Put A Prayer On That

Sometimes we just pray.  Sometimes we really need to pray. 

Sometimes we can't pray fast enough, slow enough, or not long enough.  Sometimes too many words trip over each other.

Sometimes we want to pray but our hearts are not in it. We are slammed, the wind is knocked out of us. We face an unexpected collision, lights are extinguished, and food tastes like ash in our mouths. We are shocked, drained, or sucker-punched. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Psalm 130. 1 We don't know how to respond, and no words come at all.

But then we remember God hears, God listens, and God is still with us. And He knows what to do.  In many occasions, words have very little to do with it.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  Romans 8. 26  He understands the ancient language of groaning and turns our pain into prayers. Because some things are quite radically too deep for words.

We pray to God,

pray for,

pray over,

pray through,

pray to get going,

pray to shelter in place,

and pray in sequential laps over and over.

We pray for a covering, for sutures, a shield snapped in place, a way through the thicket, come alongside others, take His hand or grip someone else's, nourish, cultivate, abide, listen, bring healing, touch the bottom of a really deep pool, stand our ground, or just be grounded. 

Put a prayer on that.

And as a response, God does not show up. God shows us how to be filled, how to fill another, stand in the gap, pull someone out, realize our own need for grace and extend it to another, learn how to love someone, figure out how to spell forgiveness in tangible ways, realize that He is God, and that He is still God, even in this really hard appointment.

...a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7. 19

We come before God with anxieties, fears and weariness.  And when we seek Him in the midst of the chaos, we always leave aware of even more:  His Word, His strength, and His Presence.  He shows us the way through and often with unexpected blessings of legendary size that come strangely.

What if we prayed?

What if we didn't?

The unknown is just unfamiliar territory to us. But God is already here working His wonders.  His triumphs over our Goliaths may not be what we expect.  But praying gets us to the point of trusting Him in both the ordinary and the extraordinary.  And we find not an answer, but The LORD is there (Ezekiel 48.35)

Have I even considered asking God about this situation?

In this broken world, it has been said that we are six inches from a spider and twenty feet from the next cavernous pothole. That alone is enough to stop us in our tracks. But God instructs us to pivot in our hard and scary stuff with a new heart and thereby respond differently.

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5. 17  In all things, about all things, through all things.  Doing something everyday for a long time makes it really hard not to do it.

If we do not pray on the ordinary days, will we even know how to pray through the crisis?

Praying trains our hearts for what is now and what is ahead, one difficulty and then the next.  Ask any long-distance runner: endurance does not just arrive with a two hour Amazon delivery. Praying is not a daily exercise, but an ongoing experience through which God changes and strengthens us.

"If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis." --Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 11. 

How can we handle this impossible situation before us?  Put a prayer on that.