Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of mid-week devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during March 2021]

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! that calls me from a world of care,
and bids me at my Father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief,
and oft escaped the tempter’s snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
[William Walford, 1845]

It is often the case that history is written by the victors. That applies not only to the records of what they have achieved but it also sets the scene for what might follow. It has been suggested that heavy-handed treatment of the losers at the end of the first world war sowed the seeds of the second. Perhaps that is why Jesus recommended that we should feed our enemies.

In the American civil war, history tells us that the Union side (the eventual victors) were the ‘goodies’ and the Confederates were the ‘baddies’. It can come as a surprise that there are Godly men amongst the forces that are fighting for what we might consider to be the wrong side.

Edward Bounds was a chaplain on the Confederate side. He was also a man who believed passionately in the necessity and power of prayer, and wrote extensively on the subject. He advanced the idea that God is powerless without the prayers of His people; it is our prayers that permit or even instruct God to act.

Do we agree? If so, are we guilty of restricting God because our prayers are too infrequent, too insincere, too unimaginative? Perhaps it is the very powerfulness of prayer that makes us uncomfortable and hesitant to explore its potential. Like a bonfire, we want to keep it small and under control, but bonfires like that tend to generate more smoke than heat.

In another parallel with a bonfire, even a single ember can keep it alight and offer the potential for re-ignition but once the fire has gone out it is much more difficult to restart. So it is with prayer, once we cease to maintain the practice then it becomes more difficult to re-establish it.

In a time of restricted movements and church at a distance one of the casualties has been collective prayer. At the same time, many of us have had to set aside some of those activities that previously occupied us. How are you making use of the time that was spent commuting, at the gym or developing your hobbies? Those of us who are time-rich could use this time pray for those who find themselves busier or in more difficult circumstances than before. Indeed, maybe the reason why so many saintly Christians live beyond their ‘three-score and ten’ is so that they can pray for their fellow pilgrims.

The apostle Paul offered this advice:

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” [1 Thessalonians 5 v16-18 NKJV]

Prayer is the way in which we can access God’s resources but, according to Edward Bounds, it works the other way round too.

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