Day 15 – Issue 19

Be Still Know

Luke 18:5 NLT

‘But this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’

Some years ago I listened to a lot of U2’s music as I drove around the country. One lyric, about still not having found what I am looking for, stays with me. That phrase resonated with my own inner dissatisfaction. Somehow, despite walking the Christian path from the age of 19, here I was in the afternoon of my life with uncertainty over why I was continuing to follow Jesus.

When I turned my focus away from myself and gazed at the numerous disasters around the world and took time to pray, I saw little in terms of either a swift or just outcome in many regards. In fact, I felt distinctly uncomfortable that I lived in a secure part of the world and that my taxes might even contribute in part to the destabilisation and destruction of people’s lives in parts of the world I knew little about. How do you pray in such situations?

Even today I am not sure I have any clear answers to these questions. Yes, I both pray my rhythm of prayer and carry a variety of unjust situations to the Lord in intercession. I call out to God for his “elect” in war-torn nations such as Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc. Yet, I still see little sign of rapid justice, just enhanced misery and destruction. So I continue to live astride a credibility gap.

My prayer is perhaps more out of a sense of duty than compassion, although my heart breaks with the stories that emerge. It is more that I am distracted with the imperatives of my own life, my own worries and insecurities, than engaged with the overwhelming fears and dangers others far from my comfortable corner of the world experience. Maybe that explains Jesus’ statement in Luke 18:8, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (NIV).

QUESTION: How deeply does doubt accompany your walk of faith?

PRAYER: Lord, help me to persevere in prayer for the things that really matter to you.