Pray This With Me!

As a "professional" in the field of prayer, I read a lot from God's Generals, Fathers of the Faith, intellectual giants like C. S. Lewis as well as from the men and women in the Bible who fellowshipped with God, spoke with Him, lived for Him, and influence us still today. I find that these various prayers spoken by different folks throughout history help to build a beautiful "language of prayer" that I call on daily. I learned long ago that "God answers dry prayers", so pray even when your flesh is weary and you would rather not. Pray. Just do it! And I have also learned that if I delve into the prayers of others, like Daniel in the Bible, that can fuel my personal prayer in new and inspired ways. So as I was searching out prayers of famous pray-ers, I found this from St. Francis of Assisi. It is beautiful, pure, obedient. So often our prayer can become a laundry list of needs or wants; this is a simple request to the Father that He would help us to become more like Jesus. That will change your life! Or should I say "that will change My Life!" Will you pray this with me?

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

By Saint Francis of Assisi, 13th Century

I will cherish this prayer for a long time to come, recognizing its profound inspiration from the Holy Spirit and its alignment with Biblical truths. Simple and elegant, but deeply true and moving. The words sound like words that the Apostle Paul uses throughout his Epistles, but these words taste sweeter on the tongue, bounce, and settle. Speaking only for myself, I am going to endeavor to pray like this more often, sweet words, like honey, that glorify God and remind me that He is so perfect and beautiful and holy. And that I need to be more like Him and less like me each and every day. When all my other needs and requests and wants and petitions become secondary to my desire to be conformed into His likeness, everything will work out just fine.

Let's pray this one together tonight, from our hearts.

Grace and Peace!

Leslie~