Hey Friends,
Today, May 2, 2013, is
National Day of Prayer and instead of joining friends at the local civic center to pray, as I normally try to do, I attended my son's Master's Degree graduation. A fantastic experience!
So to commemorate the Prayer Day,
below is a re-post from New Years 2012.
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Pray, Pray, Pray
Every New year it's the same resolution. And it's about February when
2012 resolves fall by the wayside, drop off the radar, are lorded over
by laziness. For 2012 I had promised myself
To PRAY more.
Not to
R E A D more books about prayer by spiritual greats like Charles Spurgeon (
12 Sermons on Prayer), Jack Hayford (
Prayer is Invading the Impossible), Andrew Murray (
Intercessory Prayer), Stormie Omartian
(The Power of the Praying Parent/Wife/Woman/etc.), A.W.Tozer (
The Pursuit of God), Beth Moore (
Praying God's Word) to name a few...as good as they are...
B u t, to
P R A Y more often
Just T A L K to G O D,
All day long,
Everyday.
"Pray
without ceasing, Pray at all times. Paul the Apostle said. "Be constant
in Prayer". Jesus said, "...they ought always to pray, and not lose
heart." And He repeatedly invites us to persist, to trouble Him, ask,
seek, knock.
In short, the parables describe a praying person as a perfect
nuisance.
It may not be okay with your husband or housemate, but it's okay with God to be a nag!!! I'm allowed! :) :)
Daily
concerns can assault like rapid-fire weapons. Preying on my tendency
to indulge my emotions to settle in on knee-jerk reactions of
anger
fear
worry
blame
anxiety
coveting
resentment
manipulating
conniving, (Geez, I'm messed up!)
Resisting the onslaught by appealing my Maker sends the fretting flying, freeing me to enjoy peace
tranquility
contentment
kindness
gentleness
a deep-seated joy.
God's
presence comes and quiets, calms, and clears my cluttered brain. And a
hushed heart can hear prayer's answer, the next step, the clarion
solution.
Quite often answers don't come.....and then there's the deep well of waiting.. 'Wait on the Lord.'
(Romans
12:12) This is where He sculpts, shapes, and performs surgery on the
sick parts of my soul until I am situated to see some new glistening
facet of His heart and magnificent perspective on His ways. And a fresh
revelation of who He is is what it's all about. That is life!!!
Persisting in prayer is not ordering Deity around. It should never be 'spiritual lust' as Oswald Chambers writes in
My Utmost for His Highest. "Spiritual lust makes me demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God who gives the answer." (pg 38)
Remember in
The Help
when Aibileen is thinking about adding the 'separate bathrooms for
blacks' issue to her prayer list: She says, "Cause that's the way prayer
do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going". (pg 23)
We
are mistaken to expect the answers to be revealed as lightening or
thunder. They can appear so subtly, so interwoven in the normal
conversations and occurrences of our day, we miss them and risk joining
the ranks of the ungrateful.
Eat.Pray.Love.
is a fine worldview.
But
Pray. Pray. Pray is better.
I have no problem eating ....and loving is as necessary as breathing.
Tragic
events and personal crises get us praying easily. Weren't we surprised
to hear LL Cool J open the Grammy Awards with prayer in response to
Whitney Houston's untimely death? Pray on LL Cool J!! Along with the
rest of us!
But most times, my
self-sufficient, prideful, I'll-do-it-myself-my-way, autonomous,
independent person bristles violently at the selflessness and submission
required for prayer. Even though it is more vital than any other
earthly activity.
So I will keep trying to make praying the first and foremost habit to form and maintain for February,
this year, 2012...
and the next...
and the next.
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The year 2012 turned out to be an amazing year of breakthrough, by the way. If you'd like you can read about it here:
http://angelamarbury-musicmuse.blogspot.com/2013/01/2012-year-of-reconciliation.html
