Thank You.

Thank You 
A prayer by Michel Quoist:

We must know how to say, “Thank You.”

Our days are filled with the gifts the Lord showers on us. If we were in the habit of taking stock of them, at night we should be like a “queen for a day,” dazzled and happy with so many blessings.

We should then be grateful to God, secure because he gives us everything, joyful because we know that every day he will renew his gifts.

Everything is a gift from God, even the smallest things, and it’s the sum of these gifts that makes a life beautiful or sad, depending on how we use them.

“All good giving and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of the lights of heaven. With him there is no variation, no play of passing shadows.” (James I, 17)

Thank you, Lord, thank you.
Thank you for all the gifts you have given me today,
Thank you for all I have seen, heard, received.

Thank you for the water that woke me up, the soap that smells good, the toothpaste that refreshes. Thank you for the clothes that protect me, for their color and their cut.
Thank you for the newspaper so faithfully there, for the comics (my morning smile), for the report of useful meetings, for justice done and big games won.

Thank you for the street-cleaning truck and the men who run it, for their morning shouts and all the early noises.

Thank you for my work, my tools, my efforts.

Thank you for the metal in my hands, for the whine of the steel biting into it, for the satisfied look of the supervisor and the load of finished pieces.

Thank you for Jim who lent me his file, for Danny who gave me a cigarette, for Charlie who held the door for me.

Thank you for the welcoming street that led me there, for the shop windows, for the cars, for the passers-by, for all the life that flowed swiftly between the windowed walls of the houses.

Thank you for the food that sustained me, for the glass of beer that refreshed me.

Thank you for the car that meekly took me where I wanted to be, for the gas that made it go, for the wind that caressed my face and for the trees that nodded to me on the way.

Thank you for the boy I watched playing on the sidewalk opposite, Thank you for his roller-skates and for his comical face when he fell.

Thank you for the morning greetings I received, and for all the smiles.

Thank you for the mother who welcomes me at home, for her tactful affection, for her silent presence.

Thank you for the roof that shelters me, for the lamp that lights me, for the radio that
plays, for the news, for music and singing.

Thank you for the bunch of flowers, so pretty on my table.

Thank you for the tranquil night.
Thank you for the stars.
Thank you for the silence.
Thank you for the time you have given me.
Thank you for life.
Thank you for grace.
Thank you for being there, Lord.

Thank you for listening to me, for taking me serioulsy, for gathering my gifts in your hands to offer them to your Father.

Thank you, Lord,
Thank you.

My God, I Don’t Believe

PRAYER: My God, I Don’t Believe by Michel Quoist

My God, I don’t believe
that you cause the rain to fall or the sun to shine,
to order,
on request,
so that the christian’s corn will grow
or the parish priest’s Bazaar will be a success;
that you find work for the virtuous unemployed person
but leave others to search alone
and never find a job;
that you protect from accidents
the child whose mother prays
and allow the other one to be killed,
the little one who has no mother to storm heaven;
that you give us food to eat
when we ask you for it,
and allow people to die of hunger
when we stop asking for your help.

My God, I don’t believe
that you lead us wherever you want us to go,
and that we only have to let ourselves be led:
that you send us hardship
and all we can do is to accept it;
that you offer us success
and we only have to thank you for it;
that when you make a decision,
you know what is good for us
and it is up to us to accept with resignation.

No, my God, I don’t believe
that you are a dictator,
all-powerful,
imposing your will,
for the good of your people;
that we are puppets
and that you pull the strings
whenever you feel like it;
that you make us play out a mysterious drama
in which the smallest details
have been preordained by you since the beginning of time.

No, I don’t believe it,
I no longer believe it,
because I know now, my God,
that this is not what you want,
that you couldn’t do this,
because you are LOVE,
because you are our FATHER
and because we are your children.
Forgive us, oh my God,
for having distorted your image as a loving Father.

