The Principles of Prayer II

 We often hear talk of restoring the altar of prayer both in the church and in the home and fail to grasp the full implications of what that means regarding the spiritual condition of those who, at least to their credit, acknowledge that it needs restoration. In order for something to be restored, it must have been allowed to linger untended and unattended for a prolonged period of time.

If an altar requires restoration, the underlying implication is that it remained unvisited and unused for long enough, wherein it fell into decrepitude and was left to ruin. Although the reasons why this occurred may differ from person to person, the effect it has on spiritual well-being is uniform.

The less time we spend in the presence of God, the less time we spend in prayer, the more vulnerable we become to the enemy’s attacks, his plans and schemes, the deceptive whispers of his henchmen, and his ability to do us harm.

Prayer was never an option for the children of God. It is a command and a mandate. There are two things Jesus assumed His followers would do consistently: prayer being one and fasting the other. Whenever these two topics were discussed, they were framed as when you fast and when you pray, rather than if you fast and pray. Jesus took it as a given that those who followed after Him would pray, not occasionally or when the mood took them, but consistently and continually.

These two aspects of the Christian walk are so essential for a healthy spiritual man that nowhere in the Word are we given the option to opt-out or replace them with something else. Prayer is fundamental and essential. So much so that Jesus Himself often went away to pray, He who was perfect and without sin, having a direct line of communication with the Father.

If Jesus needed to pray, why do we assume we don’t? Why is the general assumption that we can replace prayer with some other thing and expect the same results we would have had had we committed to spending time in God’s presence and pouring our hearts out to Him?

No man is born a prayer warrior. Prayer warriors are forged. Prayer is a learned skill and something that must be nurtured consistently in order to grow and expand. In one sense, the beauty of it is that how much time we spend in prayer is dependent on the individual and their determination, willingness, and effort they put forth rather than some external factor we must rely upon.

When it comes to spiritual gifts, God chooses what, who, when, and where. When it comes to prayer, we decide how much time to devote to it. We all start out in the same position. No one wakes up one morning and prays for five hours straight. We all start out small. We all start out with those hesitant five minutes of intreating God, praising Him, thanking Him, and beseeching Him.

Those five minutes soon turn into ten, we become less hesitant, we become comfortable with the idea of communing with God, and once we begin to see the benefits of spending time in His presence, the desire of our hearts becomes to do it more often, for longer stretches of time, finding things to eliminate in our day to day lives for the sake of being alone with Him.

Those who insist they can’t make time for God have not prioritized Him to the point that they are willing to forfeit other things in lieu of spending time with Him. We all have the same twenty-four hours afforded to us, yet somehow, people with more children, more responsibilities, two jobs, and a cat that won’t stop throwing up in every corner of the house find the time to be in His presence all the same.

We can make excuses, or we can make adjustments. It all depends on how much we want something and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to get it. If that sounds harsh, it wasn’t intentional. If you took it as a personal affront, it says more about you than it does about anything else.

We’re quick to find excuses whenever we feel as though we’re being called out for something we failed to do, not because of time constraints or because we were physically incapable, but because we either didn’t feel like it or chose to spend our time doing something other than what we were supposed to do.

The ongoing battle in the Boldea household is between my wife and my daughters and their unwillingness to keep their room clean. Every few days, there’s bound to be a question and answer session between the three of them as to why their room looks like the remains of a homeless encampment once the residents have been moved out than it does the room of a ten, and seven-year-old.

Although the excuses range from banal to fanciful, in the end, that’s all they are, and while they miraculously find the time to draw, read, play in the yard, and most recently collect earthworms for reasons I have yet to deduce, the cleaning of their room never makes the list.

