In the last post I discussed the first prayer that in my experience God always answers: Grow me. When we ask for God to grow us he is faithful and will place something in our path that we much choose to use for our growth.

The second prayer that God always answers is "Break me".

This is a dangerous and tough prayer to get past this lips. In my experience it comes with repentance or the need for repentance. When I have prayed break me it was because I had been building up a shell around myself which had hardened and was making me inflexible to the demands of the Spirit.

The biblical writers call this a hard heart. When the prophet Ezekiel was speaking to the nation of Israel about their sin he echoed God's heart to His people with these words:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:25-27 )

Cynicism about people, the trauma of life, disappointment, failed expectations, a rocky marriage, rebellious children, lust, dependence; these and much more cause our hearts to slowly turn hard as stone if we do not deal with the issues properly.

The prayer of break me is in line with the heart of God but it hurts when he brings the hammer down on it. Ezekiel promises the new heart and spirit but my experience is that it isn't a delicate surgery but God smashing through the hardness.

Often that which has made us hard has chained us down into negative patterns of life. It might be a failed relationship that causes us to keep all others at arms length or lust that keeps us chained to the computer screen. I believe God can simple wipe away these negative patterns and free us but this is the road less traveled. Rather, when He breaks away the stone He causes us to confront our sin, decisions and the patterns that occurred afterwards in order to grow us.

Afterwards we need to stay broken to be attentive to the Spirit of God afterall

 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
  a broken and contrite heart,
  O God, you will not despise. (Ps 51:17)

God answers this prayer because he wants to see us broken. Not broken as in disrepair but broken of hardness, because when we are broken we are truly fixed.

On my way into work this morning I played one song about 12 times, hearing God speak in the lyrics although what I heard is not what was sung. Ever happen to you? The song was by the Australian band George and the song Bastard Son. It sent my mind into a spin hearing from God over and over about this one that he has sent into the world, despised by it, hated by it.

The word bastard is cruel, heartless, it put's on a child this sin of the parents. Those around him muttered it behind closed doors in an attempt to rob him of his identity but it is not stolen from him. The world calls him a bastard because they can not comprehend his Father.

From the most despised township in his country, from a family the subject of rumors and ridicule. With a mad cousin wondering the countryside ranting about the end of the world and eating bugs.

Loved by few.

Deserted by all.

The one who came humbled and left humbled.

One man, alone in this world and glorified in the next.

He alone sits in power and says to me "Strip!" and in the authority of his voice the stain of my sin falls away. With a sword that cleaves flesh from bone, he cuts away to my heart and soul and gives me his freedom.

This one has done me over, turned me over, I who came from the dust of the earth, he has turned me over to his Father and said "Behold I am making you new! I am giving you a new name, a new identity. You are hidden in my now and now you can come and meet your Father in person."

This bastard son, he sit's enthroned over my life.

Thank God.

(Source)

The last two Sunday's have been very confronting for me as a realize more deeply the privilege it is to pray with someone and the difference it can make into their lives.

Prayer is a chance for us to either speak words of death or words of life into someone. I put that in stark contrast because as C.S. Lewis once said, every interaction we have with someone will either draw them closer to God or push them towards the devil (I'm paraphrasing their, leave a comment if you know where it's from), how much more so will be do this when praying with someone.

When we pray with someone the circumstances are certainly not by accident. God has chosen this person to come to you at that time and has privileged you as an agent of His grace to help them say what they can not do by themselves.

One of the things I believe that Catholic church can teach the Protestant church is the art of confession.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

Recently I've had someone ask me to pray with them because they are on the treadmill of guilt and shame. They are doing something that they have a compulsion to do and feel like they do not have the strength to stop. They do, they feel guilt, then shame and after a while they are back doing it again.

James gives us good advise. When we confess our sins, when we give them voice to another and when we pray we can find healing! That is the hope of God that we can be transformed into someone more like His son every day.