The danger of answered prayer.

My parents live in Sussex, to pay them a visit it normally takes about 3 hours to drive there. Before I got married this used to be a great opportunity to think (mostly because my car at the time was bereft of a stereo thanks to the diligent hands of the criminal fraternity).

On one such journey I remember thinking about Jesus’ command to love:
"You have heard that the law of Moses says, `Love your neighbour' and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matt 5:43-48

How can we love like this?

As I drove past consecutive junctions along the motorway this thought plagued my mind; the more I mulled it over the more I realised that I could not do it. It is not that I am an angry man that struggles to love anyone; it’s much worse. I think that I struggle with this command to love because I am apathetic. I can’t think of a single enemy that I hate, but worse than that, my [negligent] actions also reveal a shocking lack of [genuine] love.

Exhausted by my own weakness I prayed: Lord, show me how you love.

Without me being aware of God’s presence at all, He began to silently respond to my prayer.
At the time there was a gentleman that I worked with. He was a lazy manager doing only what he had to do, and even then with the minimal amount of understanding of what it was he was doing. That irritated me; what really upset me about him was his attitude towards his family. He was going through a divorce which seemed to be particularly unpleasant. His wife had cheated on him, for which there is no excuse, but from they way he spoke about her I am not surprised. What was worse still was that he had begun to take pleasure in poisoning his young son’s mind against his mother, taking great delight in winning each small ‘victory’. This emotional abuse of his son, for whom he was responsible, angered me.

As I drove along, oblivious [at that point] to God responding to my [frustrated] prayer, this man suddenly came to mind (possibly/probably by God’s prompting). However, instead of my rational loathing of him I found my heart and my mind consumed by an overwhelmingly unconditional love. It was uncontrollable because it was [definitely] not of me [but all of God]! At that moment I would have willingly laid my life down for him – honestly! I have never felt so strongly about something before or since. This love seemed to overwhelm me more and more until I felt I could handle it no more without bursting.

No more! I prayed.

As I reeled back from the experience (which I have hardly done justice here) I felt God say: That was only the beginning of my love.

Jesus, The Ultimate Revolutionary, calls for us [failed and frail as we are] to be perfect, but it is impossible for us to do this unless God fills us [completely]?!
That is the revolution; completely surrendered dependence on God. This is our strength and our shield!


I still have much more of Jesus’ revolutionary Sermon on the Mount to go; we have only just finished the first third of it!!!! But I am going to take a break because I have commissioned a number of guest writers to share their thoughts on the four elements of fusion [live, breathe, pray, change] leading up to the next prayer event in August.