Lenten Contemplations

Prayer during times of distance to our sincerity

We can be so full of compassion for periods of time and although we have prayer on our minds, it may seem to not be in our hearts.   It is not a disinterest in our prayers, but perhaps it's a form of detachment for (from) them.  Or maybe something even deeper - a silent faith and belief in the answer to our prayers.  A place where judgement has lost it gavel; compassion has no fire; anger is rid of its fury; sadness carries dry tears.  It is not a nothingness - for we are not in the wilderness.  You know God is, but do you know he cares?

I think it's here that God takes from us the weight of our concerns, for a temporary time, to clean us, to make us lighter so we can be in silence to receive.  The silent prayer period - when we await the fruits and know we are not in control, he is.  A time where our thinking is so still and the only answers that fit are his reminders that he is with us.  Thanking and praising his presence and deliverance is so important through this period, for it keeps us out of doubt and allows us to transform our thoughts and hopes to prayers on a higher level as we await for his guidance.

It isn't necessarily that we are praying too much, for Christ taught us to pray always.  But when we let concern and worry govern our prayers and begin describing in detail our fears, (which the Lord already knows what they are) , and due to human perceptions, we can make our concerns so much larger, we begin losing the confidence we have in our prayer.  How can we receive this faithful belief and confidence if we are holding onto the past?  For when you believe on the Lord, you have left the past behind and walk a new life.

In Ephesians it explains our fulfillment through Christ and the spirit,

"In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.  In all wisdom
and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his
favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all
things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

In him, we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all thing according to the intention of his will, so that we might
exist for the praise of glory, we who first hoped in Christ.  In him you also, who
have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in
him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of
our inheritance toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory."

Ephesians 1:7-14; The New American Bible

Again I find myself in the struggling between belief and control.  It's not easy to release our concerns to something we don't see, but truly know is, especially because, time and time again, he's shown us his deliverance. 

Are we wanting something the Lord may not want us to have, the way we think we should have it?  Is our estimation of the fruits we seek fitting for us and those concerned, or is what what we don't see behind the scenes, or don't have an understanding about yet, much better for us?

We tend to see "no results" as a defeat against our prayers, left unanswered, but we don't know what is happening in the background.  And if we release all things to Christ we can receive the fulfillment of the blessing.  To repeat his words as again a deeper lesson evolves,

"In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know
how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. 
And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it
intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will."

Romans 8:24-27; The New American Bible

Do not wrestle with your fears; do not diminish your hopes in what you cannot see attained.  Let him help you with these burdens, and lightness you shall have.

"Phillip said to him, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."  Jesus said
to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? 
Whoever has seem me has seen the Father.  How can you say, 'Show us the Father?' 
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I speak
to you I do not speak on my own.  The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.  Believe me
that I am in the Father and Father is in me, or else believe because of the works themselves. 
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater
ones than these, because I am going to the Father.  And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."

John 14:8-14; The New American Bible