A Thoughtful Prayer Life

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon a book that I am very thankful for.

It's called- The Valley of Vision- A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

Oftentimes, when I am praying, I find myself with a limited vocabulary.  And sometimes when my heart is so heavy the only thing I can pray is "Lord help us, please help us..." 

I realize God is not limited in power because of my inability to express verbally just what my need is at times.  He knows what I need before I even ask.

But there is something so needful that is revealed to my heart, in these prayers that I find here in this book.

It's not that I want to repeat these prayers and speak nothing else when I pray, that's not it.  I believe it's the carefulness, and the thoughtfulness expressed in these prayers that I desire in my own communications with my Father.  There is a completeness of thought in most of the prayers, a declaration of who our God is, and a realization and confession of how needy and sinful we are and that we only have access to Him because of what His Son has done for us.

And most of the prayers are prayed for oneself, not for others.  That pricks my heart.

Maybe I'm the only one who goes to prayer asking God to please change this person, and that person, and if only that person would just shape up then I'd never stumble, etc...etc...or am I? Does anyone else possibly relate?

God is showing me that much of my communications with Him in prayer wrongly deals with others, and not the soul-searching work I need for myself.  Yes it is important to pray for others, but we must be careful not to forget our own needs, I realize more and more that mine are many. 

And so that is why these prayers have met, or more correctly put, have shown me a need in my own heart, in my prayer life.  They have shown me the importance of laying myself at His feet, in all honesty, knowing how sinful I am, and how I need Him and His grace continually.

I love how carefully each prayer is phrased, speaking only truth about who our Father is and just how deep our need for Him is in all areas of our lives.  The only remedy for any of us is found alone in the remedy that Christ our Saviour has provided for us.  I'll try to share different prayers on different days, just to share the goodness that God reveals through these precious petitions given by brothers and sisters from a gone-by era. 

O God the author of all good, 
I come to Thee for the grace another day 
will require for its duties and events. 
I step out into a wicked world;
I carry about with me an evil heart. 
I know that without Thee I can do nothing, 
that everything with which I shall be concerned,
however harmless in itself, 
may prove an occasion of sin or folly, 
unless I am kept by Thy power. 

Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.
Preserve my understanding from subtilty of error, 
my affections from love of idols, 
my character from stain of vice, 
my profession from every form of evil. 

May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore Thy blessing, 
and in which I cannot invite Thy inspection. 
Prosper me in all lawful undertakings, or prepare me for disappointments. 
Give me neither poverty nor riches. 
Feed me with food convenient for me, 
lest I be full and deny Thee and say, Who is the Lord? 
or be poor, and steal, and take Thy name in vain.

May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Thy will. 
Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, 
to improve my talents, 
to redeem my time, 
to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within,
to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians.  
And to Thee be the glory.
   
Amen.

May God's grace continue to shape us and mold us daily as we walk with Him.

History Lesson

U.S. Capitol Tour with David Barton-

 

A very important history lesson.  

May the truth of our Nation's beginnings be remembered for generations to come.

       

Neighbors And Their Toilettes

Years ago, some friends of ours shared a story from the ministry Focus on The Family titled "A Man Called Norman".  I don't know if any of you are familiar with this story, but it is an incredible tale of a man learning to love his neighbor as himself.  Norman, the neighbor, is a highly unusual fellow, and has lots of needs.  Mike Adkins knows he is to go and help Norman, God makes it very clear to him.  The story involves Mike working on Norman's toilette, it's not a clean toilette, and so the lesson learned by Mike, learning to humble himself and simply do what God has called him to do is a really important lesson for all of us to learn.  It's a great story, find the time and sit down with your family and listen to it. (Links are embedded in the italic words above.) 

 God has began something in our life, and it starts out with a neighbor and their toilette.  Thankfully our neighbor's toilette was very clean, but as my husband reminded me,
"...it's still a toilette."

A neighbor we've never had the opportunity to meet, asked for help one Sunday morning before we left for church.  

Hubby was outside enjoying the morning breeze, while we were inside making ourselves presentable for the day.

This neighbor asked my husband if he could help her hang a very heavy picture and also threw in the fact that her toilette was broken.  He explained to her that he didn't mind helping out at all, it's just that without "Jim" being home, he didn't feel right about going into their house.  She understood, and returned home.

He then came inside and explained the situation to me, and asked if I'd go with him so that we could help her out.  We have a standing rule in our marriage.  I never enter someone's home if only the man of the house is there, and he never enters anyone's home if only the lady of the house is there.  It's a good rule, it serves to protect one's reputation.

We went over to her house, and she was surprised that we had come to help.  Hubby went to look at the camode, and could see the problem.  It just so happened that we had the exact part on hand that she needed to get her toilette back up and running.  While hubby went to work fixing the toilette, our neighbor took me on a tour of her home, showing me pictures of her son, her grandbabies, and finally a picture of her and her husband.  She explained that her husband had died several years ago, he had become ill, something related to his job, and it eventually took his life. 

At this point she began sobbing, and told me how unhappy she was, and that she didn't think she'd ever be happy again.  And she also stated, "My husband and I never did anything we were ashamed of, he was such a good man, a good father and husband..."  She is in a situation that she is not proud of, and for some reason she wanted me to know that.  It was as if she had all of this bottled up inside, and needed to tell someone her story.  She talked non-stop almost the entire time we were there. 

She also shared with us, just how much she has noticed about our family.  We would have never guessed this.  Whenever we see her outside, she appears to be someone who does not want to mingle with neighbors.  She keeps her head down, making it impossible to catch her eye and wave to her.  She has been watching us very closely and we had no idea.

In the course of our conversation she mentioned that she hated to make us miss church that morning, it ended up taking longer to fix the camode than hubby first thought it would.  He hated to leave a job undone, so we stayed until he had it back up and running.  It took a little over 2 1/2 hrs.  But it was no big deal.  Obviously God had a different plan for us that morning.

Because of this incident, God opened a door that we did not know how to open, and she and I have had more visits since that day.  I am praying for her, and also for myself, because I know what God wants me to do.  In His time, He wants me to share the gospel message with her.  I have to make sure I am prepared and ready.

The words of our Pastor's sermon could not have hit any closer to home than they did the very next Sunday.   He talked about how our lives, and the words that come out of our mouth are a testimony to others.  People are watching, they really are. 

Our pastor also reminded us, that even as important as that is, living out the gospel message in our daily lives; that is only one piece of the puzzle.  Our profession, being ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us, that is another essential piece.  Not only do others need to see the gospel being lived out in our lives, but they need to hear the gospel message from us. 

You just never know what a day will hold.  And who knew, right here in Our Little Town, that God would use a broken toilette to bring neighbors together.  I can't wait to see how all this unfolds.  His ways are not our ways for sure.