GUEST AUTHOR: Jim

Let me just state at the outset that I expect 99% of prayers at political meetings, whether Democratic or Republican, to be useless mush that mostly stumbles into idolatry. Why do I say that? I find there to be scant evidence that these prayers are conducted solely to honor God while relying on our standing before God on account of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Instead, these prayers, in whole or in part, seem crafted to reinforce the ideas that:

1. Those in attendance and those watching on TV are should know that we are righteous, sincere, and devout people.

2. We all have legitimate pathways to God, no matter what faith.

3. Being unified in good works is what matters most to God.

4. Our faction’s national vision is pure in its motives and would probably be endorsed by God himself.

5. Jesus’ most important work was that of a moral example and social activist.

I’m guessing that no matter what your religious background is, you’ll find one, maybe two of those ideas to be off-the-mark. Let’s agree that there’s obviously something very self-aggrandizing in the human heart that seeks praise and influence on the basis of the righteousness we show outwardly.

Yet for the believer in Christ, there should be an awareness that all five ideas I’ve listed are woefully problematic and opposed to the Christian gospel. Any Christian who is asked to lead prayer for a civic event should be prepared to resist the temptation to subtly but fatally compromise your Christian confession by paying homage to our civic religion and its precepts.

I’m not going to pick apart the prayer Donald Miller just gave to the Democratic National Convention, but I trust that after reading it below, you’ll understand why I found it to conform to my low expectations for political prayers.

As an aside, I must say that it was odd to watch him looking into the camera/teleprompter with eyes-wide-open during the delivery. The most disturbing moment by far, though, was the inflection in his voice at the end while invoking the name of Jesus. He put a self-conscious, tenuous emphasis on the first person in saying, “I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus…” That moment of “confessing” Christ was delivered with all the conviction of someone who prefers butter-pecan ice cream to other flavors, as in, “I understand that we have people present who like vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate…but you should know that I’m a butter-pecan guy and it would be good for other fans of butter-pecan to hear me saying it from this podium.”

I’ve pasted the prayer below for your perusal, as taken from Miller’s Web site.

“Father God,

This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.

We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.

We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.

Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.

Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.

Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.

Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.

Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.

Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.

We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.

Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.

A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.

Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.

Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.

Lastly, father, unify us.

Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.

And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.

God we know that you are good.

Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.

I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.

Let Him be our example.

Amen.“

our friend Carlos Whittaker has posted the prayer, both on his website and over at YouTube:

• Visit Donald Miller’s official website
• Visit Christianity Today’s interview with Miller
• Read Donald Miller for yourself

BY GUEST AUTHOR: Adam Groza

Sometime in the summer of 1993 I first turned from sin and trusted in Jesus Christ. There in the half-light of Oak Creek Canyon, God forever changed me. Somewhere between Slide Rock and Grasshopper point there is a bench. Late one night on that bench, alone and broken over my sin, God brought me to faith in Jesus and first taught me to trust in His atonement. Late one night on that same bench, seven years later, I proposed to Holly. Talk about the “anxious bench”!

Thus began my training in grace (Titus 2:11-14). God has appointed that we grow in grace through faith as we draw near to Him in the Word, fellowship, praise, evangelism, charity, and prayer. My experience has been that, of the above so-called disciplines of grace, the hardest is prayer! To put it bluntly, I am weak in prayer. I am haunted by the question of Christ: “Why are you sleeping” (Luke 22:45)?

Not only do I sleep too much and pray too little, but I often wander in my prayers. At Master’s Seminary, I took a course in prayer (eternal thanks to Dr. Jim Rosscup) where we were required to prayer for one hour each morning. I can remember sitting on my balcony in Northridge and getting angry with myself for mindlessly repeating the same requests or thanksgiving and then forgetting other important matters.

This weakness was only highlighted when as a hospice chaplain I would sit by the bedside of the dying or with the family of the dead and utter the most anemic and repetitious prayers, feeling guilty that of all the ministers in the world, at this most grievous hour, they had me. I would fill my mind with Scripture, meditate on holy precepts, converse for hours on finer points of theology, and witness or counsel ‘till the cows came home but I was more “prayer wimp” than “prayer warrior.”

A revolutionary moment came for me when in 2002 when I attended a lunch-time Bible study on the book of Jonah at St. Andrews Episcopal in downtown Fort Worth. I was thankful for a church that held a lunchtime bible-study for those working downtown. I was thankful for a chance to invite friends from work who didn’t attend church regularly. I was thankful to hear the word preached at an Episcopalian church. I was thankful to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached from the Old Testament! But perhaps the greatest blessing and most unexpected surprise came when I would arrive to bible-study and prepare my heart for worship by reading prayers from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Needless to say, I do not believe in nor endorse everything in Common Prayer. Yet I continue to be blessed to read biblically sound prayers that exalt our risen Savior, humble man, and beseech God for mercy. Since then, I have read some books on prayer, but have been most blessed in my prayer life by books containing prayers! I will often read them in the morning or during the day and utter the prayers of others as my own, expressing with words that are not my own what is in my heart. Especially in times of discouragement, despair, depression, or trial, it has been a fountain of mercy and grace to follow the footsteps of brothers and sisters into His presence in prayer. The Psalter, morning and evening prayers, and prayers of praise and thanksgiving are a treasure for prayer.

Reading prayers functions in my spiritual life like the engine and alternate power source in a hybrid car. From what little I know of the subject, a hybrid starts with one power source before switching to another. I find that the using written prayers can often ignite my own praise, request, confession, etc. I grew up thinking that praying the prayers of others was a sign of spiritual weakness, and now I think it is a sign of humility.

Jesus famously taught his disciples to pray by praying. I know there is more to prayer, and I recommend some sources below, but I encourage you to read prayers and incorporate them into your prayer life or family worship time. Some you might even want to memorize. Below is a personal favorite from The Imitation of Christ.

A PRAYER FOR THE GRACE OF DEVOTION
O Lord my God, You are all my good. And who am I that I should dare to speak to You? I am Your poorest and meanest servant, a vile worm, much more poor and contemptible than I know or dare to say. Yet remember me, Lord, because I am nothing, I have nothing, and I can do nothing. You alone are good, just, and holy. You can do all things, You give all things, You fill all things: only the sinner do You leave empty-handed. Remember Your tender mercies and fill my heart with Your grace, You Who will not allow Your works to be in vain. How can I bear this life of misery unless You comfort me with Your mercy and grace? Do not turn Your face from me. Do not delay Your visitation. Do not withdraw Your consolation, lest in Your sight my soul become as desert land. Teach me, Lord, to do Your will. Teach me to live worthily and humbly in Your sight, for You are my wisdom Who know me truly, and Who knew me even before the world was made and before I was born into it (Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, book 3, sect. 3).

• Read The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
• Browse this collection of Puritan Prayers
• Read The Valley of Vision
• Read The Lord’s Prayer by Thomas Watson
• Read The Hour That Changes the World: A Practical Plan for Personal Prayer by Dick Eastman

I typically and quite consciously try to post primarily original content here at Colossians Three Sixteen. However, today, I want to share some thoughts that I’ve been meditating on quite a bit lately drawn from T.M. Moore’s wonderful little book God’s Prayer Program: Passionately Using the Psalms in Prayer.

Moore tells the tale of a friend who had just finished telling him about the deteriorating state of his marriage. While the friend was willing to take the bulk of the blame for the sorry state of affairs, things were still not getting better. All of this led to Moore’s obvious question to the struggling man: was he praying about his situation? The friend replied:

Yeah, well, at the beginning I did. But it didn’t seem to do any good, so I haven’t lately. I don’t much feel like praying and I don’t really have the time for it. Besides, why should God listen to me after the way I’ve treated my wife? And why, with all the really important things He has to do, should He even care about what’s happening in my home? I don’t even know how to pray anymore.

