Today we read a famous passage where the Israelites are fighting against the Amalekites and Moses stands on top of the hill holding his staff up and when he does this, the Israelites are winning, when it starts to drop, they start to lose. It is often taught as a metaphor for prayer and that is fine but I think not quite the whole story. Why? Because a staff represents authority rather than prayer. The police of years ago and various other officers of state had 'Tipstaffs' which were used to symbolise what or who these people represented.
In the case of Moses, I believe his staff demonstrates God's authority, in this case over the Amalekites, something that was decided by God and carried out by man.
Why am I saying all this? Well it is all very well saying we need to pray but most people either don't know what to pray about or they pray loads of things, most of which don't seem to come to pass. It is all very well saying that sometimes God says, "wait" but this is not my understanding for his answer to most prayers! We need to pray for something sensible and the only thing that is sensible to pray is that God's kingdom come, His will be done (by His authority) and that this work is carried out through his people who are willing to be used. There is no weakness in this chain of events:
God wants certain things to happen but will not force His will on humans, we want His will to be done but lack the knowledge or power to carry most of it out, we pray and invite God to work His power through us in a way that achieves what He wants and the result is His kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
There is no other way we can expect this to happen!
No comments:
Post a Comment