Tag Archives: praying

Some Thoughts on the Death of Bishop Eddie Long

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michael-harrisThe following is a “guest post” from Michael Clayton Harris, M. Div. Harris is a graduate of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and pastor of the Acts of Faith Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA. He is also the son of the Rev. Dr. Michael Neely Harris, the recently retired pastor of the historic Wheat Street Baptist Church of Atlanta, GA.

This is a reflection by Pastor Harris concerning reactions to the death of Bishop Eddie L. Long, pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church of Lithonia, GA taken from his FaceBook page with permission:

“I tried to avoid writing this but I just couldn’t sleep on it so here it goes. It’s a shame that people are so heartless and hateful that they would vilify Bishop Eddie Long on the day that he died because of his alleged past indiscretions. Additionally, it’s very important in thought plus spirituality to have the mindset that if you prayed for Eddie Long while he was sick and now pray for his family and church family now that he has passed, then that suddenly means you have no compassion and have stopped praying for the young men who were the plaintiffs in the highly publicized scandal.

I must admit, I’m livid by how people can attack the deceased and have no respect for at least the loved ones of the deceased. I guess Eddie Long’s family deserves hearing him or reading about him be crucified on the day of his death even though they didn’t have anything to do with his alleged actions? As people talk about the victims whose lives have been forever changed mentally, emotionally, and let’s not forget financially (since they settled the case out of court allegedly for millions of dollars), where’s the deep compassionate talk for his widow and his children whose lives have forever been changed because of the scandal being publicized, plus the hurt & shame they have encountered because of the alleged actions of their loved one, plus the hurt & pain they have experienced through watching their loved one’s sickness and now dealing with their death? I guess they deserve whatever comes their way because of being related to someone who allegedly committed such a heinous act? I guess praying for family members whose lives have also been forever changed not because of what they’ve done shows support for Bishop Long’s alleged actions as well? I guess the family members don’t have to wrestle with anything like the alleged victims?

I highlight this side because I’ve seen first-hand on year before last the damage from the scandal that has been done to one of his children who in a public setting was very anti-social and insecure because of the fear of not knowing what other people felt or thought about them because of the alleged actions of their father which were made public. Imagine trying to live your life in the shadow of one of your family members indiscretions for the rest of your life? Imagine hearing people pull out all of your deceased loved ones baggage and skeletons in the closet as you begin to mourn your loved one’s death? Would you be cool with that? Should there not be any prayer and compassion given to a family member whose innocent from any wrong doing but forever will live under the dark cloud of a family member’s indiscretion for the rest of their life? FYI, if you haven’t discerned there are way more victims in this whole matter than just the young men.

May God grant #BishopEddieLong‘s family & the #NewBirth Church family a double portion of His love, peace, comfort, strength, & healing! May God bestow upon some people more love and compassion to respect the deceased and their family members as they grieve, in Jesus name!”

Thanks to Pastor Harris for his prolific insights and for allowing the reproduction of his thoughts on this page. Your comments are welcomed.

Praying Confidently to God

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Praying Hands on BibleIn 1 John 5:14-15, we read: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (KJV) This passage contains one of the great “secrets” to answered prayer. But the sad reality today is that there are many so-called Christians who lack confidence in prayer. And one of the reasons they lack confidence in prayer is because they lack confidence in God!

But why is this the case? Why would people lack confidence in God? Well, you can’t have confidence in someone you don’t trust! And you can’t trust or have faith in someone you don’t know! And you can’t know someone without having a relationship with them! And you can’t have a relationship with them if you have no communication or interaction with them! Simply put, many people lack confidence in prayer because they lack confidence in God! And they lack confidence in God because, contrary to the doctrinal creeds they espouse; they have no real personal relationship with God.

But God is “knowable” and God desires to have a personal relationship with all of us! We can “know” God through His word because that is the how God reveals Himself to us. Just as we can know any person through their word; we can know God through His word! Now the text we cited states that if we ask anything according to God’s will, God hears us! How can we know what we ask is according to His will? By reading His word! His word reveals His will!

Now, the prime prerequisite to confidence in prayer is that we have a proper relationship with God! Contrary to popular belief, God doesn’t hear every prayer a sinner prays! The only prayer God hears from a sinner is the prayer of repentance! Until we repent of our sins and turn to God for forgiveness and salvation, we have no basis for a relationship with God! In fact, even after we are in right relationship with God, God still doesn’t hear our prayers if we are out of sorts with Him because of unconfessed sins, or out of sorts with one another because of strife or un-forgiveness! So you see, prayer is not just the matter of a “magical chant!” There are certain preconditions that must be met and maintained! But once the prerequisites are met and maintain, we can have confidence that God will hear and answer our prayers!

