O God, how could You be so good to me? You are extravagant beyond all reason. Lying here beside me now, she glows in Your reflected light. Your holy peace rests on her closed eyelids. She radiates Your divine goodness even as she sleeps. Are you dancing with her in her dreams, Lord God, like you walked with Your children in the garden?
This divine joy You have poured into her heart overflows to bless the world, but it blesses me first of all. She is a fountain of joy that you fill to water a parched earth. She is a sacred vessel in Your service, and yet You, extravagantly, permit me to bathe in her.
I love the way You love her. Your presence in her life is obvious. Your gentle, healing hand upon her heart is beautiful to see. You bless her with abundant life, and You satisfy her every need.
Lying here asleep she looks so delicate, powerless, fragile. But I know it is an illusion. In a few minutes she will wake, and you will array her again in her breastplate of righteousness and her belt of truth. In one hand she will take up the shield of her unwavering faith in Your divine goodness, and in her other hand you will place again the Spirit of the Living God, and any forces of darkness that may have been lurking in the shadows will draw back at the awesome sight of her.
She will sit up on the edge of the bed and wipe the sleep from her eyes. She will yawn and stretch and her hair will fall gracefully on her shoulders, and You will place upon her lovely head her helmet of salvation. And I will rest assured that no matter what the Father of Lies hurls at her today, she will be divinely protected from any mortal blow.
And thus armed by the Lord of Hosts, this mighty warrior in Your Kingdom will devote herself today to raising my children. She will put Your praises on their lips, and she will show them the abundant life that is found only in You, and she will reveal to them the face of a good and loving and compassionate God.
I have come to know You as Father, as Friend, as Lord, as Teacher. But as husband of Your precious daughter, I am also coming to know You as Father-in-Law. However close she and I may grow in our marriage, there will always be a relationship she has with You alone that I cannot enter. She has needs and desires that only You can meet, and that is just as it should be.
You are her perfect Heavenly Father. You know me fully, and in spite of this You have still seen fit to entrust her to my care. You have given me a charge of high honor: to serve as the husband of the daughter of the King of the universe. O God, take me and use me however You please to reflect in human form Your divine love for her. Use my arms to hold her, and use my lips to encourage her. Give me the strength to ride courageously beside her in battle and to treat her every day like a daughter of the King.
Amen
Monday, October 01, 2012
Satisfy Us in the Morning
O God, how many times have I intended to meet You every day in morning prayer, and how many times have I stood You up? I hunger for intimacy with You; I crave the sound of Your voice. And at those times in my life when I have surrendered to Your desire to fill me, I have been blessed with immeasurable peace and joy from Your hand. So, why is it still so hard to offer You the beginning of my day?
I confess to You, Lord, that this desire to begin every day with You is beyond my reach. I can certainly renew my commitment to meet You each morning in prayer, but I know myself well enough to foresee that it isn't going to last a week. I will fail again, and the shame of the failure will come between us again, and I will be worse off than before I started. I want to meet You each morning, but I also don't want to make You yet another promise that I can't keep, and I don't want to turn my relationship with you into a goal-oriented personal challenge or a burdensome obligation.
You have graciously reassured me that my prayer time with You is not an obligation to be fulfilled in order to be good or faithful in Your sight, rather it is an opportunity for You to smother me in Your love. Your love for me is thick, and our prayer time together is life-giving and satisfying, so why do I forget You so often?
I know that it is within Your power to grant me divine strength in this. I know that I could ask You to bless me with strength to overcome the temptation to sleep in or to check my email or to waste my morning in worthless daydreams. But that isn't really what I want. I don't want the strength to discipline myself to meet You in prayer each morning. I don't really even desire to develop a spiritually-healthy morning habit.
What I really want is to wake up every morning to an intense Spirit-given craving for Your presence. I want to hunger for You like I hunger for my breakfast. I want to come to You each morning in prayer seeking fulfillment of an unmet desire. You have given me cravings for the other things I need life, food and water and air to breathe, and deep within my heart You have also planted a craving for You.
O God, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, magnify my craving for Your presence. I want to wake each morning with a burning desire to hear a word from Your lips and to bask in Your divine stillness. I want You to subdue all my other appetites until You have filled my cup to overflowing. And then I want You to put a song on my lips and joy in my heart that will carry me through the day. And I want to lay my head on my pillow at night hopeful and expectant that when I open my eyes tomorrow You will meet me again.
Amen.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
I confess to You, Lord, that this desire to begin every day with You is beyond my reach. I can certainly renew my commitment to meet You each morning in prayer, but I know myself well enough to foresee that it isn't going to last a week. I will fail again, and the shame of the failure will come between us again, and I will be worse off than before I started. I want to meet You each morning, but I also don't want to make You yet another promise that I can't keep, and I don't want to turn my relationship with you into a goal-oriented personal challenge or a burdensome obligation.
