Prayer

Meeting God in the Stall

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.  ~Etty Hillesum

Sometimes you just need to get away, immediately…….I had one such moment this morning. I call it a time-out in the stall. It happens every now and then at work. I’ll be cruising along multitasking and answering phones and I feel pressure under the surface, but nothing insurmountable. Then one seemingly small insignificant thing happens and I become overwhelmed by an avalanche of emotion. It’s as if emotions I had been stuffing down for the past week or two, rise to the surface and I realize that I simply cannot answer one more phone call or take one more request at that moment. The small thing that happens usually doesn’t have anything at all to do with what I’m feeling, but it’s enough to make me realize that something is wrong and I need to……STOP immediately……and PRAY.

You Moms (or Dads) raising young kids or teenagers can probably relate to this at home all day. You dream of escape, for just one moment of silence, peace. Of experiencing the unbelievable luxury of being able to lock yourself in without someone banging on the door.

Long ago when I used to go to my Aunt and Uncle’s to stay, my cousins would invariably play one of their favorite tricks on my Aunt. One of them was rigging up her cigarettes with explosives. Awful kids that we were, we would wait until she took her morning break in the bathroom, and then wait by the closed door until we heard the hiss of the match on those Lucky Strikes she always smoked….then, BAM! We would laugh uproariously and wait for the the expletive that usually came after. She never did kill us for that, though she always threatened to. She was truly a saint…..She had five kids, lived with an alcoholic husband for many years, and was always upbeat and good for a laugh, even if it was at her expense.  She needed alone time in the bathroom more than anyone.

Sometimes we all do……

This morning, He met me in the stall once again. I ran in, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and prayed. I felt better…….I’m glad there is no place where He is unwilling to answer when I call.

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24

What do you do to give yourself a timeout during the day, anyone?

Desert Prayers……

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1

From my prayer journal: The heat has returned, it was fooling us before. We got a few days of cool breezes and thought the relentless stifling breath of heat was over. Should have known better, still, it is cooler in the mornings and evenings and for that I am grateful. Relief is coming soon.

It seems God has taken away my mourning doves. I haven’t heard them for a few weeks as I usually do during morning prayer. This morning all I heard was the warm wind in the chimes and the gunning engines of a few speeding cars on their way to the freeway. Not very conducive to silent prayer and meditation……but then I heard the Spirit ask my heart…..Is it the birds you come out to hear or My voice? Then I thought: maybe He sent the doves away for a purpose. Maybe He sent them away to teach me that life, like prayer, is sometimes as dry as toast. It can’t always be cool breezes, comfort, and cooing doves.

“Yes, Lord, I get it……You got me again.” Once again I learn the lesson, Jesus plus nothing. I settled into prayer with a new purpose. I drew Him into everything I was hearing, and not hearing. Every neighborhood sound represented something God wanted me to hear. I was warm, and uncomfortable, I heard speeding cars, the wind was drying out my plants, and it was okay. It became very okay.

I started to be conscious of every car I heard. For in each car there was a life, a family represented there. So I started to pray for those lives, that today they would somehow, somewhere, feel God’s presence. That if they don’t know Him, that today they would run into someone who did.

I said the Lord’s prayer, and I became conscious of the beauty of other voices around the world saying the same prayer, so I prayed for unity in the church. I heard people rising in worship, I heard the hushed echo of kneelers pulled down in quiet sanctuaries, and the whispered prayers of the persecuted church. Prayers said by the bedside of the sick. One faith lifted in hope and joy that we believe in a God who hears the prayers of His people.

Does it matter what you or I pray here in our small corners of the world? Absolutely it does. The Bible says…….”Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Who makes us righteous but Jesus? I stand today in the cloak of His righteousness, for He is the only one who is qualified to do that. Praise His name.

Thank you Lord, for answered prayer and for always bringing us new lessons. For turning our dry toast into a full coarse meal, and our deserts into springs of water that never fail…..”Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” Psalm 23:5

Join Ann and me today as we continue to offer our thanks for His gifts…….#484 prayer lessons, #485 assurance of cooler weather to come, #486 safe return home for loved ones, #487 community of believers offering up faithful prayers, #488 the innocence of children, #489 appliances that work, #490 clean water, #491 cars that run, #492 honest work and the strength to do it, #493 the ability to laugh, #494 good samaritans, #495 means to help those who have nothing….

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Wrapped in His grace

Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience. C.S. Lewis ~ Letters from Malcolm

Whatever task you have placed before you today remember that God’s grace is big enough to fill it. It doesn’t matter how daunting, how unpleasant, how impossible. You may feel as if you might as well be faced with climbing Mount Everest, but God says, “My Grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

I think we can all boast about this one thing. Our weakness. Ever lose count of how many tears you have cried over one issue? God never loses count. He knows the exact number and He longs to wrap you in His Grace today. Whatever you are facing, His Grace is more than enough. We are abounding in it! We don’t even have to do anything to get  it, we all ready have it! All we have to do is rest in it.

