Circle Of Prayer


Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual
and the community must enter every day.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

intercessory prayer finding solace

Before You Ask

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

Many people think their prayers won’t work if they don’t utter them clearly enough, or fail to explain to God exactly what they mean, or don’t speak loudly enough to him with sufficient earnestness. But when this happens, prayer becomes so exaggerated that our Savior even forbids it.

Obviously Jesus does not want to discourage us from praying. His point is that when we pray we must have a sense of proportion. Once we have prayed, we must be quiet. We need to be like the farmer who has sown his seed. Help will come only when you are quiet in faith. Also in your sickness or with other needs, learn to be still and look to the Kingdom of God.

We can share our needs with the Father in a few words, without making a fuss, and rest assured that God already knows what we need and what he will do to help us. We don’t have to explain our requests in great detail to God, or try and make quite sure that he knows our needs. God knows about even the smallest matters and takes them straight into his heart. We can turn to him by glancing Heavenward, with no words at all. We can do this even when we pray about something concrete and tangible, or about something that specifically troubles us. We may realize that what we thought we needed is actually not necessary and that we can find a way right in the midst of how things are now.

This doesn’t mean that we just let things happen – as if everything will come of its own accord without our longing for it. Nor should we just cast a brief and hurried request at God’s feet. When this happens, we too easily lose sight of God, assume that everything comes to us without his help, and we forget to thank him. Then we cease to have a believing heart and are consequently not true children of God.

Jesus said, “Before you ask him.” Therefore we do need to make our requests known to him, otherwise many things will not be given that could have been given. It never displeases God when we come to him with our heartfelt requests. A real child asks for everything, knowing God has an ear for him. We should bring all our burdens and needs to him, for at the very least this helps to make us ever more aware that in all things God is the giver.

God always has our interest in mind. He carries our various needs with fatherly concern, eagerly waiting for us to come to him. He has not forgotten us. And when we feel tempted to think so, then all the more we should remember that he knows it all and cares for us. In fact, he knows much more about us and our needs than we do. Simple, childlike prayer is enough to move his heart, give you something out of the fullness of his compassion, and save you from all sorts of fear and trouble.

(Johann Christoph Blumhardt)

(The God Who Heals, Words of Hope for a Time of Sickness)


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Julia

A Blessing For Terrorists

I bless those who are tempted to commit terrorist acts, whether out of despair, hatred, fear, lust for power, or any other tormented human motive.

I bless them in their integrity, that they may discover that the wholeness in themselves cannot be reached at the cost of the wholeness of others.

I bless them in their realization that love is the ultimate law governing the universe and mankind, and that their deepest honest longings can only be reached through the law of love.

I bless them in their awareness that, deep down, they are children of the light, and that terrorist schemes are but an inversion of the light with no true cause, substance, or law behind them.

I bless them in their understanding that the darkness they see or imagine can only be dispelled by light, not by more darkness.

I bless them in their unlimited goodness, kindness, compassion, and caring, which is waiting within to be kindled and brought to full fruition.

I bless them in their grasp of the law of right returns, that they may understand that the good or evil they do to another, they ultimately do unto themselves.

I bless them in their hunger and thirst for righteousness, that it may be fulfilled.

I bless them that any sense of lack they feel may be healed by a clearer consciousness of infinite abundance now; that any restlessness may give way to your peace; that any feeling of insecurity with its attendant aggressiveness or fear may be healed by the sense of your comforting presence; that any sense of separation, clannishness, and loneliness may be assuaged by the understanding that we are all one.

And I bless myself in my awareness that divine Love sees no terrorists, only its perfect reflection, and that this same consciousness can be mine as I understand that behind the veil of appearances, all men and women have one mind, the divine mind.

Amen.

(Pierre Pradervand)

Received: September 18, 2018

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