Holy Prayers In Desolate Lands

By Pastor Vinnie

How long do you pray for others?

Does how long you pray matter? I know that on the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said not to pray with vain repetition[i] but I am not talking ritualistic prayers but rather a long-haul duration of praying for victory to break through. What I mean is, do you give up too easily? Could it be that we never see the miracle God wants to give us simply because right before he is about to grant it, we stop seeking his solution? Maybe we are right before the miracle.

I guess we could say, you snooze, you lose. If you were praying for your own needs, then giving up to soon only hurts you, right? But what if you were praying for someone else? Imagine you had been praying for a loved one, a co-worker, a friend – to find Jesus, and just when their heart was softened, just when they were about to break down and give it all to Jesus, you stopped praying.

I mean, sure, it is not all on you. You can’t pray someone else into repentance. This is true. Free will is real and sooner or later everyone must choose to yield to God’s call to repentance on their own heart. When we pray for someone else to come to repentance, or to make a faith step forward, what we are really asking is for the Holy Spirit to convict them of the need for the miracle of regeneration in their heart.

Daniel’s prayer in the book of Daniel chapter nine is the perfect model prayer when we are actively called to pray for the eternal fate of someone else. What is most striking about this prayer is that Daniel is praying for his nation Israel who had been in captivity for close to 70 years. Yet during this time, they had not made the heart changes that God had sent them to Babylon to have changed.

Israel had become exceedingly wicked, their sins included robbing widows and orphans, and even child sacrifice. They had zero connection with God when Jerusalem was sacked by Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the city and temple and carried off all the nobility to be imprisoned in Babylon. Daniel was just a little boy when he had been captured and carried off to Babylon. What I find amazing, is he himself was not a part of their sin, he was too young to have been a partaker. Even in Babylon, he remained incredibly faithful to YHWH. Don’t get me wrong, Daniel was human like the rest of us and also suffered from the plight of the fallen human nature. The point I am making is that the bleak situation Israel found itself in was not contributed to by Daniel himself; yet as a member of the nation, he owned responsibility.

In Daniel chapter nine, we find an aged, tired, old man version of Daniel humbly praying for his nation, as if their sin had been his direct sin. Perhaps what makes his prayer so powerful is his realization that his own spiritual condition mirrors theirs at least in nature! It was not that Daniel could, nor would, repent of their sin for them, but rather he is identifying with their plight. For seventy years, Daniel went to his window at night, bowed towards the Holy City in ruins, and begged God to forgive their sins and to impress true and character-changing repentance on the nation’s spirit.

Daniel prayed, labored, identified, even though the sin was not his, because he loved his people so much. Do we love enough when we pray? Is our heart in it? Are we praying like our family, our nation, our life depends on it? Are we bringing our hearts into unity with God’s mind and will for those whom we seek to find repentance?

We need to pray like any moment might be the moment before the miracle. Read and meditate upon Daniel’s prayer:

“I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.  Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:4-20

For seventy years Daniel had prayed this same prayer. What Daniel sought was the repentance of his nation, the rebuilding of his nation, the restorations of all things Israel. Daniel’s motivation informed what he prayed. For your sake, Lord, he prayed. The destroyed nation and city bears your name Lord!

You see, Daniel was not just praying for what Daniel wanted. Daniel was not just praying for what was best for Israel. Daniel was actually praying for YHWH’s name to be restored in his nation. Daniel wanted the nations to see YHWH in them.

When we pray long-haul prayers for loved ones to repent, to find God, to be saved – are we willing to endure 70 years if that is what it takes? More importantly, are we still praying just so our loved one makes it into the Kingdom? Or are praying that the Kingdom makes it into to our loved one? Daniel does not just want Israel to be free.  Daniel wants YHWH’s name to restored and glorified because God’s people have sullied it and made it desolate in the Holy Place.

Those we pray for are Holy Places. At least, they were meant to be Holy Places. We likely see the Holy Place inside them looking to be restored. YHWH, The Lord, Jesus, wants his name restored on them. We are the city, we are Jerusalem. We are the city set upon the hill. We are praying that for God’s own sake His name will be vindicated in the desolate places of all whom we pray for.

Maybe our prayers won’t need to be 70 years long, if, instead of only praying for repentance of those we seek to see saved, we pray for God’s sake they become Holy Cities and Temples that show the world YHWH’s glory!

While Daniel was still praying just that; the Angle Gabriel appears to give him answers;

“As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision.” Daniel 9:23

Even when the land looked desolate, the answer was sent out. Seek the restoration of the Name of Jesus when you seek to see the lost be found.

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Footnotes:

[i] Matthew 6:7

Related Blogs:

The Joy Of Despair

What Is Victory?

Prayer: Why Even Bother?

The post Holy Prayers In Desolate Lands appeared first on Simply Vinnie - Unpacking The Complicated.

Prayer: Why Even Bother?

By Pastor Vinnie MacIsaac

I approached a church member who was in the late stages of a life-threatening illness. Quoting the Apostle James, “If anyone is sick let them call for the Elders,”[i] I asked my member if I could call the elders together and have them pray for her and anoint her for healing.

