Now That I've Got Your Attention

Audrey is my loudest kid. She goes all the way up to 11!

A friend recently told me that as the youngest of 5, she was a loud kid. With all the noise in the house, she had to be. Her intense volume was the only way to get her parents to hear her, to make her needs known.

Her story made me think about my littlest Simmons, and her intensely perceptible little voice. It also made me strongly consider having more kids (could they be louder than Audrey!?!) and it drew me to consider another reason why we should pray.

Let's look at 2 Chronicles 7:12-16

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place [the temple the people had just built] for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.  I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

The #2 reason we should pray: Prayer is a unique privilege.

Let's face it. Everybody prays. At some point in every person's life, everyone flings at least one request to the heavens. 

The unique thing about Christian prayer is that there is a God up there who is catching what is flung. He promises to hear the prayers that are prayed in the temple. And that means something for us because the New Testament tells us that if we are in a relationship with Christ and have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of us, then we are the new Temple of God (1 Cor 3:16-17). 

So we should pray because God is paying attention!


We normally only think about God's attention when we are thinking about behavior management. Don't go to that party...God is watching. Don't think that thought or say that thing about that girl...God's right beside you. He's making that list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty...But His attention of us is actually a much bigger and more beautiful idea. The Living, all powerful God is attending you. His eyes and His heart are close to you. He is paying attention. 


Think about the last time you were really hurt, broken by someone else's selfishness. God was paying attention. His eyes and His heart were close to you.


What about the last time you felt real joy, success. God saw you. His eyes and His heart were close to you. The last time you failed, the last time you felt completely out of your depth, the last time you were bored with life, the last time you laughed so hard you were crying-God was with you. His heart was close to you.


Your God is paying attention to you. He is for you and He cares what happens. You don't have to be the loudest talker, the most pious, or the most rebellious to get His attention. He offers it to us because He loves us and because that is just how good and big He is.


This makes me want to pray. To know that my God who is bringing the sun and putting it to bed, who is creative enough to imagine a giraffe and an oak tree, who is running the mysteries of the universe-that He takes the time to pay attention to me, when I hurt, when I stress, when I laugh. His attention feels good.


And it makes me want to return the favor.

Prayer Gets You God. Not His Stuff.

Yesterday I wrote about how 2 Chronicles 7:12-16 revealed the number one reason why we humans don't pray. It also tells us some reasons why we should.

Why we SHOULD pray: Reason #1--Prayer allows us to know God, and in return allows God to introduce us to ourselves.

Look at the passage:

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 

It surprised me that God doesn't say, "If they will pray and ask me for rain, or health, or harvest, then I will answer." NO! He says that if they will "pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then..."

Prayer is a means to a relationship.

The goal of prayer is not getting God to answer our requests. The main goal of prayer is getting to know God, seeking His face, attending to what He is like. When we do that, we also begin to see ourselves for who we really are and hopefully, we turn away from our broken selves and move toward God.

When college students start a relationship, there is one key indicator that communicates to them the other person considers the relationship serious...a relationship status update on Facebook. We've all seen our friends go from "single" to "in a relationship", and sometimes we even get the name of their new significant other so we can click around and find vital info about them. But imagine a relationship where someone was willing to claim you facebook, where they spent time with you in big groups (say, like at church), but anytime you tried to get them alone so you could get to know them better, they were suddenly busy. Anytime you made a point to hang out with them one-on-one, they either ignored you or avoided you.

The relationship would not be a good one.

Alot of us have this kind of relationship with God. We'll claim Him on Facebook. I've been in a relationship with God since I started my Facebook account. We'll go to Bible studies, Sunday Schools and Seminary to learn more about Him. We'll enjoy Him at church and in musical worship. But when it comes to spending good quality one-on-one time with Him; when it comes to actually praying-we are simply too busy, too apathetic, or too lazy. Knowing Him personally isn't that important to us.

Prayer facilitates a strong connected relationship with God. It is where we get to know Him. It is where we allow Him to know us (He already does know us fully-even better than we know ourselves, but something good happens in our hearts when we tell Him who we are and how we feel). It is where we grow close to Him and His heart. Prayer is where our hearts (His and mine) meet.

