(If you are visiting thought Jessa Russo's Ghostly Blog hop my short story entry can be found here: Recalled to life. )
It is a symple prayer covers a whole host of concepts. It is easy to say. It comes from the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Luke 18:10-14. It is a humble pray that says "God I need your mercy because I am a sinner and I make mistakes."
I Like this prayer, it's easy and often I will say it at night when I can't sleep- which is becoming a problem again, sigh.- or when I am driving. It is often how I pray for people in my life. I mean the people I pray for are people that I care about but I don't always know what is going on in thier lives. This pray covers everything. what eer situation we are in we always can use God's Mercy, and we need God's Mercy becasue we are sinners.
Some people may not like that. The word sinners has different meanings for different people. For me it comes back to something that I say with my congregation every Sunday. "We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone."
When you think about it that way, it is simpler to see how yep I still sin, I still make mistakes even though I hae said the sinners prayer and been baptised. along with that I still can have God's mercy.
The last thing I want to say about this prayer has to do with something that I and some of my friends from high school thought about. We were very intersted in a 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray without ceasing." We would talk a lot about what that would mean and what it would look like. This is a simle pray that covers a multituted of meanings and can be said and thought at any and all times.
Here is how it works. you can use beads or you can just use your fingers to keep track of how many times you pray it. the idea is to pray this prayer often. I believe the Easter Church sugesseds that thier paristioniners should pray it 100 times a day. You don't have to start there but pray it over and over again. each time focusing on a different word in the prayer. Maybe the first time you focus on Mercy and how you need God's mercy in your current situation. Maybe then you move on to Lord and think about what it means For Jesus to be Lord not just of your life but of the world. Maybe then you focus on the word sinner and think about the ways you have neglected to do the righ thing.
If you've never made this a part of your daily practice I would really sugest you give it a try. From expereince I can say that it will enrich your prayer life.
Till Next time God Speed and Open Roads.
I Like this prayer, it's easy and often I will say it at night when I can't sleep- which is becoming a problem again, sigh.- or when I am driving. It is often how I pray for people in my life. I mean the people I pray for are people that I care about but I don't always know what is going on in thier lives. This pray covers everything. what eer situation we are in we always can use God's Mercy, and we need God's Mercy becasue we are sinners.Some people may not like that. The word sinners has different meanings for different people. For me it comes back to something that I say with my congregation every Sunday. "We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone."
When you think about it that way, it is simpler to see how yep I still sin, I still make mistakes even though I hae said the sinners prayer and been baptised. along with that I still can have God's mercy.
Here is how it works. you can use beads or you can just use your fingers to keep track of how many times you pray it. the idea is to pray this prayer often. I believe the Easter Church sugesseds that thier paristioniners should pray it 100 times a day. You don't have to start there but pray it over and over again. each time focusing on a different word in the prayer. Maybe the first time you focus on Mercy and how you need God's mercy in your current situation. Maybe then you move on to Lord and think about what it means For Jesus to be Lord not just of your life but of the world. Maybe then you focus on the word sinner and think about the ways you have neglected to do the righ thing.
If you've never made this a part of your daily practice I would really sugest you give it a try. From expereince I can say that it will enrich your prayer life.
Till Next time God Speed and Open Roads.
No comments:
Post a Comment