Prayer

I must confess that I did not anticipate that such a brief comment about prayer would lead to more thoughts on the subject but I want to thank you for doing so since I am motivated to share some further insights.

Just yesterday as I was reading the newspaper, I cam across a headline to an article on car design and was motivated to modify it into this context on prayer: In Prayer, the Past is Prologue to the Present. As I have given some time on a walk to this subject, may I share some with you?

there are certain aspects of history which we need and do know in terms of our spiritual lives:
1. We have a national history of Israel presented in order to be the means, the womb, the context into which God has placed the birth of His Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Although this national history is not ours, it is one that we know fairly well, more or less because of the many stories which we learn as children. It is within the learning of this history that we come to the second, more significant, at least for us, aspect of,
2. redemptive history. This we understand as being more significant since our personal salvation hinges on it. We know of the creation, the fall, the covenants . . . the coming of Jesus, His death and resurrection and ascension. But we are often tempted to see only the result of this whole redemptive history - our personal means of escaping hell. I am aware of the season of Easter and Christmas when we try to emphasize the true meaning of these historical events, but they are largely lost as far as impact is concerned! They become largely ceremony!

I agree with you that history, nationally and as far as a factor in faith is concerned is largely something we give mental assent to as being important, but about which we are largely ignorant! Worse yet, is our focus on the immediate so that we do not even give consideration to the possible benefit of an alternative perspective and need for such learning of history.

How does this impact our prayer life? In significant ways I believe.
1. Our prayers have a tendency to reflect our practical bent and become a shopping list of requests which we want God to somehow bring to reality in our lives.
2. Our lives are easily lived at a low faith level due to the easy way in which the Adversary is able to convince us of the futility of a deeper walk with God.
3. Our concept of Christian faith and belief becomes tolerated as mediocrity!
4. We lack the understanding of the value of true discipleship - of taking up our “execution stake” (David Stern - Complete Jewish Bible) daily - of forsaking those dear treasures which detract us from total commitment to Christ!
5. We are content with a superficial faith and in the process interpret blessing in terms of materialism rather than the depth of understanding which comes from a 'whole' spirit, one infused with the very breath of God in a moment by moment abundant life.
6. Our lack of historical context means that we do not see the working of God through history as a means of relating to our present faith walk and so look for ways to curry favour with God rather than depend on His limitless atonement!

Now lets examine some of the more positive ways in which the biblical example of prayer within the context of history alters or augments our faith journey.
1. The historical perspective tends to minimize the ME emphasis of our society and culture. Others have walked this way before and I stand in the line of many who have faithfully found God to be the answer to their deepest needs.
2. The historical perspective helps me see that I am part of a connected community within the contemporary world - yes, believers around the world share in this dynamic of prayer and faith, perhaps with different means of expression, but with a commonality which has its roots deeply tethered to the foundations in Israel, in Christ, in Hope and Love!
3. The historical perspective further helps us understand that the circumstances which I face, and for which I often ask some way of escape, are not unlike that which has transpired through the lives of committed people down through the history of faith. I need then to understand that perhaps there are greater needs which I have than the ones which are satisfied with materialistic answers.
4. The historical perspective reminds us of the ways in which we individually and corporately can drift into unfaithfulness, compromise and eventually find ourselves in antagonism to the very God we say we serve, all the while we go through the motions of worship!
5. The HP helps us see that we have been invited to be part of a large movement, the Kingdom of God, and as such must place its priorities above those of personal ease.
6. The HP helps us understand that the God who has worked in the past, is STILL AT WORK IN THE PRESENT! Even if circumstances (like the tsunami) would suggest otherwise. On this particular issue, I am reminded that the disciples came to Jesus and asked him about the evidences of the ending of the age. His description in Matthew 24, 25 includes such natural disasters as we have been able to witness this past week. It is not to be a means of being calloused in our response, but to suggest that the larger plan of God may be (is) at work in even the disastrous events of our world!
7. The HP in which I see God's faithfulness, is a great encouragement in my walk day to day. Yes, the dramatic finds itself most easily swayed and discounted in the personal wrestling which we each endure moment by moment. It is here that the Adversary gains that toe hold which he uses to usurp even greater inroads in discouragement, depression, fear, lack of trust and despondency with which we often live. It is in seeing God active in the past, that I can say He does not change, but is active now and use this as a means to resist the Adversary's attractive and custom designed temptations. It is here that I see the greatest personal benefit of the Scriptural pattern to pray within the context of an historical understanding. Is it not true, that the very pre-occupation which we have with our personal needs, wants, etc. really only gain full exposure and perspective when we see them in light of the divine plan which is being worked out? In other words, I believe that as we see in larger measure the God of history as the God of the present, our “needs” become examined for the motive which underlies them. It is only then that we can pray, as God would have us pray, with a sincere heart, free from the tendency to manipulate God into our mould. That was the very message of the prophets, wasn't it? They had substituted an idol for the True and Living God!

In Prayer, the Past is the Prologue to the Present!

Blessings!