I’ll never forget her response. “Why Bother? What good is it going to do, anyway? God is going to do what God is going to do!”

After getting over my shock and talking to her a bit longer about it, I came to understand she was not talking from a position of lack of faith, at all, but rather of deep personal conviction. Her view may have been a little too Calvinistic for my liking, but she was, in fact, upholding a high sovereignty of God outlook.

The more I thought about it, the more I was deeply troubled, in a good way, by the implications of what she was saying. Do we really think our words will change God’s mind?

Isn’t God going to do what is best for us because he loves us and not because we figured out the magic words to get our genie out of the bottle? Is that really how it works? If I get just the right words and say them, Poof! My spell is cast, and God has to do what I want him to do. Right? Or maybe it’s if I pray long enough, kneel sincerely enough, or beg, plead, cry, fast, beat myself, then God will finally give me my wish that I just can’t live without… But I thought it was supposed to be God I could not live without? And if God does not answer my prayers, maybe I just did it wrong? Maybe I was not pure enough, or I just did not pray hard enough? Maybe my faith just wasn’t strong enough. After all, doesn’t James make it clear, “ But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.…”[ii]

The more I thought about the ways we approach prayer, I became more perplexed.

So many people believe they failed because they did not get what they prayed for. But maybe, maybe prayer is not like writing a letter to Santa Clause and promising you will not be naughty and only nice if you can avoid the coal of life and just reap the presents from Heaven. Maybe, prayer is not at all about what you get.

After all, Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”[iii]

Ha! I am sure most of my prayers are babble to God. I babble on to poor God subjecting Him to endless “baby-talk” about what I think is the right thing for Him, the God of the Universe, to do, or get me. I incessantly go on about how good I have been or how better I promise to be if only he grants me my fantastical fancies. Seriously, do I think God needs my advice on what is good for me? What a joke! Ha! My ways always turn out as train wrecks! Yet I spend ninety percent of my prayer time listing out my wants, desires, and demands to God rather than seeking His will for me!

My favorite Christian Philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard offered me a profound sobering truth that rebuilt my faith in prayer in ways which I needed it most:

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

Why must I pray? To change God’s mind. No! God is perfect. He doesn’t need to be changed, nor should the likes of me, ever move the unmovable, he is the perfect  “primum movens”[iv] (unmovable mover) and it is I who must be moved by Him; never He by me! And that is why I must pray! God knows there is so much about me that needs to be changed, so much about me, that needs to be moved by Him!

He tells me; “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”[v] The door that needs to be opened is not the door of God’s kindness, pity, or compassion, that has been wide open from the start! The door that needs to be opened, unlocked, loosened is the door of my heart that wants “My will,” not “Thy will to be done.”

God gives me the ministry of prayer and tells me to seek, find, and knock because my will is rarely His by default. I am rebellious, and I am demanding, and above all I am impatient. So He says, pray, seek, that I might find His ways. Knock, because the longer I knock, and plead for Him to open up the door to me I start to notice I am actually not knocking alone. He stands by me knocking with me and crying, and pleading to me, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”[vi]

Oh joy, oh the surprise, oh the honor; the Unmovable Mover does not need me to move Him, because He already desires all good for me! He wants into my heart to move me! Now, when I talk to God I ask that He may tell me something, I seek that he may show me something, I knock that I may find him already at the doorstep of my Heart longing to come in with me to find levels of joy, peace, and love that I did not even know enough about to imagine for myself! He is not the genie in the bottle, He is my best friend, He is my comfort, He is my security, He is the unmovable rock that I must tether my heart too and never let my will separate us again! When I pray, this is God leading me into the Narrow Gate.[vii] It is the prayer-gate that only He can lead me through. It is the door I knocked at. The door is buried deep, deep in my own heart underneath all those other selfish wants. It is the door that leads to His will! It is the door that leads to the Narrow Way, that few choose to enter. It is the door that leads me away from destruction and to the road that leads to life!

I choose life! I choose Jesus. I choose to reject my wants. My ideas. My will. I choose to get forever lost, for all eternity, to dreams, desires, and perfection that in my fallen human nature I just simply would not have known to ask for the “greater” that He desires to give.

Yes, call for the Elders. Let us pray. Let us anoint. Let us be redirected to the Narrow gate, put back on the path of life, let us be moved by the Unmovable Mover! “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God- it changes me.”[viii]

“Prayer does not change God, but it changes the one who offers it” –Soren Kierkegaard (1847)

Footnotes:

[i] James 5:14

[ii] James 1:6-7

[iii] Matthew 6:7

[iv] Latin: primum movens for ‘that which moves without being moved’ because it is the prime mover. It originates from Metaphysics, Book Λ, by Aristotle. It became a key Christian way of seeing God’s prime sovereignty by its adoption by Thomas Aquinas into the church.

[v] Matthew 7:7-12

[vi] Revelation 3:20

[vii] Matthew 7:13-14 – “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

[viii] A quote attributed to CS Lewis in the 1993 Movie Shadowlands. While it gels with Kierkegaard there is no known writing of Lewis that contains it. It is used here because regardless of authorship it is true.

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