Pray without ceasing – Part Three

Hi,

I wonder if any of you wonderful readers worked out that pray without ceasing… when you need help, or when you give thanks, also includes ‘in all things’.

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5: 18

This is a tall order for most of us living in today’s world.

I must confess when our sixteen and a half-year old son died many years ago, we were not thinking of giving thanks… we were praying the ‘help’ prayers. “Help me get through this.” If any of you have lost a child, or know someone who has, you will  know that when your body eventually overrules the mind and you sink into an exhausted sleep there is a couple of hours (maybe) of relief. And on awakening there is a blissful moment of no memory (2 – 5 seconds) then it feels like a ton of bricks fell on you. That was my experience anyway.

What didn’t help was a well-meaning church friend who said, “God could have intervened…”

That plagued us for a while. But, in these intervening years, when we have become used to it, I realise it could have been worse. Now, I can see God’s blessing in it. What a world to be a young person in. Suicide statistics are horrifying across many age ranges.

“Suicide has now surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of injury-related deaths in America, according to a troubling new study published in the American Journal of Public Health on Thursday.” Link … http://www.ibtimes.com/suicide-now-kills-more-americans-car-crashes-795223#

This means a severe lack of hope in so many generations.

Hang on. Let’s look at Paul’s life. He describes some of it here…

From the Jews, five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and in nakedness – 2 Corinthians 24 – 27

And this is the man who told the Thessalonians to give thanks in all things… for that matter he tells us to give thanks in all things. He did it himself…

Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening… Acts 16:25 (New Living Translation)

Paul and Silas praised God even when their backs were bleeding and their feet and hands were in chains.

Are we ‘up to’ such a challenge?

It is a matter of trust. Over the years as health problems arose, we (my husband and I) have learnt to trust that God knows what He is doing.

To begin with it can be difficult but eventually it is quite liberating. The responsibility for solving the problem doesn’t rest with me. God has the ‘big picture’. I came to terms with this personally when I was told by three surgeons that I was a walking time bomb. I shared some of this here… http://www.holdthefaith.net/#!walking-time-bomb/c14z

My husband deals with pain 24/7 and has serious lung problems, then he needed an injection in the eye, followed a week later by laser surgery.

We have learnt that God IS in control, and it’s true, although we might feel stretched at the time, He doesn’t give us more than we can handle. When we feel stretched He is helping us to grow in His image.

Look at what His Son went through!

For even to this were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps: 1 Peter 2: 21

Didn’t Christ Himself warn us that the road was narrow…

how strait is the gate, and compressed the way that is leading to the life, and few are those finding it! Matthew 7: 14 (Young’s Literal Translation)

It is clear then… we ARE to give thanks in the trials and sadness as well as in the good things. Learning this is a matter of faith and trust that God knows what He is doing.

And sometimes all we can do is to pray in faith “Thank you for the strength to get through this…”

Remember that God calls those things that be not as if they were (in existence). If we apply that then we are praying in faith – because faith is the substance of things hoped for…

(Romans 4: 17 and Heb 11: 1)

Grow in grace and peace,

Susan

Pray without ceasing (part two)

Last week’s post ‘pray without ceasing’ was inspired by the most incredible day, after an exceptionally hectic week, where I was conscious that the only way this day would work out was asking for Divine intervention. Mmm. But we are told to pray without ceasing. Full stop. Not only when we have a bad day, or a day where we have so many finely timed appointments it seems we will never make all of them.

So, sitting on a bus (again) this morning, going to another appointment. (My husband needed laser eye surgery.) I found myself reflecting…

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Last week when we were on a bus to an eye appointment it was an emergency, and there were already seemingly impossible odds that we would make the other two appointments… but not only did we make it, there was ample time. But how about praying without ceasing now? I had already prayed the eye surgery would go well with no complications…

Pray without ceasing is all the time.

I was not in ‘panic’ mode… how about ‘thankful’ mode?

The previous week, the roads to the bus station were very busy at 5.50 am. This week they were not nearly so busy. (There’s a ‘thank You Father’)

The previous week there was an incredible storm to make it through. This week, there were only a few splutters of rain, but when we were safely on the bus the rain pelted down. (Another thank You Father.)

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I am alive – thank you Father

I am well – thank you Father.

I have a home, enough food to eat, clothes, a wonderful husband who is also my best friend. Wow… there are a string of ‘thank you Fathers’

But then I had another few special thank You-s in this busy week. An author, whose writing I admire, William Struse, had unbeknown to me been reading my book, Hold the Faith, to his family. I posted it on my other blog http://holdthefaith.wordpress.com/ and you can read the review on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009636HSG/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img

Not only was I excited at the first Amazon review, I was truly humbled. An awesome ‘thank You Father’.

(William Struse has an incredible page turning book called The 13th Enumeration, so I was honoured that he gave Hold the Faith, a five star review.)

Someone who is currently reading the book emailed me and said she would like to see it as a film.

Another person told me that she enjoyed the book and she too wrote a review.

See how many ‘thank you Father’s’ can be found by just stopping and thinking. There is so much in life to thank my heavenly Father for.

I must remember this.

 (Although I am also glad I can go to Him with the ‘please help me Father’ ones as well.)

Till next time,

Tread softly, you may be treading on someone’s dreams.

Susan

Pray without ceasing

Pray without ceasing  1 Thessalonians 5:17

Last week I discovered how to do this.

First an explanation.

My husband has more than one chronic, and sometimes life-threatening illness, so we have frequently had to rely on God’s mercy and the prayer and support of our brethren.

Let me show you a microcosm of our lives..

This week was one of many when we had four days of appointments at the hospital, or our doctor.

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Monday we had our regular three hour appointment. (Add on approx another three hours for travelling.)

