Do You have "Prayer Apnea?"

“Pray without Ceasing”

1 Thessalonians 5:17

This is the mask I wear every night when I sleep.  I know that many, many of you have one of these machines.  It’s called a CPAP.  I have this machine because I have something called Sleep Apnea.  That means that when I sleep my body forgets to breath.  When I had my test 12 years ago, I was having 59 apnea incidents per hour.  As a result I was never getting into a deep sleep.  I was constantly tired during the day.  The solution was simple. This machine is a pump.  At night I turn on the machine, and put this mask on.  This machine blows air into my nostrils, at just the right pressure for me… to keep me breathing.  What a difference it makes to breath without ceasing. 

What does all this have to do with prayer?  Well the connection was made for me in my devotional reading from God’s Word for Today by O. Hallesby.  Here is what he wrote – “Since ancient times prayer has been spoken of as the breath of the soul.  This suggests something about prayer that many of us are quick to forget.  Through breathing our bodies are constantly being renewed.  We eat three or four times a day.  But we breath all day, and at night, too.  Here we come to the contact with an important aspect of prayer.  We cannot breathe in the early morning in such a way that it will be sufficient until noon.  Likewise, we cannot pray in the morning so as to suffice until noon. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘Pray without ceasing!’”

That is what got me to wondering – “Do you or I ever suffer from prayer apnea?”  Hallesby calls prayer “the breath of the soul.”  More to the point I might call prayer “the breathing of faith.”  Prayer is faith in action – our hearts recognizing our complete dependence on God.  Just as there is not one moment during the day when we can go without breathing, so there is not one moment during the day when we  have no need for God.  Faith is as dependent on the grace of God in Christ as our bodies are on oxygen. 

So St. Paul writes, “pray without ceasing.”  I don’t know about you, but I don’t do that very well.  There are days, too many days, when I skip my time for reading God’s Word and prayer.  I am in too much of a hurry, too busy to take time.  Those are my excuses.  There are moments when my first thought should be to take the moment to God in prayer.  Instead I too often just react to situations.  I speak before I think.  I get angry or frustrated.  The one thing I forget to do is to pray. That’s what I mean by prayer apnea.

My body, especially my brain, doesn’t like sleep apnea. Whenever I have an apnea incident, my brain panics.  It sends out signals to try and wake me up.  Often I will wake myself up with snoring.  Sometimes my body just suddenly jerks and I wake up.  All of that is hard on the heart… but hey my brain wants oxygen.   Faith is the same.  Your faith needs to be constantly connected to God.  Too often it takes a crisis in the family, trouble at work, an illness to jerk us awake… to get us to pray again.  My point is that prayer apnea is serious! 

Faith needs the oxygen of grace… the power of the Spirit working through the word… the encouragement of fellow believers all reminding us… pray without ceasing.  You know when I started using this CPAP machine I stopped having apnea incidents. I started sleeping… really sleeping.  I started waking up in the morning truly rested… something that hadn’t happened in years.  That’s what God does for us when we pray without ceasing… He lifts the worries, stills our fears, quiets our anger… He gives rest to our souls.  You may think you can’t possibly pray without ceasing.. that you don’t have time.  How much better to think of it as you would breathing.  No matter what else you are doing, you always have time to breathe… You can’t do anything without breathing.  You breath even as you do everything else.  That’s Paul’s invitation.  Pray.  Let your whole life be looking to Him all the time… even as you live your life.  Then you will have rest in the midst of life… the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ every day.  Breath!  Pray!  Amen.

A Gift from God

Genesis 2:22 (ESV)

“And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman

And brought her to the man.”

My wife Linda is a wonderful gift from God!  That’s the meaning of these words from Genesis 2. “And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”

I don’t tell her that near enough.  In fact I admit it – too often I take her for granted.  (Sorry honey!) But she is gone this week.  She’s in Budapest helping our son Jon, taking care of our grandson Kellan, while Jon’s wife Dora is in Indonesia for her father’s funeral.   Linda is gone and I miss her.  Now I am not saying that because this week I am having to do the dishes for myself… or cook for myself.  Doing these things by myself simply reminds me of just how much Linda does.  You walk around this apartment a while and you will soon see that Linda is everywhere.  I started in the kitchen because my wife is a great cook.  She loves trying new dishes. She has a gift for hospitality.  She loves hosting people for dinner… She is constantly making things – quilts, painted Easter Eggs, quilted balls and so forth… making them and giving them to others.  These pictures on the wall – these are of our children and grandchildren.  They are the God loving children of God that they are in large part because of Linda – her faith, her patience, her natural gifts with children.  The other day, when Jon called to ask if his mom could come and help, there was not a moment’s hesitation.  We were immediately looking for a way she could get down there to Budapest.

