A Tale of Two Prayer Rooms

Every church should have a prayer room.  Not only should every church have a prayer room, it should be a room where prayers are prayed.  It should be regarded as one of the power sources of the church.  Money should be set aside for its maintenance and ministry, people should be challenged to be a part of its important ministry, and it should be in a prominent high traffic corridor instead of a place no one can find without a GPS system.   Churches have space dedicated for every conceivable ministry and no ministry is more important than its ministry of prayer.  

In the past year I have visited two prayer rooms.  The first one was hidden.  It was hard to find and it looked more like a storage area than a place which encourages and nurtures prayer.  It was obvious that it had once actually been used as a prayer room, but it had become cluttered with stacks of tables and leftover chairs.  The second prayer room was one I visited some ten years ago when the new church was built.  It was equipped and set up for praying.  It was a blessing to step inside that space and think about the lives its ministry would touch.  It was a place that was like a visible invitation to pray and I sat down back then for a time of praying. Today I was back in that church which was no longer new and I made my way to the prayer room.  I could hardly get in the door.  Boxes of Christmas decorations, chairs, tables, and all manner of stuff filled it from one side to the other.  It was a place of such promise in the beginning.  Today I left it filled with deep sadness. 

There are many reasons our churches are struggling.  There are many reason for mediocrity from the pulpit.  There are many reasons churches are more enamored with their history than hopeful for their future.  There are many reasons why churches are seeing so few professions of faith.  There are many reasons why baptisms are a rarity instead of the norm.  Their are many reasons why so many look at the church as an anachronism.  The most basic reason is found in the absence of a strong prayer room ministry.  It is a much needed and mostly neglected source of spiritual power.

Sure Footed Saints

The early morning hours before the sun finds its way over the dark eastern horizon must surely be the time God set aside from the very beginning as time for the soul.  It is not just the thought of one like myself who has podded instead of racing along the road of faith in Jesus Christ.  Unlike sure footed animals who tread the high mountain paths, I have done more than my share of stumbling.  Not even such a history keeps me from understanding the testimony of the sure footed saints who have gone before me.  

So many have left journals full of writings which tell us that early mornings are the best times for the nurturing of the soul.  A very simple axiom has proven itself true many times over the years.  What goes in is important.  What goes in determines what comes out.  When we fill our hearts at the beginning of the day with a time of listening for the Voice of God in Scripture and prayer, it is more likely that the heart is going to outwardly express the spirit of Christ in the ordinary moments of the day.  "Seek God first each day" is a good rule to follow.  It helps us stay out the miry bog and provides a hand in dealing with the temptations Satan throws in our path.  

I learned this again as recently as yesterday.  The sun was busy when I jumped out of bed and started racing toward the first place I had to be in a busy day.  I arrived on time, waited two hours, and then was told I would have to come back two days hence.  As patience and kindness disappeared from my spirit, anger came to take its place.  Throughout most of the day I fumed inside and made life miserable for those around me.  If God brought people into my path for His purposes, I was too busy nursing my anger to notice.  If it sounds like a wasted day, I would agree.  I should have followed the example of one saint from the past who got up even earlier than this his normal rising time to pray because he realized that they were more than the usual things to do.

Perspective

For a few minutes today, I sat beside a rapidly flowing creek which was narrow enough that the younger version of me would have figured to be "jumpable."  The older version which is the current version opted for sitting and watching.  Strange as it might seem to some, it was in many ways the highlight of the day.  It was shady, cool, and, except for the sound of the water running over rocks, quiet.  It was an unexpected oasis of stillness in the early afternoon.  The water was clear and I had in my mind that I might see a fish which did not happen.   

What I did see were some things which reminded me of who I am and where I fit in the order of the creation. This tiny running stream is hundreds of miles away from the ocean; yet, the water that I watched will make it to the ocean and, perhaps, return in the clouds to water the dry ground upon which I sat.  I could not help but be reminded that we are connected to one another and to creation as surely as Wolf Creek is to the ocean.  Our being conscious of such a connection is not necessary for it to exist.  Not a single one of us is the center of the universe.  We are simply and importantly a part of it.  

It is interesting that the Creation story in the first chapter of Genesis does not begin with the human creature who has come to think far too highly of itself.  In fact were it not for the creative work of the first five days, we would not be walking around thinking that the world revolves around us.  Perspective is important.  I am grateful for a quiet moment in which once again the divine lesson of perspective was taught to me. 

The Book

I fell in love with books back in the day when my mother took me to the library and signed me up for a summer reading program.  Even today going into a library filled with shelf after shelf of books and quietness is like entering a sacred sanctum.  Later I became a collector of books.  Once read and placed on the shelf, they become like old friends.  Some books are about entertainment.  Some are about opening your eyes and heart.  Some are read and finally closed with a sense of reverence and awe.   

From the very beginning of my history with books, the Bible was regarded as different and special.  When my mother gave me my first Bible, it was a big deal.  She taught me Bibles were to be handled with respect.   A Bible was not an ordinary book.  I could not have imagined back in the beginning days the way that one book would change and shape my life.  When I travel, it is packed to go with everything else.  It is the one book which never has a place on the book shelf except when it becomes so frayed it is retired.  The Bible stays close.  It is almost never out of sight.  Unlike some books that I may have to hunt, I always know where it is.   

