The opening analogy about prayer being like a lute player with his instrument got me thinking about my favorite hymn:
Come, Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy praise
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love
I love that He has to tune our hearts to praise Him, and He has to teach us the songs so that we can praise Him. It's all His initiative.
And this quote from Brother Lawrence almost made me laugh because it was so perfect:
"The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were on my knees."
Now, if that isn't the perfect picture of what a day-in-the-life looks for as a barney, I don't know what is. And yet, even in the midst of all that, our God offers us the same tranquility that we find sitting alone with Him in the early morning.
It's so easy for me to forget this. I feel like I need that stillness in order to connect with God, as if prayer is something I could 'manage' or check off my list for the day. But my God will not be managed. Instead, He's calling me to find Him in the midst of the busyness. Sure, the intentional alone-time with my Father is still really important, but it's not about hoarding that time in some separate compartment of my life - it's about using the dialogue of prayer to invite Him into every facet and every moment of my life.
Thanks so much for the encouragement you all are to me! I can't wait to hear more about what God's teaching you!
Much love,
Pearl
I loved this!! I was very challenged by the Brother Lawrence quote, too. I often find myself setting aside only a certain amount of time for my quiet time, and it just hit me that is a "check-off list" relationship with Jesus. God calls us to constantly be in communion with Him and that means all the time. I love what you said about God not being managed. I am going to be working on letting the Spirit guide my whole day, rather than compartmentalizing God into just my 30 minute quiet time.
ReplyDeletei love what you said about God not being managed too! (like jackie ^)
ReplyDelete"He's calling me to find Him in the midst of the busyness." - i need to learn how to respond/answer to Him by listening to Him even when i have a million things to do
i also love that hymn as well! great post!!
I don't know much about music- but I do know this... I can rarely tell when musicians "mess up" but I know when things sound really good:)
ReplyDeleteLord, tune the hearts you've given us to Sing THY praise!
Thanks Pearl!