Here's a new lens to look at the state of affairs between the church and state. Here in Victoria, the government  passed a rather stiff law last week: the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020. Designed to prevent and penalise practises such as gay conversion therapy, 'praying the gay away' or questioning Transgender therapy and surgery for teens, some Christians see it as an offensive attack on religious liberty while others support it. With that background, I preached a sermon that started in Habbakuk, and looked at the basic plot of the book. It is a dialogue between God and Habakkuk the prophet and it goes like this:
​

This exact same dialogue plays out in 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 1, 587BC: Israel is God's people and the godless nation is Babylon. This is Habakkuk's story.
Scenario 2, 70AD: The New Testament quotes Habakkuk (in Romans 1:17 and Hebrews 10:35-39) to show that a similar scenario has arisen in its time. Israel is God's people and now the godless nation is Rome. In this scenario, the 'righteous people' who survive by faith are those who put their faith in Jesus, escaping judgment on 'the Jew first' in 70AD when the Romans sacked Jerusalem. Paul (and the Book of Revelation) goes on to proclaim that the whole Greco-Roman empire will experience the wrath of God but once again, the 'just shall survive by faithful endurance'. [That's a whole new way of interpreting the New Testament, but I think it is right. See Andrew Perriman's blogs on this here] 
Scenario 3, 2021: The church is God's people but there's a problem; while meant be God’s witness to his own name and glory, it has earned the contempt of the world. They discriminate, they protect their sinners while abandoning their victims, they want to spank their children, they want to keep women in inferior roles while elevating the patriarchy, they want to practise conversion therapy that hurts and distresses troubled people, some of their leaders are getting fat and rich on the gullible while doing nothing to help the poor. And they frequently deny science and promote climate and pandemic denial theories.
So, according to the chart, God will punish the church by allowing the godless State to pass laws demanding that the church changes - that's not as bad as the other scenarios where war and destruction ensued!
So the church complains, hey, the State is godless and worse than us - God! Are you seeing this?
And according to the chart, God's response will be to punish the State, probably in history and in reality.  We can expect modern Western civilisation to be brought to its knees by, I don't know, natural disasters - floods, fires, droughts, earthquakes - or maybe some kind of pandemic...
But God will save those people who are faithful/trustful/humble and endure suffering and rejection with humility and courage.
In the post-apocalyptic world, those people will be bastions of integrity, community, kindness and trustworthiness. Through them God will rebuild the world and God's name will be honoured.
Be patient. Do not shrink back. Watch and wait. Keep faith. Build faith communities that can serve and survive.
Welcome to my apocalypse! 

