What's up with prayer . . . and you?
- Christine DiGiacomo
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/e8e24c27/whats-up-with-prayer-and-you-james-no16
Depending on who you are, this may be the most important matter you have considered in a very long time. A couple days ago, I offered up the whole of James chapter four, packed with instructions for the early Christ followers with equal application to us today, almost 2000 years later. Today, I shall drill down on a few words James wrote.
[Wait...'A couple days ago?' Yes, these Morning Briefings go out via email on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 9 pm EST, intended for a set apart morning time with God. Why that time? Because when it is 9 pm in NYC, it is 6.30 am in Calcutta. Besides that email group, there is a growing list of people to whom I text the briefing the next morning. I will soon be entering the 19th year of such writing to an ever-expanding varied group of people around the world. The Morning Briefings are also posted in two different Facebook groups: one public: Morning Briefings, which has been together since 2009, and a private group that began during COVID in 2020. That group THRIVEOC (THRIVE, Orange County) is near and dear to my heart because when our churches were shuttered in California, the women's Bible study group I had led for almost two decades met in a local shopping center parking lot overlooking the Pacific Ocean in South Orange County. After purchasing a large speaker and microphone, I taught from the back of my dear friend's Ford Raptor (pictured). Soon, schools closed and children started coming; next, husbands were forced to work from home and they started coming. 2020 was surreal--an election year, BLM protests, social distancing and masks, and I felt like God charged me to raise the banner that:
He alone is sovereign over all and He is good,
His Word is true and it is life,
and Christian community/physically seeing one another
is not only commanded of God,
but vital for our spiritual and mental health.
We sang praises to God, we prayed, and I taught a message of encouragement from Scripture, and we grew... and we grew. (Should you wish to know more, hit 'reply' and ask!)]
Now, from James chapter four, one line has repeated itself over and over in my mind:
You do not have, because you do not ask God. James 4.2
We are lacking because we do not pray.
The question at hand--why don't people pray?
So, why don't we pray? hmmm...
>Atheists don't pray because they say there is no God
>agnostics don't pray because, while there might be a God, they don't believe in him--so, why pray?
>Others pray on a limited basis, thinking they are allotted just so many prayers, and they do not want to waste them
>Still others pray half-heartedly, because they just don't put too much stock in prayer, thinking God is a weak, impotent being
>Some are simply ignorant about how to pray, and for what they can ask God. . .
>And finally, many of us are just undisciplined, truth be told; we intend to pray, but we give our attention to other things, prioritizing them above time with God
Is it possible we are missing out,
especially a relationship with God,
because we do not pray?
Then James writes, "Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you." James 4.8 Oh, my friends, that is both an invitation and a promise . . . do you see it? 'Reminds me of "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."1 Notice that is spoken in first person – God is saying to you, Andy, to you, Jordan, to you, Andrew, and to you, Mallory . . .
'Do you want to feel my presence?
Draw near to me … I will draw near to you, Child.
Cry out to me, and I will be found by you.'
The vehicle through which we do that – Prayer. Sweet. Prayer.
The latter half of James 4.8 says "wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you hypocrites." Confess any sin that is between you and God . . . go ahead, you won't shock him. No sin is either too great or evil, but no sin is too small, if it comes between you and God, if it pricks your conscience or keeps you from praying. Know this: it is God's heart to show you mercy, and to forgive you.
How do you draw close to God in prayer? While I pray off-and-on throughout the whole day, I start my day with a 'set apart' time--with my coffee, with my God. I write my prayers in a thin, small, lined journal because my mind is prone to wander. I used to write four large letters down the left side of my page to organize my thoughts in prayer. A- for adoration, praise to God; C-confession of sin; A-asking for personal needs, for others' needs--for WISDOM--don't forget James 1:5! T-Thanksgiving--thanking God for his good gifts--for life, for salvation, family, friends, freedom, health, protection and provision, Heaven . . . I like to finish my prayers thanking God; you see, practicing gratitude changes us; it changes our attitudes and outlooks.
Back to my atheist friends who don't pray . . . funny thing is, when they are scared out of their minds, facing death or the threat of losing a child, they will often utter these words: "God, if you are there, and I don't believe you are--but just in case you are, help my child ... please, God! If you do, I'm yours forever, I'll . . . " So, did God change during the difficult circumstances? No, the person just got desperate enough to consider that prayer was a worthwhile avenue to potential help when there was no other visible help. How apt is this quote by C.S. Lewis:
Fact is, we are often more open, more pliable when we are in pain.
Keenly, I remember visiting a friend's dad in the hospital, who appeared to be at the end of his life. I went by myself and was standing alongside his bed when he awakened in the CICU. I introduced myself and talked with him for a little while, before I asked if I could pray with him. The man’s family had asked me to go, though they had been concerned he would be gruff or unkind to me, he wasn't. Struggling through the oxygen to get his breath, he asked if the family and I thought he was dying--I said, 'maybe' . . . I asked him if he thought he was dying, and he said, 'ah--50/50.'
Not for the first time and not for the last time I found myself saying to someone, 'well, just in case you are, do you know where you'll be when you take your last breath here on earth? You can, you know . . .' And that launched us into deeper waters--he most certainly did want to know where he would draw his next breath, and he wanted assurance of what I was saying. Hear me--that conversation would not have been possible only days before. He would not have been ready or receptive. We talked . . . it was good. I held his hand and I prayed for him . . . it brought him peace.
I was the last person to pray with him, and I believe God drew close to him in that prayer. He was gone within 24 hours.
You see, the fact is that God is a loving, benevolent Father whose greatest desire is communion with us. You do not have, because you do not ask God. What do you not have because you have not asked of God? Maybe it is relationship with Him...
Ask Him... today.
Listen: "Walk with You," Michael Bethany,
Christine
-->>>Would you be willing to contribute to PastorWoman, a 501-C3
non-profit ministry,
with Morning Briefings going out to 146 countries?
Checks (personal or bankdraft), send to P.O. Box below,
or give by Zelle, Paypal or Venmo (which is owned by PayPal and does not deduct a service fee from your donation.)
f.y.i., I only ask about twice a year.
Thank you very much for your consideration.
1 - Jeremiah 29.12-13
2 - C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Comments