Category Archives: Biblical Reflection

Biblical Reflection, Education, Meditation, Prayer, Theology

Prayer for the Acceptance of God’s Will: Line Seven

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My heart is open to thee.

      Having a heart open to God is a major inconvenience. I can’t pursue my own ends to the exclusion of those around me, and I question the ends I would pursue. There is no way I can act as if my ends justify my means, especially when the spirits of others and the entire created world live with the consequences, always and everywhere. With an open heart, I live with the sure and complete knowledge that God’s love for others equals God’s love for me, and that God will provide a way for me to walk kindly through the places and years given to me. But it’s a lot of work and little glory, living with a heart that sees what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). So I don’t live with a heart open to God most of the time. It’s why I have to pray for it; I can’t do this without God. An open heart is a gift and a responsibility, loving world and self with every talent and shortcoming, through intentional action and purposeful inaction.

The psalmist put it in these words: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 51:10). I know enough to be careful what I pray for, because I’ll surely get it. It won’t look the way I expect it to – God is constant, but not predictable. And not hindered by my lack of imagination. Then I can’t pretend I don’t know the truth: the life God has given me isn’t just sufficient, it’s extraordinary and holy.

Biblical Reflection, Education, Meditation, Prayer

Prayer for the Acceptance of God’s Will: Line Five

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I dare not ask either a cross or consolation.

 Save us from the time of trial. That’s another translation of the Lord’s Prayer line, “Lead us not into temptation.” Both versions end the thought with “and/but deliver us from evil.” Apparently, the time of trial/temptation might very well lead to a need to be delivered from evil. It’s why we pray to be spared these times. Jesus prayed this in the hours before he was crucified(Luke 22:42), and we are wise to follow his example in this.

There is no need to chase after hardship and grief. These things will find us. Asking for a cross isn’t the same as taking up the cross that comes to us, and faith is as much about living for God and the world as it is about dying for it. Asking for a cross is borrowing trouble – an exercise in hubris more than humility. It can be an attempt to dictate the terms of our life and death rather than seeking God’s gracious presence in whatever comes.

There’s nothing wrong with receiving consolation and comfort; another name for the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and we are encouraged to seek the Spirit in our need. That’s not what seeking consolation means in this prayer. This is closer to asking someone to feel sorry for us, for the “Oh, poor you, your life is too hard,” refusing the cross that is ours to carry. Seeking consolation in this sense seems closer to self-pity, not even trying to meet life’s challenges with courage and wisdom.

When my brother was learning how to walk, he took a few spills. One day, he tripped over a toy and landed hard. I went to pick him up, but my mother stopped me. “Wait a minute, see what he does first.” Scott stayed on the floor for a few seconds, then got up and continued on his way. No tears, no drama. My mother said to me, “It’s my job to take care of him when he really hurts himself. It’s also my job to teach him that he can handle the usual bumps and falls without my help.”

Asking for a cross is throwing myself on the ground seeking injury; asking for consolation is crying a river over a minor bump. Neither will make me more faithful to God. There will be enough hurt and enough help in my life without asking God for extra helpings of either.

 

Prayer for the Acceptance of God’s Will

(Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow)

O Lord, I know not what to ask of thee. Thou alone knowest what are my true needs. Thou lovest me more than I myself know how to love. Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me. I dare not ask either a cross or consolation. I can only wait on thee. My heart is open to thee. Visit and help me, for thy great mercy’s sake. Strike me and heal me, cast me down and raise me up. I worship in silence thy holy will and thine inscrutable ways. I offer myself as a sacrifice to thee. I put all my trust in thee. I have no other desire than to fulfil thy will. Teach me how to pray. Pray thou thyself in me.   Amen. (From A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991, p.24)

Biblical Reflection, Meditation, Prayer

Prayer for Acceptance of God’s Will: Line Three

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Thou lovest me more than I myself know how to love.