That is why we should pray. Not to get His stuff, or His answers, or His approval. But to get Him.

We should pray because we were created to be in a dynamic relationship with the Living God, which is more than just a stagnant status on our Facebook page or another meeting in our week.

The #1 Reason You Don't Pray.

When I was preparing my talk on prayer for Greek Conference, I asked Gareth why He prayed.
"I like to pray Mommy. That is why I pray." This actually surprised me. Gareth is shy when asked to pray, so I assumed he didn't like doing it. I guess I was wrong.

His response did make me think about my own affection for prayer. I like to pray. I enjoy chatting with my Heavenly Father. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment and calm that most often floods within me when I finish time in prayer.

So why don't I pray more? If I like it, I should do it often. I like to watch TV. I watch TV most days. I don't pray most days.

2 Chronicles(a book of history in the Old Testament) tells me why I don't pray, and why I should. In chapter 7 we read about when Solomon and the Hebrew people are dedicating the temple to God. God is so pleased with His new dwelling place that He sweeps through the temple. When the people see His glory filling up their new house of worship, they go crazy and begin to worship the Living God for many days. They sacrifice over 140,000 livestock (cows, sheep and goats, among other things) and pull out instruments and sing songs to the Lord. At the end of the all this partying, Solomon sends everyone home, "joyful and glad in heart for the good things the LORD had done...for his people Israel."(vs 10)

Then God comes to Solomon in the night and tells him this about prayer. (vs 12-16)

 “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place [the temple the people had just built] for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.  I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

Did you catch it? THE REASON PEOPLE DON'T PRAY! It's in there.

We don't pray because we don't need to. We can manage our lives all on our own. We don't need God to show up and help out.

Look at the passage, "IF my people will humble themselves..." Prayer is a statement of humility.
When we pray we are making a statement, and even if we don't use these words, the act of prayer states: "God, I can not do this on my own. I am limited. I need you. You are limitless. Please come and help"
"God, I can not handle this meeting, this relationship, this load of laundry, this budget, this parenting choice on my own. I am too small and weak. I need you to come through here. I need your input, direction, and power. Without it I'm lost."

When we pray we humbly admit that we need God.

Our lack of prayer makes an equally loud statement: "I got this God. Thanks for saving me from Hell, but I can handle the rest of my life on my own. I'm competent, successful. Thanks but no thanks."

And most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, live lives like that. "I can prep this talk on my own." "I can discipline this child on my own." "I can clean this house, run this practice, care for my spouse, teach these kids on my own. I've got things today, God. Maybe something will come up tomorrow that You can help out with."

When we don't pray we arrogantly smirk that we can manage on our own, without the Living God intervening into all parts of our day.

We are rebelliously self-sufficient.

To honestly live a life of prayer, I need to understand the sinful Independence of my heart. That left to myself I think I am big enough to need only a little bit of God. But true life, true abundance and a true commitment to prayer is rooted in the idea that I am small, and in so many ways (more than I can imagine, in all ways) I need God. I NEED HIM. And when I get that truth. I will pray.

One day I hope to rejoice in Gareth answering my question of why he prays in this way:

"I have to pray, Mom. Without it I'm lost. That is why I pray."

Why Cecilia Should Never Have Any Real Power.

This week Cecilia had to complete the tried and true homework assignment, "If I were president of the United States I would..." Here is what she wrote.

"If I were the president of the United States I would pray to God. I would love making laws. I would make a law that everyone had to pray to God."

I was a bit dumbfounded by her particular bent in lawmaking zeal. I tried to talk her out of it. I tried to get her to think about ponies for every child in the land, but she would not be moved. Since her teachers know we profess Christ, I was tempted to send in a post-it note on the paper declaring that the contents of Cecilia's homework were the views of her alone and did not reflect the viewpoints of the Simmons family. Or at the very least one that stated I hope she didn't ever get any real power.

This weekend I had the honor to talk with InterVarsity Greek students about prayer. Mainly about what it is, why we don't pray and why we should. While prepping the talk I was reminded of the privledge of prayer. That God, all-powerful and true, gives me a way to connect with Him, share my heart and learn His heart. All I have to do is pray. 

