Betrayed by Sleep

There's more betrayal during the Passion Week than just that of Judas and Peter. How about the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane? Remember that one? Jesus took some of his disciples to a secluded spot in the garden. He was sorrowful and troubled and asked them to keep watch with Him. They fell asleep. He woke them up and asked them to pray, specifically telling them to be alert and pray so that they would not fall into temptation. Their response? They fell asleep again. They only woke up when Jesus called out, but by then it was too late to sit with Jesus in the garden. Judas and the soldiers had arrived. Jesus was on his way to the cross.

I suspect many of the times we betray Christ we are more like the group of disciples than we are like Judas or Peter. We don't usually sell Jesus out for money or outright deny that we even know Him. We just fall asleep. We fail to sit with Him. We fail to listen to His specific command to pray. We're just too tired, too distracted, or too lazy.

I've just finished reading Judges. It's so depressing. By the end of the book you read one bizarre story after another--God's people are just wallowing in depravity. But where did it all start? How did God's people go from fording the Jordan and marching on Jericho in the book of Joshua to anarchy, immorality, civil war and rampant idolatry just one book later?

I imagine that it started with laziness, failing to keep alert as the surrounding culture suggested various options for worship and sex, failing to listen to God's specific commands so that eventually doing things like making a silver object to help in your worship of God sounded like a good idea, taking various concubines sounded like an option, etc. From there it was just a short step to worshipping other gods and their silver idols, demanding that visitors to your city be brought out to the village square for gang rape, and advising your countrymen to steal wives for themselves by carrying off unsuspecting young girls from the fields.

There's an interesting story in Judges 17-18 about a man who apparently stole thousands of dollars worth of silver from his mother. When he hears her cursing about the theft he returns it to her and she consecrates a portion to God. This then somehow translates in her mind into making the silver into an idol for his family so they can better worship God. The son takes the idol and installs his own son as a priest in the house. Later he runs into a wandering Levite--actually a grandson of Moses--and makes him into the household priest. Not only is an idol now involved in their worship of God, but also a totally illegal priest since only Aaron's descendants were supposed to be priests and they were supposed to minister in the tabernacle not private houses. Finally, a wandering tribe of Israelites comes along looking for a place to settle since they have failed to claim the area God set out for them in the Promised Land. They ask the pseudo-priest if they should steal a particular piece of land although it is quite obviously not the land they have been given by God. They steal the idol, convince the priest to betray the man he works for and come along with them as a kind of good luck charm, and go off to kill a peaceful and unsuspecting group of people who happen to have some good land.

Now what does all this have to do with us? Well, when I look closely at the story I see a mother who failed to be alert to what God expects vs. what the surrounding culture suggested was appropriate, and thereby actually bought an idol for her son thinking it was a good thing. I see a man who didn't recognize idolatry when he saw it and in turn taught it to his own son. I see a grandson of Moses who should have known better and could have stopped the whole thing but who instead took advantage of it in order to secure himself a job and a place to live. And I see a whole tribe who failed to step up and take hold of the specific area that God had given to them and so found it necessary to steal other people's land and things. I see a lot of aimlessness and confusion in areas where there was complete clarity from God. God clearly said "No idols;" "Only Aaron's descendants as priests;" and "This is your particular piece of land." But the people were not alert. The downward slide had begun. They were, in fact, asleep.

During the Passion Week, I am trying to wake up. Where are the areas that I buy into the culture and give my children things that actually lead them into sin? What are the specific areas that God has given me (in terms of both responsibility and blessing) that I have failed to claim? Am I trying to worship in a way that is off-base or perhaps even a bit idolatrous? How do my actions measure up to the clear command to pray so as not to fall into temptation?

"So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled." 1 Thessalonians 5:6

What Really Happened on Easter Morning?

Here's something to mull over as we try to get our heads around the events of Good Friday and Easter morning...