While the importance of keeping a spotless room is debatable, since in my youth, I too was known to give my clothes the sniff test to see if they were viable for another day of wear, the importance and necessity of prayer cannot be overstated or overemphasized. The more you pray, the more you grow, and failure to have a consistent prayer life is not only detrimental to one’s spiritual well-being, it is outright disobedience to the will and Word of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Perhaps it comes through in more modern translations, but having read this passage numerous times, I have yet to see the will of God in Christ for us as being having fruitless debates or endless arguments on the interwebs. Rather, we are to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and, in everything, give thanks. If we substitute those things for anything else, no matter how worthwhile we might deem them to be, we’re still walking in disobedience. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Principles of Prayer I

 Some things stand the test of time because they work. Others fall by the wayside altogether or are improved upon because they either don’t live up to the hype or fail to meet the expectations of those who were promised something other than what was delivered.

The earliest evidence of the wheel’s invention dates back to around 3500 BC, and since then, the wheel has remained largely unchanged in design, as it has proven effective. Men have added spokes, removed spokes, and made wheels thicker or thinner depending on their needs, but as far as its overall design and aesthetic, a wheel remains a wheel and will forever be so.

There was no improvement in the design of the wheel. No new company was blazing a trail in the realm of innovation by introducing a square or oval wheel, as it would have been less ideal than the original and likely would have failed to capture a market share.

This was not the case for home entertainment. Back in the day, it started with Betamax as the rage, quickly replaced by VHS, then progressed to laser disc, DVD, and finally, the current iteration, which is streaming. While Betamax ruled the roost for a season, it was quickly replaced by better technology because there was room for improvement.

I’ve spent countless hours and even written books on prayer, not because I found an untapped niche but because throughout the history of man, ever since the forefathers of the faith through the present day, prayer is one of the handful of things that has been proven to work time and again.

Throughout time, every outstanding, noteworthy, or extraordinary man or woman of God has had a robust and consistent prayer life. There are no exceptions to this fact, and since success leaves clues, if the desire of your heart is to grow in God and walk in the fullness of Him, a prayer life is indispensable.

There are no workarounds, no bypasses, and nothing you can do to replace prayer in your faith walk. You can’t outsource it or hire someone to do it on your behalf. You can’t pay a televangelist to pray, so you don’t have to. It’s something you have to do consistently and faithfully, whether in good times or bad. Anyone who insists otherwise is a liar, and the truth is not found in them.

Given the weight and importance of prayer, this study will focus on the principles thereof. We will be discussing the consecration of our prayers, the quality of our prayers, the quantity of our prayers, the constancy of our prayers, and the consequences of our prayers. It will by no means be exhaustive, but it will establish a foundation and, Lord willing, reveal the indispensable need for us as individuals to grow, mature, and consistently expand our prayer lives.

The practical application of a principle beats and consistently surpasses the theoretical knowledge of it every day, all day, so the point of this study isn’t to dissect the theory of prayer so much as to practically apply it to our daily lives.

The benefits of a consistent, dedicated prayer life are too many to count, and the dangers of having a subpar prayer life are far greater than we would like to believe. Much of the lackluster performance of the modern-day church can be directly traced back to its foregoing prayer because it deemed it too cumbersome and unpopular, likely not a selling point for those who are looking for more of a social club than they are true and undefiled worship.

If God’s desire is for His house to be called a house of prayer, why is it anything other than what He desires it to be? Do we think we know better than God? Do we believe that modern techniques for drawing a crowd or filling a sanctuary can replace the need for prayer, whether corporate or individual?

There can be no life better spent than a life dedicated to prayer. Yet, somehow, it has fallen out of favor with the vast majority of Christendom because it’s not showy or bombastic enough. Prayer is not a chore; it is a grace. It’s the invitation, ability, and opportunity to have fellowship with the God who spoke the universe into being, to know Him more fully, and to feel His presence in a way that only its practice can facilitate.

Contrary to popular opinion, prayer isn’t about presenting God with a laundry list of needs we want to be met or problems we need solving, but rather communion and communication, fellowship, and intimacy that strengthens the bond of the relationship we desire to have with Him.

