A Prayer – Don’t Let Me Slip

Oh God, we come to you today as needy!  We come in weakness, confessing we have no strength.  We are like pilgrimagers, sojourners, plowing away through this toil in hopes to find you.

And why is it easier to look for you in places and other people…than to close our eyes, be still, and absorb your goodness…letting love wash out the toxins around us?

We wait for you.  But Lord, sometimes this waiting seems like an eternity. Though scripture says a day is like a thousand years, in your understanding…it feels that way for us too.  Here. Sometimes.

Oh God our souls thirsts for you.  Though we wander away too often in a dry and parched land, we are reminded, time and time again…

There is only one well.  Only one lover of our souls.  Only one source of the river of life that fills us so.  

So Lord, don’t let us wander.  Help us quiet our hearts and minds, in a day distractions keep shouting at us from behind the computer, t.v. our phones…or through other people.

We don’t want to hear their voices.  We want you.  We don’t want to be entangled by webs, or led away by anything less than your truth.

And in a world of relativity, and post-modern theology, in a day of grey sin, and people standing in any place fingers grip eagerly to…You are Our Rock.

We run to your tower of love as our refuge.  We look out day and night, seeking the light that promises to take us from this doubt, this downward slip, this lie that constantly says, “We are o.k. without you.”

…because we are not.

When strangers, and idols, and even family, food, or our computers want to set themselves up as resurrected Lords…or when even we built towers of babel, exalting ourselves and our accomplishments…

Lord, bring us low.

Bring us low because we know your hand is gentle.  

Bring us low, because it is the meek, and weak, and humble, that see your strength.

Bring us low because we trust one day we will witness the great and mighty day of the Lord in a most awesome and powerful way…

And how can we trust God, if we think we are God?  How can see you rise, when like Jacob, we keep wrestling with you in childish pride and selfishness?

Bring us low.  That we might see our sins, and acknowledge our utter emptiness without you.

Bring us low because we know a God sized vacuum exists in all of us…and oh Lord…we need you alone to fill us.

Give us patience as we pray.  Remind us that every moment in stillness, waiting, reading the Bible or interceding…is not wasted time.  It’s a time spiritual blessings grow grace, and maturity finds us…though we might not see it at the time.

And Lord, remind us that none of our tears are wasted.  Forgive us for our false theology that has twisted its way into too many hearts…that if we follow you, life will be perfect.

For perfect is true…but not as we see it.  Perfect means surrendered, and humble, and trusting…in our weakness…in a perfect God.  Your perfect way.  His perfect life for us…even if it intersects suffering…

Like Paul.  And John.  And Peter….And you Lord.

Oh God, I ask one more thing before I leave here.  I ask that you alone would be our mirror.  That we might never justify “our goodness” because of where we have come from, or what you have taken us through, or in comparison to other people.

You alone Lord are the light that exposes darkness.  You alone Lord are the mirror for our imperfections.  You alone Lord are the only one I long to measure myself with.

Yes…all else now is loss.

And though it’s time to stand.  Though you call us to rise and be the church to the lost.  Give us strength, integrity, grace, and boldness….but most of all…give us love.

Love alone covers a multitude of sins.  Love alone is willing to lay down life in order that others may taste true freedom.  Love alone is the price you paid so that we wouldn’t have to wiggle alone, painfully in our suffering.

And I thank you God…that at your feet we are needy.  At your feet, we find our strength and rise because you call us to go forward despite our insecurities.

I praise you God.  I praise you in these deficits.  I praise you knowing you are coming…you are near us…you are the hope we breathe in and get to anticipate one day in all it’s fullness.

We love you Lord.  For all you are.  All you have given.  All you have entrusted us with. We are unworthy.  But we are willing.  We are weak…but we trust in your fullness though we have lack.

Go with us now Lord.  Go with us as we live for you, look to scripture and ways to be our voice.  Go with us, as you lead and we follow, like sheep to the slaughter for your most precious and glorious name.

You are worthy.  You are precious.  You are God alone.  And we trust your arm is holding us…though we might slip.

(Linking with Lyli and Emily)