My heart is being fed so richly through Frances Roberts’ books! Here is another selection from "Dialogues with God".
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O my Father, Thou hast crowned my life with blessings. The half of Thy goodness have I never told. Thou are gracious, and Thy compassion is so deep that even my worst sins have not shut me off from Thy mercy and forgiveness. How hast Thou loved, to redeem one so unworthy! Make my heart to beat with gratitude nor ever cease praising Thee. Glorious is Thy Name and Thy salvation how great! With Thee is life and through the atoneing work of Christ, Thou hast opened to me a world of bliss and a peace that passeth understanding.
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Isn’t that a rich treasure?! It is the cry of my heart!
Do you struggle with prayer? What to say? How to say it?
How do toddlers learn to talk?
First they babble. Then we encourage them when we hear something remotely like "Ma-ma" or "Da-da". They listen a lot. Then they imitate. After awhile, they start putting sentences together. Do we immediately correct their grammar or choice of words? Or pronunciations? No! We usually cherish the cute ways they say things, and we understand what they want even if others outside the family do not.
After awhile, the funny pronunciations and inventive grammar give way to more "eloquent" speaking, and by the time they are adults, they are able to converse without thinking anything about it!
The Lord has shown me that prayer is much the same way. At first, we feel we are babbling as we learn this new skill. Then we imitate–Him in His Word, other great Christians’ works and prayers…..we might say some things in a funny way, but God is not waiting to correct our grammar or word usage! Or our pronunciation!
He is thrilled to hear His children try to speak His language every bit as much as we are thrilled to hear our own children speak ours!
After awhile, we just start expressing ourselves in our own words, sometimes still using the words of others and most importantly, using His Word.
It’s a part of growth.
And even if we stay in one "phase" longer than we think we should, that’s okay.
Or we might need help and go back to prayer books. Or even use them to help get our pumps primed and then take off praying in our own words.
That’s okay. He knows our hearts, and would rather hear us speak to Him, however haltingly, than to not speak at all because it’s not "perfect".
I encourage you to break free of the "perfection mindset" and pray to your Heavenly Father. The best "guide" we can use is His Word. Use His Word and turn the verses into prayers.
If you want other helps, I highly recommend any of Frances Roberts’ works, A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie, and The Valley of Vision.
Beth Moore also has several books on praying God’s Word that are good, as does Stormie Omartian.
I hope you find something to help you learn to speak your Father’s language.
He’s waiting to hear.
I love this post. Day before yesterday I was out looking for dog at the shelter, and on the way to the shelter I got lost because I turned in too soon and ended up in someone's snowy driveway. Well, I just kept going and going, because you can't stop on snow like that—-till I finally ended up at this dear couple's house, stopped and STUCK! I felt so bad.
But they were just so patient and matter of fact. They just slowly and kindly began to do what they could to help me get out. He had to use his tractor and they at one point pushed me. I got stuck again going down the driveway, and he even got his tractor stuck in the snow!
But as I was free, they just waved me on, urging me not to stop. I cried, cried and cried, because of their kindness and patience with me!
Thank you for your patience, too, Trisch!
Isn't it great how He has His servants there for us, often just at our time of need?
That reminds me of Elisabeth Elliot's quote of Annie Keary in "Keep a Quiet Heart"–about when the interruptions come, they *are* the work! So often we don't realize His real work for us is in the many interruptions to *our* plans….and that includes our family!
So wonderful that that couple helped you with grace and sweetness!
And I'm still learning to trust His plan and respond sweetly, too!
HUGS!
Trisch
I thought I'd just go ahead and quote Annie Keary! (via Elisabeth Elliot! ; )
Do Not Rush. Trust. And Keep a Quiet Heart.
I think I find most help in trying to look on all the interruptions and hindrances to work that one has planned out for oneself as discipline, tirals sent by God to help one against getting selfish over one's work. Then one can feel that perhaps one's true work–one's work for God–consists in doing some trifling haphazard thing that has been thrown into one's day. It is not a waste of time, as one is tempted to think, it is the most imortant part of the work of the day–the part one can best offer to God. After such a hindrance, do not rush after the planned work, trust that the time to finish it will be given sometime, and keep a quiet heart about it.
~Annie Keary, 1825-1879 (quoted in "Keep a Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot, p. 9)