Quote from Forum Archives on May 6, 2004, 3:16 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

THE LIBERATING POWER OF PRAYER #1/2
GOD’S PATH TO FREEDOM
May 2, 2004

Text: Psalm 32

The name of Oliver North is familiar to most of us because of the
publicity he received through the Iran-Contra trials. There is another
reason, though, that Christians should be familiar with him. He is a man
of faith in Christ. In fact, he is the 2004 honorary chairman of the
National Day of Prayer.

Not unlike many Christians, North had a faith defining moment in his life
that he recognizes as the point where his old self began to be shed for a
new self in Jesus. He tells this story in a little book entitled simply
True Freedom: The Liberating Power of Prayer. “By 1978, I had known
Lieutenant Colonel John Grinalds for about three years. He was on the
fast track through the ranks. Top of his class at West Point and highly
decorated from his two tours of duty in Vietnam, he had gone on to become
a Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow to earn a Harvard MBA. Oh, and
there was one other characteristic that set Grinalds apart from the rest.
He was one of those ‘born-again Christians.’ Whatever that meant. Along
with all the usual training and administrative manuals on his desk, he
kept a Bible. Right there in plain sight. And he read it… One morning,
about two weeks before we were due to deploy, our battalion was
conducting a training exercise. I had just adjusted the antenna on an
armored amphibious vehicle and, spurning the ladder on the side, jumped
to the ground. Big mistake. Instant memories of the 1964 car accident
flashed through my pain-racked mind. I had reinsured my back in exactly
the same place. Aside from the wish for unconsciousness, my one
overriding thought was, I just blew my chance to deploy with these men. I
knew from having experienced a similar rein jury in a 1973 parachute
accident that I was due for at least two weeks of hospitalization and bed
rest. I lay writhing on the ground. Couldn’t feel my legs. Lost control
of my bladder. Before a medic could arrive, John Grinalds showed up. Next
thing I knew, he was putting his hands on my legs and saying, ‘I’m going
to pray for you.’ Pray? I thought. I’m lying here in agony, and you want
to pray! But what I said aloud was, Uh, Colonel, don’t you think we could
just do this the usual way? You know, get the helicopter, go to the
hospital…? But Grinalds ignored me. He called out, ‘Lord, Jesus Christ,
You are the Great Physician. Heal this man.’ In that very instant the
pain disappeared. Soon the feeling returned to my legs. When I was ready,
Grinalds helped me to my feet. Astonished, I came out with one of the
most inane utterances of my life. I said, ‘Thank you, sir.’ At that
moment, Grinalds grabbed my by the jacket and pulled me to his face.
‘Don’t thank me,’ he said. ‘Thank your Lord and Savior. He is the Great
Physician. You have to turn to Him.’” (Oliver North, True Freedom: The
Liberating Power of Prayer, Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc.,
2004, pp. 10-12)

Oliver North knew of God and even believed in the existence of God. In
fact, he even prayed to God. But, as he went on to write, “That incident
was the two-by-four God used to break through my thick-skulled
resistance. I had it in my head that freedom meant taking care of myself,
forging my own path through the jungle of life’s challenges. I knew God
was there to help, but I expected Him to follow my lead. What I came to
realize was that He had been leading all along - and that I had not done
well at following. I had been placing faith in myself, yet He had been
telling me over and over, ‘You’ll only be truly free when you know and
trust Me.’” (Oliver North, True Freedom: The Liberating Power of Prayer,
Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2004, p. 13)

In this book on prayer, North refers to nine principles of prayer. I am
using some of these principles to remind us this Sunday and next Sunday
of the power of prayer. These principles certainly come as no surprise to
praying Christians, but it does us well to review and remember them. They
are certainly appropriate reminders during the week of the National Day
of Prayer on May 6th.

First, prayer liberates us to live as we were designed, in intimate
relationship with God. Psalm 32 is a psalm attributed to David. David was
experienced with fighting for life and freedom. He had fought valiantly
for his anointed king, Saul, and then had to run from and struggle with
Saul for years just to stay alive. As King of Israel, David experienced
much more freedom than most other men during the times in which he lived.
But notice his tone in verses 3-4. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted
away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”

There were times when David was out of relationship with God. During
those times, he was not a free man. He was miserable. He “wasted away”
and his “strength was sapped.” Notice that nothing changed outwardly for
David. He was still king. He still had all the power and privilege and
freedom that being king brought. However, it was not his personal
strength or power or prestige that rescued him and made his free once
again. Continue in verse 5. “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did
not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to
the Lord’ - and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Prayer liberates us to
live as we were designed, in intimate relationship with God.

Closely related to the first principle is this second principle of
prayer: Prayer frees us from the stranglehold of sin’s power. I like the
age in which I live. I like the wonders of the technologies we have.
Although I have moments where I wonder what it would have been like to
live back in some other time, I honestly have no desire to try to make it
on the Dakota plains in the 1800s. We had a prayer request shared last
week for the recovery of a boy with a ruptured appendix. It caused me to
wonder how many people in the world’s past had life cut short because of
a ruptured appendix. In our day, an appendectomy is a minor surgical
procedure. We don’t even think of appendicitis has having an impact on
the average mortality rate. Yet, not too many generations ago,
appendicitis was a terminal illness. In fact, in the early days of modern
medicine, even an appendectomy could be lethal. Now, even heart surgeries
have become routine, if not quite minor yet, surgical procedures. I like
my amazing world.

