I’ve enjoyed the great opportunity this week to be reflecting on Beth Moore’s book, “Jesus, the One and Only”. Early on in the book, she brings us into the life of Jesus, and recounts a scene in the life of John the Baptists’ father Zechariah. It was Zechariah’s turn to offer the incense at the daily sacrifice. “An individual priest could offer the incense at the daily sacrifice only once in his lifetime. Zechariah’s only turn had come. Surely he was overwhelmed.”

 This really struck me.
 I have enjoyed the truth that over my lifetime I could pray whenever I wanted to. The Lord is constantly accessible. And that’s mostly true. But deploying that assumption hasn’t always helped my prayer life. Beth Moore recounts that during her trip to Israel, she went to pray at the Wailing Wall. She pondered on the privilege of this time with the Lord in that sacred place, at the same time determining that this would be the only moment in her lifetime that she would get to call out to God there. Tearfully, she made that moment matter.

David puts this in another way in in Ps 63: “My body longs for you, my soul thirsts for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” So Zechariah gets to pray from the temple in this way, just once in his lifetime. One chance. And he makes that chance good. He includes a momentous prayer for the Lord to make his barren wife fruitful. And God came to him supernaturally – it was prophesied that they would give birth to John the Baptist!
Personally, I can read and study, and hear the Lord, but I’m the most distractible pray-er, when I’m on my own. But what if, every time I prayed, I imagined I was Zechariah having this one chance in a lifetime to pray?

As I began to read I grabbed hold of this sentiment. To make every prayer seen as my massive once in a lifetime opportunity. My last words to my natural father mattered. Someone I loved. If I had known he would die, I would have savoured the moment even more, though it was a wonderful conversation. Of course Jesus won’t be snatched from us in this way. But imagining each prayer as a lifetime opportunity is just plain inspiring.

So yesterday afternoon I tried it. My wife Carrie and I were pressing in hard for personal finances. I found it really helpful to imagine that this was the only time I had to bring this need to Jesus. And I found myself savouring the moment, seizing the opportunity, reaching deeper. Jesus was there in that moment, that irrecoverable moment that’s now in the past. It worked!

We might think, what’s the use of playing pretendies? Jesus will be there tomorrow, the next day, and the next. Yes, we’ll get other moments with him, but not that moment. Like King David, it’s about taking an inspiring metaphor into our quiet time. His was the metaphor of a thirsty dried out body in the desert desperate for God’s water. This one’s the metaphor of last moments. And savouring, treasuring, and valuing. Making the moment matter.

David