How To Pray For The Israel-Gaza Conflict

24 May 2021 Leave a comment

Who are the good guys and who are the bad ones? Many Christians will automatically consider Israel the good guys and Gaza the bad guys. This is because of our belief in God’s favor upon Israel as a chosen people, and the land of Israel as God’s gift to them.

However, you cannot pray well when you put people into categories like these. Both the Israelis and Palestinians are “bad guys” in God’s eyes. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Therefore, it is best that we begin prayer with a heart aligned to God’s estimation. Both Israel and Gaza need the mercy and salvation of God.

PRAY FOR THE LEADERS AND PEOPLES OF BOTH NATIONS

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Timothy 2:1-3 ESV)

Pray that God will grant peace and order so that the respective peoples can go about making a good life regardless of race or religion or location. 

Pray that God will grant these peoples good leaders to govern them: wise, righteous, just and compassionate.

Join me in prayer now:

Almighty God, who Rules all nations, we humbly pray for Your mighty intervention in the leadership of these two nations. We pray that You would graciously establish leaders who are wise and really care for the people they lead; leaders who are righteous, incorruptible and just; leaders who will lead their nations to greater peace, prosperity and well-being for everyone. We plead with You to root out the bad trees and plant good trees that will bear good fruit for the whole nation to partake and rejoice in. Lord have mercy and hear our prayers. In Jesus’ mighty name.

PRAY FOR THE SALVATION OF BOTH PEOPLES

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Tim 2:4 ESV)

Christians are in the minority in both nations. Therefore, ask the Lord to grant that the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ be effective in bringing true salvation and help to them. 

This is perhaps the only true hope for both Israel and Gaza: “the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned” (Matt 4:16 ESV).

This was also Paul’s great desire for his people: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).

Join me in prayer now:

Father in heaven, we pray for these two ancient peoples still full of hatred and bitterness towards each other. We plead with you to forgive these peoples their sins and iniquities. Have mercy on them. Do not deal with them according to their sins, nor repay them according to their iniquities. But show Your great mercy and grace upon them.

Our heart’s desire for them is that their eyes may be opened by You when they hear the gospel of Jesus’ love for them. May they come to a knowledge of the truth and turn from all others to follow the true and living God. Pour out Your Spirit upon all flesh as you promised to do in the last days, and let Your servants proclaim Your Word boldly and powerfully. Let many house churches be formed. Spark a Spirit-inspired church-planting movement among these peoples so that all the neighbours around them would know it is Your hand at work. May Your name be glorified and the communities be impacted with positive changes that last. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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How To Pray Without Ceasing

20 May 2021 Leave a comment

This excerpt is taken from M.Basilea Schlink’s book “Keeping In Touch With God.” I find it helpful and relevant in the very challenging times the world finds itself in. Cultivating a life of prayer talking to the Lord as a friend would to a friend is something very precious and life-giving for all who would make prayer without ceasing a spiritual discipline. The title of this excerpt is “Pray Without Ceasing”.

“HOW WONDERFUL IT IS when a person is so gripped by the spirit of prayer that these words can be written about him: He lives a life of prayer, because he does everything prayerfully. 

I am reminded of an incident may years ago, during my travelling ministry. It struck me especially forcefully, since I was not familiar with such a life of prayer at that time. A woman had asked her colleague to take some goods to the railway station to be transported somewhere. As the young co-worker was about to leave, the older woman paused for a moment in her work, folded her hands in prayer, and commended her colleague to the blessing of the Lord. 

An insignificant incident – and yet it had a message. Here was a woman who led a life of prayer. She could not help but do everything prayerfully. Prayer shaped her whole life. Prayer was such a reality to her that its impact was felt in every area of her life, guiding what she did or did not do, causing her to pause in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. 

As I watched that woman stop to pray, her action deeply convicted me. To be sure, I had my quiet time every morning, when I brought everything before the Lord in prayer. However, in the course of the day, I would go about my various tasks without first pausing to pray. Often, I was so taken up with my work that there was no time to stop and think, or – to be honest- I did not take time to stop and think, the time to be still before the Lord. 

This small incident conveyed an important truth: Our life will become a life of prayer only as we live in the presence of God; that is, only as we repeatedly become still before the Lord throughout the day, bringing before Him our thoughts, plans, intentions and actions, submitting everything to Him, asking for His guidance and blessing. This is probably what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “Pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

What a privilege to do everything prayerfully, in keeping with His will, listening for His directions and instructions. When we submit everything we do and say to God, calling down His blessing upon it then our actions and words will acquire a heavenly radiance and yield fruit. Yet how seldom we make use of this privilege! Are we surprised that our words, dealings with others, work and various activities produce so few lasting results? Only a life of prayer is fruitful, for it is lived in close communion with Jesus, who said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

It is not enough to commit the day in prayer to God in the morning and then ignore Him as we throw ourselves into our activities. No, prayer is the breath of the soul. I need to breathe over and over again; otherwise I cannot live. Leading a life of prayer means discussing with God everything the day brings, everything that touches my life, for prayer is the soul’s communication with God. 

