Little Prayers 2

It was just an hour or so away from dinner time when Teryl informed me I was making dinner.  I hadn’t thought about making dinner; I hadn’t planned on making dinner.  Like most husbands, I leave that chore up to my wife unless otherwise informed—and with plenty of advanced notice.  Fortunately for me, what I was supposed to make was about as easy as easy gets in making dinner.  That’s the beauty of the recipes out of this “Fast and Fabulous” cookbook we have.  So easy that you could make something at a given moment’s notice.

That’s also the great thing about little prayers—they can be drawn upon at any given moment’s notice (or need) as the saying goes.  And they work!  Troubles, circumstances, problems, and issues all arise out of nowhere, catching us off-guard; and then what do you do.  There may not be enough time to sit down, fold hands, and calmly pray what we might consider to be a “proper” prayer.  Sometimes there is not only no time to sit and pray, but not even enough time to gather your wits about yourself to pray.  Again, that is where little prayers come in handy.

In Service of Prayer and Preaching there are two wonderful little prayers in the opening versicles: “Make me to know Your ways, O Lord.  Teach me Your paths.” and “Sanctify us in Your truth.  Your Word is truth.”  Both of those are right out of John 17:17 and Psalm 25:4. In Responsive Prayer 1 are these short little prayers from the section on morning and from afternoon and evening: “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing Spirit (Psalm 51:12).”  From Psalm 102:1 you can pray, “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to You.”  Psalm 85:7 has us crying out, “Show us Your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.”  You can even pray a quick prayer for our nation, “Lord, keep this nation under Your care, and guide us in the way of justice and truth.” 

Out of Responsive Prayer 2 we find these short little prayers: “Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”  “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  Those are right out of Psalm 51, David’s prayer of sorrow over his adulterous affair with Bathsheba.  Out of Psalm 63:3, 7, “Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.” 

I wound up getting dinner made.  It was as easy as draining two cans of black beans, juice from two limes, some salt, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, and cilantro and some green onion.  Put it on a bed of rice and—presto! Change-o!—dinner is served.  It was so easy, I could probably do it again without the book.  These short little prayers are the same way.  So short and easy to memorize and remember that you have them at your fingertips any time you may need or want them.

AE