We believed that in order to know and understand you
we should imagine you
endowed with infinite power and authority,
of the kind that we humans too often seek.
Thinking of you and speaking about you,
we have used words that are alright in themselves,
but in our closed hearts they have turned into traps
and we have translated:
omnipotence,
the will of God,
commandment,
obedience,
judgement. . .
into the language of arrogant men and women
who dream of dominion over their brothers and sisters;
and we have assigned to you:
punishment,
suffering and death,
while what you wish for us is
forgiveness,
happiness and life.
Forgive us, oh my God,
because we haven’t had the courage to believe that, through your love for us,
you have always wanted us to be free,
free not just to say yes or no
to what you have decided for us in advance,
but free to reflect,
to choose,
to act as independent beings
throughout our lives.

We haven’t had the courage to believe
that you wanted our freedom so much
that you risked sin, allowing us the freedom to sin,
that you risked evil,
suffering,
spoiled fruits of our misused freedom,
awful consequence of our rejection of your love,
that you risked losing,
in the eyes of many of your children,
your halo of infinite goodness
and the glory of your omnipotence.
We haven’t had the courage to understand
that when you wanted to reveal yourself to us definitely,
you came on this earth,
small,
weak,
naked,
and that you died on a cross,
abandoned,
powerless,
naked,
to signify to the world that your only power
is the infinite power of love,
love which frees us,
so that we can love.

I know now, my God, that you can do everything
. . . except take our freedom away from us!

Thank you, my God, for this beautiful and frightening freedom,
supreme gift of your infinite love.
We are free!
Free!
Free to harness nature, little by little,
and to use it in the service of our sisters and brothers;
free to abuse it
by exploiting it for our own advantage;
free to protect and develop life,
to fight against suffering
and sickness,
or free to squander intelligence, energy, money,
to manufacture weapons
and to kill each other;
free to give or not to give children to you;
free to organize the sharing of our wealth,
or to allow millions of human beings
to die of hunger on fertile land;
free to love
or free to hate,
free to follow you
or to reject you.

We are free. . .
but loved infinitely.

So I believe, my God,
that because you love us and because you are our Father
you have always wanted us to be happy forever,
that you always propose
but never impose.

I believe that your Spirit of love
at the center of our life,
whispers to us, faithfully, each day,
the desires of your Father.
And I believe that amid the great dove-tailing
of human freedoms,
the events that touch us, all our involvements,
those we have chosen
and those we haven’t chosen,
sources of joy or of cruel suffering,
all of these,
through us and for us,
with the help of your Spirit who is with us,
thanks to your love for us in your son,
thanks to our freedom to be open to your love,
all of these can be providential,
each time they become part of us.

Oh my great and loving God,
so humble and unobtrusive before me
that I cannot reach out and understand you
unless I become like a little child,
let me believe with all my strength
in your only omnipotence:
the omnipotence of your love.

Then, one day, in union with my sisters and brothers,
proud of having lived my life as a free human being,
supremely happy,
“Go my child, your faith has redeemed you.”


Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.  Because of his love God has already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his sons – this was his pleasure and purpose.  Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear son. (Ephesians 1:4-6)

Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  And God showed his love for us by sending his only son into the world, so that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. (1 John 4:8-10)

Prayer in School

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There is going to be a lot of talk about prayer in school and prayer in public forums after today’s US Supreme Court decision which held that public prayer before government meetings is not unconstitutional.

I believe in prayer because I believe in Jesus. He taught us to pray and he prayed often. Jesus prayed earnestly. He prayed in his toughest moments. We should too.

I also want everyone to know what I know about God. I want them to know that God loves sinners. That God is about mercy and grace and not about condemnation. That God doesn’t want to change your behavior, he wants to change your heart. God is not all about rules. He kept it very simple. Love God, Love others. Those are not a lot of rules. They are, however, two rules that are impossible to keep without his help. He knows we will fail at both and loves us anyway. Love God and Love others. I love how easy his yoke is for I am weary and heavy laden. I know you are too.

