Saturday, July 27, 2013

Prayer of Listening

Lord, sometimes You really want to tell me something don’t You? You gave me the same message loud and clear in two distinct places this week.

And what was that message? It was about being worried, hurried, maxed out, spread too thin, driven -- busy, busy, busy.

As I read the parable of the sower, I saw myself amid the thorns. I have heard Your message, and I have studied Your word. But, despite my good intentions, sometimes everything gets choked out by the cares and worries of my world. I run around town, racing from place to place, and crossing things off of my endless list. I stop only long enough to swallow a couple Motrin and a few Tums, and then jump back on the hamster wheel. The phone rings off the hook, I pencil in a handful of new commitments on an already saturated calendar, and then one of the kids calls to say he just threw up at school. Bruce is out of town. Before I know it, it’s way past my bedtime and I haven’t read my Bible or spent more than two minutes praying -- and that was at a red light. Where would I be if I wasn’t teaching Bible Study and didn’t feel like I had to do my reading, had to pray for my friends and their concerns? How many days would go by before I penciled You in on my calendar? What is wrong with my priorities, Lord?

And then I read the story of Mary and Martha. You might as well have been talking to me when you said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” That’s me all right. Worried and distracted by everything from cobwebs and cellulite to colleges and cancer. In that story, Mary chose the right thing, the only thing. She simplified her life that night by making a basic meal, and then she sat at Your feet and listened. She spent time with You.

Lord, help me to put my roots down in the rich soil of Your Word and Your grace, away from the thorns of my humanness. Help me to cast aside petty worries and worldly distractions. Instill in me a longing to sit at Your feet and listen.

In Your Name, I Pray, Amen 

by Sue Busler

No comments:

Post a Comment