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Psalm 139:2
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
You know it completely.
The man in the following story tried to weigh one, but never did find out. Never did come up with an exact figure, but it changed his attitude toward prayer.
This happened a long time ago, not long after the First World War had ended. Late
on an afternoon a woman, who looked too tired to be able to even put
one foot in front of the other, entered a small grocery store and
haltingly moved to the counter. Unmelted snow clung to her clothes and a certain sadness clung there too.
Max, the grocer, asked how he could help her. “May I have enough food to make a Christmas dinner for my children? My husband was killed in the war and I have no money…I have nothing to offer but a little prayer.”
The grocer scowled but grumpily replied, “Write it on a piece of paper” and turned to another customer. To his surprise she reached over the counter and handed him a piece of paper, “I did that during the
night while I was watching over my sick baby.”
As he took the prayer from her he wondered, “What am I supposed to do now?”
An idea suddenly came to him. He placed the
paper,
without even reading it on an old fashioned scale and then picked up a
loaf of bread nearby and said aloud, “We shall see how much this prayer
is worth….how much it weighs.” To his amazement the scale did not move. He kept on adding more food, anything he could lay his hands on, but nothing
happened.
By now a small crowd was gathering. He
tried to be gruff but he was making a bad job of it. Looking at the now
considerable pile of groceries he said ,”Well, that’s all the scale
will hold. Here’s a bag. You’ll have to put it in yourself, I’m busy.”Red faced and totally frustrated he turned to wait on the next customer.
Later, when she and the other customers were gone he examined the scale more closely to find the solution. For many years, it had been a good pair of scales; served him well and always worked. Why it had chosen this particular moment to break down he never could quite figure.
He never saw the woman again. And come to think of it, he had never seen her before either, yet for the rest of his life the incident changed who he was.
And, oh yes, what was the prayer written on that piece of paper? That piece of paper that he pulled out and read many times down through the years?
“Please, Lord, give us this day our daily bread.”
Fools don’t pray; on pieces of paper, or out loud,
or to themselves. They affirm neither the reality of
God nor the possibility of communication. They
ignore God, or take his name in vain without regret and are more embarrassed by prayer than helped by it. They scoff at prayers answered. Their creed is the cynics creed.
How did the scripture read? “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.”
Quite a statement, now isn’t it? That out there in the infinite unknown realm of God, God knows your every thought? That when we pray a personal prayer or a corporate Sunday morning prayer, we capture the ear of the Eternal? That when you bow your head and heart, and say “God,” you dial heaven.
What is prayer? Unless you want to make your prayer a tower of meaningless babble, first and fore-most it is love. Our love for and to God, and His love in return. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength and mind.”
What is prayer? It is saying what we are thinking, and thinking about what we are saying. Otherwise
our prayers become a kind of echo chamber as we mouth the same old
platitudes that we really haven’t thought about for years.
A good prayer is a two-way gift. It says, “Here am I Lord; take me.” A gift given. Then “I have sinned, forgive me.” A gift received.
A good prayer defines who and what we are, and who and what we are not. “I am weak. Make me strong.” “I am weary. Give me peace.”
It says “Thank you” in appreciation, and “Help me” when anxiety comes to call. It is the one place
independent humans seek dependence.
A common complaint is, “I don’t know how to pray?” Well, a good place to begin is not to be vague in our personal prayers. We live life in detail; we should pray in detail.
And do not be contradictory. Do not ask for peace in this world if you are constantly engaged in your own private wars.
Do not make vague mouthings about love if you are filled with false pride and prejudice.
Be specific. Dig up your yesterdays that were unpleasant and where you were mean and unrepentant. Name people; name places; name events. Wipe the slate clean by admitting all that is written on your slate of life.
And detail not just the bad things. Don’t short- change any moments of gratitude; be sure to spell out all that you are grateful for.
Perhaps
you never thought of the parable of the Prodigal Son as a Prayer
parable, but it can, without too much effort, claim the title.
In
brief, in case you have forgotten the story, a young man takes his
inheritance, leaves his common sense behind and goes out to live it up.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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Recent articles Rev. Wyrick has written for this web site are: REFLECTIONS
· Here Comes Summer (July 2012)
· Spring(May 2012)
· Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (April 2012)
· Wayward and Windy (April 2012)
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