However, there are a lot of Christians who add a lot of rules and a lot of heresy to what I just described as my beliefs. They add things that are not in the Bible. They take away things that are. Many say they believe that we are saved by faith alone but actually add more to it in practice. Many believe the Joel Osteen philosophy that a strong faith can build good old American wealth. Many believe that God will save you through faith but you have to work your butt off to keep in his good graces after that. One misstep and you are out. I think some of that is blasphemy. I think it is wrong. You can disagree. I don’t mind. I love you anyway.

Here is the problem with prayer in school and prayer at city council meetings and prayer in courts. Whose prayer will we use? You see, I don’t trust some of my child’s teachers. You shouldn’t either. I trust them to teach him math and science. I just don’t trust them to teach him about God. I may not know a teacher well enough to trust him or her or I may know the teacher too well to trust them. It is probably not that they are bad persons. It is just that they may not believe what I do.

Young kids are impressionable. Suppose your child’s third grade teachers prays: “Dear God, please let these little children know that you will love them if that do X, Y and Z.” That is wrong and I don’t want kids thinking that God only loves them if they do something to earn it. What if the prayer is: “Dear God, have these kids know that if they work very hard and do your will that they can then be saved.” That is wrong in my book. We don’t add a single thing to salvation except our sin and the need for a savior. What if the prayer is: “Dear God, help these kids to know that if they use alcohol they will go to hell?” You think I am kidding. But I am not. I have heard these and far worse come out of the mouths of Christians.

Kids are impressionable. What they hear from a teacher will matter.

Jesus also taught about how, when and where to pray. “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Matthew 6:6) He also warned in Luke 18: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Jesus knew that there would be those who used prayer in the wrong way and at the wrong time. I agree with him.

I think this applies to our elected officials at governmental meetings as well. None of us trust politicians anymore. From both sides of the political spectrum, we are misled and misinformed. I can’t even imagine a worse group to decide who, what or when to pray. When lawmakers on both sides use public forums to grandstand and politicize almost every issue, do we really want them in charge of prayer? Do we really think politicians leading or picking prayers or those who lead them is a good idea? Is it a good idea when the Democrats control the prayer and the Republicans do not? Is it a good idea when the opposite party is in control? I don’t think so.

An instrument of your peace.

Prayer of St. Francis:

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
 

O Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
 

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Private Meeting

Think of it: The Lord Jesus Christ is willing to meet with you privately for as long as you want, and He is willing—even eager—to meet with you every day! Suppose you had been one of the thousands who followed Jesus around for much of the last three years of His earthly life. Can you imagine how excited you would have been if one of His disciples said, “The Master wants us to tell you that He is willing to get alone with you whenever you’re willing, and for as much time as you want to spend, and He’ll be expecting you most every day”? What a privilege! Who would have complained about this expectation? Well, that marvelous privilege and expectation is always yours.

From Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney.

God wants us to BOTHER him?

Matt Chandler on Prayer:

Watering Seeds Already Planted

Prayer from Archbishop Oscar Romero who served the people of El Salvador and was assassinated in 1980 while he was saying mass in San Salvador.


Father,

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

A Short Prayer

A prayer by Donald Coggan (former Archbishop of Canterbury):

Take our minds, and think through them.
Take our lips, and speak through them.
Take our hearts, and set them on fire with love for thee.
What we know not, teach us.
What we have not, give us.
What we are not, make us.
For Jesus Christ's sake.

More Questions than Answers on Prayer

PHILIP YANCEY from the book Prayer:  Does It Make Any Difference 

"Everywhere I encountered the gap between prayer in theory and prayer in practice.  In theory prayer is the essential human act, a priceless point of contact with the God of the universe.  In practice prayer is often confusing and fraught with frustration.  My publisher conducted a website poll, and of the 678 respondents only 23 felt satisfied with the time they were spending in prayer.  That very discrepancy made me want to write this book.

Advances in science and technology no doubt contribute to our confusion about prayer.  In former days farmers lifted their heads and appealed to brazen heavens for an end to drought. Now we study low-pressure fronts, dig irrigation canals, and seed clouds with metallic particles. In former days when a child fell ill the parents cried out to God; now they call for an ambulance or phone the doctor.

