Our Intimate Intercessor

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. (Romans 8:26-27)

I may not be able to find a verse in the Bible that uses the word “intimate” in relation to God, but I don’t know a better description of it than “he who searches our hearts” who also knows the mind and will of God. How much more intimate can one be than to know someone’s heart?

Science fiction stories that deal with telepathy often bring up interesting issues with regard to people know other people’s thoughts. What would it be like to know someone else’s deepest thoughts? What would it be like for someone else to know every thought that goes through my mind? I remember one story where such knowledge led to greater understanding, but most of us would greatly fear having another person know us that well.

With God, though, it’s a comfort rather than a fear. If there were a choice on our part, of course, I don’t know whether we would choose to let God know everything about us. But since He does, and extends His love to us anyway, it is a comfort to be known intimately and loved.

And it is a comfort to know that our prayers are somehow “translated” from our stumbling and fumbling attempts to what they should be according to God’s will. I know my prayers are often pretty pathetic, but they are transformed by our Intimate Intercessor into something infinitely better.

Meditation/Study: Cleansing of the temple

This is another well-known story, often brought up as an example of Jesus displaying anger. Just a couple weeks ago, there was a lengthy discussion at worldmagblog over whether anger is a sin, and this incident naturally came up repeatedly in the conversation. To my surprise, one person kept arguing (actually quoting the arguments of another person, someone I had never heard of named Roy Masters) that Jesus did not in fact feel the emotion of anger, but rather that he acted in judgment without feeling anger.

At one time that teaching would have greatly appealed to me. I grew up in a home where emotions were often out of control. My father could fly into a rage over what seemed like minor things. My mother’s anger was less violent but more frequent, and her bouts of crying (and complaining that no one loved her) were as hard to take as my father’s temper. I grew up convinced that a stoic approach to life was preferable to one ruled by emotion. It was only when I was an adult that I learned that one could benefit from emotions but not be ruled by them.

I don’t think there’s any way to determine conclusively from the passages (Matt. 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18) what Jesus felt or didn’t feel, since it doesn’t say. One reads it in light of one’s own beliefs about the nature of human emotions. I now consider emotions to be neither good nor bad in themselves, but rather indicators – rather like the lights and gauges on your dashboard – alerting us to aspects of a situation that we need to respond to. Whether we respond appropriately or not determines whether we sin or not.

When the Bible speaks of God’s anger, it is of course not identical to ours. Our emotions are linked to our physical bodies (which is why various chemicals can heighten or dampen emotions, or even make us feel emotions with no basis except the chemical stimuli), which God does not have. But as the Bible also says we are made in God’s image, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to think our capacity for emotions is patterned in some way on God.

How to get hungry

Sunday my husband preached on the healing of the paralytic man whose four friends got him to Jesus by making a hole in the roof. His focus was on dealing with adversity, but he also talked about the importance of desperation. If those four men hadn’t been desperate to get help for their friend, they wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to get him to Jesus, and he wouldn’t have been healed.

On the way to church, he had read to me notes from a sermon he had found online, talking about the importance of desperation. When people are desperate for God, that’s when He can do a great work. It made sense, but it also was a troubling thought, because I can’t say I feel desperate. So how does one go about becoming desperate?

Today being Ash Wednesday, it seemed like a good time to explore that question further. During lunch I surfed the web looking forany discussion of that idea. I didn’t find much using the word desperate, but I did find a good article on the need to be hungry for God. And it addressed the question I had, how to become hungry if you’re not already. (Not that I have no appetite, but it’s been weak lately.)

We cannot be hungry for God if we are being satisfied with other things. Because the church constantly “nibbles” on “junk food” from the world, we have lost our appetite for God! We never feel the pain of hunger for Him; we are starving for lack of His presence without even knowing it. In order to make room for Him in our lives, we must empty our hearts and lay down our own agendas. Before we can be filled we must be empty!

Public prayers

There has been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere lately about Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to offer the prayer at the inauguration tomorrow, and whether Warren will pray in Jesus’ name. Some of the best comments I’ve seen are by the pastor of a church we used to attend, whose weekly blog posts I always read.

