Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today we look at three verses in Isaiah, in which God said to Israel,
“When you spread your hands in prayer,
   I hide my eyes from you.
When you offer many prayers,
   I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood!
   Stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right.” (Isaiah 1:15-17)

That sounds serious. If you do wrong, God will hide his eyes from you and he won’t listen to your prayers. It also works in reverse: if you quit doing wrong and start doing right, God starts listening to you again. What could be simpler? If you want a better prayer life, get your act together and do right.

When St. Augustine, who lived about 300 years after Christ, was thinking about becoming a Christian, he prayed about his sex life, “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.” (Augustine, Saint, and Maria Boulding. The Confessions. New York: Vintage Books, 1998, VIII,17, p.198, paraphrased). In modern language he would say, “Lord, help me lose my sexual addiction and learn self-control. But not yet.”  Do you think God listens to that kind of prayer? Augustine said to God, “I was afraid you might hear me immediately and heal me . . . of the morbid lust which I was more anxious to satisfy than to snuff out” (Augustine and Boulding, p. 198).

Isaiah and Augustine raise two important questions about prayer:
1. First, a general question: Does God always stop listening to prayers from people
caught deep in sin?
2. And second, a personal question: How do we know if God has quit listening to us
because of our sin?

In the New Testament, James says, “We all sin in many ways” (James 3:2), so if God never listens to those who sin persistently, we might as well quit praying right now. If we have sins we aren’t prepared to give up, or addictions so entrenched that we can’t evict them, what can we do? I like St. Augustine’s approach. Instead of hiding from God until he could change manage his addiction, he spoke to God about his love of sin and his desire for holiness.

The personal question raised by Isaiah and St. Augustine goes like this: “What does God think of me? Has he quit listening to my prayers because of my sin?” Is God’s word to Israel also his word to me: “Even when you offer many prayers, I will not listen”?

If you want to know what God thinks about you, ask him! You could say “God, do you think the bit of scripture I need most right now is Isaiah’s angry pronouncement, “I am not listening because your hands are full of blood”? Or should I listen to Christ’s compassionate invitation, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened” (Mat 11:28)? It can also be helpful to ask a more mature Christian about your situation. But choose your counsellor carefully. If you talk to someone who thinks God is generally angry and unhappy with humans, guess what answer that person will give you.

Let’s pray.
Our father, we are troubled by sins that infect our lives, by impure motives, by a worldview where we think you sit in stony silence waiting for us to improve. We invite you into these crazy mixed up lives of ours, into our selfish motives, into our unmanageable behaviour. Speak to us the word that will set us free. Show us the next step to grow in love for you and our neighbours. Change our heart’s desire, until all we desire is you.
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today we look at the Book of Proverbs. First, some context.

There are five books of poetry or wisdom literature in the Old Testament. They are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Here’s a summary of their themes.

I call the Book of Job “The Mystery of Faith” because God and Satan agreed to take away everything Job had except his life, to see if his faith would stand up. But nobody told Job or his friends about the plan, so they were in the dark, trying to figure out the meaning of Job’s string of disasters. They were stuck in a living mystery. The friends’ simple explanation that God rewards good and punishes evil simply did not apply to Job. Job’s angry demand that God explain himself was met with silence. Today, God still does stuff without explaining it to us, and too get confused. This is the mystery of faith.

The next book, Psalms, are “The Emotions of Faith” because they express the full range of human emotion — anger at God, fear of enemies, feeling discontent, sad, abandoned, depressed, despairing. They also express joy, wonder, excitement, thankfulness, hope, and love. The books of Job and Psalms display all the wonder and diversity of creation and the mystery of human experience in a random collection of metaphors and word pictures, a wide assortment of stories and pictures.