The praying soul is someone who keeps in touch with God. Such a person does not allow people and things to absorb or dominate him; nor does he lose himself in them. On the contrary, a praying soul loses himself in God. He approaches people and situation in union with God. Consequently, the praying person is a person who imparts blessing. Everything with which he comes into contact is brought into the radiant presence of God and under His blessing. A person who blesses lifts everything in prayer into the heavenly regions, so that it bears the imprint of heaven.

Continual communion with the holy God is what gives a life of prayer its special quality, making it fruitful and blessed. Whoever spends his life in this manner is united with God, reflecting peace, serenity and joy. 

Some are experienced in spiritual warfare and yet fail to lead a life of prayer. After engaging in spiritual warfare, they just switch off, failing to maintain a prayerful attitude in word and action. Something is wrong, for the Bible says that everything we do, be it word or deed, we are to do in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17). Because He is the same yesterday, today and forever and always present, we will, if our attitude is right, always aim to live in complete dependence upon Him. God is not interested in us merely engaging in spiritual warfare at certain times, even though this, too, is necessary. His concern is that our whole life will be a life of prayer. 

Without a strong and deep prayer life in these demonic times, we will be lost. We will be at the mercy of depressing events, trials and temptations. The vital prerequisite for experiencing help and deliverance is that we live in intimate union with Jesus and the Father, because it is prayer that changes everything.

God is challenging us to examine our lives in His light. What fills our days? What engrosses our minds? Can we really say that we take notice of the call to devote ourselves first of all to prayer (1 Timothy 2:1)?

Those who do everything here on earth in communion with their Lord will walk with Him above in intimate fellowship. But those who do not lead a life of prayer cannot expect to be close to God above. For we will only be as close to Him then as we are now in prayer.

Can we imagine people who love each other not communicating? If we love Jesus, we will discuss everything with Him, turning everything into prayer. We will keep coming to Him, wanting His direction for every detail of our lives, seeking His blessing. 

How often we may have missed out on a blessing or, as parents and teachers, failed to convey a blessing to those in our care, because we did not consider it so important to lead a life of fellowship with God. Is this the reason why our lives are often so difficult, stressful and unhappy?

“The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and toil adds nothing to it.” (Proverbs 10:22). Everything depends on God’s blessing – at work, in our relationships with others, and so on. Instead of spending so much time talking about our difficulties or fretting about people or circumstances, let us spend more time in prayer, asking God to bless both others and ourselves and all their activities and ours. 

How much power is conveyed by the scriptural prayer, so simply yet so beautifully expressed: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Or we could say short prayers of blessing in our own words: “The Lord bless you in all your endeavours. May He give you love and wisdom to speak and act in His Spirit. Through the blood of Jesus may he guard your soul from all the attacks of the evil one.”

Weak, sinful and mortal though we are, through prayer we can have fellowship with God in our brief lives in this world. Could anything be more wonderful? What a privilege to invoke the blessing of the Most High through prayer. According to Numbers 6:27, blessing means placing the name of God upon a person. In the name of God lies His character. So when we pray of God’s blessing, we are calling down His love, wisdom, truth and salvation. 

Oh that we would make more full use of this opportunity! Our lives would be transformed into a life of prayer. Then we would be more restrained in saying, doing and writing things which, were we at death’s door, we would deeply regret. First, we would bring to the Lord in prayer everything that stirs us, talking it over with Him. Then He who is love and humility would point out the way of love and patience. Though it leads through the valley of humiliation, it is there we find God’s blessing, which transforms us and others, and circumstances. 

What a blessing the life of prayer is! What a blessing it is to do everything in union with Jesus, the fairest of the sons of men (Psalm 45:2)! One with Him in thanksgiving, supplication, worship and intercession, our souls rejoice, saying, 

Living and dying in You,

May all I do – or choose not to do-

Be inspired by You. 

Help me to keep this my pledge

In loving faithfulness

Till my dying breath. 

(Albert Knapp).”

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Silent Retreats: Seven Blessings & Benefits

7 April 2021 Leave a comment

What are the blessings and benefits of going to a silent retreat? I have been to many silent retreats from one day to over thirty days and I have always experienced many benefits and blessings through them. I have listed those that I can recall here, although not all of them are experienced in every retreat. The benefits and blessings are like a fountain and what it dispenses are abundant, life-giving and multi-faceted. Here are seven blessings I have experienced.

