Make us prophets

It is an amazing thing, Lord, that you make no plans without revealing them to yourt prophets [Amos 3:7]. So when you broadcast your power, your prophets cannot help but speak [3:8]. They bubble forth like a spring gushing with cold water. Who are we, that you would let us in on what you are doing? What can we do, that you call us to participate in birthing your reality in the world?

Above all, Father, thank you for insight. I praise you for opening blind eyes and shining your light on all things dark and hidden. Enlighten your children, Father. Teach us about the deep and hidden things -- how things work and why things are as they are. Give us uncommon understanding to know right from wrong, justice from injustice, love from hate, and life from destruction. Make us prophets to our times, teaching, fortelling, and judging to make the Kingdom real.

Raise us

Father, you have promised us that you will not leave us in the dust. Even if, for some hidden purpose, you caused us to fall, you will renew us. If this is a cross in our lives -- these struggles and battles we are fighting on so many fronts -- then although we may be laid in the tomb, we count on your resurrection. Raise us, Father. Though we may die as slaves, we will be raised as heirs to your Kingdom.

Long ago, while your people were taken from their homes because of their idolatry, you told them that you would restore them to their inheritance. You spoke of a day when you would poor out your own Spirit on them. They prophecy, dream, and see a different reality. For the youngest to the oldest, they would be caught up in your Spirit, in your vision. Father, continue to poor out your Spirit on us. We believe the promise is still ours. May we see your power in the hour of our powerlessness. Amen.

Prayer when the voice falls silent

Father, why is it that when we are faced with so many challenging, and even frightening things, it seems your voice falls silent. I don't believe for a second that you withdraw from us in trouble. Why would you? You're not threatened by anything, nor can your resources be exhausted. No, I believe you are an ever present hope in trouble.

Jesus you've shown us your staying power. If there is anything you came to teach us, it was the closeness of the Father to our situations. You are Immanuel, God with us, an incarnation manifesting the God of the Heavens in our reality. How could I ever think that you've left us or refuse to talk with your people?

But still there is this silence. Have I fallen deaf? Have I plugged my ears? Perhaps, in impatience, I've tuned you out to look for our own solutions. Whatever the case, Father, we need you to break though and speak -- to make yourself known. We need, more than our own solutions, to feel your closeness. Amen.

We are a bride

Your people are you bride, Father. There is nothing more scandalous or more beautiful about our faith. We are not destined to grovel as your slaves. Our fate is much more than that. You want us for your intimate companion, your deepest friend, your life partner. It is your intention to bring us to live with you, to enjoy life together, to know each other to the point that all distinctions blur into light.

But even though this is our destiny, we are adulterous. Always, our hearts are running after other things. We would do almost anything not to depend on you because on mistrusting hearts think faith in you is bondage. And so we dirty ourselves with lesser loves, and corrupt every bit of us with thin living, compromise, and disfunction.

Amazingly, you do not abandon us. No, Lord, you come looking for us. You lead us out into the dessert, far from our addictions, and speak tenderly to us, winning us over. You cleanse us and make us pure again. And what is more, you swear to love us forever, despite the risk and our past history. Though we are sluts and hookers, you make us into your spouse and restore to us a Kingdom we do not deserve and have never dream of.

What could be great than a God like you? You would endure shame, ridicule, and the pain of our waywardness. But, like a man made a fool for love, you persist because your grace is really that strong.

Fight the darkness

Lately I have witnessed the great battle going on around us. It is not the corny stuff of novels or comic books, but very real and very deadly. People are consumed daily by a menacing darkness, but it is not the work of a magician or some sinister conspiracy. The darkness eminates from each one of us. We are the perpatrators. We are the monsters. We are the ones that plunge lives into pain and our world into shadow.

How can we fight the darkness, Lord? What weapons do you give us in this fight. Can we believe that hope, faith, and love are enough? What armor are we given to protect ourselves from all this evil?

I do not know these answers yet, and I do not think they will come quickly. I think you have told me that they lie along the long journey in the footsteps of Jesus. It is not that we are victorious, though we are. It is not that the world is changed, though it is. It is that we follow this road that through its difficulty transforms us into the likeness of our Lord and Brother.

Right?

Father, you defend the cause of your holy ones, and give them the Kingdom that last forever as their possession. Right? You are with us in pain, comforting us as we suffer through trials, disappointment, and dysfunction. Right? You turn the pain in our lives into a sort of grace -- making it a teacher that drives us into deeper living and causes us to run into your arms. Right?

All I need today is a little confirmation that I'm not a fool to trust you, or, if I am a fool, I'm not alone. All I need is some indication that there is a purpose and plan behind all of this. I just can't believe that these things don't have meaning. I won't believe that we struggle and suffer in vain. Speak to us, Lord, and remind us that in all things you are right.

The LORD is there

Upon reading Ezekiel 44-48...

Lord, let me witness your glory. You are all I want as an inheritance. Plant me by the river that runs from your sanctuary, watering a thirsty land and making it green and full of life. Let me drink from the waters so abundant they turn the sea into fresh water. Give us Lord, a place to live and teach those you give power to rule justly. Build the city where you will dwell. I want to live in the place which is called, "The LORD is there." Amen.

Not just Father

As I read the prophets, Lord, I feel uncomfortable with the picture of you there. I am tempted to say I need you as Father-God, but not as Judge-God. I think I'm drawn to your nurture, but repelled by your radical and seemingly harsh prophetic stance. And then a question enters my mind. Will I ever truly change without the Judge-God? Will my idolatry and the adultery of my soul ever cease if I think you are just the gentle Father? Perhaps it is just as loving for you to judge and remove impurities as it is for you to gently nurture growth. Deep comfort comes, not in choose one of your names to worship, but in learning the fullness of who you are in your infinite aspects. I need to trust that. Amen.