The great work which Jesus began on earth of reconciling God and man in His own body, He carries on in heaven. To accomplish this, He took the conflict between God's righteousness and our sin into His own person. On the cross, He ended the struggle once and for all in His own body. Then he ascended to heaven, where He carries out the deliverance He obtained and manifests His victory in each member of His body. This is why He lives to pray. In His unceasing intercession, He places Himself in living fellowship with the unceasing prayer of His redeemed ones....The redemption of human nature into fellowship with His resurrection power and His glory was intensely real. The taking up of our humanity through Christ into the life of the triune God was an event of inconceivable significance....

From Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer

Creating Quiet for God

I was listening to a Brian Tracy audio program about time management this weekend. Tracy told about a conference he recently attended which included a formal dinner opened in prayer. Upon opening his eyes at the close of the prayer, Tracey was startled to see that four or five people seated at his table seemed strangely moved by the prayer. They remained with heads bowed, hands in their laps, well after the “amen.” In fact, they remained this way even as their food began to be delivered. Then Tracy realized that they had not been praying; they were using the opportunity to check messages on their blackberries.

Now you and I might not go quite that far—checking email during time devoted to public prayer—but I wonder how different I really am from these people when I repeatedly find myself thinking through the day’s to-do list when I actually mean to pray. Or how about when I leap up from Bible reading to answer the telephone, take the laundry out of the dryer as soon as the timer buzzes, etc.? I let things of far lower priority interrupt and distract me from the really important task of speaking with God.

Now Brian Tracy was not trying to emphasize the importance of prayer when he told this story. He was simply illustrating how absurdly attached we’ve become to our hi-tech communication devices. He recommends turning them all off for periods of time during the day—no cell phone, telephone, email, PDA, blackberry or anything else that can summon your attention and distract you from the project at hand—in order to achieve maximum efficiency in time management.

But Tracy’s idea is a good one for Christians seeking to achieve more in their daily relationship with God as well. We know we need to set aside some time when no one can reach us but God. We know we need to get quiet so we can hear His voice above all the others. But it seems impossible in this fast-paced crazy world, doesn’t it? One very practical way to make progress in this area is to deliberately turn off all communication devices for some period of the day. Let the calls go to voicemail. Check email later. While you're at it, make sure the radio, iPod and TV are off as well. Get quiet with God.

Waltzing in to God's Office

I’m reading Ken Follett’s On Wings of Eagles right now. (OK, so I’m reading it 20 years after everyone else did, but, hey, I’ve been busy for the past 20 years.) Anyway, there is a story in the book about the day Ross Perot and his employees began planning a commando-style raid to rescue two hostages from an Iranian jail on the eve of the revolution. Tensions were running high at Perot’s corporate headquarters as the men plotted the super-secret, super-dangerous mission. In the middle of all this, Ross Perot’s teenage daughter waltzed in to see her dad, calling out “Poops!” the pet name she used with him.

Apparently the Perot children were free to visit their dad at the office anytime and often did. Perot’s daughter had no idea what was going on at the office that day. She just wanted to say goodbye to her dad before she went back to school after the Christmas break. Did Perot shoo her away? Did he tell her not to bother him when he was obviously busy with more important things? No, of course not. He welcomed her with open arms, calling her “Little Nan,” and pulling her into his lap. He savored the opportunity to spend a few loving minutes with her.

What a great picture of the freedom we have to access our Father in His office in heaven. Yes, He is busy. Yes, He has important stuff going on. But we can just waltz in anytime calling Him by his pet name and He will welcome us with open arms. (Think I’m going too far with the pet name thing? Romans 8:15 says that we are God’s children and can cry, “Abba Father.” “Abba” is Aramaic for “Daddy,” pretty much a diminutive pet name.)

When you think about God, do you think of yourself as an entry level employee buried in a cubicle several floors below the CEO’s palatial office suite and and even farther beneath his notice? Or are you a mid-level manager tongue-tied in the presence of the boss, figuring he’ll think anything you say is wrong, unimportant or incredibly silly? You are NOT a lowly employee. You’re the CEO’s kid--the one who can ride up in a limo, walk past the secretary without an appointment and just stick you head in the door of the office. You can even sit on his lap. So, hey, start taking advantage of your access as often as possible.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place....Let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting Him.” Hebrews 10:19-22

Lashing Out at God

Over the weekend my son was invited to a friend’s for the afternoon. He asked to be picked up at 6:45 after eating dinner with his friend. At 6:40, just as I was stepping into the car to go get him, he called and asked if he could stay longer. He explained that they had just finishing building a fort and they hadn’t had a chance to enjoy using it yet. He added that he had no homework. OK. Reasonable request. I asked how much longer he wanted to stay and he said, “Pick me up at 7:15.” That was fine with me. I want my son to have fun with friends, build forts and get to enjoy them.

