Answering God

A few weeks ago, Dave was preaching on Nehemiah and he talked about how Nehemiah prayed for God to work in Jerusalem… and how eventually he became the answer, so to speak, to his own prayers. He warned us that prayer can be a risky activity, because we may well find God stirring us to do the very things we are praying about.

Eugene Peterson has written a book on ‘the psalms as tools for prayer’ entitled ‘Answering God’. I like the ambiguity of that title: the idea that God is an answering God (how often have we heard that phrase that ‘God is a prayer-answering God‘?) and that in prayer, we also answer God. The psalms are eseentially a collection of prayers, many of which were set to music, and therefore were sung prayers. Eugene Peterson says that the psalms are tools, but ‘not tools for doing or getting, but for being or becoming’ (‘Answering God’ P 2). Prayer is not simply about ‘getting answers’ from God, but perhaps also involves becoming His answers.

As I wrestle with these thoughts and listen to songs, I realise that these songs, too, are prayers. I believe that what we sing is crucially important, because the words get inside us and become part of our lives. When we sing lyrics that are prayers, then, they effectively become our prayers. As I was listening to this song today, I reached the conclusion that this is a dangerous prayer to sing, but one which captures my heart perfectly. ‘Move me, Lord. Use me, Lord. Give me a fire that’s always burning. Show me Your glory. Open my eyes to the world I don’t see.’ It’s a prayer I don’t really know how God will answer, but I long for Him to use me and move me.

“Into the heart of the darkest places
Into the lost and the lonely spaces
Bringing the hope and the life You’ve given
I’ll move cause You move me.

We need to wake up
We need to raise up
Cause I will never stand still; Lord. keep me moving, moving.” (‘We Need’, Jeremy Camp)
‘We Need’, Jeremy Camp