When Briggs was a kitten (cat on left) was very small, he had an overabundance of energy. In fact he played so hard he used to exhaust himself to the point where he would pant like a dog. I literally had to calm him down like you have to do with an overactive kid sometimes. I used to wrap him in a towel like a kitten burrito until he could catch his breath and give the other cat a rest.

God did that for me today. He made me His burrito. Prayer time this morning was not so much prayer, it was more like just being quiet and resting in His grace. I needed calming. I got a clear picture while I was praying of Him coming behind me wearing a cloak made from the pure light of Heaven. As He enfolded me in it, I felt myself calmed with His Presence, wrapped in His Grace. I was God’s burrito today.

Let Him wrap you in it today…….”And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all suffciency in everything, you may have a abundance for every good deed.” 2 Corinthinans 9:8

Thankful for His Grace that covers……#473 circle prayers, #474 clasped hands, #475 words of love aimed toward Heaven’s throne, #476 knowing He will never leave us, #477 clean sheets and beds to sleep in, #478 food cooked with love, #479 cats that curl by your side, #480 armloads of books, #481 knowing miracle still happen because you see them in your own life, #482 candles softly flickering in evening light, #483 music that lifts to the heights of Heaven……

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God wants to hear from you….

“God is not really silent, we are deaf.” St Theresa of Avila

“The whole of our faith is the belief that God loves us; I mean there isn’t anything else. Anything else we say we believe is just a way of saying that God loves us. Any proposition, any article of faith, is only an expression of faith if it is a way of saying that God loves us….Herbert McCabe, British Theologian

We need only look to the cross to see proof of that love……

We have knowledge of that love because of what He has already demonstrated. Since He loves us, we must assume that He wants to hear from us! There is one requirement that will ensure that God will always answer our prayers and Jesus demonstrated it perfectly.
That we bring our desires in line with our Father’s will. This kind of prayer can seem more like wrestling sometimes.  
More than anything, God desires an open and honest heart. I like the fact that He encourages simple prayers…..I have great comfort in the fact that I can tell Him absolutely everything, and he loves it when I use my own words…… 
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6:7

I love that God honored the humble prayer of the tax collector…..
“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ Luke 18:13

I also love that God hears my silent prayers in those times when words fail. I just let Him read my heart with His Spirit in the quiet moments found here and there.

Morning Prayer

Sea of Galilee, Google Images

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35

There must be some time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all. There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did they have a meaning?

There must be a time when the man of prayer goes to pray as if it were the first time in his life that he had ever prayed, when teh man of resolutions puts his resolutions aside as if they had all benn broken, and he learns a different wisdom:

Distinguishing the sun from the moon, the stars from the darkness, the sea from dry land, and the night sky from the shoulder of a hill. Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

Thank you Lord for the quiet hours of dawn, when the world is just beginning to stir and wake. There is nothing quite like the early morning prayer. I feel a closeness with You, knowing You felt the need too, to rise early and meet Your Father. Before the day begins, we come in faith and hope, not knowing for sure what the day will bring, but knowing that You will be in it and through it. And in my mind I see others too, bringing their own offering. I feel a kinship with them, Lord, in these quiet moments, as I add my prayers to other voices, as You set the earth, the planets, this place of beauty in motion once again…..

Tuning in to what’s real


“Here and there among men, there are those who pause in the hurried rush to listen to the call of a life that is more real. How often have we seen them, David, jostled and ridiculed by their fellows, pushed aside and forgotten. He who sees and hears too much is cursed for a dreamer, a fanatic, or a fool by the mad mob who, having eyes, see not, ears and hear not, and refuse to understand.

Only when we can no longer strive in the battle for earthly honors or material wealth do we turn to the unseen and more enduring things of life and hear and see the things we have so long refused to consider.” The Shepherd of the Hills, Harold Bell Wright.

I recently found a little treasure of a book published in 1907 about a worldly traveler who longs to escape his sophisticated city life and retreats to the Ozarks where he meets some people who teach him how to truly live. Leaving behind a successful church in the city, he ends up finding his faith and God in the mountains.

While there he meets Pete, the child who claims to speak with God, who wanders at night under the stars and hears the voices that whisper in the wind. When I look at this picture I can just see little Pete standing there in the sun. We can all learn something from the Petes of this world.

I talk to God all the time and though I have never yet heard an audible voice, I know He answers. The main way He answers me is though His word, but He uses other creative ways as well. I think I am going to listen to the wind more, and tune in to the song of the stars that sing. I am going to try to be more like Pete and tune into the Eternal world where God lives. I might be surprised what I hear!

