I’m done with prayer formulas, designed to get God on my agenda. Its amazing how Christians have taken John 15:16 which says,”Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you;” and John 15:7 which says, ” “if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you can ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you,” to mean I can give God my wish list, tack, on the name of Jesus at the end and expect that like Peopod, the grocery deliver service, my orders will be filled and at my door within three days. What I didn’t I realize for most of my adult life is that John 15 was inviting me into intimacy with him and just as importantly, partnership on His project of establishing His kingdom on the earth, not giving me the code for unlocking the goodies of the world.
What I just said came to be the understanding of first century Christ followers because we have no recorded account of them ever saying stuff like, “oh the government and religious leaders are persecuting us, taking away our property and even our lives, so we don’t believe in God anymore.” The reason their faith was so robust is because they had adjusted their expectation away from believing Jesus came to serve them on their schedule. So we never see them treat John John 15:7 and 16 like Aladdin’s magical lamp that responded to the touch and magical phrases by granting three wishes a week.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in petitioning God about our hopes and dreams but prayer is so much more. In the ancient Hebrew understanding prayer was about a journey to Mount Zion where they rediscovered the majesty and wisdom of their God. That’s why I am begging you to get into Psalms Chapters 120 to 134. This is why I am hoping you will read, “Long obedience in the same direction,” by Eugene Peterson. Peterson’s book is about these “Psalms of Ascent.” By the way, my grand daughter’s name, “Aliyah” means, “to ascend to God.” In the synagogue, when they go up to read the Torah, they call it “the Aliyah.”
The Jews made the journey to Mount Zion, which as Peterson point out is topographically the highest city in Palestine three times a year. “They refreshed their memories of God’s saving ways at the Feast of Passover in the spring; they renewed their commitments as God’s covenanted people at the Feast of Pentecost in early summer; They responded as a blessed community to the best that God had for them at the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn.”
So let’s make the journey to the heart of God. Let’s pay attention to what’s happening on the journey, because that’s part of knowing God. When we’re done, we’ll still have our shopping list for God but it will be informed by a greater knowledge of God’s priorities; it will be balanced by the better prize of knowing Christ. You see sin is not desiring things other than God, but desiring them too much. The sometimes arduous Journey to Zion within itself had the reward of loosening the grip of the cares of life back home. This is why going for the heart of God requires things like fasting, spending less time on social media,prayer, reading, meditating, listening to Christian music, engaging in spiritual conversations with mentors and going to corporate worship.
We are called to live the words of the worship chorus from another time, “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” At another time I’ll tell you why the things of earth matter so much to God but if you don’t take a vacation from the earthly and go to God periodically you won’t see earth clearly either.” When the things of God become strangely dim, the things of earth become greatly distorted.
Let’s go up to Zion.
