When you don't know how to pray

When you don’t know how to pray. . .

Tears can be prayers, dripping from a bruised and smoldering heart, silent messages collected in His bottle. He knows the language of tears.

Groans can be prayers, too deep for words, yet the Spirit sighs along with you, and He knows the mind of God, the will of God, and intercedes for His purpose. He doesn’t need words to know your heart.

Drops of blood can be prayers, the stress and the sacrifice, laid on the altar before the Priest who ever lives and pleads for you. Because of His pain, yours is lifted to the Father in perfect intercession.

When you don’t know how to pray, there is One who does, One who is praying right along with you. You can have peace that surpasses understanding, knowing it is not your words and your work that matter, but His Word and His Work.

When you don’t know how to pray, pray past the how and into the Who – He hears.

~lg

Real Life

Don’t be afraid. This is not something other than ordinary life. This is ordinary life as it is meant to be. This is breathing, this is walking with the Spirit. This is living and moving and being in a new way. It is a new way of living in the world – your world.

First, it is seeing your world in a whole new way – through eyes of faith and hope and love; through the eyes of a gracious, glorious Father and a relentlessly redemptive Son and a holy, whole-life-giving Spirit.

Then, it is imagining your world in a whole new way – through seeking the kingdom and righteousness first; through praying “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” on earth, yes, my little piece of earth.

Finally, it is recreating your world in a whole new way – through the surprising and satisfying partnership of Creator and created; through each step, in step, with Him till you become Him, His nail-pierced feet bringing beautiful news.

Don’t be afraid! This is what you were meant for. This is what your heart longs for when it beats with His. This is your world – your family, your relationships, your home, your community, your career, your life. This is His life breathed into all of that ordinariness, and you, caught up in the current. This is real life. 

~lg