You have graciously reassured me that my prayer time with You is not an obligation to be fulfilled in order to be good or faithful in Your sight, rather it is an opportunity for You to smother me in Your love. Your love for me is thick, and our prayer time together is life-giving and satisfying, so why do I forget You so often?
I know that it is within Your power to grant me divine strength in this. I know that I could ask You to bless me with strength to overcome the temptation to sleep in or to check my email or to waste my morning in worthless daydreams. But that isn't really what I want. I don't want the strength to discipline myself to meet You in prayer each morning. I don't really even desire to develop a spiritually-healthy morning habit.
What I really want is to wake up every morning to an intense Spirit-given craving for Your presence. I want to hunger for You like I hunger for my breakfast. I want to come to You each morning in prayer seeking fulfillment of an unmet desire. You have given me cravings for the other things I need life, food and water and air to breathe, and deep within my heart You have also planted a craving for You.
O God, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, magnify my craving for Your presence. I want to wake each morning with a burning desire to hear a word from Your lips and to bask in Your divine stillness. I want You to subdue all my other appetites until You have filled my cup to overflowing. And then I want You to put a song on my lips and joy in my heart that will carry me through the day. And I want to lay my head on my pillow at night hopeful and expectant that when I open my eyes tomorrow You will meet me again.
Amen.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Things Unsurrendered
A prayer to be led before the contribution...
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Lord, reveal to us those things of this world that we have not yet surrendered to you, those things that we grip tightly in clenched fists. Whether it’s our houses, our cars, our technology, our savings, our jobs, our reputations. Search our hearts, Lord, and reveal to us those things that we rely upon instead of You to bring us our peace, our joy, and our fullness of life. Show us those things that are unsurrendered, and then gently pry open our clenched fingers, Lord, so that we hold the things of this world in open palms, ready to share them, ready to lend them, ready to give them away at a moment’s notice, ready to write them off without flinching if they are taken from us.
For those things of this world that we grip too tightly, that we refuse to hold in an open palm, we ask that You take them from us, Lord, so that those things will not prevent us from placing our full trust in You and from looking to You alone for full and abundant life.
And for those things of this world that have become so much a part of who we are, so deeply ingrained in our souls that we are completely unable to release them, for those things of this world that are poison to our souls, we ask that You refine them from us with holy fire. Place our hearts, Lord, in the crucible of grief and trials to burn away all those things in us that are not of You. Whatever it takes, bring us to our end, until we are desperate for only You. Purify our hearts, Lord, in the all-consuming fire of Your Spirit until only You remain.
Amen.
For those things of this world that we grip too tightly, that we refuse to hold in an open palm, we ask that You take them from us, Lord, so that those things will not prevent us from placing our full trust in You and from looking to You alone for full and abundant life.
And for those things of this world that have become so much a part of who we are, so deeply ingrained in our souls that we are completely unable to release them, for those things of this world that are poison to our souls, we ask that You refine them from us with holy fire. Place our hearts, Lord, in the crucible of grief and trials to burn away all those things in us that are not of You. Whatever it takes, bring us to our end, until we are desperate for only You. Purify our hearts, Lord, in the all-consuming fire of Your Spirit until only You remain.
Amen.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Wash Our Eyes to See
A prayer to be led before the passing of the communion bread...
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Lord, we desire nothing more than a constant awareness of Your presence. We know in our minds that you are always present, but we’re so easily distracted, and we need Your Spirit to gently remind us...to continually whisper to our hearts that You are present at all times and in all places. In Your presence we see ourselves for who we really are. You shine light into the dark places of our hearts and expose the pride and envy, the lust and gluttony and greed that lie hidden there.
We’ve become so focused on our silly, godless, worldly desires: winning the argument, being admired by people, making ourselves look better than others, being successful, being right, being comfortable, submitting to our urges and appetites, harboring anger against Your children. But in Your holy presence the emptiness of those desires is so unmistakably clear. You are all-good. You are beautiful and satisfying, and Your presence reveals the shallow ugliness of our worldly cravings.
O God, we want You to reveal Yourself to us as we participate in communion together. Open our eyes and help us to see You living and present. We hide from You like Adam and Eve in the garden, ashamed of our own sinfulness, afraid to present ourselves before a holy God. And yet we know in our minds how unconditional Your love for us has always been. We know how much You desire us and how silly we are to hide, so we offer to You now all those things that divide us from You and that prevent us from seeing You clearly.
We confess to You, Lord, that we have not loved You with our whole heart, that we given a piece of our heart to the things of this world. We surrender to You now our worldly desires.
