Posted by: midnightcry | May 6, 2008

Prayer Streaming - #5

Prayer Streaming - The Loving Heart

When I first read the title of this chapter, I figured it would be a chapter about loving people. So it was going to be about the work I need to do. I was wrong. This is a chapter about loving God. I love to love God! And I know that as His love works in me I’ll get better at the other.

In the PrayerStreaming book, McHenry details the life of Madame Guyon and her move into being able to pray without ceasing. McHenry notes that as this woman of prayer came closer to God she knew Him more deeply as Father, Shepherd, Physician and Beloved. Today I’ll post this longer entry and talk about the Father part and tomorrow post about Shepherd, Physician and Beloved.

FATHER: Just to spend time with Him! I find I am better able to touch this on a more regular basis. It is becoming easier and easier to simply enter His presence. Why? I have to guess it is simply because I’m making a practice of doing it more often. Finding the secret place where its just God and Me. Or maybe it is recognizing when He is whispering over me. I don’t understand every word yet, but I recognize more and more quickly and frequently.

McHenry uses Zephaniah 3:17 as the main passage to illustrate God as our Father. Which just happens to be one of my all time favorite Old Testament verses of all time! Here it is in NASB.

“The LORD your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

Just let each of those phrases sit over you as you pray.

He is a victorious warrior. - What ever battle you face, He’s already won.
He exults over you with joy. - He loves to be around you! Most of us do not get that!
He will be quiet in His love. - There is a steady warm assurance with that one. This is a love that doesn’t end. And it invites you up to sit on the Father’s lap and simply rest and relax into Him.
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.Now I missed this in NASB but the NIV puts it like this: He rejoices over you with singing. And there’s one of my favorite songs.

You dance over me
While I am unaward.
You sing all around,
but I never hear the sound.
Lord, I’m amazed by you.
How you love me.

Here’s the video of the song.

Posted in Learning to pray, Oil of intimacy | Tags: , , , , ,

« Prayer Streaming - #4
Prayer Streaming - #6 »

Responses

Kristen, You’ve picked one of MY all time favorite verses too-in fact it was YOU who pointed it out to me! “He will quiet you with His love..He will rejoice over you with singing.” What AWESOME things God is saying to us there. and how many times I’ve spoken it back to God in the night! One of the new ways I’ve found to promote listening comes from my current Beth Moore study “Psalms of Ascent”, which incorporates lying face down on the floor out of reverence for Him. I LOVE IT! The study ended today, but the practice won’t!-TK PC, Thanks for the encouraging word and the scripture reference-I’ll look it up tonight!

By: Teresa on May 6, 2008
at 5:08 pm

Your comments about lying face down on the floor were exactly what I read in this book today about Teresa of Avila. (Interesting that you share a name.)

“Teresa’s ’stance’ was prostration, she literally fell to the ground in an act of confession. When she saw Christ’s sacrifice in the artistic rendering of the crucifixtion, this visually and kinesthetically cemented for her the subjection of her life to the LORD. She wrote that when she fell to the ground and prayed she would never offend her Savior again, she was prepared to lie there until God granted her request.”

By: midnightcry on May 7, 2008
at 12:13 pm

Leave a response






Your response:

Categories