“When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.” Ephesians 3:14-18

Surprised by joy


Here I am Lord and I’m drowning
In your sea of forgetfulness
The chains of yesterday surround me
I yearn for peace and rest
I don’t want to end up where you found me
And it echoes in my mind
Keeps me awake tonight

Jesus can you show me
Just how far the East is from the West
Cause I can’t bear to see the man I’ve been
Come rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
Cause you know just how far the East is from the West
From one scarred hand to the other. “East to West”, Mercy Me

This morning my prayer room felt empty. I lit my candle anyway as an offering of faith. It was mustard seed small. I prayed, wondering what I did wrong that I didn’t feel Him there, to make Him turn away. I waited in the silence. So intent on myself and my feelings I forgot to leave room for the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I think God hides Himself a bit just to see what we will do.

I think sometimes He plays hide and seek in order to encourage us to flex our faith muscles and pray anyway. I waited…..I praised some more, I read the Psalms. I sang…..He surprised me with His joy leaping up like John in Elizabeth’s womb. What mercy. What did I do to deserve this lavish grace?Absolutely nothing.

Then I think, why me? What about the one who prays for days, weeks, months, and never seems to get any confirmation that God is listening? That is dangerous thinking. It is all too tempting to think I did something to get this reaction. I do this, He does that. Like a formula. But God doesn’t work in formulas, and he certainly doesn’t wait around until I hit the right combination of steps in order to reveal Himself. He reveals Himself in His own time, and His timing is always perfect.

He does it because of His great love and grace. Because He loves giving gifts to His children. It pleases Him to do these things. There is nothing I could do that would make God do anything. Or not do something. But here is a very important reason why God reveals Himself in our lives…..so we can encourage and build each other up!

The Bible assures us that He will answer in due time. I entered my prayer closet empty and came out filled….
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.” Matthew 7:7-11

Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt God was hiding His presence?

Rejoicing today in His eagerness to give good gifts: #393 peace in turbulence, #394 perseverance in difficulty, #395 assurance of Scripture, #396 confirmation that He hears, #397 unexpected joy, #398 laughter when all else fails, #399 dear ones to pray with, #400 His strength in my weakness.

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A living prayer

Photo from Google images

Our confidence lies in the fact that God hears the whispers we pray when there is no time for anything else. Whispers in the dark when all is silent and the heart slows down in the calm of lights out.

We throw arrows up and He catches them and puts them safely in His quiver….He knows when there is no practical time to pray but yet our heart is praying without ceasing and our soul is on its knees.

Prayer is the soul catching its breath

Somehow we rise up with wings as eagles and soar with the Spirit…somehow we get everything done, our bodies going through the motions and His Spirit carrying us through. We become a living prayer.

“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 with groans that words cannot express” Romans 8:26

Thoughts in the silence

I heard a song lyric that said…..all of creation knows Your name.
It made me want to sit in the silence for awhile, so I did.
To reflect on all that He is, and who He is to me.

On who He is in this world and the world beyond….
So big that it’s hard to wrap my mind around.
Where did He come from?
When did it all start…..it’s too much!
So I retreat back to the quiet corner of my mind.

I don’t have to know all that, I just know that He is.
And that He is totally good, totally just, totally Holy,
and nothing happens beyond His knowledge or control….
My heart tells me, and His Spirit assures me that
He’s with me.
And He will never leave….
He loves me.
I don’t have to be afraid that I will pull the wrong daisy petal and it will land on “He loves me not”
It will always land on “He loves me.”

And all of creation knows His name…….

Answers from the Psalms


You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Psalm 81:7

Counting hope today in expectation of the answers……”In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation!” Psalm 5:3 We can pray in expectation because we know He is faithful. I love the idea of David laying his requests before God in the morning…..He wasn’t afraid to be open and transparent before God….and vulnerable. He knew that God would answer because of all the times He had answered in the past. He also knew that true faith means coming before the Lord with full assurance that God had already worked it out!

David made some big mistakes just like we all have, but he still knew that he was God’s child. He knew that his help truly came from the Lord and no one else. Maybe you had a parent you could never count on. You always had hope that at least one time they would come through for you, but they never did. One time give a word of encouragement. One time, show up for the game. One time, say they loved you, were pulling for you, were on your side. You gave up, on them, on yourself….feeling you must not be worth it.

But take heart, because our Heavenly Father is not like that. He is in the bleachers cheering you on. He always has been. He says, you are mine and you are worthy! We need to look no further than Calvary to remind ourselves that God thinks we are indeed worth it.

“For you have heard my vows, O God; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.” Psalm 61:5 #361

“They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.” Psalm 22:5 #362

“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.” Psalm 40:1 #363

#364 flowers in summer, #365 laughter when all else fails, #366 answers, expected and unexpected, #367 the gift of health, #368 time off work, #369 air-conditioning when it’s 112 in the shade, #370 parents that were there……

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