Devotional 9-23-09

The Prayer of Faith
“Is any of you in trouble or hurting? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” James 5:13-18

Add’l Lectionary readings: Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50

The passage from James reminded me anew of the power of connecting with God through prayer. The power of prayer is positively overwhelming. I have felt the comfort and reduction of anxiety when others have prayed for me. I have felt the reassuring presence of God in my heart when I have prayed. I have seen my patients visibly relax and begin to heal when they have been prayed for. I know that prayer connects us as we sing and as we worship, also. So why is it not more of a priority? Why isn’t prayer the first thing I think of rather than the 3rd or 4th?

I think one of the answers is that we operate too frequently under a false assumption that we can control the situation on our own. It is a habit that I have great difficulty in breaking. But, when I step out of the way, God has room to become my center—my guide. When I surrender myself to God, He fills me with the confidence of His control and I can begin to discern His plan.

The passage from James also helped me recall the story of Elijah. I have had the privilege of singing all and parts of the oratorio “Elijah” by Mendelssohn. One of my favorite passages is in a trio “Lift Thine Eyes”—“Lift thine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh help. Thy help cometh from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” This trio is followed by a wonderful chorus: “He watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps.” We need not worry whether God is listening or available to our prayers, He desires the connection with us no matter the hour or circumstance. The “glitches” we experience in connecting with God are usually on our end of the line, not God’s.

James also gives us another key to the power of prayer. It is that faith can make all the difference. Praying for each other believing that God will answer the prayer according to God’s rich tapestry of a plan changes the perspective of the prayer. We relinquish the selfishness of the prayer when we pray that God will provide according to God’s plan. Faith is the ingredient that helps us wait for an answer, to allow the plan to unfold, to understand an answer to prayer that is different from what we expected, and to open our hearts and minds to actually listen for the answer. Great and glorious words are not required. Special places, lighting, times or circumstances are not needed. One need not study or secure any advanced education to begin the conversation. God requires that we just ask (and it will be given), seek
(and we will find) and to knock (and the door will be opened).

Dear Great and Wonderful Provider of All Things: We ask today that you grant us the faith needed to begin our quest for you through prayer. We ask that you help us to surrender our faulty will to Your divine plan and deliverance. We also ask that you continue to guide us to more open two-way communication. Help us to listen more and talk less. Help us to pray more often and to make prayer a priority and center of our daily walk. We pray for all these things knowing that we are unworthy. We thank you for this magnificent connection and always for your loving care. Amen.

Chyrl Budd

P.S. I also recommend that you read the whole book of Esther. It won’t take long and it will be a blessing to you. She was a brave and faithful servant of God.

Devotional 9-18-09

AN AMAZING WOMAN

One of the lectionary readings for this day is Proverbs 31:10-31 wherein are extolled the many virtues of a righteous woman whose price is far above rubies. I have heard of multi-tasking but this woman multi-tasks to the nth degree.

She feeds her family well (gets up early to do it), pays the utility bills, sews and knits, buys property and works it (a vegetable garden maybe?). She dresses well and her family's clothes are always ready for the bad weather season (no hunting all over the house for the missing boots). She is wise and kind, trustworthy and generous, and finds time to volunteer to help the needy and she also makes and sells items. What a gem to have on the Bring & Buy Sale Committee. Of course, this wonderful woman is never idle and needless to say her husband is held in high regard in the town where they live.

I feel exhausted just writing about her. On the other hand many of us carry as heavy a workload with our day jobs, our families, our extracurricular and volunteer activities. Maybe that is why the second lectionary reading is Psalm 1, a favorite of mine, especially v.3, "....shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." (KJV). Isn't that refreshing! Each one of us experiences times when we feel worn out, that we simply can't do another thing. Turn to Psalm 1 and drink of the water of His Word, make a time when no matter how short we can remember that the LIGHT of God surrounds us, the LOVE of God enfolds us, the POWER of God protects us, the PRESENCE of God watches over us. Wherever we are God is there to bear us up and renew our strength (ISAIAH 40:31).

Jean Dean

Devotional 9-11-09

Searching for God’s Voice and Love

Have you heard God’s voice? At the same time you are searching for God, he is speaking to you. Billy Graham

I read these words and they struck me because I was searching for God and for answers at a very difficult time in my life. I did not hear God’s voice, much less thought he was speaking to me, or even cared about me. While praying for guidance one day, I realized that HIS voice came through the people he sent into my life. HIS voice came through church members who prayed; HIS voice came from our minister at the time who came to visit my family; HIS voice came from family members; HIS voice came from my next door neighbor who took me to her bible study, However, the most amazing voice of all came from an individual, whom I hardly knew. Through God’s grace and intervention, she just happened to be looking for a prayer partner and now has become a good friend.

For the past two years my friend and I have been getting together once a week for prayer sessions. We get together to pray for people we love, family members, friends, church, country, neighbors. This has been a very special time for both of us. We have a little ritual. Before we invite Christ into our hearts, we light the Christ candle, we have a cup of tea, and we read a devotion out of our devotional for that day. Then we take turns praying for the people, problems, hopes, and dreams that we have written on our lists. We have shared personal stories, happiness, disappointments, but also have given praise for the good things. Looking over these past two years, some of our prayers had been answered, others not. Unlike my friend who is passionate about her love of Christ, her faith, and who never questions God’s love, my faith waivers when my prayers are not answered, at least not when or the way I want them to be answered. We have had discussions about this issue; as to why I felt that God listens to other people more than he listens to me and answers prayers faster for others than for me. My friend always puts my mind at ease by assuring me that God does not work this way; that we must strive to keep our faith no matter what the outcome and never give way to skepticism since such feelings will interfere with our communication with HIM.

Thinking about this, I came across the following quote from “The Language of Prayer” (talk about hearing God’s voice): “Trust in your Faith and know that because of it you will receive answers to your prayers.”

We have to believe that God answers prayers in HIS time and accept the fact that it is not always what we hope or expect. We have to make time to hear HIS voice. In one of the devotionals that my friend and I read, there were the following words:

Fix your heart and mind on me, that you may hear what I have to say to you. When diverting thoughts intrude themselves, send them away promptly without paying attention to them. Return in heart and mind to me, for I desire to hold fellowship with you. Yes, I know you are unworthy and unfit for this. I am acquainted with your faults, even better acquainted with them than you are. But you do not yet grasp the debt of my merciful heart or the largeness of my heart...We still have a long way to reach that goal, but I haven’t given up.

What beautiful words these are that speak of God’s love. He is with us always in good times or in bad and HIS voice can be heard by us in many different ways if we but open our hearts and believe that HE will never give up on us.
Gisela Kemper

Devotional 9-4-09

“There but for the grace of God go I”. I have heard and said that saying all of my life, but I don’t think I ever put the right spin on that saying. It always made me a little uncomfortable. (I was raised a Presbyterian, so I have that predestination thing lurking in my subconscious.) I always thought it wasn’t quite fair that God had spared me from whatever horrible situation that someone else was enduring. Did God save me from being in that position? Did He love me more that that person? Of course not. Was I a better Christian than them? Definitely not! So why did they have to endure this and not me? When I read Psalm 124 I had my epiphany. We all have our trials to endure and find our way through. The grace is not that God has spared us, but that God is there beside us, guiding and sometimes carrying us through. All we have to do is open ourselves up to Him and ask for that help and guidance. There but for the grace of God go I-alone to face the world.

Margaret Williams