Watching the events in the USA over the last few months has been riveting: President Trump's conduct, the extreme displays of both support and mockery of Trump, the chaos of the Covid Pandemic and the clash with Americans' inflated sense of individual autonomy, the election and the events of January up till the inauguration of President Biden! Who needs a soap opera?
And one of the most astonishing spectacles has been the enthusiastic embrace of Donald Trump by the Evangelical community, especially those whose ministries are on television. I have begun to think they have created a version of Christianity that could be called Trumpism. In my long and interesting life, I have not seen such a development before, and the way it is playing out continues to be fascinating.
Single-issue politics
As an overseas observer, I think the church was easily lured into this development by focusing all their energy on just one issue - abortion. If a political candidate was conniving, they might say loudly, 'I am totally against abortion', and the whole group of churches will then support them. Most of the achievements lauded by Trump advocates are to do with abortion - the appointment of Justices who most likely will oppose abortion legislation, the increase of freedom for churches to speak out about abortion and gay issues, the re-allocation of overseas aid and other funding arrangements to make abortion less available. Who knows how sincerely Trump held this view? I simply make the point that elevating such a single issue makes people vulnerable to manipulation.
It is possible that there are other single issues that may help a candidate win over a bloc of voters. Many people would see Climate Change as an issue so important they might not be too fussed about other issues. Many Australian parties seem to think jobs and employment are the main issue.
I tried very hard to avoid being a Trump-lover or a Trump-hater; I wanted to give credit for moves that bent the country closer to the Kingdom of God, while also naming things that were not compatible with the values of Christ.
The positives
I was pleased to see some Middle-Eastern countries agree to recognise Israel. He brought in the First Step Act which addressed some of the problems that make African-American young men more likely to end in jail. There are many other claims about economic successes which may or may not be true or lasting.
The problem of truth
My greatest alarm watching the year's developments was seeing people go 'down the rabbit hole' of believing 'alternative facts'. President Trump was not scrupulous about speaking the truth and would often say things that were not true. The Washington Post kept a tally and claimed he told 20,000 lies. His defenders say many of his statements were mis-reported or doctored but no one can defend all of them. Some months before the election he started saying that the election would not be fair and the other side would 'steal it' by fraud. He has continued to say that till the bitter end and launched 60 court cases contesting the count in various jurisdictions. I thought it was a clear case of protecting himself from the shame and pain of loss (he freely admits that he doesn't like losing). To many, it looked like he was a sore loser who wouldn't admit it.
Trump waged a campaign from the beginning against all the news companies that did not give him full support. His phrase 'fake news' and his constant criticism have created a crisis of confidence in the news and seem to have opened the way for an increased volume of news sources that make up anything they like. While calling the mainstream 'fake', he legitimised every alternative. It was particularly disappointing to me to see Christian leaders repeating false claims with little regard for the 9th commandment ('you shall not bear false witness'). The godly Pastor John Macarthur whose love for Christ and the ministry of the Word is unquestioned, was willing to pass off Covid 19 as a mild 'flu which did not require special hygiene measures.
And then there are the 15 or so TV Christian prophets who confidently prophesied that Trump would win the election.  Two have apologised, others are obfuscating and wheedling. None have said, 'I'm sorry I got that wrong; I will step down from ministry while I reassess how I receive my prophetic words'. I hope this massive mistake will convert many back from Trumpism to Christ. I am afraid it will cause some to go from Trumpism to no faith at all.
Now what?
In the media world, there will be just as many hateful voices denouncing Biden as there were of Trump. Lies and false claims will continue to abound, and just as Fox News denounced everything Barak Obama did, there will be news organisations that portray everything Biden does in the worst possible light. In the religious world, it will be fascinating to see how the new levels of political engagement by Evangelicals play out without a political figure to focus on. 
The church should not abstain from politics. Far from it, for we follow a King whose rule is just and whose law is over all. The church's stance should be that no earthly ruler is above our King's law and we need to applaud them when they approximate it and resist them when they move away from it. In the Bible narrative, God consistently shows great compassion to the vulnerable, lifts up the broken and insists on justice and freedom.
The best earthly governments bend in that direction.

There are some great traditional stories about wishes - from Aladdin's lamp to a folk tale called 'The Three Wishes' and many others. Often the person who is given the wish makes a bad choice and the glorious prospects of the magic come unraveled. 
​Like the one I told in church this week about a hunch-backed fiddler who is offered a wish by the King of the Leprechauns on a moonlit night and wishes for his hump to be removed. When another villager sees that he spent his whole wish on becoming 'normal', he connives to get a wish and wants to maximise it. "I want what he didn't want!" he wishes, hoping to get wealth, power and abundance. Of course, his clumsy wish results in  ---- he gets the hump on his back!
King Solomon at the start of his reign is offered a wish. "Ask of me", says the Lord, "and I will give you whatever you want." 
Ask
When God comes and invites us to ask for something or pray for something, it is the enormous privilege of participating with God in achieving something God has purposed to do. That's the way God likes to operate in the world - recruiting us to be agents for healing and hope through the power of prayer and action.
But what do we ask for? The 'follow your dream' kind of narrative is about people finding out who they really are and doing what they really want, despite the obstacles.
I would suggest that there are layers of operation in our lives:

1. Much of life is following the human pattern - growing up, going through the changes and stages of life, cooking, parenting, maintaining the house. We just do it.
2. Many of the great advances of human existence have come as a result of a second question: how can I do this better? What is a more efficient and effective way of doing my task? That question has got us into cars and rockets; it has got us indoor plumbing and online learning.
3. The next layer is the Disney one. What do I want? I want something that is really me? Who am I? What is my place? How do I be true to who I am? This question helps the naive person become experienced, the misfit find their place, the outsider become beloved. It is self-discovery, self-realisation, self-fulfilment - and there's nothing wrong with a bit of that. Excessive self-denial, self-sacrifice and humility can leave people damaged and unbalanced.
4. But the deeper question is, What is worth wanting? What do I want that is worth being or having? In the Disney film Moana , the heroine tries to find herself and her place and ends up returning to her indigenous culture and home and finding her life in the context of her people. That's it. It is a beautiful thing and true, that we often find ourselves when we find our place in the community and in the purposes of God.