Unfortunately, when I picked Connor up at 7:15, he was furious that his visit was over. And when I say furious, I don’t mean disappointed or sad. I mean furious. He jumped in the car, slamming the door, almost breaking a toy he had with him. He neither said goodbye to his friend nor hello to me. When I asked him what his problem was, he said, “You made me leave too early.”

Now I hadn’t made him do anything. In fact, he himself had chosen the pick-up time. But in his desire to vent his anger on someone he didn’t seem to remember that fact or to realize how absurd his statement was. Naturally I said, “If you wanted to stay longer, why didn’t you just call me and ask?” He replied, “Because I thought you would yell at me.” Now, this was even more absurd since I had, just half an hour before, very willingly allowed him to stay longer and even asked him to name the time he wanted to be picked up. And, to the best of my knowledge, neither my husband nor I have ever yelled at our kids for wanting to stay at a friend’s house longer than originally planned (although occasionally we say “no” to our daughter who likes to begin the weekend with a Friday evening sleepover and continue non-stop socializing until nightfall on Sunday).

The truth is, my son didn’t like the fact that playtime was over and he took that anger out on me, the benefactor who had allowed him to have a play time in the first place and who had willingly extended it for no reason other than to give him pleasure. He chose to lash out at me rather than to call me and see whether it would fit in with my plans to allow him to stay longer.

I wonder how often I do the same thing with God. How often do I get frustrated with how things are turning out in my life and blame Him rather than recognize that my disappointment is a result of my own choices? How often do I miss out on something better because I failed to ask Him to intervene? And how often is my failure to ask actually the equivalent of accusing God of being a harsh and unreasonable parent?

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" Matthew 7:9-11

Praying Like a Kid #3 (Or Saying Thank You with a Clean Heart)

Well, you will be relieved to hear that we finally purchased the pumpkin. The best part of the event for me of course was when Connor jumped into the car after picking his pumpkin and said happily, “Thanks, Mom.” Amazingly, as he said thanks he looked down at his feet and his pumpkin and realized they were covered with dirt. Unprompted by me, he got himself and the pumpkin out of the car and attempted to wipe them off. Then he got back in the car and said, “OK, that’s the best I can do. Sorry I'm not cleaner. Thanks for the pumpkin, Mom.”

All of this is good stuff to remember when I thank God for answering my persistent prayers.

Praying Like a Kid #2 (Or How God Answers Like a Parent)

Back to Connor and his pumpkin…

There are several circumstances in which I will not get a pumpkin for my one-track mind son and it occurs to me that they can teach me something about God’s reactions to my prayers.

I will not take Connor to get a pumpkin:

--if he storms in and demands a pumpkin as his right.

--if he complains that I am unfair and never give him pumpkins.

--if the way he is handling the rest of his life (i.e., homework and chores) doesn’t line up with taking the afternoon to go pick pumpkins.

--if he asks for an entire truckload of pumpkins.

It’s not that Connor has to be perfect or ask perfectly in order to get a pumpkin (in which case we would never get any pumpkins). It’s just that because I am a parent I am going to provide pumpkins in a certain way--a way that will lead him to greater levels of maturity—knowing that he will lead a happier and healthier life in the long run.

There’s one other circumstance that will stop me from answering Connor’s requests for a pumpkin today. I won’t buy him a pumpkin if the timing is wrong. I won’t get Connor a pumpkin too early because it will rot before Halloween and I know he will be disappointed. I won’t get him a pumpkin when he asks at 7 am before church or 9 pm when he is in pajamas. I won’t get him a pumpkin when his sister is not available to go with us since I want both kids to enjoy pumpkin picking together. But rest assured, I will not wait too long since I know the best pumpkins will be gone soon. He needs to trust that I will take him for the pumpkin when the timing is right.

