Looking Ahead

As we round the corner in our preparations for our Christmas concert, I am reminded of one of the strongest cautions issued to believers when embarking on any new initiative for God, whether it is a relationship, project, or even a new season or year. It’s found in Psalm 127:1. The English Standard Version (ESV) translates it:

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Eugene Peterson uses the more modern vernacular in The Message:

If GOD doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks.
If GOD doesn’t guard the city, the night watchman might as well take a nap.

Either way, the point is clear. If God isn’t in it, you’re wasting your time to start it.  Rather than ask Him to “bless our mess”, better for us to seek Him on the ground floor.  Find out where He’s moving and get into the flow of that. From the outset of this project, God has been sought…in the selection of music, the prayer for singers and musicians, for a compelling theme and a unique way to retell the story, and now for God to provide a harvest from all the seeds that will be sown this season.

The best tool God gives us to discern His will, apart from His Word, is the gift of prayer.  To move forward without consulting Him for wisdom and direction, without listening for His voice, would be to waste our time and His limitless resources.  To handle what is in store for us with a high commitment to prayer is also one of our 16 values (We call them our Sweet Sixteen).  So let’s do a little reviewing of this thing called prayer.

Prayer is that act which enables the believer to express a broad range of thoughts and emotions in his response to God, including praise, thanksgiving, loving adoration, confession, lament, communion, petition, the making of a vow or commitment, and intercession.  The ultimate objective of prayer is not merely the good of the person praying but the honor of God’s name. And if we are to take our cues from the greatest pray-er who ever lived—Jesus, it’s more dialogue than monologue.  It isn’t just talking but listening. And for us fallen creatures, it must move beyond whining to worshiping.

In one of his most compelling treaties on prayers, Jesus encourages us:

"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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! “ (Matt. 7:7-11).

The apostle James puts it in the negative form:

“You don’t have because you don’t ask God.  And when you [do] ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”  (James 4:2,3)

In our desire to be a part of a mighty move of God this Christmas season, as we attempt to inspire the faithful and illuminate those outside the faith, let’s collectively be bathing these efforts in prayer. Begin each petition by asking God how to pray, for what to pray, and for whom to pray.  And let’s be bold in our requests, as James suggests.  Let’s pray for people to receive Christ, for lost sheep to be found, for stragglers and strugglers to become warriors, and those crippled by fear to become filled with faith.

Finally, when it’s all over, let’s not be like the nine healed lepers who forgot to return thanks to Jesus for his miraculous work on their behalf.  Instead, let’s follow up our efforts with great thanksgiving to the One from whom we sought help in the first place. To that end, let’s even reimagine our Cast Party on Dec. 17 as just that—the night we returned to give thanks for the great things that God…is about to do.

tad