That's what Solomon had to learn. God's offer to ask whatever he wanted was actually a test. If he wanted stuff for himself - riches, the death of his enemies or a long life - God was not going to grant it. God doesn't accept our prayers like commands but works with us to teach us the right thing to pray. 
Solomon actually asked for a very small thing. Recognising the enormity of his calling - to lead Israel, God's mighty people - and his own lack of capacity ('I am but a child'), he asked for wisdom. He knew that his job as a ruler was to provide justice and safety for his people. They would come to him with problems and he would have to guide and advise and decide on their cases. He prayed for 'an understanding heart' for 'a heart of wisdom'. It is only small. It is like a brick in a wall. 'Help me make this brick good'. But when you do the small thing well, the big thing comes out right. A bad brick will ruin a wall, but if you make every brick a good one, the wall will be perfect.
So when Solomon was given wisdom, he was given the capacity to make a great life, make a better world, build a greater kingdom, advance God's higher cause.
The story goes on to say that he didn't do as well as he should have, but that's what life is like. Ask of me, says God, and he gives us the wherewithal to be God's co-worker in building a fairer, happier, more spiritual community and conserving the world.
After that, there is the discipline of using the gifts we have been given rightly.
O God, I want my life to count in this world. I want to be a constructive member of my town, building with wisdom and understanding, so that our community becomes more cohesive, inclusive and wonderful. Send forth your light and your truth; let them guide me (Ps 43:3). Amen

Back in the early days of the church, when desert monks began to spend long periods in vowed communities committed to prayer, they began to name a problem that frequently arose - the Latin name that was coined was 'acedia'. It was the 'noonday demon' that crept on them after lunch when listlessness, dejection and distractedness set in. John Cassian (5th c. monk) says that under the power of acedia, the monk gets restless and loses interest in his prayers; he goes outside to see if the sun has moved since last time he checked, and perhaps there will be someone out there to talk to. This kind of feeling is found in many office spaces in today's commercial world - you get up and go to the water-cooler hoping to run into someone, you have the computer on with some work open, but on other tabs Facebook, Ebay and News are open, maybe even a card game.
Acedia is a powerful problem during isolation, because days can seem long and dull.
Sometimes it takes an immense act of will to pick up on an agenda and accomplish something positive when we are working in isolation. Acedia is lurking in the corners of our hearts and minds questioning the value of work and offering tempting distractions to procrastinate on.
Those monks were spiritually perceptive - it is a sin, a genuine malady of the soul. It's allowing the blues to set in and accepting inertia and languor to become entrenched. What can be done? While I'm sure there is no easy fix, I have found some helpful practices that keep it at bay.

1. Name it, recognise it. Your disinterest and sloth are common enough but not good enough. Admitting it, "I am having a bout of acedia", may just be a help in changing your routine.
2. Start the day with a list. What would it be good to accomplish by nightfall today? Compile a list that can be ticked off, and when the distractions mount or a vague sense of anxiety starts to rise, check the list and get down to it.
3. Choose and manage a project.  I have heard many stories of people taking on a 'Covid project' during these times. I know a man who bought a broken motor bike which he repaired and sold for a sweet little profit. At our place, we have dismantled and sold a swimming pool and replaced it with a garden area, delighting in the ways we have been able to recycle materials. The project may be too large - which could bring on an episode of acedia! Common sense will organise each day's 'To Do' list into manageable chunks.
4. One story from the desert monk St Anthony tells of a time when he begged God for an answer to an attack of 'the noonday demon Acedia'. He stepped outside and saw a man enthusiastic about his work who would alternate short periods of work and prayer. He was plaiting a palm leaf into a mat and at regular intervals he would get up, leave the work and walk around praying. Work and pray, work and pray. Our calling may not include that much prayer, but the alternation of work with 'think-time' is wise. For too many people, it is work and eat, work and eat, as comfort food or caffeine or alcohol is sought to distract from work. That's not wrong but needs to be managed. Set a limit on snacks, coffee or alcohol so it doesn't cause greater problems. Work and break by all means - walk around, meditate, get some fresh air, re-focus, make a fresh approach, pray - but taking too long out of the work environment can breed dissatisfaction and frustration as well.

