Just Can't Do It?

In a previous blog (January 6^th) I was exploring the value of being alone with God. We saw how God waited until Jacob was “alone” before He came to interact with him. God wants our full attention and there must be regular times in our lives when He has it. When are those times in your life? I left off last week by acknowledging the common scenario where people say something like, “I tried being alone with God once or twice and nothing happened. So I’ve given up trying.” Oh oh. Now what?

First question – what did you expect to happen? If you were expecting God to appear and “do something,” you were no doubt, disappointed.  First of all, it is not so much we who are observing God, but rather God who is observing us. Though He didn’t say anything or do anything while you were in His presence, He was observing you and pleased that you were there. Most importantly, He is now observing what you are going to do next. He’s looking for the person who will not give up, but who so wants to encounter God and hear from Him that he/she will return again and again in hope and expectation. When I was a kid I used to fish for trout in a certain stream. There was a deep, dark pool on one side of the stream where I was just sure a big trout was lurking, and I used to spend hours dangling my baited hook there, dreaming of the big one, waiting breathlessly for that tell tale tug on the line. The reward came, but only in due time. It’s part of the joy of fishing.

But what if I’m just not good at sitting still and being silent? I really believe it’s a practice that can be developed, like a muscle, if we persevere and stretch ourselves a little. I’ve been on many one day prayer retreats and have noticed that it takes me some time (more than I would like) to slow down my mental RPM’s to a point where I become much more aware of God. It’s a great place to get to, but it takes some time and perseverance. There have been many occasions when I have taken a day for prayer and have struggled throughout most of the day to pray well (whatever that means). But on several occasions I have experienced that during the last hour of the day I was finally able to really give myself to prayer and it was rewarding and enjoyable. I had no thought of how fast the clock was moving. Honestly, whereas earlier in the day I would have been glad if the day was soon over, now I was regretting that I had to pack up and head for home so soon. I had moved to a deeper level of prayer; God was closer, and I longed for more.

A book well worth reading is “In God’s Underground,” by Richard Wurmbrand. It tells the story of his 14 year imprisonment in Communist Romania during the 1950’s and 60’s for the crime of being a Christian pastor.  For long periods of time he was sentenced to solitary confinement, one of the most difficult things a human can be forced to endure. He noted that it was not uncommon to hear fellow prisoners in nearby cells going mad in these conditions. In order to survive he began to discipline himself to follow a certain routine, night after lonely night. The dark hours were the worst. First he would pray out loud for a while, praying for himself, his family, his enemies and his congregation. Then he would take a half hour and just give thanks to God for everything he could possibly think of, both in his past and in his present circumstances. Mixed in with his prayers he would take time to dance in his cell before God (no one was looking). Then he would sing, and when he had exhausted all the songs he knew, he would make up new songs and sing them to God. Next he would preach a sermon to his church (which no one would hear but God), exhorting them to love God and be faithful to Him. He used to give talks to his wife and son, recounting all the good qualities of each of them and commending and encouraging them as if they were standing right in front of him. Before he knew it, the day was breaking again. After his release, Wurmbrand credits this practice of scheduling those long nights in such a disciplined way with enabling him to do two things:  defeat depression and self pity, and grow more deeply devoted to God than he ever would have otherwise. When I read accounts like this I am motivated to not let myself get away with succumbing to that little whining voice residing in my sinful flesh, “But I just can’t do it.”

It’s just not true.

Until next time,

John