A Prayer From The Desert

From Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers   Imagine being taken or your inmost self being the possession  of the Holy Spirit. It seems to be the only way to be rid of sin. It seems there is nothing I can do to get rid of it. It has to be the Lord. 

The last sentence intrigues and inspires me. The prayer for guidance could be for so many important areas of life, but this desert Father chose this “that I may remember your presence day and night.” 

It wasn’t guidance in solving a problem or making the best decision for the family. It was guidance to be in the presence of God. Wisdom is this: Ginding ourselves in the presence of God. 

 

Consistently In His Presence

Changes in life don’t just arrive. They either blow themselves in like a storm or plump themselves right in between the hours of our lives. Sometimes they are wanted and other times they are not. Then again, other times changes just are, neither wanted nor unwanted. Nonetheless, changes completely project themselves in our lives and in turn disrupt the pattern that has been set.

Here is my discovery. We christians attempt to place certain disciplines in our lives to help us find God, communicate with God and to generally set our minds and hearts on things above. We set a pattern a thriving in our lives and in those moments we find God and bam! we feel at peace and centred or however else you would like to say it. But, when changes a come, its disrupted and we get out of pattern. If the change lasts we can often adjust and move on. But sometimes, like a nest of ants, you just can’t get rid of it. They change nags and irritates and disrupts so much that the discipline hurts for a long time. Like prayer and reading of scripture.

How do we adjust when these major changes happen. I say this as I struggle I go through. I am on a reading plan right now. For ordination I have to read a different translation entirely and have set a course to do so. Recently, life has been disrupted by a series of events that has taken me significantly off course. Not only am I far behind on my reading plan, my silence before God to hear his voice is profoundly askew. My determination has failed me. And here I am.

What I need, A jumpstart. A jumpstart is a shout from God or from life that thrusts me into setting a pattern back up in my life. It forces me to find myself at God’s throne once again. It could be a crisis event, a simple whisper, or odd renewal of determination by me. Whatever it is, I need it. I need the Lord to break into my life to cause a jumpstart that I may consistently find myself in him.

Good ol’ Brother Lawrence is key in this concept. He understood that we must daily find God in the Mundane and everything of life. It is God we find peace and direction and we must be with him to find this. So let’s find it. Let’s strive to be quiet before God so God can show us himself in everything in life. My struggle is not my own. I am certain others have this as well. So, My prayer for us is this: Lord, show us yourself anew. Jumpstart us into consistency with you once again. Amen.

 

God has Workers, Not Sorcerers: Spending Time with God.

As I read about Elisha raising Axe heads all I can think is this: Divination. He is using sorcery. Why else raise an axe head? Then there is a profound incident where Elisha is surrounded by the enemy, but reveals to his servant that there are more for him (in the spiritual realm) than against them.

Have you ever wanted to do miracles and have special abilities and thought, if only I could get closer to God, then I could do magic? Not even in a childish way, but like healing people of cancer, or blindness, or multiply food for famine.

My thought is this: Elisha is a “man of God,” that is what the scripture calls him. But how? Is it because he spends a ton of time with God that God gives Elisha special powers?

This morning I hurried to watch Marc Martel perform on Ellen this morning and therefore lacked in time with God. Regrettably, there are sometimes long stretches where I do not spend much time with God in prayer and thought. In these times I do not feel close to God and often God draws me back to him. So when I made time this morning for God I found Elisha, a man full of the Spirit who knows God’s will. Does God have so much favour on him (even that he can raise an axe head from a river) because Elisha spends time with God?

Here’s where my thought landed: God has a will and a plan and he is acting that will and plan out. The only way to know and be in that plan is to be with God. When I lack in spending time with God and am investing my time in the world, I ignore God without wanting to.

It looks like God simply likes Elisha better than anyone, but I have a peculiar feeling that Elisha spent every moment conversing and aware of God around him. So the answer is “no.” I don’t think God gave Elisha special abilities as a gift because he spent time with Him. But, God was able to work through Elisha because Elisha was in conversation with God.

Today, I have been challenged. I need to spend time with God so can actively participate in the divine. So I can participate in God’s work. If I truly want to be like Elisha, in that I can raise an axe head, I better be listening to God. Maybe he won’t get me to make an axe head float, but I can be sure that I will be blown away by how God will use his servant.