Nigerian Nightmare

Abubakar Shekau

My heart was already broken over the attacks in Paris. After I spent a few glorious days in Paris, that city became "my" city. Her people became "my" people. 

Now, my heart is broken over the latest from Nigeria. Do you remember the Nigerian schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram?  Most of them are still missing. After I prayed for their release and protection for weeks on end, those girls became part of me, and I have not forgotten them. 

The people of Nigeria became "my" people and I love them. Today, I weep with them. 

Now, my people have suffered yet another atrocity. Two bombers, one in Yola and one in Kano, have caused at least forty-five deaths and nearly 200 injuries in the last twenty-four hours. 

As if that news was not bad enough, there is more tragedy. The bombers were female. One was 18 years old and one was 11 years old.

A child, a little girl, blew herself up. 

The girls were delivered to their bomb targets by a minivan carrying four other children, presumably also potential bombers. 

I can't begin to imagine what kind of madness convinces a child this is a good idea. What kind of evil would recruit a little girl to do this?

No one has claimed responsibility yet, but Boko Haram, closely allied with ISIS, is the leading suspect. Abubakar Shekau (photo above) is the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria. 

Law enforcement personnel are actively pursing those responsible for these latest atrocities, but they desperately need our help, our prayer support.

Please join me in praying for the people of Nigeria and specifically for those who have lost loved ones in these latest attacks. 

Pray, too, for those who are injured, that they might recover from their wounds. Pray that no root of bitterness results from the actions of Boko Haram, but that, instead, people will be drawn to faith in God. Pray for the terrorists who orchestrated these attacks and for the children still in their control. Pray for restoration of a culture of life that values every life, every child and rises up against those who would destroy life.

I realize we could pray non-stop and never completely cover any one of the horrors our world faces today, but we must not become discouraged. Today, the people of Nigeria are heartbroken. As the body of Christ, those believers in Nigeria are one with us. We share their joy and, today, we share their sorrow. 

We weep with you, Nigeria. We pray for you. We are so sorry, so very sorry for your loss.

Pray without ceasing. It's the most important thing we can do.
__________
For other posts on this topic, here are additional links:
Bringing the Kidnapped Nigerian Girls Home, Persisting in Prayer, Persecuted Church in Nigeria, and Aba-na

photo by www.telegraph.co.uk
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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: Grateful Heart: Worldwide Kindness,  Remembering Paris,  Persevering for Paris, Resisting Evil, Praying for Peace, Answered Prayers in Disguise, and Grateful Heart: Mizpah.

The most viewed post of the last week was Remembering Paris

#Nigerianbombings #Nigeria #BokoHaram #pray4Nigeria #praywithoutceasing

Answered prayers in disguise

Yes. That's my greenhouse. I hated to share this photo, but it fits so well with our topic today (and in the interest of killing my pride), I'm sharing it.

I've had problems with the panels in my greenhouse ever since I bought it. It was a kit and assembling it did not go the way I expected. 

Having a greenhouse in general has not gone the way I expected, either. 

The wind-blown look is nice for hair. It's not so nice for greenhouses. 

At first, every time the wind blew (usually accompanied by rain), one of the panels would blow out. After the rain stopped, I would retrieve the panels from the surrounding pasture, climb on my ladder, and replace the panels.

Do you have any idea how many times the wind has blown in the last two years?

At last, I hit on a great idea. I would caulk the panels in place. I've bought so many tubes of caulk, I should get a volume discount. It seemed, at first, as if the caulk-plan was going to work. The greenhouse survived several bad wind storms without problem.

Not long ago, though, we had another storm and two panels blew out from the roof. I wasn't quite tall enough to caulk around them and secure them in place, so I did what I always do. I prayed. "Lord, I need some help with this greenhouse and these panels."

Yesterday, Sam and a couple of my friends came to help. They brought a special (taller) ladder and we began to reposition one of the panels. 

The wind was blowing like crazy. 

Somehow, the wind caught a third panel and blew it out into the pasture. I retrieved that panel and returned to the first one. It blew out. We retrieved the first panel and tried again. We managed to get the first panel in place and caulked around it. 

