I am the LORD
your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not
make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. I am
the LORD who brought you up out of
Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy. (Leviticus
11:44-45)
I
just watched and shared a video in which a husband taught one of his friends
that he doesn’t help his wife with chores. He does the chores because he is
part of the household, because he is taking responsibility for himself, and
because it provides a good example for his children. In other words, he was
fulfilling his side of the relationship. As I think about it, I tend to be like
the friend in my relationship with God. I want Him to do all the work, while I
reap the rewards of a nice life. This morning’s reading on prayer was about
consecration, which Mr. Bounds defined as “the human side of holiness.” In
other words, it’s something we do because we are part of the household of God.
We’re not “helping” Him.
One of the problems Mr. Bounds saw, and which we still see today is that within the church, “There are a multitude of ... activities, enough to engage the time and mind if any one, yea, even more than enough. Some of these may be good, others not so good. The present-day church is filled with machinery, organizations, committees and societies, so much so that the power it has is altogether insufficient to run the machinery, or to furnish life sufficient to do all this external work.” (E. M. Bounds. Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer, p. 121)
One of my pastors once said that he was ever-ready to go out and slay dragons for his wife, but not so interested in taking out the garbage. Sadly, prayer sometimes seems to be “taking out the garbage.” It’s necessary, but unpleasant. When it is showy, it tends to be fake. We take care of it when the stench gets too great, or the bin gets too full, and not a moment sooner. Sometimes, it’s like one of those groups that meets once a year to clean up some area. Lots of activity over the course of a couple hours, then they pat themselves on the back for their heroic effort and do nothing more until someone rallies the troops for next year’s assault.
The real problem is not with the church. It’s with individual people. If I were to consecrate myself to prayer – to set aside time daily solely dedicated to prayer and really pray (instead of whine), to set aside time even to study prayer and learn how to pray fervent, effective prayers, what would happen? Am I willing to try – or am I going to wait until God “moves” me to prayer, or until others do the praying for me?
One of the problems Mr. Bounds saw, and which we still see today is that within the church, “There are a multitude of ... activities, enough to engage the time and mind if any one, yea, even more than enough. Some of these may be good, others not so good. The present-day church is filled with machinery, organizations, committees and societies, so much so that the power it has is altogether insufficient to run the machinery, or to furnish life sufficient to do all this external work.” (E. M. Bounds. Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer, p. 121)
One of my pastors once said that he was ever-ready to go out and slay dragons for his wife, but not so interested in taking out the garbage. Sadly, prayer sometimes seems to be “taking out the garbage.” It’s necessary, but unpleasant. When it is showy, it tends to be fake. We take care of it when the stench gets too great, or the bin gets too full, and not a moment sooner. Sometimes, it’s like one of those groups that meets once a year to clean up some area. Lots of activity over the course of a couple hours, then they pat themselves on the back for their heroic effort and do nothing more until someone rallies the troops for next year’s assault.
The real problem is not with the church. It’s with individual people. If I were to consecrate myself to prayer – to set aside time daily solely dedicated to prayer and really pray (instead of whine), to set aside time even to study prayer and learn how to pray fervent, effective prayers, what would happen? Am I willing to try – or am I going to wait until God “moves” me to prayer, or until others do the praying for me?
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