Praying the names of Jesus: Day 2
Look into:
Luke 5:8
Psalm 139:7-10
One of the greatest of all the promises in the Bible is this: I am with you. Jesus said it to his disciples (and to us) at the end of Matthew's Gospel: "Surely I am with you always, the very end of the age." If the Lord is with us, what do we have to fear? What do we lack? How can we lose? The same Lord who walked on water, healed the sick, and rose from the dead is saving us, watching over us, guiding our steps. Knowing this, why don't we dance in the streets and throw more parties? Why do we sometimes act as though God is not only NOT with us but that he is nowhere in the vicinity?
There may be many reasons why we feel God's absence in our lives. One of these is surely that our "spiritual sensors" often don't work very well. We are like malfunctioning radar that can't spot the supersonic jet flying straight overhead. But another common reason is that we are the ones who go AWOL not God.
Consider Peter. One day Jesus climbed into Peter's boat, telling him to row out into the lake and cast his nets out despite the fact that Peter had been up all night fishing with nothing to show for it. But this time when Peter threw out the nets, he caught so many fish that his boat began to sink. Instead of jumping with joy, Peter fell down and implored Jesus to leave him, saying, "Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!"
There's something right about Peter's response. Jesus it holy and sin is his implacable enemy. Still the Lord didn't leave Peter. Instead he stayed and trasnformed his life. And that's what Jesus wants to do with our lives. We make a mistake when we let our sin drag us down and away from the One who has promised to be with us. Instead of running to him, we let a cloud settle over us. Finding it hard to pray, we move farther away. In a thousand different ways, we say, "Depart from me, O Lord!"
At times like this we need to recall the word of Psalm 139:11-12:
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
If you are troubled by some persistent failing, by some entrenched sin, don't run away from Jesus. Instead express your sorrow and ask for his forgiveness - and then receive it. After that try praying this famous fourth-century prayer known as St. Patrick's Breastplate:
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me, shield in my strife;
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising, light of my life.
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.