God of Both/And
Inspired by Luke 1:5-25
Incense swirled its way upward, outward, heavenward.
Forgive Your people
Send the Messiah
Give us a son
Zechariah stopped mid-prayer, chiding himself for that last request and shaking his head that it lingered still. Truly, it had been a desire long ago, voiced by himself and Elizabeth, but as decades passed, it had crystalized into a wordless ache.
Remember your people
Keep your promise
Give us a -
Not again! Enough with the personal issues! He took a deep breath, the aroma filling his nostrils and focusing his senses. He was there at the altar of incense on behalf of Israel’s long-held hopes, not to bring up his own impossible ones. How selfish of me, and how ridiculous! If God had been silent towards the entire nation for hundreds of years as they prayed, then surely God’s lack of response to his private burden should be understandable by now. Plus, with age came natural limitations. Priorities, he told himself.
Deliver your people
Bring us hope
Give -
Suddenly, off to his right, he sensed someone nearby. All of the people were just outside praying; who would dare to enter this sacred space? He looked over and turned white with dread.
“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.”
In a millisecond, questions flashed through his mind: Which prayer? For the nation or for Elizabeth and me? Which one has been heard? How could either of them really be answered?
God would break centuries of silence to answer both an elderly couple’s cry for a child and a nation’s cry for a Deliverer. John would be his parents’ fulfilled prayers and Israel’s final prophet announcing their Messiah. We don’t have a God who has to pick between either/or; He is the God of both/and.
Do you pray believing that? Or do you filter your prayers, as if God has to choose one or the other? Has time decreased the probability that He can answer at all?
I’ll be taking a blogging break over November & December, so Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Hurricane Milton
A prayer inspired by Psalm 89:8-14
As family and friends down south brace for yet another storm, my heart lifts up this prayer:
O Lord God of Hosts, the one who commands angel armies,
Who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?
You rule the raging of the sea.
Rule it.
When its waves rise, you still them.
Still them.
The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours.
Hold them.
The world and all that is in it, you have founded them.
Steady them.
The north and the south, you have created them.
Care for them.
You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.
Reach down.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.
Reign over.
Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Come quickly.
Back-to-School Prayer
Our boys started their sophomore and senior years in high school last Wednesday, but this is their first full week back. As I’ve thought about all of their commitments and their development in 2024-2025, these desires for them rise out of Psalm 90:14-17, and this is what I pray:
Satisfied Hearts: “Satisfy Gradyn and Jace in the morning with your unfailing love…” because there is so much offered to them that will only leave them empty, longing, and unfulfilled.
Singing Mouths: “...that they may sing for joy and be glad all their days. Make them glad for as many days as you have afflicted them, for as many years as they have seen trouble…” May the hard times be displaced by the joy they find in you so that instead of overhearing teenage complaints, negativity, and sarcasm, our ears catch them singing in the shower.
Saturated Eyes: “May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to Gradyn and Jace…” Our eyes roam in search of splendor. Shield their eyes with the bright light of your presence and actions, so they’re more amazed by you than by anything else.
Steadied Hands: “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on them; establish the work of their hands for them- yes, establish the work of their hands.” Only by your grace can their effort this year mean anything. Let what they do make a difference in the direction of their lives, others’ lives, and for eternity.
May it be so.
The Lord’s Prayer
I usually rush into prayer, driven by all I need, and I miss the worshipful focus that Jesus teaches us to begin with in His famous Lord’s Prayer. I want to worship, but I feel so needy. It’s a lofty goal to hallow God’s name when what I really need is daily bread. It sounds too distant to ask for His kingdom when immediate relationships need healing. His will is a foreign path in a world that tempts to define my course.
But if we allow God’s name to inform us about bread, His kingdom to teach us about forgiveness, and His will to guide us into deliverance, we can unite our divided desires and come to God in worshipful neediness.
“Our Father, what kind of love is this to be called Your children!?
You’re a Father who doesn’t play favorites with Your family,
yet You lavish me with individual attention as if I’m an only child.
I am here on earth, but You hold me in your gaze from heaven.
May Your Name be seen as holy when I live in unusual obedience,
because I believe You for my urgent needs like daily bread.
May all who watch my reactions to life’s lows and to your provision in them,
wonder at the Name I carry.
May Your kingdom come, first ruling in my heart
to reveal who I am: Your debtor turned daughter.
May I draw from the treasury of Your forgiveness of me
to spend it on behalf of any sin against me.
May Your will be done, here in my life on this broken earth
where temptation is rampant and evil rules the night.
Deliver me to overcome like Your Son from heaven,
because I belong to You, and it all belongs to You.
Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13; Numbers 20:2-13; Matthew 18:23-35; Matthew 4:1-17
“I’m (truly) sorry”
Repentance in the early church
We look to the church, beginning in Acts 2, to see how early followers of Jesus understood repentance, and as we do, we can more clearly recognize it today.
Repentance Indicating Salvation
Acts 19:18-20: “Also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”
Repentance willingly admits and exposes sin, turning from what was once considered god, to God alone through Christ. Repentance causes an outward shift in what we prioritize, worship, serve, or arrange our lives around, even at great cost. Lives that are transformed like this have the power to amplify the Gospel’s message.
Acts 20:21: “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Acts 26:20: “...I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.”
1 Thessalonians 1:9: “...you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”
Repentance results in Jesus taking center stage in faith and life, rather than what had previously been central (self, finances, fame, religion, sex, comfort, etc). Outward behavior does not merit salvation, but genuine repentance will be noticeable in outward actions.
Lack of Repentance
Hebrews 12:16-17: “...see that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
Emotions and tears do not always indicate a change of heart; sometimes grief results from being caught in sin or facing consequences for sin instead of from sorrow over the sin itself.
Revelation 9:20,21: “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
Revelation 16:9,11: “...and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him…and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.”
Blaming God for sin’s painful consequences, yet continuing to live in sin, indicates an unrepentant heart.
Praying for Repentance
How do we even find the words to pray for an unrepentant heart? Paul, Peter, and John wrote to the early church, describing various pathways that lead to repentance, and the Spirit’s words through these authors offer us a roadmap for our prayers:
Romans 2:4: “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
*Pray that God’s kindness will lead to repentance.
2 Corinthians 7:9: “...yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance.”
*Pray that sorrow over sin will lead to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
*Pray that God’s delayed judgment will lead to repentance.
Revelation 2:5a: “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”
*Pray that remembering past history with the Lord will lead to repentance.
Revelation 3:19: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”
*Pray that God’s loving discipline will lead to repentance.
It’s likely that God led you down one of these pathways toward your own repentance, and maybe that’s the very one He’ll use in someone else’s life as you pray for it.