Tag Archives: Prayer

God is Bigger

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One of the things in life that many of us know and experience is fear.  It’s something that as children we all know, the fear of the dark, the unknown, strangers, whatever.  We each have what is sometimes called “childlike fear.”

But, as we grow older we find that while our fears change, fear remains a constant in our lives. We, especially now, have many fears. I’ve seen in the past few years, the church become very afraid. Afraid of what’s happening the world. Of politics.  Of war. Of divisions within the church.  Of divisions within culture.

Of the economy.  Of losing our job.  Of note being able to pay our bills.  Of losing our home.  Of many, many things.

Fear is something we each have tasted recently.

And, perhaps, that’s why I found such comfort in a prayer that I read today in my morning prayers. It’s simply entitled “A Collect for Peace”

God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

I love that line – surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of our adversaries. .

Today, we all have something we fear. We all have something we dread.

Perhaps it something at work.  In our family.  In our finances.  In our personal life.  We all have something that robs our peace.

But, today, know this as well.  Whatever it is. God is bigger.  God’s defense is bigger than whatever it is you fear.

Don’t be afraid.  Trust. God is bigger. God is stronger.  God is more mighty.

Do.  Not.  Fear.  God is with you.

Today, trust in His defense.  Trust in His strength.  Trust in His might.

Know His peace, His life, His life. Do not be afraid. Trust.

And find His life.

Cravings

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As I was praying the Daily Office this morning, the New Testament reading for today really caught my attention.  Today, 1 Peter 1: 1-5 says:

1 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Two things stuck out to me today, and made me really look within myself today.

First, we are told to crave (or long) pure spiritual milk.  We are supposed to crave that time with God. We are supposed to crave being with God.  Do you?  Do I?  Do we crave time with God like we would crave our favorite treat?

And, if you can’t get what you crave, you will go to any length to get it.  If we can’t get that chocolate, or whatever, we’ll sneak off, we’ll hoard, we’ll do whatever we can to get it.

Do we do whatever we can to spend time with God?  Do we crave it?

Do we crave spending time with God? Do we desire it?

Or, do we see it as a hassle at worst, or something we have to do at best?

Just a baby craves it’s bottle, so we should crave being with God. Do we?

But notice why we are to crave.  To grow.  Just a milk causes a child to grow, this spiritual milk we receive from God will cause our faith to grow. Just like we are made living stones, like the true living stone, we are made such to be build into something greater.

You are not made to stay as you are.  You are called to be more. You are called to be something more than you are right now.  God has something great for you. God has something awesome for you.  God has amazing plans for you.

He wants to transform  you into something awesome.

But, His work with us is often driven by our craving for Him. The more time with spend with Him, the more He can transform us.  The less time, the less He can transform.

Do you crave Him this morning? Do you desire Him?  Today, may we realize that life is found in Him, and no where else.  May we crave Him, and the life that He gives.

Forgetful

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Today in my morning prayers, what spoke to me the most wasn’t a verse of scripture, it was one of the prayers I prayed out of the Book of Common Prayer.  It was the collect for guidance and it reads as follows:

O heavenly Father, in whom we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray thee so to guide and govern us by thy Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget thee, but may remember that we are ever walking in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The reason this spoke to me is that it forced me to address and think about what can be one of the greatest hindrances to my walk with God. I can forget.  

Not forget about God, mind you.  But, forget to pray throughout the day. Forget to turn my thoughts to Him. Forget to keep Him my primary focus. Turn my attention, my heart, my passion, my desire, my everything to something other than God.

And, in doing that, I get myself in trouble.  I can just get so busy in my day that I forget.  I forget about God.

And I’m going to guess I’m not the only one.  This prayer today made me look at myself and realize that I need to make God my primary focus all day long.  And I know that.

But, I forget.

Lord, help us to remember to keep you in the front of our thoughts and minds today.  Let us not forget you.

Why am I so Stupid?

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Today I was praying and thinking about the inability to stop doing stupid things.  You know how it is, you know what I mean. We, as humans, don’t learn our lessons well sometimes. We keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again. We keep falling in the same holes, we keep getting tripped up by the same things.

As I asked God this morning when I was praying, “God why am I so stupid?”  That’s how I feel sometimes.  I think we each feel that way sometimes too.

Then, I was reading the assigned Psalm for today’s morning office, Psalm 103.  Here’s the part that most spoke to me:

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, *
and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, *
and forget not all his benefits.
3 He forgives all your sins *
and heals all your infirmities;
4 He redeems your life from the grave *
and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness;
5 He satisfies you with good things, *
and your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.
6 The LORD executes righteousness *
and judgment for all who are oppressed.
7 He made his ways known to Moses *
and his works to the children of Israel.
8 The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, *
slow to anger and of great kindness.
9 He will not always accuse us, *
nor will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, *
nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, *
so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, *
so far has he removed our sins from us.
13 As a father cares for his children, *
so does the LORD care for those who fear him.
14 For he himself knows whereof we are made; *
he remembers that we are but dust.
15 Our days are like the grass; *
we flourish like a flower of the field;
16 When the wind goes over it, it is gone, *
and its place shall know it no more.
17 But the merciful goodness of the LORD endures for ever on those who fear him, *and his righteousness on children’s children;

There seems to be two refrains. We are weak and frail.  Our lives are but a whisper. We are the grass of the field. We are temporary. We will not be here for long. We are weak.  We are clumsy.  We fall down.