A problem with a blog like this is that it looks like a self-help page when I know that there is no helping ourselves finally without the Gospel. What does the Gospel say about acedia? The Gospel is the recognition that humanity cannot save itself, and God has called us to turn from self-sufficiency and self-seeking to follow Jesus. In answering that call, we are invited to participate in the redemption of all of life as we extend the Kingdom of God throughout our domain.
We need, therefore, to locate our work and our lives within this grander calling. Our work matters, our influence, our loving, our creativity contribute to the betterment of life under Christ. Refocusing and identifying what God is calling us to should mean the banishment of all apathy, acedia and despair. And once we have done that, we remind ourselves that God is at work in us to will and to do what is pleasing. (Phil 2:13).

As the Republicans and Democrats boost their presidential campaigns, we see a nation that seems more divided than ever before. Both parties at their great conventions in August used pastors and prayers and seemed to regard the other side as being deluded, dangerous and un-Christian. From here in Australia, the adoption of religion as a campaign asset is alarming and unconstitutional. Governments need to provide protection for all religions and non-believers to exist and co-exist. It is perfectly proper for people in and out of government to operate and argue from their religious perspective but not to evangelise or establish their own religion as mandatory. And that's the way God would have it. God would not appreciate being recruited to enhance a politician's power and appeal.
And here in Australia, there is a growing echo of the tribal split between Left and Right as culture wars are prosecuted, wedge issues are shouted and social media provides platforms for hate speech. This is hopeless. Such wars are not productive. They lead either to control, suppression, dictators and thought police, or to civil war. Instead, we should be aiming for toleration and healing.
Tribes can easily form. Historically, populations form into tribes through long-term geographical isolation, as the Australian indigenous peoples grew into 700 tribes with 300 distinct languages. Humanity has always been tribal and it is only the great religions of the world that first expanded loyalty and trust beyond the tribal boundary. But sometimes within the religions, tribalism re-develops.
When the brilliant and passionate Jewish zealot Saul of Tarsus became a Jesus-follower (and changed his name to the Latin form 'Paul'), he brought his new mission of recruiting Gentiles to join the Jesus movement before the 'pillars of the church' in Jerusalem - Peter, James and John.  They were very gracious and allowed the young church to separate into two streams - one focusing on Gentiles led by Paul and one focusing on Jews led by Peter. But these were not tribes! Each group respected, acknowledged and encouraged the other, recognising that 'the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me (Paul) as the apostle to the Gentiles' (Gal 2:8) 
But then it started to break down. Some conservatives with a suspicious streak began working on Peter and those in his group. (Gal 2:12) They began a whispering campaign against Paul - his differences were magnified, his tolerance was shown to be a threat, his openness to outsiders was seen as an affront and denial of their religion's heritage and goodness. 
They settled on one signature issue - circumcision. Were you for it or against it? That became the defining question as to which tribe you belonged to. If you passed or failed on that test whatever else you were didn't count. [Abortion seems to play that role in US religion and politics - as long as you are against abortion, the rest of your opinions and behaviours don't matter!]
Paul would have none of it. He wrote to his beloved Galatian congregation that if circumcision was going to get you in, then Christ must have died in vain! If you made any other belief to be equal to or more important than faith in Christ, you were preaching a false gospel. It is in this anti-tribal argument that he asserts his famous dictum: 'there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus' (Gal 3:28).
He laments that this tribalism had turned the Galatians' compassion and support into hostility and hatred (4:12-16) 'Those false teachers are so eager to win your favour, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them.' (4:17)
We need to recognise the evil power of culture war - it is dividing Christians into hostile factions, it is replacing Christ with other loyalties, it encourages the spread of lies and misinformation.
The 9th Commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness', implies that we should not hear false witness, forward videos and emails full of false witness, make jokes that depict fellow Christians badly, or allow unsubstantiated reports to blacken the names of others who call themselves Christian.
Our Christian character is at stake, and so is the Gospel. We need to end loyalty to one tribe and work for the good of all God's people and all God's world, to bring healing and unity.

