Unshackled Moments ~ September 17 ~ Scary Prayer

I will be beginning a sermon series on prayer with the next sermon I preach. As of now, I'm still not sure exactly what the series will cover or what I hope to accomplish with it, other than I want to minister about prayer what God wants ministered and address some of the questions, like what is prayer? and how do we pray? before perhaps teaching some lessons from some of the Biblical prayers. But as I looked at prayers and instruction for and to pray throughout scripture yesterday, my mind turned to some of my favorite prayers that aren't in the Bible. One of the scariest and most beautiful prayers of all times is perhaps the Prayer Of St. Francis.

I say this prayer is scary, because this is not a prayer to pray lightly. Seriously, if you're not ready to put self on the altar, pick up your cross and follow Jesus in a state of not my will but Yours be done unconditional surrender, don't pray this prayer. But if you want to revolutionize and energize your relationship with God and your service to others, this is a beautiful place to start. Since I will be covering prayer in the upcoming weeks as I preach on Wednesday nights, I thought I would take an in depth look at this prayer here, because this is one of the most widely accepted prayers utilized in programs of recovery.

Prayer is simply communication with God for the purpose of giving Him glory, aligning our will and life with His purpose and will and to fellowship with Him. If we can kill our self spiritually and allow the new self which has been born again to transform us into the image of Christ, the resulting person will be a unique reflection of Jesus that could be described by this prayer. I believe it could also be titled A Request To Be More Like Jesus.

If you want to find freedom, if you are ready to be of maximum service to God and man, if want your life to change in a positive way and be transformed into a blessing worth living, then using this prayer as a pattern for increasing conscious contact with the Creator and getting closer to Daddy is a wonderful place to begin the journey. But before a prayer can be used as a pattern for our own prayers, we have to know it and understand it as it is.

Today let us examine ourselves and where we stand.  The following is my Twelve Step Prayer. If what is in it is what is in your heart to be an do as well, then the Prayer of St. Francis is a good place to start building your own prayer, because this prayer was born from that one. Feel free to make them both yours today and tomorrow we will look at what it means to be an instrument of God's peace.

Lord, You are an amazing and loving God. I am so thankful that You love me and that You have set me free from the bondage of self that brought so much destruction and death into my life. I need Your grace to continue to walk and live free on this day. I know that I am not able to walk with You in love and obedience, free from selfishness and sin, on my own. I believe that You can make me able to do what I can not do though, and that You have poured out the power to become Yours and walk with You on me because You love me. In response to this great grace and love I give You all my life and will to do with as You desire. Forgive me of my sin and rebellion and remove and transform those parts of me that are hardwired to go against You and live for myself. Heal and restore those I have hurt and bring them closer to You. Heal and restore those who have harmed me and help me to live loving forgiveness toward them and anyone who might anger, frustrate or damge me today. Help me to serve You and to serve and help others as a light of Your love, revealing Your power, glory and way of life. Help me to get out of the way and to know You more. If I fall short of walking in the perfection of Your Spirit and grace, help me to see it quickly, to admit it without excuse or shifting of blame and to do what I can to make it right. Let me be Your hands and heart in someone's life today and let me not do anything that would detract from displaying Your love to others. Amen

Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

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