February 12, 2010
Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
By
I am the Lord, your God: hear my voice. (Psalms 81:11a and 9a)
… (P)eople brought to (Jesus) a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.” (Mark 7:32-35)
Piety
Lord, I humbly ask you to open my ears and my mind to your voice.
Study
Cec Murphey’s February Newsletter
http://themanbehindthewords.com/Layout_Assets/Newsletter/Newsletter_February2010.pdf
I found out last week that a friend whom I don’t see as often as I’d like has what appears to be terminal cancer. She and her husband have chosen to keep this challenge to a few trusted friends. When I found out secondhand and asked the husband what I could do besides pray, the answer was: “Prayer is our one need.” And my guess was that he meant more than “Cure A” as part of a long list of petitions.
It’s tempting when there is so much we feel needs God’s special attention to turn our intentions into a laundry list of sorts, to be read or recited in a somewhat mechanized and directive way:
· “Please guide the surgeon’s hands so that B’s surgery may be successful.”
· “Please help C find a job so that he can support his family.”
· “Please help my kids to behave.”
· “Please show D how to be a more faithful Christian, and help me not to let her work my nerve so much.”
Sometimes, we get so busy trying to manage things for God that we forget to listen to His voice, as if we were truly hearing impaired. And when we don’t see the response we wanted, we stop talking, as if we were truly speech impaired.
My friend Cec Murphey, coauthor of 90 Minutes in Heaven and other best sellers and a retired Presbyterian minister, wrote beautifully this month about a man named Steve who no longer was praying for his brothers. The brothers hadn’t changed after twelve years.
In his column, Cec sympathized with Steve, saying he’s results-oriented as well. Then he wrote:
Here’s how I see prayer working—and using the word working emphasizes my pragmatic side. In the act of praying, something takes place inside me. … Each time I mention others by name, I feel closer to them and to their problems. The result is that I become kinder or I’m reminded to eliminate loose talk and focus on positive living for myself. Although it may be only slight, when I pray regularly for others, it is inner growth. And sometimes those individuals also change.
I’d never thought about my prayer list in that way before, about being a vehicle for my own change as well as a petition for the assistance of others. It made me think that my friend’s husband was more right than he realized. Not only is prayer the one need for him and his wife, it’s also the one need we have in deepening our own faith and trust, if we’re willing to listen.
Action
Slow down a little. Don’t pray today “for everyone on my list, and You know who they are.” Pray for each of them by name, and talk with God about your relationship with each.
