Sue O’Donnell. 02.08.20
“Now we plead with you in the name of the Lord Jesus to devote ourselves more fully to pleasing Him.” (1 Thessalonians 4 v 1 The Truth)
Lord, how shall I use this time,
This fine time feeling close to You?
What is right for me to do?
Please grant me insight.
I need the ordering of Your Spirit
To balance out my prayer.
I value most highly this time we share,
But am concerned that usually
There is too much of me speaking,
Asking, commenting and reflecting.
Have I left space sufficiently
For You to raise Your concerns?
I yearn to get my prayer life
To be more readily a part of me.
I do not know how this can be
Unless I ask of You, but then it happens,
Happens frequently, possibly continuously,
That I am more ready to speak than to listen!
I need please, a fresh resolve
To listen to You, to learn from You,
To simply lean on You, my trust deepening
And strengthening, also I imagine, emboldening.
Lord, Jesus, before me, behind me,
Beside me and within me, I seek now
For You to speak, as attentively I listen.
The way to approach this which I thought of,
Is to use this time of prayer
For praising and appreciating You expressively.
Is this the correct way for me to go?
How will I know?
Only by praying I suppose,
The means by which my faith grows,
Then assessing how the Spirit is influencing me.
Is He agitating, disturbing, unearthing?
If so, there has to be another way to go forwards.
But if my awareness is the result
Of the impact of the Spirit of happiness,
Well, it is safe to suppose, You too are happy.
And as “Those who truly love always protect others,
They always trust and are always full of hope,” (1 Corinthians 13 v 7 The Truth)
Then I will be affirmed in the scope of prayer,
For the time we share whether speaking or listening
Is the most precious time of love’s sharing.
Please keep sending Your Spirit of love to me,
For “God’s love never fails us” (v 8)
Meaning that all will be well eventually,
The journey home signposted frequently by prayer.
Help me please, to be both talking and listening,
For I need to heed Your wisdom and truth constantly.
Show me then, the way to make good progress in prayerfulness.
“For God did not call us to live impure lives, but to walk in holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4 v 7 the Truth)
“So anyone who ignores these instructions rejects not man but God, who gives us His Holy Spirit to enable us to live a holy life.” (based on 1 Thessalonians 4 v 8 The Truth)
Oh Lord, I know the Holy Spirit agitated me earlier this week when I read “...I have caused the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me.” (Jeremiah 13 v 11)I feel the same, which is fine.
But, then came the discomfort: “...that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they could not hear.” (Cont.) This unearthed me.
How often have You wished to speak with me but I was not ready to listen? How often when praying has Your Spirit of wisdom and truth wanted to impact upon me, but my talking made this impossible?
I want to do better than this. Please help me. There is too much Martha in me currently, and not enough Mary, sitting contentedly before You, listening.
But whenever I acknowledge a problem, You come to help me. I delight in Your presence as the living Word of our Father. Thank You for accepting this calling to be our Saviour.
I offer praise to You, dearest Father of grace, so merciful towards us, blessing us by forgiveness through the sacrifice of Your holy Son. You offer us every spiritual blessing in our Saviour Brother.
You chose us to belong to You, through the Lord Jesus, according to the sanctifying Spirit, as they strive to make us holy and totally blameless in Your sight.
This is how mercy works. Mercy is the compassion, patience and tolerance of Your love towards us, an amazing love, a truly redemptive, life changing love.
What a most glorious purpose to make us Your own children by adoption given freely to us who deserve no such grace nor favour. But all grace has been gifted us in the Lord Jesus, the Christ, come to earth to be our
Saviour and Restorer.
Surely much time in prayer must be spent in thanksgiving, praise, admiration and adoration? It is only right to pray in this way as often as we can, for You have ordained our joy in following Jesus.
But then again, we can follow in the footsteps of our Brother, risen, ascended and glorified, that we delight and honour You, Father God, by learning from the Lord Jesus.
He comes to us as Your living Word of wisdom and truth, and for that too, we must thank You. But how will we access this invaluable tool to our life of faith, unless we listen?
One way of course, is to not read the sacred Scriptures as we would any other information, but to pray from the Bible, seeking to learn how the teaching applies to us personally, individually, as well as collectively, the
family of Jesus.
May the enlightening, life purifying Spirit help us with this, bidding us to be still, pray awhile, then go forwards into daily life feeling firmer, made more sound in our faith by the teaching.
Please could the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete standing alongside us – all thanks for this specific help and blessing – remind us again and again to bring to prayer a listening ear with a fresh resolve to learn thereby.
May we be so steeped in our faith, our trust in and dependency upon the Lord Jesus, we will even hear a whisper to our mind, will, heart, conscience, whilst busy about everyday concerns.
For surely dearest Father, one of the most glorious riches of faith is this outcome which helps us to know You are ever with us in Your Son, the One nearest to Your Father heart of love, by means of the Spirit.
Thank You that the Spirit is ever at work with our Saviour, striving to make us more and more ready to pray in whatever way is most appropriate for the occasion.
May the Spirit be in charge of our prayer life, being the Spirit of all praise and thanksgiving, of remorse expressed in repentance with contrition, or urgent prayer of intercession and continuous prayer of supplication.
But, may the Holy Spirit also grace us by a disciple’s ear, so as to develop a disciple’s heart of love shaped by obedience, a full reverence as we learn to emulate the wisdom and truth our Saviour Brother reveals to us.
What must really matter is that we pray as often as is possible, putting the Lord Jesus in charge of every detail of our daily life, the good, the bad and most certainly, the ugly.
Lord Jesus, our worship, please ever remain with us by Your Spirit of prayer, cleansing our sinfulness, mending our brokenness, healing our infidelity, showing us You are the source of all holy comfort, reassurance
and hope. This must mean if my prayer is unbalanced on one day, the Spirit will address and correct this.
May He in You, in us, Lord Jesus, be the strength of God guiding and safeguarding us, the wisdom and truth of God impacting upon us to instruct and inspire us, and the shield of God to defend and protect us.
Let all prayer be a light shining brightly, cutting across the darkness of our sinful world, knowing that in giving our life to the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Master, herein is our true, full, final and eternal happiness
even now in the process of development.
Ever we will benefit from the time spent in prayer. Dearest Father, I ask that this worship offered through the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit, may daily be to Your delight and glory. Amen.
Images by Artist Christine Garwood
http://www.christinegarwoodartist.co.uk/
Season
Key Themes
PRAYER
MERCY
