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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Prayer

I'm linking this post to Mary's blog, Giving Up on Perfect, and am writing about subjects that she's chosen for the next seven Thursdays:

March 10 – Baptism
March 17 – Wedding
March 24 – Funeral
March 31 – Worship
April 7 – Bible study
April 14 – Prayer
April 21 – Communion

The Jesus Prayer from June 25, 2010:

This past week I attended Adult Vacation Bible School at my church. Each day we were taught about Spiritual Formation and different ways to practice being in a closer relationship with God.

The first day we discussed Mark 10:46-52. A particular verse caught my attention. Vs. 47 which says, "Jesus Christ, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

This reminded me of The Jesus Prayer that I had learned years ago and I talked with our teacher after the lesson on Monday about it. Since she was finished teaching for the day, she said that I could bring that up on Tuesday. After teaching on Tuesday, she apologized for not remembering to bring it up and I really wasn't concerned about it, so no apology was necessary.

On Wednesday...after spilling Diet Coke on the front of my shirt, the teacher said, "Cindy? Would you come up front and tell us about The Jesus Prayer?"

"Oh heck. I just spilled something on me....but I'll just carry up my folder to hide it."

Laughter followed me as I trotted up to the front and held the mini microphone so I could be heard by all. I had my folder strategically placed to hide my sloppiness.

I said something like this, "After our reading Mark on Monday, it reminded me that years ago I learned The Jesus Prayer. It is 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.' I was very stressed and by focusing on this, repeating it over and over, and stressing each word separately....well....I think it saved my life. It helped me become calm, centered, and put my focus on Jesus....and isn't that where we want to be?"

I handed the microphone back to the teacher and trotted back to my seat with my folder still in front of me. (I am not comfortable speaking to large groups and was hoping that I had made sense in my mini explanation of The Jesus Prayer.)

During our break, I had a conversation with a woman who thanked me for sharing The Jesus Prayer. When I sat down, I had a woman turn around and hand me her tablet and pen and asked me to write down The Jesus Prayer.

So I thought to myself, I guess I did make some sense. Phewww.

On Friday, I told Bud, "You know I was a little worried that since I had complimented you on your testimony that you gave on Tuesday, then heard you were in the hospital because you weren't feeling well...I was hoping that it wasn't because of our conversation." Hee hee!

He laughed.

I said, "I was praying for you and glad to see you back on Thursday."

He asked, "You prayed for me?"

I said, "Of course. That's what we do here."

Then he said, "You know, when I got to the hospital, I started saying The Jesus Prayer to myself. I repeated it about 10 times and felt myself relax and rest in Him. Then they started running the tests which came back negative and they told me to go home the next day since there was nothing wrong with me."

All the glory goes to God.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.

Thank you Mary for choosing today's topic and letting me "walk down memory lane" from last year.

Please visit Giving Up on Perfect to read what Mary and others have written about prayer.

Do you have a memory or some thoughts you'd like to share about prayer?

3 comments:

  1. What a great, simple prayer! And I love the idea of adult VBS!! Thank you for linking up, Cindy!

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  2. That is so cool! I haven't heard that particular prayer before but I can see how it would have a calming, centering, and healing effect. Thanks for sharing it with us here.

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  3. I have enjoyed these posts. I love to see the way others worship, so many of which are the ways I worship as well.

    I just wanted to say that among all the questions I've ever asked God during prayer, the question, "Do you love me?" has always been answered the loudest and most immediate. His fervent "YES!" has carried me through the hard times. How good it feels to know He loves every one of us with a love so vast we cannot fully understand it!

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