I take refuge in God the Father
I take refuge in God the Son
I take refuge in God the Holy Spirit
I take refuge in the One Triune God

For many of us, our relationship with God tends to be viewed in terms of "transactions", he gives us this, we give him that.  Or the other way round, I give him this, he must give me that.  And we have a set of rules we want him to abide, we have an image of God (often by our own construction sometimes sincerely not out of malice) which we project on him.

But when our relationship and fellowship with God starts with humility, and "refuge" it changes the dynamics.  It’s not in "power" terms or "control". It’s a healthy admission of our creatureliness with our creator, and more importantly him as our good father, and we his child.  Even as human parents, we desire our relationship with our children in strongly relational terms – thus we have a place in our hearts for them to take refuge in us any time and any moment.  That I believe is a reflection of the image of God in us.

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Prayer, Persistence, Justice.  I hear people talk about the link between prayer and persistence a lot.  Especially when it comes to asking for our own requests as well as the needs of others.  But adding the component of Justice, puts into the equation a needed content corrective we often lack.  What is the content of our prayer? The Lord’s prayer does not neglect our personal supplications – "give us this day our daily bread". So, we are not playing down personal requests.  What is needed is putting it in the wider context of God entering  a world gone wrong and putting it right again.  For those actively engaged in this kind of work – whether in social concern or social advocacy, it’s tempting to look at those who talk about prayer and complain they don’t do anything.  For those who call themselves prayer warriors or intercessors, it’s easy to look at the activists are accuse them of not trusting in God and replying on human strength.  Both have missed the point, as polarities often do.

Prayer, Persistence, Justice. These three brings those who are in the field as well as those in the prayer closet together before the God who is working both in the visible and the invisible.  Anything less than that impoverishes us from the resources and wisdom he offers us to be his agents of change in this crazy, crazy world. With the these three components in place,  we then are on the road to demonstrate an integrative Christianity which I believe brings genuine hope to the future. How we pray and what we pray for comes in true synergy and focus.

Prayer. Persistence. Justice.

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These Harmonics vibrated from August  6 – August  7, 2008