Devotional 080410

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. The Nature proclaims His glory. Indeed, the beauty of Nature describes the beauty of God’s attributes. What a creative God He is! In no way we can fully fathom His creativity. We can only discover His greatness and creativity a little bit more each day. Our lives on earth are preparation to spend eternity with Him in discovering the greatness of our God, who also cares enough to listen to our insignificant prayers.

(Rev. 8:1): God listens. Everything we say, every groan, every murmur, and every stammering attempt at prayer: all this is listened to. All heaven quiets down. The loud angel voices, the piercing trumpet messages, the thundering throne songs are stilled while God listens “Hush, hush, whisper who dares? Loretta Fung is saying her prayers.” The prayer of the faithful must be heard: the spontaneous hallelujahs, the solemn amens, the desperate “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” the agonized “Take this cup from me,” the tempered “Nevertheless not my will but your will,” the faithfully spoken, “Our Father who art in heaven,” the joyful “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.”

All the psalms, said and sung for centuries in voices energetic, subdued, angry, and serene are now heard – heard personally, carefully, accurately. God silences the elders and the angels. Not one of our words is lost in a wind tunnel of gossips or drowned in a cataract of the world’s noise. “The distinctive feature of early Christian prayer is the certainty of being heard.” We are listened to. We realize dignity. Dramatic changes take place in these moments of silence. The world rights itself. We perceive reality from the vantage point of God’s saving work and not from the chaos of desperate confusion. We acquire hope from our living God who cares and listens. Remember. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all – all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help (Hebrews 4:15-16, The Message).

God is listening to our prayers. We may be too busy to interact with God, but He is always ready to listen. We may be too lazy to read His word, but He is always ready to give us guidance and grace. This is the teaching of the Bible. This is the reassurance of the Holy Spirit who utters His words to our soul, “you are my child, whom I love; with whom I am well pleased” (borrow from Matthew 3:17). Our obedience to be is as important as our obedience to do. God wants us to be His beloved children who desire to do His will by entering into union with Him on a daily basis, just as He is in union with His Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s time to take a prayer break in seeking Him through contemplative prayer – watch, listen, read and then pray.

Love you because He first loves us,
Lawrence