A Prayer for the Days Ahead

A sermon preached by Dr. Peter James Flamming, Pastor
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
January 3, 1999

Text: Psalm 31:15

USA Today took a survey of those who made resolutions in 1998. Only 32% kept them. I'd like to ask how many even remembered them? As for 1999, the top resolutions were predictable enough. But right in the middle of the list was one I got excited about. Let me read them for you as USA Today published them.

Lose weight and exercise - 26%
Stop smoking - 20%
Improve finances and save - 12%
Job goals or a new job or retire - 7%
Better health and health habits - 7%
Pray more and be closer to God - 5%
General self-improvement - 5%
Move, buy, or sell a home - 5%
Be kinder, nicer and get along - 5%
More family time - 4%

How strange, yet how encouraging, to find a few people resolving to pray more and be closer to God. It probably reflects the new level of interest in spirituality in our nation. Would you resolve to "pray more and be closer to God?" If you would, the question is, "how?"

Suppose you were to say to me, "Pastor, Teach me to pray." How would I do it?

My teaching would be based upon one central truth. It is this: To connect with God and to learn to pray you have to take both God and prayer into the guts of life. As long as your prayers and your connecting with God remains in this church, you are going to wind up spiritually exhausted for the year ahead. The power of prayer is to be set loose within you: where you live, where you work, where you make decisions, where you face tensions, when you succeed and when you fail, when you are sick and when you are well.

When prayer relates to where you really live, you will discover what the Scripture means by, "strengthened by God in the inner person."

In these coming weeks I am going to give you some brief prayers to memorize and to take with you on your journey through this next year. In fact, let me call this prayer, A Prayer to Take With You into the New Year. It is but two lines, the first includes phrases from Psalm 31 verses 14 and 15:
"I trust in you, O Lord, my times are in your hands.

The second line is from the thought of a little known Christian, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, who lived in the seventeen hundreds. Put into a prayer it goes like this
"Help me, O Lord, to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

Now let me shorten our New Year's prayer for memory's sake: O Lord, My times are in your hands.Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

I prefer not to say an Amen. If you are going to pray often during the day, just put a comma there.

When would you pray this prayer?

You are nervous because you have a job interview. Pray this prayer: O Lord, My times are in your hands. Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

You are about to fulfill a commitment you promised to do but you would just as soon not go there. Pray this prayer: O Lord, My times are in your hands.Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

You have just read an article about the future that scares you to death. The article has hooked all of the insecurity with you. Pray this prayer: O Lord, My times are in your hands. Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

You are a young mother. You are exhausted. You have no life of your own. That will not last forever, but you don't believe that yet. Learn to pray this prayer: O Lord, My times are in your hands. Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

You are caring for your spouse who has Alzheimer's. You had so many happy years together. You didn't mean for it to end like this. Try to pray this prayer: O Lord, My times are in your hands.Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment.

Almost any situation you can think of, this prayer brings you to the heart of it. Unpack it daily as you make your journey through 1999.

Let's Talk About Time
The prayer begins with a commitment and a confession about time."My times are in your hands."

Few things intrude upon our lives more than time. Our schedules tie our lives down with Gulliver-like cables. At some retreats and conferences I have attended they require you to check your watches at the door. They want you to forget time. But most of us find ourselves unconsciously checking the time where the wristwatch was. Being rid of a wristwatch cold turkey can be a bit of a trauma! We delude ourselves about time, pretending as if time is a commodity we can exchange at will. We speak of saving time, or wasting time, or killing time. But of course, we really do nothing of the sort. We get the same amount of time every day. Every day of 1999 you will get the same amount of time. Time is the most democratic of all commodities. Everybody gets an equal amount. Like the mana in the wilderness, you cannot save any for the next day.

But though everyone gets the same amount of time, all time is not equal. We say "time flies when you are having fun." There is quality time and there is same-ole, same-ole time. Do you know that phrase, same-ole, same-ole? There is a little sandwich shop that makes such good sandwiches. I will sometimes ask the waitress, "How is it going?" She will often reply, "Same-ole, same-ole." I know that kind of time, don't you? But there is also quality time, break-through time, wonderful time.

For that reason the Bible has two words for time. The first is chronos time. It is the word from which we get chronology. It is calendar time. It is the time of which everyone gets the same amount. But then there is quality time, readiness time, just right time. In Romans 5:6 Paul says that it was at just the right time, at a time we were powerless, that Christ died for all of us unpious guys and gals. (Unpious is a literal translation.)

Readiness time happens when suddenly things come together and something new breaks in. A person said to me not long ago, "I believe I have grown more spiritually in the last year than I have in all of the rest of my life put together." That person was reflecting that something new had broken into life that transformed same-ole, same-ole, time.

When that kind of break-through time happens we know it. Something new has been born. Something has changed. We are in the same place but we see things differently. We have the same job but with a new purpose. Suddenly it is true, "Our times are in his hands."

When I was a university student I heard my pastor lift up a prayer in behalf of a college student. He prayed, "He is ready, Lord. I do not pray that you will make it easy for him. I just pray that you will make it personal and permanent and that he will do what you want him to do." Man. That was a strong prayer!

The reason I remember that prayer is that is was prayed about me. I wasn't there yet and I didn't really like any part of that prayer. "He is ready, Lord," the Pastor prayed. I thought, ready for what? "I don't pray that you make it easy . . . ." I wanted to call time out, time out, time out. "I pray that he will do what you want him to do." Hey, wait a minute, I thought. Do what? What is he talking about?

But my pastor had a kind of spiritual sixth sense about him. He knew I was in a state of readiness even when I didn't. Before that summer was out, I had made my commitment to be a minister. See, that prayer was all about "My times are in his hands."

Help Me to Give Myself to the Duty of the Present Moment
But faith, as always, is not only vertical but horizontal. Like in the Lord's Prayer when the Lord teaches us to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses (vertical) as we forgive those who trespass against us (horizontal)." In our prayer, "My times are in his hands " is the vertical dimension. The horizontal dimension is just as important: "Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment." That brings the new year down to a moment by moment basis.

The man who gave me the phrase, "the duty of the present moment," was Jean-Pierre de Caussade. He lived in the 1700s about the same time our church was born back in 1780. He spoke of the sacrament of each moment. His key thought was, "If we abandon ourselves to God, there is only one rule for us, the duty of the present moment."

Richard Foster wrote about him, "The spirituality of de Caussade is so utterly practical and down-to-earth. He takes the moments of every day and gives them sacramental importance." He wanted to put prayer within the reach of every follower of Christ. de Caussade wrote, ". . .this gentle, loving Savior expects nothing difficult or extraordinary of us. Indeed, God is only asking for my heart."

A man's life was changed once after he was in a dreadful accident.

He survived the accident but would spent many days in the hospital on his back in traction. His Pastor was a famous Methodist minister, Charles Allen. When Charlie went to see him, he affirmed him in every possible way. He spoke of his success in business, his reputation in the community, his ability to get things done, his esteem within his profession. But he also pointed out that he did not see him at church very often. And he didn't see him with his teen-age boys very often any more. He and the man talked for a long time. Then before he left he encouraged the man to use the time he had been given. "Bill," he said, "while you are on your back, this is a good time for you to get used to looking up again."

It is the new year. Maybe it is a good time for some of us to get used to looking up again. Why not begin by taking this prayer with you to your business, your school, your home, your playground. O Lord, My times are in your hands. Help me to give myself to the duty of the present moment. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

What a better time to begin than communion. To review your life, and reflect that your times are in his hands. And to resolve to give yourself to the duty of the present moment.

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