Covenant of Faith

Wednesdays, early morning prayer meetings, gathering in the darkness to sing and pray. We rotate responsibility for leading, so that every couple of months each team member receives the gift of an hour and a half of group prayer focused on their own heart and life.

Today was my turn, and as I happen to be in Nehemiah I took the prayer from chapter 9 as my theme. Appropriately, this prayer is offered post-retreat, after the people have enjoyed in chapter 8 a festival of rich foods and communal worship such as we just did. The priests lead in praising God for who He is, thanking Him for the amazing things He's done (and we had quite a list for January 09 already, evidence of God's work in many details of life from Ivan's PLE's to Arthur's birth to thousands of dollars of CSB support to even more generous giving to our own support account), and then a long confession of sin all cushioned with the reality of God's lavish mercy and unending patience. It is not until verse 32 that the requests begin to appear, the plea for God's deliverance. Likewise we then moved into praying this morning for my ministry in 2009 along the lines of our themes and emphases from our retreat, asking God to deepen our prayer life, to strengthen partnerships among team mates but also with groups like UNICEF and UNC, and to bring fruit from the investment in emerging leaders.

After the prayer, the people of Israel in Nehemiah 10 renew their covenant with God. At first glance the details seem legalistic: no inter-marriage of their children with the pagan tribes, keeping the Sabbath free from work, paying tithes, observing the year of jubilee. Dry rules? No. At a second look it hit me that this is a covenant of faith. Where does the rubber meet the road when we are on this journey? When we have to trust God with the things that are dear to us: children, survival, finances, success. The people of Israel could work seven days a week, cut corners, cement alliances with marriages, pursue wealth. OR they could trust God and make unpopular and costly choices. They opt for the latter, and I prayed this morning that we would do the same. That we would trust God with boarding schools and friendships, with test scores and sports, with health and thriving, with enough money to go on.

It is a covenant of faith, to dwell in this land only by the mercy of God.