Moore notes that in this response are six of the most common excuses people give for why they don’t pray as they should:

1. I tried it and it didn’t work
2. I don’t feel like praying
3. I don’t have much time for prayer
4. I’m not worthy
5. My concerns are so petty
6. I don’t know what to pray

In response, Moore offers seventeen reasons why we ought to pray:

1. Prayer is the most characteristic aspect of the life of faith
2. God commands us to pray
3. Prayer reminds us of our need for God
4. Prayer lets us be ourselves - safely
5. Prayer satisfies our need for fellowship
6. Prayer is the way to know great and hidden things
7. Prayer maintains the Devil’s defeat
8. Prayer strengthens faith and assurance
9. Prayer helps us get beyond the flesh
10. Prayer fulfills God’s purpose for creation
11. Prayer is transformational
12. Prayer makes us more like Jesus
13. Prayer is the way to know peace
14. Prayer keeps us in focus
15. Prayer sets us apart
16. Prayer prepares us for the Lord’s return
17. Prayer engages us with God

While there are certainly more and different reasons to pray and there is much to say about each of these excuses and reasons, this is a great starting point. I’ve been particularly meditating upon Moore’s first reason for praying: “Prayer is the most characteristic aspect of the life of faith.” On this point, Moore says: “We can say with confidence that prayer is the most characteristic attribute of true believers. It is the thing above all else that makes them stand out from others.”

As I examine my own life, sadly, I tend to fall under the first list, the list of excuses rather than I do the second, the reasons to pray. I don’t think that it’s an overstatement to say that one of the best and most accurate indicators of someone’s spiritual health is their prayer life. Moore says:

There’s just no way around it: Prayer is perhaps the single most identifying attribute of a true believer in God. Not that people in other religions do not pray; certainly they do. But it is all but impossible to describe the Christian life or to think of being in a relationship with the living God through faith in Jesus Christ without the discipline of prayer being a significant part of that experience.

I wonder how many of us would consider prayer as one of the defining characteristics of our faith? For far too many of us, prayer is optional at best. The longer I’m a Christian, the more I’m convinced that there is a direct correlation between the health of our prayer life, the time, effort and energy of our prayer life and the rest of our Christian life. Prayer is our connection to the Infinite and cannot be overlooked. In fact, it is nearly impossible to overlook Scripture’s commands to pray. Consider 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Our initial reaction when we come to verses like this is to cry out in exasperation, You know, I’ve got other things to do besides kneeling down in prayer! To this, Andrew Murray responds:

How can one do it who is surrounded by the cares of daily life? How can a mother love her child without ceasing? How can the eyelid without ceasing hold itself ready to protect the eye? How can I breathe and feel and hear without ceasing? Because all these are the functions of a healthy, natural life. And so, if the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural .

The reality of praying without ceasing is not in the continual kneeling or moving of the lips but in a heart of continual dependence upon and communication with God. A.C. Dixon says:

When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend upon education, we get what education can do; when we depend upon man, we get what man can do; but when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.

Oh that we would be a people who take prayer seriously, contending not for what we can do, not for what business models can do, but what God can do.

• Read God’s Prayer Program: Passionately Using the Psalms in Payer by T.M. Moore

Don’t forget to pray. For our country and others. As we watch this horrible anniversary, we must remember that the most we can do is also what men consider to be the least we can do. We must pray for those involved and those affected. As John Piper says, (paraphrase) in his book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, “prayer is the connection of our limp wires to the lightning bolt of heaven.”

It’s quite easy to become overwhelmed and distracted by the media coverage, the speculation and the finger-pointing, but the truth of the matter is: God’s people must be about God’s business using God’s methods and we must be leading with prayer. We must pray that God would bring healing, reconciliation and repentance to all involved, including those who have come to believe that they deserve God’s blessing simply because of their geographical boundaries, whatever those boundaries might be.

• Where were you?
• Remember the legacy.

Paul says in Philippians 1:19: “I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” This is the same Paul who commands that we “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Justin Taylor has just announced that “On Thursday or Friday the Bethlehem Baptist Church family will receive a letter from John Piper explaining that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.” The then posts a letter from Piper explaining the situation.

Piper’s news comes at a time when Donald Whitney is continuing to recover from colon cancer surgery. At this point, Whitney is able to say that he is “cancer-free” but that in no way lessens the urgency that ought to accompany our prayers on his behalf.

As Piper says in his book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, “Prayer is the coupling of primary and secondary causes. It is the splicing of our limp wire to the lightning bolt of heaven.” These are two men who have profoundly affected many lives for the sake of the Gospel and God’s glory. The least we can do is also the most we can do: drop to our knees, fall on our faces and lift these men up to God, our creator, sustainer, deliverer and healer.

Read Piper’s letter.
Read updates on Whitney’s progress.