About two years ago, my family and I visited an island in South Korea called ‘Sorokdo’. ‘Sorokdo’ has more than 500 occupants with Hansen's disease (leprosy). The patients here are devoted to prayer, the sounds of which begin very early in the morning. In the book entitled ‘Prayer Island, Sorokdo’, published by Duranno Press, we learn that the dawn of winter in Sorokdo is much colder and darker than the dawn on the mainland.
Picture the scene if you will, an elderly man who has no arms and no legs crawling into a church chapel. You would think that someone would have taken him, but the reality is that he was actually crawling to church and then crawling back home. This is all taking place at dawn on a cold winter's day when it is raining and the ground is covered with mud.
What do you think the majority of people who are also suffering with Hansen's disease pray for in their hearts? Do they ask for a miracle of healing in their prayers? No, they in fact pray for their nation, and that their families would believe in Jesus. I think that the prayer of these people in Sorokdo is definitely a prayer the Lord would be pleased with.
We pray a lot of prayers from early morning to late evening, and we will look into today's passage of Psalm 119: 145-152 to find out what prayer the Lord is listening and finding pleasing based on God’s Word. Let's read the text first.
145 I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord, and I will obey your decrees. 146 I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes. 147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. 148 My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. 149 Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws. 150 Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but they are far from your law. 151 Yet you are near, Lord, and all your commands are true. 152 Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever.
How did the poet pray, when did he pray, and what did he pray for?
1 / How? He prayed with all his heart. The word ‘all my heart’ means to have a heart as he prays for life.
2 / When? He prayed “at dawn.” The word “dawn” means that he entrusts to the Lord from the first hour of his day and he relies on the Lord to be guided through the entire day.
3 / What? I prayed for God’s 'salvation' and 'response'.
But there is a much more important part, that is his salvation and guidance is not the end of his goal for prayer. According to the poet the ultimate goal of prayer was to love him, meditate on the Word, and live a life of obedience according to His Word after he had rescued and answered him.
In particular, the poet concludes with the proclamation of the verses 151, 152 proclaiming that all the commandments of the Lord are truth and that God has established the Word forever. In other words, he starts with his personal prayer based on the Word and ends with Proclamation of the Word.
What about our prayers? Are they the same? Or different? Are you in a difficult place right now? So do you have to pray with all your heart? Do you want to have a history of answering that prayer through the Lord's salvation? However, the purpose of our prayer needs to be based on the Word and aimed to proclaim the Word by answering that prayer.
In the book of ‘Prayer Island, Sorokdo’, a grandmother asked if she would have a hard time because of Hansen's disease. The surprising fact is that she feels very joyful and happy than to be tired because she, not only he but they also, believe that they are coming to church to communicate with God through prayer. They truly gather their hands from the early dawn to the Lord, from small prayers for the family to large prayers for the nation and the salvation of souls.
The poet was able to endure the persecution of the persecutors because the Word of God held him. If we pray with a clear goal to testify of the Word in the difficult lives of our wilderness, our Lord will surely answer our prayers and save us and lead us for the glory of His Word. The power of the Word lasts forever!
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