Lesson on Prayer, August 26

Some Hard Prayers


Musings by Ed:

I will start by reading one of the hardest scriptures in the Bible … but it is also one of the most important scriptures in the Bible …

Matthew 5: 43-44: You have heard it said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

One of the most important things to know about authentic Christian prayer is that in authentic prayer, we pray for our enemies in order to learn what it means to love our enemies. My first exercise of the day, before you get too comfortable, is that I want you to make a list of five enemies for whom you could pray if you willed to do so:

Now, you may stumble over this a bit … at many times in my life I have not been able to identify any personal enemies in my life: But I have always been able to identify those with whom I am struggling: To help you a bit, I want to tell you some folks that have occupied this part of my prayer list over time:

A colleague at work with whom I am having difficult and often angry personnel conversations.
A politician with whom I differ strongly.
A boss who has represented me poorly to his or her superiors
My child or my spouse with whom I struggle with a real difference in priorities
A person who is misusing a member of my family (most often, Claire’s bosses)
Those persons in Iraq whom I understand as impeding the possibility of peace … for their own people and for our troops
Members of a group within our society from whom I feel estranged and toward whom I feel angry.

With these hints, please complete your list and put it aside. We may get back to this issue later.


In his chapter this week, Bill Hybels deals with a second kind of hard prayer, “Praying Authentic prayers when the roof falls in.” To lead us into thinking about this topic, Hybels asks us to read a prayer that is buried in the middle of the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. Before going there, I want to tell you a bit about Jeremiah:


Some of us have pretty tough jobs. I think of Jamie keeping rich golfers happy in the daytime and dealing with folks purchasing bail bond in the evening. I think of Scott and several tons of fertilizer. I think of Karen and rooms full of adolescents. I think of Janet with four kids under six. Some members of this class have very hard jobs. I want to tell you about a man named Jeremiah had a really tough job. For more than 40 years (626-587 and beyond), he felt that God had called him to tell the political and social and business leadership of his day that they were wicked and as a result of their wickedness, Jerusalem and Judah would fall to a foreign army. In public sermon and public demonstration he held the leadership of Jerusalem and Judah accountable for:
Worshipping Baal and other gods other than Yahweh
Cheating widows, orphans and other fragile people
Exploiting workers without pay
Committing adultery, theft and other violations of the ten commandments
Further, with Babylon besieging the city, he called for the citizens to surrender and to understand captivity as God’s judgment … and to save their lives. Needless to say, the leadership of his community was not very pleased with him. He was ignored, beaten, imprisoned, thrown in a cistern, and … . Now, do you think that with this job and with this response, that his prayers were always neat and tidy packages of “thank you, God” and “ please care for my detractors.” Please turn to the following passage. Read the passage and after reading, think about the questions which we will then discuss.



Read Jeremiah 20:7-18

Snapshot: People do a lot of different things when they feel the roof caving in on their lives. But not many of them have Jeremiah’s honesty. When he was in the pits, he prayed. Not a “party-line” prayer, not a sanitized prayer, not a carefully edited prayer. He prayed a painfully honest prayer.

What do you do when you expect God’s provision and protection and it seems that protection is removed and your life has turned upside down. A routine physical turns into your worst nightmare. A marital disagreement intensifies and lingers. Corporate restructuring costs you your job. Your child is injured in an accident. You are betrayed by a life-long friend. What do you do?

Describe a time in your life when you felt the roof felt like it was caving in. What kinds of prayers did you find yourself lifting at that time?
In Jeremiah’s prayer, he jumps back and forth between deep pain and great joy. Can you think of an explanation for this ambivalence?


Snapshot from Hybels: What do you do with highly charged feelings that fly around in your spirit when you feel God has let you down. Some people, in an effort to be “Good Christians” feel they need to protect God. They deny their pain and discount their feelings. …

I remember standing with a young woman at the side of her young husband’s casket. If anyone had a right to be honest about her pain before God, it was this woman. She looked at me and said, “Bill, I guess the Lord needed him in heaven more than I needed him on earth. Praise God.”

How is denial of pain and struggles a sign of being dishonest with God?


Why are we tempted to deny our hurt, anger, and pain rather than freely admit it to God?


Hybels’ goes on to say that the young woman in his snapshot was not being honest. Is it possible for her words to Hybels to have been honest yet her prayers in private to have been full of anger or pain?


Final Observations:
1. I think that Hybel’s most important point is this. When we are angry and disappointed in God, God would rather we pray honest angry and frustrated prayers than to not pray at all.
2. In beginning our lesson today, we talked about Jesus’ command to pray for our enemies and those that persecute you. If you have not been praying for those persons, you might find honest prayers to make it easier to pray for someone with whom you are very angry or of whom you are very fearful. You may need to include in your prayers a graphic description of the scumbag of whom you speak. However, even as you paint the picture for God of the person, pause at the end to say, “God this is how I see things. Give me the wisdom to see things as you see them … and to love this scumbag.”


Newsletter, August 26

Other Class Business:

Welcome Chantel Grimball (hopefully that is the correct spelling) for visiting our class Sunday! She is a new Graduate student at SCAD. We look forward to seeing her again.

The Veggie Tales curriculum has been purchased for the Children’s Church. The cost was $200, and our class has agreed to assist in the funding. Karen will write a check out of the class account for $50 and anyone wishing to help out is welcome to donate.

(From Erica’s email):
Below is the list of Children's Church volunteers from our Sunday School class that we talked about this morning. I took the liberty of setting up a schedule for the rest of the year for 8:30 only since I know that you have some other volunteers for the 11 am service. I could not cross-reference this with the nursery volunteer list or with the individuals, so this schedule is definitely not set in stone. I think a really good goal would be to have a two month rotation so the more volunteers that we can get, the better. Also, a BIG thank you for being willing to be present at all of the 8:30 services in September to help get everyone oriented. Please do not hesitate to let Rhonda Anderson or myself know of any needs that you have--we are here to help you!

Thanks!

Erica

8:30 Schedule-Two volunteers needed (8:30 Substitutes: Kristen Maynard, Karen Clarke)

Sept 2- Curt & Erica Larsh
Sept 9- Communion Sunday
Sept 16- Paul & Chrissy Snider
Sept 23- Amy & Tony Murphy
Sept 30- Carla McCorvey & Jennifer West

Oct: 14 - Paul & Chrissy
Oct 21- Amy & Tony
Oct 28- Carla & Jennifer

Nov 10 Curt & Erica
Nov 17 Paul & Chrissy
Nov 24 Amy & Tony

Dec 9- Carla & Jennifer
Dec 16- Curt & Erica
Dec 23- Paul & Chrissy
Dec 30-Amy & Tony


11 am Volunteers-One volunteer in addition to Sarah needed:

Chris and Rhonda Anderson (will not be here on Sept 2)
Janet & Mitch Everly
Stan Lendermann
Lisa McGaillard

Sunday School teachers’ training is scheduled for September 22 in Dublin, GA at Pine Forest UMC from 10-3pm. Transportation will be provided. See Lois Caster for more information.