Bargaining with God

Ever notice how often people bargain with God when they pray? It happens all the time in the Bible. In Psalm 30, David points out to God that what good will do for God to let him die? No one can praise from the grave. Moses told God I can't speak so God gave him Aaron. Abraham bargained for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to be spared if enough righteous people could be found. Even Jesus prayed if possible for the crucifixion to be avoided if at all possible.

I think God lets us bargain to give us room to at least seem like we have choice. Whether we do or don't actually have a choice is a question that has occupied theologians and philosophers. God gives us leeway and I think even appreciates a little bit of back and forth.

I can't help but think of bargaining with God without thinking of the movie The End. In it Burt Reynolds tries suicide (he mistakenly thinks he has a fatal disease) by swimming out to sea. He has a change of heart and begins bargaining with God. His first offer to God to save him is extravagant -- give everything away to the poor, etc. As he gets closer to shore the offers begin to go down until he stumbles out on the shore and basically is offering nothing of consequence to God.

Now that's probably not a good way to bargain with God. But if you do find yourself praying to God and bargaining enters your prayer life, take a moment to take stock of what you offering and why you are offering it. Maybe in that moment you will learn more about yourself and what you value in life. You might learn something about yourself which is one of the true powerful moments that can happen in prayer.

Stormy Weather

I am back to blogging after a bit of a break -- no good reasons other than the every present press of life and sometimes, something has to give.

I have been reading five psalms a 5 lately for personal devotions. Take the day of the month and start their then add 30 four times to find the next psalm. Today is September 29 so the psalms would be 29, 59, 89, and 149. Oops, you will say, he skipped 119. Only attempt 119 on the 31st of the month by itself.

Okay so I was reading Psalm 29 and found the writer (David is given credit) really liked storms. Where others saw destruction, he saw God' s raw power at work. Now we might be tempted to say, "Well sure, David safely protected in your solid palace, why wouldn't you feel safe?" But David spent plenty of time in the field -- shepherd, soldier, outlaw on the run -- living in outside circumstances. I would rather think he was inspired by those times to write this.

Certainly lives are touched in sad and terrible ways by storms, but plenty of folks come out of those experiences and create wonderful outcomes. Looking for God's grace in the storms is probably one of the best ways to cope with devastation. What good can come out of this stormy weather?

If storms are blowing in your life today, I hope you find shelter and I hope and pray you can see a bit of God's power in the midst of the struggle.