7 Portraits in Prayer, Day 3: Evening

 

Week 1, Power to Pray, Day 3: Presence

(Read Exodus 4:1-5; 17:5; 1 John 5:14-15;)

Notice that the rod of God was in the hands of Moses. The rod of God is a symbol of God’s presence and power and, as is evidenced in today’s reading, when in the uplifted hands of Moses, victory occurred on the battlefield.

When I was in high school, I loved listening to our church pianist, Betty, play Ken Medema’s song, Moses. The song, more powerful than any sermon I have ever heard, shows how the rod of Moses, when cast down in obedience to God’s command in Exodus 4, became a powerful, miraculous instrument of deliverance from Egypt. It would bring plagues, part and close seas, bring water, and enable victory in battles.

Recorded before a live audience, the song silences the room as Ken Medema brings home the emotion-evoking words: “Do you know what it means Moses? Do know what I’m trying to say, Moses? / The rod of Moses became the rod of God! / With the rod of God, strike the rock and the water will come / With the rod of God, part the waters of the sea / With the rod of God, you can strike old Pharaoh dead / With the rod of God, you can set the people free.”

The audience becomes, if possible, even more hushed as the song ends: “What do you hold in your hand today? / To what or to whom are you bound? / Are you willing to give it to God right now? / Give it up, let it go, throw it down.”

Moses’s rod becomes God’s rod when thrown down before Him. Any idol or any idle prayer must be thrown down in submission to God. Only then can our prayers bring us to the God’s presence. Only then can our prayers bring our words to God’s ears.

When you pray, do you have a sense of divine presence? If not, why not? God is all-present and when we pray, He is especially near to hear our words. John, the self-described disciple as the one “whom Jesus loved”, says this about God’s presence and God’s response when we ask according to His will.

¹⁴ Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 John 5:14–15

Do you have that confidence? Jesus said, “And I know that You always hear Me…” in John 11:42. 

No, we are not Jesus, and, yes, we can “ask amiss” (James 4:3), especially if we “harbor sin” in our hearts (Psalm 66:18, NET). But after confession and repentance of sin, we can once again pray in confidence in the presence of God’s hearing when we truly pray in His name; that is, in accordance to His will.

 

Pray this prayer to God: “God, my Father. Too often, I take for granted Your power and Your presence I have available in my prayers to you. Help me to no longer see a rod of mine, but rather a rod of thine to be held in my hands, when I first cast it before You. Lord, give me confidence to say as Jesus said, ‘I know you always hear me.’. Amen.”

Click here for Day 4, Morning.