GodReflection: Talking with God.
This morning please allow me license to ramble a bit on the act that we call prayer—talking to The Holy. A dear cousin inspired the following observations from her comments on the post, Breathe In Me O Holy Spirit. She is among the valued people we have in our lives who has always lived distant from us geographically but close in the sense of God’s community.
We attended college at the same time and shared Dr. LeMoine Lewis, (mentioned in the previous post) as a professor. This is her comment that catches my eye as we explore the subject of talking with God: I still have those dense class notes, as you mentioned, and often notated some snatches of his prayers at the start of each class. He encouraged deeper learning and prayed one day, “May we search for truth, no matter where it takes us.”
Wow and wow. After I ramble a bit, I will return to Professor Lewis’ talk with God.
I don’t know that I have given specific thought over my walk to the rich vein of historical prayers available to grow my relationship with The Holy. Imagine the number of prayers recorded since God created. History records countless short one-line prayer requests, and gratitude statements while we simply overhear other prayers as we listen to believers pray.
One that stands out in my memory bank is the rare occasion I listened to Sebastião, a leper lay his request before The Holy, “God, please watch over and care for us who don’t know how to read.” What would be the content of my prayer conversations with Creator Father, Son, and Spirit, if I were unable to read? Never able to open my Bible. Never able to read another’s insights into The Holy. Not able to read into the depths of prayer.
In the late Eugene Peterson’s book, The Jesus Way, he makes reference to “150 prayers of the psalms”. What a treasure within our grasp. Add to that the entire corpus of prayers within Holy Scripture, and we have at our fingertips a library on prayer. I can only stand in amazement at the boundless resources God provides to make us closer friends and rest more at ease as conversation partners with him.
But I must return to my beloved professor’s prayer, quickly scribbled down by my cousin. (I doubt that she is the only one who placed his prayer in their class notes.) “May we search for truth, no matter where it takes us.”
Pardon my French but that is a ‘gutsy’ plea. Do I have the courage to mine deep into that prayer, apply it to myself, and pray it from my heart? That sort of talk with God has potential to challenge erroneous beliefs I hold dear.
Am I courageous enough to place my political considerations in the path of such a request? Do I trust the search for truth, no matter where it takes me to build fellowship with believers and community with God rather than erect sectarian walls?
“May we search for truth, no matter where it takes us.” The crack of loud thunder vibrates
, as lightning flashes from the professors’ prayer to the declaration of Jesus, “I am the way, THE TRUTH, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my father as well” (John 14:6-7).
To search for truth is to seek greater relationship with Jesus. He becomes our primary
friend and mentor. As we know him him—The Truth—we learn to follow his way through life (in all its realms) wherever he—The Truth—leads.
How about it? Let’s pray with assurance and anticipation, “May we search for truth, no matter where it takes us.” What are your thoughts?
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection – Rambling Reflection on Prayer.
God Reflection 