Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Lift up your heads, you gates;
    be lifted up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord strong and mighty,
    the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, you gates;
    lift them up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
    The Lord Almighty—
    he is the King of glory.

• Psalm 24:7-10

They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

• 2 Samuel 6:17-19

“In that day
“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins—
    and will rebuild it as it used to be,

• Amos 9:11

“l have a dream for the church. We will become houses of prayer again. None of us want to spend the rest of our lives cloistered off in socially irrelevant, spiritually dry weekly meetings. What’s the alternative? The radical reprioritization of prayer. And if the cost is foolishness, count me in. If the cost is sacrifice, count me in. If the cost is faith, count me in. If the cost is perseverance, count me in.
“A yes to this kind of kingdom vision looks less like gritting our teeth and more like a king dancing in a priest’s underwear. It looks less like putting our nose to the grindstone and more like Jesus smiling ear to ear on the back of a donkey half his weight. It looks less like intensity, and a lot more like joy.”

• Tyler Staton, Praying like Monks, Living like Fools

Rev. Staton concludes his book with a vision.  He sees a bright future, if we just prayed.

But let’s examine the costs.  Foolishness?  My wife finally admitted about a year before she passed away that she married me not for my romance, I had no skill in that area.  I had no dance moves.  I couldn’t even march and stay in step.  My good looks weren’t great, but moderately passable.  I had no money.  I had a brain, but that made other people self-conscious, even though I never crammed my brilliance down anyone’s throat.  No, she fell in love with my weirdness.  I could trip, do a somersault, and then take a bow as if I meant to get across the room that way.  Everything that I did was … off.  So, foolishness?  I’m all in.

Sacrifice?  I am writing roughly 12 posts each week, and I am praying about another, even writing a few posts in my spare time to prove that I have enough spare time.  And that takes a commitment to prayer.  Okay, I’m in.

Faith? If God is behind it, it is going to happen, and if it does not succeed, I will grow from the endeavor.

Perseverance?  A little over six years ago, I started this blogsite.  My pastor at the time thought it would not work.  My best friend at the time shook his head, but I recently went past one thousand followers (subscribers, whatever they are calling it this week).  Then again, it is about like a church.  The number looks good, but a low percentage shows up every week, even lower daily.  But with the thought of writing more – mostly due to my wife’s final words to me, nearly the last anyway, were that if she were gone, I would have more time to write.  I have to make good on her wish.  So, perseverance?  I can do that.  Slowing down is what I do not know how to do.

So, what do you think?  Can you persevere to radically improve your prayer life?  It only takes time, but the Person hearing our prayers is eager to listen.

Lord, guide me. Help me to reprioritize my prayer life.  Help me to finally find that time that my wife said I would have once she had passed on.  These last few weeks have been the first time I was neither a caregiver nor planning something in the aftermath of not being a caregiver.  The void is a scary thing, and I need someone to talk to.  I know You have the time.  And You already know that when I pray, I say a lot of goofy stuff.  I may need a human to talk to on occasion, but they might not always be there.  Thank You for being You.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.