Joy Stealers

I hate that the devil uses the times when we're most spiritually encouraged to just tear us down. I went to a great UCO prayer meeting tonight and got to play guitar for worship, so that was a really awesome time. The talk by Dr. Dan Keating was wonderful too...about relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. God was moving powerfully during both the worship time and the talk, and I was able to really feel His presence. But when I got home and tried to write this blog post, the devil was just not having it. He started making me crabby, he started making me forget what God taught me tonight (good thing I wrote it down...take THAT, devil!), and he just really put a negative attitude in my mind. I sat here feeling so discouraged...until I heard Jesus say, in that quiet voice of His, "Come, my daughter. I will give you rest." So I pulled out my guitar and let Him lead me into some quiet worship and reflection. This was such a powerful time for me. As I think I've said before, I really feel the Lord's presence when I play guitar and sing for Him. I feel peaceful, the words just light up on the page, and sometimes I can even hear someone singing with me. It's often hard to tell if it's a man's or woman's voice...but there's definitely another voice. So God, saints, angels...whoever's singing with me...you've got a nice voice! Anyway, one of the songs the Lord led me to sing was "The Battle Belongs to the Lord." One of my favorite lines is this: "When the enemy presses in hard, do not fear. The battle belongs to the Lord." That was especially comforting tonight, as I really felt that the devil was trying to steal my joy.

The evening reflection for today in a daily meditation book I have really confirmed something that Joyce Meyer said last night about prayer (see yesterday's blog post). She basically said that we often pray out wordy, elaborate prayers to God just to spew out words or to hear ourselves sound spiritual (or sound spiritual to others). Tonight's meditation comes from Matthew 6:7-13, where it says, "In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.'" Now, sometimes I think, "Well, isn't the Lord's Prayer kind of wordy itself? I mean, who uses words like 'hallowed' and 'forgive us our debts' and 'do not subject us'?" This is a bit different though...it is the model of prayer given to us by Jesus. He told us specifically "This is how you are to pray". Notice He didn't say, "This is a good idea for prayer" or "You can pray this way if you want to"...He said, "This is how YOU ARE TO PRAY." It's a command. Do it. Pray it. Say those words. I think it only becomes babble when we say it so fast that we don't know what we're saying. You know what I mean? I grew up saying so many Hail Marys and so many Our Fathers that I really have to be careful when I pray those prayers. I have to really make sure that I'm saying what I mean and meaning what I say.

I challenge you to pray the Lord's Prayer today...and really mean it. Say it super slow if you have to, look words up if you need to, but really understand it. Why did Jesus ask us to pray this way? There must have been a reason...if not many. So here it is again (as I learned it):

"Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil. Amen."