We confess to You, Lord, that we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves, that we have often placed our own good above the good of others. We surrender to You now our selfish pride.
We confess to You, Lord, that we have sinned against you by the things that we have done and by the things we have left undone, that we have placed our own will above Yours. We surrender now to Your good and perfect will.
We confess that we have once again forgotten Your infinite grace, that we have let the shame and the guilt of our sin come between us, that we have clung tightly to our guilt, thinking that it can somehow save us from Your wrath. We surrender to You now the shame and guilt of our our sin, that You may once again lay it upon the shoulders of Jesus. And in the place of that guilt we accept healing grace from Your hand.
To you, Lord, all our hearts are open and all our desires are known and no secrets are hidden. We come to Your table as we are. Cleanse our hearts, Lord, of any pretense of self-righteousness, but wash our eyes to see ourselves the way You see us: perfect and holy and pure and washed clean by Your grace.
Amen.
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Lord, we desire nothing more than a constant awareness of Your presence. We know in our minds that you are always present, but we’re so easily distracted, and we need Your Spirit to gently remind us...to continually whisper to our hearts that You are present at all times and in all places. In Your presence we see ourselves for who we really are. You shine light into the dark places of our hearts and expose the pride and envy, the lust and gluttony and greed that lie hidden there.
We’ve become so focused on our silly, godless, worldly desires: winning the argument, being admired by people, making ourselves look better than others, being successful, being right, being comfortable, submitting to our urges and appetites, harboring anger against Your children. But in Your holy presence the emptiness of those desires is so unmistakably clear. You are all-good. You are beautiful and satisfying, and Your presence reveals the shallow ugliness of our worldly cravings.
O God, we want You to reveal Yourself to us as we participate in communion together. Open our eyes and help us to see You living and present. We hide from You like Adam and Eve in the garden, ashamed of our own sinfulness, afraid to present ourselves before a holy God. And yet we know in our minds how unconditional Your love for us has always been. We know how much You desire us and how silly we are to hide, so we offer to You now all those things that divide us from You and that prevent us from seeing You clearly.
We confess to You, Lord, that we have not loved You with our whole heart, that we given a piece of our heart to the things of this world. We surrender to You now our worldly desires.
We confess to You, Lord, that we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves, that we have often placed our own good above the good of others. We surrender to You now our selfish pride.
We confess to You, Lord, that we have sinned against you by the things that we have done and by the things we have left undone, that we have placed our own will above Yours. We surrender now to Your good and perfect will.
We confess that we have once again forgotten Your infinite grace, that we have let the shame and the guilt of our sin come between us, that we have clung tightly to our guilt, thinking that it can somehow save us from Your wrath. We surrender to You now the shame and guilt of our our sin, that You may once again lay it upon the shoulders of Jesus. And in the place of that guilt we accept healing grace from Your hand.
To you, Lord, all our hearts are open and all our desires are known and no secrets are hidden. We come to Your table as we are. Cleanse our hearts, Lord, of any pretense of self-righteousness, but wash our eyes to see ourselves the way You see us: perfect and holy and pure and washed clean by Your grace.
Amen.
A prayer to be led before the passing of the communion wine...
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And as You are washing our eyes to see ourselves as You see us, we ask, Lord, that You also wash our eyes to see the church as You see her, as Your radiant bride, beautifully dressed for her husband, shining with the glory of God. Give us eyes to see past the human institution of the church and to see the reality of the Body of Christ.
You have taught us and You have shown us that Your grace is infinite, but we confess that we haven’t fully understood or we would be able to extend that same grace to all of Your children. But we want to understand. When we are tempted to stand in judgement upon Your church or upon Your children, we want instead to be able to pour out infinite grace.
We get so focussed on those silly little things that offend us or bother us somehow, and in the pride of our hearts we say to ourselves that the church and the Kingdom of God, could be so much better if everyone else would just do it our way. We surrender to You this delusion that the Kingdom of God is ours to rule.
Yours is the Kingdom...
Yours is the Kingdom...
Yours is the Kingdom... and the power and the glory forever and ever.
You have taught us and You have shown us that Your grace is infinite, but we confess that we haven’t fully understood or we would be able to extend that same grace to all of Your children. But we want to understand. When we are tempted to stand in judgement upon Your church or upon Your children, we want instead to be able to pour out infinite grace.
We get so focussed on those silly little things that offend us or bother us somehow, and in the pride of our hearts we say to ourselves that the church and the Kingdom of God, could be so much better if everyone else would just do it our way. We surrender to You this delusion that the Kingdom of God is ours to rule.
Yours is the Kingdom...
Yours is the Kingdom...
Yours is the Kingdom... and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
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