When someone says, Fear not!, or, Do not be afraid, they are wasting their breath unless they can re-frame the frightening situation. They need to be able to assure us that either the threat is not as bad as we are thinking, or that they will provide support, care and protection. Parents always reassure their children in these terms. "Kindergarten is not scary, child, I will stay with you until you get settled." 
"Fear not, little flock; it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom", said Jesus, and he, too, surrounded that exhortation (Luke 12:32) with a series of reassurances and re-framings.
For example, he says not to fear those who kill only the body but cannot touch your soul. (12:4-5) Not immediately reassuring, this re-framing suggests there is something beyond our physical bodies that has greater value. It probably lies behind Paul's later talk of 'Outwardly we are wasting away but inwardly we are renewed day by day' (2Cor4:16), meaning that the Spirit of God can strengthen and give life to us even when our bodies are suffering.
Chapter 12 of Luke contains many fresh perspectives on life that address the fears we often feel, suggesting that some of our strongest concerns - storing food, accumulating security - are misplaced and we should learn to trust the God who 'clothes the lilies' and 'feeds the ravens'.
Perhaps the greatest response to fear we can make is prayer. We take our fears to God and ask for relief, trusting that the good Father will care for us. However, it is unhelpful to suggest that God will fix everything - that's not how prayer works!
Jesus himself was shaken by fear as he and the disciples walked out into the dark night after the Last Supper. They went into the Garden of Gethsemane and he urged the disciples to pray and watch with him while he poured out his fears and prayers.
His request was simple: take this cup (of suffering) away from me. He was asking God to spare him from the impending beating, torture and execution from the hostile authorities.
I keep teaching all the time that prayer begins with a simple request, but that as we wait and listen and dialogue with God, we must be prepared for the prayer to be changed. God will lead us towards a more appropriate request.
And so it goes with Jesus. The huge struggle in Jesus' soul - the Greek word is agonistes - is summarised by the Gospel writers as beginning with 'Take this cup away' and progressing to 'Nevertheless not my will but yours be done'. This took a long time and a lot of spiritual processing. Good prayer is like that - it traverses the journey into deeper understanding and submission, changing the capacity of our souls in the way.
Then when Jesus returns and rouses the dozing disciples, there is a lightness, as if a weight has been lifted. 'The hour has come. Let us get up and let us be going...'
What fears confront us during this pandemic? What anxieties and uncertainties are plaguing us? Reading Luke 12 will help us to re-frame our fears. Prayer will help us bear them and face the unknown future.

Yea, my home town, has a disused rail station that is now used for community markets and events like our annual town Christmas Carols by Candlelight. Albert Camus said in The Plague, that during an epidemic, "The whole town felt like a railway waiting room." And this current pandemic is creating a massive feeling of uncertainty as we wait: waiting for the latest statistics, to flatten the curve, to find a vaccine, to get out of lockdown, to see who will catch it next.
It turns out that there is a long spiritual tradition associated with waiting and patience, and now might be as good a time as any to learn it!
I will wait on the Lord
The writers in the Hebrew Bible don't hold back in expressing their insistence that God should come to their rescue in times of trouble. They frequently cry, "How long, O Lord? Listen to my cry! How long will my enemies rejoice over me? Why are you so far from helping me?" There is nothing wrong with this; it reflects an intense personal relationship with God that politeness and formality miss. Out of this tradition grows the phrase, "I will wait upon the Lord".  eg Psalm 27 'Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord." (v14). 
The very act of waiting produced an attitude of soul, a stillness, a dependence, an expectancy, a focus that began to make God's presence and help real. "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall rise up on wings like eagles..." (Isa 40:31)
Hope that is seen is not hope
The thing about waiting on the Lord with hope is that we don't know what is coming next. No one knows what a post-Covid world will look like. For that matter, no one knows how God will win all nations and usher in the New Creation. While we are waiting, we are waiting in the dark. It is like in the theatre at the end of Act1. We sit in pitch black and can hear the rumbling in the stage wings as sets are rolled off and replaced. When the light comes on, the mountain range has been replaced with a drawing-room set, or the street facade has become the deck of a ship. You have to trust the playwright, the set creator.
I have borrowed the stage image from TS Eliot's poem - in The 4 Quartets East Coker part III - which starts 'I said to my soul, Be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As in a theatre...
With a reference to Romans 8:24 (Hope that is seen is not hope, we wait for what we do not see), he tells his soul to wait 'without hope for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love for love would be love of the wrong thing.' In this incredible poem, Eliot suggests that God's darkness - those times when we don't know what is going to happen, we cannot imagine a way out or a new future - we don't want to construct false hopes, false lights, misleading futures, but learn to wait upon the Lord as the psalm writers would have put it.
The reference to Romans 8 is important, though. In a passage reflecting upon enduring suffering with the hope of the new creation drawing us on, Paul covers many things that are relevant to our current circumstances:

