Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• John 8:32

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

• Galatians 5:1

“I fear that for too many believers, spiritual discipline turns into a straitjacket experience filled with requirements that squeeze the vitality and spontaneity and adventure right out of faith and life. For these people, Christ no longer brings freedom. Religion becomes a heavy burden. Most people can’t live that way for long. Some of those who really work at it develop such a self-righteous attitude that everyone wishes they would fail.”

• Bill Hybels, Too Busy NOT to Pray

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Not our deeds, our courage, our strength, our nation, our truth, but God’s truth alone makes us free. … God’s truth alone, however, makes me see the other person.  It directs my attention, which is focused on me, beyond myself and shows me other people.  And by doing that, it performs for me the deed of love, the deed of God’s grace.  It does away with our lies and creates truth.  It does away with hate and creates love.”

When you enter into intercessory prayer, do you do so out of love or out of obligation?  Do you do so spontaneously, or do you do so at a set time, set place, with a set prayer?  Nothing is wrong with being regimented, but we might start fitting ourselves for the straitjacket.

I often read other blogger’s posts where there is someone they are caring for who is not doing well or they have a loved one who needs to know Jesus.  I stop right then and pray, but God puts that need in my heart.  Later, I might be washing dishes and that blogger’s need pops into my head again.  So, I pray again, and again.

When we pray out of love, we can avoid the straitjacket of using rote expressions, the weight of the burden, and the entrapment of obligation.

I knew someone who had a typed contact list.  Late in life, this person changed the title of the list from Loved Ones to Obligations.  When God’s truth is not in it, we no longer see the person, just the obligation.

Let us pray.  Let us intercede.  Let us see people, and spontaneously have our heart go out to them in love, even to empathically feel their pain.  Then we will know God’s truth, for God has answered the prayer in part.  It is then we know God heard the prayer and why we are interceding.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.