Marsha's Musings

Today I'm home most the day. I'm glad that there are no out of town trips planned for a while now. I need this time to work at home.

Today I get to do two Easy Shifts. Both of them are at Albertson Stores. I will earn $12 between the two of them. That is nice.

I have commissioned Sarah to help me declutter. She is to set anything aside that I might want to keep or need and the rest, if it looks like junk she is to dump it. I need to start a garage sale pile somewhere. (do I really want to mess with a garage sale? I hate doing garage sales! Will think on that.)

Today I read the following in my Bible:
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:3-14 ESV)

I've been to many prayer meetings and all of them consist of going around the room asking for prayer requests and when we get done we have a laundry list of items that include Aunt Susie's ingrown toenail to Uncle Joe's need of a job and in between a bit of gossip is thrown in about Bill's sinful lifestyle. Once the list is made then all pray around the room for the same things on the list or maybe the leader has assigned various people to pray for certain things so there is no repeating. It all seems very sterile and like we are directing God to do things for us as if He is a cosmic jeanie of some sort.

I wonder how our prayer meetings would change if instead of praying for all these physical maladies and how so and so is messing up their life with sin, we prayed instead for the prayer list in these verses? Let me write down what the prayer list would look like if we did that.

1. Thanksgiving for our brother's and sisters in Christ, for their faith
2. That they would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
3. That they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
4. That they would be bearing fruit in every good work
5. That they would be increasing in the knowledge of God
6. May they be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father

It's interesting that Paul never recorded any prayers for the types of things we pray for in most prayer meetings. Yes, the Lord's prayer does ask God to supply us with our daily bread and there is nothing wrong with asking for Him to supply our physical needs, but it seems like in most modern prayer meetings the balance has shifted to where we pray more for physical needs and wants than we do for spiritual conditions of those we prayer for or for ourselves. These are just my thoughts and musings this morning as I read my Bible.