That does not mean, though, that I think that all is right with this
world in which I live. Along with all this wonderful technology has come
serious opposition to God’s Word. When humanity seeks freedom away from
God, the opposite occurs. We do find a false freedom while remaining in
bondage to sin. Contemporary psychology tends to minimize the reality of
sin. Attempts are made to convince us that dealing with guilt feelings is
the cure to self-esteem and self well-being. We don’t even need to admit
that we have done anything wrong as long as we can work to be released by
thinking and feeling differently about our past.

Wrong! Notice that Romans 6:23 does not read, “For the wages of guilt
feelings is anxiety.” It reads, of course, “For the wages of sin is
death.” That is a lot tougher indictment that just anxious or other bad
feelings. The fact is there is sin in the world, and we participate in
it. We sin. Before accepting God’s salvation, we sin by rejecting His
invitation to believe. After accepting God’s salvation, we sin by failing
to do that which he has commanded.

Refer once again to Psalm 32:3. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.” David’s implication is that his
silence is his failure to confess his sins to God. He fails to come
clean. He doesn’t go to God in prayer, or if he does, he is dishonest in
his prayer. The result? He is miserable. He is not free. He is in bondage
to his sin. Where is his release? Verse 5: “Then I acknowledged my sin to
you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord’ - and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Could
this have been a reference to the terrible sins he committed as a result
of his affair with Bathsheba? If it was, it is certainly easy to
understand how his unrepentant heart led to such misery, such “wasting
away,” and such groaning. Only through confession - openly admitting his
sins to God and throwing himself before the throne of his King - could
David find the relief and freedom from the shackles that he placed on
himself. Prayer frees us from the stranglehold of sin’s power.

Third, prayer frees us from self-deception and reminds us that we’re
God’s children. Bad things happen in our lives. Even if we are blessed
enough not to have to face significant tragedy in our lives or the lives
of close loved ones, we must still acknowledge that very terrible events
happen to some pretty good people. To my knowledge, no one I know
personally was murdered in the Oklahoma City bombing or the 9/11 attack.
Regardless, I know perfectly well that a lot of people received an unfair
death penalty those days for just going to work. There was nothing just
about the penalty those people paid those days. Of course, those are but
two examples of tragedies that have plagued humanity from early times.

When tragedy happens, it is normal for us to wonder and ask “why.” Our
very souls are shaken as the world around us crumbles. In another Psalm,
22, David expresses the devastation that some event has had on his soul.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving
me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but
you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.” Is this not a familiar
expression to us? “God, why have you forsaken me?”

There have been times during tragedy when a person forgets who he or she
is. We forget that we are a child of God and turn away from our ultimate
source of strength. During this time, a person can reach out for
substitutes: alcohol, drugs, bad relationships, whatever else comes
along. When prayer is forgotten, or outright rejected, we forget who we
are and whose we are.

Before he completes Psalm 22, David acknowledges his discovery in verse
22. “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will
praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of
Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has
not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not
hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”

The Psalms, in particular, are like this. Even the ones that begin with a
complaint against God turn into Psalms of praise. How is this done?
Through dedicated, devoted prayer. Even prayer that struggles with God is
prayer. It is through such prayer - even if it becomes unspoken - that
God reminds us who we are in His sight. I am His child; we are His
children. A tragic event does not have to be a time when we turn away
from God. Rather, even through prayers that do not mask our rawest
emotions, God makes His mercy known, for we are His children. David
reminds us of God’s everlasting care in Psalm 32:6-7: “Therefore let
everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the
mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; you
will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
Prayer frees us from self-deception and reminds us that we’re God’s
children.

God’s path to freedom, then, is prayer. It is admitting our guilt,
accepting His forgiveness, and understanding that He makes us His child.
This is quite a liberating power that goes well beyond the dimensions of
this world. As with Oliver North, the turning point in many a life has
been through another person’s prayer. Whether overtly dramatic or not,
prayer changes lives. Our conversation with God changes the pray-er and
those who are prayed for. Do not neglect the prayer connection that God
has made with you, because without it, you cannot be free.

Last weekend, hundreds of thousands descended upon Washington, D.C., in
support of legalized abortion. This Thursday, prayer rallies are being
held on the National Day of Prayer. I know of the ones that will be held
at the courthouse in Miami and Howard counties at noon. Hundreds of
thousands made a pilgrimage to D.C. to support abortion, but only a few
dozen will turn out at these nearby places for 30 to 60 minutes this
Thursday to support prayer. Who is more dedicated to their respective
cause?

I encourage you to attend one of these rallies, or any other special
prayer services you may know about if you are at all able. I fully
recognize that work may prevent you from attending; I have had jobs that
prevent me from doing some things. When I was “haze gray and underway,” I
didn’t make it to any rally, regardless of the cause. But if you have the
flexibility, take some time from work to attend. If you don’t work that
day, then, again, plan to make one of the rallies a priority. If you need
to, take a chair with you - just some practical advice. I merely point
out the obvious: if thousands upon thousands can muster for abortion or
homosexual marriages or any other ungodly cause, then what does it say
about Christians who cannot make it to a county-wide gathering in honor
of the National Day of Prayer?

“Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds
the man who trusts in him. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you
righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!”

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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