Prayer thoughts

Behold, he is praying.  Acts 9:11

This is the account of Saul praying and Ananias going to him because the Lord told him to.

Faith asks no signal from the skies

To show that prayers accepted rise.

Our Priest is in His holy place,

And answers from the throne of grace.

Morning and Evening

Do I believe in a God who rouses Himself just now and then to spill a bit of benevolence on hemorrhaging humanity?  A God who breaks through the  carapace of this orb only now and then, surprises us with a spared hand, a reprieve, from sickness, a good job and a nice house in the burbs and then finds Himself again too impotent to deal with all I see as suffering and evil?  A God of sporadic, random, splattering of goodness than now and then splatters across a gratitude journal?  Somebody tell me.........what are all the other moments?

And now this-that faith is not a once-in-the-past action, but faith is always a way of seeing, a seeking for God in everything.  And if the eyes gaze long enough to see God lifted in a thing, how can the lips not offer thanks. The truly saved have eyes of faith and lips of thanks.  Faith is in the gaze of a soul.  

The world I live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these six kids lean hard into me all day to teach and raise and lead and I fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy,  before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet?  How do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral? 

Praying with eyes wide open is the only way to pray without ceasing.  

This is from One Thousand Gifts

These are the contemplations of my soul.  I know God is sovereign, good, loving, involved in all the details, fully capable to pull off His great and glorious plan but often I don't live as if I believe it.  My friend told me this week that her husband confronted her and said "you live like an armenian" Well my doctrinal mind says "NO!!!!!!"  and yet often I find myself there as well.  I wonder about this praying with eyes wide open, is there a connection to my living like I don't believe and my times of prayer?

Father, I want to pray like I know you.  Pray like I believe that nothing happens apart from you.  Pray with trust that you are not impotent in any manner, but that the plan of life, salvation, the plan for the ultimate glory of your Son to the plan of my simple life will be carried out just as you deem it to be.  I want to walk in a confidence that you are who you say you are, although I believe, help my unbelief in areas, remove the blinders of my sin, forgive me of my sin, lift me from the pit to see your glory.  Let me pray without ceasing.  Help me to cast my cares upon you for I am impotent to fix my world but you are not.  Amen