Godward Toil

Does your computer shout and sing for joy?

The second half of Psalm 65 is about God's majesty in provision.  He enriches the soil, provides grain, and gives a bountiful harvest.    Verse 12-13 say this:

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy. (ESV)

This Psalm was written in an agrarian context, where  provision of grain meant food on the table.  Whether or not you were a farmer, you had a direct connection to that provision as the source of life for your family.   If you work at a computer for some or most of your day and shop at a grocery store for food, you might have lost that direct connection.  These verses become pretty and tame--like a cheesy nature photograph.   So we might need to refresh our view of provision.  If God provides for your family by your work on a computer, as is the case for an increasing number of people, then we need to think about what we are harvesting from our work with the same wonder at God's provision.  If you solve problems, enter data, write grants, develop software, place inventory orders, or design machines for a living, then your computer is the pastures, meadows, and valleys that Psalm 65 is talking about.   Each line of code, text, or numbers that flows out of your fingers is like grain coming up from the ground.  I need to remember that and be in constant awe of God's majesty in provision.   As I do, my computer shouts and sings for joy at his glory!

Getting things done with prayer

In a recent sermon on prayer, John Piper made the following staggering assertion:

...God has ordained to make our prayers real causes of real events. Real causes. The words of James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask,” do not mean, “You would have had anyway, even if you didn’t pray, since God had a plan and your prayers don’t matter.” “You do not have because you do not ask” means prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen. This is breathtaking. And if you neglect this privilege—your participation in God’s moving the world—you are acting very foolishly. We pray because it is a staggeringly awesome privilege.

I nearly gasped when I heard this.  And it has changed my prayer life.   Why?

Anyone who knows John Piper's mission and theology knows that no one on Earth has a higher view God's sovereignty and supremacy.  In the very paragraph before the one I quoted above, he says,  "God runs this world with infinite wisdom. You and I never inform him of anything he doesn’t already know. We never add to his wisdom about what he should do next."    So when I heard him say "prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen," I knew that  He was not taking about an open theism position in which God lacks foreknowledge and therefore is ever improving and responding.

That meant that I really needed to come to terms with this radical statement.  Does he really mean "cause"?   Do my prayers matter in a "cause" kind of way?   I knew that I hadn't been praying like that.   I asked God to show me truth, to enlighten and enlarge my mind so that I might possibly hold onto such a potentially glorious paradox long enough to examine it and let it touch me.    With that prayer, I went to the Scripture and found just what John Piper found:   We have an inscrutable God who knows and causes all things, and who has taken pleasure in causing prayer to cause things to happen in the universe.   This reality is so profound, that I can barely begin to think about before I exhaust my mental capacity.

Yet, marvelously and inexplicably, my soul can respond to it.  When I was first born of God, I prayed this way.  And I have begun to pray this way again.  Early this week, while I was reading the Bible in the morning, I felt overwhelmed by all of the tasks and responsibilities I had this week.  I could not see how I could possibly do everything that I had to do.  Next actions and projects identified, but not nearly enough time to fit them in.  In my prayer journal, I asked God to help me.   And I asked with the fervency that came from the meditations on prayer that had been sparked by the Piper sermon.   Later that day, one of the huge things I had to do was completed and taken away in 30 minutes.   When it happened, I knew with certainty (with as much unprovable certainty as I know I love my children) that my prayer had caused that to happen.  I thanked and praised Him.   An unbelievable interaction had taken place with the One who holds the universe in His hands.  I participated in God moving the world.  He caused my circumstances (the work I had, the sermon, everything), moved my heart to pray,  heard the prayer, and made it happen.   He ordered all of this such that my prayer was the only way it would happen--and/because it is the way He gets the most glory.

Prayer:  a trusted system for getting things done.

Filing for fruitfulness

I got feedback from two of the participants in the pilot seminar that they have begun filing systems!  The first person thought it would take her 4 full weeks to organize all of her papers, but she did it in three concentrated hours!  She's using a simple alphabetical filing system.   Her husband told me, "I haven't seen her smile like that since our wedding day!"   There is such hopefulness in this kind of stewardship of the stuff God gives us.  One feels ready to take whatever next step God asks.  Another participant decided to gain control of her bills and file them in a way that she can track them better.

This was hopeful feedback for me.  I believe each of these people took these steps in faith and with the desire that God receive glory for their small efforts to honor Him.   Nothing feels better than to bring Him glory in how we conduct our busy lives--including how we manage the paper he has ordained to enter our homes.