The blessings of going on a silent retreat are abundant and multi-faceted

First, physical rest. Like most Singaporeans, I am often unaware of how much I needed rest and sleep. I was so caught up with the church work, family commitments, unticked boxes in my “To Do” list, and meetings that I often failed to attend to my body’s plea. I push my body and prop it up at night to its brink. In a silent retreat, I quiet myself and slow down. Quickly I begin to hear my body’s sigh. I embrace my limits and have my naps and unbounded sleep. Imperceptibly my body would rejuvenate, and the joy and sparkle would return. 

Second, processing of past events and experiences. Being proactive and productive is drilled into us by our culture, but being reflective has to be learned. There is no better place to learn this than during a retreat because it offers space for God to be with us as we reflect on past events and experiences, both the blessings and the burdens. This conversation with God about past painful and happy experiences helps us to go back in order to go forward. It facilitates a healing process, adjusts our assumptions and perceptions, empowers us for reconciliation, and roots us in the peace of God in the midst of unchanged circumstances and ambiguous issues. I always leave the retreat house with deep peace and joy.

Third, knowledge of God and self. God reveals himself to us as we intentionally seek him in silence, solitude and prayer. “Seek and you shall find”, Jesus promised. Mostly, I find God revealing himself to me, and more of myself to me. This knowledge comes through scripture meditation and other ancient ways of prayer, through reflection of how God is present in my past experiences, through the Lords’ Supper, and through what I observe and experience day by day in the retreat center.

Fourth, transformation. The knowledge of God and self often led to repentance, trust, commitment, directional change, worship and praise. It is not mere head knowledge but formational knowledge born out of illumination and truth encounters. Many years back I was going through a burn-out and a lengthy retreat restored me completely. You can read about this HERE. It was a transforming experience that convinced me that set apart times of seeking God in solitude and silence are vitally important for all followers of Christ, particularly those in the front-lines of the Lord’s service. 

Fifth, learning to seek and know God. Free from all earthly distractions and duties, I find myself having the space and time to learn to be intimate with God.  The many hours devoted to prayer, whether regulated or spontaneous, individual or together with others, in your room or in the chapel or outdoors, lend itself to intensive training and learning of what it means to pray. Most Singaporean Christians hardly pray – they are bombarded every day with a hundred things! The retreat gives you an undisturbed space to form a deeper connection with God and to form a habit of daily prayer and reflection, however small the beginning may seem. Armed with this success, one is more assured when one goes back into the fight of the daily grind, because he or she now has a stronger connection with God and is more confident about praying through life.

Sixth, patient hope. Retreatants often come with burning questions or issues. The felt need has to be strong for a Singaporean to sacrifice precious annual leave and money which could be used for a vacation or expensive device. They seek God with an intense expectation of a clear answer from God during the retreat, preferably by the middle of it. Sometimes God does address the issue concerned and answers or direction is graciously granted. Other times, in fact, most times this expectation of a quick satisfactory answer is met in a different way from what is expected by the retreatant.  

The biblical Job demanded an answer from God for his “unjust” suffering and got nothing God’s revelation of his glory and greatness. No intelligible logical answer was given to the mystery of why a righteous man like him had to suffer so much. God drawing near to him and revealing his greatness is deemed sufficient to root Jobs faith in the sovereignty of God. This often happens in retreat: we want an answer to help in decision-making but God simply draws near and reminds us of who he is, and invites us to trust him. God beckons us to wait without worrying. God invites us to hope.

Seventh, learning discernment. Spiritual discernment is a neglected gift, one we should all pray for and develop. I have found a growth in my ability to distinguish the thoughts, desires and feelings that comes from the devil, or my old self, or from God. I learn to discern the idols in my life: those things that I need to be freed from, so that the choices I make are glorifying to God. I learn to detect the devil’s specially designed tactics of attacking my specific weaknesses. I learn to be more sensitive to the Spirit’s movements in my heart.

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Psalm 88: The End Psalm

31 March 2021 Leave a comment

Last Tuesday evening, my cousin went home to be with the Lord. She had fought a long-drawn battle with cancer for many years. Her treatment reached a stage where the Assisi Hospice at Thomson Road became the best place for her to spend the last weeks of her life.