Prosperity may dilute prayer too. In my travels I have noticed that Christians in developing countries spend less time pondering the effectiveness of prayer and more time actually praying. The wealthy rely on talent and resources to solve immediate problems, and insurance policies and retirement plans to secure the future. We can hardly pray with sincerity, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' when the pantry is stocked with a month's supply of provisions.

Increasingly, time pressures crowd out the leisurely pace that prayer seems to require.  Communication with other people keeps getting shorter and more cryptic:  text messages, email, instant messaging.  We have less and less time for conversation, let alone contemplation.  We have the constant sensation of not enough:  not enough time, not enough rest, not enough exercise, not enough leisure.  Where does God fit into a life that already seems behind schedule?

 

"Prayer to the skeptic is a delusion, a waste of time.  To the believer it represents perhaps the most important use of time.  Why, then is prayer so problematic?  The British pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones summed up the confusion:  'Of all the activities in which the human engages, and which are part of the spiritual life, there is surely none which causes so much perplexity, and raises so many problems, as the activity which we call prayer.'

"I write about prayer as a pilgrim, not an expert.  I have the same questions that occur to almost everyone at some point.  Is God listening?  Why should God care about me?  If God knows everything, what's the point of prayer?  Why do answers to prayer seem so inconsistent, even capricious?  Does a person with many praying friends stand a better chance of physical healing as one who also has cancer but with only a few people praying for her?  Why does God sometimes seem close and sometimes faraway?  Does prayer change God or change me?

   

The psychiatrist Gerald C. May observed, 'After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people's hearts, I am convinced that human beings have an inborn desire for God.  Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and most precious treasure.'  Surely, if we are made in God's own image, God will find a way to fulfill that deepest longing.  Prayer is that way."  (pp. 15-16)

Sighs too Deep for Words......

This is by John Coleman.  He is a friend from college and law school. He left the practice of law to go to seminary and is the rector at Ascension Episcopal in Montgomery. 

 

The telephone call took me by surprise. Calls like this one always do. Even when you expect the news-it’s still a shock. If I wanted to visit with Tom, I should go to Atlanta as soon as possible. Hospice was called in and they felt he was very near the end of his life on earth. What?! I had just seen Tom a few months earlier and it seemed like he was doing better. He had battled cancer for years, but looked like he was on solid ground in the fight. And now it was time to say goodbye?
 

I took a deep breath and let it out in one big sigh. It was all I could manage. I guess I didn’t know what to say.
 

“I’m praying for you,” I would say each time I saw him. I was praying for Tom. He knew that; wasn’t that enough? I was overcome with the call to give him more than my assurances. I cleared the deck of a crazy schedule, got in my car and headed to Atlanta.

And then I heard the voice. You know the one I’m talking about. It’s the voice that second guesses everything you do, so you end up doing just what you’ve always done, or worse, you do nothing.

“You haven’t seen him in months," the voice chided. "You don’t talk to him regularly. He knows you’re praying for him. You can just send a note.” And then the question that stops so many thundered out. "What are you going to say?!”

I’ve been with people in some of the most difficult circumstances in life. And yet there are times when I still struggle with what to say or do. I always feel like I should have the right words, say the right things and pray the right prayers, after all I'm a priest. And yet all those words in the face of some kinds of suffering can seem empty.

I know I'm not alone in this feeling. I hear these comments all the time: "I wouldn't know what to say." "I'm no good at praying out loud." "I don't know what to do." I watch as these words stop people from doing anything.

As I drove toward Atlanta I was reminded of the Apostle Paul's words in Romans. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27.

The Spirit of God joins our sigh over the struggles and pain in this world. When we don't have the words or know what to do, God fills in the gaps with "sighs too deep for words." The immortal and omnipotent God sighs because He identifies with us. The life of Jesus shows us this. He was plunged into a sea of vulnerability and was subjected to rejection, hunger, weakness, pain and death. His life also shows us that God ultimately brings new life. God controls it all, even when we can't see it or when things don't go the way we would will them. And how we experience our present is completely shaped by what we believe about our future. Our sigh can be the end of it and we can give in to the anxiety, or we can remember the character and history of God.

