Life on the Pasture

This is the time of year in Wisconsin when the weather plays with one’s emotions. A day in the upper 60’s or possibly even the lower 70’s makes one think spring has finally settled in and summer is on the way. The budding trees and bushes, the sound of lawnmowers, and smell of meat being cooked on the grill give hope that the warm temperatures are here to stay. And then it suddenly changes as a cold front moves in and frost warnings are posted.

I must admit that I have been very selective as to how much news I’ve been listening to and from what sources I am gaining my information about the pandemic. But I have been following things enough to have similar emotional swings as those brought about by the changing weather. Just when I think there is hope that we will soon be able to gather in person for worship, something happens to lessen my optimism. I know things are ultimately in God’s hands and He will let things go only so far, but I want Him to intervene now. And so I pray.

Tomorrow (Thursday, May 7) is the National Day of Prayer. Prayer more than anything else is talking to God. We speak to Him and He responds as we hear His voice in the Holy Scriptures. But if truth be told, sometimes prayer becomes more of a one-way conversation with us telling God what He should do based on the fact that if we were God, that’s what we would do. It is also true that sometimes we think we can manipulate the Almighty through prayer. If we get enough people to pray as we are, then God will be forced to act accordingly. In both cases, arrogance supersedes humility, and the whole idea of waiting on God and asking that His will be done is lost as we attempt to assert our will and have God wait on us. 

So how should we pray? One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him,, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” (Luke 11:1–4, NIV) Those words, combined with a similar prayer in Matthew 6, give us the Lord’s Prayer. 

While taking the time as a nation to pray that God would guide things to bring a swift end to the COVID-19 pandemic would be a good thing, perhaps spending some time truly contemplating the Lord’s example of prayer and honestly praying it would be a good way to observe not just the National Day of Prayer but each day. That prayer redirects us to the wonder of Almighty God being our Father and our desire to live under Him in His Kingdom in which He rules in love – a Kingdom in which through our Lord Jesus we can actually talk to God and know not only that He hears, but also answers. As Paul puts it in Romans 8: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31–32, NIV)

– Pastor Schmidt