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Praying Without Ceasing

Todd R 1 Comment

Sometimes the Bible asks us to do things that are hard to take literally.  For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul writes that we should “pray without ceasing.”  Other translations say “pray continually,” the same basic message.  But what does it mean?  We can’t kneel, fold our hands, and repeat the Lord’s Prayer all day every day.  Paul wasn’t asking us to do the impossible, but how does one actually do this?

The life of Nehemiah, partially recorded in the Old Testament book bearing his name, may provide a good example for us.  Around 445 B.C., Nehemiah was part of the third group of exiles in Babylon to return to Jerusalem.  About 90 years after the first group returned, he heard Jerusalem’s walls and gates were still in ruins.  He returned to lead the rebuilding of the walls, meeting opposition along the way from those who moved into the area during the exile as well as some of the Jews themselves.

Scattered throughout the book are several brief prayers, what Warren Wiersbe called “telegraph prayers,” [1] in 1992, but we might call them Twitter prayers now.  These very short appeals to God are often made quickly and quietly, and you might say “continually.”  I’ll put them in 3 categories:

The first group of these prayers are prayers for strength.  Early in the story, Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes and had to work up the nerve to ask the king to let him return to Jerusalem and take on the work of rebuilding the walls.  Nehemiah 2:4 says: “Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.”  We don’t know what exactly he prayed, but he must have done it silently and quickly during his conversation with the king, otherwise the king might have been offended.  Prayers can be dropped right into any conversation![2]

Second are prayers for justice, which are similar to the “imprecatory,” or cursing, Psalms, such as Psalm 58.  In these prayers and Psalms the writers curse the enemies of the writer and of God.  Instead of taking time away from the work on the wall, or vowing to take vengeance themselves, Nehemiah trusted God to righteously judge all evil.  In Nehemiah 6:14, he prays this about his opposition: “Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.”  Nehemiah is honest with God about his frustrations but turns them over to God to take care of them.[3]  We too can pray for God to handle any scores we feel we need to settle during the day!

The third category are prayers of dedication, reminders that the work is being done for God and asking that He bless the outcome, as well as the workers, including Nehemiah personally.  In Nehemiah 13:14, after the walls were rebuilt and he oversaw the collection of the tithe, he prayed: “Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.”[4]  God does not forget any service given to Him, but we can pray to remind ourselves who we serve and trust that He will remember!

Nehemiah’s constant life of worship was made up of more than just short prayers made in the moment.  Longer prayers (all of chapter 9) and fasting are recorded, and along with these short prayers are a clue as to what it means to “pray without ceasing.”  It means to always keep the lines of communication open, to consider that God is there, willing to listen, and lovingly able to bless His people any time.  Even a split second in the middle of something is a good time to pray because His love for us is steadfast.  We always need Him, and He is always able to meet our need!

Therefore, we can repeat the prayer of Psalm 66:20, which says:

“Blessed be God,
            because he has not rejected my prayer
            or removed his steadfast love from me!”

Coda

Steven Curtis Chapman’s 1996 song “Let Us Pray” captures this idea of “pray without ceasing” beautifully.  In it he sings that we should pray “every moment of the day,” because “the Father above, He is listening with love and He wants to answer us”

You can read the song’s lyrics at this link.  Or listen to the full song at this link.

[1] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Determined (Nehemiah) (1992).  P. 34.
[2] Nehemiah 6:9 is another example.
[3] Nehemiah 4:4-5 and 13:29 are similar prayers.
[4] Nehemiah 5:19, 13:22, and 13:30-31 are similar.

Why? By Michael Card

Todd R 1 Comment

I’ve been trying to come up with something to post for Good Friday and remembered a comment someone made at church last Sunday that the nails weren’t what held Christ to the cross.  It was His love that held Him there.  He could have chosen to come down at any time, but of course He would have failed in His mission to save sinners.

This reminded me of the song “Why?” by Michael Card, released way back in 1988.  Read the lyrics below and/or listen to the song in the link.  The song is a potent reminder of what Jesus went through on the first Good Friday long ago.

Why did it have to be a friend
Who chose to betray the Lord?
And why did he use a kiss to show them
That’s not what a kiss is for?

Only a friend can betray a friend
A stranger has nothing to gain
And only a friend comes close enough
To ever cause so much pain

And why did it have to be a thorny
Crown pressed upon his head?
It should have been a royal one
Made of jewels and gold instead

It had to be a crown of thorns
Because in this life that we live
For all that would seek to love
A thorn is all the world has to give

Why did it have to be a heavy cross
He was made to bear?
And why did they nail His feet and hands
His love would have held him there

It was a cross for on a cross
A thief was supposed to pay
And Jesus had come into the world
To steal every heart away
Yes, Jesus had come into the world
To steal every heart away

There’s a Place for Us – Psalms of Ascent #3

Todd R 3 Comments

Fellow travelers,

Today we come back to a weekly series on the Psalms of Ascent, a group of 15 Psalms used as a liturgy for Jews in ancient Israel traveling to Jerusalem for feasts.  Previously I wrote: “To today’s Christian, the Psalms of Ascent remind us not only of our need for salvation apart from law, but they prepare us to regularly contemplate His provision to accomplish that salvation.”  Psalm 119 praises God’s law, but the following Psalms let us know that the law cannot deliver salvation.

