A Prayer To Keep Our Hearts From Getting Hard In Difficult Times

Most of know the story of Jesus taking the lunch of a small boy – 5 small loaves or buns and 2 small fish – and using them to feed thousands of people.  I was privileged a few years ago to stand on one of the Galilean hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee – who knows if it really was the hill where people gathered to hear Jesus teach and were fed with that bread and fish.  There’s a church there and lots of spots for tourists.  However, just knowing that it was somewhere in the vicinity was lovely and to reflect on the power of Jesus on display.

The sad thing is that, along with the disciples, we so quickly forget the amazing things God does for us don’t we?  Look at the disciples thoughts and actions in the next 12 hours after that amazing experience.

Mark 6:45-52:  Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dispersed the crowd. After saying goodbye to them, he went to the mountain to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land. He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. As the night was ending, he came to them walking on the sea, for he wanted to pass by them.

When they saw him walking on the water they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them: “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” Then he went up with them into the boat, and the wind ceased. They were completely astonished, because they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.  Mark 6:45-52

They were completely astonished, because they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

I wonder how hard our hearts are and how much or God’s goodness we fail to understand because of it?  As one commentator I read said:  the disciples had not drawn from the miracle of the loaves the conclusion which they might have drawn, that all natural forces were subject to their Master’s sovereignty.

And yet still, in their time of need, Jesus paused His own journey – did you see that  “… he came to them walking on the sea, for he wanted to pass by them.”

Jesus saw his friends in trouble his own desires were set aside; his own need for quiet and rest was put on hold.  He took time to come and to be present to the needs of His friends.  I take a lot of comfort from that. 

I too quickly can become just as insensitive and forgetful as the disciples and have my own heart hardened by worry and fear and resentment about how these take place around me.  I can way too quickly complain to God rather than simply cast my eyes up to Him in trust and faith that he’s on my side and will do everything necessary if I will just invite Him to do so and surrender myself and my circumstances to Him.  So, let’s pray today to do that shall we:

Heavenly Father, if truth be told, we are often like the disciples in that boat in the middle of a storm on the lake.  We’ve seen You do amazing things and sometimes even been a part of it, as the disciples were of distributing the food and collecting the leftovers, and yet so quickly when we bump into something dark and stormy, we forget that You have power over everything.  Nothing is too difficult for You.  Not only that, but while we are worrying, You are spending time in prayer for us.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Romans 8:34

Nothing will keep You from coming to us in our time of need and doing all that’s required on our behalf no matter how bleak and tiresome the circumstances have become.  Oh Lord, like the disciples we forget so easily and yet You so kindly come and calm our fears by making Your own presence real to us. 

I guess that’s what I’m asking most for us at the moment, that You would make Your close and powerful presence real in our hearts and minds.  We may not see actions that are yet needed to calm storms but help us to remember who You are, what You do, and view our present circumstances with that perspective.   

We don’t want hard hearts that blame You for abandoning us when You’ve done the exact opposite.  We don’t want to complain that things are all going to hell in a handbasket and You don’t seem to care – when You are watching all the time, calling out to our hearts to trust You, and showing up when, in our fear and weakness, things seem overwhelming to us.  How generous You are to such silly and untrusting ones as we are.

With the writer of the Psalms we say:  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  Psalm 73:26