SONJA BURPO on 'Specific Prayers'

(Sonja & Todd Burpo with children: Colton, Cassie, and Colby)

In their latest book, HEAVEN CHANGES EVERYTHING, following up on their HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, which recounts the story of their son, Colton's, encounter with death and heaven as an almost 4 year old child,  the Burpos talk about many things they have learned from the whole experience.  In the following chapter,  Sonja writes about being 'specific' when we pray.   This is Chapter 11 in their second book; the chapter is entitled:  BE SPECIFIC !

 

I'm a big believer in specific prayer.  I don't think I've prayed for someone to be flatulent since Colton's crisis in the hospital   (the doctor had encouraged them to pray that Colton would 'pass gas'), but certainly our experience reinforced for me how powerful specific prayer can be, no matter how personal or intimate it is.

 

When it comes to talking with God, my motto is:  "Ask not, have not."   I don't  just ask God to bless my day.  I already feel like I live in a general state of blessedness all day every day.   Instead, I pray for specific parts of my day,  the work or activities planned, and for specifc people in that day.   Especially my children.

 

I've prayed for my kids since before they were born.  The Bible says God formed them in my womb and knew them before they were born, and as I prayed for them each day of my pregnancy I got to "know" them too.  I imagined their developing bodies and prayed for each part of them:  their skeletons, their digestive systems, their heart and lungs, their hands and fingers.  I asked God to protect them, keep them safe, and bring them safely into the world.

 

I'm still praying for them that way.  I don't pray for something once and drop it.  I'm persistent!  I'm the mom who just won't stop.  I like to think God recognizes my voice because it's one He hears all day every day.

 

And just as I prayed for my kids before they were born, I'm also praying for their marriages and their spouses long before they're married.  (As I write this, Colton is only seven!)

 

I pray for God's protection of their future marriage, and I pray that their spouses love Jesus.  I ask God to give Cassie a husband who respects and loves her and is a good leader in their home.  I pray that the women Colton and Colby marry are loving and supportive.

 

I don't pray that they'll be in full-time ministry, although of course that would please me; but what's really important to me is that they will live their lives for Jesus and serve others.  That's what I pray for.

 

And I don't just offer up specific prayers for my biological children.  Every day at 3:00 p.m. I also pray for "my kids,"  the children in whatever Sunday school and weeknight classes I'm teaching.   I set the alarm on my wristwatch, and every day when it goes off, I'm reminded to pray for those kids by name.  

(Sonja continues on in the Chapter talking about other specific  prayers she offers;  the book is called:  HEAVEN CHANGES EVERYTHING and is published by Thomas Nelson.)

 

 

PRAYER REFLECTION

(January winter's day at Ava)

 

 

PRAYER REFLECTION:

 

We do not always need another person's words when we pray.  But there can be times when a prayer by someone else expresses our concerns and desires better than we could do ourselves and becomes a source of inspiration and strength.   Or,  we may 'grow into' a prayer which has tremendously high ideals, such as the one by John Wesley:  'Lord God, I am no longer my own, but yours.'   Even though we have not ourselves arrived at such dizzy heights of self-giving, the very act of using a prayer like this helps us to come closer to its aspirations.

 

There can also be a sense of freedom in using a set prayer, because the words are given, and we simply let go into their flow and meaning.  This is especially helpful in times of stress or doubt.   The familiar words of a well-known prayer,  or the challenges of a modern one, bring us back to our roots in God and remind us that we belong to the great body of Christ's people.   A written prayer links us not only with its author, but also with all the other people who have used it, so that, in a sense, we are never alone when we pray.

 

We usually think of prayer as an offering that we make to God  -- and so it is.   But it is much more.   Prayer is God's gift to us, a banquet of good things to feed our inner life as we respond to the invitation to his feast of peace, forgiveness, challenge and love.

(by Angela Ashwin in  THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND PRAYERS, p. 11,  published by Zondervan)

 

TWO PRAYERS FOR TODAY

 

(anticipating Spring here at Ava - last year's daffodils)

PRAYERS FOR TODAY   --  to pray,  or to reflect upon

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light,  not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;  it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

(by    Marianne Williamson    in    A Return to Love,  published by HarperCollins,  1992). 

 

Empower me

to be a bold participant,

rather than a timid saint in waiting,

in the difficult ordinariness of now;

to exercise the authority of honesty;

rather than to defer to power,

or deceive to get it;

to influence someone for justice,

rather than impress anyone for gain;

and, by grace, to find treasures

of joy, of friendship, of peace

hidden in the fields of the daily you give me to plow.

(by  Ted Loder    in   Wresting the Light   published by   Lura Media   1991)

MAKE YOUR LIFE A PRAYER

(a sunflower to brighten up a winter day)

 

MAKING ALL OF LIFE A PRAYER:

Make of your life an offering!

Make of your life a prayer!

....be awake to the Life

that is loving you and

sing your prayer, laugh your prayer,

dance your prayer, run

and weep and sweat your prayer,

sleep your prayer, eat your prayer,

paint, sculpt, hammer and read your prayer,

sweep, dig, rake, drive and hoe your prayer,

garden and farm and build and clean your prayer,

wash, iron, vacuum, sew, embroider and pickle your prayer,

compute, touch, bend and fold but never delete

or mutilate your prayer.

Learn and play your prayer,

work and rest your prayer,

fast and feast your prayer,

argue, talk, whisper, listen and shout your prayer,

groan and moan and spit and sneeze your prayer,

swim and hunt and cook your prayer,

digest and become your prayer,

release and recover your prayer,

breathe your prayer,

be your prayer.

(by  Alla Renee Bozarth   on  p. xxiii  of LIFE PRAYERS, published by Harper One, edited by Roberts & Amidon)

 

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS ONE FINAL TIME

 

(our community Christmas tree)

 

As we come to the end of the Christmas season on Sunday, Jan. 13th,  your Franciscan brothers here in Ava wish you all the grace and blessings needed for the year ahead in 2013.   Remember to keep us in prayer and trust that we keep you in prayer.   Let us know what your needs for prayer are.

 

Jesus and Prayer

(picture taken on monastery grounds)

JESUS AND A NEED TO PRAY:

 

Luke 5: 16:    "The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray."

This commentary was written for the gospel for today where Jesus felt the need to find an away place for prayer;  it is written by Fr. Eugene LaPlante, AA, and appears in the January 2013 LIVING WITH CHRIST, a daily missalette.   Visit them at  www.livingwithchrist.us.

We read in the gospels that Jesus would often "withdraw to deserted places to pray."   The Son of God felt the need to spend  some time in conversation with his Father.   Humanly speaking, he could not do that in the midst of the great crowds that gathered around him.  His practice becomes a valuable lesson for us:  at times, we too need to escape our crowded noisy lives in order to speak quietly with him and God.

 

A question for ourselves:   If our wonderful Lord and Savior, this God-Man so important in our lives, needed times and places for prayer,  what does that say to us about the importance of finding times and ways and places for us to pray?