As the Spring Rains Water the Earth

I love the rain.

(I live in a desert.)

Not the sunbaked mesa desert or the rolling dunes desert; I live in the sagebrush and rattlesnake desert.

In a desert, our life-water is in the sky. We cannot live unless it falls down, we are at the mercy of the falling of the rain. On those rare Spring days, days like today, when the temperature rises above "snow pants" and catches the sky between frozen and desiccated...

when clouds hang low and begin to melt, 

when all of my weeds are still green, 

as the drops wash the lies from my face, 

...I feel my heart begin to breathe again.

The pressure pours out of me like tears...and I remember...

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3

I remember that He remembers me.

I remember God, reaching down like a mother bird, feeding his children with bread from the sky.

I remember the time that God reached down from heaven and became the Bread from the sky.

I remember the time that God poured Himself out in water and blood.

It falls down on me as suddenly as salvation, as unstoppable as redemption.

It is not only His grace that is falling, God himself falls on me like rain.
And I love the rain.

As surely as the sun will rise, You'll come to us

Certain as the dawn appears

You'll come

Let Your glory fall as You respond to us

Spirit, rain

flood into our thirsty hearts again

You'll come

-Brooke Fraser

Fasting: Failing...Winning?

I won't be so pedantic as to reference a certain pop-culture phenomenon about #winning...but I wanted to share something I learned today about #failing.

I mentioned on Sunday that my church is participating in a Week of Prayer and Fasting for the next few days (It's not really a week, it's Sun-Wed, but you get the idea). I also mentioned that, in the past, I've approached this as an opportunity to prove to God how much I loved him by giving up food for a few days.

It never worked. The prayer time was good, but I've always felt like I missed out on something very cool.

I think that something cool was failing.

See, we are taught early on that the worst thing that we can do is fail. We are taught to be strong, self-reliant, and successful at any cost. Even if we have to "fake it" we have to be strong. But that's not what I read today.

...God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world...
1 Cor 1:27-28

This is subtle and may not make any sense if you're not a crazy perfectionist like me:

I would rather give up on something than try and fail.

So I'm trying something new and I'm letting myself screw up; I'm letting myself fail. In fact, I failed tonight just to demonstrate my new commitment to failure. 

In all honesty, I'm very disappointed with myself (thus the attempt at humor). Still, I'm not quitting; I'm going to try again tomorrow.

I you would like to jump on board with the week of prayer and fasting, you can visit www.prayandfast.org and watch live webcasts Tuesday and Wednesday night at 7 PST. If you're in the Grant County area, stop by Ephrata Foursquare Church and pray with us in person.

And even if you're not participating, I'd love to hear what you're learning about being weak. I'd love to hear your crazy stories of perfectionism and fear of failure and share some more of mine. 

You can leave a comment below or find me on Facebook or Twitter (@sarah_e_brewer, I'm tweeting with the tags #prayandfast and #learningtobeweak.).

Let's learn to be weak together.

--Sarah Elizabeth

Fasting: Receiving not Giving

Tonight at 7:00 PSD, my church, Ephrata Foursquare Church, is joining Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego and hundreds of other congregations nation-wide in week of prayer and fasting via www.prayandfast.org. Each night of the "week" (which is actually 4 days) we come together in body and online via webcast to pray and encourage each other. It's always a great time.

Inevitably, however, I approach this time as a challenge to "prove" how important God is by showing I can and will make this sacrifice for Him. Please don't believe that this is just another demonstration of my pride, though that is part of it. It has more to do with my constant need to offer God something.

I have a fear of weakness and serious issues with receiving gifts. I am compelled to do and to give in order to prove, mostly to myself, that "I'm okay." That I can hold myself and my world together. This doesn't work. Not as a Christian. Not as a human.

It certainly doesn't fit with the nature fasting and it ruins this awesome week for me every year.
So, in keeping with this time my life, God is offering me a chance to learn something new about Him. He's letting me learn about not being strong, about humility, about not being enough. He's giving me a chance to learn to receive.

We're all neurotic in some way. If your neurosis sounds a bit like mine, let me invite you to learn how to be weak with me. Even if you aren't doing it through fasting (though I'd welcome the company!), let's learn how to receive from God, together.

You can listen to an encouraging message on prayer, fasting, and this upcoming week by my pastor at www.efcnet.org.

Even if you aren't fasting, even if you jump aboard late, even if you don't participate every day, I'd love for you to join me and hear how things are going for you as well! Visit www.prayandfast.org to join in the live webcast and I'll be posting on twitter via @sarah_e_brewer using the tag #prayandfast.

How can I pray for you this week?

