PRAYER
(For You and Me)
Douglas Steere, a Quaker, likened the process of intercessory prayer to the lowering of a threshold. He wrote that when intercessory prayers are offered, the threshold in the other person is lowered "to make the besieging love of God ... slightly more visible and more inviting."
When we pray for others and the world, our own thresholds are lowered and we become more available to God's besieging love. Therefore, intercessory prayer affects the hearts and lives of others while transforming our own hearts. The prayer does not bring God to the person or the situation, for God is already there. The prayer does not convince or manipulate God, for God's intention for wholeness and healing, peace and justice, is unwavering.
from "A Praying Congregation" by Jane Vennard
When we pray for others and the world, our own thresholds are lowered and we become more available to God's besieging love. Therefore, intercessory prayer affects the hearts and lives of others while transforming our own hearts. The prayer does not bring God to the person or the situation, for God is already there. The prayer does not convince or manipulate God, for God's intention for wholeness and healing, peace and justice, is unwavering.
from "A Praying Congregation" by Jane Vennard
The GOAL of your life is to live with Me forever.
I gave you life because I love you.
Your response of love allows My life to flow into you without limit.
All the things in this world are My gifts, presented to you, so that you can know Me more easily and return your love to Me more readily.
I want you to appreciate and use all My gifts insofar as they help you to develop as a loving person. But, if any of My gifts become the center of your life, they displace Me and so hinder your growth toward your goal. In everyday life, then, you must hold yourself in balance before all of My created gifts insofar as you have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. You should not fix your desire on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, and a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in you a deeper response to your life in Me.
Your DESIRE and one CHOICE should be this: to want and to choose what better leads to My deepening My life in you.
Questions-- What about this prayer appeals to you? Surprises you? Delights you?
What concerns you? Bothers you? Dismays you?
Read it every morning and then again at night.
How have you lived it through your day?
I gave you life because I love you.
Your response of love allows My life to flow into you without limit.
All the things in this world are My gifts, presented to you, so that you can know Me more easily and return your love to Me more readily.
I want you to appreciate and use all My gifts insofar as they help you to develop as a loving person. But, if any of My gifts become the center of your life, they displace Me and so hinder your growth toward your goal. In everyday life, then, you must hold yourself in balance before all of My created gifts insofar as you have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. You should not fix your desire on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, and a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in you a deeper response to your life in Me.
Your DESIRE and one CHOICE should be this: to want and to choose what better leads to My deepening My life in you.
Questions-- What about this prayer appeals to you? Surprises you? Delights you?
What concerns you? Bothers you? Dismays you?
Read it every morning and then again at night.
How have you lived it through your day?
God, my Creator, I am totally dependent on You.
Everything is a gift from You. ALL IS GIFT.
I give You thanks and praise for the gifts of this day...
Lord, I believe You work through and in time to reveal me to myself.
Please give me an increased awareness of how You are guiding and shaping my life, as well as a more sensitive awareness of the obstacles I put in your way.
You have been present in my life today.
Be near, now, as I reflect on these things....
Your presence in the events of today...
Your call to me....
My response to You...
God, I ask Your loving forgiveness and healing.
The particular event of this day that I most want healed is....
Filled with hope and a firm belief in Your love and power, I entrust myself to Your care.
Ask for the gift you most desire, and believe that God desires to give you that gift.
Everything is a gift from You. ALL IS GIFT.
I give You thanks and praise for the gifts of this day...
Lord, I believe You work through and in time to reveal me to myself.
Please give me an increased awareness of how You are guiding and shaping my life, as well as a more sensitive awareness of the obstacles I put in your way.
You have been present in my life today.
Be near, now, as I reflect on these things....
Your presence in the events of today...
Your call to me....
My response to You...
God, I ask Your loving forgiveness and healing.
The particular event of this day that I most want healed is....
Filled with hope and a firm belief in Your love and power, I entrust myself to Your care.
Ask for the gift you most desire, and believe that God desires to give you that gift.