Whether spiritual gifts, a stronger faith, boldness, endurance, comfort, wisdom, or direction, they all flow out of a robust prayer life, and without it, we are less than what we can be, or should be, when it comes to spiritual strength and fortitude.

If the average believer understood the true import of prayer, there would be no need for extra motivation to pray because they would perceive it as the fundamental need that it is in order to achieve a strong and robust spiritual man, and therefore, would make time for it no matter what was going on in their lives. It is only when we understand the value of something that we prioritize it correctly, and so few make prayer part of their daily routine because they haven’t assigned it its proper value.

Although prayer must become as consistent as waking up in the morning, brushing our teeth, and combing our hair if we are follically blessed, part of a daily routine of sorts, it can never become routine. There must be a hunger, an anticipation, an eagerness, and an expectation whenever we come before God because it is a time we set aside to commune with Him and know that He is listening.

The road I usually take to work is under construction and likely will be through the summer. They started posting signs a month before starting to tear the road apart, informing the public of the start date; there are big orange detour signs insisting that the road is closed. Yet, due to muscle memory and being used to driving the same road every morning for years on end, more often than not, I find myself having to turn around and find an alternate route because the way is so ingrained in my mind that I fail to remember the closure.

We cannot approach prayer in like manner. Although it becomes something ordinary as far as consistent practice, it must remain extraordinary with every iteration. The reality that every time we come before God in prayer, we have the honor of speaking to Him, pouring out our hearts, and thanking Him for his many blessings should be something that never grows dull or something we cease being in awe of.

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Drumroll

 Barring an unforeseen inflow of votes overwhelmingly biased toward one of the two choices, it is clear that the Principles of Prayer have won out over continuing our study of the Book of Job for now. As I said, Lord willing, we will finish the latter portion of the book of Job and the discussion thereof as soon as this short intermission is over, but for now, it is clear that a vast majority of you would prefer we delve into the topic of prayer for a little while.

Thank you to all who participated. We will commence the study shortly.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Crossroads

 There’s a difference between biting off more than you can chew and realizing that a meal will take longer to finish than you first expected. When it comes to our study of the Book of Job, it’s more the latter than the former. It’s not that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, but it's taking longer to go through than I initially expected. This is not a bad thing; it’s just the reality of the situation.

By my estimation, we’re about halfway through our study of Job, and it has become evident that it will need to be split into two volumes, lest I compete with a complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica in terms of size.

I am somewhat torn as to how we proceed from here, so I will leave the choice up to you. The choice is binary, as most things in life are. I’ve been working on an outline for a series on prayer, which I believe will be a worthwhile exploration into the value and indispensable need for a robust and consistent prayer life, that I plan on combining with the study on fasting we did some months back and making it into a book.

The choice before you is to either take a break from Job and proceed with the study on prayer, then return to Job once that study is completed, or to continue on our journey through the book of Job until its finality, which will likely be another six months if not longer. Since I can’t decide, I’ll let you do it for me.

Please comment either Job or Prayer, and once we have the tally sorted out, I’ll know how to proceed. I don’t like being indecisive, but I’m struggling with this decision. I pray you understand.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLVIII

Job 14:18-22, “Bu as a mountain falls and crumbles away, and as a rock is moved from its place; as water wears away stones, and as torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so You destroy the hope of man. You prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away. His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he does not perceive it. But his flesh will be in pain over it, and his soul will mourn over it.”

Nothing in this world has permanence. Everything is fleeting. Continents shift and reform, mountains fall and crumble away, torrents wash away the soil of the earth, generations come and go, and kingdoms rise and fall, but through it all, God abides. That men would cling so hardily to temporal things and dismiss eternity as though it was not worth their time only goes to put the ignorance of man on full display.

