Praying the Great Commandments

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately. Does prayer exist primarily to teach us to love? If so, it’s our means to keeping the two great commandments Christ gave in Mark 12:30-31: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.

The different forms of prayer: blessing (Eph 1:3), adoration (Ps 95:6), petition (Col 4:12), asking forgiveness (Lk 18:13), intercession (1 Tm 2:1), thanksgiving (1 Thes 5:18) and praise (Eph 3:20),
should all help us love God more. What about the second commandment? Intercession covers that, right? We pray for loved ones and friends, strangers and world situations that arouse our compassion like the recent earthquake in China, and the other disasters we’ve been plagued with recently.

So, here’s my question for you and for myself: who do you exclude from your prayers? In all honesty, just between you and God; who do you not want to pray for? Could this be the reason for the miserable state of our world? In the great commandment Jesus says love your neighbor, at other times he said love your enemies. He’s trying to stretch the boundaries of our love. Are we listening, are we trying?

Here’s my challenge: put your problems and loved ones in God’s hands and spend a few days or a week praying for people you usually don’t pray for. Start small with someone you’re ambivalent about, a neighbor you neither like nor dislike, a co-worker you barely know, the person you’re not going to vote for in November. Then take it up a notch and pray for someone who annoys you or sets your teeth on edge, the braggart or gossip, or the lousy driver who cut you off at a stop sign, the relative who let you down. If you get that far, pray for the people you judge and despise, the corrupt cop or politician, the illegal alien, the rapist, the child abusers, the terrorists, the gang members, the murderers.

Can you do it? Can I? Jesus did.

A To-do List Prayer

Most of us write to-do lists, daily lists of chores, appointments, business or personal projects, people to call, medicine to take. Usually the day is interrupted or we get sidetracked and the list isn’t completed. Some things, meds to take, a trip to the bank or doctor, etc. get first priority and are accomplished, others are put off or permanently discarded. Too busy to call a friend—or she can’t be reached. Can’t read the Bible right now, the repair man’s due or the cat needs to go to the vet. So we choose, prioritize, move items up or down according to situations, time, likes, dislikes.

Last week Pastor Ken asked us to put faith first. So, do I write God at the top of a to-do list? That doesn’t seem to work, you know, scheduling God, as if He’s a chore, or something to get out of the way so I can go on to the next “thing” on my list. In the past, I’ve listed Bible study or a devotion and then rushed through it at the end of the day, when I was sleepy and my energy depleted. Not good.

I can’t “tack” God onto a list, or squeeze Him into my day as though He’s an appointment I’d rather avoid. This God, who as a Christian I claim to love, should be my all and all, not part of, but the source and essence of every thought, and every deed—waking or sleeping. He isn’t. Yet. But I’m working on it and so when I write my to-do list, I also pray it.

Lord, send me your Spirit of truth as I write the Pop Corner, instill gratitude and generosity in my heart when I check my pantry and order groceries. Smile with me as I talk to friends and acquaintances and restrain my tongue from complaining and gossip. Raise my eyes from this screen to praise you for a sunny day, keep me from cynicism as I listen to the news and help me to offer sincere prayers for all who serve in politics. Grant me wisdom and a sense of playfulness when I mind the children tonight. Lord open me to change. Keep me from rigid thinking and outdated opinions. Help me to live attentively in the moment and bless me with a sense of your Will and presence. Remind me to listen. This list, this tiny scrap of my life is yours Lord. May it be pleasing to you. Amen.

Easter Prayer

Easter words–resurrection, renewal and rebirth. Awe. Salvation. Eternity. Easter prayers.

Jesus came to give us abundant life, but how often we get bogged down in personal troubles, in the troubles of the world, the troubles of our Church. We forget the glory and promise of Easter. It would be easy to dwell on loss and fear, but we need to remember God’s Easter words and promises: resurrection, renewal and rebirth, awe, salvation, eternity.

What has God planned for our church? How many seeds planted by Pastor will take root this spring and begin to grow now and into the future; seeds of faith preached in sermons, seeds of compassion in his ministry to the congregation, seeds of worship and hope through Taize and Bible study, seeds of encouragement to become missionaries here in our community, outreach seeds planted in the police department and NJ Waterways, seeds of kindness in the streets and homes of our city?

So where will our prayers take us now? It’s Easter, the heart, soul and very meaning of our faith as Christians. Despite the tragedies of this world and our personal sorrows, we are heirs to God’s Kingdom; in our hearts we witness with awe the resurrection of Christ, in our souls we experience renewal and rebirth, we thank and praise Him for salvation through Jesus Christ and we look with hope to the fulfillment of God’s beautiful and mysterious Will.

Pray in joy and with thanksgiving for Grove’s past, present and future! Pray to never forget the precious gift of Easter faith! Pray a joyous Easter prayer for Pastor, his family and our two congregations, now linked forever in faith and friendship!