As I’ve mentioned a time or two, I sometimes will pray the words of others when I have none of my own. Sometimes, a saint from down the centuries will say my words better than I ever could.

The ideal is to pray from the Psalms. Those are literally praying God’s words back to Him.

I also love The Book of Common Prayer and The Valley of Vision. Recently, I discovered Every Moment Holy, a collection of liturgies for every day activities and for processing human emotion.

I do believe that God wants above all to hear your words, even when you feel inadequate and tongue-tied. The words that come from a broken and contrite heart always reach the ears of God in heaven.

“O MY LORD,

Forgive me for serving thee in sinful ways —
      by glorying in my own strength,
      by forcing myself to minister through
        necessity,
    by accepting the applause of others,
    by trusting in assumed grace
      and spiritual affection,
    by a faith that rests upon my hold on Christ,
      not on him alone,
    by having another foundation to stand upon
      beside thee;
        for thus I make flesh my arm.
Help me to see
  that it is faith stirred by grace that does the deed,
  that faith brings a man nearer to thee,
    raising him above mere man,
  that thou dost act upon the soul
    when thus elevated and lifted out of itself,
  that faith centres in thee as God all-sufficient,
    Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
    as God efficient,
    mediately, as in thy commands and promises,
    immediately, in all the hidden power
      that faith sees and knows to be in thee,
    abundantly, with omnipotent effect,
      in the revelation of thy will.
If I have not such faith I am nothing.

It is my duty to set thee above all others
    in mind and eye;
But it is my sin that I place myself above thee.
Lord, it is the special evil of sin
  that every breach of thy law arises
    from contempt of thy Person,
    from despising thee and thy glory,
    from preferring things before thee.
Help me to abhor myself in comparison of thee,
And keep me in a faith that works by love,
    and serves by grace.”

“The prayer of a Christian brother who was in prison for years in Romania during the difficult years of the cold war. He prayed:

‘Lord, I look forward to the great day I see you and your family in heaven. I look forward to seeing the great evangelists standing before you. I look forward to the day I see all the missionaries coming home rejoicing with their sheaves. I look forward to hearing all the great singers of the world praising you. I look forward to seeing the great preachers of the ages standing before you.

“But Lord, I have one special request. When that day comes, allow me to be there in the clothing of a prisoner. I want to praise you throughout eternity in my prisoner’s clothes to always remind me that I was a prisoner for you.'”

This is someone who was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ. This man chose prison and Jesus over freedom and denouncing his faith.

I think that the idea of a comfortable Christian life is an anomaly. The majority of the history of the Church is filled with persecution and mistreatment. If you look, you will find that the Church grew and flourished the most when it was the least regarded by society. One of the early church fathers said that it was the blood of the martyrs that watered the seed of the Church that grew and multiplied.

I love that this pastor wanted to be known forever in heaven as a prisoner for Christ. The clothes meant to shame him became his highest honor because he wore them for Jesus.

I of all people love comfort and ease, but I also know that if we abide under suffering and persecution for Christ, we will find a joy and a peace that doesn’t come in times of comfort. The disciples rejoiced whenever they suffered for the cause of Christ because they knew that in the end it meant more people seeing their witness and hearing the gospel.

I want the Church in America to prosper and succeed and I don’t look forward to persecution at all, but maybe it might be the best thing to get us out of our apathy and idolatry and ignite a passion for the true gospel of Jesus Christ in us.

“God’s timing, not mine.
God’s will, not mine.
God’s plan, not mine.
God’s glory, not mine.”

I wanted to remind us all — me especially — that you can’t go wrong with praying God’s will be done. It’s the prayer that never fails. It’s the one request God always grants.

But it’s hard to pray because I want my timing, my will, my plan, and my glory.

But God’s timing is what I would choose if I knew what God knows.

God’s will is so much better than mine.

God’s plan is to give me a hope and a future.

God’s glory is my greatest good.