There is no structure, no nation, no system of government, or man-made thing that is guaranteed to remain here, in the same iteration, ten thousand years from now. Even the feats men deemed the greatest of any generation are but vague echoes of what once was, whispered about by pockets of studious men, imagined in the glory they once possessed. Long gone is the tower of Babel, not one stone remaining upon another, the edifice everyone of that generation was convinced would reach God Himself.

There is evidence of past civilizations that were so thoroughly expunged as to leave behind a handful of stones and nothing more. As is the case with this generation, they likely thought themselves the pinnacle of wisdom, the crowning jewel of human accomplishment, and the one empire that would be the exception to the rule and continue in perpetuity.

In his hubris, man develops a form of tunnel vision wherein he refuses to consider the overwhelming evidence that try as he might, it’s likely that he will not leave an indelible mark on the history of mankind, and a handful of generations after he returns to the dust of the earth, he will be forgotten as countless others have.

Our goal isn’t to be remembered or forgotten by our contemporaries or future generations but to serve God. As long as we are remembered by Him, whether the next generation remembers our name or not matters little. Conversely, if the world knows your name a hundred years from now, but God does not know you, then it’s all for naught.

It’s easy to get caught up in the rat race, trying to chase the spotlight and attempt to elevate our status in the eyes of our contemporaries, especially when everyone else is doing it. More often than not, men will even try to justify their desire for glory by insisting the underlying reason has more to do with being selfless and trying to help others than feeding their ravenous ego.

What usually curbs the desire for the spotlight is the realization that every notable servant of God, every man or woman whose names are remembered, not for a decade or a century, but millennia after they’ve gone on to their reward, had the singular desire to serve and obey the call of God on their lives, not bothering to consider whether or not they would be remembered, thought well of, or known, or weighing their options as to which course would garner them a greater footprint or bigger following.

Do your duty. Be faithful in the things God has called you to do, put your hand to the plow, don’t look back, and let the chips fall where they may. It’s the obedience and faithfulness that God sees and rewards, not our egotistical desire to become a household name or rise above the sea of souls clamoring for the spotlight.

When something other than obedience becomes the driving force of your labor, the tendency to compromise for the sake of what’s driving you becomes nearly overwhelming. Everything gets filtered through the prism of whether the word we were commanded to speak will offend the sensibilities of the majority or whether we will lose support, and the message becomes diluted, ineffectual, and a shadow of the truth it once was in its original form.

The notion that the gospel or the message of the cross was meant to be inoffensive is a modern invention spurned by the desire for acceptance. Jesus Himself said that He did not come to bring peace but a sword. He warned that a man’s enemies will be those of his own household, for when the light of truth ignites in a soul, those still in darkness will naturally be averse to it.

We can seek to please men, or we can strive to please God. We can’t do both. We either commit our ways to the Lord and follow after Him or give in to the pressure of the world and those around us who insist that we are too rigid, unmalleable, and unwilling to compromise for the sake of unity.

If unity is achieved at the expense of truth and the gospel, it’s not unity but rebellion. We are seeing the effects of this in numerous denominations, which have strayed so far from scripture as to make them unrecognizable from the world, and the only thing they have to show for it is the validation and celebration of sin.

Job knew where he stood. Although all three of his friends tried their best to convince him otherwise, he knew he had not sinned before God and approached Him with the boldness only such knowledge can foster in one’s heart.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLVII

 Job 14:13-17, “Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands. For now You number my steps, but do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover my iniquity.”

It’s awe-inspiring to witness a man grapple with his inner turmoil, battling his instincts and senses, rising above despair and hopelessness, and reaching out to the only One he knows can provide comfort. Job’s response to Zophar and his plea to God is a testament to the courage found in vulnerability, in admitting the struggle we often try to mask with a brave face.

I deflect with humor. I always have, ever since I came to realize what I was doing, especially in uncomfortable situations or circumstances where merely the idea of confronting the pain is so unfathomable that I would rather ignore it for as long as I can.

