When the foundations are being destroyed, what can we do? Look up!

“When the foundations are being destroyed,
    what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple;
    the Lord is on his heavenly throne.”

Psalm 11:3-4

When what we have been standing on, hoping in, and depending on begins to fall, what are we to do? 

We are to stand up, reach up and look up—this is the message God keeps whispering to my heart this week. 

Yes, things are bad. 
Yes, evil is running rampant. 
Yes, sin’s tentacles stretch far and wide. 

But, there is still hope! 

Why?

Because God is still on the throne!!!

This week my gaze has been fixed on the wretchedness of man’s sin, the depravity captured by news cameras, the hatred spewed across firmly drawn lines, and the horrors taking place in the name of love, justice and choice.

And my soul has cried. 
My heart has broken. 
And my head has bowed under the weight.

So I cried to God. I sat with my Bible open and my mouth closed. I raised my hands in worship and bent my knees in prayer. 

And I felt the Almighty God—our most kind and generous Savior—speak to my heart:

Look up, my child, came a whisper from heaven. 

I am still on my throne.

Look up, my child. I remain the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Unlike the culture around you, I do not, and will never, change. 

Look up, my child and remember that I see all, I know all, and I care far more than you ever could.

Look up and remember that I am as just as I am gracious.

Look up and remember that I am stronger than sin and death and evil. 

Look up and see me in my holy temple and on my holy throne. Allow my holiness to move you to your knees in worship and adoration. There you will receive strength to persevere. 

Yes, foundations you have been standing on are crumbling. My people are feeling shaken as the foundations of politics, ideologies, and cultural norms are crumbling. But my child, those things were never meant to be your foundation. 

Why would you stand on something able to be destroyed by man?

Stand on me and me alone.
Cling to me and me alone.
For only then will you be able to stand firm, unafraid and unwavering. 

So stand up for justice.
Cry, weep, mourn and lament over the wretched effects of sin, for it is good and right for you to do so. 

But as you do—my blood-bought child—look up, see Me, and remember: 

I AM with you. 
I AM unchanging. 
I AM Yahweh, Jehovah, Messiah. 
I AM here. 

And I AM your hope. 

Sit with me. 
Talk to me. 
Quiet yourself before me. 

For my precious, precious child, I AM your hope and I AM right here. 

My friends, let’s look up and remember…..

Much love,
Jen 

How Not to Pray (A series on Prayer: Day Two)

How Not to Pray

This post is part of a series on prayer. You can find all the posts here.

Sometimes the most effect way to learn what to do is by observing what not to do. Maybe this is why Jesus begins His instruction of prayer with how not to pray. 

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Matthew 6:5-8

Here we have two examples of how not to pray: 

• Don’t pray like a hypocrite.

• Don’t pray like a pagan. 

There is so much unpack in these verses, but the most significant lesson to me is one of motivation—the why and the who behind our prayers. 

In both cases we see wrong motivation. 

Neither the hypocrites nor the pagans were having a genuine interaction with the Almighty God. Instead, they were having a “look at me/listen to me” moment. 

Both examples point to an incorrect view of prayer—that of the one-sided monologue.

The hypocrites (the religious elite) Jesus spoke of prayed loudly and with eloquent words. Yet, their sole motivation was impressing others. Their interest was not in humbly approaching the throne of God to have their hearts aligned with God’s, but in impressing those around them.

Imagine someone comes up to talk to you. After casting a quick glance your way, they turn away from you, and although they continue to use your name, they are clearing speaking to the crowd that has formed around you. They make themselves sound good, they talk about how close they are to you, they recall all the things they have done for you, but never once do they look into your eyes. Never once to they turn to you and invite you to speak. 

“Don’t be like them,” Jesus said. 

God desires us to sit with Him. To look at Him. To simply be with Him. He is not impressed by our words or our achievements. He simply desires us—for who we are.

God is more concerned with our presence than our words.

I think He would rather we sit silent in His presence than say a bunch of words intended to impress others. 

He also warned us about not praying like the pagans. They treat God like a genie or a magic spell. Thinking that if they can figure out the right incantation that God will surely grant them their request.

This is also an example of a one-sided monologue. For when we pray like that—trying to crack God’s secret code—we are not engaging in a genuine moment with our Creator. We are trying to manipulate Him to do our bidding. Instead of asking Him to help us surrender to His will, we are trying to bend Him to ours. 

Both of these examples of how not to pray, provide a beautiful look into the heart of God. 

A heart which desires us. Desires a genuine relationship with us.

Ponder that for a moment!

God desires you!
To spend time with you. 
To hear from you.
To help you.