Another book of poetry is Ecclesiastes. It begins, “Meaningless, meaningless. Everything is meaningless” (Eccles 1:2). That is a harsh statement about life. I think the original meaning is a bit softer, like this: “A puff of air, a breath of wind. Everything is vapour, just smoke and mirrors. What do we gain from our labor?” (1:3). The answer given is, “No matter how hard you work and how much stuff you collect, you end up buried in the ground, a meal for worms” (Eccles. 2:18-21). Who wins? You or the worms? Ecclesiastes teaches that neither work nor wisdom nor wealth nor pleasure will change our lives from that elusive breath of wind into something substantial. Not even faith will change the reality that your next breath could be your last. I call Ecclesiastes “The Fragility of Faith”. Faith receives a breath or a spirit we do not see to sustain an inner life that cannot control. Ecclesiastes’ advice for such a life is: “Don’t take yourself so seriously, don’t get depressingly philosophical, don’t be a workaholic. Life is short. Spend it with the people you love, enjoy good food, work hard, worship God. He will sort it out in the end”  (Eccl. 7:15-18; 9:7-10).

The last book of poetry is Song of Solomon, which I call “The Ecstasy of Faith” — the enjoyment of faith, that is, not the drug. It starts out, “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth — for your love is more delightful than wine.” Sounds like someone is headed for ecstasy. Even though God’s name does not appear in in this poem, the Christian church interprets it as an allegory of the love between humans and God.

You may have heard someone say, “All religions are basically the same because they all say, “Do good to others and worship God.’” Countering this reductionist view of religion, the books of poetry describe the Mystery of Faith, the Emotions of Faith, the Fragility of Faith, and the Ecstasy of Faith. Clearly, the poets promote an experience of God that is more complex than the simple command to do good.  

That’s how the books of poetry present religion . . . until you read the Proverbs, the book in the middle, after the mystery and the emotions of faith, before the fragility and ecstasy. Proverbs paints the religious life as black-and-white, good-and-evil, wise-and-foolish. No mystery here, no unnecessary emotion, nothing fragile or exciting. Just simple commands to do good and avoid evil. Reading only the three proverbs that use the word “pray”, we hear:
– The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him (15:8)
– The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous (15:29).
– If anyone turns a deaf ear to God’s instruction, even their prayers are detestable (28:9).

Clear, simple, straightforward, black and white moral teaching. God listens to you if you’re good, he rejects you if you’re bad. I call Proverbs “The Behaviour of Faith.” Yes, like other religions, the Bible promotes a moral standard. But in biblical religion, it’s only one part of the deal, not the central tenet of faith.

Let’s pray.
Our father, we have imagined that the most important thing in our faith is good behaviour. But the wisdom literature promotes not just a moral code, but a lifelong journey of faith, facing into the mystery of God, experiencing the depths of human emotion, bringing fragility and ecstasy and moral behaviour into a living relationship with you. Help us reject the religion of behaviour management. Help us embrace the many complexities of faith. And as we embrace a life of faith, may we discover that we are embracing you, and that you are embracing us.
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today we look at Job, a wealthy, God-fearing man, for whom life had worked out very well. I too am God-fearing, but I’m not wealthy like Job, and my life holds together with shoestring and bubblegum. But Job, he was the real thing.

Job was so together that one day Satan said to God, “I suppose know that the only reason Job serves you is because you make him wealthy and comfortable.”  God replied, “Not so. Let’s make a test. You can take away everything he has except his life, and we’ll see.”

So in one stroke, Satan arranged to have all Job’s wealth stolen, his sons and daughters killed in an accident (sucks to be them in this story), and his health taken away. Job ended up on an ash heap scraping his boils with broken pottery. Three friends came round to visit him. They sympathized with him for seven days, and then started a discussion about Job’s downfall. Since none of them had overheard the conversation between God and Satan, they were all guessing about how to make sense of his disaster.

Do you feel that way about your life sometimes? That God and Satan are both messing about in your life, and you think Satan’s winning, and you’re not sure why?