Pragmatism and "Praying about it"

Have you ever considered how incredibly odd a Christian must seem to a non Christian? If you are one of the 15% of Christians who converted as adult, then you likely have firsthand knowledge. But if you are one of the 85 out of 100 Christians who are "lifers," you may not be aware that you are weird.
You get excited about weird things, you behave in unexplainable ways, and you react in surprising ways to things that other people do not even notice.

And you say cryptic things, like:

...we don't know God's plan.
...he's just having a "wilderness" experience.
...I have a heart for worship.
...you need to spend some time sitting at the feet of Jesus

Though most citizens of a christianized culture are probably familiar with these statements, they really don't really know what they mean. To be honest, I don't really think we know what they mean. Oh, we may know the bible answer, but I doubt we'd be able to explain the spiritual ramifications of these statements, even to one another.

Like me, you might find this amusing, but it actually does matter. Take, for example, the ever popular

I need to pray about it.

On the surface, this is a very wise statement. Of course we should pray about everything, we're taught that from childhood and it even says it in the bible (Phil 4:6). One of the cornerstones of the Christian faith is absolute dependence on God for direction in our life. So, obviously, when someone says they need to pray about it, it means they need to consult God before they make that particular decision.

Makes sense right?

Maybe, but think for a moment, if you will, about the times when we play this particular card:

...we're thinking about having a baby, but we need to pray about it...

...did you hear about that mission trip to Uganda? Sounds awesome! I'll have to pray about it...

...I'm thinking about going back to school, but I need to pray about it...
...we're thinking about sponsoring a child from Kenya, but I need to pray about it...

...you need help in the children's ministry? I'll have to pray about it...

...I want to got to that party, but there's going to be alcohol. I should pray about it...

...the meals/hospitality ministry is really short on volunteers? Cool, I'll pray about it...

...the Red Cross needs money to help earthquake victims in Japan, but I think I need to pray about it...

In these situations, what does I'll pray about it, actually mean in practice? Why do you need to pray about it? How are you going to pray about it? What is the end result going to be?

I think I'll pray about it, is the Christian equivalent to We should have a meeting about it. It really should help you make a decision but, practically, it is just a way of avoiding making a decision. If you don't think so, think with me to all of the times you've said, "I'll pray about it," and then ask yourself how often you've actually prayed about it.

I mean an intentional, specific, pointed time of prayer. Did you seek advice from others? Did you look it up in the bible? If you said it in response to a request for help, did you ever get back to the person who asked?

Or was it just a way to get out of an uncomfortable situation long enough to forget about it so you could do whatever you wanted?

Pragmatism is a philosophy which basically states that the only solution to a problem is the one that actually works. When it comes to "praying about something," I admit, I get a little pragmatic: if it doesn't work, it's not a real answer.

And, to be honest, I sometimes feel there are a few things we really do not need to pray about. Please do not think that I'm saying God doesn't care or that we shouldn't care what God says about certain decisions. 

I'm saying that we don't need to pray about it because we already know the answer.

We know the answer, we just don't like it. Maybe we need to pray that God will help us make a decision more cheerfully or do something more willingly, but the question of whether or not we should do certain things is really not a difficult question.

What do you think? Are there times when we don't need to pray, we just need to do what we know is right?

    

And please, do pray.

anxiety

"be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God," (phil 4:6).

anxiety is a sly and clever thing.  it slips into our hearts with little indication of its presence.  it wears many guises one of which is the guise of the master planner.  while some respond to stress by worrying or fretting, others respond by throwing themselves into planning and organization, but neither response is the one ordained in this scripture.  though, outwardly, planning and preparation seem to be positive responses to stressful situations, the Lord would have us lay aside all of our carefully laid plans, checklists, and goals and spend the first-fruits of our time in prayer and supplication.

it is a well-worn quote but true nonetheless, "you can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do anything more than pray until you have prayed."  Jesus says in john 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."  Christ came to offer peace beyond all understanding or human experience.  He does not want his children rendered useless in worry or in a pointless frenzy of activity.  though, it goes against the grain to, in times of stress, hold your peace and "waste" your valuable time in prayer, these are the times when it is vital that we labor in prayer.  just as we deny our flesh by abstaining from drunkenness, deceit, pride, and sexual immorality, we must also deny this fleshly desire to rely on our own strength in these situations realizing that except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it (psa 127:1).

when facing the temptation to allay your anxiety through busyness, it is important to take time and realize the magnitude of the God we serve.  simply running through a few of His many names can do much to assuage our fears: Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher of my faith, Faithful God, the Good Shepherd, Prince of Peace, My Refuge, My Hiding Place, My Shield, the Rock that is Higher than I!  when we put God back on the throne of our lives, we realize that His purpose stands, as it has always stood, through all the storms and deluges this world can conjure.  do not let your spirit be tossed in the wind needlessly, for His purposes and end of your life was written long before your birth and His plans stand firm.  He reminds us to "remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring from the beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure'" (isa 46:9-10).