As we continue our journey to the Cross, we heed our Savior’s call to us to watch and pray with Him.
Because I am of the earth, earthy, I find that my prayers for the people I love are mostly bound by very earthy concerns -“Lord, help P. to find a good wife, show G. which college to attend, provide money for W.’s house and E.’s car, help T. with his book, give X. a better job.” It is meet and proper to pray for such things, but not to pray only for such things. There are prayers of far more lasting import that we must also learn to pray. We can find words for those in the prayer of Jesus for the people He loved (see John 17:6-26):
· that they may be one;
· that they may find His joy completed in themselves;
· that they may be kept from evil;
· that they may be made holy by the truth;
· that they may live in Christ;
· that they may grow complete into one;
· that they may be with Him;
· that the love that God has for Christ may be in their hearts.
If we learn to pray that kind of prayer, it will perhaps amend the “lesser” prayers.
Lord, teach me to pray. Open my ryes to see beyond
the earthly to the heavenly. Let my primary concerns
be heavenly ones, that Your kingdom may come on
Earth, Your will be done in me and in those I love.
Teach me to pray with Jesus, for His sake. Amen
**Excerpt originally found in A Lamp Unto My Feet, p. 195-196