“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart”. Col. 4:2
Dear Jesus, I used to recoil at commands like “devote yourselves to prayer.” I assumed success would be measured by time spent in ones “prayer closet,” and the thickness of callouses on one’s knees from getting low. But both of those can be done without either “an alert mind” or a “thankful heart.”
By your grace, I now realize a life of prayer is a life of grace-awareness and intentional gratitude—whether we’re doing our “devotions,” stuck in bad traffic, overwhelmed with work, happier than ever, anxious beyond measure, on a long walk, or short of patience.
So, here’s what I’m aware of, and grateful for, on this April Wednesday. (Friends, literally, make your list too.) I’ll always start with the Gospel—for it’s the easiest for me to forget and most necessary to remember. Jesus, thank you for living, dying, and rising for me. My “in-Christ-ness” is my primary, sweetest, and most liberating hope and comfort—in life and in death.
Thank you for my family. We’ve never been a “Norman Rockwell painting,” but you love each of us more than we realize, and you’re at work in ways we can’t see with the natural eye. Thank you for K-Drama’s and less drama in other parts of my life.
Thank you that the “new-birth rate” is surpassing the birth rate in Africa—more conversions than conceptions are happening, and WOW to that. Thank you the war in Ukraine will end, but your love won’t. Thank you for crunchy almond-butter and Topo Chico water. Thank you for the ministries of Serge and Show Hope. Thank you for remembering me when I forget/ignore you.
Thank you for more trout, Pompano, and Walleye to catch. Thank you for dear friends with whom to grow older and more Gospel-saturated. Thank you for fresh paint on our walls and new mercies for today. Jesus, keep me alert and thankful. So Very Amen.