• we are waiting with eager hope (v19)
• we are currently groaning (22)
• the Spirit that energised Christ's resurrection is in us (v11)
• this Spirit articulates our groaning in prayer to God (v26)
• God then works with us to produce good. (v28)

So out of patience, out of waiting, out of uncertainty and darkness, we can have huge hope and faith that these things are not out of God's control. 
As we look around and see Winter transforming into Spring, the dormancy of mid-year bursting into the early-flowering golden wattles, we can have hope that God will go ahead of us, the Spirit is moving in the darkness, whatever comes next we will experience hand in hand with God.
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It is a new experience for most of us to wear a mask in public. Now I walk down the street and smile at people - I can barely recognise them much less know whether they are smiling back or even if they recognise me. It's easy to hide behind a mask. You can put a smiley mask on so you look happy if you're not. As Charlie Chaplin's song Smile says, Smile when your heart is aching, smile even though it's breaking, ...you'll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile.  
Really? Can pretending make it real? That would be something to debate: 'don't show the world your sorrow, just get on with it' versus 'be honest, be real, be authentic'.
It reminds me that in life, in the Bible, in culture, there are good and bad uses of the metaphor of wearing a mask.  First, the negative:
Hypocrisy
The word 'hypocrite' comes out of Greek theatre. Originally, a hypocrite was a great actor or orator who could convincingly convey a mood, a viewpoint, a role, a character. They were showing something on the outside that they were not necessarily feeling on the inside.
By the time of the New Testament, a hypocrite was someone whose words did not match up to their actions, or whose evil motives were hidden by pious externals. Like when the Pharisees came to Jesus asking to learn more of his great teaching and he "saw through their hypocrisy and said, Why are you trying to trap me?" (Mark 12:15). Or when Paul declared that unlike some preachers, he came to help people, not using flattery or masking a greedy desire for money. (1 Thess 2:5)
So without succumbing to excessive suspicion and cynicism, we are right to discern that some people are wearing masks to cloak their sinister intentions. We are not to be hypocrites, nor susceptible to gullibility.
But there is a positive time to mask our deep, inner selves. Another name for it is:
Filters and Discipline
The Bible often talks about the need to restrain our speech, to be people of disciplined life, aware of our evil tendencies but not allowing them to act out in our communal lives. This is a kind of mask. The masks of politeness, of discipline and self-restraint. We don't need to express every knee-jerk panicky reaction, or snatch every tasty cake on the plate, or voice every criticism and complaint. Over the years we are taught to impose filters on ourselves, to say 'thank you' and to restrain our tongues. We are pretending if you like to be grateful and to be tolerant and respectful.
The hope abides that if we practise politeness and dignity, we will become grateful and honourable people. Sometimes we need more rigorous application of the masks of discipline to improve our ability to contribute socially, to reduce our abrasiveness, and to change the atmosphere.
But there can be a problem. If we learn to speak smoothly and well, but have not love we are 'a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal'; if we gain great knowledge and have wonderful teachings to impart but have not love, we have learnt nothing; if we put on a mask of charity or of self-giving but it's really about making us feel good, it's not love - we are not doing anyone any good. (1 Cor 13:1-3)
Conclusion
Don't be a phoney and cloak evil motivations with piety. Do learn restraint and discipline, practising the right behaviour. But work hard on your heart, learning to be loving and holy so that your acts of goodness are authentic, not deceptive. 
​