One last word about having confidence in God in regard to prayer: Prayer should never be a last resort; it should always be a first response! Prayer is communion and communication with God! Prayer is not simply a means of giving God a “shopping list” of the things you want! How would you feel if you had a friend and the only time you heard from them was when they needed you or wanted you to do something for them? No! Prayer is not an emergency measure, to be used only in case of emergencies; it is the normal everyday means of maintaining a healthy relationship with God. Real prayer is not just us talking to God, but also allowing God to speak to us! When a real prayer-relationship with God is the normal everyday routine, we can have the confidence the biblical writer wrote about! We can have confidence that whatever we ask according to His will, He hears and will grant us the petitions we ask of Him!

 

 

The “Real” Purpose of Prayer

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prayer bibleHave you ever wondered what God’s purpose was in instituting prayer? I mean, think about it! Surely God did not institute prayer and the practice of praying simply as a way for us to inform him of our needs! Jesus said in Matthew 5:6-7 “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (NIV)  And again in Matthew 6:31-32 “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (NIV)  Clearly we can see from these passages that the Lord already knows our needs, therefore, the real purpose of prayer is not just to inform him of our needs. Now you might ask at this point: If God already knows what we need before we ask, then why should we ask? Good question! I think he wants us to ask because our asking helps us to recognize and acknowledge our dependency upon him. By the way, there is so much more to prayer than just “asking” God to fulfill our needs!

So, if the real purpose of prayer is not just to ask God to supply our needs, to rescue us from trouble, to heal our bodies, or to take care of whatever is wrong in our lives, then what is the real purpose of prayer? I think the answer can be found in the model prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. In the prayer we know as: “The Lord’s Prayer,” the answer is found in the first words. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, saying “Our Father.” The word “father” implies relationship and the primary way to establish and sustain any relationship is with communication. And in any relationship, real communication is never just one-way! Therefore, real prayer is not just us talking to God; real prayer is also God talking to us! A real prayer is a conversation with God and no conversation is a real conversation if just one person is doing all of the talking! Have you ever been in any type of relationship in which the other person always monopolized the conversation? That relationship probably did not last because no real relationship can exist under such conditions! And there is no real relationship if the only time (or every time) you hear from the other person; they are asking you for something!

Therefore, I would like to suggest that the real purpose of prayer is communication, communion, conversation and company-keeping with God! Real prayer is God talking to us and us talking to God! By the way, I inverted the order on purpose! Real prayer is always responsive! It is God who always speaks first! God speaks to us through his word (the Bible) and we, in turn talk back to God through prayer! Therefore, real prayer cannot be done apart from the word of God. Often the failure of many in praying, in addition to a lack of faith, can be traced back to an ignorance of and an ignoring of God’s word. It is useless to ask God for an answer that he has already given in his word! Much of what many ask; God has already given an answer in his word, but people ask because they are ignorant of his word! The result is frustration because often they are waiting on God to do something he has already done, but they don’t know that he’s already done it because they don’t read and study his word! By the way, when we don’t read and study his word, we are like the rude person we use to be friends with that always monopolized the conversation!  Remember? We stopped being their friend because they were so selfish and self-centered that they only wanted us to listen to them while at the same time they wouldn’t listen to us! Well, we want God to listen to us; but do we listen to God? When we talk to God in prayer, do we get up immediately after we’ve finished and go on about our business, not allowing him to say anything?

And then, the real purpose of prayer is really not to “change things” but rather it is to change us! I’ve often heard people say: “Prayer changes things!” But when you really think about, in most cases, it is not so much a case of prayer changing things as it is of prayer changing people and changed people changing things! Neither is the real purpose of prayer to change the mind of God, but rather it is to change our minds so that we might have the mind of God.

Therefore, since the real purpose of prayer is about communication, communion, conversation and company-keeping with God, let’s stop being rude to God! Let’s quit monopolizing the conversation and listen to what God has to say! Let’s take time to read and study his word! In doing so, we will find that many of the questions we might want to ask; he has already answered and much of what we seek; he has already given! Try this: The next time you pray; don’t ask God for anything! Just thank him for what he has already done! Treat him like you should treat a good friend! Have your Bible open and just tell him: “I just wanted to say: ‘Hello, and to have a good conversation with you because I really enjoy your company! By the way; how are you doing today? Amen!”