Fifteen Minutes
Psalm 95
Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes? Okay, make it ten minutes. Okay then five minutes... Okay, just one single minute. I can't give the preacher the proper credit as I was listening on a radio boadcast and had to let the thought just sink into my thick head. It seems the story shared was a father saying to his son they needed to pray together... for at least fifteen minutes .. and that fifteen minutes was to be only telling God His attributes... Only. Not any asking for the needs of self, or others, just telling God who He is.
There was a time of prayer we had at our church, our local assembly, when praying was in three separate areas. The first was acknowledging God for who He is, then supplications for others, then last for self. I remember pastor Jerry praying that first part just recalling one attribute after another. And the example for that was from the example prayer Jesus gave in Matthew 6.
Now for me there was something very unusual, but a very definite observable step by step process this last week. For my last post as I said I struggled with learning some deep things about myself God wanted me to see and know about myself. That took up a lot of time in my week writing. After seeing that shouldn't be posted and I read Psalm 5 realizing I should write thoughts and ponderings there, well, that also took time. Just some thoughts on this go, stop, go, stop, go process reminded me of a message in chapel in Bible college from Psalm 37, with the variation that the "stops" of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Then as I reread and continued to meditate on Psalm 95, then came Sunday. First pastor Jeremy preached on Ephesians 1:15-22, Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church. A big emphasis takeaway is reflected in Philippians 3:10, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection..." (Ephesians 1:19, 20), "His power toward us"! Then another delay waiting for Sunday night as we look into the Spiritual Disciplines we should have in our lives. So that from pastor Matt was an emphasis on prayer. Stop after stop, but very powerful things that made me realize I needed to further to prepare my heart to finish writing this meditation.
This brings me back to something I have been really dealing with in my life. Often I wake in the middle of the night usually with little feeling of getting back to sleep. Sometimes I do my daily Bible reading at that time. But about the last week I have had that thought of just praying fifteen minutes. Of course I would put stipulations on it for an honest prayer time. If I pray the attributes of God it should be necessary (for me) that I pray the attributes of God I can clearly say I have experienced directly in my life. I chose not to just run to Scripture directly or even quote Scripture, but to think of what I absolutely know I have experienced, I can point to specific times I have seen that attribute active in my life. For instance in what way have I seen God's mercy physically in my life? You might say, you can read those in God's Word. But going back to what Jesus said when the man was lowered through the roof in front of Him to be healed, looking about with anger at the Pharisees present after He had told the man, 'Your sins are forgiven you", Jesus then asked, "Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you, or be healed? But so you know the Son of Man has power to forgive sins I say to this man, rise up and walk." And he rose up and walked. And so for my prayer life yes I do know the forgiveness of sin, even so at this point in my life I should be experiencing God's attributes physically in my life too. And those are the attributes I felt that I should be telling God, not just the list I have made from reading Scripture. Certainly the Scriptures will guide me in seeing God's working in my life, but like even these writers of the Psalms wrote from their heart based on their life experiences with no Scripture on which to base their prayers, their writings, even so should I be able to pray to God what I have experienced directly from Him.
Come, let us rejoice unto the Lord: let us sing aloud unto the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his face with praise: let us sing loud unto him with Psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Psalms 95:1-3 GNV
These Psalms were written out of the heart of real life experiences with honest praise, with honest heart ache. They weren't based on Scripture. When at the end of this Psalm God’s voice speaks of two specific ways in which He is seen, He is experienced.
First there was...
...your fathers tempted me, proved me, though they had seen my work.
Psalms 95:9 GNV
and then...
...this generation... They are a people that err in heart, for they have not known my ways.
Psalms 95:10 GNV
Thinking of people who continued to prove God even though they had seen the plagues the Lord brought on Egypt. Then there's the reality that they had seen the Lord s works, but they didn't know, didn't even bother to learn the ways of God. This is seen much later at the raising of Lazarus.
Then many of the Jews, which came to Mary, and had seen the things, which Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went their way to the Pharises, and told them what things Jesus had done.
John 11:45-46GNV
For many who believed there was no further proving necessary. But for others they were unphased even as Jesus told of the story of the rich man and Lazarus,
Then he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead again.
Luke 16:31 GNV
So when I pray, can I pray fifteen minutes to God of God, of what I have experienced Him doing in my life, so I can very truly, honesty say of God, I have seen your work, and I have no need to prove you again, and from your works I have learned your ways.
God, you are a God of mercy. You don't allow all I deserve.
God, you are a God of grace. You give me much more than anything I deserve.
God, you are a God of love. You have made your presence of love known in so much of my life.
How many minutes is that?
Do we come before the Lord's face with praise? From our hearts, out of our lives. May we truly, honestly pray praise to God’s face.