It's tempting to think of prayer as extending my puny arms with the strength of Another. I may want to comfort someone who is suffering, or discipline myself more, or feed the hungry world, so I pray for these things believing that prayer enhances and amplifies my limited capacities. It's bringing in the big Gun. I can't do it all but with God's help it can happen.
The limitation of this thinking (which is not entirely wrong) is that it assumes that prayer is something I do alone, when in fact prayer is joining in a conversation that God is already having. Prayer comes to God with a thought or a concern and seeks to hear God's perspective on the matter. God needs to educate us about what to pray, transform what we pray, expand and enrich what we pray and show us how to pray.
The phrase for this is to pray 'in the Spirit'.
Take Ephesians 6:18: 'Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.'
The way I see this working is that we 'stay alert' to the Spirit's leading, nudging, speaking at all times and when someone or some project presses on our awareness we are to pray enthusiastically but with a certain reticence, willing to let the way we pray and what we pray for respond to the Spirit's direction.
This puts a whole new light on 'unanswered' prayer. It's entirely possible that the reason a prayer is unanswered is that we haven't prayed the right prayer yet; the request needs to be transformed and educated to align more with God's program. Often our prayers are against change. We want God to fix something broken or restore something taken away or give us back what we are losing, but how will we grow if things stay the same? Of course God welcomes such prayers but we must have a listening ear so that we can learn to pray not merely for the removal of all ills but for our endurance and improvement as we adapt to them. The change may be relentless and inevitable; it is us who must be prayed for, not for the change to be reversed.
The story I often tell that turned 'unanswered prayer' into an adventure comes from my time in the rural church during the great Millennium drought. We faithfully prayed for rain Sunday after Sunday growing more and more desperate, till it arose in our consciousness that God's answer was something like: No, it is not going to rain; you are in a drought-affected community. What are you going to do about the suffering? That got us up and moving. We began to implement all manner of community activities designed to mitigate the worst impacts of the drought on people. We distributed money and gifts, we ran programs, obtained grants, held workshops, offered pastoral care and support.  All because God did not answer our ignorant, low-horizon prayer to quickly end the drought.
Prayers are not answered for the loudness of our shouting, the boldness of our demand, the confident belief that God is at our beck, the depth of fasting and prostration we employ; they are answered when we have listened to hear that what we ask is in accord with what God is doing.
Some people teach that any tentativeness or humility about our requests is 'doublemindedness' which James blames for failed prayers (James 1:6). They say we don't need even to ask, we assume God will give it to us and we only have to give thanks that our prayer is being already answered. This teaching places our wisdom above God's and leads to many disappointments.
God is at work in the world, human kingdoms are unstable and many human efforts at controlling everything are riddled with hubris, self-seeking and corruption. Our prayers need not be petty and self-interested, God offers us the privilege of participating in the action by praying.
Listen to the wind of the Spirit and discern the right path so that we can 'pray our lives and live our prayers'.

When the preacher throws out ideas and gives people a chance to respond, then gets out a pen and starts writing down some of the great things that are said, you know you are in a church with vitality and life. That's what happened last Sunday and I want to record some of the concepts the discussion produced.
Among other things, we reflected on the paralysed man in John 5 who had lain by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years. When Jesus spoke to him, he was blaming others "No one will help me...". In this very brief exchange, Jesus will have none of it and tells him to get up, take up his bedroll and get moving.
We toyed with the idea that this was a move from 'Poor me - victim mentality - psychologically stuck to the suffering' to 'positive thinking - taking responsibility - self-determination'. That would be over-simplifying and victim-blaming because no amount of positive attitude would have healed his paralysis without the miracle-working power of the Son of God.
However, it is an important part of the story and we all felt for a moment that there were places in our lives where we had been stuck 'for 38 years' and that were producing bad fruit. So, we pondered, what is the root of the fruit? Fear and lies, wrong beliefs. 
But how do we get out of them? How do we unmask the lies and face the fears? Especially if doing so will mean we have to get up out of our familiar squalor and walk. 
The courage to take the first step. 
It was a grand moment for the man to put weight on those 38-year-paralysed legs but what came before and after it? We realised the power of ministry - the power of someone giving him full attention and listening and re-framing the problem and empowering. As Elaine Furniss writes in a book on Spiritual Direction, "When the sufferer believes 'ALL is lost', it generates a new suffering. We need to offer them a safe and non-judging place to come to a more expansive place of life, aware of who they are, of their resourcefulness and resilience, of what attachment may be keeping one in suffering or stuck to the suffering.' 
There is also the role of God's Spirit illuminating, catalysing the flick-over in the mind from 'No' to 'Yes'.
And once the man picked up his bedroll and carried it, he was slammed by the Pharisees and lawyers for carrying it on the Sabbath. Many times a burst of new life is quenched by the law-imposers, the stiflers, the legalists. 
We decided that if we are going to take steps out of our paralysis and apathy, we need to introduce some accountability and support for one another. That's when the discussion got very practical.
Here's the diagram we came up with: