A Perfect Prayer

Sometimes during my workout, I take the word “neighbor” literally as the person on the machine next to me.  Yesterday someone was there and as I was working out I started praying for him. I prayed for him, his family, his friends, and his job, but it felt jumbled and messy, and not quite right.

I stopped myself for a moment and thought…

Holy Spirit, please give me the words to pray for this man.

I think I was hoping for specifics about him to better pray for this one man, but the next thoughts that started flowing through my mind were…

Let him Glorify You with his life,
Let him Glorify You through his marriage,
Let him Glorify You through his children,
Let him Glorify You through his job,
Let him Glorify You through his family,
Let him Glorify You through his friends.
Let him Glorify You in all aspects of his life.
Let him Glorify You with his life.

Halfway through this prayer I realized that these words were not mine, they did not come from me. I realized this prayer had been given to me.

I am still in awe of this perfect prayer.   It’s beautiful simplicity and it’s perfect logic that both allow it to be prayed over everyone while keeping it always aligned with His will.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
– James 1:17

Out of the mouth of babes…

Tonight as I was putting one of our girls to bed, I was praising her on how kind she had been to one of her sisters this evening and she said to me.

“You know Mom, when I am not good it is because God is letting me try to be good on my own, and when I am good it is because God is helping me to be good.”

I asked her where she learned this, and she told me, “I just feel it in my heart.”

WOW… this is something I have just recently started to understand and I still have a hard time remembering it everyday, and my daughter already knows it.

Thank You God for the three blessings in our life and all of the children throughout the world.  Please keep our hearts, eyes and ears open to their pure and perfect praise for You.

Peace

I am reading The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.  Today I read chapter 3, The Man Who Loves Peace, and I want to share a bit of it with you and a few thoughts I had while reading.

Thomas a Kempis wrote
The good and peace-loving man turns everything into good.  The man who dwells in perfect peace suspects evil of no one.

The man of blind passion even turns good into evil and is quick to believe evil of others. The man who is discontented and disgruntled has a heart filled with suspicion.

I want peace!  How do we teach/learn peace?  Is it being taught?  I am honestly asking and would love your thoughts.

Does finding peace lead one to believe that everything is good?

Or

Are peace and believing everything is good equivalent, meaning that once you believe everything is good then you have also found peace and vice versa once you have found peace then you believe everything is good?

If the latter is correct, then seeing/finding the good in everything should lead us to peace. This seems like a great place to start if you are looking for peace!

I know I am not the first to say this, but I think

  • Believing the glass is half full could help lead us to PEACE
  • Finding the sliver lining in the clouds could help lead us to PEACE
  • Looking for the rainbow through the rain could help lead us to PEACE
  • Finally whoever came up with the slang expression, S’all good, hit the nail on the head and wanted to help lead us to PEACE

Jesus said in John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Let us reclaim the PEACE Jesus has left with us, the PEACE He has given to us.  Let us live with untroubled hearts and let us live fearlessly!

My friends, I wish you peace from the bottom of my heart!  Let us live Our Best Life in Peace!