Tough Times, What Should I Pray For?

When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.  And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, "O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, 'WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS?
 26 'THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.'  For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.  And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus."  And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:23-31 NASB)

What do tough times really look like?  It is probably different for everyone to a degree, but by any standard, I'm not in tough times.  The problem is that I'm still holding my own pity-party.  You may have heard or even said one or more of the following, "My family's in turmoil!"  "I'm not a good parent, I don't know what I'm doing!"  "My work is driving me crazy" (okay, short drive for me) "Why is stuff so screwed up?"  "The future of my country is dark."  You probably have your own set, these are just a few of the things driving my emotions at the moment.  And you can see from my list that I serious have either very common issues, or vague things no one can fix.  Like I said, I'm not really in tough times.

But I have emotional responses to these things, disproportionate as they may be.  In those times, healing from my Master is always welcome, but what should I pray for?  Maturity perhaps?  Clarity?  Another perspective?  New focus?  I think I can roll all of that into the prayer that the believers in Jerusalem prayed when they truly faced a problem.

The threats of the Jewish leaders were real.  They didn't make sense, but they were real.  And it may have been the right thing to say the believers would obey God rather than man, but when the man holds a club over your head, it's not always easy to carry out.  Even if the club held over the head is popularity with the people, it's still hard.  A storm of persecution was coming, not that far away, and this was just the first breeze.  So what do they pray for?  They prayed acknowledging God and Who He is in relation to the problem.  They connected this current problem with the victory Jesus won in the previous crucifixion through resurrection.  Then they asked...for boldness to continue to speak and be conduits for God's miraculous works.  Seriously, I hadn't thought of that, not in my situation.

So, here's what it would look like, "Master, my family's in turmoil, You are the God of peace, please give me the boldness to be Your conduit of peace to my family."  "Master, I'm not a good parent, I keep making mistakes.  You are the Great Father of all, please grant me the boldness to face my role following fearlessly Your example."  "Master, I'm not enjoying the job You have provided me in this place.  But You are the God of patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and self-control; these are fruit You produce in me.  Please grant me the boldness to share that fruit through this job, seeing that as my role and my purpose."  "Master, as I look about me in this world, the things I see are really messed up and deviated from Your character, Your desires.  But You are still God, You still reign on Your throne, You are not surprised by these things, and are not unaware of those involved.  Grant me the boldness to engage what I see around me with the light You provide, bringing the truth the my Master is the true Master of everything."  "Master, the future of my country seems dark.  But nothing decided by the people of this country thwarts Your purposes, nor Your design.  Grant me the boldness to face this future with the confidence, not in me or my fellow countrymen, but in my King; and to share that confidence at every opportunity."

Once past the selfishness of these prayers, my view, my family, my ability, my fears, my my my; I really need to look at what the people under those threats really asked for.  They did not ask merely for boldness.  I can be boldly wrong, boldly contrary to my Master.  They asked for boldness to speak of Jesus and to participate in God extending His hand in wonders and healing.  These are things that would benefit others, even though bringing the threats home on their own heads.  The prayers above mostly help me.  They may sound good, and they may help me feel better, but they lack the focus of my Master.  Let me try a different set:

"Master, my family's in turmoil, and You are the God of Peace.  Please give me boldness to permit Your peace permeate my family and not let that distract me as I seek to glorify You in my neighborhood and community."  "Master, I am not doing a job as a parent that adequately glorifies You.  You are the Father of all things and people.  Please give me boldness to lead my child to glorify You in her world, seeing my example as I glorify You in mine."  And so on.

The weakness I see in me is still the focus on me, somewhat like yesterday's entry.  There are people around me in danger of going to hell without having heard from me that there is an alternative.  Perhaps my Master wants to work through me to do His work of saving these.  I won't know what He's doing in a life unless I engage them with the truth of my Master's love for them. 

Like I said at the beginning, I'm not in tough times right now.  Perhaps those times are on their way.  In the mean time, my task from my Master is to engage the place He planted me with news of His Kingdom.  So, I suppose today, as I speak with customers across this country in such dire straights, I should take every opportunity and seek every opportunity to share the Light shared with me.  Who knows, my job may not drive me so crazy if I do that. 

Baptized, Filled, or What?

There is a division within groups of believers about specific belief regarding spiritual gifts.  One side believes that after a person is saved they then need the baptism of the Holy Spirit before they can truly live the life Jesus intended.  The other side of that view is that, at the point someone believes, they fully receive the Holy Spirit, and that IS the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I waded into this discussion while pastoring in Northern Idaho among the wackiest sets of believers anywhere (some were members of my church).  It was an interesting learning experience.  I waded into the discussion on the side believing that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs when someone is saved.  As a result of what I discovered in Scripture, I had to modify that view to somewhere in the middle.

Perhaps a semantic issue is at work here.  The term “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is rare, not even occurring in some translations.  The term I looked up was “filled with the Holy Spirit”, which occurs rather frequently in Acts.  What I found is that the normal occurrence of the term was in reference to the present condition of the person which explained why there were able to take the action they did (or at least that’s my interpretation, and I can discuss that further if someone wants to pursue the subject).

There were only two exceptions to this, one more than I expected.  The first exception was the event of Pentecost where the believers were “filled with the Holy Spirit” as an event with reference to time.  That one I expected.  But, later on, in Chapter 4, the believers pray and are again “filled with the Holy Spirit” as an event with reference to time.  That one surprised me.  That indicated to me that this event can happen to the same people more than once. 

Why I say I ended up in the middle though is because the effect of the second filling was boldness, not speaking in tongues.  It seems that tongues came either initially, or isn’t referred to at all.  Unfortunately, this didn’t please either side of the discussion, and left me with more enemies than friends.  How dare I side with Scripture rather than them, what was I thinking?  Anyway, once again I found that my Master seems less interested in sides of arguments among His kids than the kids are.

So, to once again invoke the voice of my lovely wife, “so what?”  Well, what I believe from this is that I am full of my Master’s Holy Spirit.  But I also know that I can seek Him in prayer and experience the rush again of His Spirit enabling me to speak with boldness.  When I compare my abilities, skills, and knowledge against the onslaught of evil in this world, I don’t stand up well.  I need the resource of my Master just to stand, and the empowering of His Spirit to stand boldly.

Today, I endure the knife of a doctor before I head to work.  I face the last day of the fiscal month with my team behind and my manager under fire for it.  I look forward to a long weekend, but with lots of stuff in it.  Some of this I can handle, but a lot if it is beyond me.  So, knowing I face it with the power of the Spirit of my Master means that I can face this day with boldness.

Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest": May 27th.