I walked into Tom's room. His breathing was shallow and labored. He looked at me and struggled to say hi. He couldn't speak more than a word or two, so I talked a little.

I reminded him about the time we first met at a company convention. I thanked him for introducing me to jazz music. Then I prayed for awhile. And then...silence. I sighed. I was out of words and somehow that was just fine. The words were just getting in the way.

I spied a CD player in the corner of the room, so I picked out a Chris Botti jazz selection and hit play. The music filled the room as I sat next to his bed. I held his hand in silence and listened.

And then I heard the voice. It was more of a sigh or groan. I'm sure it was the breath of the Holy Spirit and it rippled over the music and our breathing to the ears of God. I heard it and I'm pretty sure Tom did too. It was the best prayer of all. Without words it reminded us of whose we are and who holds every moment of yesterday, today and tomorrow in the palm of his hand. And through the sadness and suffering the room filled with hope.

There are times when we don't need to have the right words. We aren't required to have it all figured out and arrive with just the right action to save the day. We don't even have to say or do anything. We just have to show up and be fully present. We are after all called to be faithful, not perfect. And when we're open to the movement and will of God, God uses us, even when we try our best to get in the way.

Even when all we do is sit silently with a friend.

Busy

"Tomorrow I plan to work, work from early until late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."

    -Martin Luther

 

"Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That is a great mistake, for praying is a saving of time."
    -Charles H. Spurgeon

Your Delight in Me is not Contingent Upon my Delight in you.

A Prayer for Days When You Don’t Feel Like Praying

Heavenward by Scotty Smith

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:26-28

Dear Father, this is one of those days when I could create a long prayer list and methodically go through it, but I’m not sure I would really be praying. I could go through the motions, but to be quite honest, it would be more ritual than reality… more about me, than the people and situations I’d bring before you. I’m feeling a bit distracted this morning, scattered and not very focused.

It’s one of those days I’m glad the gospel is much more about your grasp of me than my grip on you. It’s one of those days I’m grateful your delight in me is not contingent upon my delight in you. It’s one of those days I’m very thankful for the prayer ministry of the Holy Spirit.

     

Gracious Father, I have no problem or reluctance in acknowledging my weakness this morning. In fact it’s freeing to know your Spirit doesn’t abandon us when we’re weak, but helps us in our weakness. Just as Jesus constantly prays for us, the Holy Spirit faithfully prays in us with “wordless groans.” Though I don’t understand everything that means, I do get the part about you searching our hearts and you knowing the mind of the Spirit, and that brings me great comfort today.

     

No one knows our hearts better than you, Father. And you search our hearts to save us, not to shame us… to deliver us, not to demean us… to change us, not to chide us. You know my dignity and my depravity, my fears and my longings, my struggles with sin and my standing in Christ. No one but you knows how little or how much of the gospel I actually get.

     

And at this very moment your Spirit is praying inside of me… perfectly tuned into my needs and in total harmony with your will. I cannot measure the peace that brings. I surrender right now, Father. I will gladly groan to your glory. I know you are at work for my good in all things, including this season.

    

All I have to do is look at Jesus and know these things are true. You have called me to life in him and you will complete your purpose in me… and in each of your children… and in the entire cosmos. I do love you, I would love you more. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ merciful and faithful name.

The Graveyard at Miango

This may be one of the most difficult things I have read in years. I have read it over and over for a couple of years and still can't get past it. I know I have sent it our multiple times but here it is again.  The photo is of the graveyard and the Goossen Grave

 

 

No Fixed Formula (Phillip Yancey from Prayer: Does it make a difference?)

Even after spelling out some of what we do wrong in our prayers, however - especially after spelling that out - I must repeat that prayer does not work according to a fixed formula: get your life in order, say the right words, and the desired result will come. If that were true, Job would have avoided much suffering, Paul would have shed his thorn in the flesh, and Jesus would never have gone to Golgotha. Between the two questions "Does God answer prayer?" and "Will God grant my specific prayer for this sick child or this particular injustice?" lies a great pool of mystery.

