As I have been reflecting on the prayers of decades and centuries past, it strikes me that they prayed significantly differently than many of us do today. I'm afraid that the typical current Christian prayer sounds a bit too much like this:
Make me healthy,
Make it not rain,
Please take away
All of my pain.
Help me find the
Best parking spot.
If I speed, don't
Let me get caught.
Bless my efforts
Bless my own plans,
Bless all the work
Of my own hands.
Your are the God
Who meets my need,
Please don't mention
That it might be greed.
Okay, this is somewhat "tongue in cheek," but I am challenged by the saints who have gone before us to take my prayers to a deeper, richer place.
Here's today's prayer:
“Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Psalm 86:2
Our Heavenly Father, as we close our eyes we would open our hearts to Thee. Thou knowest us altogether; the very thoughts of our hearts, our innermost ambitions and desires, our secret ways—“all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” Thee we cannot deceive. Keep us from trying to deceive others or to deceive ourselves. May we be sincere, without guile or hypocrisy, genuine—our lives of one piece, like the seamless garment of our Lord.
Keep us from the folly and wickedness of a divided life, that is one thing within and another without; that is humble and reverent on the day of worship, but hard and cold and selfish on the days of work and of pleasure.
May we be thoughtful for those who serve us and faithful to those whom we serve. May our daily task be consecrated to Thee, that not only the fruit of our labor, but the toil itself of hands and heart and brain, may be used for Thy Kingdom.
Make all our lives of friendship and books and rest and love and laughter and service sacred to Thee, that Thine may be the glory, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. Amen.
Herbert Welch, D.D., LL.D.
Delaware, OH
Printed in God’s Minute, 1916
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Was a little concerned at first, thought maybe you have been listening in to my prayers from time to time...
I, like you, am trying to make my prayer life much deeper and more personal. These written prayers are great, especially after I re-write them to my words. It has been a great exercise for me and has been very beneficial. Thank you for sharing these prayers with us.
Randall
It seems with each generation we have less gratitude and more expectations. Personal rights seem to be such a driving force. We grieve our sin less. We ask God to heal, fix, change, provide...while focusing little on the deeper heart issues. We fail so often to long for and ask for the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of our pain, instead we want God to take away the pain.
I recall our grandparents simple,grateful prayers...honestly,there was a time in which it bothered me...I didn't think they were completely sincere or real. Come on, doesn't everyone have a bad day now and then. God is personal and it's okay to pour it all out isn't it? Yes, it is and God welcomes it, but the older I get the more I see the depth and riches our grandparents had.
They really were thankful for the food on the table...they remembered having none. They really were thankful for the warm house...they remembered going to bed freezing cold. They didn't have to love their job nor did it have to be personally fulfilling.
They were thankful.That was enough. Life was very hard,they expected that it would be. They choose gratitude. They choose praise. They were tender to the deeper work of God in their lives.If I want that to continue to be our family's heritage, then I've got some serious reflecting to do.
Several years ago I felt a nudge to stop all requests and petitions in my prayer time. For 30 days only praise, adoration, thanksgiving and confession were "allowed"....I think God is nudging me for a season to do that again...
You have said many things that I have been thinking. You have hit the nail on the head in a way that I had not been able to do. "Expectations" and "entitlements" seem to be the way of life. It is my right...
I am challenged by the words in this prayer that talk about how we are when we can be reverent when in worship (at church) and we can be cold and selfish when at work or at play.
My mother is a shining example to me, very thankful for the most simple of things in her life. I have never heard her complain about what she didn't have, but have always heard her be thankful for what she did have.
Thanks Amers, greatly appreciate your comments here.
Randall
Amers- you are so right about our current sense of entitlement and expectation. And, the truth is just a generation or two ago, people were really thankful for so much that we take for granted today.
Can we . . . remember to glorify our Father and Lord no matter our circumstances, think more of others and less of ourselves, forgive even the most egregious things for we have been forgiven much?
With YOUR help, Lord!
Great poem to end this week. Great service tonight. For those out of town bloggers, we had a prayer service tonight to end our 3 days of prayer and fasting that Salem Alliance did. John, you led us well. I couldn't help but think of the prayer services we had for you which you weren't able to attend. It was a delight to attend one WITH you. This service was not about you, you made sure of that. I believe that there were many smiles in Heaven tonight dear friend. Thank you for all you do.
Dudster
"bless my efforts; bless the works of my hands" sounds a lot like my "here is my agenda today Lord, please be with me in it." Recently i have tried to be more intentional about praying Prov. 3:5-6 over my to-do list. To try and live out what it means to "lean not on thine own understanding" in hopes that all my lives of friendship and books and rest and love and laughter and service" would be sacred to Him.
love to you and jo