Innocent Prayers from Kids

by Richard Long,

  This YouTube comes courtesy of Alpha Canada resources.

 

 

My Glorious Enough

My Glorious Enough – Ruth Harms Calkin

Oh, how I love You, my Lord

But not enough.

How I hunger and thirst for You

But not enough.

How I rejoice in Your inimitable goodness

But not enough.

Pour Yourself lavishly, dear God

Into every vacant hollow

Into every cluttered chamber

Of my longing heart.

Free me from every shallow substitute

From every hidden pretense

Until I shall know

With deep, consuming conviction

That You are Glorious Enough.

 

A 10th Century Celtic Prayer

Manchan of Liath’s desire.

O Father everlasting

With house of many rooms,

With you may I live

With you may I live.

 

Son of the Living God

Ancient and Eternal King

In you may my dwelling be

In you may my dwelling be.

 

Holy Spirit of power

In that clear pool of grace

Wash away my sins

Wash away my sins.

 

Source: Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community

Pray without Ceasing – John Wesley

by Richard Long

John Wesley was an amazing multi-tasker from the sounds of things.  I was given his “Journals” as a young boy and marveled back then at his ability to write sermons on horseback between preaching points.

So it is interesting to get Wesley’s view on how to apply the principle of “all-prayer”.

Here you go …

“God’s command to “pray without ceasing” is founded on the necessity we have of his grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist one moment without it, than the body can without air.

Whether we think of; or speak to, God, whether we act or suffer for him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than his love, and the desire of pleasing him.

All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer, when it is done in simplicity, according to the order of God, without either adding to or diminishing from it by his own choice.

Prayer continues in the desire of the heart, though the understanding be employed on outward things.

In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is a continual prayer.

As the furious hate which the devil bears us is termed the roaring of a lion, so our vehement love may be termed crying after God.

God only requires of his adult children, that their hearts be truly purified, and that they offer him continually the wishes and vows that naturally spring from perfect love. For these desires, being the genuine fruits of love, are the most perfect prayers that can spring from it.

 From A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, as believed and taught by the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, from the year 1725, to the year 1777.

 

A Prayer about Prayer

by Richard Long,

In many congregations across the world today, this is the ancient collect that was prayed on the twelfth Sunday after Trinity.  Good stuff, eh?

“Almighty and Everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.”

A.W. Tozer on “Thy Kingdom Come”

by Richard Long,

I started reading A.W. Tozer back in Bible College days. (Thirty years ago)  He is always challenging.  Here he is on the Lord’s Prayer…

How many Christians are there who pray every Sunday in church, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” without ever realizing the spiritual implications of such intercession? 

What are we praying for?  Should we edit that prayer so that it becomes a confrontation?  “My kingdom go, Lord: Let Thy kingdom come!”  Certainly His kingdom can never be realized in my life until my own selfish kingdom is deposed.  It is when I resign, when I am no longer king of my domain, that Jesus Christ will become king of my life.

 

A Four-Fold Franciscan Blessing

A Four-Fold Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with a restless discomfort
about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for
justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may
reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that
you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able,
with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide, be with you
and remain with you, this day and forevermore.
AMEN.

Soul Nourishment First – George Muller

Our good friend from the Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP), Jill Weber, sent us this article a while back, about the practice of reading the Word before praying as described by George Muller.  It really is a powerful idea that perhaps many of you practice naturally, but just in case, let this be a great encouragement to you.

Soul Nourishment First – George Muller

It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.”

Read the rest of the article …

Luther on The Lord’s Prayer

by Richard Long,

A little more history for you today.  One of the more interesting books on my shelf is titled “Table Talk: Conversations with Martin Luther” and it is the collection of short conversations and quotes from the everyday life of Martin Luther back in the 1500’s as recounted by his students.  It has been translated many times, my version was done by Smith, Galligner and Hoffman.

Here’s some of Luther’s thoughts on the power of the Lord’s Prayer.

“The Lord’s prayer binds the people together and to one another, in that one prays for the other and with the other, and therefore it becomes strong and powerful, so that it despels all evils and even death itself.”

This being a Sunday, we know that millions of Christ-followers prayed that prayer again today in solidarity with each other and with the Lord Jesus and his Kingdom.  Pretty awesome to think about, eh?

If you want to read one of the versions of Table Talk it is available free online here.

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

A Prayer of St. John Chrysostom

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

Want to learn more about this great Father of the Church?  Go here to the official website celebrating his life and ministry.