Praying with Those Suffering

I once told my small group, when people were hesitant to pray out loud, "It's alright! There's no bad prayers!" My group purposely started praying prayers that proved my statement wrong. We can pray selfish prayers, materialistic prayers, hateful prayers, and so on. We can pray poor, unbiblical prayers.

Yet, just because a prayer is in the Bible doesn't mean that it is a good prayer to pray. There are examples of poor prayers in the Bible. It is possible to find "unbiblical" or "un-Christ-like" prayers within the pages of our Bibles.

The Bible does contain positive examples we would be benefited by emulating and commands that we are to obey. Other parts of the Bible have negative examples of things that happened, but should not have happened. There are lessons to be learned in what NOT to do.

In the Church, we sometimes hear prayers that should bother us. One such example, is to praise/thank God that we aren't suffering/persecuted like others mentioned in other prayer requests. A related prayer on a similar theme is to say, "I watch the news and I thank God that I live here."
Now, these kinds of prayers are technically in the Bible, but they are given as an example of what not to do. I'm talking about the Pharisee's prayer in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee stood before God thanking Him that he wasn't like other people; whereas the tax collector asked for mercy, because he knew that he was a sinner.

These prayers break my heart, because in the moment I hear someone praying them, I do not see Christ's reflection in them. This is not to say that I'm doubting if someone is a Christian, but rather, that specific prayer is not Christ-like.

When we thank God that we were spared from a disaster and cite that sparing as evidence of His love for us, we need to ask ourselves what our prayers are indirectly implying about those who are suffering through the disaster. Maybe, we were spared from a disaster, so we could be SERVING and HELPING those who are suffering. That is living out Christ-like compassion.

You can be thankful you are happy with the nation in which you were born, but as soon as you connect your birthplace with a sign of God's favor, what does that imply about people living under corrupt regimes or in the midst of war? It implies that they are out of God's favor, which the Bible does not support.

If our prayers end with us just being thankful that we live in <place> or aren't suffering through <disaster>, than our prayers are too small. We SHOULD be praying for those who are suffering, as though we ourselves are suffering alongside them. We SHOULD find ways to serve and help those in the midst of disasters, because that is one of the main reasons we exist on this earth:
Reason 1. Glorify God.
Reason 2. Spread the Good News.
Reason 3. Help those who are suffering on the margins of society

We are clearly told throughout the New Testament to remember those in prison as though we were suffering with them. (see Hebrews 10:34 and Hebrews 13:3).

We are told to thank God for the good in our lives, but we are not told to thank Him that we aren't the ones suffering. We, as Christ-followers, are to expect to suffer. (see the book of Acts, Romans 5, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 12:26, 2 Corinthians 1, Philippians 1, 2 Timothy 1-2, 1 Peter 2-4 for starters).

So let us pray for those who are suffering. Let us pray that we show compassion and mercy to those who are suffering. When we stretch our prayers in this way, we may discover that God uses these kinds of prayer to grow us and to draw us closer to Him.

When Our Priorities Grieve the Holy Spirit

I remember being floored back in April this year (2019). That was when the famous Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire in Paris, France. This came back to my mind recently as I read an update on how repairs to the cathedral were progressing.

People were grieved, crushed, and devastated by this unfortunate event, but the things that we weren't bothered by are events that probably grieved the Holy Spirit. Honestly, I think that the Holy Spirit was grieved by the response of the Church. We were so upset over a *building* that people were posting about it, donating to fix it, and raising awareness of this tragedy. Yet, we were largely silent regarding the world refugee crisis. We weren't donating to help asylum seekers at our door. We weren't raising awareness over human rights violations & violence happening in parts of Asia & Africa that were happening at the same time.

When we care more about buildings than lives being lost, we grieve the Holy Spirit.
When we care more about our safety & comfort than helping those trying to survive, we grieve the Holy Spirit.
When we aren't bothered by those who are fleeing violence & persecution, the Holy Spirit is grieved.

This should bother us, but we don't seem to be losing sleep over the children still detained in for-profit prisons within our borders. We don't seem impacted over the plight of the refugees or asylum-seekers. We aren't broken over those enslaved around the world & even in our own countries today.

So what needs to happen?
We need to change. We need to ask God to shift the priorities in our heart until our hearts match His. We should ask the Spirit to help us let go of the things that aren't important and focus our time, energy, and money on God's kingdom priorities.

May we be filled with a passion and a boldness for actually telling other people the Good News.
May we use the variety of news sources, not just to catch up on local or national news, but to pray over world events.
May we find ways to simplify our lives so we can give our time, talents, and money to help those on the margins of society.

May we be grieved and broken over the things that grieve the Spirit. And may we be moved to get involved to work towards righting injustices and interceding those who can't speak for themselves.