The Effective Fervent Prayers...

It's funny how God works sometimes. Just the subtle ways that He brings things into perspective. I was getting myself up and going this morning and i have tried to make it a habit of spending time praying for our church leaders each day, especially as we are going through the transition of searching for a new lead pastor.

Prayer has been a real struggle for me lately. It seems like i have gotten into the mentality in which i spend little time really focused on prayer. It's hard to explain, but my prayer has not be up to par even for my own less than best expectations for myself at times. However, this morning a verse came into my head as i was getting ready but i couldn't piece it all together. "The effective fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much, to the tearing down of strongholds..." and i couldn't remember how the rest of it went. I knew that there was more along the lines of tearing down the strongholds, but i just couldn't get it. So i grasped onto that and held on.

When i came downstairs later where i could do a little research, i found something a little unexpected. I found the references to the verses i was looking for, only it wasn't what i was expecting to see. James 5:16 says,

Confess your faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Then in 2Co 10:3-5 Paul says,

For though walking about in flesh, we do not war according to flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ

As you can see, it's not the verse that i was quite expecting. And, since i am a man who does not like it when people take verses out of context in order to build their own point, it hit me kind of hard. They are both true separate as well as together. The effective fervent prayers of the righteous man avail much. They are spiritual warfare and they are mighty to God for the pulling down of strongholds, vain imaginations, every high thing that exalts itself... bringing into captivity every thought...

More than that, and what i won't get into at this time, is what each of these verses is talking about within their own context. They both have everything to do with everything else, and both require some more further study... but that's neither here, nor there for this point.

The point is that The effective fervent prayer of the righteous man does avail much... to the tearing down of strongholds, vain imaginations, every high thing that exalts itself... bringing into captivity every thought. If we are not praying effectively and fervently as i have struggled with not doing, well what then?

Image from shapeshift used under cc license.

Lord,

I so don't even want to be doing what i'm doing. This is getting so old right now. It's hard to accept and deal with the job and the roles that you have for us to play sometimes. The fact that my numbers are not up to par doesn't help matters any either. I don't know. Lord there is so much going on i just don't know where to go with it all.

Lord, i want to thank you for the many, many ways that you are blessing us. The many ways that you are taking care of us. Thank you for the little one that's on the way. Thank you for the little ones that you have already blessed us with. They are so amazing! The different things that they say, and the many ways that they bless us. Lord, help us to be good parents. Help us to make sure that they grow in desire of You. That they grow with a passion for You and for others. Help us to model that attitude and mentality Lord. Help us to be good parents as well. They so need that so much. Help them to have a passion and compassion for others.

Lord, i lift up the leadership in the church. I pray that You would continue to be working in them. I especially lift up PKB and his family. Watch over them as they take some time off of the stress and work to spend time with the family. Bless and keep them as they are traveling. Lord, i also lift up the B family to you. As Mr B and the rest of the board are making final decisions as to who to bring for the congregation to decide on, i pray for unity and strength in them. I pray that the man you have for the job would be the man chosen and quickly. Lord, be at work in all of this. And Lord, You know where we stand in all of this. You know the vision you have given to us. Bring us to this place. Your will be done.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen

Process of Change: The "Rite" Stuff

I was doing some research on rites of passage and how they work when i came across some info that really brought some things together. A rite of passage is a ceremony or test that brings a person from one stage of life to another. For our sake, and as is most commonly seen. The rite of passage refers to the time at which a child becomes an adult. They go from living a life of very limited responsibility and training to being considered and treated as an adult. That includes taking on the rights and responsibilities of adults. It is something that has been lost quite possibly to the detriment of youth and our society.

It's interesting looking at these rites of passage and how they work. There are actually three very important parts (or stages) to a rite of passage. Each part has and holds a purpose that helps to give meaning to and define the process:
1) The first stage is the abandonment stage. It is a matter of leaving the old behind. Childhood is removed like an old robe or as an old shell abandoned by a hermit crab who has grown too big to fit into it anymore. It is the point at which a child recognizes that they are no longer to be a child. They are abandoning their childhood in an attempt to become more. To become an adult.
2) Next is the separation stage. The separation stage is about training, testing, & trials. It is the part of the process in which the youth proves that they are ready for the decision that has been made. These could be through physical, mental, and/or psychological trials. These things could be merely an expression of a decision made, or they could be actual real trials that the young person is required to fulfill in order to be allowed to pass on to the next stage.
3) The last stage of this process is the reintroduction into the social structure of the group. The child is no more. There is some sort of ceremony or ritual and the child becomes an adult with adult status. The group accepts them back as their own and they are now treated as adults and expected to act that way.

When i was doing this research i was fascinated by this because of how much it parallels baptism, which in turn parallels Christ's crucifixion process. As i have stated before, repentance, water baptism, and baptism in the Holy Spirit all include these same features. They are death and burial of the old self, a cleansing or work being done, and rebirth in a new form or as a new person. It seems that this three part process comes into play time and time again.

So, what does that mean for us? What do we do now?