About thirty NCCers gathered @ Union Station @ 7:14 to do a prayer walk this morning. I can’t even put into words what it meant to me to see that many people who want to intercede for the city. I know we do what we do to honor and glorify God, but I felt such a sense of gratitude for each person who was there! A few days ago I was out praying and I bumped into another NCCer between the Capitol and Union Station who was praying as well. It was so cool to cross paths in prayer. I’m hoping lots of NCCers cross paths in the coming days while they are out praying around the city.
Here’s what I felt the Lord impress on me today. I really feel like it’s important to involve my family in this forty days of prayer. I tend to be pretty self-motivated and love to pray “by myself” but I want my kids to develop a heart for this city and be part of what God is doing–they aren’t too young. Josiah (the King, not my son) was seven years old when he began to rule over Israel and He became one of Israel’s greatest Kings. So I’m going to creatively involve my kids in this forty day experiment.
I also felt led to pray for an opportunity to lead someone to Christ in the next forty days. And I don’t mean from the pulpit. I’m praying for an opportunity to share my faith personally and help someone cross the line one-on-one. I’m excited to see what doors of opportunity the Lord is going to open up.
Two metaphors came to mind this morning.
The Ripple Effect
I was sitting by the reflecting pool on the east side of the Capitol with a beautiful breeze and the sun shining off the water. As I sat there I picked up some stones and threw them into the pool. And I prayed that just as those stones caused a “ripple effect,” that our prayers would case a ripple effect in this city. I believe they will.
I got an email from an NCCer last week that I’m cutting and pasting here because it was such a powerful reminder of the importance of praying. And “where we pray” can make a difference. Here’s the email.
i was reading your blog from the other day about praying, and it hit me (i’m not quite sure why it never occured to me before) that ncc would have functions at club nation and pray there. i used to go there on friday nights, and did a lot of ungodly things there. lately, it’s been on my heart that people must have prayed for me at some point, such as family members when i was a child, but it never occured to me before that my chosen church prayed for me before i was even aware of it’s existence. my first time back at this club in a few months was for the comedy club, and it was eerie to be back there in the saved and new state that i’m in now. the memories of what i’d done seemed to haunt me as i walked up to the building, where i felt something inside me that didn’t want to be there. maybe it was shame. maybe it was the stone cold truth of it all that i was so blind to at the time. but i thank God for the prayers that went up and go up inside there now. maybe i wouldn’t have felt so called from there without them. thanks!
Our prayers have a ripple effect that we are often unaware of.
Depth Charge
The other metaphor that came to mind was the way prayer is a form of “depth charging.” A depth charge is an explosive that is dropped beneath the surface of the water and it causes things to float to the surface. In the same sense, prayer is a like a depth charge that causes emotions and thoughts to come to the surface! I’m more in touch with myself–my subconscious thoughts and repressed feelings when I’m praying. It allows me to really examine my motives and see who I am. When I’m not praying my life becomes so superficial. But prayer has a way of transforming my life so that it becomes so much more intentional.
Decisions
One last thought. I’m reading through the Old Testament during these forty days. I was reading in II Chronicles 10 today. It is a turning point in the history of Israel–the kingdom was torn in two! If you read the story, all the division and infighting can be traced back to one bad decision. Our decisions have a ripple effect.
Verse 8 says, “Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers.”
Rehoboam wanted to hear what he wanted to hear. Instead of relying on the “life experience” of the elders, he surrounded himself with “yes men” who would tell him what he wanted to hear.
A couple thoughts. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” When I make decisions about who serves in leadership and who will serve as “advisers” I look for people who aren’t afraid to play devil’s advocate. I think “friction” is what shapens us! Too often we surround ourselves with people of the same personality type or political persuasion or cultural influence or church background. And we end up living in a “ghetto.” Rehoboam surrounded himself with his boyhood friends. In a sense, there is nothing wrong with that. But he needed some “outside influence” in his life. He needed some counterintuitive people in his life. Instead, he choose to stay in his “small world” and remain “narrow minded” by only exposing himself to his cronies.
One last thought. God makes perfect decisions because He is omniscient. He has a 360 degree perspective whereas we see 1 percent of the issue involved.
Here’s a way of thinking about it. God takes every factor into consideration, gives each factor the perfect weight, and then makes a decision based on all the factors involved. The reason we make bad decisions is because we’re not omniscient. God takes infinite factors into consideration. We take 3 or 4 factors into consideration. That is why we need to consult the Lord and make decisions that “seem good to us” and “seem good to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15:28). One reason Rehoboam should have listened to the “life experience” of the elders is the simple fact that they’d been around the block a few more times. Wisdom is taking more factors into consideration and thereby being able to make better decisions.