Prayer of Confession

On Sunday, I was struck by how true our opening prayer was:

Lord, some of us walk home on these streets,
and some of us call these streets home.
We are a community of struggle.
Some of us are rich people trying to escape loneliness.
Some of us are poor people trying to escape the cold.
Some of us are addicted to drugs, and others are addicted to money.
We are a broken people who need each other and God,
for we have come to recognize the mess that we have created of our world
and how deeply we suffer from that mess.

We come before you asking you to help us work together
to give birth to a new community within the shell of the old.
We believe that another world is possible.
We believe that another world is necessary.
We believe that another world is already here. Amen.

Public reading of Scripture

On Sunday in church, we prayed for abatement of the California wild fires, and the Old Testament reading included Jeremiah 14:22.

Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are you not he, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for you do all these things.

The phrase "can the heavens give showers" hit me in the gut. To believe in the God of the Bible is to deny philosophical materialism (which maintains that events can be explained entirely in terms of material causes - like changes in temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.). Not only can the false gods not give rain, but the heavens themselves do not give showers; even the rains come from God. It is He who created the laws of nature, and He who establishes them and can overrule them at any time.

Thank God for the public reading of Scripture that overturns my assumptions, and teaches me to pray like I ought - and to raise children as I ought.

Lex orandi lex credendi

Lex orandi lex credendi. 'The rule of prayer is the rule of faith.'

I think one of the great advantages of an intentionally liturgical church is that in the weekly (and even daily) prayers, the theology expressed is profound and true. I find myself worshiping deeply through the words of the Anglican liturgy because they express and celebrate the glory of the gospel. Better yet, they are doxological. They do not merely say true things about God, but address Him with joy and adoration.

It struck me recently that bedtime prayers are rightly subject to this maxim, lex orandi lex credendi. I am praying with Elisabeth, and I am also teaching. I am teaching her the things that are worthy of bringing to the Father, whilst teaching her how to approach Him. Bedtime prayers are, whether we consider it or not, profound daily instruments of theological and practical instruction. For this reason, I think it is both important and appropriate to praise God with our children for the glimpses we have had of Him in the Scriptures and in experience on that particular day, and to ask Him for the extension of His kingdom in our neighborhood and to the ends of the earth. This, I believe, is one important way that children develop a missional approach to life, to the glory of God.

Watch to prayer

Watch to prayer. A thousand pretenses rise against it; all the arts of sloth, formality, weariness of the flesh, and the business of life, do contend to frustrate the design of it. (John Owen, The Glory of Christ p268)

Ramadan

Some good friends of ours who preparing to serve with Frontiers sent us a copy of the Muslim Prayer Guide, designed specifically to help Christians to pray for the light of Christ to dawn on Muslims during the month of Ramadan. I have found it wonderfully helpful in lifting my eyes to the harvest, and asking the Father to bring in the sheaves - and recommend it to you.