Prayer On My Mind
Many months ago, I wrote about patterns for Christian prayer, advising that the Bible is the best prayer book one could ask for.
Prayer has been more intensely on my mind again lately, and I’d like to return to that topic.
A couple of things worry me when I talk about prayer.
One is that I may spend more time talking about prayer than I spend doing it.
I am one of the world’s least disciplined people, and I know very little about spending significant periods of time with God, just pondering who He is and adoring Him.
The second fear stems from the first—I worry lest people look to me as any kind of authoritative model of a pray-er, just because I talk about it.
I am very much a learner.
But because prayer is important to me, I want to talk about it again and just share a couple of things I’ve learned, because I trust they will be helpful to some.
I use Psalm 5 as a morning prayer quite frequently, and I love the fact that the psalmist, after listing a bunch of things that God dislikes (in various levels of intensity from “not taking pleasure in” to “abhors”), acknowledges with great humility, “but I, by your great mercy, will come into your house.”
The writer of Hebrews states it a bit more strongly in Hebrews 4:14-16.
Because of Jesus, he says, we may “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Both of these passages deal with how we approach prayer in the first place.
The psalmist realizes that it is because of God’s mercy that he can come into God’s presence at all.
The writer of Hebrews emphatically states that it is because of Jesus that we can approach the throne of grace.
So, when I come to prayer, I acknowledge from the first moment that it is because of Jesus, the ultimate expression of God’s mercy, that I may come into the presence of God.
That same acknowledgement opens the way for you as well.
Prayer On My Mind
I can’t think of a single poem I’ve written that is about prayer, but I have written a number of poems that are prayers.
Here is one of them.
I Lean In
I lean in to You, O God
Sometimes in petition
Always in praise
You are the solidity
Undergirding every thought
Without you
There is nothing
I live my days
Aware of you
Turning to you
With the ease of breathing
Soil beneath my feet
Food in my mouth
Stir thankfulness to you,
Creator of all
And the gladness of redemption
Sin forgiven
Debts erased
At that terrible cross-cost
I lean in, O God
In awe and gratitude
Always in praise.
-Poem by Rhonda Brown
Go here to watch the podcast with John and Rhonda.
*My early poem is available in the archives of the Utmost Christian Writers poetry contest.
I have written many things about the world of poems and have published many of my own poems and stories here at Poet Monk Blogs

