Keep Praying

I've been praying... a lot. It's my new thing. My I'm-learning-how-prayer-really-works thing. My trusting-God-to-teach-me-something-new thing.

I pray before my children and husband wake up. I pray after they've all gone to sleep. I sit and talk to God and study scripture. There are moments when I feel so small and inconsequential and then other, bolder moments when I feel my prayers shouting into the very throne room of God.

Last week around midnight, I was feeling small. Little me. In my little closet. Wondering if my prayers mattered.

And there it was, that small obedience-urge. Telling me to listen to the still small voice and do exactly what it said. So I listened. I obeyed.

My obedience took me to a devotional book, a random page with the Holy Spirit prompting me to look at the key verse. And there it was shouting back to me from that Holy throne room in heaven, two small words:

Keep praying.
1 Thessalonians 5:17

With my heart swelling, I began to praise God and pray with all my might. In the darkness of my home, my little closet was the only room burning bright. 

Another obedience-urge told me to take myself, my prayer, and His Spirit and walk my house. 

So I began to walk. Whispering from room to room. In shouted whispers His Name, His protection. Pleading the blood of Jesus over each space and over each inhabitant of our little house on Shadowbrook. As I prayed my arms moved, stretched to heaven in praise, touching walls, imbibing them with God's Holy presence, claiming my home and my family for the Lord.

I reached the front door and touched the top, running my hand over the 100 year-old oak. We have been passed over. We are covered in the Blood.

I circle back to my hallway. I make my way around a door. 

A figure approaches me in the darkness....the figure gasps, startled with fright.

My poor husband. In his jammies. Sleepy-eyed. Hair askew. Jennifer...what are you doing?

Obviously, I'm prayer walking through our house and claiming the Blood of Jesus, husband.

And with his knowledge of the Jesus-obsessed wife he married 12 years ago, he grunts, and returns to bed.

Because. Obviously that's what I'm doing. Obviously.

Here's the thing I want you to know today, friend. Your prayers matter. They are heard. 

But you have concerns, you say? Issues with prayer? They may sound like some of the following:

How do I know my prayers are heard?

When I pray, I feel like my prayers hit a glass ceiling.

I've been praying the same prayer for years and nothing has changed.

I'm scared that His answer will look differently than I want.

I just don't feel like praying today. 

I've messed up. I've sinned. My prayers are no good.

He doesn't speak back to me. 

I can't feel His presence.

Am I saying the right words?

Am I praying for the right things?

Well, my answer to you is simple. In fact, just two words:

Keep praying.

Don't you know who you are, beloved? You are a child of God, made by Him, for Him, in His very image. Never say your prayers are not enough. 

Because He is enough. 

My friend, draw near. Draw near in obedience, draw near begging to know Jesus in a new and radical way. In some moments of prayer you will feel alone and small, but in others...oh, in others, your prayers will shake the very foundations of the earth and shape the very future of it.

Your prayers are powerful. They matter. They can change things. 

But your prayers can't be any of those things if you don't pray them.

Your prayers won't matter unless you pray them.

Simple, huh?

So the next time you think prayer time should be skipped because what does it matter, anyway? Here's the reminder. Two little words, one big message, straight from the throne room of God:

Keep Praying.

Airplane Prayers

If you know me at all you know of my affinity for birds. Not of the exotic variety - we're not talking penguins and toucans here, but regular, everyday yard birds. Cardinals, sparrows, fat bluebirds that tuck themselves inside the tiny little birdhouse on my front porch.

Birdsong, in a quiet forest or backyard is the sweetest symphony and purest form of praise from created beings to their Creator. When I am earnestly seeking God, sometimes, if I pay attention, a bird will find its way into my line of sight, reminding me of God's sweet presence.

It's kind of awesome. I'm not even kidding here. Once, while pouring my heart out in prayer last summer a bird came and perched on the chair outside of my window, separating us by a glass pane and inches.

If you read the blog last week (which you can find here) you know of my renewed passion for prayer. So, this week as I created my prayer closet, my prayer wall, and began fervent praying daily...I couldn't feel God. There wasn't a closeness. His Spirit was not overwhelming, but in obedience and hopeful expectation I kept praying.

Then while driving home from the grocery store one afternoon, looking out my windows for birds (Yes, I actually do this...), there were none in sight. Not one bird on a bright, beautiful, blue-skied afternoon.

Only an airplane outside my front windshield.

Stupid airplane. You're not a precious, lovely bird! Lord, where are my birds?!

It's only an airplane...

And then, out my side window, another airplane appears, flying lower.

Where are my beautiful, beloved songbirds, Lord?

No songbirds, child. But airplanes.

Airplanes.

I'm not sending you birds during this season of prayer, daughter. I'm sending you airplanes.

The difference? An airplane represents speed, power, and the highest of heights. Not songbird prayers, as lovely, sweet and pure as they may be. But airplane prayers. Power and strength.

I want to pray BIG prayers, prayers that seem ridiculous and foolish to man, but delight my Father in heaven.

Do you remember the story in Acts 12 of Peter being freed from prison after earnest prayer (12:5) from the church? In the dead of night an angel came into his cell, unlocked his chains and led him through the many doors of the prison. Peter thought this was so incredible it must have been a vision. When Peter realized his escape was all very real and he had been freed he went to Mary's house (the mother of Mark). He knocked at the gate and a servant girl named Rhoda answered. Verse 14 says that in her joy and excitement she forgot to let him in and ran to tell the others. And when she did tell the others they didn't believe her, saying, "You are out of your mind."