I confess that I struggle to journey with people who are seriously ill or dying. I admire those who compassionately, patiently, faithfully journey with the dying. They suffer with the dying friend over every setback and regression, and rejoice with them over every step of progress and hope. They hold their hands, look at them in the eyes, listen to them, serve them gently and generously, act and speak kindly to them. I know everyone has limited strengths, but I cannot help but feel totally inept compared to these Mother Teresas. Most of the time, I feel helpless during a visit, and empty, worn and down after it. I sit, I listen, I hear stories and confessions, I serve the bread and wine, I sing, read scriptures, and pray, I leave, and I hope my presence somehow helped.

Kubler Ross observed five stages of loss among the dying: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I can recognize these stages in varying forms and expressions among those about to go home to God too. I do not try to control or fix them, but just notice them as they appear, disappear and re-appear as time went on till the sick persons come to a place where they are at peace and are willing, even wishing, to go to their loving God and Saviour as soon as possible.

Interestingly, during this period, I have come to Psalms 88 in my regular meditations. I felt drawn into its depths. It is such a sad, depressing, dark, heart-breaking psalm. I learned in seminary that such psalms are called “lament” psalms and served a liturgical and communal purpose for the Jews throughout history. I observed that this psalm does not have a hopeful ending to it unlike other such lament psalms. It is bereft of hope, except the address of the Lord as “God of my salvation”. 

This psalm is of one who has suffered from his youth throughout his life and feels like one who is abandoned by God, shunned by friends and about to die. I wrote on my Bible the emotions present: despair, guilt, anger, trapped, despised, bargaining, bewildered, lonely, abandonment, assaulted, hopelessness. As I meditated on this psalm it dawned on me that some of these emotions may have been felt by my cousin as she laid in the hospice. These range of emotions would possibly be experienced by those suffering and waiting for death. The psalm gave a painful but real sense of one who felt close to death. As I look from outside at all the pain and tears and pleas in the psalm, it moved me to be keenly aware of my frailty, my hour.

The darkness and pain of this psalm was not relieved by the three prayers (ver 1,9,13) that prefaced the three sections. The black sheet can only be lifted by a knowledge that these psalmists do not have: the blessed revelation of what Jesus death and resurrection accomplished for us who live under the new covenant. The curtains open to let in the Light that dispels all darkness and shadows, when we who know the grace of the Lord Jesus, affirm the great hope of a resurrection similar to that of our Lord who died and rose again. This hope alone can transfigure everything at any hospice and any deathbed.

Is the psalm 88 of any use then in this era of the new covenant? Yes it has its uses. For one it provides a contrasting background that highlights and demonstrates the complete and final victory of Good Friday and Easter over suffering and death. If there is no black night, we would never have been able to fully appreciate a beautiful dawn or sunny day!

I also feel the psalm can be a useful passage to pray with for people who are at the end stage of life. It will help them to express their struggles and longings, and to surface and process the authentic and real emotions and struggles they find difficult to label. It may trigger memories and emotions that the person can then reflect upon and talk with the Lord about. As this is done, ideally with a spiritual director, one can by God’s grace find a place of perfect peace, assurance and hope as he or she waits to be hugged and taken home by their heavenly Father. 

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Deeper Friendship with Jesus

23 March 2021 Leave a comment

A deeper friendship with Jesus – this was one of the strong desires that surfaced during my prayer retreat I made last year before my retirement in November. I did not want my times with God to be dominated by ministry burdens, decisions, church issues, and preaching preparation as it was during my pastorate. I wanted my relationship with God to be more like a friendship. “I not longer regard you as servants but as friends” was what Jesus said to his disciples before his passion. There would be a greater warm intimacy, more disclosure and collaborative partnership in the relationship. When I am with my pastor friends I do not only ask favours and request information and talk about ministry issues, I also talk about what’s going on in my family and life, my everyday stuff, and light-hearted matters and incidents too. I wanted something of this in my relationship with the Lord too. So I have been praying more for this grace recently: a deeper friendship with Jesus, and started talking to him about anything and everything about the day that passed. In addition, I saw a small booklet at my bedside table titled, Keeping In Touch With God by M. Basilea Schlink, the founder of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. I browsed the pages and saw that this could be helpful in fulfilling this desire that surfaced during my prayer retreat last year. Let me share a snippet here, a prayer she wrote that I found resonant with what I want in my relationship with God. I hope it stirs a similar desire in you to want a deeper friendship with Jesus too.

JESUS, YOU SHALL BE FIRST IN MY LIFE.

I want to talk with you and work for you.

I want to think over everything with you, making all my decisions with you.

Nothing shall be done without you, for I do not want to shut you out of my life.

Bind me tightly to you so that nothing – no work, no burden, no other interest, no joy – can separate us during this day.

So may I constantly live in your holy presence: FOR YOU ARE THERE!

M. BASILEA SCHLINK
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