Prayer.

Lilias Trotter was a master watercolorist who gave up wealth and artistic fame to become a missionary in Algiers. While on the mission field she created beautifully illustrated journals full of prayers and devotion- and this is an entry from Lilias Trotter Diary:  26 July 1906

“The Noria in the garden has taught a prayer-lesson today. {noria is a water wheel with buckets attached to its rim that are used to raise water from a stream or well} At the very first turn of the wheel that works it, a cupful of the clear cold water deep down is dipped up – but it does not reach the surface at once.  Many and many a cup comes up first – dry, empty, iron.  It is all on the way to the full one that is coming.  More than that, each disappointing cup that looks as if it might be the expected one and fails to be, and goes back as it came, means another full cup coming up, if only we go on turning.  For once the first has risen brimming over, every fresh turn means another and another outpour.  Our prayer-disappointments are all part of the prayer-answers that are coming – linked as securely as the cups are welded to wheel, all working out the one objective.”   

Philip Yancey has a similar view:  “The act of prayer brings together Creator and creature, eternity and time, in all the fathomless mystery implied by the convergence.”

SO we can view prayer as a way of asking a timeless God to intervene in our time-bound existence on earth. . .  OR

AND we can view prayer as a way of entering into the rhythms of eternity and aligning ourselves with God’s view from the everlasting. As a way to make our own desires agree with God’s, we begin to participate , while on earth, in God's will for all eternity.

What if what we think of as "prayers answered, unanswered or answered disappointingly" are all just a part of that process... And we keep turning the wheel, right? Because knowing his unfailing love- we can trust that the empty cups are part of the same mechanism that fills the full ones. And that it is all essential in that participation in God's plan.

Please consider checking out Open CarePortal Requests, and hitting that pray button! Let a caseworker know that the families they serve are supported by prayer- and/or write out a prayer for the caseworker that she can read. Particiapte in God’s plan for their life by keeping the wheel turning… by continuously lifting vulnerable families up to the Lord… by providing access to the Living Water that fills out cups!

Heavenly Father, we come before You with longing in our hearts. We want to see you and know you more deeply. We aknowledge that you are the designer of every mechanism at work in our lives. Help us to see the empty cups, even a long succession of empty cups, with anticipation... knowing that your plan is already in place, that unseen cups are filling as we speak, and that your provision is already in motion.

Like the sun comes up every day. Your mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). We rest in the fact that Your grace is entirely sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9). We know that you are with us, cranking the wheel, even when our arms get tired. It is only by your gift, that we are able to stand, let alone walk the path that you have laid out for us!

Grant us quiet moments in the day where we can lift our souls to you as an offering, where we can trade our fears and worries for your perfect peace. We hand over our goals, and the chaos, our hopes and worries, our busy schedules and our moments of boredome.. We surrender our entire lives to your keeping. Help us step where you step and love who you love. Make your still small voice the loudest sound in our hearts, and help us follow your leading through every changing season. We entrust you with the inner workings of our lives. ~Amen