What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! ~ Joseph M Scriven
“Where do I begin?”
She closes her eyes and looks away…
I’d asked a simple question…
Or so I thought…
”How’s your family?” I had asked.
“Where do I begin?” she says again…
“Well, I’ll just begin,” she says and laughs…
“My dad called to wish me happy birthday the other day…
There was a lot of noise on his end…
“Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m at the hospital. I had a heart attack.”
“Twenty minutes later my husband and I walk into the hospital.”
“We get home about midnight…”
“My Husband’s cell phone starts ringing…”
“It’s his brother…”
“’I’ll talk to him tomorrow,’ my husband says…”
“An hour later…”
“Just as we fall asleep…”
“My Husband’s cell and the house phone both ring at the same time…”
“This time my husband answers.”
“Mom’s in the hospital.” his brother says…
“For the second time in 24 hours…”
“We walk into a hospital.”
“For the second time in 24 hours…”
“We see one of our parents surrounded by doctors and nurses.”
“They’ll both be OK…”
“But what a night we had.”
She sighs again.
“No offense…”
“But I really didn’t want to talk with you about it…”
“I really wanted to talk with God…”
“But I didn’t know where to begin with Him either…”
I didn’t know how to take it to God in prayer…
“I didn’t have the words….”
…we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26
“I wasn’t sure when to pray…”
Pray without ceasing… 1 Thessalonians 5:17
“Or if it was OK to pray to God about these things…”
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
“Maybe,” she says, “I should have just started talking to God…”
“Talking to Him like a friend…”
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!What a friend we have in Jesus — Joseph M. Scriven
