7/11/23

Pause for Prayer: TUESDAY 7/11

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Help me to pray, Lord,
    for I don’t know how to pray as I ought…

I try to "make time" for prayer -
    forgetting that few things in my life are more important
    than spending time each day in prayer,
    just talking, chatting with you…

I "try to make time" for prayer
    but you're always there, 
        ready to meet me in prayer,
    never too busy to sit down to listen to me
       and hear me out…

But sometimes, Lord, 
    I worry about prayer...
 
I worry bout what to say when I pray.
I forget that you're always ready
    to pick up our conversation right where we left off
    even if I've forgotten what we talked about 
        the last time we spoke
        or when it was we did...
           
But even when I worry 
    about how to pray or what to say
- you're totally happy 
    just because I've come to pray again!

I complicate my prayer when I worry 
    about what to say and how to say it
as if you might ever turn down my prayer
    because I stumbled in finding the "right” words
        - or found no words at all  -
    in spite of all my heart desired to speak...

You're pleased with my prayer, Lord,
    you're always pleased with my prayer;
even when I can't find words to pray
    you're pleased, always pleased
        with the prayer of my presence...

I so often and so easily forget 
    that you understand me completely,
    that you hear my prayer, Lord,
        in the flow of my tears,
        the groans of my pain,
        the shivers of my fears,
        the silence of my sorrow
    and in the peaceful sigh
        of finding myself again in your presence…

My prayer needs no special words, Lord:
    you're always pleased to listen
        when I "make it up as I go along,"
    when my words come not from a book
        or some memorized texts
            - but simply from my heart…
 
Remind me, Lord, that beginning to pray is simple:
    I need only sit in silence
        and speak your name…

Help me remember, Lord,
    it’s always you who call me to prayer
     - even when I think it’s all my idea…

I know that you know 
    what’s on my mind and in my heart
        long before I ever even think to pray:
but oh, how you love it
    when I share with you
        what you’ve known of me
            from before all time began...

Your love for me is simple, Lord:
    you’re always waiting for me
         even when I haven’t prayed in ages;
you welcome me warmly,
     even when I've strayed from your Word;
you look me in the eye
     when I fear looking back into yours;
you open wide your arms to me
     even, especially, when I've been unfaithful to you;
you’re there for me, always,
    even when I've ignored you
         or turned away from your face…
 
I don't need a saint’s words and wisdom
    to come to you in prayer, Lord,
I need only: 
    to thank you for my blessings
     praise you for your glory,
     ask pardon for my sins,
     seek your help in all my troubles
     and beg the grace to be more faithful today
         than I was the day before...
 
Remind me that coming to you in prayer
    is like meeting up with an good friend,
        who loves me and accepts me as I am...

Prayer, Lord, is a homecoming
    where the door is always open
        and I am always welcome to come in...

Help me to pray, Lord,
    for I don’t know how to pray as I ought…

Amen.


  

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