But they had forgotten. Those gathered at Mary's house had forgotten their earnest prayer for Peter. Their airplane prayer that might have sounded something like this:

"Lord, Peter is imprisoned by the most powerful government in the world. He sleeps between two armed guards. He is bound by two separate chains. Outside his cell stand additional guards. Father, four squads of soldiers guard him altogether. The prison is locked away from the city by an iron gate that is locked at all times.

God, free Peter."

Folks, that's an airplane prayer if I've ever heard one. And God is in the business of answering these BIG, bold, C-130-speed prayers.

But did they believe God could do it? Here was Rhoda shouting, "Peter is at the gate!" And the faithful friends of Peter and believers in the Risen Christ called her crazy.

But there he was, standing at the arrivals gate. Just like he was waiting for his ride at the gate at JFK, ready to pick up his stuff at baggage claim.

The plane landed. The prayer answered.

I've been praying some airplane prayers. I've been praying BIG things. Things that may seem impossible and foolish to the world and maybe even to fellow Christians. But I will pray and keep on.

Because last night as I stood in the silence of my backyard, walking and thanking God for the kind of stars that shine brightest on a cold night, and thinking of my BIG, foolish prayers, there it was - a low flying, brightly lit airplane, clear as day in the dark of night.

Flying right over my head.

And I smiled to my Father in heaven as He spoke to my heart:

Darling, I've heard your precious bird prayers, but now it's time for new heights."

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men..."

1 Corinthians 1:25

#PrayforParis

Nehemiah sat stunned, hanging on every word of the escapees from Jerusalem. His heart belonged to that city and he was desperate for any news concerning its stability and its inhabitants. Questions rolled off his tongue in quick succession: Who else had escaped? Who had survived their exile? Was the city still standing?

And then, the crushing news: "The survivors of the city are in great trouble and great shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and it's gates are destroyed by fire." (Nehemiah 1: 3)

The city that Nehemiah loved had been brutalized by a foreign army and laid to waste, its inhabitants either killed, sent into exile, or barely surviving in the city walls.

But Nehemiah knows exactly what to do:

"As soon as I heard these words I sat down, wept and mourned and fasted, and I prayed."

I know how Nehemiah felt. All too sadly, for a woman only 34 years old, this feeling is familiar.

Littleton.

New York.

London.

Madrid.

Fort Hood.

Boston.

Charleston.

Paris.

There are more. There are always more.

I sit and watch the brutalization and violence in these beloved cities.

And just like the hashtags tell me and just like Nehemiah did, I fall to my knees.

I pray for Paris.

Because we need more than hashtags and French flag overlays on our profile pictures. We need to encounter the Holy, Living God. We need to ask Him to forgive our world and restore it.

Nehemiah's prayer lasts for seven verses and from his chambers in Susa almost 3 millennium ago he teaches us how to pray for Paris today:

Nehemiah 1:5-6 I said, “God, God-of-Heaven, the great and awesome God, loyal to his covenant and faithful to those who love him and obey his commands: Look at me, listen to me. Pay attention to this prayer of your servant that I’m praying day and night in intercession for your servants, the People of Israel, confessing the sins of the People of Israel. And I’m including myself, I and my ancestors, among those who have sinned against you."

We come to God acknowledging His might, His sovereignty, His steadfast love. We remind Him that we are His people, a people who are in covenant love with Him. We are reminded of our great privilege to be His servants and this reminds us of the great ways we've failed him.

We come to His throne in earnest supplication and repentance for ourselves and for the world.

1:7-9 “We’ve treated you like dirt: We haven’t done what you told us, haven’t followed your commands, and haven’t respected the decisions you gave to Moses your servant. All the same, remember the warning you posted to your servant Moses: ‘If you betray me, I’ll scatter you to the four winds, but if you come back to me and do what I tell you, I’ll gather up all these scattered peoples from wherever they ended up and put them back in the place I chose to mark with my Name.’"

We come to God remembering that He is just and will always do what He says He will.

We come in true repentance knowing God will move heaven and earth to restore and heal what is broken.

We come to God knowing He will not cast the sinner out, but bring the repentant in to dwell with Him.

1:10-11 “Well, there they are—your servants, your people whom you so powerfully and impressively redeemed. O Master, listen to me, listen to your servant’s prayer—and yes, to all your servants who delight in honoring you—and make me successful today so that I get what I want from the king.”

We come to God reminding Him that we are His people, that there is a remnant in all cities who love Him and seek Him.

We come to God asking Him to grant mercy.

We come acknowledging our only way to success in this war is through Him.

Because we are in a war. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12)

If you think the mastermind behind these attacks on our beloved cities is man, you are mistaken. The violence and sheer terror bear the mark of Satan himself. Satan who declared war on Jesus at the beginning of time and declares war on His people today.

And we, in our frail humanity, cannot win.

But Jesus can.

See, Nehemiah's prayer was answered. God heard his servant's prayer and sent him home to Jerusalem to rebuild its wall and restore its people.

And just like God heard the earnest and repentant prayer of Nehemiah, He will hear ours, too.

So, let us run to God's throne with prayer. Let us, in sincere supplication, repent and ask our mighty and good God to reign supreme on earth.

Let's pray for repentance.

Let's pray for restoration.

Let's pray for mercy.

Let's pray for light to overtake darkness.

Friends, let's pray for Paris.