The first Psalm of Ascent, Psalm 120, picks up from verse 136 of Psalm 119: “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law,” but it also starts where the pilgrimage starts geographically.  The full Psalm 120 is:

“A Song of Ascents.

In my distress I called to the LORD,
            and he answered me.
Deliver me, O LORD,
            from lying lips,
            from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given to you,
            and what more shall be done to you,
            you deceitful tongue?
A warrior’s sharp arrows,
            with glowing coals of the broom tree!

Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech,
            that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
Too long have I had my dwelling
            among those who hate peace.
I am for peace,
            but when I speak, they are for war!”

Each person traveling to Jerusalem came from a different place.  Meshech was in the far north; Kedar in the far southeast.  The Psalmist does not live in either place, but the picture is that the same problems exist everywhere.  Everyone lives among people with lying lips, a deceitful tongue, and who hate peace.  Each of us in our own way are such people.  In verse 3 the Psalmist is frustrated about what to do about this: “what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?”  The next verse says that force or coercion won’t solve the problem.  It must be solved internally because mankind is fundamentally broken.  Society isn’t the cause of the problem, but an outcome of the problem, and we are frustrated with it.

However, those following the familiar liturgy of these Psalms would know that this frustration is only the beginning of their preparation to worship in Jerusalem.  The place we all live – this entire creation – is groaning for a solution, a way out, and struggling to find it.  All of mankind is in this boat together, but we’re “gonna need a bigger boat.”  The pilgrimage begins with knowing we have a need that we can’t satisfy ourselves.

On their days- or weeks-long journeys to Jerusalem these pilgrims had to bring the baggage from their home lives with them – literally and figuratively.  They certainly lied to and fought with each other on the way.  The trip lasted too long for them to pretend.  Their baggage was visible to all, and they couldn’t make the trip without it.  But they went.  In today’s church, do we go to a place that is full of “good” people, however we define that?  No, we go to a place with people just like us.  We begin as sinners among sinners, from Meshech to Kedar, but we long for a better place.

If you are in distress, call out to the LORD for a place of peace, not just for eternity but for your journey to it.  The church is “called out” to both places.  The journey is worth it.

Coda
The title of this post, if you haven’t already guessed, comes from the musical West Side Story.  The song is about the love between Tony and Maria, members of rival ethnic groups that insist on fighting even though they aren’t sure why.  Therefore, Tony and Maria long for a place where the world’s hate doesn’t tear them apart.

In more ways than one, the sentiments of the song echo the last verses of today’s Psalm:

“Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.
I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!”

Here is the song from the 1961 West Side Story film:

This post continues a series on the Psalms of Ascent. To start at the beginning, click here, and for the next post click here.

Loveless Words

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“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” – 1 Corinthians 13:1

The church in 1st-century Corinth was divided over spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of speaking in tongues.  The apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 as a gentle rebuke to the misuse of gifts and the arrogance that came from competing over them.  The first verse above could be paraphrased as “you can be speaking the most impressive-sounding things, but if you’re not saying it to benefit those who hear, you’re just making noise.”

Photo by Jeremy Horvatin on Unsplash

But not just any noise – Paul purposefully chose two specific instruments.  In a symphony, an appropriately timed cymbal or gong has a glorious impact that perhaps no other instrument can match.  However, although you might not catch one bad note from a clarinet, you won’t miss a gong or cymbal played at the wrong time, even once!  To God, the only one with a truly perfect ear, that’s what loveless words sound like.

“If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?” – 1 Corinthians 14:7

The Beautiful Letdown

Todd R 3 Comments

While this blog got its name from an old twenty øne piløts song called “Taxi Cab,” my second choice would be to use something from “The Beautiful Letdown” by Switchfoot.  The line – “set sail for the Kingdom come” – would have been a good blog title!

The theme of “The Beautiful Letdown” is that while we don’t like being let down or disappointed, it’s a beautiful and blessed thing when we are let down by the things of this world, because that is when we can find God.  In Jeremiah 3:21-23, God calls His people to turn back to Him from the many temptations of the world in striking language:

“A voice on the bare heights is heard,
            the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
            they have forgotten the LORD their God.
“Return, O faithless sons;
            I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
            for you are the LORD our God.
Truly the hills are a delusion,
            the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the LORD our God
            is the salvation of Israel.”

The language is striking because we don’t like being told that the things we worship are a delusion, and we don’t like being accused of spiritual adultery, but regardless, being let down from the delusions of the world is a beautiful thing, because it’s a requirement for knowing God more deeply.  Back to the Switchfoot song, the lyrics say it’s beautiful when we find out that “all the riches this world had to offer me would never do,” but that “we’re still chasing our tails and the rising sun.”  It also says its ok to be “painfully uncool” by the world’s standards because those are the wrong standards.  We are “the church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures and the fools.”

But perhaps my favorite part of the song is the bridge:

“Easy living, you’re not much like your name
Easy dying
Hey, you look just about the same
Won’t you please take me off your list
Easy living, please come on and let me down”

Wouldn’t it be nice to be “off the list” of messages from the world lying about how amazing it is, and how easy things would be if we just bought the right products and had the right lifestyle?  If only we floated along with the world’s idea of progress?  However, as C. S. Lewis wrote: “We all want progress…but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”  Being let down by the world is a good thing.

To listen to the full song, click on the video below.
To just read the full lyrics on genius.com, use this link: https://genius.com/Switchfoot-the-beautiful-letdown-lyrics

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” – Philippians 3:7-8