#Prayer in the Reckless, Restless Fury of Love - Click and Read

Our best prayers are squeezed out of us in the pressure cooker of life.

On troubled waters, we discover the presence and peace of God as we are rocked, rolled, tossed, and whipped by the winds of furious love, reckless abandon, and restless change.

Don't stop reading. There is more.

Of all the complaints evoking empathy this day, the words,"no foothold," resound to the heart of the self-sufficient "doer," who is thrown off-balance by life and must learn lessons of trust and dependence. In many ways. it is only by losing false footholds that we ever learn anything about grounding ourselves in more solid soil or better still, solid rock.

 

"Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with waiting for my God."
Psalm 69:1-3 ESV

 

"Make hast to deliver me," is an urgent cry.

It is short of panic, but not quite calm. It is the honest expression of desperation in the awareness that if God does not come through, we are through.

It is prayer on the edge - where fears and doubts intertwine with faith and faithfulness.

It may not be our best and most selfless prayer, but it is prayer and it is sometimes, all we have.

But keep reading and keep letting it develop.

"Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!"
- Psalm 70:1

 

"Strength is spent."I am sure I have prayed this prayer and part of what is in me prays it unconsciously and sometimes consciousnesses:

"OK, God. I have put all my chips on You. I have emptied all my accounts and invested it all in Your stock because I have taken You at Your Word. I am tee-totally a God guy and I am counting on You to come through. I'm in Your tent. It's up to You; don't let me down."

It seems a bit audacious, bold, and maybe a bit irreverent, but it is real and we've all been in that boat ... or close to it.

 

"In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress."
- Psalm 71:2-3 ESV

 

It is a real spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional reality that we or someone we know is living through.

Spiritually Spent Strength Syndrome (SSSS) is the disease that threatens our souls. It's treatment is honest prayer.

Go ahead and pray Psalm 71 with me.

"In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth.

By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.

I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.

Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.

For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,

Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.

O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.

Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.

My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.

I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.

Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!

Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.

I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.

My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.

My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt."

 

We wonder why God doesn't just wipe out all the influences, temptations, and opposition that comes against us. We complain that we have to deal with it. If if were left up to us, we would not have to deal with anything.

We would enter immediately into bliss. Well .... hmmmm .... wellllll .....

I guess it doesn't quite work that way.

Honest prayer is a gift to us from God and the feeble gift we return to Him in faith. In the tumultuous conversation of faith as we wrestle with faith, we find the peace of purpose. Our Master taught us this by example.

Purpose settles us in the rocking and rolling of life's stormy waves.

"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour."
- John 12:27

We long and pray for significance in our lives, for "the hour" for which we were born. But we are in the hour and it is often the hour that we are in that we wish to avoid or be delivered from.

"No," faith answers within, "do not deliver me from that for which I was born."

I pray that such will be my prayer as I struggle through such hours.

"The Reckless Restless Fury" is what we have come to know as the love of God.