I’m not good at finishing movies. Here’s as far as I got with one of them…
A husband and wife were busy in the kitchen getting dinner ready. The husband bumped into the photo of their son stuck on the fridge. It landed on the floor.
Wife: Why are you so clumsy?
Husband: Maybe this is God’s way of telling us to put it in a frame.
Wife: No. I like it on the fridge.
Husband: It’s better protected under a glass.
Wife: Yes. It would be frozen and formal. I prefer it right where it is, on the fridge… among my postcards, my shopping lists, …and my everyday things.
Their interaction made me ask myself “Has my prayer life become frozen and formal?” Is it formal due to my Christianese vocabulary I’m used to repeating over and over? Is it framed around meals, bedtimes and church gatherings? Or, is my prayer like that photo on the fridge? Among my Christmas cards, my shopping lists… and my everyday things?
King David– But I am a man of prayer
King David describes himself in Psalm 109 as a man of prayer. “…they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.” Psalm 109:4 NIV
For David, talking to God was like the photo on the fridge… it was part of his everyday life.
In prayer, he credits God for his winnings– Psalm 20:7 NIV “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
(“Some trust in chariots — … The word trust is not in the Hebrew, which is more literally translated, These in their chariots, and those on their horses, but we… will celebrate, the name of the Lord our God; … so as to boast of or trust in it. ” Benson Commentary)
“These, those and the others” of this world will teach us to rely on self, on social media, on government, on career, on connections… on anything else but the Lord our God. What’s our fighting tool to get things done? To conquer worry? To deal with our enemies? To keep my kids safe? To provide for myself? To press on when my health declines?
In prayer first, facing giants second. A football coach told his team one day “We win in the locker room first, then on the field.” That’s how Jesus coached his followers too in Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Berean Study Bible)
What happens in my “inner room” will reflect into the outer world. “David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’ ” 1 Samuel 17:45 NIV
Call me crazy, but this is how I include prayer in my mundane: I pray for an ambulance driving by, for an airplane in the sky, for a sad cashier, for a parking space, for my doctor appointment… for my daily everything.
Priest Ezra– Stinky situations are knee-benders
After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, God prompts several men of faith to return to Jerusalem to restore worship (Ezra), to rebuild the temple (Zerubbabel), and to reconstruct the city walls (Nehemiah).
Ezra loved the Revealed Word of God available to them at that time. He was the priest who “devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel”.
Ezra finds himself in a stinky situation scared to journey back to Jerusalem. It was a legit fear. Traveling on foot with children, with cattle, with silver, with gold… with articles donated by the king, and his officials was dangerous. Here’s his knee- jerk response to this stinky situation:
“There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, ‘The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.’ So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.” Ezra 8:21-23 NIV
“…The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way.” Ezra 8:31 NIV
Is prayer my first response, or my last resort? Ezra believed that prayer turns ordinary into extraordinary. How often do we have those Ahava moments in our life: surrendering our circumstances completely to God, rather than relying on humans to bring resolution?
Epaphras – Tirelessly wrestling for others in prayer
Epahpras is mentioned three times in the New Testament. He worked alongside apostle the Paul and even became his fellow prisoner. God allowed for his name to be engraved on the pages of the Scriptures as a prayer warrior.
“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Colossians 4:12 NIV
Epaphras was a trooper. He knew how important it was to have each other’s back in prayer. I praise God for the Epaphras in my life. Friends that don’t just say in Christianese “I’ll pray for ya’! “, but genuinely intercede on my behalf. My friend GG writes her prayer requests on a whiteboard and places it in her bedroom to make them visible and intentional. She is my Epaphras. We each need to have one. We each need to be one.
When I meet someone for coffee… I made it my practice to end it by praying for that person. We do that as a family as well when we finish a meal with friends, and new people we meet. It’s something we had to learn from Epaphras in our life. (Thank you Derek and Scilla)
Challenge– Could I learn from David, Ezra and Epaphras?
How can we weave prayer into our mundane activities, like David?
How can we make prayer our first response to stinky situations like Ezra, not our last resort?
How can I be an Epaphras to those in my life with a visible, on-going, and vibrant prayer list?
“…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16b