Job had no such outlet. He didn’t try to deflect the pain he was feeling but poured himself out with all the pent-up frustration, fear, pain, and grief that he was feeling.

Being vulnerable with God is not a weakness. On the contrary, pouring one’s heart out to Him, crying out to Him, being honest, sincere, and even painfully so about the hurt one is feeling and the hardship they are going through demonstrates one’s awareness of their own limitations.

If I am broken, I can’t fix myself. If I have reached the end of my tether, by definition, there is nothing I can do of my own agency to get me out of a situation or predicament. Yes, we endure, yes, we press on, yes, we persevere and keep moving forward, but the hope of being made whole again must be tethered in God and His ability to do so rather than our own strength and resolve.

We can only white knuckle it through pain for so long. Eventually, without the aid, comfort, and healing presence of God, we will be crushed and ground into the dust of the earth, no matter how valiantly we attempt to carry on.

Job was aware of his limitations. He understood that there was nothing he could do but cry out to God, plead with Him, and cling to the hope that the goodness of God would prevail in his situation. Job was not picky about how his resolution would come about as long as it did. In his current state, the only remedy he saw was to go to the grave because our intellect often limits our willingness to hope for a miracle. We are told that something or other is impossible for so long that we come to believe it, ignoring the reality that nothing is impossible with God.

Throughout my years in ministry, I’ve found it telling that certain trials last only so long as it takes for the individual in question to abandon all hope in themselves, their abilities, and their resilience and rest their hope fully in the Lord.

Some of us must be stripped of the illusion that projecting strength is itself a form of strength. We’ve all encountered fake tough guys who talk big, but wilt at the first sign of pushback, and the reaction to such individuals is universal. True strength is not boastful, arrogant, or given to displays of grandiosity. As is often the case, those who talk big do little, and eventually, their shortcomings, inadequacies, and weaknesses come to the fore and are on full display for everyone to see.

Men can choose to stand in their own strength or stand in the strength that originates from God, something beyond their agency or ability. Those who stand in their strength discover the frailty of it eventually, some only doing so when they’ve exhausted themselves trying to do on their own what only God can do. It is a form of pride, I think, beating our chests and declaring how powerful we are in and of ourselves. As Scripture points out, God resists the proud while giving grace to the humble.

Looking back on my own life, with the benefit of hindsight, I can attest that there are innumerable instances where only the strength of God carried me, and nothing I could have done on my own would have sufficed. You can have the hosts of hell arrayed against you, but if God remains on your side, victory is certain because God is able to do what man cannot.

What could Job have done of his own volition to improve his lot and his situation? What could he have done to heal his broken body, restore his possessions, and return to the life he’d once lived? Absolutely nothing. The best he could manage was a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and eventually, even that became burdensome because the sores were painful, and he could no longer do it.

Standing in our own strength is a toxic mix of hubris, pride, and utter futility. Especially when going through a trial, a sifting, or a season of hardship, the best course of action is to lean ever more on God and acknowledge our frailty, knowing that He has strength in abundance and is ever willing to imbue us with it if we humble ourselves and ask it of Him. We have not because we ask not, and when we do ask, some of us ask amiss, hoping to deal with the symptom of something rather than the underlying cause.

There is no advanced warning system for trials. They come unexpectedly and unbidden, seemingly out of nowhere, with all the ferocity of a category-five hurricane. There is no escape, no circumventing them or putting them off until you have less to deal with in your day-to-day life. They come, and the only option you have is to go through them. The only choice you have is whether to go through your trial alone, in your own strength, or with God by your side, drawing strength from Him and standing firm in His promises.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLVI

Job 14:7-12, “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its roots may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he? As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep.”

Every great faith started out small. It’s a testament to the transformative power of faith that every mind brimming with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding once belonged to a babe who spent their days staring at their fingers, stacking blocks, learning to crawl, and finding the greatest amusement in playing with an empty box for hours on end.

