Dangerous Prayers 03

When I am afraid of evils to come,

comfort me by showing me that in myself

I am dying, (deservedly so),

but in Christ I am reconciled and live;

that in myself I find insufficiency and no rest,

but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace;

that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good,

but in Christ I have ability to do all things.

Though now I have His graces in part,

I shall shortly have them perfectly in that place where I will see You fully.

Fully sufficient, efficient, loving me completely, with sin abolished.

O Lord, hasten that day.

Prayer modified from The Valley Of Vision: A Collection Of Puritan Prayers  by Arthur G. Bennett

Parable

I used to sell my TV every time I moved…

Seriously…  every single time I moved for the first several decades of my life, if I owned a TV, I would sell it or give it away when I was moving.  Then I would live the first six months in my new place without a TV.

I used to go on a 30-day TV fast every six months.  Every April and every October I would unplug the television, put away the remotes and… 

…and find something else to do with my time.  The first time I did it I thought it was going to be this huge challenge so I put all the remotes in a box and wrapped the box in duct tape… turns out the first time was easy… the second time was a killer and the third time was even worse. 

Since I didn’t have cable, the only TV I could watch were those channels that could be picked up with an antennae.   Around the time when I was getting used to doing to taking these TV-fasts all the TV channels went digital and I ended up being unable to watch TV at all…

…then I discovered Netflix.

…I keep thinking I should get around to trying a Netflix fast –

…right after I’m done watching this series.

Matthew 5:29-30

Whoever has ears to hear…

…just sayin…

Dangerous Prayers 02

Heavenly Father,

if I should suffer need,

and go unclothed,

and be in poverty,

make my heart prize Your love,

know it,

be constrained by it,

though I be denied all blessings.

It is Your mercy to afflict and try me with wants,

for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them.

Let me willingly accept misery,

sorrows,

temptations,

if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to You, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of Your love.

Prayer modified from The Valley Of Vision: A Collection Of Puritan Prayers  by Arthur G. Bennett