When I think of Linda, I understand what the Lord means in Genesis 2:18.  Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”   In Linda He gave to me the spouse perfectly suited to me.  As an extrovert I constantly speak before I think.  Thank God for Linda who thinks before she speaks, and very often keeps me from saying things I will regret.  One of God’s greatest gifts in Linda is her faith.   I am not one who likes to make change… even when I know God is calling me to make the change.  This has especially become obvious whenever God has called us to new place of service.  Making that decision to move has never been easy.  But God gave me Linda.  With every new call her faith, her encouragement, her steadiness and support have helped me to step forward and follow God’s calling.  Each time we have moved it was Linda, seeing things through the eyes of faith that helped all of us to look at that move as a new adventure. I could go on and on, relating to you how and why Linda is a gift of God to me, to our kids and grandkids.

Now the same kinds of things could be said by you about your wife, or your husband, your mom or your dad.    Each of them is a precious gift from God to you.  The question I want you to think about today is this – Why is it so infrequent that we think and say such things about our spouses?  I have recently had someone young and single point this out to me.  This person told me, “I hate to hear someone complaining about their spouse.  Don’t they realize what a blessing they have?  I would give anything to find someone like that for my life?” 

That’s my challenge to you this week.  Don’t wait till they are out of town and you miss them. Don’t wait till the Lord calls them home.  Stop and realize today – how much you love them, what a great gift from God they are.  Give thanks to God for them.  Tell them how much they mean to you.   I’ll start. “Linda I miss you.  I love you.  I thank God for you.  I can’t wait till you are home again.”

To Post or not to Post - That is the Question

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,

but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs,

that it may benefit those who listen.”

Ephesians 4:29

I have been struggling all week with preparing this week’s blog post.  I think the reason is that I have been wanting to vent about how tired I am with all the rancor, hyperbole, exaggeration, and anger I have seen lately posted on social media.  Much of it is related to politics and all sides are guilty. 

Then I read this verse - Ephesians 4:29.  This verse hit home.  If I used this blog to vent I would be doing the very thing I would be complaining about.  How would that help or build up anyone other than me?  So instead I thought I would write about how to decide what to post or not to post?  What are some questions that you or I, as followers of Jesus, might ask ourselves before we post something on Facebook?  Paul packs a lot of great advice into this verse from Ephesians.  So here are some questions I hope will be helpful to you and will guide me before I post something online:

First, does what I am about to post come under the heading of “wholesome talk?”  The word for unwholesome here refers to words that are “rank, foul, putrid, rotten, worthless, or disgusting.”  To me this means that if I am going to say something unkind or nasty about someone… if I am going to use foul language – that’s not wholesome.  That’s out of bounds.  In addition I also think of Luther’s words to us about the 8^th commandment – that we should “fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him and explain everything in the kindest possible way.”  If what I am going to write assumes the worst about someone rather the best (even about people who hold opinions different than my own), then I probably shouldn’t post it.  If my words, even if true, will do harm to someone else’s reputation then posting them publically is not right.  Our moms all taught us the same thing – “if you can’t say something nice about someone then don’t say anything at all.”

Second, is what I am going to post “helpful to others?”  I think that’s what changed my mind about this blog.  Who was I going to be helping by my venting?  The answer was I would only be helping me.  Since that was the case there are other more healthy places for me to vent.  I am more and more convinced that if I am angry with someone then social media is not the place to voice that anger… neither is email.  All of that does more harm than good.  The same is true if I disagree with someone else’s position or opinion.  Having a discussion on Facebook about such issues doesn’t help.  It simply promotes people become defensive.  Comments on Facebook and through email are so easily misunderstood.  Disagreeing without being disagreeable is hard enough in person.  It’s next to impossible on social media.  When I have an issue with someone our Lord advises to first go direct to that person and talk to them in private.  If I am not willing to do that, then how can posting something publically.  I should just not post anything.

