Around the table our voices raise as we sing before we pray. It’s a tradition that some may deride as old fashioned yet for us it stirs our souls and feels only right to worship as we start this feast that’s set before us. Our voices align in unity of purpose even with the voices that are dropped to sound in harmony. My eyes close as the last notes rise and fall and then resolve and then the amen sounds as is only proper when the doxology is sung. Then without even a word being said we raise our hands and join them together. I feel hers in mine and she squeezes slightly. And then my sister on the other side grabs mine and holds it lightly. And we bow our heads and then my father prays to the father of us all. There is thanks given and praise raised and of course mention made of each one of us that around that table stands and of the blessings that have rained down innumerable upon us. I sigh in my heart and let my own prayer rise silent but no less fervent to the invisible heights above where the risen one sits at the right hand of glory. The prayer goes on but only for a few more ticks of the clock, for of course while prayer is good, so is eating and to be sure it’s best to eat while the food is still hot. The amen sounds again and this time we turn to each other and smile and drop hands and pull our chairs back and sit with more or less commotion depending on who is sitting next to who. And then right when my fork is dug in and the perfect bite is about to be raised there’s a voice that pierces through. What about a toast she says? And though a part of me wants to just take a bite, I cannot say a word against so I take my glass of crimson red and raise it high and say my piece. Glory glory to our King. No matter what comes and no matter who goes, no matter the waves and no matter the storm, it is good for us to rest in the peace that comes with knowing our Lord. It is good for us to be here together in this place.
Tag: prayer
Equilibrium Transformed
A few thoughts on my latest read!
50. Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves. One of the best books on prayer I’ve ever read. And that’s saying something – a very small book of forty pages that is really more of a booklet than full scale book! This book isn’t trying to be a large treatise on prayer or attempting to explain all the theological assumptions and implications of prayer. No, this is simply a book to aid and encourage a Christian in what it means to talk to God. How good it is to remember that I am a child of God and thus have the right (and joy!) to approach God and simply talk. Sometimes the guilt and shame overcome us and we feel oh so unworthy. But if we are children and understand that we have a Father who delights to hear his children, why would we not want to pray to him? And sometimes we feel as if our words are feeble and that we aren’t good at praying and we’re afraid we will say the wrong things. So what a delight to know that the Spirit is interceding with us and helping us to pray even when we do not have the words to say! This book is a grounding, a helpful aid to understand why we pray and why we should pray. It’s not going to give you all the tactics and techniques – there are other books for that. Rather, this is a book to warm your heart as you remember what God has done for you – grant you forever life with him through the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ – and thus rejoice in considering how wonderful a gift it is that we might talk to our God every waking moment of our lives. This book was a wonderful reminder and encouragement for my soul. Oh how my heart was encouraged as I read this book and what a longing rose in my heart to pray more to my blessed God.
Interstitial
One little book review squeezed in this balmy February afternoon.
12. the practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence. This book was most beneficial and good for my soul. I think it is a book I shall return to from time to time. It is a very tiny book (in both square footage and page count!) but I deliberately slowed my reading pace and stretched this out over a week and a half or so, reading a few pages each night. It is a book that some may scoff at or call simple and that others may gaze warily at suspecting it contains content that is overly mystical and potentially dangerous. I read this and took this book as what I think it was intended to be – a call to be more constantly in communion with our God as we recognize the reality of his presence and the wonder of his love for his children that he has called to himself. Oh how encouraging it is to meditate on the word and work of God! This book is a simple one, written in language that seems old-fashioned and (dare I say) childish at times. Yet the truth contained therein is that which angels marvel at. I’m grateful to read the words and convictions of one monk who spent most of his life seeking to be close to God at all times even in (especially in!) the mundane and everyday activities that at times sap us so. This book encouraged me and convicted me both. I ought spend more time in prayer and constant conversation with my God. I ought form habits that pull me towards such divine contemplation and an intimate realized knowledge that God is real and that He is with me. Do we really believe in God? Do we really believe he is one who is listening and longing to hear our prayers? If so, then why are we not doing more to cultivate and delight in the greatest relationship we will ever have – that of an adopted son and daughter of the living God with this very being himself. I’m grateful to this book for reminding me of such, and of being an aid to renew and spur my hunger and thirst for righteousness – this righteousness only fully realized in saving faith and relationship with Jesus Christ my Lord. Yes at times I read the words of this book and thought – of course it is easy for Brother Lawrence to do this, he’s in a monastery! Excuses excuses. May I more fully and deeply plunge into the deep and true river that is a glorious eternal knowledge and relationship with my God. This book points me towards thinking more of God and less of self, and for that I am grateful. May we ever delight in the most beautiful reality that there could be – eternal peace with God.
Mornings I Look Up
the blank piece of paper calls out to be filled
and though the pen drops slowly from my hand
in trembling terror that it cannot be
good enough
it is ok
for look up to the one who is
who draws me ever more into
sweeter communion with himself
the God who knows my name
who in himself is sufficient
for all purposes my feeble mind can summon up
not to claim that i have any part in defining God
it would be with fear that i approach
and in reverent posture fall and kneel
for now at last my empty heart is filled
this morning i walk with God in prayer
The Sovereignty of the Lord
Happy Tuesday, friends!! This morning I enjoyed a nice drive to work as the sky slowly lightened. And as I drove, was being mightily blessed by listening to an old Dominic message from Isaiah 36-37. It’s too long to go into depth here(although if you want to listen as well, just let me know and I’m sure I can find the link somewhere). But in brief – too often do we grow anxious over some difficult situation in our life and we just fall to pieces. Why? Because our faith is small. Because we don’t understand the sovereignty of God. Here in Isaiah 36 – the kingdom of Judah, ruled by Hezekiah, is threatened by one of the largest and most brutal empires the world had ever seen. The Assyrian empire has turned its eyes on Jerusalem and threatened to bring down divine judgment upon her. We think we have big problems? I think Hezekiah has you beat. But what does Hezekiah do? Does he just fall apart and crumple under the weight of this severe threat? No. He does what all of us should do when our spirits are in distress. He repents in sackcloth and ashes and enters the house of the Lord. He recognizes that this threat from Assyria isn’t so terrible because it threatens him. The real sin of the Assyrian king Sennacherib was that he blasphemed God. And so Hezekiah pleads for the help of the living God, for the salvation of the remnant and for the glory of His own Name. Might we all remember to pray as such! Pray for yourself, yes. Pray for mercy, pray for salvation from evil. But never forget to pray that the name of the Lord be glorified, for it is He who is truly the target of all the attacks of the forces of evil in this world. Our Lord is sovereign, seated above the heavens. Our God is oh so loving and compassionate to us His children. Our God is glorious and worthy of all praise and honour from all the heavens and all the earth. May the mountains clap their hands and may the seas sing the praises of our God. Someday indeed all flesh shall join the chorus of worship to the Lord God Almighty.
So I’m going to close by just quoting the words of the prayer of Hezekiah. I urge that you pray as such today…
Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it,
and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.
Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying,
“O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim,
You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have
made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes,
O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to
reproach the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated
all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for
they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have
destroyed them. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.”
Something Weird 