Another big whoosh of wind blew the caulked panel out. Again. 

I retrieved it from the pasture. Again.

My friend looked at the caulk-dripping panel and said, "Do you have a tarp?"

I did. It wasn't big enough. 

I made a quick trip to the farm supply store and came home with a new tarp. It was too big. We decided to use it anyway. It was an adventure, but at last we had the tarp in place.

When I prayed for help with my greenhouse panels, I had a very specific answer in mind. I expected to have those panels caulked and in place at the end of my answered prayer. Instead, I have a big blue tarp tied with baling string on my greenhouse. The answer to my prayer doesn't look at all like I expected.

I have written and spoken about prayer for more than a decade. I know all the verses about prayer and have memorized quite a few of them. One popular verse is Mark 11:24 nasb:
Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you." 

I prayed and asked for help with my greenhouse. I believed and it was granted. It doesn't look like what I expected. 

I know another powerful verse on prayer, however, and that's one I also pray regularly. "Thy will be done." It's one of the prayers I've prayed about my greenhouse, too, because it is the prayer that never fails.

After the caulk-dripping panel blew out, my friend walked around the greenhouse for a careful look. "When the wind and the rain stop, I believe I can fix this problem." He described a solution that will end my wind-tossed-flying-panel problem. It's a long-term solution.

The blue tarp is simply one step on the road to the answer to my prayers. 

The problem I have sometimes is that my view is more short-sighted than God's. He works from an eternal perspective. His answers to my prayers sometimes unfold with a longer view, as well. 

I wanted a quick solution to my greenhouse problem. What God has sent is a temporary measure with a better and more permanent solution yet to come. 

I'm embracing the blue tarp. It's one more reminder that prayer is always answered, but sometimes the answer looks nothing like I expected and takes longer (and more steps) than I planned. 

If your prayers seem unanswered, don't give up hope. God always answers prayers, but sometimes it takes a closer look to recognize His hand. Sometimes, it takes a big blue tarp and a roll of baling string to move you one step closer to His ultimate solution. Don't despair. The tarp isn't the end. There is more on the way. God's answer is still unfolding. And I'm so glad it is.

Pray without ceasing and never give up hope. 

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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: Grateful Heart: Veterans, Grateful Heart: Laughter and Grateful Heart: Worldwide Kindness,  Remembering Paris,  Persevering for Paris, Resisting Evil and Praying for Peace

The most viewed post of the last week was Remembering Paris

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#answeredprayer #praywithoutceasing #greenhouseadventure 

Resisting Evil

Beirut, Lebanon where forty people were killed by ISIS bombs this weekend.

I hate to admit this, but, when I heard that France was bombing the ISIS capital, my first thought was, "Good. I'm sick to death of them." All thoughts of praying for my enemies flew right out of my mind, maybe because praying for my enemies is not as tightly implanted in my heart as I'd hoped. 

My first response was not to pray for our enemy, ISIS. It was not even to pray for those anti-ISIS people whose city has been overrun by these terrorists. 

I don't presume to know the mind of God in this big mess, but I do know that we have a worldwide crisis and an extremely volatile situation. My second thought was, "And so, World War III has started and we don't even realize it. At least not yet."

I want ISIS stopped. Please don't get me wrong about that.

But. I have a son.

I understand the need for a military effort, but I also know that every plane carries humans who do the tasks of war - piloting, navigating, bombing. Every gun requires a human to shoot it. Every tank requires a human to drive it, to fire its guns. 

Those humans are someone's brother or sister, son or daughter, father or mother. They are loved. They are needed.  

Unlike the terrorists, (one of whom blew up his own younger brother) I would not willingly sacrifice my son for anyone's cause. War scares me. I understand its necessity, but it is not to be taken lightly, for men and women someone loves will be in danger. 

In truth, they (and we) are already in danger, regardless. 

ISIS has promised attacks on Washington. It's not a threat. It's a promise, and I have no doubt they intend to fulfill their promise. 

Just this weekend, they attacked both Paris and Lebanon. A week ago, they killed 200 children in Syria. Their reign of terror seems to have no end.

