"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowl full of incense which are the prayers of the saints." ( Revelation 5:8 )
Recently I had a revelation that came to me when I was searching the Scriptures attempting to better understand how God's providence and our responsibility work together, how the tension of Philippians 2:12 "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" and "for it is God who works in you both to will and work for his good pleasure," becomes the glorious ebb and flow of our Christian lives.
And the epiphany was quite simple really, but it just seemed to reach the bottom of my heart that day where I had not grasped it before.
It's like when I tell the Farmer something and he says to me, "You told me that three times already!" And I say, "That's because the first time it went in one ear and out the other. The second time it landed on the surface. By the third time it finally started to make some headway."
This is just how the human brain works, especially in our current culture with so many things clamoring for our attention. We have to be deliberate about the lost art of meditation, allowing time to let the Word we've read in our study marinate in our brains. It's not a suggestion we see in the Scriptures; it's a commandment. "... meditate ( on the Word ) day and night..." ( Joshua 1:8 )
Anyway while I was contemplating all of this, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that God uses our prayers to accomplish his purposes. Now there is still much mystery to this, but something took hold in my heart and lit a fire that has fueled my prayers with an urgency I lacked before.
"You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many." ( 2 Corinthians 1:11 )
Somehow knowing I have this part to play in the grand scheme of God's divine will, through my imperfect, broken prayers, even when I can't unravel the mystery of it all, has been a prayer game changer for me.
One would think this knowledge would stir up one's pride, but it's just the opposite. It's humbling. It births the reality that only God has the power to change a heart, heal a wound, order a step, or stop a disaster, but he has given to his children in the midst of this prayer laboring by his Holy Spirit a power he uses to accomplish these things and many others. ( Ephesians 6:17-18 ) ( Romans 8:27 )
And this doesn't mean that God answers our prayers the way we think he should. I believe we will do well to begin our prayers with the prayer Jesus taught us: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done." ( Matthew 6 )
His kingdom. His will. Not ours. His will is perfect, and the Bible reminds us that it can't be stopped. "Why bother praying then?" That's easy to answer: Because the Bible commands us to.
We have a part, but God does it all. ( Philippians 2:12 )
Yes, it is that mysterious tension again, one of those paradoxes that blows our minds, but not his. One thing I do know is that in this beautiful, divine partnership of prayer, God is establishing a deeper relationship with us. Can you feel it? Have you experienced it? ( Isaiah 14:7 ) ( Job 42:2 )
When the pain is so huge, and the lament so loud, where do we run? Who hears our prayers and catches our tears? Our Father in heaven.
Hallowed be His Name. His Name is who he is - every inch of his perfect, infinite divinity is found in his Name.
Yes, it is humbling to think that God would stoop so low to not only hear our prayers but use them to accomplish his perfect will.
But then again God has always been stooping to interact with his fallen creatures, not abandoning them in the Garden, but making a covenant with them. A covenant he knew full well we would never keep, knowing full well, that in the end, he would be the one to keep our part.
That was his perfect will all along. Not plan B. Plan B is not God's providence.
And it shouldn't surprise us that God would stoop that low since Jesus was already willing to stoop so low when he entered our world as a man baby to fulfill his Father's will, the Perfect interacting with the imperfect, to live the life we should have lived and to die in our place.
So God could adopt us. So we could draw near to God and he to us. ( James 4:8 ) ( Hebrews 11:6 ) ( Romans 8:15 )
Jesus revealed that the mystery of God's kingdom is found when up becomes down.
And the kingdom's purposes become fulfilled to the highest heaven, down on our knees. 💜
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." ( Ephesians 3:20-21 )
Happy Weekend.
 |
| It's bone broth weather |
No comments:
Post a Comment