06/26/2024
Today let’s discuss the twins of prayer and faith. Pastor E.M. Bounds describes them this way: "one heart brings them both to life. Faith is always praying; prayer is always believing." He ends his devotional by writing by saying "Prayer asks; faith lays its hand on the thing asked for." Faith and prayer are the engines which power the Dynamo of our belief; our relationship with God. They create the spark that jumps the gap between man and God. For our part in this endeavor we must hold fast to our faith and exercise our prayer fervently.
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)”
Hebrews 10:23 KJV
Through faith and prayer we experience the love and beauty of our joining with Christ before the throne of glory. A few years ago I read a book by Joyce Rupp titled "Walk in a Relaxed Manner", it is about her hiking a pilgrimage of faith (the Camino de Santiago) in Northern Spain, and in it she speaks of the beauty that surrounds her, and us, in these words; "Beauty does that to us. It revisits us with joy, calls to us with its lucidity and strength, and unites us over and over to the deeper thread of the holy within us and among us." Then, she concludes her thoughts in this way... "each of us needs to hold something beautiful in our heart."
“The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.”
Psalms 50:1-2 ESV
So the tapestry of our relationship with God begins to come together... faith, prayer, love, beauty, holiness... All the threads joining together to reveal the glory of God... The mercy and grace that the Grand Artisan weaves into us with each pull of the yarn through the loom of our lives.
Our faith, like our prayer, brings us close to God, and presses our faces into the temple veil where we glimpse the soft and unfocused form of God and taste His aroma; a sweetness that we could only smell faintly from afar before.
Sometimes in prayer we become overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment. we feel the Holy Spirit swirling in and around us, and in that moment of faith, prayer, and beauty we become holy... Set apart for His use. This is what we seek in prayer... what we desire that our faith will lay its hand upon.
This morning as we pray, let's seek the beauty which surrounds us and let it massage our faith into holiness and pure joy. Let's press our faces into the temple veil and breath deep; so deeply that its scent becomes taste and what was once distant becomes near and real to the touch. In our prayer closets this morning let's let God pull us by our prayers through the loom of His will, and transform us by our increased faith into the image of His glory.
Today is a wonderful day to practice our faith, exercise our prayers, and bask in the beauty that leads us to Him. Let's offer ourselves as a holy offering to God through Christ. Prayer and faith... The twins... Love and beauty the breath they breathe.
Prayer:
Father thank you for the faith and prayer you have given us as gifts, and the amazing beauty of your divinity that is revealed to us as we draw close to you. Thank you Lord for the smell of incense that pervades the air about you, and is so intense that we can taste it as we pray. It is like the taste of a divine kiss Father, and fills our senses with a holiness that is only of you. Help us to pray fervently Abba, and give wings to our faith, so that we too can become holy by our close association with you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who has loved us from the inception of creation, and who sent your only begotten Son Jesus to be born among us, then to suffer, die, be resurrected, and to ascended into heaven where He returned to your side, where He intercedes today for us. He is our savior, and His redeeming blood washes us of our sins, and covers us with your mercy and grace. Our faith and prayers grow in us by the day, and the joy we have in our relationship with you and Jesus Christ have made us righteous, and holy. We thank you, praise you, and worship you for this Father. Your gifts of prayer and faith have raised us up, and given us a closer relationship with you than we could ever have imagined. Hear us Abba and call us to you… an eternal gift made possible by your spiritual gifts.
Amen, Amen, Amen!!
Rich Forbes