So when I bring my requests before God I’m going to try to remember to analyze them this way:

--Am I demanding something from God as a right? Or do I realize I am asking for a gift?

--Am I complaining that I never get anything from God? Or am I remembering all the good things He’s already given me?

--Am I expecting Him to do all the giving although I haven’t bothered to do the basics He expects from me?

--Am I being a greedy pig? Or am I trusting that whatever amount He gives me will be exactly the right amount?

-- And do I want my request answered right this second? Or do I trust that His timing is the best timing because He knows more than me about my future?

Praying Like a Kid

There’s another characteristic of a child’s conversations with his parent that I think Christ wants us to understand when we pray: persistence. When a child asks Dad for something, he is a broken record. He has a one-track mind. He just keeps on asking day and night.

Right now my son is focused on getting a pumpkin. He began asking in early September back when any pumpkin we bought would have rotted before Halloween. He asked to be taken to get a pumpkin when I was in the middle of cooking dinner on Saturday night. He asked at 7 am on Sunday morning when we were trying to get ready for church. He asked again last night when he was already in pajamas. He asked me to bring the car to his bus stop after school today so we can immediately rush to the farm stand. And this persistence will continue until we get the pumpkin. Then it will switch to “When can we carve my pumpkin? Can we do it right now?”

We don’t usually use that kind of persistence when it comes to talking to God. At least I don’t. For one thing, it seems almost rude. For another, I get distracted and forget what I’m praying about and start making a grocery list or loading the dishwasher. But I think God wants us to be persistent. Right after Christ taught the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, He posed a hypothetical: Suppose you go to your friend at midnight and ask for some food. At first your friend may say, “It’s late, don’t bother me.” But because of your boldness he will get up and give you all that you need. Christ then explained: So what I’m saying is this, ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking ( Luke 11:5-9.) His point really couldn’t be more obvious, could it? But just in case we missed it, Jesus made it again in Luke 18. He told the disciples a parable “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Read the story in Luke 18:1-8.)

Think about Abraham, arguing with God about destroying Sodom. He bargained with God a full six rounds. And this did not anger God. Each time, God granted his request. (I think if I had been in God's shoes I might have said, “You know Abraham, not only am I going to destroy Sodom but I think I’m going to destroy you along with it!”) Think of Jacob wrestling with God: “I will not let you go until you bless me.” Think of Moses constantly going to God and saying, “I can’t deal with these people. You deal with them.” The examples we have in the “Bible greats” are of boldness in approaching God, boldness almost to the point of audacity.

Now this idea of persistence can get me down. It sounds too burdensome. I don’t have enough time to pray and keep on praying, right? But when I begin to feel this way, I’m going to think of Connor and his pumpkin. It is no burden to him to constantly ask me for a pumpkin. He is not sitting in school today thinking, “How can I work in enough time to ask Mom for a pumpkin today? I’ll set aside 20 minutes between play and homework. I’ll vow to do it every day. I’ll sit her down and get real serious. I’ll start a pumpkin journal. I’ll get on my hands and knees and beg for a pumpkin.” No. He’ll just blow in the door this afternoon, taking it for granted that I am glad to see him and ask for a pumpkin. He has every confidence that I will take him to get a pumpkin when I judge the time is right. And you know what? I will.

"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most High Place...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...." Hebrews 10:19-22.

Prayer: A Quick Cell Phone Call Home

While we’re talking about prayer, here’s something I learned recently…

My 10-year-old son did sleep-away camp for the first time this summer. Now sleep-away camps are a lot different today than they were when we were kids. At least his was. He was welcome—in fact, he was encouraged--to call us by cell phone at anytime. And I can’t tell you what a comfort it was when we dropped him off to know that he would be able to call me immediately if he had a problem.

