In the Old Testament, he speaks to us throughout history, through poetry, through his law, and by the mouths of his prophets. In the New Testament, he speaks through his Son - Jesus, as we read the eye-witness accounts of the gospels, see the creation and confession of the early church, and are encouraged by the writings of the apostles.
God primarily speaks through his word... but he can also speak through our circumstances, through situations and other people. This morning, I was reminded of the latter.
In our Sunday School class, we have decided to devote one Sunday each month to focus on prayer. Rather than have prayer be the two shorter bookends to a longer lesson or lengthy discussion, one Sunday each month we have decided to invert our "order of service" by having a short devotion and setting aside extra time to share our prayer needs with each other and thank God for answering and responding to our needs. This isn't a magic formula, but our hope is that God will use this time as a means to build unity within his people and increase our dependence on him as we acknowledge his faithfulness and provision in our lives.
We began our class with some encouragement from Scripture. Will, one of the members of our class, began by reading Luke 18:1-8, a parable of Jesus regarding prayer. Before the parable is given, we are told that it is to serve as a reminder to us that we should "always pray and not lose heart."
We were reminded that we are not praying to an unrighteous judge, but a judge of justice, a judge that can be trusted. As we approach the bench to plead our case, this judge doesn't say, "you're free...now go," but rather he says, "you're free...now come."
Our prayers are not an arm-wrestling match with God. Our prayers are not an opportunity for us to haggle and try to convince God that our desires are in his best interest. It is an opportunity to make our requests know to a judge who will always do right and not just a judge, a father. A father who cares for his children, who knows and gives us what we need (Matt 7:11, Matt 6:30).
So after this brief reminder, we went around the room and made a prayer list for our class and then began to pray.
I started, I thanked God for the privilege of prayer, for his faithfulness, for what he is teaching us as individuals, as a class, and as a church. I finished opening us in prayer, and then we would pause, and as the others in our class wanted to pray they did. We would open our eyes and look at our list and prayer specifically for various individuals and circumstances. Some of us prayed more than once, but we slowly and purposefully went line by line down through our list thanking God, asking God, crying out to God. There was another pause, and then Lucy began to pray.
And my prayer life will never be the same.
Lucy is Will's wife, a tenderhearted lady who was in a tragic car accident that resulted in severe brain trauma. Along with some of her other physical difficulties, one of the results of her accident affected her speech. As my wife and I began to get to know her and her husband, we noticed that she remained positive in spite of her disability as she informed us that she was comfortable with texts and email because she knew people had difficulty understanding her, especially over the phone without seeing her mouth and/or body language. It is not uncommon to see Will at Lucy's side repeating to someone what she has just said serving as an interpreter of sorts. Her disability may slow her down, but it doesn't stop her from communicating.
And this morning, it didn't stop her from praying, out loud, to her father.
As her words broke the silence in the room, God took advantage of a valuable teaching moment. As she spoke to God, he spoke to me. Not just to me, but to several others in our class who walked out of the room with a new understanding of Romans 8:26-27.
I can't tell you exactly what Lucy said. I picked up on the occasional word that she said but for the most part, because of how the accident affected her speech, I could not understand what she was saying.
That didn't matter though, her father knew exactly what she was saying, and more than that, he could hear her heart. He could hear his daughter.
I was immediately humbled and encouraged.
How many times in my own life did I not know what to pray? How many times in my own life did I believe my prayer might be "ineffective" because I didn't use eloquent words, or because the flow wasn't smooth? How many times had I been afraid to pray in public because what I said or how I said it might not impress people?
My mind went to back to being a father when my own children were just learning to talk. I was delighted when they wanted my attention and wanted to talk. I was happy to hear them ask for help or tell me they loved me through broken imperfect words and improper sentence structure. I didn't care, to me, those were precious moments. A child coming to their father who could understand them, who cared for them. Without hesitation, knowing that my acceptance didn't depend on their vocabulary, they had their daddy's ear because they were my child.
I am grateful for what God taught us this morning through hearing Lucy pray. Before I wrote this I sent her a text and asked her permission to share how God had used her to speak to us this morning.
She responded by saying, "Ok. I know that prayer is essential -- even if you can't talk well."
-Amen
Tim, I think I'm going to cry. Your tears are contagious! Thank you for such an inspirational blog post about our group prayer meeting, and especially for your kind words about my dear bride Lucy. I am so blessed that she did not die on the snowy winter night 34 years ago. She nearly did, but our Father had other plans for her, even if it was to say a few words that might inspire a movement of prayer in our church. Come Lord Jesus come, but until then let us pray and go reap that harvest for His glory and our joy in Him!
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