The heinous acts of evil men and women are, however, not new. ISIS is not the first organization to do the unspeakable and call it good. Nearly two thousand year ago, the Apostle Peter wrote of this unending reign of evil. His words are worth remembering.

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world..." 1 Peter 5:8-9 nasb

Just before these wise words, he also wrote of a beautiful, comforting truth. 

"He cares for you."

We serve a God who knows us, knows our situation, and cares. He cares about our loved ones in harms' way. He cares about the ones who will survive their fight and the ones who will not. He cares about the ones of us who will be left to grieve. Whatever happens, He cares.

Therefore, Peter wrote, humble yourselves... cast your cares on Him... trust Him... and resist evil.

We are living in perilous, explosive times and there is one response that we must not forget in all our resisting. 

Pray without ceasing...

     for our nation

     for our leaders

     for our soldiers

     for an end to the evil in this world 

     for protection from evil until our Lord returns to carry us home.

This is a beautiful but dangerous world we're living in, my brothers and sisters. We will never be safe until we reach eternity. Until then, let's serve well, pray well, love well.

_____________

In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: The Blessings That Were Not,  Loss of Power, Grateful Heart: Veterans, Grateful Heart: Laughter and Grateful Heart: Worldwide Kindness,  Remembering Paris, and Persevering for Paris.

The most viewed post of the last week was Remembering Paris
#ISIS #resistevil #Pray4Paris #Pray4Syria #Pray4Lebanon #Praywithoutceasing

Teach us to pray, part 54: those who knock

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10 NASB)

There is an amazing fact about knocking that I need to remember. I am not the only one knocking. Christ Himself is knocking, too. 

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) 

Imagine that! Christ longs to visit with me and knocks on the door of my heart while He waits for me to invite Him in. "I will dine with him and he with Me" is just one more example of the relationship for which I was created, for which you were created. 

This verse is generally held to be a verse related to salvation. Certainly, that first opening of the door of our heart when Christ knocks is our salvation moment, but that is not the only time He knocks at the door of our hearts. Our Lord longs to have times of intimacy with us on a daily basis, just as God walked and talked daily with Adam and Eve in the garden. 

Knocking with unbridled enthusiasm as we ask repeatedly that our requests be granted is one of the prayer-actions Christ has granted to us. In our determination to achieve the desire of our heart, however, let us not overlook the quiet, persistent knocking of our Lord Jesus, who longs for us to swing wide the door of our heart so that we might spend time with Him.

You may be thinking, "Why does Christ knock if His Spirit in already residing within me?" Perhaps the metaphor of a house will be helpful. When a guest wants to enter my house, they usually knock on my outside door. Once inside, they have free reign to make themselves at home in the open rooms. 

It is when I go into a room, wishing for a bit of privacy, that I close the door. Before entering that private place, the one in which I have cloistered myself, those who wish to enter usually knock. 

In that same way, I can withdraw from Christ, metaphorically shutting the door of an area of my heart, and stepping away from closeness with Him. I can "hide" by distancing myself from Him. It is in those times that He gently and quietly knocks with the same persistence as at the start, for He longs to share my hurts, my sorrows, my confusion. He longs to turn my isolation into companionship, my sorrow into joy.  

It is all too easy to drown out the sound of His knocking with busyness or the clamor of sin. When I allow myself to be still and silence the clamor, I can hear that gentle knocking. It is then that I face a beautiful decision and a divine opportunity. Will I allow Christ access to more of me or not? 

Only in eternity, when we are made perfect in the presence of God, will we fully abandon ourselves to His presence. Only then will the knocking end, for our communion with Him will be made complete. 

For now, He knocks and we must answer, so let our answer be "more of Christ in me". Let us swing wide the doors of our heart in utter abandon to the One who longs to fill every empty place with the sweetest presence imaginable, heal every hurt, and fill our lives with the love, joy and peace that only He can give. 

He is knocking. What will be our answer? 