Some may find it strange that a book would be regarded as a writing inspired by God, but such is how it is regarded.  It is not a book where advice is found, or a book where answers to life's questions are found.  It is a book where the voice of God has thundered across the centuries.  It is a book which has led millions to faith in God.  It is one of the places where God has chosen to make Himself known to us.  The Bible is not a book to be read, closed, and put on the shelf, but a book to be carried into every circumstance and corner of life.  It is a holy book which always seems as new as the next page.  It is timeless because its words are eternal and equip us for the life we were created to live.

Unexplainable

Standing deep in holy mystery is a humbling and overwhelming experience.  Who among us deserves to be graced with the presence of God?  Who among us has any right to a single gift from our heavenly Father?  Who can understand the ways of God?  Why are some prayed for day and night only to be lost to us while others are still here among us for no other reason than the grace of God.  It is beyond what we are able to comprehend.  Why do some receive the double portion (II Kings 2:9-12) and others what seems to be no portion at all.  Questions abound for us as we experience holy mystery.  Answers are few.   

What can we say other than not one of us is forgotten by God.  What can we say except that He knows our name and cares for each one with the heart of the Good Shepherd the Apostle John describes in his gospel (John 10:1-18).  I first started struggling with questions about the ways of God as a seven year old boy whose father went to work one day and did not come home. I am now so far from seven that memories are heavy with the dust of the past, but still I look for answers I am not likely to know in this life.  

There are times when our hearts can only whisper, "Lord, have mercy."  There are other times when we look at what cannot be known and are left with the words, "Thank You, Lord.  Thank You for this gift of grace."  The farther I walk with Jesus the more I see the clouds of holy grace ahead above the way much as the Hebrews walked through the wilderness with the cloud of presence leading them.  (Exodus 13:21).  God's grace has always been sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9) and because it is grace, it is unexplainable.

What is God Thinking

We never know where what we do for Christ is going to go.  In the past few weeks I have gone twice to the theater to see "A Great Awakening."  The second time was as impactful and as powerful as the first.  "A Great Awakening" is the story of the ministry of George Whitefield, an English evangelist, whose preaching brought to pre-revolutionary America a revival so widespread it is known in history as the Great Awakening.  Watching the movie about this moment in American history was experienced in a way that brought revival and renewal in my own heart some 250 years later.    

Out of the blue, pieces of a hymn came to mind this morning and I could not rest until I found "Blest Be the Tie That Binds" in a hymnal enabling me to sing it properly.  A man named John Fawcett wrote the hymn in 1782.  The hymn writer was born to poor parents in Yorkshire, England in 1740.  He became a Baptist minister and served a small poverty stricken church for fifty years.  Early in his ministry, he was called to a prominent and influential church in London.  He and his family packed the wagon to leave, decided they could not leave, and stayed there the rest of his days.  Though he became well know through writing and preaching, he stayed where he started and never made more than $200 a year.  It was the fellowship and communion experienced in this single church which inspired him to write, "Blest Be the Tie That Binds."   

Oh yes, there is one other thing.  John Fawcett was converted at the age of sixteen through the powerful preaching of George Whitefield.  Is it not amazing how God uses what we do for Him?  Is it not amazing that what we do for Christ can have effects which ripple far beyond the span of our meager years?  Who would have thought of using George Whitefield to convert John Fawcett who would write a hymn which is blessing the church 150 years later?  It makes us wonder what God is thinking about doing with what we are doing for Him in the present moment.

The Spittin' Image

My father's death when I was seven years old was a moment that was then impossible too comprehend.  As I slowly moved toward the days which were awaiting me, one of the things I relished most was being told that I looked like my father.  "He's the spittin' image of his Daddy," was an oft heard comment and one that caused me to stand a little taller.  As a boy I would stand in the mirror and try to imitate the smile in the picture, or study the blue in my eyes which everyone said I got from him.  As a boy who had lost his father too soon, I wanted to be like him. I wanted to look like him.   

The Bible makes it clear that we are children of God.  He is our Father.  There is something within us that speaks of the "spittin' image of the Heavenly Father."  Such casual language is not meant to be disrespectful, but a way of speaking of how we are created with the imprint of God in our life.  We bear His image.  (Genesis 1:27).  Too soon we lose sight of who we are.  Holy is who we are.  His image is not seen as we behold our physical appearance, but is instead, a word which points to our unseen inner nature.  

This inner nature is transformed from who we have become to who we were created to be as the Holy Spirit is allowed to dwell and transform our heart so that more and more it outwardly expresses the spirit and heart of Jesus.  Theologians have a word for this powerful transforming work of grace in the heart.  Sanctification is the word which points to this work of grace.  In some circles, sanctification is spoken of mostly as an event confined to a moment, but more correctly understood, it is the process by which the Holy Spirit takes a surrendered heart and transforms it in such a way that it begins to bear the image of the Christ.  "May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly..." (I Thessalonians 5:23)