“Christians are persons who no longer seek their salvation, their deliverance, their justification in themselves, but in Jesus Christ alone. They know that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces them guilty, even when they feel nothing of their own guilt, and that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces them free and righteous even when they feel nothing of their own righteousness…

Because they daily hunger and thirst for righteousness, they long for the redeeming Word again and again. It can only come from the outside. In themselves they are destitute and dead. Help must come from the outside; and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing us redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. But God put this Word into the mouth of human beings so that it may be passed on to others. When people are deeply affected by the Word, they tell it to other people. God has willed that we should seek and find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings. Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them. They need them again and again when they become uncertain and disheartened” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

I think that the gospel isn’t something we need just once. It’s not something you hear once, believe, then move on from. It’s not just something that serves as a free pass into heaven and that’s all.

The gospel is something you and I need to hear every day. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves at least once a day. Then we need to preach it to each other as often as needed. Like the familiar prescription that says “take as often as needed.”

We need it every single day. We need to be reminded that we’re sinners who deserve hell and are separated from God. We need to be reminded that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that we might not perish and end up in hell but have eternal life, abundant life, and — best of all — Jesus.

We need the reminders because we’re forgetful. Or at least I am. I tend to revert back to thinking that I’m not all that bad of a person and that I can really do alright on my own without any help from God. I forget that I needed the blood of Jesus to save me as much as anyone who has ever lived.

But God is faithful to remind me. And He created community for us to be able to encourage, exhort, and remind each other of the gospel. That’s why it’s vital not to neglect meeting together. That’s why we need each other as much as we need God.

Preach the gospel to yourself and each other at least once daily. And call the Great Physician in the morning.

I remember the Scholastic Book Fair. It was always a favorite day of mine. You could walk into one of those with $10 in your pocket and feeling like a king. Even if you didn’t have any money, you could at least hope your mom would have pity and spring for a book or two.

Back at my last job, I walked downstairs during lunch and they had something very similar set up in the lobby. It felt like I was going back in time. I got all the feels seeing all the books and other stuff. I think I actually bought something that day (though I can’t remember what).

I wish that was an option for where I work currently. Having us take our lunch one day for a trip to the book fair would be epic. Though hopefully this time they take credit cards or Venmo because I almost never have cash.

Somebody needs to make that happen. Just sayin’.

“O God, I thank You for this day of life
for eyes to see the sky
for ears to hear the birds
for feet to walk amidst the trees
for hands to pick the flowers from the earth
for a sense of smell to breathe in the sweet
perfumes of nature
for a mind to think about and appreciate
the magic of everyday miracles
for a spirit to swell in joy at Your mighty presence
everywhere” (Marian Wright Edelman)

Actually, it’s a good prayer for any day of the week. Thank God for Every Single Day.

You may or may not have heard the story about the conversation father and his daughter regarding some imitation pearls that she always wore around her neck. She loved those fake pearls. But every night at bedtime, her father asked her to give him those pearls.

She would ask why, but he just said, “Trust me.”

She couldn’t bring herself to give up what she loved so dearly. So every night, the same scenario would play out. Her father would ask for her pearls, she would refuse, and he would tuck her in and tell her he loved her.

Finally, with tears in her eyes, she gave him her pearls. It was like ripping a piece of her heart out, but she handed them over.

He reached behind him and pulled out a box containing a strand of real pearls that he gave her instead. Unbeknownst to her, he had been carrying the box the entire time. She just had to let go of the imitation to receive the real.

In the same way, God sometimes has to say no to what we ask — not because it’s too grand and too much, but because we ask for too little based on our limited perspective. We have to let go of the bad — and sometimes even the good — to make room for something better. Something much bigger and better.

Sometimes, the answer is not yet because we’re not ready yet to receive what God has for us. God knows that getting the gift without the character to handle it would destroy us, so He molds us and waits until we are able to bear what He gives us.

Ultimately, God gives us God. God doesn’t give us anything apart from Himself because there is nothing else that meets the deep longing inside us. God gives God to us.

I’m a sucker for good poetry, especially if it comes with good theology. I heard a poem tonight that practically blew my socks off. It’s such a great representation of Jesus as both the Suffering Servant and the Coming King. To me, it feels like it could have been a hymn:

“He Who wept above the grave,
He Who stilled the raging wave,
Meek to suffer, strong to save,
He shall bear the glory.

