Is it too early for New Year’s Resolutions? Just hear me out…
Back in 1989 Eugene wrote a book called Answering God: The Psalms As Tools For Prayer (published by Harper Collins). In 2016 Margie read that book by Eugene. Here’s what Margie said about it:
This little book reached down into the seat of my being and reshaped what I understood about the Psalms and prayer. I have always harbored a secret feeling that one day I would be above the insecurities and troubles of life. He confronts that misunderstanding so soundly I felt joy and hope pour into my heart. “Prayer is the language of the people who are in trouble and know it, and who believe or hope that God can get them out. As prayer is practiced, it moves into other levels and develops other forms, but trouble – being in the wrong, being in danger, realizing that the foes are too many for us to handle – is the basic provocation for prayer. Isaac Bashevis Singer once said, “I only pray when I am in trouble. But I am in trouble all the time, and so I pray all the time. The recipe for obeying St. Paul’s ‘Pray without ceasing’ is not a strict ascetical regimen but a watchful recognition of the trouble we are in.” I was made to understand that neither I nor the Psalmists grow above our situations, but we live in our stories, and in prayer we move again and again from doubting, discouragement, and even anger – to comfort, trust, and praise. Although we experience crumbs of it here, only in the next life will we be at home with all praise and all joy all the time.
*Please take 5 minutes to re-read that paragraph and ponder the parts that resonate with you; and then ask yourself, “How will I act on this revelation? How will I see my situation(s) differently in light of this paradigm?
The paragraph above causes me to realize that prayer is essentially unceasing dependence on God. To be a praying person is to believe Jesus when He says, “Apart from me you can do nothing,” and genuinely agree with Paul when he says, “God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.”
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