What I discovered during the week he was away, however, was that I valued the cell phone for non-emergencies as well. I truly delighted in receiving any phone call from Connor, especially those in which he wasn’t relating a problem or asking for something. I loved hearing how he and his friends were negotiating this strange new world of camp, how they learned they could order a pizza and have the camp store split the bill four ways, how he enjoyed the big breakfasts, learned a new lacrosse move, won a game, etc. The very best calls were when he called just to say “hello.” It was great to hear in his voice that he was enjoying this opportunity his father and I had provided for him, that he was thinking of us and wanted us to know what was going on in his life.

I occurred to me that God loves to get the same kind of calls from us. “Hey, I’m doing OK today. I love the food (or fun or work or whatever) you provide. I’m learning some new stuff.” Afterall, He’s the one who said we now have the status of sons in His eyes, so much so that we can call Him “Abba, Father,” an affectionate term that means Daddy. He must long to hear the same stuff we as parents long to hear from our kids.

Remembering how I loved getting those calls from Connor that said pretty much nothing--remembering God as an interested and involved parent just waiting for a call-- has encouraged me to pray more throughout the day. Quick little prayers in which I don’t really say much except, “Hey Father. I’m thinking of you. Thanks for being here with me.” We don’t always need long, formal prayer times with detailed prayer lists and open Bibles at our sides. We just need to reach out to a Father who is waiting to hear any small tidbit from kids He loves.

Continuing to Cast My Cares on Him

Last March I wrote about that ever-nerve-wracking subject of my son’s teacher placement. (See March 16 in the March archives). For me, class placement has always been scary. I have virtually no control over it. And, even if I could influence the teacher selection, I have no idea which teacher is best for son. In short, I am completely unable to manage this very big and influential area of Connor’s life—and I don’t like being unable to manage stuff. There is nothing to do in this situation but hand it over to God, which I did many times between March and August this year.

So, after all my prayers, my son ended up with the fluky, odd ball teaching situation. For two classes, he is with a teacher who has agreed to experiment with mixing borderline gifted, average and significantly challenged kids in one classroom. Consequently there is a lot of independent study going on. For two more classes he is with a teacher he had last year who he really didn’t want to have again. And for all classes there is also another experienced teacher present who is possibly the polar opposite of my son. Connor is a would-be class clown and he describes this man as having no sense of humor whatsoever.

And it is working out beautifully! Connor loves the classroom with the mix of kids, along with the independence and the leadership opportunities that are inherent in the situation. He loves the teacher he did not want to have again and somehow even the teacher with no sense of humor is adding value. Connor came in the door the other day and said, “You know, I actually like school these days.” Wow. I couldn’t have engineered that type of school year if I tried!

Oddly enough, I hesitated a bit before posting this. I found myself thinking, “It may be too good to be true.” “Maybe it won’t last.” “Who knows how these teachers will really turn out to be come June.” I realized that while I was thanking God for answering my prayers with one half of my brain, with the other half I was doubting His continued answer!

Why in the world I do not trust God to continue keeping Connor under his care in the matter of schooling, I have no idea. So, I'm back to where I was last March. I find I need to place all this back in the hands of God, and ask for His continued grace and love. And then I need to walk away, assuming that He will take care of it. Of course, knowing that He has already answered this prayer helps me to leave it in His hands again--and I guess that's a bit of what growing in faith means.

Layering Prayer Into Your Day #3

Another way that I have layered more prayer into my life is by training myself to pray anytime I wake up in the night. I am a person who falls back asleep pretty quickly but I can usually manage to pray a thought or two, something like--“Thank you God that the alarm is not going to go off for another two hours. Thank you God for this warm bed!”--and then back to snoozing. It may seem insignificant, but it has become an automatic habit no matter how groggy I am and I think it helps me feel the presence of God more continually. I also feel a sort of kinship with David and the other psalmists who wrote about praying on their beds through the night.

For lots of people, wakeful times during the night are the times they are most prone to worry or to fear. What a perfect response—to replace the habit of worrying through the night with deliberately handing over those worries to God, to replace the fearful hours with time spent asking God for safety and thanking Him for the protection He has provided so far.

