Thirty-one Ordinary Prayers, #4

Goodness Prayer (A Paraphrase of Psalm 116)

God, You are so good. Imprisoned by trouble I would never have escaped, I discovered You coming to my rescue; You heard my cry and came in answer to it in a way that perfectly balanced grace—Your free gift, and righteousness—what justice required, and compassion—love for the unlovely. That is so good.

What it takes from me is an admission of my own need, my own lack of goodness. I must reject the pride that is my inborn habit, coming to You in faith—simple-hearted, open-faced and unadorned trust in You. My soul finds rest, time and time again, when I admit that You are good for me.

You deliver me from the dark influence of evil so that I may walk with You; this is Paradise found in the truest sense. And my role? You ask me to trust You, to believe in what I cannot see, to admit that You are completely good and all-powerful, and that I am anything but that. That is the covenant You call salvation and offer me—a cup of wine deep and fragrant and sparkling.

This imagery, of course, reminds me of You, Jesus, body broken for me, blood spilled for my eternal good. Because of You the death of every one of us who trust in You will be the precious reuniting of children with good Father, servants with good Master and the rescued with good Redeemer.

So I rejoice in being Your servant. I will take every opportunity to thank You for Your goodness and love, to praise Your name before others, and to live my life as a thank offering to You.

Thirty-one Ordinary Prayers, #3

Praising the Unseen God (A Paraphrase of Psalm 115)

Taking my eyes off myself, God, and looking to You alone is where my hope is secure. Why? Because of Your love and faithfulness toward those who fear and honour You.

How strange that we doubt Your existence because You are unseen. What should we expect? That You would submit to our demands, You who rule the universe and beyond?

When we have a perspective of doubt, we show that we prefer a god we make ourselves—one that justifies the way we want to live, that condones our grasping, grabbing, selfish lifestyles. That perspective is just a façade for empty, impotent and temporal intentions. People who create gods for themselves end up becoming like them: deaf, blind, mute and paralyzed to attaining what You, God, designed them to experience.

Help those who honour and fear You, God, to continue to entrust themselves to Your help and protection. You know each of us inside out. You remember our frailties and will bless us with the kind of blessings we each need most. You bless those who fear You, whether we are young or old, obscure or well-known—all alike are blessed.

One way You bless us is by making Your family increase: we increase in love for You, faith in You, fear of You; we increase in character traits like Christ and in power to accomplish Your will; we increase in compassion for others—something often beyond us.

Continue to bless us, Lord–Maker of heaven and earth–so that we are enabled to realize Your great plans for us. We inhabit the earth but You invite us to share the heavens with You.

So the contrast becomes quite clear, God, between those who reject You and those who honour and fear You. The former gradually shrink and fade away like a dead leaf, fallen and blown away. But those who extol Your wonders expand for eternity in worshipful awe.

(Photo Credits: By Uroš Novina from Semič, Slovenia – Maple leaf in summer, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50029518;  [[File:Fern Unfurling – geograph.org.uk – 160963.jpg|thumb|Fern Unfurling – geograph.org.uk – 160963]];  By Karlostachys – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31299697)

Thirty-one Ordinary Prayers, #2

Praising God’s Sovereignty (A Paraphrase of Jeremiah 32:17-27)

Sovereign God, all-powerful Ruler of the universe and beyond, Your fingerprint is on everything, seen and unseen alike. From the tiniest atom to the furthest solar system, Your signature mystery and beauty, order and surprise is stamped on all Your handiwork. Everything was made by You and is sustained by You; nothing is too hard for You to accomplish.

You understand the heart of every person who every walked this earth and breathed its God-rich air. Nothing escapes Your notice. You are incredibly fair: to those who bow before Your Sovereign authority You show Yourself to be a loving, compassionate Father and friend; to others who, in foolish rebellion, twist and pry themselves away from Your loving hand, You are as unbending as steel and as fearful as gravity.

O magnificent and might One, whose name is LORD Almighty, Your purposes and plans are matched only by Your power to accomplish everything You intend. You see every one of us, giving each of us unique opportunities to make our choices clear: we may honour, love and obey Your or ignore Your sovereignty and go our own way. You allow us the dignity of that choice, while cautioning us that each way comes with its own eternal consequences.

