Sloppy, Meandering Prayers

The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to—our helplessness—is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own.

Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks as the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers.

Paul Miller

A Praying Life:
Connecting With God In A Distracting World

Musings on a Psalm

The Lord looks down from heaven;
   he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out
   on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all
   and observes all their deeds. Psalm 33.13-15

The point of this part of the Psalm is obvious. Our God watches what we are doing. It gets more interesting when you add this from Jeremiah 32. 'His eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.' God is watching you and He will reward you accordingly. Now, for the interesting question. Does that encourage you or does it make you fearful? How you answer that could say a lot about how you understand your heavenly Father. It could also say a lot about how you understand yourself. The Father is watching you. Is He eager for opportunities to scold you or to cheer you on? Some of you might respond by saying something like, 'How could He cheer on a sinner like me?' Ah, but you forget. He does not see you as a sinner. He sees you as His loved child. After all, that is what Jesus has come to do: make you into one of God's children. So, He observes all your deeds. And, yes, that includes your sins. But Jesus blood covers those. So, the Father is free to note your efforts at doing good. He sees your attempts to love. And that pleases Him so much that He cheers for you. He sees your good efforts and is eager to reward them, both now and later.

Prayer for the Week

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: 

Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

The Nurture and Admonition of the Lord

We've just baptized little Reuben. A command that is often repeated in situations like this is,

         

And, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6.4 [KJV]

It's familiar enough which means that the potential for misunderstanding goes up. We don't think about things that we know, or at least, we think that we know. After all, we know them. But what does that familiar command mean? Or to put it differently, what is supposed to happen to Reuben? What does it mean for his parents to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? I think that that is a good question for Jon and Lisa to ponder. It's a question that we all need to ponder as we care for the children in our church. And that's why I'm going to answer it. But I need to warn you.