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

Today we look at Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets in the  Old Testament. He starts his prophecy with a chapter-long complaint that God is doing absolutely nothing about the injustice and violence in Judah. He says,
  How long, Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?
  I cry out to you, “Violence!”
    but you do not save?   (Hab. 1:1)
  Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and conflict abound.
  Therefore the law is paralysed,
    and justice is perverted. (Hab. 1:3-4)

Great prayer, Habakkuk. Sounds like our world today. 

God was listening, and he answered Habakkuk. He said,
  Look. . . and be utterly amazed (Hab. 1:5)
  For I am going to do something in your days
      that you would not believe,
      even if you were told. 

That’s great, God!  Do something amazing and unbelievable. We’re ready. 

So what was God’s amazing plan? He said he was raising up the Babylonians as a ruthless, godless, treacherous, violent, and self-serving nation. Their army would destroy and conquer nations. They would trample the injustice in Judah that Habakkuk complained  about. 

Habakkuk didn’t think this was an amazing solution — the Babylonian army replacing the unjust civilization in Judah with their own violence and injustice? What problem does that solve? This gave Habakkukk something new to complain about, so he said, 

    You have appointed them to execute judgment?  (Hab. 1:12)
    Why do you let the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (Hab. 1:13). 

God replied that Babylon would plunder many nations, but they too would be punished for injustice. Those they plundered would rise up and plunder them.

Did Habakkuk find this comforting? A merciless empire will violently destroy unjust Judah and then God will send someone to violently destroy the merciless empire. Is this a biblical interpretation of world history? Is there no end to the cycle of violence and retribution?

Overwhelmed, Habakkuk turns from complaint to prayer. He says,
  Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds . . .
  Repeat them in our day,
      in our time make them known;
      in wrath remember mercy. (Hab 3:2)

Then he recounts some of God’s great deeds, like the plagues on Egypt and parting the Red Sea. Yes, God had acted powerfully in the face of angry nations, but he did not promise an Exodus-type deliverance in Habakkuk’s day. Facing a world war with no exit in sight, Habakkuk prayed a prayer of resignation and hope. Let’s pray with him, bringing to his ancient prayer our 21st century experience of injustice, war, and climate change. 

O God,
  I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
      to come on the nation invading us.
  Though the fig-tree does not bud
      and the grape vine bears no fruit,
  though the olive crop fails
        and the fields produce no food,
  though there are no sheep in the sheepfold
        and no cattle in the stalls,
    yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
        I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
    The sovereign Lord is my strength,
        he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
        he enables me to tread on the heights. (Hab. 3:16-19) 

Yes, Lord, be our sovereign, our king, our strength. Rule the warring nations. Cool the burning earth. Bring justice to the unjust world. Make our feet like the feet of deer, enable us to walk on the high places. 

Amen. 

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

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

Today, a quick look at Jonah.  

Here’s the story: God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. His assignment was to warn the citizens that if they didn’t repent, God would destroy the city in 40 days. That’s like God sending you or me to the capital city of today’s evil empires — Washington D.C. or Beijing — to threaten destruction and preach repentance. Jonah wasn’t impressed. He liked the idea of God destroying Ninevah. So instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah took a Mediterranean cruise in the opposite direction, to a city where he could wait comfortably for news that God had carried out his 9/11 on  Nineveh.

But God wasn’t so easily deterred. Jonah’s cruise encountered a fierce storm, and Jonah told the sailors he caused this by disobeying God. “Throw me overboard!” he told the crew. They did. The storm stopped, the ship was saved, and God provided Jonah a prayer room in the middle of the ocean — in the belly of a whale. Jonah took the hint and did some serious praying. Soon the whale got indigestion and vomited him up on the land. God said to Jonah, “Did I mention Nineveh?” and Jonah replied, “OK, maybe I’ll go.”  So he preached to Nineveh until the king and the people of that evil empire sought God and changed their ways. God decided not to destroy the city after all. 

