January 19 Worship: "Praying with Open Eyes"

We continued our worships for the new year with another sermon in the "Tools for Living the Promises" series, this one focused on prayer.  This was a good thing because there have been a large number of prayer concerns for people at Eastgate recently, several of which were shared during the service.

The sermon took as its inspiration the story of a woman who talked a would-be school shooter into surrendering without violence.  In interviews where she admitted her fear, she also said that she prayed the entire time she talked to the young man with the gun.  I wondered how we might learn to do this too, in "Praying with Open Eyes."  Drawing upon the example of Daniel, whose persistence in prayer was what got him thrown into the famous lions' den, I suggested that prayer must not be so cut off from the whole of our lives.  Perhaps we are too polite with God -- not always looking at ourselves with open eyes; perhaps we are afraid of distractions around us, so we keep our eyes closed.  Learning to change these things, though, can allow us to pray in the most desperate situations in our lives, including those that are completely unforeseen.

Daniel exemplified this type of prayer.  In fact (and I didn't go to this next logical example in the sermon), having already adapted to the threat of execution if he continued to pray (Daniel prayed as he always had), he then had to pray in the face of lions (and he did).  Hopefully, facing our own terrifying situations, we will be ready to do the same.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone else, you can find an audio recording here.

You can also listen to the related communion meditation.