Growing in Christ
Prayer
The prayer of a father in the middle of the night
0The Lord has been very kind to me over the last year to help me see my need for Jesus in the bare hours of the night when he uses my son to teach me that I am not God, but am in desperate need of Him. Here is a prayer I’m learning, slowly, to pray that is simply enough to capture what’s needed:
Lord,
I’m a man of weakness;
You are a God full of strength.
This is you loving me,
To awaken me at 2am.Give me grace to:
- trust your providence
- lean on your power
- learn your patience.
Protect me from:
- Anger
- Self-pity
- Self-love.
Make me a servant like Jesus to my family,
That Jesus would be great in my child’s eyes.Amen.
Prayer of a weary parent in the morning
07 months ago
Man’s highest happiness consists in holiness, for it is by this that the reasonable creature is united to God, the fountain of all good. ~ Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits, 39.
Dear Lord,
Your goodness crafts and molds every day, even this one that you have awoken me into preceded by restless sleep. By your grace, I do not doubt your goodness in this design, but I do see temptations in the day ahead. Keep my feet on the path of the fear of the Lord that I might not slander your goodness in how you have loved us today. I am disposed to find my pleasure in complaining and grumbling about exhaustion’s headache and sickness’s creaks. Lift my eyes to find Jesus more compelling, and rest in his loving providence for my life. Posture my heart to find my happiness in you, and not the venting of foolish complaints. In such a posture, grow me in holiness, for happiness in you is the source of true, lasting, sweet holiness. In such a posture, like an oak lifting branches to the sun, fill me with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ alone.
I am weary Lord, but you are good. Be my happiness today.
In Christ I come,
In Christ I live,
In Christ I hope.
Amen.
Not Expecting Prayer? Pride!
02 years ago
“Not to pray for others is uncharitableness;
not to expect it from others is pride.”
~ Thomas Manton, Works 4:461, commenting on James 5:16.
