The Third Way of Prayer

Seems like lately everyone around me has been experiencing loss, deep pain, or unexpected trauma.  As I walk along a wooded path my shoulders feel heavy. My spirit matches the damp gray afternoon and I dodge icy patches and sooty piles of snow. My prayers are more like a litany of lament, and it’s appropriate. There is a time for that. Absolutely. You may be lamenting, and God welcomes that.

There is also time for thanksgiving, for focusing not on what has been lost, but on all that we have to be grateful for…a kind of perspective corrective. We list one thousand gifts in a journal. We pay attention to our blessings.  We try to “think lovely thoughts”. Thanksgiving is always right and good.

But there’s a third way of praying  that has been most important to me in this heavy season.

I may grieve with lament. I may reorient myself with gratitude. But I can’t FIX anything, and so I am strengthened and receive peace when I focus on the character of God. 

As I fix my eyes on our Creator and Sustainer I breathe deep and my shoulders lift.

I go to my Bible thinking of Hagar and Hannah, Job and Jonah, and Joseph. The woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery. Impossible situations. Sin and shame and life in shambles. But God….

I go to my concordance and look up all the “But God’s” throughout Scripture.

“But God…

said

sent

appeared

remembered

made us alive in Christ

will be with you

is the strength of my heart and my portion forever

has surely listened

made the earth by His power

knows your hearts

raised him from the dead

demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

gives you His Holy Spirit

is the builder of everything.”

“But God…” He interrupts evil with good, brokenness with building up, mourning with mission.

And He has the last word.

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