There are bad reasons why we pray. The worst of which may be because you feel like God, who you see more as a task master than a loving Father, requires it of you. You feel the burden of the law and feel forced to pray, but there are better reasons to pray-more biblical and more life-giving. God wields His power in a much healthier way than Cecilia would. Which I'll write about this week. 

So as we think about this together, I would love to hear your thoughts...

Why should people pray?

Prayer Confessions

So some of you are wondering how the early morning prayer is going.

Well, I won't say it is going much at all. Without the discipline of blogging I choose most mornings to stay in bed. I think since my last morning blogging, I have gotten up to pray 3 times. I'm still striving to. I'm still setting my alarm (most mornings). But I normally snooze and roll over.

But that is not what I have to confess.

That might be what I should be confessing to the Lord today, but it's not.

I am confessing that for months, maybe years I've used my kids as an excuse not to pray.

I did it in some of my posts. "There is no point to get up early, the kids will just get up with me and distract me...blah blah blah." Sometimes that is not untrue, but what was really at the root of my not wanting to get up early to pray, was that I DIDN'T WANT TO GET UP EARLY TO PRAY. End of story.

I like staying in the bed more than I like praying. I like the quiet I get to myself in the morning more than I like giving that time to God. I like to stay warm and cozy under the covers more than I like sitting in that little cold uncomfortable chair. And I have come to learn, that I like blaming my kid's early morning habits more than I like taking responsibility for my own lack of desire and discipline to pray.

BUT! I don't like this about me, and I don't want to be this way anymore.

I feel the call to pray, to connect with my Papa at other points of my day as well, and I let them be my excuse then too. Instead of pressing into Him, I just let them distract me and draw me away. I tell myself, "How can I pray in this? How can I meet you in this noise?" But honestly, in my heart, what I normally mean is, "I don't have the energy for you today God. I don't have the desire to put forth the effort."

There is a reason that prayer is called a discipline. And I need alot of practice. Alot of training. Alot of support. And obviously, a lot of confession.

What are some reasons you don't pray?

Who's the Jerk Here?

God is good. His is the BEST good. He is good in a way that we can't aspire to.

But when I read Deuteronomy 28 I begin to wonder.

It starts with fourteen verses on how blessed we are when we stay close to Him, when we follow His law. Fourteen wonderful verses-cozy and comfortable. Verses I want to dwell in, unpack, and talk about in Small Group-embroider them on pillows and doodle them in my journal.

But then verse 15 hits and I find myself speeding up. The next 50 verses discuss how terrible life becomes when you move away from God. FIFTY verses on how wrong things will go when I ignore God's instructions and His call to intimacy.

As I continue in the chapter I move from reading fast to scanning and by the end, I'll be honest-I just skip whole chunks of the passage. As I "finish," I find my heart annoyed with the list, uneasy and tense. I am wondering why a good God would harp on curse after curse after curse? OK! I get it! It's BAD! And why not this much detail in the blessing section?

At first I have no answers to these bratty questions, no ideas about why God communicated with His people (and us) in this way, but luckily I was studying this passage with my friend John Hanna.

We are told more about the curses because we are more prone to wandering than we are to faithfulness. He gives us a full look at the consequences of our rebellion because in His goodness He knows and communicates who we truly are and what we are bent toward. And we are really objects of horror bent toward violence and destruction. We are not a people who choose goodness and blessing and closeness with our God. We are a people who flee His presence, His heart, His goodness.

Left to ourselves we move toward all the curses listed in Deuteronomy.

Left to myself I am cursed, and I curse those I try to love.

But luckily God didn't leave me to myself. He came and He rescued me.

If You Want More Photos

I am terrible about posting photos on this blog. So I've decided to start a blog just for pictures.

Click here to check it out!

You can also find a link over to the left.

My goal is to post a new photo everyday, and only 1-3 photos a post.

So for those who want to see the kids more. This new blog is for you. I'll still be posting on this blog with as much regularity as you have come to expect-smile.

The 1st image is in honor of Groundhog's Day. I would love to see spring come early, but I've really enjoyed this winter and all it's snow.

Joy-you should make this new blog dad's homepage. I mean he is the main one who wants more pictures.