Job and his friends had a debate. The proposition was, “Job’s disaster is due to his sin.”  Job argued against, insisting that he hadn’t sinned. Job’s friends argued that God always punishes evil and rewards good, so Job’s disaster was clearly God’s punishment for evil thoughts or actions. Job disagreed. He reaffirmed that he had kept God’s laws, so God couldn’t be punishing him. As the debate progressed through 28 chapters of Job, the arguments become more shrill, more fierce, more extreme. The friends launched personal attacks on Job’s character, and Job responded by tweeting that they were poor comforters. It was almost like modern political discourse, with mud slinging and character attacks and general unpleasantness.

Finally, a young man named Elihu stepped in and said, “They told me that wisdom comes with age, but the four of you have proved that it doesn’t. Here’s how I see it: Job is claiming he’s righteous and you friends are claiming that he’s evil. But none of that can be proved. Maybe there’s some mystery in the way God works. Maybe Job isn’t quite as righteous as he things. Maybe you friends are wrong about of God; maybe he’s doing something different than just punishing evil and rewarding good.. Maybe God is bigger than you imagine. Maybe his ways are not as simple as you think.”

After Elihu’s speech, God came in a storm of whirlwind and lightning. He said to Job, “Time out. You want to argue with me about how righteous you are, but that’s not a game I play. I’m the creator of heaven and earth, I made the seas and land and animals and seasons, and it all works together. Who are you to question my judgment?” And Job was humbled. He apologized for shouting about how poorly God treated him. He quit demanding an explanation for his disaster. He said to God,
    “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand . . .
     My ears had heard of you
           but now my eyes have seen you.
     Therefore I despise myself
            and repent in dust and ashes.”

That’s the story of Job. Now what about his prayer life? Through the experience of disaster and arguing with his friends about about God, Job’s prayer life grew in an interesting way. He moved from from demanding that God explain things, to a quiet acceptance that he could not understand or explain God’s ways. Job learned to be satisfied that God was God and Job was human.

Let’s pray.
Our Father,
With Job we want you to explain the cause of our pain and tell us how to fix it.
With Job we rail against you and call you to account.
Like Job’s friends, our friends and churches often don’t understand how you work, and they give us bad advice.
Help us in the days of our trouble never to stop speaking to you, even when everything we say is complaining; and bring us through our troubles to a place where we worship and love you.
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Not long after 600 BC, the Babylonian empire conquered Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. They destroyed the city of Jerusalem and took many people captive to Babylon. This Babylonian captivity of Israel lasted about 70 years (Jer. 29:10) until Persia overthrew Babylon and implemented a new empire.

During this time, an Israelite exile name Nehemiah worked as cupbearer for the king of Persia. His job was to taste the king’s wine to see if enemies had put poison in it. The upside of his job was that he tasted the best wine in the country. The downside was that nobody would sell him life insurance.  

When Nehemiah heard a report about the poverty and disgrace of the Israelites back in Judah, he fasted and prayed, reminding God of his promise to bring Israel back from exile. That’s the first type of prayer we see Nehemiah use: an extended campaign that included fasting, to draw God’s attention to a matter of deep concern.

During Nehemiah’s prayer campaign, the king said to him, “Why are you looking so sad?” Nehemiah was afraid, because looking sad wasn’t part of his job description and he didn’t have any life insurance. But he answered honestly, “Because the city of my ancestors is in ruins.” The king said, “What do you want?”

“I prayed to God and answered the king,” said Nehemiah (Neh. 2:4-5 )  This kind of prayer is a quick and silent plea in an unexpected moment of crisis. Nehemiah said to the king, “I want to go back to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem.” The king gave permission, and even offered an armed guard to escort him on the journey.

So Nehemiah led a group of Israelite exiles to Jerusalem, where he acted as governor, organized a work crew, and started rebuilding the walls. The local governors were angry and annoyed that political competition was moving into their territory, so they stirred up trouble to hinder construction. They mocked the small crew of wall builders: “If even a fox climbs on your wall, it will fall down.”  Nehemiah prayed, “Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders” (Neh. 4:4-5). This is another Nehemiah prayer, pointing out his enemies to God and asking God to punish them.

