit, and gives us a destination far better than the one we were on previously... we still have free will to choose to follow our own path and ignore the Holy SAT-NAV because we know better! But whatever our journey, be reassured that God is always looking out for us, always watching, always waiting, always ready to forgive and bless our lives with the fullness he promises... as Jeremiah says in chapter 29: 'Plans to prosper us and not harm us, plans to give us a hope for the future.'

I hope this has been of some help. Next time: Prayer