Tag: Prayer

Ep.045: Psalm 14: Reinvent Yourself!

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

A Google search for “Reinvent Yourself” returns links to “Three ways to reinvent yourself”, “Five steps to reinvent yourself”, “10 Suggestions”, “15 Ideas” and even the “Ultimate cheat sheet on how to reinvent yourself.” But Psalm 14 beats them all. It has a guaranteed one-step method.

Psalm 14 tells us, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” There it is. The one-step method. You don’t even have to say it out loud — it’s enough to say it quietly in your heart. You can say, “I don’t need God — he just gets in the way. I’ll set my own priorities, plan my own progress, measure my own success. The possibilities for my life are sweeter and more interesting without God. Who needs his laws and rules and love?”

And will this self-managed life turn out well?  Not really, says the poet, because we didn’t create ourselves, God did. Trying to live without him is living a lie. And living a lie puts us on a slippery slope. Without God, the good life disappears. Evil floods in. People begin treat each other like they have been treating God — as annoying obstructions, as goods to be used and discarded.

But God is watching, says the poet, whether we believe in him or not (v.2).. He is present in the company of the righteous, he is their refuge in trouble, he brings them salvation (vv. 5, 6, 7). But he will overwhelm the wicked with dread (v. 5).

Let’s pray.

Our father,
In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that there is no God. He writes that human goodness can flourish without you. And he argues that religion is the root of all evil.

We are not competent to judge Dawkins’ heart and motives, but we hear with striking clarity your judgement, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (v. 1) and “… all these evildoers know nothing” (v. 4).

In his book Sapiens author Youval Noah Harrari concludes: “We humans are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all that power. Worse still, humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever. We are] self-made gods wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the ecosystem, seeking our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.” ( Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Signal: Toronto, 2014) pp. 415-416, paraphrased)

Harrari asks, “Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?” (Sapiens, p. 416).

O God, we have reinvented ourselves, but what poor gods we make. And Psalm 14 agrees. When we reject you and set our own course, disaster is the certain outcome.

Our father, what are we to do? We cannot prove your existence, we cannot prove the rightness of your laws. But in the gospel we have come to know you. Jesus lived a human story on earth. Through him we live in the larger story that includes his life in heaven. Help us to live not by intellectual proofs that you exist, but by the truth of our duty to love. Teach us to love those who journey with us. Teach us to love you, our God in heaven.
Amen.

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

Ep.044: Book Review: Baillie, “Diary of Private Prayer”

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”.

Ep043: Psalm 13: How Long, O Lord, How Long?

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

Psalm 13 asks “How long, O Lord?” Here are the first two verses:
    How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
      How long will you hide your face from me?
    How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
      How long will my enemy triumph over me?

The poet feels that God has forgotten him, that God is hiding. He feels alone with his troubles and sorrow. He has a relationship with God based on the God’s law and God’s promises. But God has forgotten the relationship. God has stopped watching and caring.

The poet’s experience suggests some lessons for our prayers.

First, it is good if prayer expresses feelings instead of theology. Many good Christians would tell the poet that this prayer is wrong-headed. They would say, “Don’t ask God foolish questions like ‘How long will you forget me?’ and ‘How long will you hide from me?’ Don’t you know that God sees everything? He’s not hiding. Get over your immaturity. Ignore your feelings. Show some faith and optimism.”

Helpful advice? Not really. Because the psalms teach us to pray our feelings to God. The poet’s prayer does not start in his head with clear thinking. Nor does it start in his doctrinal statement with carefully defined beliefs. This prayer starts in the emotions. If you feel like God has abandoned you, don’t hide from him until you get those feelings fixed. If you are sinking into despair and sorrow, don’t quit praying until things improve. If you doubt God even exists, don’t avoid him until you figure out the meaning of the universe. Pray your doubts and unbelief to God, tell him you heard that the meaning of life is 42 (Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), ask him what he thinks of that.

The poet has a second lesson on prayer. He says, “Look on me and answer, O Lord my God” (v. 3). After accusing God of hiding and forgetting, the poet remembers a past relationship with God. He calls the Lord “MY God”. Surely God wants to keep up his part of the relationship, doesn’t he? The poet reminds God that they are in this together. Even in the darkness,  God is “MY God.”

As the psalm concludes, the poet’s experience changes. He says to God:
    I trust in your unfailing love
     My heart rejoices in your salvation
    I will sing to the Lord
     For he has been good to me.
Somehow, the process of praying and waiting turned the poet’s heart from despair to trust, from unhappiness to rejoicing, from doubt to praise. God has come out of hiding. God is present again in the poet’s experience and feelings.

Let’s pray.
How long, O Lord, how long?
 How long will our rulers manipulate and kill?
 How long will nations and ethnic groups hate and disparage and dominate?
 How long will cancer and depression and bipolar disorder afflict our friends?
 How long will our leaders create division and hatred through politics, economics, race and gender?
 How long will the rich lobby for tax breaks while the poor cry for help?
 How long will we pollute our rivers and oceans?
 How long will millennials be stuck in the gig economy and the debt we pile up for them?
 How long until our churches love the sinners and prostitutes and outcasts?
 How long until we love you more than we love ourselves?
 How long until the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea? (Isaiah 11:9)

Our father in heaven, the pain and dysfunction overwhelms us. It crushes our optimism, infects our relationships. All creation groans with us (Rom 8). Everywhere your enemies experience victory.

We bring it all to you — our hurt, our sadness and defeat. But you are still our God, we trust you to do your job. And when you do, we will rejoice in your salvation, we will sing to you because you are good.

Amen.