The enemies escalated the situation by planning to attack Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s response: “We prayed to God and posted a guard” (Neh 4:9). Sometimes our prayers may need a bit of military support or other practical measures.

After the wall was rebuilt, Nehemiah declared a day of fasting and prayer in Jerusalem, where the people confessed the sin of their ancestors and renewed their commitment to serving God (Neh. 9). This brings Nehemiah’s prayer life full circle, from fasting and praying by himself in Babylon, to fasting and confession with the community in Jerusalem.

After the wall was completed, Nehemiah restored the house of God in Jerusalem and turned the Sabbath from a day of business back into a day of worship.  He prayed, “Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.” A remarkable prayer, asking that his life’s work would not be wasted. He wanted God to remember the good work and the man who did it.

Let’s pray.
Our Father,
Fasting and prayer are out of fashion today. We’re better at short spurts of prayer in moments of crisis. Work in us, God, so our lives will become like Nehemiah’s, a long campaign of service strengthened with prayers of many types.
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Book Review: John Baillie: A Diary of Private Prayer (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949)

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today is book review day!  We look at “A Diary of Private Prayer” by John Baillie, a Scottish theologian who served in the First World War, held academic posts in the US, Canada, and Edinburgh, and died in 1960.

In one of his books, Baillie describes his crisis of faith saying, “I remember walking home one frosty midnight from a discussion on the existence of God. Into the deep immensities of a starry sky I hurled my despairing question, but no answer came back.” (paraphrased from The Idea of Revelation in Recent Thought).  Perhaps you have questioned God’s existence like Baillie did. I have. But somewhere in Baillie’s darkness, faith was born; a faith that is expressed deeply and articulately in today’s book.

“A Diary of Private Prayer”, published in 1949, has a morning and evening prayer for every day of the month. As an evangelical, I was raised to be suspicious of prayer books and liturgies. After all, aren’t the best prayers spontaneous expressions of the heart, not rote prayers from a book? But Baillie’s prayers are short, expressive, articulate, and full of heart. Here’s an example:

“O God, who has been the Refuge of my fathers through many generations,
    be my Refuge today in every time and circumstance of need.  
    Be my Guide through all that is dark and doubtful.  
    Be my Guard against all that threatens my spirit’s welfare.  
    Be my Strength in time of testing.  
    Gladden my heart with thy peace; through Jesus Christ my Lord.” (p. 9)

Isn’t that beautiful? O God, be my refuge, my guide, my guard, my strength, and make my heart glad. Simple and pure and direct. I wish I could pray like that.

Often the evening prayers confess the sin and failure of the day. Some people might find these prayers introspective and disheartening. But I have lots of sins and failures, and I find these prayer honest and cleansing and life-giving. Here’s an example:

“I remember with bitterness the duties I have shirked:
    I remember with sorrow the hard words I have spoken:
    I remember with shame the unworthy thoughts I have harboured.
        Use these memories, O God, to save me, and then for ever blot them out.”  (p. 35)

So that’s  “A Diary of Private Prayer” by John Baillie. If you only buy one book on prayer this year make it this one. It’s available online from Amazon, Thrift Books, and Abe Books. It might be in your public library. If you’re good about returning books, and you don’t mind being harassed about due dates, you might even borrow it from me.

Let’s pray, using the words of John Baillie:

“Dear father,
Take this day’s life into Thine own keeping.
Control all my thoughts and feelings.
Direct all my energies.
Instruct my mind.
Sustain my will.
Take my hands and make them skillful to serve Thee.
Take my feet and make them swift to do Thy bidding.
Take my eyes and keep them fixed upon Thine everlasting beauty.
Take my mouth and make it eloquent in testimony to Thy love.
Make this day a day of obedience, a day of spiritual joy and peace.
Make this day’s work a little part of the work of the Kingdom of my Lord Christ, in whose name these my prayers are said.
Amen.” (p. 41)

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.