Jonah found this outcome intensely annoying. He pouted and went to the desert and said, “God, this is exactly what I warned you about. I was only trying to protect you from yourself. You bill yourself as loving and compassionate, but you had already given Nineveh all the love and compassion they needed. It was time to destroy them. But I preach a bit, and they repent a bit and you go all soft and decide not to punish them? How is that helpful? You were well on the way to implementing regime change in Assyria, but now we’re back at the unhappy status quo.”

God responded by providing another prayer room for Jonah. A leafy plant grew up over Jonah’s shelter in the desert, and he was comforted by the shade. But the next day, the plant died and Jonah was angry. God said to him, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” Jonah replied, “Yes, it is. I’m so angry, I wish I were dead!” 

God said to him, “You have compassion on the plant that gave you shade? I have compassion on all the people I have made, even the ones in the evil empire.” 

Some lessons from Jonah:

1.    First, sometimes God is not a fan of violent regime change to solve the problem of evil. I wish someone would preach that message in Washington and Beijing.

2.    Second, God is a fan of all the people he has made. He prefers mercy to punishment, but he thinks the merciful approach works best when people seek him and turn away from evil. 

3.    Third, a Mediterranean cruise might not be the answer to your current set of spiritual problems. You might just bring yourself and your troubles along on the cruise, and then where would you be?

4.    And finally, God kept providing prayer rooms for Jonah, even when he was disobedient and angry. Why don’t you tell God you need a prayer room, or maybe use the one you have? 

Let’s pray.

Our father, you love all the people you created. Send your prophets to Ottawa and Washington and Beijing and Mogadishu and Moscow. May the evil empires find their way to repentance and new life, instead of violence and perversion and destruction.

Amen. 

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

Richard Foster: Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (New York: HarperCollins, 1992) 

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

Book Review day has come round again!  Today we look at Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster, a Quaker theologian and author of the book Celebration of Discipline.  

A friend introduced me to Foster’s book on prayer when I was in my mid-fifties. He knew I was interested in prayer, so he suggested I try each of the 21 types of prayer the book describes.

I ordered the cheapest copy of the book I could find and when it arrived, my teenage son and daughter saw I had received the large print edition. Oops! I assured them it was a mistake, that I really wasn’t that old, and that I really did not need the large print. However, they made so many jokes about my eyesight and age that  I considered throwing the book at them, or throwing it away.

Instead, I read it and liked it. Following my friend’s suggestion, I spent 21 weeks praying by the book, using a different type of prayer each week. That was a good experience. It broadened my thinking about what prayer is and what it can be, and it gave me new tools for praying about myself and others. 

So what are the 21 kinds of prayer? Here are some chapter titles: Simple Prayer, Prayer of the Forsaken, The Prayer of Rest, Praying the Ordinary, Radical Prayer. At the end of each chapter, the author provides a sample prayer in that genre. 

For example, the chapter on Healing Prayer has wonderful examples of people who were healed by prayer and medicine, or by prayer alone. Foster’s end-of-chapter prayer says: “My Lord and my God, I have a thousand arguments against Healing Prayer. You are the one argument for it . . . . You win. Help me to be a conduit through which your healing love can flow to others.  For Jesus’ sake.” 

Foster talks about spiritual warfare in the  chapter Authoritative Prayer and presents a helpful concluding prayer. “In the strong name of Jesus Christ I stand against the world, the flesh, and the devil. I resist every force that would seek to distract me from my center in God. I reject the distorted concepts and ideas that make sin plausible and desirable. I oppose every attempt to keep me from knowing full fellowship with God.”

I like that phrase, “I reject the distorted ideas that make sin plausible and desirable.” That’s what I’ve been trying to pray, but I haven’t had the words for it. 

That’s today’s book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster. It’s worth owning, but only if you use it. And if your eyes are a bit weak, I might even trade my large-print edition for a copy in regular size print. 

Let’s pray, using the benediction which concludes Foster’s book.
May you now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, receive the spirit of prayer. May it become, in the name of Jesus Christ, the most precious occupation of your life. And may the God of all peace strengthen you, bless you, and give you joy.  

Amen. 

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