Monday, March 25 — Take It to the Lord in Prayer

Monday, March 25 — Take It to the Lord in Prayer

Once again, please read our psalm of the week slowly, mindful to which phrases catch your attention.

Psalm 32

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.
Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Three thousand years before Freud, the psalm recognizes the destructive power of conflicts that hide out in our unconscious mind.  I was struck by these lines:

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

The implication is that our sense of vitality and enthusiasm for life can be seriously compromised when there is something troubling us that we haven’t brought up into full consciousness.  It could be a memory associated with guilt, or some other challenging emotion.  Acknowledging it — bringing it before the Lord in prayer can bring about a renewal of our lives.  In being “upright in heart” in this manner our life vitality ceases to “waste away.”

I came across this quote from Brennan Manning:

“To ignore, repress, or dismiss our feelings is to fail to listen to the stirrings of the Spirit within our emotional life. Jesus listened. In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus was moved with the deepest emotions (11:33)… The gospel portrait of the beloved Child of Abba is that of a man exquisitely attuned to His emotions and uninhibited in expressing them. The Son of Man did not scorn or reject feelings as fickle and unreliable. They were sensitive antennae to which He listened carefully and through which He perceived the will of His Father for congruent speech and action.” 

Although we are wise to not hold anything back when we are communicating with God (including anger), the psalm goes on to tell us that unbridled expressions of temper are distinctly unwise when relating to those around us.

But in relation to God the old hymn says it well:

What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and grieves to bear
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer
Oh what peace we often forfeit of what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

What do you need to take to the God in prayer?