God is eternal.  God is love. God longs to show mercy to His children.  Why we are here for just a moment, God was here before we got here and will be here after we leave.  He is before and after us.  He is God.

And, He knows we are frail and weak.  He knows we are clumsy.  He knows we fall.  He knows we get tripped up.  He knows we are from the dust.

And He loves us anyway.  He loves us in spite of our weakness.  He loves us.

His love is greater than our mistakes. His strength is stronger than our weakness.  His mercy is deeper than our sins.  No matter what we’ve done.  He loves us.  He loves you today, no matter if you’ve done the same dumb thing yesterday that you’ve done for years.

He might not like what you’ve done.  He might not delight in your sin.

But He loves you.  He delights in you.  You are loved, no matter what.

I don’t know about you, but I needed to hear this Psalm today. It’s a good thing to know that I’m loved, no matter what.  So are you today.  You are love, in spite of it all.

Live in that knowledge.

Maundy Thursday

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This is one of the holiest days of the year. This is the day where we remember the betrayal of our Lord and His giving to us of the gift of Holy Communion.  Mark 14: 22-24 tells it this way:

22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Now, I’m a United Methodist and I’ll let you in on a little secret.  We love us some communion.  We hold it to be a sacrament – a means by which God gives us grace.  We believe that in the blessing and in the giving and receiving of the elements, God pours out His Amazing Grace upon us, and draws us closer to Him, and brings us into a closer walk with Him.

We believe it’s God’s gift to us.  A  means by which He shows us His love.

No matter what tradition of the church you are part of, it behoves us each to remember that it was on this night Christ was given for our sake.  He was betrayed, He was broken.  For you, and for me.

For the sake of the world, He laid down His life. So we may live.

If your church celebrates this Holy or “Maundy” Thursday today or tonight, take time to go and be with the people of God.  My church, Ripley First United Methodist Church, will worship tonight.  If you are in Ripley and want to experience a powerful service come be with us.

If you are unable to worship today or tonight, or you church does not focus on this day, then pause and remember.  Remember if was for us He died, it was for us He was betrayed, and it was for us that He gave this meal of Holy Communion.

Today, take time to remember all He has done for us.

The God of Repentance

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Today as I was praying through today’s Morning Office, one of the prayers really hit a cord with me.  It’s a passage from the Apocryphal Book the Prayer of Manasseh.  It says this:

And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, *
and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness.

I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, *
and I know my wickedness only too well.

Therefore I make this prayer to you: *
Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.

Do not let me perish in my sin, *
nor condemn me to the depths of the earth.

For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, *
and in me you will show forth your goodness.

This is Holy Week, the week we focus on the passion of our Lord as He was in Jerusalem, the week when we hone in on the cross and the price that the Lord paid for our freedom and forgiveness.

This can produce two emotions within us. First, a sense of great guilt and conviction.  Iunderstand this feeling. It was for me that Jesus came. It was for my sins He was given.  I was because of what I’ve done that He gave His life.  That is true for each of us.  He gave Himself for each of us.

That’s one reason, in my opinion, as Christians we must be forgiving, Jesus died for the sins of the world. But, also for my sins.  I don’t need to worry about what you are doing.  I need to worry about what I am doing. How am I living?  How am I being faithful.  How am I being who God has called me to be?  If we each live with that sense of awareness of our own sin, I imagine we’ll be more forgiving of each other’s sin.

The other emotion it produces is thankfulness. For, God is a God of repentance.  He is a God of those that turn to Him, that ask forgiveness.  That ask for new life. That turn away from the old.  That understand what they have done.

Today, God is a God that longs to forgive you. And me. He is a God that longs to offer each of us a fresh start. Today.  He longs to forgive us.

Repentance is a gift.  It allows us to make a new, fresh, and clean start.  Today.

And, repentance is not just for those that are not Christian.  It’s for each of us. For we all have sin and we all need to repent and turn away from it.  We all need to turn from our sin and turn to God.

Today, will you repent?  Will you turn away from your sin and turn to God?  Will you make a fresh start?  Will you have a new day?  God is the God of Repentance.  May we find His grace for that, even today.