Taking advantage of the juxtaposition of today’s holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., and tomorrow’s inauguration, Bill Teague points out that

King’s dream did not envision a nation of no differences, but a nation of many differences. Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, joining hands and singing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! is a dream of differences acknowledged, conversation engaged, disagreements debated and truth honestly sought. It flows from a uniquely Biblical understanding of reality.

I believe it is altogether appropriate, then, for President-elect Obama to have invited Christians, Jews and Muslims to pray at the various inaugural events. And I hope the invited pastors and priests pray Christian prayers, that the rabbis pray Jewish prayers and that the Muslim leaders pray Islamic prayers.

I hadn’t even realized that Obama had also invited Jews and Muslims to pray at other inaugural events – I didn’t even know there were other inaugural events. But I agree that in a religiously pluralistic nation, it is good to invite leaders from various religions to lead their followers in prayer for our nations and our leaders.

Saturday’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on the history of America’s inaugural prayers. The first one was given in 1937, so apparently all the current fuss is over a 20th century addition to the ceremony, not a centuries-long tradition. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have any, but those who are appalled at the idea of not having one should realize that for most of our country’s history we didn’t.

Lord, I believe … help my unbelief

December 26

At 4 AM the back stoop was a sheet of ice. So were the stairs, the sidewalk, and the driveway. Not sure how much better the roads would be, I drove cautiously, 10 to 15 miles mph below the speed limit. The roads didn’t seem bad, but at 40 mph I found myself passing other cars. Once daylight came I hoped to pick up the pace, but instead traffic slowed further as we started seeing cars in ditches and jackknifed tractor trailers blocking entrance and exit ramps.

By mid-morning traffic came to a complete halt, lined up for miles due to (as I learned later) Indiana having closed the entire 150-mile length of the Indiana Toll Road for two hours. After a leisurely stop at IHOP (where I had firsthand experience of the ice as I skidded across the driveway), we got back on the reopened highway. After passing two disabled semis, I found myself sliding across the highway, regained control, slid again, again, and then again. I decided to get back to the side roads.

That proved impossible. The exit ramp was even worse, one solid sheet of ice where three cars were already stuck. I tried to reverse down the curve, and slid one way and then another (even after coming to a complete stop), before making it back to the highway I really didn’t want to be on. But there wasn’t much choice, so I drove slowly while more confident (daring?) drivers passed me.

At breakfast, my younger son had reminded us to thank God for the food, and I added my thanks for safe travel so far, and requested safety the rest of the way to New York. As I made my slow and emotionally stressful way along the icy highway, I remembered that prayer and asked myself why I felt no real confidence that we would in fact escape needing the services of a tow truck and/or ambulance.

Taxes and prayer

Whether you have already filed your tax return or – like too many of us – are scrambling to finish it in time to mail by tomorrow night, tomorrow symbolizes the government’s say over how a big chunk of our income is spent. Whether you get a refund or find you still owe more, whether you get to file a short form or a long form, the entire process is – for most Americans – about as enjoyable as going to the dentist. (Unless you’re like my younger son, who was very excited about getting his cavity filled and even more excited later to show me the tooth, which had had to be pulled instead. But he’s not exactly typical.)

If you would like a fresh perspective on the matter, take a look at this pastor’s Form 1040 Prayer Guide. I have not met Pastor Bill, but he is the new pastor at the church my husband and I attended for most of the 90’s and where Jon was ordained. We live much too far away now to go back for a visit, but I enjoy my weekly visits to Pastor Bill’s blogs to read his excellent posts.

Prayer shapes

Does it matter whether I pray standing, sitting, or kneeling? With my eyes open or closed? With my hands clasped or lifted up? A post on World on the Web this week suggested that there might be something to learn from Muslims’ prostrate position in prayer (as well as stopping for prayer at various times during the day).

As someone pointed out, God hears us no matter what position we are in. As physical beings whose mind and emotions are integrally connected to our bodies, however, the shape of our bodies often affects the shape of our prayers.