The Image in the Mirror

Have you listened to your prayers lately? If you're like me, you have set times of prayer by yourself and with others, but you also carry on a conversation with God as you travel each day. God's Word is the mirror (James 1:23-25) and my actions reveal what I believe about what I see. But the image? Perhaps the image in the mirror is best reflected in my prayers. After reading the book of Esther, I have been challenged to evaluate how I truly think about God based on my prayers.

From the beginning of the book I was struck by Esther's willingness to take advice from Mordecai, her uncle, and Hegai, the king's eunuch (Esther 2:15, 20). She did not have all the answers, she did not know or pretend to know what would be best, so she relied on the wisdom of others. My willingness to listen to those in authority reflects my willingness to listen to God. If I am doing life on my own, I am not in fellowship with God or others; pride clouds each step of my day. To ask for and take advice is to live in humility. In prayer, do I ask and wait? Or do I tell and do?

Having read the entire book numerous times, I'm convinced it should be the book of Mordecai. The title, "Esther," is itself a tribute to his humility and wisdom. Although we don't hear his prayers, we see his actions. Mordecai intervened on the king's behalf without expectation of reward (Esther 2:22-23).  He refused to butter-up Haman like his countrymen who had grown accustomed to winning the favor of their oppressors (3:2). He was true to God regardless of reward or reprisal. Does my prayer life reflect a desire to please others and win their approval over the approval of God? Or do I pray for courage, strength and wisdom to please Him and Him alone?

Esther, after seeking Mordecai's counsel, put her life on the line. After three days of prayer and fasting, she invited King Ahasuerus and Haman to a meal that was already prepared (Esther 5:4). There are many ideas about why Queen Esther would do this, but I wonder if she wanted to know Haman for herself. She had seen the document of death (4:8), but being a woman of wisdom, she didn't assume the worst. Each of us knows someone of self-importance, like Haman, who exposes himself needlessly. There's a good chance Haman felt he was safe enough to openly despise Mordecai and the Jews at that first meal. When I am in a safe place, how do I regard others? Does my prayer life assume the best of people or the worst?

Finally, Esther didn't initiate her request. She wasn't demanding or combative or impatient. She trusted that God would meet her need in His timing--and there was plenty to spare, more than 8 months! When given an opportunity, she voiced concern for the safety of herself and her people, not judgment on Haman. She respected the king with her request, stating the problem, not the solution, in her initial outcry. Do my prayers reflect a deep trust and respect for God? Do I wait on Him, as a weaned child sitting contentedly on his mother's lap? Or do I demand and claw and beg? Do I approach Him with the problem or the solution?

This morning I am struck with a serious need to evaluate my prayer life and personal beliefs of God-who He is and what He can do. My prayer, held up to Scripture, exposes my greatest desires and personal view of God. By His grace, He will help me repent and grow in Christlikeness. Have you listened to your prayers lately?

Stuck

Today is one of those dreary, tiresome days and I don't. want. to. do. anything.
But--there are websites to update, emails to send, clothes to fold, floors to sweep, agents to contact. And I have nothing.  No drive.  No motivation.  No desire.
My prayer?  My only hope?  "God, move me. Wherever You would have me go; whatever You would have me do. If it were up to me, none of it wouldn't happen. Not today."
So here I am, procrastinating--but with an important message for each of us. God can, and will, move us. Sometimes I'm more willing, able and motivated than others--even that is a gift. On days like today, I realize that I can't make it happen.
"Move me, God. Move me."

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.

 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him....  Psalm 37:4-7

 

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

What is Your God Worth?

While visiting Cancun, Mexico in January, we traveled to the ancient ruins of Tulum. After looking at the entrance to the inner city and walking past crumbled domiciles, our guide stopped in front of the temple, looked across the group and singled out our 11-year-old daughter. He motioned her to the front of the group so he could demonstrate the Aztecs annual sacrifice. We refused. As he explained the horrible, pagan ritual, we were struck by their reasoning: their gods deserved the best so that is what they gave--their young, virgin daughters.
We cringe and shudder at the thought.  They probably did, too--those who hadn't grown calloused.
How very different is our God! 

"Thus says the Lord: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place… the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His mercy endures forever” and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord” (Jeremiah 33:12-11).

I was reminded of our visit to Tulum as I read the book of Nehemiah. The people of Judah left homes they'd lived in for nearly 70 years. They traveled to Jerusalem, worked to build a wall around the city, and settled into new homes and lifestyles. After the completion of the wall, they stood for hours, listening to the Word of God--and responded with confession and obedience. The reality of God and His true nature affected worship and honor. 
Show me your worship and I will show you your God. Follow the money. Follow the affection. Follow the time. Follow the focus of your conversation. Follow your thoughts. "Behold, your god!" 
Our worship reveals our god.
How easily we slip in and out of the pew on Sunday with no thought to how we reflected God's worth. Did we come in our best? Or did we simply crawl out of bed? Did we offer something costly? What was expected? Or nothing at all. Did we stand for the reading of the Holy Word, or distract ourselves with the mundane? How awful to think that we, like the Aztecs, would make abominable sacrifices because we do not know our God; that we would provoke His wrath rather than His pleasure because we lack an awesome fear and reverence for God. To think that we might enter the King's presence dressed in our own filthy righteous rags rather than the royal robe provided through the death and resurrection of His only Son! By faith we have access to the throne room of the Father, with bold confidence and thanksgiving.
Worship and rejoicing and giving result from knowledge. Knowledge of The Holy. What does your worship say about your God? Need God? Read His Word. And, perhaps for the first time in a long time, you will experience the scent of your carpet, the feel of the ground, as you fall on your face--a living sacrifice, the giving of your life, a reasonable act of worship.

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" Romans 11:31-12:2.

"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise" Psalm 51:16-17.