Of course, if you really suffer from insomnia, you could try the old practice of counting your blessings instead of counting sheep. I personally have never been able to try this since I conk out so fast but I would imagine that if you are accustomed to tossing and turning for hours, it could be very helpful to focus your mind on remembering and repeating all the good things He has done for you, thanking Him that He has so constantly kept His eye out for you.

Praying throughout the night is a habit that took a few months for me to build since I am pretty dazed and confused at night (and I must admit I’ve found myself praying some rather odd prayers—like this morning when I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm and prayed “Oh God, please make these 15 minutes seem really long!”) but it has been worthwhile. I now immediately sense His welcoming presence and protection in the darkness. Not only do I pray more, but I also pray more continually.

Layering Prayer Into Your Day #2

Here are some other ideas for “layering” prayer into your day:

--Pick a task you do repeatedly throughout the day and use that as a trigger to pray briefly. For example, whenever you save a document or wash your hands, you can pause for a moment, thanking God for His presence and asking for His direction. This is pretty much the same idea as praying before meals—it just adds more triggers throughout your day.

--Pray as you clean the house. As you enter each new room, whisper a sentence or two about the things associated with that room. For example, pray for each for your children as you tidy their rooms or make their beds. Thank God for His constant provision as you clean the kitchen. Ask God to help you to follow His command not to worry about what to wear as you fold the laundry. You get the idea. Take it from me, it’s not easy to keep praying continuously as I clean, but it’s a lot better than grumbling and complaining my way through the chores.

--Pray when you need to spend money. About two years ago I started to pray every time I walked into the grocery store. Just a few words: Lord, help me to spend responsibly; don’t let me buy more than we need; thank you for providing for us. The first time I prayed this way a really odd thing happened. I went to pick up the first item on my list and a coupon for that item was sitting on top, like someone had decided not to use it and left it there for me. Second item, same thing happened. It happened four or five times throughout the store that day! Other odd things have happened in the two years I’ve been praying about groceries. Most frequently, the store will be out of something I am sure I need and I will get home to find that I already have that item hiding in the back of a cabinet. I’ve been extending that prayer to other types of shopping trips now, especially clothes shopping with my teenage daughter!

--Pray every time you pay a bill. For most of us, paying bills is synonymous with worry. We look at the checkbook or online banking statement and we begin to worry. When you sit down to pay the bills or balance the checkbook, thank God for providing for you, ask Him to direct your spending, pray about any specific financial concerns or just ask Him to help you break the habit of worrying about money. It can be just a 10 second prayer, but if you make it a habit to pray with every bill you pay, you’ll be praying a lot!

Layering Prayer Into Your Day

Back to this idea of layering-—consciously adding prayer, Bible reading and time spent with God in small bits and pieces throughout the day until these times become ingrained habits, until they are part of the normal pattern of our days.

When I first began my layering experiment, I decided to use various things I do every day as “prayer reminders,” things that would prompt me to pray here and there for a minute or two. I thought this was a rather feeble attempt to pray without ceasing but I actually heard Charles Zimmerman, a professor at Biblical Seminary, make this very same suggestion during a sermon recently. Now that I have heard a seminary professor recommend it, I feel pretty good about it! Zimmerman called these things “prayer prompts.” They add no “extra” time to your daily schedule, but they get you praying. The following are some of his suggestions and some of mine.

--Hit alarm button. Ask God to direct you throughout the day. Specifically mention anything you are worried about that you (or someone you love) will face during the day.

--Take shower. Ask God to cleanse you from the inside out. Thank Him for your health and pray about any specific health concerns.

--Eat breakfast. Thank God for His daily provision. Ask Him to continue meeting your physical needs throughout the day.

--Read newspaper. Ask God to work His will on earth. Pray quickly about things that are worrying you in the news—the fear of e. coli, your kids getting too involved in My Space, an election, whatever.

--Get kids out the door to school. Pray for their spiritual and physical safety and any specific concerns you have.

--Arrive at work. Ask God to bless your work, direct your ways and help your attitude.

