Monday Meditations: For All Saints

I’ve recently rekindled a rewarding habit I used to have: my prayer journal. It’s a little different than the traditional journals. It’s just a record of what prayers I’ve prayed (when I remember to write them in the book). Some entries are only one line long and some are more than a page long. I also like to record what the impressions I get while I’m praying. I also use it to encourage myself. I read through the prayers that God has answered, particularly helpful when I feel like my prayers are bouncing the ceiling and hitting my head.

As with many things in life, my journal started out of adversity. My husband and I were going through a terrible season of persecution. God used Ephesians 5:18 as a call to action. It reads:

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

I committed to pray for this particularly trying situation. Each night, I would get the journal, my Bible and put on my purple socks (to keep my feet warm so I wouldn’t get distracted) and bombard heaven.

I wasn’t shocked at how fast my prayers got answered, but I was surprised. It seemed that God was simply waiting for me to pray so He could go to work. The wonderful response encouraged me to pray for some other situations in my life with the same amount of fervor. Not only did God answer, I rediscovered that I could really take everything that burdened me to Him. All the situations in my life looked better after I’d prayed.

One day, I was sitting reading through some of my pervious entries and something troubling struck me. All the entries were about me or my family. Funny since the scripture God used to motivate me to pick up the journal again included praying for all the saints. I’d been praying but my prayers were a little selfish. With the same fervor that I’d had for praying for my situations, I endeavored to start praying for others.

Shortly after I started, I realized the enormity of this little command from Ephesians. There are millions of believers in the world. How was I even supposed to pray for them all? I’d grown so accustomed to praying very personalized prayers that praying in general for all saints seemed overwhelming.

So I started small. As I prayed for my vindication from the persecution I was suffering, I prayed that God’s justice would reign on the earth. As I petition for guidance about my life, I prayed for the guidance of other believers. As I prayed for my children, I prayed for all Christian children facing the same struggles mine do. It ended up being a lot simpler than I thought. Pray for everyone else as I pray for myself.

No, I don’t know exactly what situations every Christian in the world is facing but God does. And the chances are pretty high that someone else on this big world is experience similar situations as me. It wasn’t hard to look beyond myself and pray for all Christians. Not hard for you either. Try praying for someone other than yourself. In that simple act and it connects you with other Christians all over the world. And get yourself a really big prayer journal.

Monday Medications: Calluses

My daughter is learning to play the guitar. My husband and I bought her one for Christmas and she’s excited about taking more lessons. She even offered to play one of the songs she’s learned in front of a group of people, a grand feat for a nonplussed teenager. I’ve been trying to adjust to the fact that my very girly daughter wants to be a rocker chick, but it’s true.

During the process, I’ve watched her adjust to the realities of learning guitar. She had to trim her nails and learn how to sit properly so the weight of the guitar didn't cause shoulder pain. Her teacher warned her that she will probably develop calluses on the tips of her fingers. As a mother, I had a slight issue with the calluses. Call me sexist and old fashion but I think women should have soft hands. Besides, calluses decrease sensitivity. I don’t think I like that but she accepted callus as a part of the process.

As I fretted about this, the Lord impressed on me that He doesn’t like of my decreased sensitivity and of course He wasn’t talking about my fingers. He was pointing out the condition of my heart. He gently pointed out several areas in my heart that I’d grown callused. And as if to prove that I’d decreased sensitivity, He poked me with His Spirit and His word a couple of times before I really felt what He was saying.

He drove the point home with Ephesians 4:17-19:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Now I know the Lord wasn’t saying that I was still living like a heathen, but He used this scripture to beautifully illustrate the effects of a callused heart. Our understanding gets darkened and worse of all, we are separated from God. That’s not a place I wanted to be. I want to be sensitive to His touch.

When I delved a little deeper into this issue, I realized that the callus on my heart happened the same way natural calluses do. Our bodies protect themselves against overuse by building up layers of skin to prevent injury. Callus is a defense mechanism. I’d tried to protect my heart by building up a tough layer. Unfortunately, this tactic had made my heart less sensitive to God’s touch.

I should have committed my heart to God and let Him be my protector. Isn’t it funny that we as God to protect us from physical injury but we won’t commit our hearts to His care? We quote scriptures about God being our shield and our buckler but we constantly try and protect ourselves. Of course, each time we try, we fail miserable and a few more hard crusty layers end up on our hearts.

No matter how tempting it is, we can’t build up calluses to protect ourselves. We have to trust God to protect us. We also have to trust that He has enough power to heal our hearts when pain comes. If you want to play guitar, calluses are a part of the experience. But callus on the heart is not acceptable.

Introducing a New Book Challenge

First it was the Summer Reading Challenge. Then it was the Twelve Books of Christmas Challenge. Now, get ready for the Spring Cleaning Challenge. Ok, I know I missed the start of spring by a few days, but I really need to get some books off my shelf. I’m adding to my collection faster than I’m reading the ones already there. And in order for me to keep my hubby happy, I’ve got to read as many books as possible.

So this April, I’m going to attempt to read seven books. Here is the list:

• Hunter’s Moon by Don Hoesel
• Not a Sparrow Falls by Linda Nichols
• Blood Ransom by Lisa Harris
• Sweetwater Gap by Denise Hunter
• Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher
• Wounded by Claudia Mair Burney
• Vanish by Tom Pawlik

I will post a review of each book once I’m done reading. How about you? What spring cleaning do you have to do?