Teach us to pray, part 53: Knocking

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10 NASB)

When I read "knock and it will be opened to you", for some reason, it makes me think of that song from my growing up years. "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land." The idea of hammering so enthusiastically is exactly the idea behind the knocking of Luke 11. The word translated as knock is not a polite little tapping at the door. This is "knocking with a heavy blow". It is pounding that leaves no doubt, inside or out, that you mean for the door to be opened.

We have it from the very mouth of Christ ("so I say to you") that we are to be so importunate in the things for which Christ has instructed us to ask, that we "must never hold our peace day or night, we must not keep silence, nor give God any rest." (Matthew Henry) We are to be pounding on the doors of heaven. What things has He instructed us to ask? That his name be sanctified, that his kingdom come, His will be done.

When I present my concerns to God in prayer, it behooves me to judge those concerns by the standard Christ has given us. Does my request sanctify His name, does it advance His kingdom, is it His will? I have to admit that I have besieged heaven, hammering on the door night and day to have something that was neither God's will nor likely to advance His kingdom. I thank God He did not grant my request. How miserable I would have been if He had given me that for which I foolishly asked! I praise God for those "no" answers that I desperately needed, but did not want, to the prayers for that which I desperately wanted, but did not need.

It is when I am willing to pray for God's will, and for events in my life to unfold in a way that glorifies Him and not myself, that I begin to pray in a way that pleases God. It is when I pray in this way that my hammering on the door of heaven has an amazing effect. The door of heaven is opened to me and I am ushered into the presence of God. Oh, if there were words to convey the joy that comes with this kind of prayer! 

Prayer, conversation with God, is an important part of having a relationship with Him, and, sometimes, importunate prayer, hammering away without stopping, is what it takes to gain our desire. That continued hammering is important, at least in part, because the persevering demonstrates our commitment to the need for which we ask. 

In the persistent knocking, however, we also gain an unexpected benefit. Change. There are times when I pray persistently over months, and even over years, for something. My prayer toward the end of that journey of persistence is often quite different from the one at the beginning, because God has changed my heart along the way. He has allowed me to see the need from a different perspective, to recognize what He has been doing in me as I waited. The desire I was so desperate to obtain at the beginning has been molded and changed by God in the interim. If we are to obtain the perfect will of God in our asking, this process of molding is critical, and (at least with my stubborn heart) it takes time. 

Let us take our needs, our desires, our hopes and dreams to the One who loves us most, and let us do it with persistence, hammering away at the door of heaven. In our hammering, though, let us not forget that the waiting, as we hammer and pray, is an important part of the process, for it is in the waiting that God fine-tunes us and our prayers to become exactly what He intended. It is only then that our prayers can be the kind of requests that line up with the will of God so that answers, glorious will-of-God answers, can come.

Pray without ceasing and wait with expectation to see the mighty Hand of God in response to your prayers.

Teach us to pray, part 50: Asking and receiving

Then He said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and from inside he answers and says, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything. ' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Luke 11:5-10 NASB)

The "name it and claim it" brand of theology is alive and well in the church today and, in my opinion, is extremely destructive to the cause of Christ. Prayer is a "church word" for talking with God. It is a conversation, not an opportunity to present a shopping list. If I subscribe to the "name it and claim it" theology, I make God little more than a celestial Santa Claus. 

With that in mind, let's look a little closer at answered prayer and the promise of Jesus to "ask and it will be given to you." We looked yesterday at the word for "given to you" and found that it is the same word as that indicating a seed giving forth fruit. Just as the fruit looks nothing like the seed, so the answers to our prayers may look nothing like we expected. 

The gospels are full of  promises of answered prayer. "Whatever you bind on earth is bound is heaven." (Matt. 18:18) "If two or more of you agree... they may ask and it will be done..." (Matt. 18:19). Mark records a promise that we can ask, believe, and receive (Mark 11:24). If those are the only verses I read, it is easy to think that I can ask for anything and expect to receive it. Mark 11:24, however, is followed by Mark 11:25, which begins with "and forgive". John 14:13 records a promise that Jesus will do what we ask, but includes the caveat "that my Father may be glorified".  John 15 tells us that we can ask whatever we wish and it shall be done for us, but is preceded by the stipulation that we can ask IF we abide in Christ and His words abide in us. Matthew 17 records a situation where the disciples were unable to heal a child despite their prayers and Jesus told them that some things only come out by prayer and fasting.

