Greetings bloggers!
This afternoon I was reading The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, and this pair of lines grabbed my attention super hard.
When an occasion arose to exercise some virtue, he committed himself to God, saying, ‘Lord, I cannot do this unless you enable me.’ Then he received more than sufficient strength.
I loved that little prayer! As a pastor, I think it’s a vocational hazard both in public ministry and in my own private spiritual discipline to heap up big and wordy prayers, to make it sound like I’ve got some sort of deep insight and knowledge, or that a prayer doesn’t count if it doesn’t last for more than a few minutes. But that little prayer, “Lord, I cannot do this unless you enable me,” I love it! It’s so tiny, but it would have such impact to be able to lift that one up when something comes along that I need to feel God’s enabling power.
And then I turned the page, and found that a tiny and simple prayer is exactly what Brother Lawrence was going for:
He said that we ought to relate to God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs as they happen. In his experience, God never failed to grant help.
That! That’s what that tiny prayer he offered up was all about, relating to God in the greatest simplicity. For all the time, effort, and energy that I pour in to writing prayers for worship services, or praying with people in hospitals, or in my own quiet times with God, I’m starting to feel a bit convicted today that I’m over-complicating things.
So, to complicate something that’s all about over-complicating things, I wanted to tackle a little bit of a series on the blog. I wonder what kind of tiny prayers are out there that we could explore together. Something that’s so wonderfully simple, but opens up brand new worlds for us in our relationship with Christ. And the first in the series is one that I’ve noticed about myself in the prayers that I’ve been offering up lately, I always want to start and end here:
(I don’t know why that’s a pickle, but I love it!)
I noticed when I was looking back at how I’ve been leading prayers in worship, particularly the prayers that I’m working off the cuff for, that I seem unable to start a prayer anywhere but with gratitude. Even on days when things are heavy, when the prayer concerns of the congregation are dire and concerning, I always want to start with gratitude. I want to start with gratitude for the day. I want to start with gratitude for the air in my lungs. I want to start with gratitude that after a season of a global pandemic we can actually all gather together in the same room and worship God for a little while. Looking back, I seem to always start with gratitude.
Truth be told, in thinking about it, I’ve had the opportunity to pray with a few folks at their death bed since I’ve started here at LPC, and even there, even in the valley of the shadow of death, I’ve started my prayers with gratitude. Gratitude for a life well lived in some cases. Gratitude that we could gather together as a family in others. Gratitude for doctors and nurses who have been incredibly kind during a difficult season. Gratitude all around.
Of course, this isn’t the only tiny prayer. Usually saying “thanks” is followed by the deepest needs of our hearts. But what if we always started there? What if “thanks” was always the starting gun? What if “thanks” was the kind of tiny prayer that we take with us wherever we go? What if “thanks” were the first word on our minds when we were stuck in traffic? What if we were grateful for that slow person in the grocery store? What if we said thanks when we turned on the news at night? Bonus points if we could manage to say thanks for the people our chosen news network deems “the other side.” What if we just carried this tiny prayer around with us wherever we went?
Thanks.
So people of God, what are you thankful for today? What can you say thanks to God for in your life?