Prayer is the most powerful way we have to connect with the Almighty God. So let’s linger with the Savior today.
Let’s stop trying to find the right words and just sit with Him.
Let’s stop worrying about what others think, and turn our faces to the One who loves us more than we can fathom. 

And let’s simply pray. 

Much love,
Jen

Is prayer really all that important? (A series on prayer: Day one)

This post is part of a series on prayer. You can find all of the posts here

In my quest to dive deeper into the gift of prayer, I have written out several questions about prayer, as well as several statements which I believe contribute, at times, to my lack of prayer.

I so want to make this post all pretty and coherent structured. But I fear if I adhere to those standards I won’t write it at all! 😉  So with one kid home sick from school, a new book to write, and another child’s 16th birthday to plan for, I am choosing to embrace the idea of an “it is what it is” post 😉

The first bullet point reads: 

Considering God already knows everything, is prayer really that important?

The main passage I have been studying is Matthew 6: 5-15. However, after praying over this bullet point for several days, I found myself in Luke 11:1-13. The scene opens with the disciples, who have seen Jesus do extraordinary things and who have already been sent out in His name and power to do extraordinary things, ask Him to teach them to pray. 

I found that fascinating! Here they are seeing, observing and even participating in the mission and work of Jesus Christ and then one day as they see their Teacher and Lord praying, they suddenly think to ask, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus’ answer to them seemed to speak directly to my first bullet point. 

“He said to them, ‘When you pray…..” Luke 11:2. 

He didn’t say if you pray or in case you pray. He said when you pray.

The assumption being that we will pray. An unspoken command to pray. An example to follow. An instruction to heed. 

I often get to wrapped up in the wrong question words. 

I want to know the whys, the whats, the hows and the whens of prayer. When God simply asks us to consider the WHO of prayer (the Who being the Almighty deity, not the rock band! 😉 

Jesus spent much of His earthly time talking to His heavenly Father. 

Jesus, fully God and fully man, deemed it important enough to spend time lingering with the Father. 

Why would we do any less. 

Even if my quest to understand more of prayer ended here, I think it would be enough. 

Enough to simply follow Jesus’ example. To focus on who God is. To pray. Even if we don’t understand it all, even if all we do is rehearse to God who He is, even if all we do is ask God to teach us how to pray. (to borrow from Nike…. let’s JUST DO IT.

Let’s:

• Pray. 
• Talk to God. 
• Listen for God. 
• Get up early or stay up late. 
• Keep our eyes open or shut them tight.
• Raise our hands or sit on them. 

Let’s just pray. Let’s follow the example of the One who knows us and loves us more than we can imagine. And let’s walk in the footsteps of the One who delighted in drawing near to God—the source of His strength, peace, and purpose.

“When you pray……” Jesus said.

Oh yes, prayer is important. 

Why? Because Jesus said so! 

Much love, 
Jen

Unwrapping one of God’s Greatest Gifts—A blog series on prayer

My husband gave me a big leather box this Christmas. It was black and had a cool silver swirly thingy towards the top. But all I could see was a box. I turned it upside down. I turned it around. I touched the swirly thing. But I had no idea what I was supposed to do with the box. I kept a smile fixed to my face as I said thank you.

“Do you know what it is?” he laughed.

“Not a clue,” I admitted.

“Lift up on the silver handle and then pull down on the inside flap.”

It was a jewelry box!!

Apparently the push pins I had jammed into every surface of our bathroom closet to hold my necklaces provided the inspiration for the gift 😉

Over the next few days as I began placing my jewelry in that box—opening and exploring every nook and cranny, I began to think about prayer…

For as beautiful as the gift of prayer is, how often do we look at it without really knowing what it is? How content are we to just place it on a shelf without using it for its intended purpose?

Our pastor asked a this question on facebook last week:

If you could ask the Lord one honest question about prayer knowing you would receive an answer, what would you ask?

By the replies to his post, it’s pretty clear that I’m not the only one with lots of prayer questions.

Clearly, prayer is a gift from God—of that I am sure. But I think sometimes prayer a lot like my big black mystery box. 

So this year I am on a quest to better understand the gift of prayer. I want God to show me how to lift the swirly thingy and lower the inside flap so I can better see the resource He has given me—given every one who trusts in His Son.

Want to join me?

I won’t pretend to have all the answers (in fact, I have more questions than answers in every area of my life!) But I want to learn and I want to share what I learn.

So if you would like to join me—and haven’t already—be sure to sign up to receive posts to your email. You will also get a spiffy JOEY poster for signing up! 😉

And if you have a specific question about prayer send it to me! I’ll add it to my giant list of questions and ponder over that one too! You can comment here or email me at jen@jenniferbleakley.com

Excited to begin this journey with God and with you!

Day One

Day Two

Thanks for reading!

Much love,
Jen