Saturday, November 19, 2011

Prayerfully Yours




LORD my God, regarding love divine there is none to compare. Yours is the mastery of knowledge and design and completion, and all for love’s gain; to her end. All this wondrous creation is for love. Then you made my father and mother, my siblings, me; all for love. But Yours is a jealous love—it demands return. I am undeniably Yours, for such love.


You did this, Father, for celestial joy—to thoroughly delight in the captivation of humankind, for none can work out the entirety of Your plan. You give life and You take life; spirits leave You and return to You. I am Yours for the joy, strange as it seems to me, that I bring to You.


You exist in peace—a harmony of three-in-One. In the Trinity You show humankind what fellowship is all about; how to exist in perfect equality and unity. I am Yours for peace between me and You, and for peace between me and fellow humanity.


Your plans are perfectly patient and though You are eternal, so completely beyond the realm of time, Your patience corresponds perfectly in time. You have given humanity so much more than it expected or deserved. I am Yours to be trained in patience—the perspective of eternity. Improve and finish Your work in me, LORD.


Divine love has perhaps no more perfect a manifestation than kindness. It was for kindness that You dug deep in Wisdom to determine the scope for a perfect redemption. Kindness gave us Your Son. Kindness bestows each living day. Teach me your kindness, LORD.


As much as You are great, LORD, You are good. Such goodness is born of love and beneficence. Your goodness provides for me, my family; the universe. For goodness, make me the best provider I can be. Make my works worthy of those I serve.


As much as any attribute You are faithful. You have carried your creation from inception over the cusp of time to the very present moment; the present proclaims Your faithfulness. Help me, Almighty God, exemplify solid nuances of Your faithfulness.


It may be difficult to picture the Lord my God as gentle, but that is what You are. Your gentleness for the downtrodden and humble is superb. You have stooped in Your gentleness and redeemed a broken creation. You may be a perfect storm of righteous action at the commencement of Judgment but, otherwise, Your gentleness is above renown. Assist me model Your heavenly gentleness.


You are the quintessence of self-control. As is the unity in the Godhead, so is perfect balance Your way. You have no needs and no selfish desire. In Jesus, You showed humanity’s ability to sacrifice need on the altar of thanksgiving. Give me that selfsame desire to surpass my flesh.


LORD my God, I am prayerfully yours in these ways, and in others, eternally—even if I fail often. Forgive me in the frequency of my disobedience, by the grace bought of Jesus, to these ends, because of my flesh.


I pray, always, in the irrefutable, matchless worth of Jesus, AMEN.


***


The Divine LORD exemplifies the fruit of the Spirit perfectly. Ours is to learn the character of God, reflect over it continually, and apply it personally.


© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

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