A Picture of My Wilderness Path

Open My Eyes, Lord

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water...  [Genesis 21:19]

Hagar - Abraham's concubine, mother of  baby Ishmael, borne to Abraham at the request of his wife, Sarah.  Then Sarah had her own son, Isaac,  and Hagar's presence became a source of annoyance and jealousy.  So, Sarah got rid of her.  (Abraham agreed to the idea only after God spoke to him.)


Hagar finds herself in the desert with her young son crying.  She cast the child under one of the bushes.  Then she went, and sat down over against him a good way... for she said, "Let me not look upon the death of the child."  Hagar was in utter despair - tired, thirsty and waiting to die.

And then, God spoke to her words of encouragement and opened her eyes.  She saw a well of water in front of her.  Had it been there the whole time, but she couldn't or wouldn't see it?

Lord, open my eyes on this desert journey.  Show me the well of water that you have placed in front of me.

The LORD Being Merciful

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city."  

 But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city. [Genesis 19:15,16]


Lot lingered.  He didn't want to leave his familiar environment.  Perhaps he didn't really believe that all would be destroyed.  

How did God show his mercy?  He had the "men" (angels, really) seize the hands of Lot, his wife and his daughters.  The men set them outside of the city.  Lot needed to be dragged away in order to be saved.

Lord, is there a familiar, yet dangerous place in which I am lingering?  If so, please send angels to seize my hand and bring me forth to the place of safety.  Amen.  

Jesus Never Fails

And they that know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee; for Thou, Lord, hast never failed them that seek Thee.  [Psalm 9:9]

There is a little chorus I like to sing.  Here are the lyrics:

Jesus never fails. Jesus never fails.  Heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails.

As we face the day ahead, whether it brings routine or something serious like foreclosure or surgery, the Lord will meet us as we seek Him.   May that be your reality this very day, this very moment.

Prayer for Mothers

I found a bookmark this morning that must have come from a resource table at one of the prayer chapels I often visit.  It was a timely read.  Perhaps it will be the same for you.

PRAYER FOR MOTHERS

God of all peoples,
God, our Father,
God of Mary, mother of Jesus,
Bless the mother of our family,
Bless her with the strength of Your Spirit,
She who had taught her children how to walk,
How to speak, and how to pray to You.
Bless her and all mothers today with health,
Joy, love, laughter and pride in her children.
May she who embraced the gift of life that you entrusted to her,
Be embraced by You for all eternity 
To rejoice with her family and friends forever.
This blessing and all graces, we pray
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen+

 [Prayers for the Domestic Church: A Handbook for Worship in the Home by Edward Hays.  1979: Forest of Peace Books, Inc. -- Easton, KS 66020]

How to Pray

Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  [Matthew 6:6]

My prayer partner is 80% blind and virtually lame, however she "sees" clearly in the spiritual realm and moves mountains through prayer.  I call her Clara.  Here is her advice on how to pray, as written in a letter to me:

"By Saturday I felt as though we had barely made a dent in hewing away the rock embedding [our intentions].   We have to keep on praying because as bad as the situations may seem, without prayer they will get so much worse. 

"In recent years, I don't spend as much time on meditation as I used to, and I can feel the difference.  As you already know, it's good to prepare for prayer by reading the Bible or from the lives of the saints, or for that matter, any religious writing which elevates the mind and lifts it from our worries.  The next step is to pray with words, not too many, which make our intention clear to us.  God already knows what is needed, but to receive His guidance, we can't be confused about the intention of our prayers. 

"After the intention has clarity, we can use formal prayers, such as the rosary in which we pray the Our Father, Hail Mary and Gloria preceded by the Apostles' Creed.  These prayers have been prayed for centuries and have the zeal of the saints and martyrs within them.  Now when we have finished, there is one more crucial step, and that is meditation.  Meditation in the Catholic world is the step before contemplation where God takes over and fills us with His wisdom and guidance.  

"I find the best way for me to begin to meditate is to think of a Bible story where Jesus is always giving us a message.  It can be anything of your choosing from Jesus walking on water to raising Lazarus from the dead.  I don't use words in my mind, I just picture the scene, and breath slowly in and out.  Now resting in the Lord and just breathing.  You can start with 5 minutes  several times a day or at least 3 minutes.  Even if you feel nothing, you are allowing God to do His work in you.  It is in silence that the clamor and worries of the world recede, and in that silence built on faith, the problems that we are praying about are dissolved by God. 

"Some years ago, there was a missionary priest who wrote several books on prayer, fasting and meditation.  I went to one of his services when he came to Philadelphia.  He was an active mystic, and his rail thin appearance was in line with the fasting that he did.  Now, I just remember that he was living in a monastery in California.  For the life of me, I can't remember his name.  But he explained how meditation prevents many calamities in our lives.  When we trust in God and remove our worries from the situation but remain mindful that a solution must be found, our Lord takes over.  Whether it was he or another priest, I remember how the priest related that he was staying with a family, and they were getting ready to take him to the airport.  He told them that they couldn't leave yet, that he had to be alone to meditate.  Had they left at the appointed hour, they would've been buried in a tremendous rock slide.  As it was, they were all saved, and only the flight reservation had to be changed. 

"While meditation isn't easy with young children,  we have to practice it daily whatever our circumstances are.  Playing an instrument requires practice, and meditation is the same.  The more we do it, the easier it becomes.  Meditation opens a path for God to communicate with us in our prayer intentions.  His grace is always active, but we must be receptive in a clear minded way to receive it.  

I hope that some of the above will be helpful. "

Love and prayers,
 Clara 

The Queen Mother

So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king arose to meet her, bowed before her, and sat on his throne; then he had a throne set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right. [I Kings 2:19]


After Solomon was crowned king, we see his mother Bathsheba approaching him.  Notice how Solomon treated her.  Solomon, the king, bowed to his mother.  He had a throne brought for his mother. She sat on the throne and it was on his right hand side, the place of honor.   He venerated his mother.