We don’t like to hear it, but God doesn’t grade on a curve. He doesn’t see us as a monolith but as individuals, and we will stand before Him one day as individuals. We don’t get a passing grade simply because we deem ourselves of average faith, more faithful than Bob but less faithful than Jill, so right in the middle should be the sweet spot. Controversial? Most assuredly. Biblical? Quite so. Jesus said as much, but our self-righteousness will not allow God to be God and determine the standard by which He judges men. Trying to play de facto judge offers a higher perch, and for some, looking down on another who’s just starting out on their journey of faith, with shaky legs and a faith in its infancy, makes them feel better about themselves and their duplicitous hearts.

It’s easy to sit in judgment of Job in hindsight, given what we know regarding eternity, life after death, the home that Jesus went to prepare for us, and all that salvation entails. We read his words and tend to shake our heads at how little he understood regarding these things, especially if we fail to acknowledge the context of the time he lived in.

I understand that armchair quarterbacking is all the rage, and some are chomping at the bit to pick at the flaws of a man whom God deemed blameless and upright, but before we judge Job too harshly, we would do well to hold a mirror up to ourselves and acknowledge our imperfections.

With the knowledge he possessed and the faithfulness he demonstrated, Job was regarded as a man to whom God could point as having been unique among his contemporaries, both in his service and love of God. That’s not me saying it; that’s God saying it, so anyone quick to roll their eyes at Job’s ignorance of the broader picture of eternity and what comes after this life is spent would do well to acknowledge this truth.

That’s not to say Job’s outlook wasn’t bleak. He saw more hope for the tree that is cut down to sprout anew than for a man who dies and is laid away. No, I do not believe Job was contemplating reincarnation but rather a continuity of life beyond the point of death. In his limited understanding, he concluded that man lies down and does not rise again.

If your desire is to know Him, God will meet you where you are. You don’t need to be fluent in Hebrew or Greek or hold a doctorate in divinity from a seminary, but you do need to possess a broken and contrite heart that yearns for more of God. Job’s understanding of eternity was limited, yet God still saw him as a blameless and upright man.

Luke 12:48, “But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”

Job was accountable for the things he understood during the time he lived in. If God keeps count of the hairs on your head, rest assured, He is fully aware of the level of faith, understanding, knowledge, and spiritual maturity you possess. If you’ve been given much, much will be required of you. We are individually accountable for the understanding we possess regarding spiritual matters.

Not knowing something was displeasing to God and doing it, and knowing that it was and doing it anyway, are two very different things. When something deserving of stripes is done in ignorance, the individual shall be beaten with few. Jesus didn’t say there would be no consequence, but God does take into account whether it was done in ignorance or with full knowledge that it would displease Him and was done anyway.

True enough, ignorance of the law is no excuse, at least in earthly courts. However, unlike man, God knows whether or not an individual is genuinely ignorant of something or merely pretends to be in order to escape punishment.

Whenever discussing topics related to repentance, holiness, sanctification, or obedience, there is bound to be at least one individual who uses the thief on the cross as an excuse for their rebellion. He didn’t repent or live a holy life; he just said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Why should I have to sanctify myself when he didn’t? In short, he was ignorant of Jesus, who He was, and the salvation He offered up until that moment.

Most people who reject the love of God, who reject Jesus and His redemptive power, knowingly do so because they harden their hearts toward Him and refuse to surrender and humble themselves. It’s not that they never heard the gospel or were ignorant of it; having heard it, they rejected it.

For the thief on the cross, it was his last few hours on earth. He couldn’t schedule a baptism when the weather permitted or commit to living out his new convictions after this pesky crucifixion was over. Come the next sunrise at the latest, the life would have left his body, and he would be no more. Jesus knew he would have no opportunity to do what He’d instructed the rest of us to do, and in His grace and love, made allowances for that reality. That we would take an exception and make it the rule while ignoring the rule isn’t just obtuse; it’s dangerous.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.