Dry bones

Upon reading Ezekiel 37...

Father, we are in a valley of dry bones. So much is dead and lifeless around us. Death has touched us and it threatens to consume us: death of love, dreams, hopes, and security. The death of the soul is all around us.

Tell us to prophesy to these dry bones and we will. Tell us to speak to them your commands and they will rise up and live. Lifelessness will be overcome with sprouting vibrancy. Hopelessness will be swallowed up in nurture. Death will be banished. All so that we and all those who see it will know that you are the Lord -- the only one worthy of trust, the only one who can rule with justice and peace.

Lord, we will not live unless you cut out there hearts of stone and replance them with hearts of flesh. Our spirits have failed and fainted, so breath your Spirit into us so we will live. We wait on you just as your people did in the ancient days of exile when all hope, except hope in you, was lost.

Shepherds and sheep

Upon reading Ezekiel 34...

It's true, Lord, there are many shepherds who feed off your flock, but who do not care for your sheep. Some are simply ignorant -- untrained in nurturing. Others are living in delusion, serving their own egos and salving their insecurities. There are some who pretend to be shepherds for financial gain or an easy job. And so your sheep are scattered. Thousands leave the church every year. Our culture is alienated from you because the sheep have been chased away, fearing those who should be caring for them. And can you blame them: clergy sex scandals, religious celebrity embezzlement, harsh and judgmental attitudes, glory stealing, dishonesty, inauthenticity, greed, materialism, the list could go on. They are left to be picked off by the wild animals of the secular leaders and advisors who -- though they encourage criticism of the church -- are no better care takers of people. The people are consumed by corporate chiefs, marketing specialists, trend setters, politicians -- any who can get anything out of them and leave them dry and hungry.

Lead your sheep to green pasture again, Lord. But never let there be any shepherd but you. Send David, our Lord and Brother, to shepherd your flock, leading us into places of rich and deep living, healing, wholeness, and peace. Unless the people see you, Jesus, for who you really are -- apart from all the false shepherds who mimic you -- they will perish and be oppressed by all those who wish to feed off them. Teach me how to connect people to you, the shepherd rather than to me. That is the only way that I can resist the temptation to exploit them.

I long for a broad green land with rushing streams and towering forest. Where every blade of grass, every cell of water, and every drop of sun speaks of blessing and hope. There the King walks among us and we are who we are, truly.

Rescue us

When we have lived in abundance, when the harvest of all things is plentiful, when prosperity has grown up and filled us -- we have found a voice to praise you, Father. Teach us, Lord, to have this same voice to praise you now in the time of thinness and scarcity. May we learn thank you even when their is no more savings, when our homes are taken from us, when we suffer from violence, when we charges are brought against us in court, and when we loose our jobs.

Jesus, if any of this happened because we suffered for your name, or followed your cause, there would be some purpose to our suffering. We could take comfort in our high calling. But this is happening because life happens or because of our weakness. But even so, we believe you are sovereign and you are loving. There is no chance, so when life happens we believe you are still in control. And we know that you are loving, and it is not your mission to leave us to the consequences of our own dysfunction. We do not shrink from any redemption that this pain may work in our lives, but we ask that in it, you draw our hearts to you. If we fall, Father, we fall into you hands. But rescue us before the end.

Good evil, and evil good

What about the happy irreligious and unspiritual? Father, we believers are tempted to lie to ourselves and characterize "the lost" as miserable and "the saved" as triumpant, when, if we were honest, we would admit isn't true. I know many people with little concern or thought of you who are happier and more moral than most who confess to know you. But that's nothing new, everyone quotes that proverb. But the cliche is true for a reason. The unbelieveing do good things. They help people. They give generously to those in need.

And yet, there is something dark in me that wants to negate all this. It's as if their goodness, wherever it comes from and whatever its outcome, threatens me: Am I being made holy if my life isn't much different from one of these who do not yet believe? What good is my faith if it doesn't make me better than other people and my life better than theirs? Are you even there, because there is precious little evidence of you "working" to change lives in the religious people I know?

Father, I think there is a wrong expectation -- maybe even a wrong heart alliegence -- that all these questions come from. I want a white and black distinction of the condemned and saved. Probably, I want it because it will remove the risk of relationship -- if I knew that, I wouldn't have to know you or them very intimately. I could dismiss whoever I didn't want, and feel justified in showing favoritism and self-interested friendship. And most of all, if my life was more "white" I could say to myself, "you have arrived" and live in self-righteous comfort.

When my eyes are allowed to be honest, I see that there is great evil within all of us, believer, apothetic, and skeptic alike. And I must also admit that there is good in every soul. The point in following you, Christ, or making committments to you, Jesus, is not to receive a stamp of approval or distinction as "a good person." It is to become part of Israel, "he who wrestles with God," not "he who has mastered Him." It means acknowledging my evil, bringing it to the light, and serving that light for the redemption of us all without having to seek labels of who does or does not deserve such grace.

Heart for Justice

Give us a heart that cries for justice, Father. May we hunger for the world to be made right. Teach us the justice of seeking good for the orphan and the widow, for the alien and the outsider. Give us courage to stand up against the oppressor, even when that oppressor is within us or within things we have long used and held sacred.

Instruct our hearts and tongues so we may live prophetic lives. Compell us to speak what we have heard. May we proclaim the secrets you've revealed on the rooftops. Make every movement of our days an expression of the Kingdom you have shown us -- the reality where you provide and show us the way. Us our wealth, our strength, our knowledge, and our power to materialize your presence here. You have given us these for just this purpose. You know how much we need it.