Charles Edward White, a college professor in the state of Michigan spent several terms as a visiting professor at the University of Jos in Nigeria. While there, he visited a missionary graveyard in a quiet garden beside a chapel on Nigeria's Central Plateau. Most of the graves he noticed were small: two and three-foot mounds to accommodate child-sized coffins. 33 of the 56 graves in fact held the bodies of small children......Two infants lived just one day. Others lived a few years, falling victim to the tropical diseases common in that part of the world. Melvin Louis Goossen was twelve when he and his brother fell off a suspension bridge over a rain swollen creek. Their missionary father, Arthur Goossen dived in the creek to save one son. But when he dived after Melvin, both father and son drowned....

Charles Edward White wrote:

 

The graveyard at Miango tells us something about God and about His grace. It testifies that God is not a jolly grandfather who satisfies our every desire. Certainly those parents wanted their children to live. They plead with God but He denied their request.

The graves also show us that God is not a calculating merchant who withholds his goods until we produce enough good works or faith to buy his help. If anyone had earned credit with God, it would have been these missionaries. They left all to spread the gospel in a hostile environment, But God does not hand out merit pay.

Not only do we learn about God's nature from the Miango graveyard, but we also discover truths about God's grace. God's grace may be free, but it is not cheap. Neither purchasing our salvation nor letting us know the gift was inexpensive.

Beginning with Abel, many of the witnesses to divine grace sealed their words with blood. Jesus asked the Jews which of the prophets was not persecuted? When he first sent out his disciples, he promised them betrayal and death. Then, at the end of his ministry, he promised his followers that as they carried out his word, they would face trouble and hatred.."

"The only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango," White concluded, "is to remember that God also buried his Son on the mission field."

For a missionary couple who stand beside a mound of earth in a garden in Nigeria, no logical explanation of unanswered prayer will suffice. They must place their faith in a God who has yet to fulfill the promise that good will overcome evil, that God's good purpose will, in the end, prevail. To cling to that belief may represent the ultimate rationalization----or the ultimate act of faith.

Thirsty?

A Prayer about Thirsty Panting for Jesus

by Scotty Smith

     As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?  Ps. 42:1-2

Loving Jesus, there’s no craving more demanding than thirst. It’s neither patient nor polite. When we get even a little dehydrated, we’re usually quick to slake thirst’s unrelenting demand, one way or another. Thirst will not be denied.

Because this is true, we join the Psalmist in crying out, “Jesus, intensify our thirst for you. Create within us an unremitting longing for rich communion with you. Keep us panting like the deer which pants after streams of water—the unpolluted, undistilled, never-ending brooks of your bounty. Keep us redemptively discontent until we find fresh refreshment in you.

Quickly drain and smash the broken-cisterns of our own making. Don’t let us be even momentarily satisfied with any other beverage than the draft you draw, the potion you pour, the life-giving libation you alone can give.”  

     

If we take up King David’s lament, “When can I go and meet with God?” you answer back, without delay, “Right now, my beloved, do not wait. If you’re thirsty, come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:38)

     

If we should say, “But Jesus, where can we find you?” You answer back even quicker, “Not in the Law; not in your strivings; not in your labors; not in your earnestness; not in your self-loathing’s; not in your vain promises, but only in the gospel.

     

Come and fall into the rivers of my delight. Stand under the cascading waterfalls of my grace. Open your heart wide to my supply and I will over-fill you with everything you need and more than you want.”

    

Even so and evermore, Lord Jesus, school us well in pant-theology. As you are the Lord of demand and supply, fill us afresh than we might be a people to the praise of your glory and grace. We pray, in your all glorious and all generous name.

A Prayer about Thirsty Panting for Jesus is a post from: Heavenward by Scotty Smith

Trust God with what God already knows.

