Moving Mountains & Uprooting Mulberry Trees
Posted on May 13, 2008
Filed Under Revolution |
I have to admit I’m feeling a little numb at the moment. News of the earthquake in China and the cyclone (and subsequent tsunami) in Myanmar seem like it’s all happening a world away. It’s hard for me to convert reports of the tens of thousands dead and the millions displaced into real people.
The food crisis, although impacting my grocery shopping, is another example of something that’s hard for me to put into perspective. I can’t alway see it as something that means millions will go without food today because they can’t afford the increases that I find so minimal. I complain that flour is more expensive and I complain that it costs me more to fill up my car, even though I can’t say I’ve reduced my consumption or whether reducing my consumption would make a difference to anything but my own bank account.
I’m struggling to get my head around all this and I’m struggling with how to respond. Are you? I can give money and fight for justice and advocate for other’s to respond the same way, but the only conclusion that I can come to is that I need to pray and that I need to pray in a way that I’ve not prayed before.
I’m not talking about the kind of prayer where I sigh as I read the latest report of the death toll in Myanmar in the morning, ask God to take care of everything and get on with my day. I’m talking about the prayers prayed by the people of faith in Hebrews 11.
I’m talking about prayers for God to send back the floodwaters, to supernaturally intervene in the bodies of those stuggling with HIV and AIDS. I’m talking about prayers for God to bring back lost children and move collapsed buildings in China. I’m talking about prayers that God would prevent disease outbreaks in flooded areas. I’m talking about prayers that God would soften the hearts of governments and that aid would get where it’s needed quicker and more efficiently than any person could bring it. I’m talking about what I’d like to call praying “big,” praying that God would move mountains (Matthew 17:20) and uproot trees (Luke 17:6) and praying in the Spirit in the times when I just don’t have the words (Romans 8:26).
I forget that I can pray this way sometimes.
Until next time…
Comments
2 Responses to “Moving Mountains & Uprooting Mulberry Trees”
Leave a Reply
I was recently reminded of how even though my beliefs are stupid to the majority of the world, that does not make them untrue, and that does not mean I should stop thinking and praying big and specific things. Right on.
Distance and large numbers are extremely difficult to come to grips with. Seeing something on television makes the images seem as though they were created by Hollywood.
So pray boldly, never ceasing, and enlist others to prayer as you’ve done. And if you have financial resources, or time, give of those as well.
Peace