Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you. [1 Peter 5:7 (TLB)]
For the Lord is watching his children, listening to their prayers. [1 Peter 3:12a (TLB)]
Every Thursday, my next-door neighbor has a standing two-hour appointment at the beach with a friend who lives about an hour north of here. Although marked on her calendar like a Bible study, committee meeting, doctor’s appointment, or book club, there’s nothing purposeful or especially important about their meeting. As she explained, the two simply meet to “catch up.” Unlike my neighbor, I’m more of a “let’s get down to business” than “let’s chat” type and, when I call or meet with someone, there’s usually a specific purpose for the contact. A few days ago, however, an old friend from our home town called for no reason other than to “catch up.” Neither of us had any important news; we just shared a little of what is going on in our lives. While the conversation accomplished nothing (and took me from my work), it was a much-appreciated blessing.
My friend’s call also caused me to reconsider the way I approach prayer. My daily prayer time tends to be structured and purpose-driven rather than as unplanned and spontaneous as a casual conversation with an old friend. Treating prayer a bit like a meeting with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, I have my prayer list and an order of business; praise, thanks, confession, and intercession before finishing up with any of my personal concerns. While I may give thanks or offer a spur-of-the moment prayer during the day, I don’t “catch up” with God the way my neighbor does with her friend at the beach.
Prayer doesn’t require an appointment, objective, or plan; simply put, prayer is no more than talking to and fellowshipping with God. Today, I took a break from my work, sat out on the lanai, and caught up with God the way my neighbor does with her friend. As we spoke about some recent guests, I thanked God for the amazing way He brought us together nearly 50 years ago and shared my concerns about their health. We talked about the grands which led to prayers about the eldest one’s travel plans, her younger brother’s college applications, and a third one’s SATs. After we chatted about a devotion I’d been writing, I received some helpful insights that brought my scattered thoughts to a conclusion. I hadn’t really thought of any of those things as significant enough for prayer and it was only by doing some “catching up” with God that I found they were!
Maybe there is someone with whom you haven’t spoken in a while; if so, give them a call and do some catching up. While you’re at it, spend some quiet time with God and “catch up” with Him. Granted, as the one who orchestrates our lives, God knows everything that’s happening to us but that doesn’t mean He isn’t interested in catching up with us about the seemingly inconsequential matters anyway. We are told to give God all of our worries and cares, not just the ones we deem essential or of great consequence. We’re God’s children and there is nothing about a child’s life that a loving parent finds trivial or unimportant. If it’s important to us, it’s important to Him.
Prayer is simply talking to God like a friend and should be the easiest thing we do each day. [Joyce Meyer]
For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. [Saint Teresa of Avila]
Yesterday’s devotion got me thinking more about the movie War Room. Elizabeth is a woman whose marriage is crumbling and Miss Clara is a fervent prayer warrior. Clara could easily have done her “Christian duty” for Elizabeth by offering to pray for the young woman’s marriage in her “war room” of prayer. Instead, Clara asks Elizabeth to give her one hour a week and offers to teach her how to fight for her marriage with the right weapons. With her offer, Clara lays herself open to rejection, being called a busybody (or worse) and the inconvenience and challenges that come whenever we become enmeshed in another person’s messy life. In short, Clara does more than pray for this troubled woman—she takes action.
Prayer is calling on God’s power; it’s like calling in the big guns to fight the battle. When doubt in the efficacy of prayer sneaks in, however, it’s more like calling in the big guns but not believing they’re loaded with enough ammunition. I am often like the father in Mark 9 who qualified his request that Jesus heal his son by saying, “If you can.” Like that father, I profess to believe but I need God to help me believe more! Sometimes, the enemy sneaks into my heart and causes me to doubt both the ammunition and God’s aim.
Many stories, novels, operas, musicals, and movies have been based on the theme of selling one’s soul to the devil. In Christopher Marlowe’s 1592 play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, a brilliant scholar who’s sure he’s learned all there is to know by conventional means turns to magic and ends up summoning the devil Mephistopheles. The two agree that, after Faustus has enjoyed twenty-four years of absolute power (with Mephistopheles as his servant), his soul will belong to Lucifer. When the handsome Dorian sells his soul so that he will never age in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he enters into a lifestyle of debauchery. While Dorian remains handsome, his picture changes to reflect the immoral and sinful life he’s led. In the 1968 horror movie Rosemary’s Baby, the naïve Rosemary discovers that her husband sold both his soul and her womb to Satan for riches and career success. As expected, none of those tales end well. The Devil and Daniel Webster, however, does but only because of the eloquence of the famed lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster.
When we pray about a decision, we often set the desired outcome we want rather than ask God to reveal His will to us. Instead of trusting our decision to Him and bending our will to His, we want God to bend His will to our desires. If His response to our pleas isn’t the one we want, we refuse to recognize it or complain that He never answered our prayers! Until we’re willing to step back and say, “Thy will be done,” we can’t truly discern God’s will.
Paul was speaking metaphorically of his thorn and whether it was a spiritual, emotional, physical affliction, or something else entirely, we don’t know. Since Paul dictated his letters, some speculate that that he had poor eyesight: perhaps cataracts or macular degeneration. Then again, severe arthritis in his hands may have prevented him from holding a stylus. Paul may have had a chronic medical problem such as gout, migraines, severe asthma, or spinal stenosis. It may have been a person: perhaps, Alexander the metalsmith who was harming his ministry. Considering the number of times the apostle was arrested, the thorn may have been an old injury from the many beatings inflicted upon him. Paul even may have suffered from bouts of depression or the 1st century equivalent of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The identity of his thorn (or even thorns) is unimportant to us. It is how Paul dealt with his thorn that matters.
