Sometimes it just takes your breath away ...

The other day I was listening to David Jeremiah on the radio as I drove home from work. Talk about redeeming the time stuck in traffic! He was discussing the book of Daniel and Daniel's long wait for an answer to prayer. He then started to discuss the heart of prayer and gave an illustration that is just amazing.

If you have a safety deposit box, you are familiar with the protocol for getting into it. You bring your key and are accompanied by a bank clerk who has the bank's key. Only when both keys are placed in the lock, and turned does the box open. Prayer is much like that. The Father has many good and precious things waiting for us in that safety deposit box of prayer. He stands with His key in hand, but we must bring our key, insert it in the lock and turn it to receive from Him. The book of James tells us that "You do not have, because you do not ask God." (James 4:3)

Jesus told us that "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:24) I believe that the other key is described in that verse. We have to ask in His name. That's not a little bit of magic that, like a spoonful of sugar, make the medicine go down. There is something much deeper.

When Candace's Aunt Edith was struggling with Alzheimer's disease, we were granted the power of attorney to act in her behalf. We had the legal authority to sign checks on her behalf and make commitments for her. It was not an unlimited authority, we were accountable to demonstrate that the actions were always in Auntie's best interest and for her benefit. When we pray "in Jesus' Name" we are exercising a divine power of attorney. We have authority, but we are bound to do and ask according to His will and purposes and not ours.

The two keys that David Jeremiah talked about -- the Father's will and our prayer -- are tied to the same box which is opened only when we ask, as Jesus did in the Garden , "not My will, but Thine ..."

I stand amazed at the partnership that we are invited to join. We get to pray, to join our will with His, to seek His glory, and then see both Heaven and earth move. If that doesn't light your fireworks, you need to get on your knees more often.

Keep the faith.

look at the birds of the air ...

This weekend Emma, Jeremy, Jacob, Bob and I went to the Butterfly Place in Westford. You can spend some marvelous time just being with the butterflies, watching them, and letting them be what they are -- amazing creations that give us nothing but pleasure and live off nectar from the flowers. The kids enjoyed the butterflies and I had a ball watching the kids and photographing these neat fluttering flashes of color.

When we returned home on Sunday, the news was waiting for us. Employment is down, terrible violence in New York, a missile launch in North Korea and an earthquake in Italy. You could forget how much of the world is right if you listen to the news too often!

Then I uploaded the pictures and remembered the butterflies. As I thought about just how lovely they are, I remembered the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount (the 6th chapter of Matthew's Gospel) ... He said "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you ..." (verses 26 -30)

These butterflies don't have bank accounts; they don't have 401k's; they don't have a thought beyond the next flower and yet they fly in beauty. Jesus challenges us to see the pattern of the Father's extravagance and to trust Him with our needs, our fears and our futures. He draws our mind's eye to the beauty of a world that God said was "good." (Genesis 1) and tells us to trust the God who makes beautiful butterflies as an expression of His glory. If He cares that much about butterflies, why do we need to worry? As the old song says ... His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me ...



Keep the faith!