Prayer Streaming – #18

Prayerstreaming – the committed heart

When you think about praying without ceasing, THE classic that comes to mind is Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Its a classic; if you haven’t read it, you should.

When McHenry writes about Brother Lawrence, she uses phrases like…faithful dedication, passionate pursuit and determined goal.  Brother Lawrence knew that unceasing prayer wasn’t something that we could do just because we wished we could.  It was a commitment that we needed to make much like the commitment of a marriage vow.  Here’s a great quote from McHenry:

Just as a wife cannot make a marriage commitment and continue seeing other men, when we make a commitment to pursue a relationship with God, we need to discontinue the pursuit of activities or relationships that would draw us further from Him…when we allow the pulls of the world to come between Christ and us, we are committing spiritual adultery.

Nothing articulates this better than the song Blessed Be Your Name. I’m using it for my meditation today. Here are the lyrics followed by a youtube video of the song.

Blessed be Your name
in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I’ll
turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name when the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s “all as it should be”
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name