I remember being glued to the TV for each of the episodes of the Batman television series when I was a kid back in the mid-1960s. Looking back at the old rerun episodes it puts a grin on my face to think about how far Hollywood has gone in terms of technology and special effects. For an inquisitive five-year-old the blinking computer screen lights of the Batcave, the flames bursting out of the back of the Batmobile, and all the gidgets and gadgets located on Batman's utility belt made great fodder for my Batadventures in the barn and down on the creek. One piece of "technology" that still resonates in my mind was the Batphone. In Commissioner Gordan's office a special red phone sat isolated on a pedestal, which held the sole purpose of being able to contact Batman anytime and wherever he might be as a new menacing villain plagued Gotham City. The police commissioner knew that in an emergency situation he could pick up that phone and Batman would answer and soon thereafter show up to save the day!
How many of us find that our prayer life is just a little too similar to the Batphone and the good people of Gotham City's connection to the caped crusader? Two weeks ago, we started our "Three P's in a Pod" series as we looked at how our perspective in life can set us up to face adversity and use it for our benefit, and then last week, we gazed into the realm of perseverance and how the never give up and never give in attitude will carry us forward in life. Today we will conclude this series with what I would deem the most important tool for us to have in our own "utility belt", prayer.
The Batphone sat ready to contact Batman in a moment's notice. It wasn't set up for the Commissioner to have a nice chit-chat with the superhero, but as a direct line to be used in emergency situations only. Of course, Batman or his alias Bruce Wayne, was always there. If the Joker rolled into town, Batman was on the receiving end of the Commissioner's plea for help. When the Penguin wanted to destroy Gotham City, Batman answered the call and responded post haste. Reflecting back now, the one thing I never saw was Commissioner Gordan picking up the Batphone and saying "Thanks for all you do, and thank you for always being there." It definitely was a one sided, "take" only relationship.
Think about how you pray with God. Do you pick up the Batphone of prayer only in your emergencies, tragedies, and crises? Is God your go to when calamity strikes, even if you haven't talked with God in years? Do you expect instant results when you do pray? Do we expect God to answer our Batcall and immediately heal our infirmities regardless of taking into consideration that God has a plan for each of our lives and it is our responsibility to learn from our adversities and afflictions and then apply what we learn to the life we have been given to live?
Prayer is more than praying before we eat a meal giving thanks, and it is more than a ritual we do before we go to bed at night. Prayer is where we build a relationship with the God of all creation. In I Thessalonians 5:17 Paul instructs us to, "pray without ceasing" and then he follows that up in verse 18 with "giving thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you". How often do we pray just to give God thanks for what He is, has, and will do in our lives? To pray without ceasing doesn't mean to sit around day in and day out praying, it is more of a charge to believers to seek God in all situations and under all circumstances. God is there in our emergencies, but it is my opinion that He should recognize your number on His caller ID when you call in your moments of need.
We pray because God directs us to let our requests be made known to Him, (Philippians 4:6), yet how often do we pray a prayer seeking God's will on our lives, and also to just to say thank you for all that He has done in our lives and the lives of our family and friends. We pray for strength to endure, but we also pray for discernment to better understand how we should be serving God through our service to others. Think about it, how many times did the good commissioner ever pick up the phone and ask Batman what the people of Gotham City could do to help him, no it was definitely a “I'll call you when I need you”, type of relationship. Don't get me wrong God wants us to come to him when we are burdened and when we face insurmountable mountains in our path (Matthew 11:28-30), yet when we truly have a relationship with God, our prayers will take on a completely different persona. Our prayer life will become more about how we can better fulfill the purpose God has for our life in our circumstances, then it will be about rescuing us in every situation and circumstance.
The power of prayer is found when we truly establish a relationship with God through prayer. Prayer becomes a part of who you are, and it is where you begin to visualize things that happen in your life differently. You won't always be the victim, you will become the overcomer through adversity, you will be the servant to your fellow man instead of the downtrodden recipient of one tragedy after another. Meet with God in private, establish your quiet time so you not only pray to God, but you actually listen more than you talk. Just as Elijah realized in I Kings 19:11-13 God wasn't necessarily in the storm or the fire, He was with him in a small, still voice. "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13. Prayer will change your life, so just as we started today's FTM, my charge to you is to "pray without ceasing" not praying 24/7, but praying regularly, daily, and about all things. Amen
Coach Carter
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