Place of Prayer Protection

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Place of Prayer Protection

People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. No man is an island, and all that. Each person has a connection with each other person. Connection, attachment, kinship, relationship. We do need each other. But, that isn’t all.

I know I need a relationship with my God. If I am separated from God, I am in bad straits. Cut off from God and cut off from other people? Not a very good situation, at all.

How our enemy loves to cut us off from each other, and separate each one from God. How dare they? I’ll tell you: through natural happenings, through human error, through emotional or psychological or physical attachment gone awry. And sometimes, through something as straightforward as loneliness, or grief, or anger, or boredom, or fear.

What can you and I do about this? The answer in part is: prayer. Prayer stands as a protection and strength.

Dear Lord, gracious God, thank You for Your presence. I appreciate You acting as a refuge and strength. God, You are my rock and fortress, sure to be there for me and with me. I know the Lord is there when I go through the thick of things. Just like King David said, even though each of us is walking down the solitary path through the valley of shadow. No matter! We are still on God’s side. And, God will keep each one under the shadow of heavenly wings. Thank God.

@chaplaineliza

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How Majestic is God’s Name—in Prayer

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – February 4, 2015

How Majestic is God’s Name—in Prayer

For those who are wondering, Bella has come through a lengthy surgery with success. The doctors were able to remove all of the brain tumor. Praise God!

I can pray for Bella, as well as for her parents and all those who love her and care for her. Please, continue to pray. I know they would appreciate any earnest prayers, good thoughts, and heartfelt wishes of encouragement.

How all of our lives can be interrupted! They might be interrupted, like Bella’s, with a surgery. Or hospital stay. A continuing illness, or perhaps something internal. Like an emotional, behavioral or psychological diagnosis.

I checked out the second prayer reading this evening and I found it was Psalm 8. Several verses struck me as I read them. Especially in light of Bella and the brain tumor that has been removed today. “O Lord, our Lord. How majestic is Your name in all the earth.”

Yet, I know that some people did NOT call upon God as Holy. Or majestic. Or powerful, mighty, or anything of the sort. I know I could be asking God WHY. Why Bella, and not another child? What does God think to have King David write all about the wonders of the heavens, and still the have children and babies contract horrible diseases? Like Bella?

But—not now. I want to rest in the fact that God is sovereign. Glad that the Lord is not only mighty and powerful, but a great Creator as well. Very glad that David declared that the praise of infants and children are to be encouraged, so that God’s name might be praised throughout all of God’s creation.

And—I also won’t ask WHY, God? I won’t ask those questions of theodicy that come to my mind, periodically. Like, now. (Why? Oh, why, God?)

I can praise God’s name, in the meanwhile, using the glorious words of Psalm 8—and thank You, God, for Bella’s successful surgery. Thank You.

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It’s Not Your Fault. Prayerfully.

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – January 20, 2015

shame and guilt

It’s Not Your Fault. Prayerfully.

I love today’s reading by Rev. Howell. I needed that today. (Gee, I need this particular reading on a regular basis!)

Yesterday’s reading focused on confession. Yes, confession about the things I have committed in thought, word and deed, and those sins of omission, too. I am often filled with guilt about these shortcomings, guilt about missing the mark that God has set for me. However, that is a whole different kettle of fish than feeling shame. As Rev. Howell points out with great insight, shame is not about the bad things I have done or bad words I have said, but instead, bad things and words that have been done to me. [1]

Thank God I do not have such severe psychological, emotional, physical and justice issues, but what I have been through for many years is definitely hurtful. And quite shaming.

So many people feel shame. Yes, guilt can be there as well, but shame can creep in like an insidious, destructive crawling weed. Shame can be devastating and even traumatizing. And when shame happens to or affects children and young people, it is almost too much to bear.

Rev. Howell mentions a stunning illustration taken from an Oscar-winning film, Good Will Hunting. The scene involves the therapist Sean Mc Guire (played by Robin Williams) and Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon). After many weeks of therapy, Mc Guire “learns that the young man’s aberrant behaviors stem from pretty severe childhood abuse. He embraces the tough Will and keeps repeating, ‘It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault,’ and finally Will breaks down and cries.” [2]

What kinds of things or events or words are shaming me, today? Or, from yesterday, or even years ago, decades ago? What is deep inside of you, shaming you? I don’t need to bear the burden any more. I am free to be me, freed from any bondage or hindrance. I can take that bushel basket off my head, stand up straight and not be ashamed any more. Ever.

Yes, I yearn for a kind, compassionate, interested person to truly and deeply listen to me, to finally tell me that it’s okay. “It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault.”

I have that person in Jesus. And, the best part is that you do, too. Just ask. Jesus will come alongside of you, wrap His arms around you. Praise God. Alleluia, amen.

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[1] James C. Howell, The Beautiful Work of Learning to Pray, (Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press: 2003), 67.

[2] Ibid, 68.

As We Confess Our Sins, in Prayer

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – January 19, 2015

As We Confess Our Sins, in Prayer

Confession. What an archaic thing to do, some people say! I’m pretty okay, you’re well-adjusted now. Many of us are finding out the old “sins” of the past can be explained away by psychological means.

What will the people in the pews, the common, ordinary believers, do now? With the “sins” of the past being explained away, sin, itself, becomes minimized down to a minor, nagging difficulty (sort of like a splinter or a stubbed toe).

Wait a minute. That’s not what God says, or what the Bible says. Remember verses such as Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” or 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” I suppose those and similar verses could be brushed aside.

There is the opposite predicament. Sort of like a pendulum swing. What about those individuals who feel that they are so sinful that God cannot stand to have them attend worship? Or even pray?

Instead of praying and communicating with God, there is the option of fulfilling faulty, human desires, following those seven deadly sins. (Lust! Greed! Gluttony! Anger! Envy! Just to mention some of them.) These are gods—with a lower case ‘g’—instead of God. These are ways that people lose themselves in things and ways of being that are far removed from God.

On this day when many remember Martin Luther King, Jr., he spoke of different gods (with a small ‘g’). He gave an excellent example of the human predisposition of running after these false gods. He told of a god of science, the god of pleasure, and the god of money, among others. He finished this section with “these transitory gods are not able to save or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able.” [1]

This has been the Gospel message throughout the centuries. Embrace God. Flee evil. Love neighbor. Do justice. We orient our minds and actions toward God, towards service and communication with God. I try to live life and to be responsible for my thoughts, words and actions. I try to experience the fruit of the Spirit in my life and the lives of others. And, as God is my witness, I try to confess my sins.

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[1] James Melvin Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. (San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco