I’m feeling physically and mentally very worn after my hospital trip, but am resting patiently in the hope that this will improve, God willing. To my great surprise, a prayer still came to me yesterday morning, though putting it into words proved really difficult.
My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me(Psalm 63:8; BSB).
Lord, stay close to me today,
And keep me close to you.
May everything I do be kind
And all my words be true.
Please stay close to me today,
And keep me by your side.
May all my thoughts be free from sin
Like yours, my Way and Guide.
Lord, stay close to me today,
And keep me always near.
May I rejoice, give thanks, and pray
In sorrow, pain and fear.
Please stay close to me today,
And keep me in your hands.
May I obey, as you did, Lord,
And serve as God commands.
Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him (Deuteronomy 13:4; NLT).
I wrote today’s prayer soon after posting, “God in each atom”. Here is a link to that blog, in case you would like to read it as well: https://wp.me/p45bCr-c8O.
Today’s picture has been chosen to represent the presence of God in our DNA.
Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (Colossians 3:11; NLT).
Lord of my body:
You’re here, in each atom.
Lord of my thinking:
You dwell in my mind.
Lord of my heart: You share all my emotions.
Lord of my soul:
We’re forever entwined.
Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.
(Philippians 3:8; NLT).
This simple, heartfelt prayer came straight to me as I kissed my icon of Christ yesterday morning. It laid hold of me, and moved me deeply.
Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me.
Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.
(Psalm 43:3; NLT).
1. Guide my mind, Lord,
And my thoughts,
So I grow more like you.
2. Guide my heart
Till I love all,
Then I’lI be more like You.
3. Guide my soul,
And help me pray,
Till I become like you.
4. Guide my life,
My steps, my way –
Then bring me back to You.
The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
(Ecclesiastes 12:7; NIV).
References
Verse 1 🔻 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5; NIV).
🔻 The Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18; NLT).
🔻 Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:24; NLT).
Verse 2
🔻 We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ (Ephesians 4:15; NLT).
🔻 All of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18; NLT).
Verse 3
🔻 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him (Colossians 3:10; NLT).
🔻 Your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me (Psalm 139:10; NLT).
Verse 4
🔻 As we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. (1 John 4:17; NLT).
🔻 All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him (2 Samuel 14:14; NLT).
🔻 Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again! (Lamentations 5:21; NLT).
🔻 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him (1 John 3:2; NLT).
🔻 Since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died (1 Thessalonians 4:14; NLT).
🔻 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:13; NLT).
We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them (1 John 4:16; NIV).
Yahweh,
May I sense your presence:
I in you, and you in me,
All day long, and evermore,
In full communion, constantly.
Yahweh,
May I know your presence:
You in me, and I in you,
Then I’ll grow more like your Son,
In all I feel, think, say and do.
This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:13; NLT).
Studies of a woman praying, by Ludwig Emil Grimm, Creative Commons.
Today’s blog is the first in a series of three, each of which considers the vital importance of honesty in prayer.
Honesty
The Bible makes it plain that God wants us to be completely honest in prayer, rather than trying to offer a sanitised, partial, or censored version of ourselves as we think God wants us to be:
You desire honesty from the womb (Psalm 51:6; NLT).
Personally, I find it a relief to share everything with God, including my sins, and the shadow parts of myself I would rather keep hidden, or whose existence I would prefer to ignore or deny. Although sharing all this can be painful, it is vital for my ongoing process of inner healing.
For me, prayer means living in awareness of God’s constant presence, listening, learning, and sharing with God all I experience, feel, think, say and do. This is a relationship in which self-censorship, pretence, concealment and denial are pointless, as God already knows everything about me:
Beforeaword is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely (Psalm 139:4; NIV).
O LORD, you have examined my heart and knoweverythingaboutme (Psalm 139:1; NLT).
I therefore want my communion with God to be constant, spontaneous, immediate, heartfelt, direct and raw. This requires continuous awareness of what is going on in my shadow, as well as in my more “public” face.
My shadow
Long experience has shown me that when I don’t acknowledge, and deal with, the contents of my shadow, they make their presence felt through unbidden thoughts and impulses, anxiety, dread, panic attacks, depression and bad dreams.
Paying conscious attention to these aspect of myself and exploring their underlying causes helps me to connect with them more fully. This enables me to pray about them, and take action to resolve them. For example, if I remember an unconfessed sin, I can confess it in prayer, then try to make amends by following Jesus’ teaching:
If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-4; NIV).
Looking ahead
Tomorrow I plan to publish the second part of this series on honest prayer. It will look at Jesus’ shadow, and how he dealt with it. Meanwhile, let’s end with a short reading:
A reading: Psalm 66:16-20; NLT
Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his unfailing love from me.
Yesterday, when I woke in the middle of the night, the first verse of today’s blog came straight into my mind. I knew I had to write it down, before I forgot it. Then the second verse arrived, line by line, until the prayer was finished, and I fell asleep again.
In the morning I remembered what had happened, but retained no memory of what I’d written. Full of curiosity, I opened my iPad to find out. It needed very little editing to make it work:
LORD, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts (Jeremiah 12:3; NLT).
Lord,
You hear each word I say,
And see the thoughts within my mind,
You know the feelings in my heart –
Our souls are intertwined.
You know the secrets in my past,
And all the wrongs I’ve ever done,
And yet, you love me as I am –
And want us to be one.
The person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17; NLT).
References
I know every thought that comes into your minds (Ezekiel 11:5; NLT).
Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely (Psalm 139:4; NIV).
He knows the secrets of every heart (Psalm 44:21; NLT).
The LORD’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive (Proverbs 20:27; NLT).
This prayer came to me yesterday, despite how I’m struggling with migraine and dread at present:
May your will be done (Matthew 6:10; NLT).
May your will be done today, Lord,
In my body, heart and mind;
In my spirit, and my life,
Then all my actions will be kind.
May I call upon your name,
For I am yours, and you are mine.
Fill my thoughts, and words, and deeds,
Till I become your living shrine.
May I know your strength and courage;
Take my hand, for I am blind.
May I trust you, Lord, and share
Your cross today, our souls entwined.
Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him (Philippians 3:8-9; NLT).
References
Christ is all that matters, and he livesin all of us (Colossians 3:11; NLT).
I will put my Spirit in you and make you eager to obey my laws and teachings (Ezekiel 36:27; CEV).
I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants – men and women alike. And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth – blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved (Joel 2:28-32; NLT).
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the HolySpirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? (1 Corinthians 6:19; NLT).
The Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18; NLT).
Trust in God, and trust also in me (John 14:1; NLT).
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23; NLT).
I want to follow Christ In every thought,
Through gain and loss
To serve him as I ought,
And always keep on praying,
As he taught –
For he is all to me,
Though I am naught.
I want to follow Christ In all I say,
Through weakness, sin and failure,
Come what may,
And always keep on thanking him
Each day –
For Jesus is my life, my truth,
My way.
I want to follow Christ In all I do,
Through grief, and pain and sorrow,
Sickness, too,
By sharing in the suffering
He knew –
For all he preached and promised us Is true.
All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true (1 John 5:10; NLT).
I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true (John 18:37; NLT).
References
We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5; NIV).
The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD (Job 1:21; CSB).
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10; NLT).
I am nothing (Job 40:4; NLT).
Speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ (Ephesians 4:15; NLT).
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18; NIV).
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6; NLT).
Since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering (Romans 8:17; NLT).
Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:10; NLT).
The Rosary Hospital
Today I am full of rejoicing, because I’ve been given a steady outlet for my rosaries. Please celebrate this with me!
