Wednesday with Words: Prayer and Oswald Chambers

I am continuing my obsession with Oswald Chambers.  I have now read three of his books (they are short - well the ones I read).  He cuts to the heart of the matter and doesn't back down.  I finished If Ye Shall Ask . . . about prayer this weekend.  He talks about Jesus in the Garden praying - appropriate for this week.  He focuses on the great cost it is to Jesus for us to come before the King and Jesus' words to the disciples to "watch and pray".  His thoughts are timely:

 Man, I wish I understood this more when I was younger.  I still believed that I needed to do the work and prayer was secondary.  Chamber's emphasizes the point that prayer IS the work.  What if I had spent all that time watching and praying for my kids instead of running from event to event?  What if I had understood that this was a "watch and pray" season instead of a 'Go' and 'Do'.  Chamber's is not arguing that he never says 'Go' but rather that we often do the active without doing the prayerful.

Waiting, patience, standing under.  All of these things sound difficult.  That is why we need God to do them.  We need persevere and not faint (he jokes that fainting is easy for the person who does it - everyone else is all upset and concerned).  

Tell us what you really think?!   YIKES!!  In the end it is often true that worry is because it is going a way I don't want or don't understand instead of trusting that God is in control of EVERYTHING and he says that things will work to the good.  Do I live like I believe that?

There it is is.  Pride and personal ambition.  I truly don't want God's answer or even really His help.  I can do it, thank you very much.  I am certainly at the place now where it is pretty evident I cannot do it.  I need to stop being "too busy" and intercede in the areas he has given me insight into.  I tried to "Do" first and to little avail - lots of hard knocks and missteps.

If your child are little I encourage you to "watch and pray" and not feel the need to "go" and "do" all the time.  Man, I feel into that trap and am reaping some of the not so beautiful rewards of that.  The season will come but if prayer is the work that is something you can do wherever you are.

I pray you have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

See what others are reading at Ladydusk.