You get the idea. Modify these suggestions to fit your daily routine and remember, these are just quick shots of prayer raised to God. They don’t require a big block of time which you can’t find or maintain on a regular basis. The whole point is that you already do all the rest of this stuff on a regular basis so if you weave prayer into them you have a chance of praying more regularly. After awhile, you’ll find that prayer is becoming an automatic response. In other words, you'll find you are becoming a person of prayer.

Time to Check Our Habits!

Well, I guess I am finally forced to admit that summer is over. Things are settling down into a Fall routine. The back-to-school clothes and supplies have been bought, the kids’ bus schedule has begun to normalize, and we’ve gotten used to the alarm going off at the outrageously early hour now necessary since my daughter started high school. (Why is it that high schools start earlier than elementary schools?? The elementary-age kids have been up for hours trying to find something to do while the high schoolers straggle out to the bus half-dead.)

Even if you don’t have school age kids, Fall usually means a change in routine—whether you’re beginning to put on the push toward the end of the fiscal year, taking on that home improvement project that didn't get done last Spring, or dealing with the boss who has come back from vacation all charged up with new ideas for you to implement. Or maybe you're in school or taking a night course. Whatever the change in routine—even a subtle one--it is an important time to review our habits towards God. If we don’t take time to readjust our spiritual habits to the new schedules forced upon us, it’s amazingly easy to let spiritual priorities slide. We’re liable to wake up around New Year’s thinking, “I wonder why I never seem to follow through on my New Year’s resolutions to grow spiritually? Guess I’ll just resolve for the tenth year in a row to start having a Quiet Time.”

I think this constant review as circumstances change around us is in some sense what God means in the New Testament when He tells us to be alert or what He meant in the Old Testament when He frequently told His people to “Consider your ways.” He is saying, “Hey, stay awake to what’s going on in your life. Don’t let My things slide.”

Look at the September habits in the sidebar. For those of you who read by email, the habits are:
--Praying for three minutes three times a day
--Reading the New Testament for 7-8 minutes a day
--Reading the Old Testament for 2 minutes a day
--Turning off as much extraneous noise as possible throughout the day

How are you doing with these? Are your times with God getting squeezed out by the busy-ness of Fall? Did some of your habits (like mine) slip during the lazy days of summer and you need to reestablish them? Just take a couple minutes to think about your new schedule, commitments, and pressures and figure out how to keep your times with God a priority.

Our Habits as Sacrifices to God--Never a Waste!

We have some new readers in the past couple weeks so I thought it might be helpful to say a word or two on what this blog is generally about. It's about developing some decent spiritual habits--praying, reading the Bible, giving God quiet moments during the day--so that we can make space in our lives to hear His voice and begin to know Him better. In daily lives that are already crowded, that's not always easy and doesn't always seem immediately successful. Here's a thought from Elisabeth Elliot that I find encouraging at times when it seems my efforts fall flat:

It is a good and necessary thing to set aside time for God in each day. The busier the day, the more indispensable is this quiet period for prayer, Bible reading, and silent listening. It often happens, however, that I find my mind so full of earthly matters that it seems I have gotten up early in vain and have wasted three-fourths of the time so dearly bought (I do love my sleep!). But I have come to believe that the act of will required to arrange time for God may be an offering to Him. As such He accepts it, and what would otherwise be "loss" to me I count as "gain" for Christ.

Let us not be "weary in well-doing," or discouraged in the pursuit of holiness. Let us, like Moses, go to the Rock of Horeb--and God says to us what He said to him, "You will find me waiting for you there" (Ex 17:6 NEB).

From Elisabeth Elliot's A Lamp For My Feet

"Unanswered" Prayer

My daily email from Back to the Bible today contained an excerpt from Elisabeth Elliot which is exactly what I had been planning to blog about. Since Elisabeth Elliot undoubtedly writes better and with more experience and authority than I do, I'll let her say it:

News came one day which indicated that a matter I had been praying about had deteriorated rather than improved. "What good are my prayers, anyway?" I was tempted to ask. "Why bother? It's becoming a mere charade." But the words of Jesus occurred in my Bible reading that very morning (and wasn't it a good thing I'd taken time to hear Him?): "If you, bad as you are, know how to give your children what is good for them, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?" (Matthew 7:11, NEB).