It turns out that answered prayer is possible but is contingent upon my life of discipleship. If I actually do what Jesus said, in belief, fasting, obedience in forgiveness, and in right living, I can come to Him with my requests in anticipation of answers. The purpose in answering our prayers, however, is so that the Father will be glorified. Glorifying the Father should be the objective behind all our prayer requests. 

James clarifies this for us. James 4 includes that famous phrase "You have not because you ask not".  It is immediately followed, however, by the clarifying statement, "You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." God created us to have a relationship with Him, not so that we can be "happy" and have everything our heart desires. As followers of Christ, our objective should be to glorify Him, and not ourselves.

What, then, makes it to my prayer list? My first thought is that everything gets on that list, but, admittedly, not everything is a typical request. Here are a few examples that may help clarify what I mean. When it became clear that an automobile manufacturing plant would come to our town, I prayed that God would send us a company that would be environmentally responsible, that He would somehow restore the trees that had been cut down, and that it would not destroy the lifestyle of our little town. His answer to that prayer was everything I prayed and more! My request did not glorify me at all. I wasn't even an elected official at the time I began to pray. Instead, I was praying for protection of the people who live in my town and protection of the environment God had created. 

When my dog was dreadfully sick recently, (Mamie the apprentice wonder puppy), I prayed for her healing. That may not seem like something that glorifies God, but the Mamie stories based on the antics of that tiny dog have been viewed by hundreds of people and have been used to teach the truth of following Christ in a simple and understandable way. He healed her.

I lost my step tracker recently. That also doesn't sound like something that glorifies God, but it has helped me increase my exercise, lose weight, decrease my cholesterol, and lower my blood pressure. I'm much healthier because of the tracker. When I lost it (apparently the wrist band came apart and I didn't notice it), I did all I could do to find it, then asked God to restore it if it was His will. I still find it hard to believe, but the company is sending me a new device. God provided.

I pray daily for people who are going through a hard time, people who are lost, people who are prodigals, people who need wisdom. I pray through the newspaper for situations that concern me, people who are making decisions that impact our country, and for the consequences of those decisions. My enemies and the enemies of my country are on my prayer list as well. The multiple terrorist organizations and the individual terrorists in those organizations are on my list, as well as the people affected by them. The persecuted church and those currently suffering for the cause of Christ. The people of Nigeria and its leadership. (God has given me a great love for Nigeria). There are several Christian parachurch organizations that do a tremendous job of bringing in the harvest and reaching the world for Christ and for whom I pray regularly.

In all this praying, I also pray for myself. As I sit down to write every morning, I review what was written the day before and ask God to show me what changes need to be made. When that is done, I ask Him to tell me what to write, and He does. Wisdom, holiness, purity are all topics of prayer.

Not all my praying is solitary. I have several prayer groups with and for whom I pray.

Whew! I'm not sharing this to make you think I'm a great woman of prayer or that I do anything remarkable or exceptional. I am not. I am doing nothing more than what I was called to do, what we are all called to do. We are supposed to pray without ceasing. If we are in a constant state of prayer, we can pray for all of the things I've listed and more. We are supposed to pray like this. In fact, I don't pray nearly enough. We don't pray nearly enough. 

If we are supposed to pray without ceasing, why don't we? Perhaps we think that means we are to stay on our knees around the clock. That's one way of doing it, but not likely the one that most of us will use. Here's my suggestion. As we go about our day, silently (or aloud) talk to God about everything you see, everything that concerns you, every need. As we read or listen to the news, let's discuss with the Lord those things that grab our attention. When we see flowers blooming, hear birds singing, receive an unexpected blessing, let's thank Him. When we see evidence of His hand in our lives, let's praise Him. Before we know it, we will be praying without ceasing!

What will happen if we pray without ceasing? Lots! We will find that we have the most exciting life imaginable because we see God at work constantly. We will ask, and He will answer, and it will be exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or think. God will be glorified and mountains will move.