Choosing a day for fasting and prayer takes a certain amount of discipline and determination at any time of the year. There is the positive decision and selection of a day with a resolution to let nothing hinder the use of that whole day for prayer. Then there is the negative choice involved of turning away from the normal things of that day, and recognizing that there are always important things to do, always more use for time than there is time to be used.
There is preparation to be undertaken in order to free the day from the essential duties, working ahead, and pushing other things up to be done after the prayer is over. No unbroken section of time to use for prayer falls into our laps without effort on someone’s part. The primary question is whether it is worthwhile or not. If in looking over a lifetime, or a year, there is recognition that some scattered days in that pile of calendar months would make history different if the biblical admonitions or call to prayer were taken literally, and we used some sections of time to “pray without ceasing,” then the effort must be made to mark the day or days, one at a time, to be used this way. And beyond marking the days, the people who are to be involved in such a day, need to know far enough ahead to take care of any practical preparations.
Early January ninth in the Swiss Alps could be foggy with ice freezing on trees, or there could be a blizzard with gusts of wind, or even an untimely thaw with rain mixed with snow making everything an ugly slush. However it seemed imperative not to wait longer to start the year with a day of fasting and prayer asking for God’s wisdom and strength in our weakness, and his clear guidance for the diversity of things before us in the year ahead.
The timing of the day turned out to be our first answer to prayer. Not only did the day commence with the sun staining the sky all shades of pink mixing with the pale early blue, but later the tipping of the peaks with the rising sun suddenly filled the village and all the favorite balconies and walking paths with the warmth of an unhindered sunshine. The Lord had “timed” the day as far as weather was concerned when we could not possibly have known when we chose it. More than that, a crisis of need arose so that the day was needed far more than we realized it was needed when the date was marked on a calendar. It seemed the setting apart of other work, all the preparation of having the evening meal ready ahead of time, the mimeographing of the prayer lists, the prepared freedom for an unhindered time of prayer, was shown to be the right use of energy and time even before we separated from each other to go off alone with the Lord for a day of prayer.
We had faced together the urgency of this day in prayer for each other’s needs, as we recognized that some needs were critical, with the quality of an emergency. Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (NIV), certainly does not seem to be speaking of the fraction of a moment when we stop to pray in between things. When we “devote ourselves” to something, with any measure of faithfulness and dependableness it speaks of a section of time involved. That day we went off to walk or sit, covering much territory, or staying in one spot, ready to not be hindered by telephone, doorbell, interruption of the usually good kind in order to “devote ourselves” to praying for each other, and for the guidance of the Lord to be made clear. Paul goes on, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should” (Col. 4:3, 4; NIV).
This is a mind-boggling, eye-opening prayer request in an age where ease is so uppermost in so many people’s desires. We need to notice that the plea for prayer on Paul’s part was not for prayer that the chains be removed, or that the raw wounds be healed and made comfortable, but that he might proclaim clearly that which he had been given to proclaim concerning Christ. The “devoting” of ourselves to unhindered prayer is important as fulfilling a portion of what the Christian life is all about, but it is important too in assuring that we all be given God’s help in proclaiming the truth clearly.
How often do we have a day of fasting and prayer with at least six hours of unbroken time to pray, if not more? At L’ Abri there is no set schedule of time for these days; they are arranged when members and workers feel a special need. It occurs roughly once in six weeks. The setting apart of such a day gives freedom for prayer unhindered by guilt, that is, the guilt of feeling that other people will think one is neglecting the basic work.
The prayer has become the accepted work of the day. There need be no guilt about putting off conversation, as the horizontal conversation has been deliberately put aside for the vertical communication alone with the Lord for that day. Unhindered prayer, with a two-way communication going on as the reading of portions of the Bible is interspersed with prayer, and the cumulative openness with the Lord takes place.
However, there is so much more to having unhindered prayer than simply arranging time that is to be uninterrupted, and a place that is away from other people, and freedom from the usual demands from others. The Word of God gives us many clues as to how to have a growing realness in our communication with the Lord, and speaks of a variety of things that may hinder that realness and closeness of worship, adoration, thanksgiving, and asking. Happily we can grow in our relationship with the Lord. We are not expected to have a push-button immediate maturity, and he is very gentle and patient with us. However this most recent day of prayer, the thing that hit me most forcibly as a danger in the area of hindering prayer was that strong command mingled with a warning in First Timothy 2:8: “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing” (NIV). The King James version puts it “without wrath and doubting.” Holy hands? The blood of the Lamb takes care of that. He has cleansed our hands. But wrath or anger at whom? Doubting whom? What dangerous hindrance exists that could wipe out our six or seven hours as a wet cloth could erase a blackboard? It seems to me our grave danger is shaking our fist at God, becoming angry with him, doubting his compassion, doubting his love, as we pray with the emotion, or even thought-out-words, “How could you do this to me, to her, to him?” “How can you be a God of love or compassion and still do this?” The demanding of the “removal of the chains” as the prerequisite to doing any more “proclaiming” is a form of “anger or wrath and doubting,” it seems to me. With great soberness we need to spend a portion of our time asking for the Lord’s help, the help of the Holy Spirit, and the help of the father who will give us his strength, that we might approach him with a trust that has been cleansed of the hindrance of “wrath and doubting” that we might for that time have unhindered prayer.