From Phillip Yancey's book on Prayer:

I know what happens in human relationships when I remain at a shallow level. With casual friends I discuss the weather, sports, upcoming concerts and movies, all the while steering clear of what matters more: a suppressed hurt, hidden jealousy, resentment of their children's rude behavior, concern for their spiritual welfare. As a result, the relationship goes nowhere. On the other hand, relationships deepen as I trust my friends with secrets.

Likewise, unless I level with God - about bitterness over an unanswered prayer, grief over loss, guilt over an unforgiving spirit, a baffling sense of God's absence - that relationship, too, will go nowhere. I may continue going to church, singing hymns and praise choruses, even addressing God politely in formal prayers, but I will never break through the intimacy barrier.

"We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.", wrote C.S. Lewis.

To put it another way, we must trust God with what God already knows.

Rather Leave Untouched

Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched. 
           - Henri J.M. Nouwen

A Prayer for Friends Weighed Down

I love these prayers from: Heavenward by Scotty Smith

 

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

Dear Jesus, huge snowflakes are gently falling as we meet this morning, covering my yard with a blanket of beauty. It makes me think of the cross and how you’ve washed us whiter than snow by the sacrifice of your blood. Thank you, a million times over. We are completely forgiven and now dressed in the matchless beauty of your righteousness. Nothing will ever separate us from your love. We praise and adore you…you are such a wonderful, merciful, caring Savior.

In light of your great love for us, we bring friends before you today who are weighed down with various burdens and cares. Whether it’s the cold weather or simply the winter blues, it makes no difference, Jesus, there are multiplied stories of duress, stress and struggles all around us. Where else can we go but to you? Hear our prayers for those we love.

We pray for friends dealing with health issues. All along the continuum of common colds to uncommon cancers, we ask you to bring your mercy and healing, Jesus. Whether by the special grace of divine intervention or the common grace of good medicine and health care, it makes no difference. Mete out sufficient grace in each situation. Bring great glory to yourself. Make your presence clearly felt even if your ways cannot be easily discerned.

We pray for friends struggling financially and career-wise. You don’t promise us abundance or surplus, Jesus, but you do promise to meet all our needs. We especially think of friends whose are closer to mental and emotional bankruptcy, than financial collapse. By the power of your resurrection, and for your name’s sake, open doors that seem locked and bolted. From your storehouse of everlasting goodness, bring forth the right provision at the right time. It’s most likely you will use us as a part of the answer to our prayers. May we be generous and gracious in serving our friends.

Lastly, we pray for friends who are burdened relationally. Marriage will always be a center of intense, unrelenting spiritual warfare, for this relationship is meant to tell the story of your great love for your Bride. Pour out your Spirit, Jesus. Humble the proud… bring hope to the despairing… dial down the anger… clarify the issues… supply the right counsel… grant miracles of forbearance, forgiveness and reconciliation.

We ask the same for whole families, longstanding friendships and local churches under the siege of broken relationship and battered trust. Do way beyond what we can ask or imagine, for the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. Help us, Jesus, for your glory and fame. So very Amen, we pray, in your peerless and priceless name.

A Prayer for Friends Weighed Down with Various Burdens is a post from: Heavenward by Scotty Smith

Close the Door

"It is always just possible that Jesus Christ meant what he said when he told us to seek the secret place and to close the door.”

     C.S. Lewis

Morning and Noon and Night

In The Necessity of Prayer, E. M. Bounds quotes this advice, giving credit only to "an eminent old divine":

Would you be freed from the bondage to corruption? Would you grow in grace in general and grow in grace in particular? If you would, your way is plain.

Ask of God more faith. Beg of him morning, and noon and night, while you walk by the way, while you sit in the house, when you lie down and when you rise up; beg of him simply to impress divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of the substance of things hoped for and of the evidence of things not seen.

In my haste and in my leisure.

Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until the eventide. 

 

Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions. Lodge in my soul's most inward citadel, and order all my doings. 

 

Be with me in silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and the weariness of the evening. 

 

Give me grace at all times to rejoice in Thy mysterious companionship.

John Baillie