Reversed Thunder

I struggle with the discipline of prayer in similar ways that I struggle with the discipline of meditation.  I lack the desire to put down my busy "life" and be intentional with the Lord.

"If we are still, we learn not only who God is, but how his power operates" (p. 39)

I have little to no idea how God's power, will and glory manifest themselves in the world I find myself in.  I know one thing though, I have a very limited view on the scope and potential of prayer.  There are certain things I will pray for and certain things I will not pray for, out of a cynical heart and a lackluster faith.

One week this past summer, I experienced God's power through prayer in an unexpected way.  It was during program at Westgate, and a barney was sharing their testimony.  Per usual, the wind was kicking up as the barney began sharing. I still don't know how, but I instantly reacted in prayer, petitioning to the Lord to calm the winds while the testimony was happening.  As I sat there, hardly taking in anything the barney said, I was overjoyed as the wind calmed.  I continued in prayer during the whole testimony, and afterwards the wind kicked back up.  I felt God's presence in my heart afresh that evening.

But my fullness soon turned to cynicism as I reflected on the experience.  I told myself that believing God works in ways like those ways is childish and naive.  It's nothing but a coincidence that the wind died down.  But as Archbishop William Temple has experienced, "the coincidences occur much more frequently when he prays." (p. 43)

So how does God's power operate?

I find some insight in the beginning of Revelation 8.

"Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.  He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God's people, on the golden altar before the throne.  The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God's people, went up before God from the angel's hand.  Then the angel took the censer, filled it with the fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth: and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightening and an earthquake." Revelation 8:3-5

As Eugene Peterson points out "Prayers which had ascended … returned with immense force … as 'reversed thunder.'  Prayer reenters history with incalculable effects." (Reversed Thunder, p. 88)  What a powerful image of how God takes our prayers, cleanses them with incense, combines them with the fire of his spirit, and put them in full force in the world we live in.

"Prayer is God's way of providing man with the dignity of causality." -Blaise Pascal

-Mike

Sidenote: Loving the idea of praying with imagination, picturing the Lord working in people's lives, etc.  It has been a powerful component of my prayers the last few weeks.