PRAYING WITH OTHERS ACROSS THE CENTURIES

I love this picture of what is going on in heaven as it relates to us praying together from day to day:

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.  Revelation 8:3-4

People have been praying for centuries and we get to join our prayers together with theirs and offer them to God. 

Augustine of Hippo lived between 354-430.  We join our prayers to his as we pray:

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy. Guard me, O Holy Spirit, that I myself may always be holy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood for God's kingdom during the time of the Second World War and resisted evil to the point of giving his life by hanging in a German concentration camp.  He prayed for the companionship of Christ on His journey.  We join him in praying today:

O God, early in the morning I cry to you. Help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you; I cannot do this alone. In me there is darkness,but with you there is light; I am lonely, but you do not leave me; I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;

I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience; I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me…. Restore me to liberty, and enable me to live now that I may answer before you and before men. Lord whatever this day may bring,

Your name be praised. Amen

I'm not one for seeing future things really clearly.  I recognize God's hand so much more when I look back on what has taken place.  We all are given the light we need for this day, and in faith, as we entrust ourselves to God, He will guide us.  A prayer that has been a favourite of mine for a number of decades was written in 1958 by Trappist monk Thomas Merton:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always

though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas a Kempis who lived in the 1300’s wrote the book, "The Imitation of Christ" that has been a spiritual classic for many years.  His heart had it right, I think, and so we conclude our prayers together with these words:

Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know, to love what I ought to love, to praise what delights Thee most, to value what is precious in Thy sight, to hate what is offensive to Thee. Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes, nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men; but to discern with a true judgement between things visible and spiritual, and above all things always to inquire what is the good pleasure of Thy will. Amen

Let’s be a praying people today so a day, a year, a decade, or even a century from now, others will come to know the Lord and will be offering their prayer with ours in their time.