praying with a grateful spirit

The last two posts have been an invitation to listen to the call of Scripture as it invites us to draw near to God in prayer.

Scripture invites us to watch in prayer. That means we should pray with an alert mind.

It also urges us to wait in prayer. In other words, we ought to pray with a patient heart.

Those two ideas are brought together by the prophet Micah who said,

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, 

I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.”

(Micah 7:7)

This week we come to the invitation to worship through prayer. This is a call to pray with a grateful spirit.  And we find this call in the book of Lamentations.

“…I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s faithful love 

we do not perish,
for his mercies never end. 

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!”

(Lamentations 3:21-23)

Try and imagine the chapter in which these verses are set as being a bit like a sandwich! The outer layers are wrapped in extreme suffering and judgment, while the centre holds words of affirmation and hope. 

The experience that takes Jeremiah to that central place is the little phrase, “this I call to mind”.

Jeremiah doesn’t just happen to remember something. He makes it come back into his conscious thinking. Perhaps a better way to appreciate this sentiment would be to say, “This I cause to return to my heart.”

Why? 

In order that it would change Jeremiah’s whole perspective. Sometimes it takes an emphatic act of the will to remember what we already know, when everything in our present experience threatens to deny it and overwhelm us. 

The contrast between the beginning and the end of the little passage above is astonishing. What can Jeremiah have possibly remembered that lifts him out of a pit of despair to stand on the solid rock of hope?

It is the Lord’s acts of faithful, covenant love, 

his endless mercies and 

his great faithfulness.

These verses are deservedly famous. They have been quoted and sung by countless generations of Christians in the midst of personal suffering, danger, illness, bereavement, poverty and persecution. We have a little chalk board in our kitchen with words that were inspired by this passage:

…strength for today

and bright hope for tomorrow…

(From the hymn, “Great is Thy faithfulness”)

Those truths have become ever more precious in recent years.

The sustaining truth at the heart of Jeremiah’s memory brought transforming perspective and renewed hope.   

As you utter the Lord’s name in prayer today call to mind who he really is and pray with a grateful spirit…“This I cause to return to my heart.”

Someone put it so wonderfully well when they wrote, 

“Every blessing of God has the freshness and fragrance of the morning about it - unfailing as the morning dawn, bright and joyful as the morning sunrise, brilliant as the morning dew, invigorating as the morning air.”

praying with a patient heart

 I would encourage you to start this week by reflecting on the precious words of Psalm 130:

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;

    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand? 

But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.

I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

For centuries the church has used the opening expression of this Psalm as a fitting title to it. In our English translation, the title would be the opening four words, ‘Out of the depths.’ In the Latin language, the simple expression, “de profundis’, has been the centuries old way by which this psalm was known. 

The psalm is one of the most powerful expressions of our reliance on God in Scripture. When our lives have bottomed out, when we are lost and at the end of our strength, we turn to God. The cry of the disciples in the boat in Mark 4, as the waves crash over the side and threaten to drown them, is the New Testament example of this prayer. 

• Do you need it today? 
• Do you have friends or loved ones who need it?

So yes, the opening words of this Psalm make a fitting title to it. But they do more. They suit the progress of the psalm as well. There is a steady climb towards assurance, and at the end there is encouragement for the many from the experience of the one.

What might our cry be before God and what might our need be?

Out of the depths of despair…

                        …distress…

                    …depression…?

The Psalmist cried out of the depths of guilt.

What is clear is that self-help is not the answer to the depths of distress that that this individual is experiencing. 

So while verses 1 and 2 are a cry out of great need, verses 3 and 4 are a discovery that we have a great God. 

We have a great God who meets our great need. 

The big word in last week’s blog was “watch” with its call to pray with an alert mind.

This week the word is ‘wait.’ It is the call to pray with a patient heart.

Three or four years ago I set my alarm for 4am one Saturday morning and set off up through Aberfoyle, over the Trossachs to Loch Akray, to climb Ben A’an in time for sunrise. There was barely a glimmer of dawn when I set off so a head torch was required equipment. When I got to the top there were visible signs that the sun was rising. However, in reality I had to sit for 45 minutes before the sun crept over the eastern hills to welcome a new morning. I needed to patiently wait for that wonderful moment when the sun broke over those surrounding hills. 

Waiting on God is a familiar expression in Scripture. Waiting requires patience, and none of us has too much of that!

The Psalmist puts it like this:

"I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.

I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning."

What he tries to convey in this vivid word picture is that the night may seem endless, but morning is certain and its time is determined. 

Waiting before God does imply praying with a patient heart.

The waiting in prayer itself is beneficial to us: 

it refines our faith, 

    exercises our patience, 

        trains our submission, 

            and instils gratitude for the blessing when it comes.

It is no wonder that someone described Psalm 130 as “a very precious psalm”. 

May its truths bless you today.

praying with an alert mind

The other week I was making my way to Paisley University for a workshop on a topic related to my new job. Near the campus a bus drew away from a stop and at the same time a girl jumped to her feet from the shelter to try and hail it down. Too late! Because I was approaching I saw exactly what happened. The girl was so engrossed on her mobile phone that the bus approached, passengers got on, and it then drove away, without her realising it…until, of course, it was too late.  

If staying alert is important at a bus stop how much more is it crucial in our walk with God.

I love David’s words in this regard when he prayed in Psalm 5:

“Give ear to my words, O Lord,

Consider my groaning.

Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God,

For to You I pray.

In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice;

In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”

(Psalm 5:1-3)

I believe that when David uses the word ‘watch’ it indicates that he is seeking to pray with an alert mind. 

The apostle Paul uses similar language when he says, “devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2).

True prayer involves ‘keeping alert.’ In its most basic sense, that means to stay awake and not fall asleep during prayer. While in Gethsemane, Jesus “returned to his disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, ‘Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak’” (Matthew 26:40-41). It is impossible to pray while sleeping. And that is why, like David, mornings are a good time to pray.

Paul’s thought, however, is much broader than mere physical alertness. He also means that Christians should look for the things they ought to be praying about. We sometimes pray vague general prayers that are difficult for God to answer because they do not really ask anything specific. To be devoted in prayer requires something specific to pray for. We will never persistently pray for something we are not concerned about. And to be concerned, we must be alert to specific needs. 

One of the joys of my life has been climbing the hills of central Scotland over the last few years with my dog, Bella. I’m constantly inspired by her love for the open hillside. She is so incredibly aware of her surroundings; her sense of smell and her auditory capacities are truly remarkable. She alert to all that’s going on around her and responds immediately to it, especially when sheep or deer are involved.

That is the kind of alertness that David exhibited in Psalm 5 and that Paul exhorted the Christians of Colosse to display.

If our own experience is any guide, there is a real possibility that the Colossians had grown sleepy in prayer, and failure to ‘watch and pray’ had made them poor guardians when the testing crisis came.

God’s Word issues the call to watch and pray…to be alert to the specific needs of our family, church fellowship and the people within it…to pray for community and country with a focused and alert mind and heart.