He Who sorrow’s pathway trod,
He that every good bestowed—
Son of Man and Son of God—
He shall bear the glory.

He Who bled with scourging sore,
Thorns and scarlet meekly wore,
He Who every sorrow bore—
He shall bear the glory.

Monarch of the smitten cheek,
Scorn of Jew and scorn of Greek,
Priest and King, Divinely meek—
He shall bear the glory.

On the rainbow-circled throne
Mid the myriads of His own,
Nevermore to weep alone—
He shall bear the glory.

Man of slighted Nazareth,
King Who wore the thorny wreath,
Son obedient unto death—
He shall bear the glory.

His the grand eternal weight,
His the priestly-regal state;
Him the Father maketh great—
He shall bear the glory.

He Who died to set us free,
He Who lives and loves e’en me,
He Who comes, Whom I shall see,
Jesus only—only He—
He shall bear the glory” (William Blane).

I ran across the following in an email and thought it spoke beautifully to the process of grieving. And by the way, there is no “right” way or “right” amount of time. Grief is the price of love, and the more you loved and were loved, then the more the grief.

“Elisabeth Elliot was barely 29 years old with a 10-month-old daughter when her husband, Jim, was murdered by the Auca Indians in the rainforest of eastern Ecuador in 1956.

Years later, when writing about grief, she said, ‘Sooner or later, many of us experience the greatest desolation of all: he or she is gone. The one who made life what it was for us — who was, in fact, our life. And we were not ready. Not really prepared at all. We felt, when the fact stared us in the face, ‘No. Not yet.’ For however bravely we may have looked at the possibilities (if we had any warning at all), however calmly we may have talked about them with the one who was about to die, we are caught short. If we had another week, perhaps, to brace ourselves … a few more days to say what we wanted to say, to do or undo some things, wouldn’t it have been better, easier? But silent, swift, and implacable the Scythe has swept by, and he is gone, and we are left.’

How do we explain the pain of grief? C. S. Lewis, in describing the emptiness he felt after his wife died, said, ‘Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.’ If we live long enough, we will all experience grief. And, like Elisabeth Elliot, we will all feel ‘we were not ready. Not really prepared at all. We felt, when the fact stared us in the face, ‘No. Not yet.’ ‘

As Christians, we are assured that we do not ‘grieve as others do who have no hope’ (I Thessalonians 4:13); because we are assured of a resurrection. We learn that in our grief we are like Jesus who was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ (Isaiah 53:3). We are also promised relief from the dull, persistent pain of grief; because Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). At some point in our future, we will find comfort from grief because Jesus guarantees it. 

King David once faced the unbearable grief of the loss of a child. As a result, he turned to God in prayer; and he serves as a wounded model for all of us.”

C. S. Lewis wrote a wonderful little book called A Grief Observed after he lost his wife Joy. It’s one of the most raw, transparent and honest books I’ve ever read in my life. I can’t recommend it enough.

God is bigger than my problems.

It sounds kinda Captain Obvious, but sometimes it’s easy for me to focus on the problem and not on the Problem Solver. I can get fixated on the wind and the waves and forget to look for the one walking on the water.

The problems look big. Sometimes, they’re all we can see. They take up so much of our sight, our time, our energy, our resources. It’s easy to forget that God is bigger. Even if whatever we’re facing is the size of the sun, remember that the sun is a speck in light of the universe. So is your problem next to an infinite God. It’s a grain of sand on the beach. A single star out of the night sky.

Even when the problem seems to go on and on, remember that God was before the problem (from eternity past) and will be after the problem (to eternity future). He is eternally before and after whatever you’re facing. To God, a thousand years is like a second, so my big huge dilemma that occupies so much of my waking life is like the blink of an eye to God. Less than the blink of an eye.

Better still, God knows. It’s one thing if God is so far above my problems that He’s oblivious to them, but He sees me. He sees the tiniest sparrow falling. He sees the hurt and suffering of every one of His children.

Whether God calms your storm or calms you in the storm, He is with you. Whether God removes your hardships or gives you grace to endure, He is with you.

And He is still bigger.