Last week we considered why it is important for us to be seated as we partake of the Lord’s kindness at this Table. This is the time when we, His people, sit with the Lord at Table, and when we discuss with Him the affairs of the world. He has invited us to His Table—He did not do this so that we would just sit there abashed, afraid to speak. No, this is the time for us to discern the Body, and to give counsel to the Head of that Body.
How are you to do this?
First, remember that whatever you offer to Him must be offered in faith. You have been invited to come on the authority of the Word of God, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So believe, and speak, as the psalmist did. I believed, therefore I have spoken.
Second, remember that what you are offering to Him is part of what the entire Body is offering to Him. This is what makes it inappropriate to us to try to slip in concerns that are highly individual or idiosyncratic. Offer that which the entire Body would (or should) say amen to. A cessation of the abortion carnage would be an example, and you winning the lottery would not be.
Third, God has established us as kings and priests on the earth. Our concerns should therefore not be tiny or trivial. If the president invited you to the Oval Office, and asked for your counsel, you would not waste the opportunity by advising him on the color of the curtains. We do not serve a tiny God, so use this time to ask Him for the conversion of Israel, or the repentance of the Muslims, or the humbling of American pride.
But He is also God of the details—we ask Him for our daily bread after all—and so we should feel free to pray about other things at other times. Pray for a parking space, or for relief from your minor aches and pains, or for a good grade on the quiz. But don’t pray for those things while we are seated here. While we are here, seated with Christ, the discussion has turned to greater matters.