v7.
20.06.19
Prayer Station 2 -
From considering God in all His glory, we turn to look at ourselves.
Who am I?
How do I see myself?
How does God see me?
Psalm 139.
Lord, you have examined me and you know me.
You know me at rest and in action; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You trace my journeying and my resting-
For there is not a word that I speak but you, Lord, know all about it.
You keep close guard behind and before me and place your hand upon me.
Knowledge so wonderful is beyond my grasp; it is so lofty I cannot reach it.
~
You it was who fashioned my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for you fill me with awe; wonderful you are, and wonderful your works.
You know me through and through: my body was no mystery to you, when I was formed in secret,
woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes foresaw my deeds, and they were all recorded in your book;
My life was fashioned before it had come into being.
How mysterious, God, are your thoughts to me, how vast in number they are! Were I to try counting them, they would be more than the grains of sand;
To finish the count, my years must equal yours.
~
Examine me, God, and know my mind; test me and understand my anxious thoughts.
Watch lest I follow any path that grieves you; lead me in the everlasting way.
Read the psalm slowly, line by line, and then perhaps read it again.
Ask: How do those words make me feel?
Before God I am utterly vulnerable.
He knows me.
But there is nothing to be afraid of.
I can tell Him everything in my mind and heart: happy and sad things, struggles and triumphs.
Try to do that now.
Ask: Is there anything which is making it hard for me to pray today? Tell Him about it.
Is there anything I regret or wish I hadn’t done?
Tell Him that too.
Is there unfinished business between me and anyone I know?
Are there ways in which I wish I could follow Christ more completely?
Having told You everything, I can leave it all in Your hands.
You may like to make your prayer physical:
Hold out your cupped hands and imagine that all those things you have told
Father God about are held in them like a handful of sand. Now open your
fingers, and allow the sand to trickle through them. It’s all gone.
“Come to me” says our Lord Jesus, “all you who are weary and whose load is
heavy; I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for
I am gentle and humble-
Rest for a moment and receive God’s peace.
In the silence, allow Jesus to tell you whatever he wants you to know, about yourself and about Him.
