INTRODUCTION
Perhaps you’ve seen the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? It’s a comedy set during America’s Depression era.
The story revolves around three petty criminals who escape from a chain gang. George Clooney stars as the leader named Everett Ulysses McGill. He tells his companions that he has buried money from a bank robbery near his property in order to persuade them to make a run for it. But near the end of the movie, the law catches up with them, and even though they have been pardoned by the governor, the lawman who has been pursuing them is intent on hanging them. As they are about to be hanged, Everett, Delmer, and Pete stand trembling in front of a large oak, deep in the woods and far away from anyone who can help them. They turn their eyes up to the three ropes that hang from the old tree. Everett, who never had much use for God before, drops to his knees and begins to pray for a miracle from God. “Lord, please look down and recognize us poor sinners. Please, Lord, I just want to see my daughters again. I’ve been separated from my family for so long. I know I’ve been guilty of pride and short dealing. I’m sorry I turned my back on you. Forgive me. We’re helpless, Lord. Help us, please.” As Everett ends his prayer, a small stream of water begins to run around his knees. His companions also notice the water and stare at it in confusion. As the wind blows, suddenly a great wall of water sweeps away everyone and everything in its path — including the lawmen who were about to hang them. The next scene shows Everett, Delmer, and Pete gasping for air as they break the surface of the water. Delmer raises his voice yelling, “It’s a miracle We prayed to God, and he pitied us ” Everett, who just a short time was crying out to God for just such a miracle, chastises his friends as “hayseeds” for believing that it was an act of God. He says, “Don’t be ignorant. There’s a perfectly scientific explanation for what just happened.” Pete says, “That ain’t the tune you were singin’ back there at the gallows ” Everett brushes it off and says, “Well, any human being will cast about in moment of stress.”
There are many people like Everett who use God in a time of crisis and then abandon him when life seems back under their control. But the only reason we can have the confidence to ask, seek and knock is because of an intimate relationship of trust and mutual love. It is a love that follows God and obeys him.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).
The answer to anxiety is prayer.
Paul outlines the beautiful promise that when we turn from anxiety to prayer and thanksgiving, God will give us his own peace.
If you want some relief from the stress of the daily grind then take the coming day into your prayers.
1. TAKE THE COMING DAY INTO YOUR PRAYERS
Life is like a book and each day is like a new page. As we read today’s page and think on it, The Holy Spirit will reveal what to pray about.
So in the morning, think about the day ahead. Try to anticipate what’s coming as best you can, and talk to God about it.
Now, obviously you can’t predict your day entirely. There are always unknown elements – good and bad surprises – sudden temptations, tragedies and opportunities. But you can pray about these as well.
Praying in advance, is something Jesus did often. Before he chose the twelve disciples – the men who were to be the nucleus of the Church – he spent the entire night before in prayer.
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles (Luke 6:12-13)
Another time, Jesus had a very important question he had to ask his disciples. And he prayed about it in advance ...
Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" (Luke 9:20)
And of course, Jesus started the last and greatest day of his life on earth with prayer.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:39-42)
And we can learn a lot from this last example. Jesus asked the disciples to pray, but they didn’t. Three times he asked them to pray – but they failed to do so. Then, when the crisis came and Jesus was arrested, the disciples were completely unprepared for it.
Jesus, on the other hand, had prayed for most of the night and was ready for anything. Jesus didn’t slink away – Jesus was completely victorious on the toughest, most stressful day of his life!
If you want the ultimate stress relief, take the coming day into your prayers. When you pray about the people you expect to meet, the tasks you’re likely to do and the decisions that have to be made – before the event – it will make all the difference.
I want you to try that this week. It’s the ultimate stress relief.
2. TAKE THE PAST DAY INTO YOUR PRAYERS
If you watch Dr Phil or Oprah or if you read the relationships columns in any lifestyle magazine - you may hear a lot about “closure.” Bringing closure to a series of events or ending a chapter of your life well has many benefits for your emotional, intellectual, physical and even your spiritual health.
There should be no surprise then, that this is in fact a biblical principle. In the Bible the Lord makes it clear that he wants you to ...
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith
(2 Corinthians 13:5a).
You see, when I live an unexamined life, I leave myself open to repeating the same mistakes day after day. When I don’t examine my day I don’t learn from the decisions I’ve made – good or bad! When there’s no closure to my day, I can lose track of why I am here and where I am supposed to be going.
At the end of each day you have the chance to “let off steam” in prayer to God. To get things off your chest so to speak. The ultimate stress relief is to find a still quite place at the end of the day – and review the events of that day in the presence of God who was with you right throughout that day.
So the next principle - if you want some relief – is that you must take the past day into your prayers.
Take time to examine your heart – to confess your sins and ask for forgiveness. Pause to think about what you have done and what you have left undone. During the day you met some people – do they need your prayer? What can you give thanks for today? Has anything made you happy? Have you received some blessing? At the end of the day it’s healthy to say thank you – to be grateful to God.