Third, does the fact that something is true automatically make it helpful?  For one thing, often my thoughts on something are only half the story.  I often assume something is true because it fits my viewpoint.  How often have I made assumptions without knowing all the facts?   Just because something is true, or I think it’s true, does not mean I should post it. 

Those are just my reflections on Paul’s words.  In this verse and the ones that follow, he says it much better.  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful or building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.” 

My prayer is that this is as helpful to you as it was to me.  Anyway, it’s got to be better than listening to me vent. 

What Kind of King are You Looking For?

“Where is He who has been born king of the Jews?”

Matthew 2:2

“Where is He who is born king of the Jews?”  You know, everyone in the story of the Magi seems to be looking for something different in Jesus.  The first place the magi look for this new king is in Herod’s palace.  It would seem that perhaps they were looking for some kind of traditional earthly king – a child born to wealth and privilege… a king with power to rule. The priests don’t seem to be looking at all.   They hear the question of the Magi.  They give the answer.  “In Bethlehem, in Judea, for so it is written by the prophet…”  Yet they themselves make no effort to go to Bethlehem.  The only king Herod wants is himself.  He is greatly troubled when he hears their question.  He pretends to want to find this child too.  He plots to have Jesus killed.

What kind of king are you and I seeking?”  What do we want Jesus to be?  Again there are many different answers..  Some want Jesus to be like a modern day King – just a figurehead. They wear the crown, but have no power.  Is that what you seek – one who makes no real difference in how you live?  If kings have any power today it is in giving advice or in being a role model.  Is that what you want Jesus to be – a hero?  someone to look up to?  Someone to to show us how to live? Some of us want a King with real power.  We can come to him with our laundry list of struggles and problems hoping He can fix things… someone we can blame when He doesn’t fix thing the way we want.  A King we can complain about - “Why God?  What did I do to deserve this Jesus?”  “Where is God?  Why isn’t He answering?  Or maybe we are like Herod.  Too often the only King you want is you… that I want is me.  Then you can just do as you please… not as He pleases

No matter what we want Jesus to be, what the Magi found in Bethlehem was much, much different.  God is more concerned that Jesus be the kind of King you and I need.  For that reason, in everything He becomes just like us.   They find Him in a humble home, not a palace.  Joseph and Mary aren’t royal. Joseph is a carpenter.  Mary is a poor peasant girl.  He was wrapped in rags, not fine linens.  Our King came to live as we live, struggle as we struggle, be tempted as we are tempted.  Ours is a King who understands our lives, because He has lived our life. 

Secondly, our King chooses to wear our crown, rather than His own.  The only crown Jesus ever wears in this world is the crown of throns they gave Him before they nailed Him to the cross.  That’s the only other time Jesus is called “King of the Jews.” Matthew means for us to make this connection.  This is the kind of King He is.  He not only lives our life but also dies the death we deserve.  He is punished in our place.  He pays the price for our sin.  That’s the kind of King Jesus came to be  – the kind who would sacrifice everything for you and me..

Jesus is also a shepherd king.  It’s right here in the passage that the priests quote from Micah – “for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”   He  takes care of us. He may not always lead us down the path we expect or want but He sees the path ahead better than we do.  He knows where we need to go. No one in our family would have wanted for my oldest sister to suffer the damage to her brain and the deafness that resulted.  But I can see the shepherding hand of the King in all of this.  He used that path to draw our whole family to faith, to a walk close to Him. That’s the kind of king He is. 

Finally, He is a King we cannot out give.  People are always trying to find hidden meaning behind the gifts brought by the magi.   The Bible gives these gifts no real meanings.  I think they brought them because they were expecting a wealthy prince living in a palace.  Here, with this king they are out of place.  Yet Jesus received their worship and their gifts.  Those gifts are nothing compared to what He  gives – God’s own Son given for the world, for the magi, for you and me.  Every gift we give to thank Him will fall short. We cannot out give Jesus.   Indeed the one gift that honors Him above all others is to receive His gifts… it is to put your whole faith and trust in Him and Him alone.  I love the story about a man pushing a wheel barrel on a rope across a huge water fall.  After doing it once, he asks, “If you really believe in me, then please sit in my wheel barrel and let me push you across.”  That’s the faith that Jesus our King seeks from you and me… to crawl into His wheel barrel.. to put ourselves completely in His hands.  That may not be kind of King you were looking for…But that is the kind of King we need.  That’s the kind of King Jesus is - the kind you can trust with everything. Amen.