March 2019 – Live the Crazy Life

Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions, Thanksgivings Oh my!

March 29, 2019 1 Comment

I have a confession. I struggle with prayer. I mean I do pray, and on occasion I have prayed with great focus, but on a normal day-to-day basis prayer is hard for me. My mind seems to wander which leads to my hands wandering and before I know it I am no longer praying. I am cleaning, or working, or doing whatever other task was on my to-do list for the day. Or I will pray and then sit waiting to hear from God only to find myself waking up from a nice cat nap. I know I can’t be alone in this struggle, but as a Christian and a Pastor it isn’t something you openly admit or broadcast to people. Until now. I guess this post is a broadcast of my struggle. But it would be a sad post if it was only my struggle. Enter 1 Timothy 2:1

“First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.” I count 4 different types of prayer in that one verse. 4 DIFFERENT TYPES! What? I thought prayer was prayer and intersession was when you prayed for others, and supplication was just another word for prayer, and thanksgiving – well that’s the part of the prayer where you tell God how thankful you are for ______________(fill in the blank).

I am a Pinterest junkie, and I have seen all kinds of methods for prayer on that sight, but I don’t know that I have ever understood there are different types of prayer. I mean I know that there are different emotions that surface when you pray, but these are 4 different words that don’t just all mean prayer. They are all for sure connected, but each have their own meaning, depth, and purpose in our pursuit of communion with the Lord.

I began to look into what each one of these words means. I really was hoping that they all would just mean pray, and make it simple, easy, and neat. But when has God ever been simple or allowed His people to take the easy road? Oh foolish me.

What I found was amazing. Explanations of or examples of ways to come before the throne of God with confidence and humility. It was beautiful and new to me. First, supplication is the Hebrew word Deesis (forgive the Hebrish I don’t have a keyboard to type Hebrew letters). It is a heart felt petition arising out of a personal need that is urgent. It is the “Lord Help me!” desperate cry that comes from a place of fear or lack. A place that says, “God if you don’t show up and do something here, I am toast.” This is a common prayer I am familiar with. For me it is what I call the last hope prayer. Which I fully understand prayer should never be our last hope, but let’s be honest. Sometimes we try everything we can think of on our own and then pray. Am I right? But even if it is a last hope prayer, it still pleases God. Verse 3 of this chapter says “This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.” Which (side note) did you catch the word sight? God hears and SEES our prayers. I think that is super cool. Ok, back on topic.

Next is prayers. The Hebrew word for prayers is proseuche (imagine a little hash mark over the last e). Exchange of wishes or an oratory. I will confess I had to look up oratory. It is used mostly in reference to Catholicism. It is a place or building that is used just for priests to pray. In the Jewish culture, it is a place set aside for prayer when there is no temple near by. I remember being taught once that everyone should have their place of prayer, an area you can go that won’t be distracting, that has the supplies you need to get into the presence of God. Stuff like a bible, worships music, a journal, maybe a good smelling candle. It makes me think of the temple with all the utensils used by the priest to offer prayers and sacrifice to God. Maybe if I had a place in my house I wouldn’t get so distracted and if it was a place with no chair I wouldn’t fall asleep.

Then there is intercessions. This was the word that I fell in love with. It is enteuxis. It means intervention, the literal translation is “hits the mark”. It is an intervention led by God marking the intersection between heaven and earth as it reflects the Lord’s specific will for that situation. That is a very cool thought. I envision God in the room with me and the person I am praying for, and God looking at that person with such love and so much concern over the issue, and explaining to us both the best way to move forward from where we are. Him giving us His plan on how to fix the situation and avoid this dilemma in the future. It’s like the best 12 step program that brings total freedom at the end of the meetings. For the one interceding it is the idea of waiting and not doing or even speaking until you feel the Lord tell you what to do or say. He is the one leading the intervention after all.

And lastly thanksgiving, which is the word eucharisto. It means gratitude. It is an action word meaning actively giving God grateful language as an act of worship. It is so much more than telling God I am so thankful for……..

I am going to start approaching my prayer life with this new insight. I am going to make myself a place free of distractions and loaded with all things that make me feel calm and that are inviting to the Holy Spirit. I am going to approach prayer with heart felt cries for God to arise and fill in where I am lacking and for Him to mark the place where heaven invades earth and His will is made clear for all to see. Will you join me? What could our homes, neighborhoods, schools and churches look like if we all approach prayer with a new and greater understanding of what God desires to do in our prayer lives?

Real Friends – Real Community

Do you know how many followers you have on whatever your favorite social media sight is? If you don’t, good for you. Do you know how many real friends you have? If you don’t, my heart hurts for you; but I don’t think you are alone. With the craze of social media, I believe we have lost real community and real friendship along the way. I am not meaning to bash you for posting but maybe give a loving word of caution. We all should care more about the real people around us that we interact with on a daily bases than the ones on screens.

I was sitting at my desk working on my Bible study and I read these verses. “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” -Hebrews 10:24-25

I read it, paused and re-read it and then began wondering what some of the words mean in the original language of the Bible. So I did what I always do, logged onto biblehub.com and began searching for deeper meaning.

The word concerned is really made up of two words in the original language: kata and noioe. Kata means “exactly according to” and noioe means “to think properly from up to down, expressing real comprehending, thinking decisively to a definite understanding”.

According to this we are to be so concerned with people that we know what is really going on in their lives. We are to know exactly according to them what they are dealing with and think through that situation with up down thinking. Now this is just my thoughts on that up down thinking. To me it is heaven minded thinking. It’s heaven on earth mentality. I love that. I love the idea of thinking and interacting with people with a God’s way first thought process.

But according to this verse we are not just to be concerned about each other for the sake of being concerned. We are to be involved and concerned with people so we can promote love and good works. The word promote here means “a provocation” which literally means to jab someone so that they must respond. We are told in the Bible to be involved with others so that we have concern for them; we know what is really truly going on and then push them towards love and good works. The word love in the verse is agape love or God centered love. And good works means “beautiful attractively good, good that inspires or motivates others to embrace what is lovely, or praiseworthy”.

I bet you don’t have those kinds of interactions with people on social media. Connections where you have knowledge and true facts, and relationships where you can speak to them and help move them towards love and good things, so that others will be attracted to good that is happening in their lives.

This, people, is why we need church. Because I need someone involved in my life who knows what is going on, and can help me think correctly about myself and my situation so I can express God’s love and goodness to a world full of everything but love and goodness. And others need me involved in their lives at that same level so I can do the same for them.

This is the kind of life we are called to live. Real honest friends don’t come easy. There is risk involved for sure, but most rewards don’t come without risk.

So I want to encourage you. Are you involved in a church? I don’t just mean do you go to church? Lots of people go to church. But are you involved there? Do people know you? Does the leadership of the church know you? If not, God wants that for you. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of great churches. Find one. Get involved. Take the risk, and watch heaven invade earth.