This week, why don’t you let off some steam each night before you go to bed. Review the day in the presence of God. It’ll only take a moment – and without that load, you should get a better sleep.
3. TAKE THE BIBLE INTO YOUR PRAYERS
One writer has said this about prayer...
“Too little of the Bible and too little prayer spells death to the spiritual life. Too much of the Bible with little prayer brings a sick life. Too much prayer and not enough Bible brings an emotionally unstable life. But a full measure of both the Bible and prayer each day gives a healthy and powerful life.” (Andrew Murray)
The point is this, if I want a balanced life and thus a stress reduced life – I must take the Bible into my prayers.
It’s ironic that most of the time we think of prayer as talking to God. Do you ever wonder whether God wants to talk to you? Sometimes I can just imagine God saying, “Wayne, if we enjoy a relationship, then why are you doing all the talking. Can I get a word in somewhere?”
I don’t know why we think of prayer us speaking to God. Listening to him in prayer is just as important. And Jesus commands his blessing for you if you do this...
He replied, "Blessed ... are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 11:28)
In any normal relationships, what I say is usually a response to what has just been said to me. So if God has spoken to me through his Word, then my prayer should be a response to that.
And if you’re struggling to know what to pray about then perhaps you should try starting your prayer time with a Bible reading. There are hardly any Bible passages that will not prompt you to pray for something.
I like to start my time in the Bible by simply asking God to meet me there in the Scriptures. Or to pray the prayer of Samuel - “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.”
And God promises to speak to our deepest needs and desires if we are prepared to be quiet and listen.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
If I want a balanced life and thus a stress reduced life – I must take the Bible into my prayers. This week why don’t you try asking God to meet you and to speak to you through the Scriptures as you pray.
4. PUT YOUR DESIRES INTO YOUR PRAYERS
Finally, if you want some relief from the stress of the daily grind then take your desires into your prayers.
You see, God wants us to be real when we pray. The disciples once asked Jesus how to pray and he said this,
"... when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full ... And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words
(Matthew 6:5 and 7).
Jesus is saying, don’t be a hypocrite when you pray and stop babbling. In other words – be sincere, be real, be authentic.
He wants us to avoid religious clichés and falling into the habit of meaningless repetition. It’s so easy for me to use religious jargon when I’m praying. Certain phrases sound so spiritual. You’ve probably heard this at the diner table.
It seems to me that there are only about a dozen forms of prayer that people use for saying grace and being thankful for their food. But Jesus says, stop babbling – be real. Bill Hybles (the writer of our study on prayer), gives a classic example of how ridiculous this is. He says ...
A Believer sits down to a meal that is a nutritional nightmare. The grease is bubbling, the salt is glistening, the sugared drink stands ready to slosh the stuff down. “Dear Lord,” the person prays, “bless this food to our bodies, and grant us strength and nourishment from it so that we may do your will.” God’s will will may be for that person to say “Amen” push back from the table and give the meal to the dog – except that dogs matter to God too!
The apostle Paul tells us God’s will in 1 Corinthians 6:20 ... Honour God with your body.
Being real means you don’t ask God to bless junk food and miraculously change it so that it has nutritional value. That’s not how God works.
So we have to stop being hypocrites. And if we want to stop babbling in our prayer we have to start praying about things that really matter to us – things that we truly desire.
You see, the presence of intense personal desire in prayer is the difference between praying and merely saying our prayers.
For example, a young guy is really interested in his job, in football, in his leisure time – and of course he is interested in Mary, his girlfriend. But he doesn’t pray about any of this because he thinks they’re not spiritual enough.
Instead he ends up praying for some missionary he’s never met in a country whose name he can’t spell, and he prays for the sick in the church and for those who are sick of the church – and unfortunately he’s not particularly interested in any of these things.
Now I’m not saying that these things are not good things to pray for – and I’m not saying you shouldn’t pray for these things. But unless you’re interested in these things you’re going to be put off prayer and find it very dull and boring.
If I want prayer to relieve the stress in my life – I have to bring my life into my prayer. God is interested in the things I’m interested in.
This week I want to encourage you to bring your real interests into your prayer. Tell God what your real desires are whatever they might be.
CONCLUSION
So if I want prayer to relieve the stress in my life – I have to bring my coming day into my prayer, my past day into my prayer, the Bible into my prayer and I must bring my desires into my prayer.
The Australian bush is subjected to stress every summer during bush fire season. The fire burns through and can scar mature trees quite deeply. Yet the very fire that causes so much stress releases seeds and thus brings new life. It is essential to the regeneration of the bush and the fine balance of life in the eco-system.
My daily stresses can be like this. As I am placed under pressure, I have a choice. I can succumb to them and give up. Or I can allow the stress to drive me to prayer. The stress may be so severe that is scars me deeply – but if it causes me to lean more on God in prayer I will find the peace of God which passes all understanding. Stress answered with prayer will bring new life.
www.australindbaptistchurch.com
Resources:
Bill Hybels "Too Busy Not to Pray"
Stephen Winward "How To Talk With God"