Fool’s Gold

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On of the suggested Psalms for this mornings prayer is Psalm 12:

1 Help me, LORD, for there is no godly one left; *
the faithful have vanished from among us.
2 Everyone speaks falsely with his neighbor; *
with a smooth tongue they speak from a double heart.
3 Oh, that the LORD would cut off all smooth tongues, *
and close the lips that utter proud boasts!
4 Those who say, “With our tongue will we prevail; *
our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”
5 “Because the needy are oppressed,
and the poor cry out in misery, *
I will rise up,” says the LORD,
“and give them the help they long for.”
6 The words of the LORD are pure words, *
like silver refined from ore
and purified seven times in the fire.
7 O LORD, watch over us *
and save us from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked prowl on every side, *
and that which is worthless is highly prized by everyone.

Sometimes as you are reading and praying through the scripture, just a phrase will pop out and stick with you. I’ve been taught that when that happens, pay special attention, that’s one of the ways that the Lord will speak to you through the reading of scripture.

Today, as I was reading this Psalm, the last verse stood out to me – “and that which is worthless is highly prized by everyone.”

That got me to thinking about what I prize.  About what I value.  About how I live, how I spend my time.

Is it worth wild?  In my life, am I chasing what really matters?  Am I spending my effort, my energy, my passion, on those things which are truly valuable?

Or am I spending my time chasing fool’s gold?  Am I spending my time chasing things which are fleeting?  Am I chasing my pride?  My ambition? Wealth?  Whatever.  Am I focusing on that which is worthless?  Or that which is eternal?

I think sometimes we find our lives empty because the things that we most chase are empty.

Today, what are you chasing? What are you after? What are you living for?  Is it really valuable?

The things of God are of priceless worth. They will not leave us empty. They will not leave us dry. They will not leave us alone. They are of amazing worth.

Today, do we chase that which is worthless?  Or do we chase that which is priceless.  My we spend our precious lives after that which truly matters.

Nobody Knows the Troubles I Face

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Today’s New Testament reading, 2 Corinthians 1:1-7

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering.

Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.

I get myself into the most trouble when I feel like my troubles are worse than anyone else.  I get myself into trouble I when I think I have worse than anyone else.

Surely know one knows what I’m going through.  Surely the suffering I face is worse than anyone. It’s not right, it’s not fair, it’s not the way it should be.

I deserve better.

And, since I’m having a tough time, it’s ok for me to fall back into old habits.  Old habits, old destructive things, they can be like an old pair of shoes. We fall back into them when we want that comfort.

No one knows the suffering I face.

But, here’s the thing that spoke to me in this text this morning.  What makes me think I won’t have troubles?  What makes me think I won’t have tough times?  Where in my mind did I get the impression that the Christian life would be without its problems and sufferings?

In fact, did Paul not say this morning that we are comforted in our sufferings so that we can comfort others?  Yes. We will face tough times. We will face troubles, trials, sufferings.

These things, these trials, they are not an excuse to turn from God.

They are a reason to turn to God.

Your troubles, your trials, your sleepless nights, they can either be an excuse for bitterness and old sin.  Or they can be a driving force to God.

It’s your call.

We were never promised a life without troubles.  It will come.  I don’t always respond as I should to those troubles.  It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself or feel alone.

Instead of praying.

We are comforted in our sufferings.  In our lowest moments, hardest times, loneliest day, may we turn to God.  The worse it is, the more we need to turn.

Don’t let the troubles turn you from God.  Today, may they turn us to God.

Dry Spells and Voices

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I’ve been going through a dry spell recently. Been really busy. I was a play a month or so ago, and that took a lot time. Of course church always keeps you pretty busy. And responsibilities within our Annual Conference. Family. Etc, etc, etc.

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? We’ve all had those moments in life where our souls just feel dry. Those times where we just don’t hear. Don’t see. Feel alone. I just have felt like my soul has been a little dry these past few weeks.

I’ve been watching the kids tonight. Holly is working late and I’ve just been hanging out with them. It’s been fun. We’ve been to McDonald’s and eaten more McNuggets than really anyone should eat. In a life time.

We’ve played. We’ve had fun.

As I watched the kids play in our small sandbox, I just started praying. God, I need to hear you now. I just need to hear your voice. I know you’re there. I believe. I have faith. But, I need to hear. I need a drink of water. My soul is dry.

And then I look at my kids. And I realized how lucky I am. How all I’ve been through in life, all the ways God has literally spared my life, all the ways He has given SO much more grace than I deserve, even at my best moment. And my life, like every one’s is not a collection of my best moments. I guess that’s why it’s grace. We could never deserve it.

And it just hit me. God has shown His love to me every moment of life. Every instant I’ve been alive, God has poured out grace upon grace. And the reason my soul has been so dry is because I haven’t taken time to water it.

Dr. Frank Pollard, former pastor of First Baptist Church, Jackson, MS may have been the greatest preacher I’ve ever heard. He used to say that prayer is the oxygen that feeds our souls. There is abundant oxygen for our souls. There is abundant water for our drought. There is amazing grace for this time.

We just have to allow God open our hearts. We have to allow Him to calm us, slow us, speak to us, and breathe in us. And fill us.

Today, the water is ready. The drought is over. Drink in. Nourish your soul. Life awaits.