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

Ep042: Miracle Prayers

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

When Elijah the prophet was ready to move on from this troublesome world, he went across the Jordan River with his disciple Elisha where they saw a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire. Elijah rode up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha picked up his master’s cloak, and began a ministry of miracles that surpassed even Elijah’s astounding record.

What kind of miracles did Elisha do? He helped a widow fill many large jars of oil from one small supply jar (2 Kings 4:5). He prayed over a widow’s dead son and brought the son back to life (2 Kings 4:35). He multiplied food, feeding a hundred men with twenty loaves and some ears of corn (2 Kings 4:42). He healed Naaman of leprosy (2 Kings 5:14). Jesus must have been inspired by Elisha, because he repeated may of Elisha’s miracles.

This brings us to an important and troubling question: Why was Elisha’s prayer life so powerful, and ours is so weak? Here are some possible explanations:

1.    Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive.” Elisha asked for miracles, and he got them. Maybe we should start asking. But I have asked, and it hasn’t worked for me.  

2.    Perhaps Elisha had more faith than we do. If we had more faith, would God do miracles for us too?
Maybe, or maybe not. I think there’s a spiritual mystery in the space between faith and miracles. It’s not a simple formula like like “more faith equals more miracles.”

3.    Here’s another explanation. God tends to work more miracles in times of crisis and change. In Elisha’s time, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was besieged by foreign powers, so they needed more miracles.

Maybe. But Elisha lived long before the final crisis when Assyria conquered Israel. He lived in the middle ages of the Northern Kingdom, when the people vacillated between God and idols, between military competence and military disaster. Ours is a similar age as western civilization fragments and decays. Much of the Christian church in the west aligns itself politically and culturally with godless leaders, exploitive policies, and unjust economics. If Elisha’s time was ripe for miracles so is ours! But where is the prophet who can bring them?

4.    Here’s another possibility. Perhaps it is God’s fault, not ours, that miracles aren’t happening in our culture. Perhaps in some ages God chooses to deliver his message with miracles. Maybe in our age God wants a different kind of miracle.
– Perhaps he wants people who are free of pornography
– Perhaps he wants people who value inner beauty above fashion
– Perhaps he wants communities who renounce the culture of individualism and learn to live together
– Perhaps he’s looking for a remnant to worship him in spirit and in truth
– Perhaps he’s looking for churches that preach less and love more, that listen to his Spirit

God shares his power freely for the tasks he assigns us. But how can we know what he wants us to do?  We can listen to him in the stories of Scripture, in the fellowship of Christian community, and in the witness of his Spirit in our lives.

Let’s pray.
Our father,
We live in an age of advertising, but your public relations department is silent.
We live in an age of spectacular sports events, but you don’t compete in the Super Bowl and the World Cup.
We live in an age of entertainment, but you aren’t challenging Disney and Fox News for market share.
We live in an age of celebrities, but you aren’t vying with Johnny Depp and Emma Watson for popularity.

What are you doing, God? And what do you want us to do? Help us shut out the clamor of the world and wait quietly to hear your voice. In the silence prepare us to do your work in the world.
Amen.

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

Ep041: Psalm 12: Words, Words, Words

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

Psalm 12 differs from the psalms before it. Here’s how: Most of the first eleven start with doubt or fear and end with hope and praise. Surprisingly, Psalm 12 ends just like it starts. The first verse says, “Help, Lord, for the godly are no more!”  And the last verse says, “The wicked strut about on every side.” Is there no movement in this psalm? Is the poet stuck? Is he unable to climb out of his pit this time?  

The heart of Psalm 12 describes what the wicked say and what God says in response. It’s a poem about how God and people  use words, about how they speak.

First, the poet describes the speech of the ungodly.
– They lie to their neighbours (v. 2)
– They flatter deceptively (v.2)
– They boast (v. 3)
– They say, “We will triumph with our tongues” (v. 4)
– They say, “We own our lips, who is our master?” (v. 4)

The speech of the wicked escalates from simple lies to a world-conquering claim, “We can say whatever we want, we have no master who can tell us ‘No!’”

But the poet has a surprise for the wicked. They did not notice that God, the master of all, is eavesdropping on their arrogant speech. He says, “I think I’d better do something. I will protect the needy from those who speak against them.”

And then the poet gives a moving description of God’s words: “The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” (v.6). The heat of the furnace shows God’s words to be beautiful, pure, valuable, and masterful. But the furnace annihilates the arrogant words of the wicked. The last word and the words that last, belong to God. These are words shape our lives.

Yes, Psalm 12 does differ from other psalms because, God’s words are the light at the centre, standing out from a dark beginning and a dark ending.

Let’s pray.

Our father, how careless and arrogant are the words our leaders use.  
– President Trump speaks disparagingly of “Crooked Hillary”, “Lyin’ Ted”, “low-energy Jeb”, “Sloppy Steve” and various “losers”.
– Prime Minister Trudeau talks about “different perceptions” — when the issue is not perception but truth.
–  Innocent people killed in drone strikes are reported as “collateral damage,” not murdered fathers and mothers and children.
George Orwell said, “Political language . . . makes lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and gives an appearance of solidity to pure wind” (“Politics and the English Language”).  

Lord, much of what we say and hear is wind. Our words are like chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:4). O Lord, purify our use of words.
– Help us not to lie and flatter and gossip.
– Help us not to disparage others.
– Help us not to use words to conceal the truth
– Help us not to speak pretty pictures that cover dark motives.
– Remove anger and abuse and violence and deceit from our lips.

Instead
– teach us to think true thoughts and speak them clearly,
– teach us to feel deep love and express it generously,
– teach us to see much beauty and to share it with delight,
– teach us to see evil clearly and denounce it vigorously.

Your words, Lord, are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. Refine and purify our words, so they may share the beauty of yours.

Amen.

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