God of all mankind, in the midst of my daily living, help me consistently and clearly choose You. Help me obey Your commands even when they look strange by this world’s norms. Help me become the person You want me to be. Nothing is too hard for You!

Thirty-one Ordinary Prayers

#1: Desert Prayer (A Paraphrase of Isaiah 35)

God Almighty; Father of Hope, Spirit of Life, Son of Truth; Come into our desert places. Like a summer rain, flash flood the barren reaches of our souls. We are parched; You are glorious. When your healing truth fills the fissures of our hardened hearts, lives like soil soften; Your Word germinates and sprouts. Like a crocus we burst into bloom; our souls rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

We of feeble hands and shaking knees arise; fearful hearts are made courageous, blindness healed, deaf ears unstopped. We the lame leap like deer for joy. O gladness filling feet, ears, eyes and hearts! The mute will shout for joy as You, God, come to us.

Our hearts like desert sands—unlivable places—dusty, hot and dry have been burdened with the enemy’s lies. Come Living Water, gushing spring. Quench our thirst with Truth—Your deep, deep love for us. So grass and reeds and papyrus begin to grow, lush signs of life sprouting from places we thought not only barren but cursed. Our jackal-like fears are gone now; the ferocious beasts that haunted our souls are driven away by the light of Your Truth and Love.

We are like travelers who have finally found our way—Your Way of Holiness. O lift us up to journey upon the highway that leads to You. We are redeemed! Ransomed! Crowned and singing, we joyfully tread Your Way, creatures made new.

(Photo Credit: [[File:Spry Canyon (8119659047).jpg|thumb|Spry Canyon (8119659047)]])

Culture of Life

We’ve been dabbling in death for too long. From the French Revolution’s lethal guillotines through the atrocities of Jihadist terrorism and the convenience of ‘therapeutic’ abortions there runs a culture of death as swift and overpowering as a mighty current. The Western World’s recent ‘advances’ in assisted suicide provide a solution no less diabolical than Hitler’s death camps. Who can offer us something more than the hopelessness and emptiness of death?

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” answers the first century fisherman Peter. “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).

Peter’s epistle of praise to God reflects upon and savours Christ’s offer of assisted procreation: the gift of “new birth.” It is more than a dry theological premise. Much more. The concept of Christian new birth is the key to living an extravagantly deep and meaningful life. But where did Peter come up with this concept of new birth?

The teaching originates with Jesus, who Himself explained, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” This new birth forms the foundation of the experience called the Christian faith. We all know what Christianity is, don’t we? But let’s look a little closer at what new birth really means.

Jesus explained, “Spirit gives birth to spirit,” and “So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” He is saying that the Spirit of God regenerates that part of us that is designed to commune with Him and ultimately live forever within that primary relationship. The depth of this birth means that it is invisible to the human eye. It is the unseen core that now pulses within the believer. The Apostle Paul explains that we “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” All fine and well, but how do we actually do this?

Peter anticipates our question by calling believers “newborn babies”, “obedient children”, “chosen people” and “a people belonging to God.” As God offers new birth to believers our first job is to embark on a new way of thinking about ourselves—that is, to understand our new identity. Every thought, every word, every intention and action we will go on to initiate arises from this mindset of our new identity.

Since we each come out of old, distorted identities prior to our new birth of spirit, we need to be intentional about settling this issue in our minds. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is now our God and Father. We are His children; we are no longer bound to be rebellious but are free to obey Him out of love for Him.

The third level of our new birth involves our behaviours. “Just as he who called you is holy,” Peter counsels, “so be holy in all you do”; “love one another deeply, from the heart” and “rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” Like the old saying, “Beauty is as beauty does,” our behaviours are the evidence of our spirit and our identity.

We have no small task ahead of us. Holiness is otherness; it is living other than the way our old bent to selfishness and lies used to cause us to live. God, though—great joyful mystery!—is on our side. Just as He launches our new birth through His Spirit giving life to ours and as He helps us understand our new identity, He also assists us in developing the new behaviours we need in order to be authentic. His Son Jesus is the model for the new character into which we will mature and His Spirit is the impetus within us to help us reflect our model.

So those who accept Jesus’ offer of living hope through His resurrection have moved. We have moved from a culture defined primarily by death, to one defined by life—eternal, Spirit of God-filled, ever-expanding life. It’s a new birth and a new identity, which leads us to new behaviours. How will this change the way you live today?