As we move into February, the month of love, I could think of no one who better embodied the definition of love than Mother Theresa. One of my favorite quotes of hers is:

Most of us know of her sacrificial service in Calcutta. Here, I will not try to give you her history, but rather I long for you to see her heart. She said of herself:

I am nothing. He is all.
I do nothing of my own. He does it.
I am God's pencil. 
A tiny bit of pencil with which He writes what He likes.
God writes through us,
and however imperfect instruments we may be,
He writes beautifully.

So, this month's Powerful Prayer is the prayer that she prayed daily. When you read…pause, ask God to slow your thoughts, and allow yourself to move beyond a mental reading of the words. Let your heart absorb the prayer…
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DEAR JESUS, help me to spread Thy fragrance
everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus.
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.

Listen To Mother Theresa pray her daily prayer: Download Prayer

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Monty’s Rumination

Mother Theresa's love for God, and for those people who had been discarded by the world, is found in what she called her “Simple Path.” The Simple Path consisted of 6 things: Silence; Prayer; Faith; Love; Service; Peace.

She articulated this path in such a way that each practice led to the next resulting in peace. She articulated it like this:

The Fruit of Silence is Prayer
The Fruit of Prayer is faith
The Fruit of Faith is Love
The Fruit of Love is Service
The Fruit of Service is Peace

This path is so evident in our Powerful Prayer this month. The centrifugal force of Mother Theresa’s life was her love for Jesus. Her goal was not simply to do good, but to do good in such a way that the lover of her soul, Jesus, was the fragrance of the flower of her life and work

She longed for people to feel the Christ of her soul when they met so that they saw him in her love and service, and not her.

When she prays, “Stay with me then I shall begin to shine as you shine…” you can sense her longing to be united with God in such a way that only comes from a knowingness that one has experienced and knows that there is no religious substitute that will ever come close.

For me, the power that is infused into this prayer comes from the elimination of ego. Ego is that human state that causes people to compete with each other, hurt each other, demand from each other, and walk over others in order to satisfy self.

This prayer strips the ego of its allies of self indulgence; self centeredness; and self promotion. This prayer of Theresa’s knows that true peace and joy that survives the harshest of realities never comes from the pursuit of happiness, but rather from the pursuit of God. I leave you with a note written in her own hand about prayer.

This month may you experience the freedom that comes from a life that finds it center in the One who loves you, created you, and longs to fulfill your deepest need.

Dei Gratia

Monty

In light of Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaching, I thought it would be fitting for his voice to be our first prayer for 2009!   MC

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Giving Thanks for a Committed Life
Martin Luther King
Source: Harold A. Carter, “Prayer Tradition of Black People (1985)”

 O God, our heavenly Father, we thank thee for this golden privilege to worship thee, the only true God of the universe. We come to thee today grateful that thou hast kept us through the long night of the past and ushered us into the challenge of the present and the bright hope of the future. We are mindful, O God, that man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of things and humanity is not God.

Bound by our chains of sin and finiteness, we know we need a savior. We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man. We are in nature but we live above nature. Help us never to let anyone or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate. Give us the strength to love our enemies and do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us.

We thank thee for thy Church, founded upon the Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon thee. Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.

Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace, help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all of God's children — Black, White, Red, and Yellow — will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.

Monty’s Rumination:

In the Book “Standing in the need of prayer” Coretta Scott King said this about her husbands prayer life:

For my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. prayer was a daily source of courage and strength that gave him the ability to carry on in even the darkest hours of our struggle. I remember one very difficult day when he came home bone-weary from the stress that came with his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In the middle of that night, he was awakened by a threatening and abusive phone call, one of many we received throughout the movement. On this particular occasion, however, Martin had had enough.

After the call, he got up from bed and made himself some coffee. He began to worry about his family, and all of the burdens that came with our movement weighed heavily on his soul. With his head in his hands, Martin bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud to God: "Lord, I am taking a stand for what I believe is right. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I have nothing left. I have come to the point where I can't face it alone.”

Later he told me, "At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear a voice saying: 'Stand up for righteousness; stand up for truth; and God will be at our side forever.'" When Martin stood up from the table, he was imbued with a new sense of confidence, and he was ready to face anything.

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I am reminded that the primary purpose of prayer is not to change “things” but to change me. When I am changed, then I can be used by God in such a way as to be a planet changer through my actions. There is a synergy in prayer where we pray as if all depends on God, then we get up and serve as if all depends on us!

In this prayer we see the building blocks of Martin Luther King’s prayer life, and missional accomplishments:

1.    Humility. Everything Starts and Ends with God.
2.    Responsibility.  I am called to live to a higher standard than our culture’s.
3.    Community. The Church is a formative and missional force for good in the world. We are better and more effective together than solo.
4.    Acceptance.  Loving others (not just the people like me, or the people I like) is the key to experiencing beauty in this life.

May we all grow in grace and truth.

Dei Gratia
Monty

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The next prayer in my powerful prayer focus is one of St. Francis of Assisi. In so many ways, his life became the embodiment of his prayer life. This prayer is perhaps one of his more famous, yet deserves a slow and thoughtful going over. Each line is worth time praying and contemplating…enjoy…MC

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy 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;

and 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.

I had many requests for the prayer I ended last Sunday’s message with. We also read it together on the youth canoe trip last week at Lake Chelan while we were digging into the book of Philippians. I have still not been able to identify the name of the one who penned it. The closest I have been able to come is that it was found among the papers of an African evangelists/pastor just after he had been martyred for his faith in Zimbabwe. That seems to be the most consistent evidence. Regardless of who wrote it, the words are powerful. Read it today three times. Twice slowly, and the third time with passion. May it flood your soul with faith!

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I will not look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, or popularity. I do not have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, am uplifted by prayers, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way rough, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of
the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool
of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I will not give up, shut up, or let up. I will go until He comes, and work until He stops me!

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So, whatcha’ think about that?

MC