 Monday is a difficult day requiring planning for meals that include ‘what if’ the appointment goes longer and we miss the bus. That makes it much harder.

Tuesday has been a regular appointment day for Geoff having his eye ‘problems’ closely monitored. This week  he also  had a physiotherapy appointment. Fortunately in the same hospital.

Wednesdays have been normal doctor appointments, locally, and so it was this week.

Thursdays… eye appointments, dental appointments and this week the appointment with the surgeon who did my aneurysm repair.

After the pressured week, one of many recently, Thursday taught me how to   ‘pray without ceasing’.

Thursday was already a day I felt stressed about. I had the  appointment with my surgeon at Fremantle hospital,  three hours away by bus. Then a few hours later, a dental appointment back near where we live. I don’t know how many times I wanted to cancel the dental appointment. It was too far to travel between them in a short time. However Geoff, said ‘trust God’.

My thoughts were… the clinic appointment with the surgeon was at such an awkward time, (and there is always a notice up that the appointments can run one and a half hours late). It would take us about two hours back to the bus station then a twenty minute drive – we’d never make it. Geoff still said  ‘wait and see and trust God’.

Then it turned out that Geoff’s eye problem needed urgent attention. An appointment was arranged with the eye specialist before his clinic started at 8.30 am… on Thursday.

Thursday just became harder.

We were up around four am to do prayers and some Bible study before we left. The wild storms were still raging. It turned out we had both prayed for a break in the weather to drive to the bus station (Half an hour away.) When the break came, we left. The rain and winds returned when  we reached the bus station… and as we rushed to the platform, fighting the wind and rain, Geoff had serious problems breathing.

We had to catch the next bus because  it took so long  for Geoff to recover his breath.

At the hospital, the eye specialist was forty five minutes late for the start of the clinic.

I spent a lot of time praying, then repenting of feeling I needed to pray again for the same thing.

After seeing the specialist Geoff had to have an injection in his eye. It had to be done to prevent blindness, but more delay, a very necessary one… and more prayers. We had such a narrow window of time before needing to catch the next bus to my appointment (another hour away, and having to fit in lunch.)

God showed me my lack of faith… because we made it to Fremantle in time… although we discovered a new problem. With one eye covered in an eye patch, Geoff’s vision was ‘out of sync’. When he fell off the first pavement we realised what the problem was,  and walked slowly. I warned him about kerbs and how high/low they were.

Made it to the hospital in time. Then I had to be ‘swabbed’ for MRSA because I had been exposed to it when I was in hospital. I had forgotten all about it.

My surgeon was running late.

Mmm was I surprised?

Finally saw the him and he was very pleased with the results of the latest scan. He said the aneurysm had shrunk from 7.7 to 6.3. Hello? “I didn’t know it was that big.” I said. (Meaning – you didn’t tell me it was that big.)

“That’s why I was so worried about it and took so long to consider surgery” he told us.

Well, that aside, Geoff and I believe that God was in charge… and at that size He was definitely keeping me alive.

Now we had another hour plus bus journey back to the dentist. We made it. I was awed, and had to repent of doubting it could be done.

But it wasn’t over yet.

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When we arrived there the appointment had not been registered. All that stressing, worrying and praying. oops, lack of faith showing.

My dentist agreed to see me, – for five minutes, after the official closing time of the facility.

And sometimes we doubt that God is in charge!

What an experience. A humbling one at that.

God is in charge, and sometimes, as we experienced this week, He lets us see that He is.

Susan

Care for our earth?

A completely different subject for this post… but it does have a connection to faith

A few weeks back my husband and I watched a remake of an older movie.. ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still.’ We had seen it before but I had forgotten most of it.

The plot was basically that aliens had been watching the earth and time had run out for humans. The aliens wanted to save the earth.

I found it interesting that when some humans realised that ‘saving the earth’ was from what humans were doing to it, not saving it FOR humans, people promised to change.

(Well that’s the short version of a more complex plot.)

At the end I wondered – ‘why will people take correction… lessons…instructions… warnings –  from ‘aliens’ and not from God?’

From the beginning…

Genesis 2: 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to tend and keep it.

What does this mean? I found, on a site called Bibletools, the following explanation…

Tend (Hebrew ‘abad) means “to work or serve,” and thus referring to the ground or a garden, it can be defined as “to till or cultivate.” It possesses the nuance seen in the KJV’s choice in its translation: “dress,” implying adornment, embellishment, and improvement.

Keep (Hebrew shamar) means “to exercise great care over.” In the context of Genesis 2:15, it expresses God’s wish that mankind, in the person of Adam, “take care of,” “guard,” or “watch over” the garden. A caretaker maintains and protects his charge so that he can return it to its owner in as good or better condition than when he received it.     Link to ‘tend and keep’

Well, looking around the world today we could hardly saying we are looking after it (tending) or improving it (keep).

A walk around my neighbourhood – a once beautiful ‘bush’ reserve littered with beer bottles, discarded cans, empty pizza boxes and McDonald wrappings. Oh, and not forgetting the odd discarded syringe.

(I enlarged the lower right corner to show some of the rubbish)

Once a year there is a ‘clean up Australia day’… but that is not even a drop in the ocean.

Where is our love for what God has blessed us with?

Why is it so impossible to take our rubbish home and dispose of it?

Would people, as those at the end of the movie we watched respond to the aliens’ message?

Well, an accounting time IS coming…

The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small– and for destroying those who destroy the earth. Revelations 11:18 NIV     (bolding mine)

Littering is only one small facet of destroying the earth, there are far worse things happening. I guess I see it as a symptom of our disregard for our environment and lack of concern for the consequences.

Something to think about, and make sure we do our small part.

Shalom

Susan