Advent Reflection – Monday 21 December 2009
December 22, 2009
Matthew 6: 9, 13
9 ‘Pray then in this way:
13 And do not bring us to the time of trial,*
but rescue us from the evil one.
William Willimon suggests that, “the Christian life is no safe harbor secure from storms and struggles.” Inside us all there is sometimes a voice of doubt and disbelief that seeks to drown out our prayers—even as we are praying them. The Lord’s Prayer is honest about this. In the face of trials, temptations and evil, Jesus says: the most important thing about praying is to keep at it. When we pray to “save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil,” we acknowledge that we have not the resources, on our own, to resist evil. We acknowledge that God is greater than any foe of God. Agnes Sanford, an Anglican laywoman, wrote about a Dr. Mulenberg, who confessed to her that much of his private praying was just blubbering, but still he was speaking words out of his deepest longings and fears. Agnes Sanford said that was the whole point.
How does you feel about praying “save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil”?
What are the trials and “evils” in our world right now that we need delivering from?
Come, O Christ, come.
Teach us to pray.
Give us courage to pour out before you all our fears and longings,
trusting you to do what we cannot,
ready and willing to work with you to do what we can.
Help us to be present to you O God, this Advent.
Amen.