 This line is about love. Because Philaret doesn’t mention love again, it almost seems like a digression. This is the prayer without it:

O Lord, I know not what to ask of thee. Thou alone knowest what are my true needs. Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me. I dare not ask either a cross or consolation. I can only wait on thee. My heart is open to thee. Visit and help me, for thy great mercy’s sake. Strike me and heal me, cast me down and raise me up. I worship in silence thy holy will and thine inscrutable ways. I offer myself as a sacrifice to thee. I put all my trust in thee. I have no other desire than to fulfil thy will. Teach me how to pray. Pray thou thyself in me.   Amen. (From A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991, p.24)

Although it reads just fine, I wouldn’t have the courage to pray this prayer without the love line. I can put my trust in God because God loves me more than I know how to love. Accepting God’s will is accepting God’s love, incomprehensible and freely given. Or as Paul put it, if I have all knowledge but do not have love, I am nothing…as for knowledge, it will come to an end…now I only know in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (I Cor 13: 2, 8, 12-13)

When knowledge ends, love abides. When my life ends, love abides. God’s love isn’t a digression, it’s the reason I can pray this prayer. It’s also the answer to it.

Biblical Reflection, Lent, Meditation

Love

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By contrast, the action of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

What wondrous love is this, o my soul?

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. I Corinthinans 13:8

It ends with love, and love never ends. Agape in Greek. The agape kind of love is a choice and a way of living with God and neighbor in this world…

Love that is a fruit/action of the Spirit is meaning good things for others and working toward those good things. It involves sacrifice – dedicating time, talent, and resources to foster someone else’s life. This love is freely given, not the result of coercion or oppression. It enlarges the spirit and leads to a better sense of self. This love is a choice, not something forced. This kind of love is possible for us because we have been loved this way since we came into this world. This is how God loves us, and it’s how we are meant to love one another.

Often, we don’t love each other or God this way because we are afraid of loss and death. To avoid loss of self we strike out against love, hurting ourselves and our neighbor. We put Jesus on the cross because we fear the divine love revealed in his words and actions.

My mother talked to me about this years ago. She believed that many rejected the life of faith because they were afraid that God would ask them to die. Just like Peter, we denyJesus because we don’t want to die. We love life and are afraid to lose it. This is true.

But there is another truth at work here: we run away from Jesus because we know he’ll ask us to live. Living for Jesus is loving our neighbor and ourself, seeking and finding God in all people and things. I don’t know what we are more afraid of: losing life or loving life so much that death is just the doorway to the love of Christ. The love without end, Amen.

Biblical Reflection, Lent, Meditation, Prayer

Goodness

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The fruit (action) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness(generosity), faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Gal: 5:22)

“Oh my goodness! For goodness’ sake! Goodness me!”

Goodness seems to be relegated to mild expletives, taking the place of God – no need to use the Lord’s name in vain! Not a lot of content to the word, even if used frequently. Do we think about goodness anymore?

Another translation of the word is generosity, and that opens up new ways of understanding goodness as a fruit of the Spirit.

Being generous is more than giving things away or sharing toys in the sandbox: it’s a way of seeing reality. Generosity sees a world of blessing, and a life held fast by God. There is no need to hoard money or material goods because abundant life comes from God. A generous person can give freely because God has given freely.

It’s opposite is stinginess – a great word, but not such a great quality. Stinginess grasps the heart and squeezes, making it hard to breathe and almost impossible to unclench the fists long enough to give anything away. The stingy person cannot give anything away freely because it might be needed later. Scarcity may not be a present reality, but it’s just around the corner. All things must be kept, just in case. Just in case what? It’s the “just in case” mentality that harms the soul and makes generosity impossible.

Generosity isn’t spending recklessly or foolishly. Running up credit card debt to lavish unnecessary gifts on others or live beyond one’s means is about self-image and keeping up with others, not generosity. Generosity is sharing what is ours to share, giving to enrich the lives of others because God has given so much to us.

Generosity/Goodness requires us to be who we are, and to know that who we are is good enough. When we know our worth isn’t the sum of our belongings, we can give without reservation – goodness that means something. Then we can say with the psalmist, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”   – and we can mean it.