Are you as often tempted as I am to doubt the effectiveness of prayer? But Jesus prayed. He told us to pray. We can be sure that the answer will come, and it will be good. If it is not exactly what we expected, chances are we were not asking for quite the right thing. Our heavenly Father hears the prayer, but wants to give us bread rather than stones.

I know from other of Elisabeth Elliot's writings that what she is referring to in that last sentence are those verses in the gospels that say "If your son asks for bread will you give him a stone?" and "If your son asks for an egg will you give him a serpent?" No, we know that God would not do that. But what if what we ask for is a stone or a serpent and we are just too ignorant or short-sighted to realize it?

In that case, God will give us the bread or the egg and we will be disappointed. But we will not be unanswered. Faith is accepting what is put in our hands and accepting that it is good, and in fact, better than anything we could have asked for.

(The excerpt is from Elisabeth Elliot's Keep a Quiet Heart. To sign up for daily email excerpts from Elisabeth Elliot or other devotional writers, go to Back to the Bible. They'll also email daily Bible reading guides.)

Keep a Quiet Heart By Elisabeth Elliot / Baker Available at Christianbook.com for $9.99 (save 23%!) When you long for a quiet refuge away from the noisy, frenetic circumstances of day-to-day commitments--where do you turn? If you're Elisabeth Elliot, acclaimed speaker and author of many best-selling books, you look to one place alone: to the embracing arms of our omnipotent and infinitely loving Heavenly Father. This book is a unique collection culled from the lead articles featured in Mrs. Elliot's newsletter over the past several years. "Mostly they are about learning to know God," the author says. "Nothing else comes close to being as important as that. It's what we are here for." Join Elisabeth as she points the way to a deeper, more fulfilling--and restful--walk with God.

Praying with Faith in God's Answer

Elisabeth Elliot writes in A Lamp For My Feet:

Sometimes when I was a child my mother or father would say, "Shut your eyes and hold out your hand." That was the promise of some lovely surprise. I trusted them, so I shut my eyes instantly and held out my hand. Whatever they were going to give me I was ready to take. So it should be in our trust of our heavenly Father. Faith is the willingness to receive whatever He wants to give…

I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to know what to ask for when I pray. Should I ask God to help me pursue this goal or that new direction? I torture myself with questions like “What if this thing I’m praying about is not in ‘His will?’” What if my requests are merely reflections of my own selfish desires? I feel very much like the double-minded man James talks about, who asks God for wisdom but doubts God even while he is asking, and is therefore unstable in all he does (James 1:5-8).

When I want to cut through these thoughts and get to the heart of what prayer really is, it helps me to take a deep breath, shut my eyes and picture myself as a very young child holding out her hand to her father. I think, “Whatever You have in store, I know it is good.” I open my mind to gratefully accepting whatever it is God puts in my hand that day. Praying this way takes the burden off me and puts it on God, where it is supposed to be anyway. It is a simple way to pray, “Thy will be done.”

I prayed this way just yesterday with surprising and reassuring results. I was busy preparing for a meeting about a new business opportunity. I really did not know how to pray. Should I ask God to bless the meeting and help me maximize this new opportunity? What if God really did not want me to pursue it? What if pursuing it would take time and attention away from other things He wanted me to do? On the other hand, what if my praying that God would eliminate the opportunity if it was not His will was just some spiritualized form of laziness or reluctance to work hard? What if the hours involved would impact my kids? What if? What if? (See, I told you I can torture myself.)

I stopped, closed my eyes and pictured myself as a child holding out her hand for a gift. I said, “God, I am happy to take whatever it is You have planned for this meeting and this opportunity.” I relaxed. Within 15 minutes, one of the parties involved called and removed what had threatened to be a fairly significant obstacle to me. This morning, the other party involved took the meeting in the direction I would have most wanted it to go if I was calling the shots. I could just lean back and thank God for His good gifts.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for an egg, will give him a snake instead?” Luke 11:11