Category: Prayer

Hope In God

There are times in our lives when we become focused on what truly matters. We gain clarity. We realize that the One we have no control over bears us up. The One who cannot be penned in by our thoughts gives us thoughts and direction and identity.

When that happens, we know it is grace. It is a gift.

Sometimes it happens in the midst of breakdown and low feelings. We have been fighting a battle and losing. We simply do not have it together. We are poor in spirit. Our soul is cast down. And we are anxious about the state we are in. Yet we have moved closer to the reality we need. Our cast down condition is simply our longing for what truly matters, our longing for God.

In the words of Psalm 42:

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?

The psalmist asks why his soul is cast down:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

The being-cast-down is our soul knowing it can no longer live off what we have been feeding it. So the thing to do is not to fill that longing with more noise, turning up the volume of our lives, turning to more social media, buying another thing we do not need, finding another relationship—maybe ending the one we have now. Our soul longs for life and is being starved.

We must say to our soul, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.”

In the midst of the numerous voices telling us what to do about our condition, how to solve the problem that is us, how to make things right, how to gain control, we must turn to hope in God. In the midst of the turmoil of voices in our body politic, in the midst of voices of anger, fearful voices; in the midst of voices of racism and fear of the other, of the refugee; in the midst of voices of greed and arrogance and war talk, we must hope in God, listening again for the “still small voice.” Otherwise, these voices, finding a hook in our fears and prejudices and controlling ways, will lead us into the darkness. Or we will react to these voices with fear and anger, without taking the action that brings light and change.

Turn from these other voices and claims upon our lives; wait and listen. Hope in God, for we shall again praise him, our help and our God.

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.”

Filed under: Faith, Prayer

Witness From Silence

We live in a time where there are mass migrations because of war, economic breakdown, and famine. Globally and in this nation, there has been growing economic inequality. Racism has been virulent and violent. Anti-immigrant sentiment has grown at a time when the needs of refugees have become desperate. Those who Scripture calls “children of light” must give witness in this global darkness. So, what makes that witness possible?

When we feel the darkness gathering around us, do as the prophet, Zephaniah, tells us, “Be silent before the Lord God.” When we experience the breakdown in our society, the incivility, the hate and anger, the hurt, be silent before the Lord God. When we experience these things in ourselves, the hurt and sin, the racism, the stinginess, the indifference to the pain of others and the ignoring of the plight of future generations, be silent before the Lord God.

We often have so very much to say. We carry within us, ways of thinking that are rationales for our hidden prejudices, disoriented desires and values, ways of judging others and ideologies formed from selves constructed from a false center. And we speak and act out of that which is within. So the word to us is: “Be silent before the Lord God.”

Before we can be light in the darkness, we have to be still and listen. We have to listen and be changed by what we hear. We have to attend to what is going on within us.

“Be silent before the Lord GOD!” In silence before God, we get in touch with ourselves. Before God, no longer talking, no longer explaining ourselves, we acknowledge our own brokenness, our own false selves. We acknowledge our need. We desperately need God. Only as we live from our source will we truly do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

In silence before God, we acknowledge that God can do for us what we have been unable to do for ourselves: Liberate us to have compassion and love for others, other others (those very different from ourselves, including those whose ideologies are repugnant to us). Deliver us from people-pleasing ways, so that we speak the truth in love. Free us from fear, so that we speak truth to those in power.

In this present darkness, we must be silent before the Lord God and awake to what is happening around us, so that we might have something to say. Let God reveal to us ourselves and reveal to us the work and witness God calls and empowers us to do. This orientation to the source of our lives does not exclude gaining an understanding of the context and time in which we live but provides spiritual roots to our knowledge.

In the early hours of the morning, or if we are night people, in the late hours, do as Jesus did, take time to pray. Pray out not only our own needs but listen for the still small voice. Reach out for God’s will. Wait on God to speak. In the quietness, surrender our wills to God’s will. Pray, “Your will be done,” and wait. Be awake to hear from God, to be prompted by the Spirit of God. Let God enlighten the eyes of our hearts and give us discernment. Let the Spirit pour out God’s love into our hearts.

Go walk in the woods or along a lake or among the hills and be open and aware, awake to the ways God speaks through God’s creation, speaks without words, through the beauty and delicateness and power. Let God release us from the troubles of our hearts and free us for the action God has prepared for us. God intends for us to be lights in the darkness.

The children of light live from the Light. As children of the day, bear witness in the present darkness. Silent, open, and listening, we become witnesses to what we receive. From silence and listening, justice and mercy pour forth.

Filed under: Faith, Prayer, Witness