Thoughts on Prayer

Luke 4:38-43; 25-27 (the inspiring Scriptures)

Not long after Jesus was baptized and tested in the wilderness, he came back in great power, preaching and healing all kinds of people. For example in vs.38, he was asked to heal Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, and he did. Vs. 40 says that people from all over were bringing all their sick and demon possessed, and that Jesus healed EVERYONE! Why did He did do that? Where is Simon Peter’s mother-in-law now? Where are all those once sick and demon-possessed people now? They’re dead… they’re either in heaven or hell, but the point is they all died physically. For some, Jesus’ healing only postponed their death. So, again, why did Jesus do this? Did he do it simply to extend their life? Was He simply being merciful to the remaining friends and family, giving them more time with their loved-one? Or was their another reason?

In vs.42, when the crowd sought Him and tried to make Him stay with them, Jesus said, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” So, Jesus said His purpose was to preach the kingdom, not to heal. So, why heal all those people?

Ac 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— (see also Heb.2:1-4)

Why did Jesus do miracles? Validation. God the Father was healing all those people through Jesus to confirm and establish the truthfulness of His message. Which naturally leads me to ask the question, do we understand now why we don’t see more miraculous healings in our day, in our culture? Does the truthfulness of the Gospel really need to be confirmed and established today; something that has been a part of our national culture for over 400 years, beginning with the pilgrims and continuing right on through to our founding fathers, even up until the early part of the 20th century?

Another question to ask, especially for the church, is why are we praying for so many physical healings? In probably any church, if you ask for prayer requests, you’ll get 90 % or better will be requests for physical healing. After that, maybe 1-2 requests for comfort for someone grieving, and maybe 1-2 requests for protection for someone traveling…but very, very rarely will you ever get one for someone who is lost and separated from God, or even for a professing brother or sister who has gone astray. Why? Are we too earthly-minded, rather than being spiritually-minded? Does our focus on the physical betray the real focus of our heart? Or are we too afraid that we might offend if we make discerning judgments regarding the spiritual condition of a friend or neighbor? Are we in denial? Are we afraid that if we really start praying for people spiritually that God may just lead us to actually do something, like go and talk with them?

Again, why are we asking for so many physical healings, even if we understand that the spiritual is more important? Is our heart really focused on the validation of the Gospel as Jesus’ was, or does it really expose that we’re more concerned about keeping our friends and family alive with us than seeing the Gospel spread? What if a loved-one’s death opened the door for more ministry to be done? What if a loved-one’s death created opportunities for the lost to hear about Jesus? What is a loved-one’s prolonged hospital stay created opportunities for doctors, nurses, other patients, or even extended family members to have a opportunity to hear about and receive Christ as their Lord and Savior? What really is more important… living a few more years or seeing souls come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ?

Now, I know as well as anyone how much our friends and families mean to us, I have dearly beloved friends and relatives too. But when someone does get sick or something bad does happen, maybe rather than spending so much time, trying to get every Christian and every church we know of to pray for their physically healing, maybe we would be better served and God better glorified, if we stop and ask, “Lord, how can this situation increase your glory? How can this terrible situation be used to magnify Jesus and spread the good news to those who need it most?” Who knows maybe even this heavenly perspective might itself bring peace, comfort, and even contentment to the one who is sick and to those who are closest to him? When Jesus was here, what was He really more concerned about… the physical healing and restoration of people, or preaching the gospel of the kingdom for eternal salvation? I think the Scriptures are clear, for Jesus, it was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. What should it be for us as His disciples?

Obama & the National Day of Prayer

I know it's in the news right now how a lot of people are upset that President Obama is not really observing the National Day of Prayer like former presidents have done in the past, but you know for me (and this may surprise some people coming from me), but its really not that big of a deal for me. I guess most people, knowing that I'm a conservative Christian pastor would expect me to be very upset, but I'm really not. And here's why?

First of all, much of these National Day of Prayer Ceremonies are nothing more than a lot of political show. If someone is not living as a devoted believer on a daily basis, with prayer being a regular part of their lives anyway... then what good is it to all of a sudden to pretend to be one, one day out of the year? In my opinion - none at all.

Second, I generally do not like these National Day of Prayer Ceremonies because they are so ecumenical in nature. To me it is simply theologically dishonest and hypocritical to hold hands with people of many varying faiths and pretend to all be praying to the same God. The most dramatic example probably being Christians and Muslims both participating at the same time. Here you have two faiths that couldn't be more opposite, supposing and pretending to be brothers uniting together for prayer. The book of Amos 3:3 states, "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" And the obvious answer is no, they can't. Even Christians and Orthodox Jews can't honestly meet together for prayer as brothers. Biblically we can only go to God in prayer through Jesus the Messiah, and they reject Jesus as the Messiah. So, all these different religious groups coming together for such purposes as prayer or worship or even missions with no basis in truth, in my opinion is not theologically honest or Biblically correct. Now agreeing to work together for some kind of specific social reform like world hunger, abortion, or the traditional view of marriage is completely different; I have no problem with that. But when you start talking about praying together and worshiping together, thats different b/c each one is making the implication that the other faith is just as valid as theirs, and that is not always true.

So, for me it's not a real big deal that President Obama is not participating in this event. The only little thing that does bother me about it is the question... why is he doing this and who is he doing it for? Let's face it... he's a politician, he's supposed to do things like this, especially since he's made the claim to be a born again Christian. Now, of course, I don't believe he's a Christian anymore than Job's turkey, but he himself has made the claim, so why is doing this? What is his motivation for breaking this presidential traditional? Is there a certain minority group of the population that he is doing this for? These are the only things that I wonder about. Maybe he's finally revealing his true self... an Unbeliever. If so, I respect him for at least being real.