I woke up on Monday morning with this verse lingering in my mind:
Let me hear of thy steadfast love in the morning,
for in you I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul. (Psa 143:8, NRSV)
I was reading on this passage in Hebrews. Priesthood may sound quite alien to protestant as compare to Catholic. We tend to forget that we Christians are all priests (1Pet 2:9). One of the main function of a priest is to intercede on behalf of his fellow people. Am I continually praying for others? Have I prayed for those under my charge, the people in our church, the Bethany Share Group (BSG) members, the BSG leaders, those that are new in the church, just baptized, … It sound like a long list. Are we encouraging people to pray for one another? Prayer meeting attendance is low. Does the BSG encourage and promote prayer? What about my own prayer life? The only meaningful time is the daily night prayer walk. God seem to speak to me most often through such a time.
Do we always receive favorable answer in our prayers, as in Heb 4:16, a verse I have memorized since I first became a Christian some 30 years ago? The verse stated that we may receive mercy and grace, not always a “YES” answer, sometime “NO”, sometime “WAIT”.
A story floats through my mind from one of my reading:
Several years ago my family and I lived just down Sanders Bluff Road from Barry and Brenda with their three young boys, John, Drew, and Wade – a wonderful family. Barry was fun, a man of deep faith who talked openly of his love for Christ. Pat and Brenda enjoyed having tea together (a picture of one of their outings is still magnetized to our refrigerator), and the boys were great with our Joshua, who trailed them in age. We were excited about our new-found friends.
In 1993 Brenda contracted liver cancer. In the months that followed, family, friends and churches in our area prayed, fasted, and believed in God for a miracle. I have never seen such a consistency or fervency of prayers. Barry, a great man of faith, was a spiritual rock, ministering to his family and waiting on the Lord. Nevertheless, the answer for which we prayed – Brenda’s healing from cancer – did not come this side of the grave. At the end of this unrelenting illness her emaciated body, only a shadow of the lovely young mother we loved finally succumbed to the disease. The funeral heralded the victory we as Christian have in death, yet I believed an emotional under-current ran through the auditorium that day as sincere, saddened believers asked the question, “God, why did you not answer our prayers?”
To this example could be added countless thousands: the child born with a deformity in spite of prayers for a healthy baby; the missionary who loses a spouse in an auto accident on the field of calling; a homosexual entangled in lust, desperately asking for deliverance from his obsession; the unanswered prayer for a job, or the request for financial help that seems to get so higher than the ceiling. In times of God’s silence Jesus’ promise of “whatever you ask in prayer” (Mk 11:24) seems mocking. (Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God. Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, Grand Rapids :Zondervan 1988)
I too had a one long struggle. In 2006, during church retreat, I requested prayer from my group for one Air Force project that required 23 very stringent environmental testing – like 4000 feet altitude test, 30g shock test (one g = 1 atmospheric pressure), and many others, costing about $40,000 in all. After 4 months of gruesome testing, from July to October 2006, there were 2 major failures. One failure was repeated after remedy with additional cost of a few thousand dollars and the failure was solved. Another major failure was not due to design but was inherent to the product, which I told them that it would also happen to the one that Air Force is presently using in their aircraft (bought from Israel). In fact, in term of performance, my unit worked better the Israelis product. However, Air Force could not accept my explanation and the project was deemed as failed.
During that period, I often quote Heb 4:16 during my prayer. My spirit was challenged to believe that God would see me through. The failure incurred heavy loss as there was no payment from the government. All testing were paid by my company. At the end of it all, I was lectured and ticked off by my boss for the failure. It was the lowest point of my working life. Where was God’s grace? I have done all that is to be done base on my engineering judgment. What had prayers done to me all these months, during the difficult period? Even though it is a failure, I still believe in God and thank Him for making me walk through difficult times.
Then in April 2007, for some unknown reason, Air Force changed their mind and accepted all my environmental testing as pass, paid all the cost and requested us to proceed with the production of more units. I felt redeemed from being ticked off by the boss! God is gracious and His grace surpasses all our understanding.
Let me hear of thy steadfast love in the morning,
for in you I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul. (Psa 143:8, NRSV)
I was reading on this passage in Hebrews. Priesthood may sound quite alien to protestant as compare to Catholic. We tend to forget that we Christians are all priests (1Pet 2:9). One of the main function of a priest is to intercede on behalf of his fellow people. Am I continually praying for others? Have I prayed for those under my charge, the people in our church, the Bethany Share Group (BSG) members, the BSG leaders, those that are new in the church, just baptized, … It sound like a long list. Are we encouraging people to pray for one another? Prayer meeting attendance is low. Does the BSG encourage and promote prayer? What about my own prayer life? The only meaningful time is the daily night prayer walk. God seem to speak to me most often through such a time.
Do we always receive favorable answer in our prayers, as in Heb 4:16, a verse I have memorized since I first became a Christian some 30 years ago? The verse stated that we may receive mercy and grace, not always a “YES” answer, sometime “NO”, sometime “WAIT”.
A story floats through my mind from one of my reading:
Several years ago my family and I lived just down Sanders Bluff Road from Barry and Brenda with their three young boys, John, Drew, and Wade – a wonderful family. Barry was fun, a man of deep faith who talked openly of his love for Christ. Pat and Brenda enjoyed having tea together (a picture of one of their outings is still magnetized to our refrigerator), and the boys were great with our Joshua, who trailed them in age. We were excited about our new-found friends.
In 1993 Brenda contracted liver cancer. In the months that followed, family, friends and churches in our area prayed, fasted, and believed in God for a miracle. I have never seen such a consistency or fervency of prayers. Barry, a great man of faith, was a spiritual rock, ministering to his family and waiting on the Lord. Nevertheless, the answer for which we prayed – Brenda’s healing from cancer – did not come this side of the grave. At the end of this unrelenting illness her emaciated body, only a shadow of the lovely young mother we loved finally succumbed to the disease. The funeral heralded the victory we as Christian have in death, yet I believed an emotional under-current ran through the auditorium that day as sincere, saddened believers asked the question, “God, why did you not answer our prayers?”
To this example could be added countless thousands: the child born with a deformity in spite of prayers for a healthy baby; the missionary who loses a spouse in an auto accident on the field of calling; a homosexual entangled in lust, desperately asking for deliverance from his obsession; the unanswered prayer for a job, or the request for financial help that seems to get so higher than the ceiling. In times of God’s silence Jesus’ promise of “whatever you ask in prayer” (Mk 11:24) seems mocking. (Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God. Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, Grand Rapids :Zondervan 1988)
I too had a one long struggle. In 2006, during church retreat, I requested prayer from my group for one Air Force project that required 23 very stringent environmental testing – like 4000 feet altitude test, 30g shock test (one g = 1 atmospheric pressure), and many others, costing about $40,000 in all. After 4 months of gruesome testing, from July to October 2006, there were 2 major failures. One failure was repeated after remedy with additional cost of a few thousand dollars and the failure was solved. Another major failure was not due to design but was inherent to the product, which I told them that it would also happen to the one that Air Force is presently using in their aircraft (bought from Israel). In fact, in term of performance, my unit worked better the Israelis product. However, Air Force could not accept my explanation and the project was deemed as failed.
During that period, I often quote Heb 4:16 during my prayer. My spirit was challenged to believe that God would see me through. The failure incurred heavy loss as there was no payment from the government. All testing were paid by my company. At the end of it all, I was lectured and ticked off by my boss for the failure. It was the lowest point of my working life. Where was God’s grace? I have done all that is to be done base on my engineering judgment. What had prayers done to me all these months, during the difficult period? Even though it is a failure, I still believe in God and thank Him for making me walk through difficult times.
Then in April 2007, for some unknown reason, Air Force changed their mind and accepted all my environmental testing as pass, paid all the cost and requested us to proceed with the production of more units. I felt redeemed from being ticked off by the boss! God is gracious and His grace surpasses all our understanding.
Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify me (Psa 50:15)
Mark
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