Friday, July 31, 2015

When We Face Prolonged Seasons of ‘Issues’



               I have some friends who are going through lengthy ordeals involving family members. These friends are concerned for those close to them. One emailed me an update; she closed it by saying she was living Luke 18.
               In my devotional reading, I came across the following excerpt. I marvel at what this write says. I am caught by God’s timing. Receiving my one friend’s email, hearing my other friend’s anxiety, and finding this passage all came this week. 

               “According to Jesus, by far the most important thing about praying is to keep at it. The images he uses to explain this are all rather comic, as though it was rather comic to have to explain it all. He says God is like a friend you go to borrow bread at midnight. The friend tells you in effect to drop dead, but you go on knocking anyway until he finally gives you what you want so he can go back to bed again (Luke 11:5-8)Or God is like a crooked judge who refuses to hear the case of a certain poor widow, presumably because there’s nothing much in it for him. But she keeps on hounding him until he hears her case just to get her out of his hair (Luke 18:1-8). Even a stinker, Jesus says won’t give his own child a black eye  when he asks for peanut butter and jelly, so how all the more will God when his child ask—(Matthew 7:9-11).

                “Be importunate1, Jesus says—no one assumes, because you have to beat a path to God’s door before he will open it, but because you beat a path there’s no way of getting to your door. ‘Ravish my heart,’ John Donne wrote. But God will not usually ravish. He will only court.”

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1 adjective, 1.) urgent or persistent in solicitation, sometimes annoyingly so. 2) pertinacious, as solicitations or demands. 3) troublesome; annoying.

From Wistful Thinking by Frederick Buechner.

          Found in disciplines for the inner life by Bob Benson and Michael Benson

6 comments:

  1. Yes, persistent in prayer also grows our faith and keep us in hope, and in relationship with Him.

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    1. Lynne: Welcome and thank you for stopping by.This is something that has made me consider how I pray for my own needs as well as those of others.

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  2. I like the three illustrations you used. The Bible does say we are to "pray without ceasing," and the more we pray the better we get to know and understand God.

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    1. Angela: Thank you for stopping in.Some friends and I find we are practicing that "Pray without ceasing." scriprure.Please pray for Martha, for Terri and for Ginny, as well as myself. Thank you.

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  3. Hi Cecelia! Thank you for providing the definition of 'importunate'. I would have had to look it up! God is asking me to keep praying, even when I think it's being obnoxious? What a wonderful and patient God He is.
    I hope your friends will find peace and a good solution to their problems. How wonderful that they know they can turn to you for prayer and support.
    Blessings,
    Ceil

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    1. Ceil: Thank you for stopping in. Yes, God wants us to Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH). I know myself, I have ceased to pray about an issue or two or more just because I felt it was not going to be resolved, but I was wrong. We have to keep 'standing in the gap' as Nehemiah did.

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