we fix our eyes by faith
From Through the Dark Woods (Joanna Swinney), this beautiful passage was quoted from Lewis' The Silver Chair, making me think of 2 Cor. 5:7:
“In order to understand what followed, you must keep on remembering how little they could see. As they drew near the low hall, which separated them from the place where the lighted windows had appeared, they had no general view of it at all. It was a question of seeing the next few paces ahead, & even for that you had to screw up your eyes…”
And, also interestingly two books I read in the same week referred to the same passage. In Dark Woods,
> 'Meanwhile, “the spirit helps us in our weakness”, praying on our behalf in words we wouldn’t know how to find' ,
and in 'Partnership' from Prayer:
As God’s partners in God’s work on earth, we insist God’s will be done while at the same time committing ourselves to whatever that might require of us. “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” God has called out partners on earth to serve as heralds of a world on the way to healing and redemption.
We have different roles to play, we & God. As God made clear to Job, we humans lack the capacity to figure out providence and cosmic justice and answers to the “Why?” questions. It is our role, rather, to follow in Jesus’ steps by doing the work of the Kingdom both by our deeds and by our prayers…
Even when we do not know what we ought to pray for or how to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us. “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes.”
Christ’s Spirit is praying within us even when we lack both the wisdom and the words for prayer. Although we may not know God’s will on a given issue, the Spirit within us surely does. In other words, our most immature prayers have an inbuilt self-corrective. Though we feel ignorant in our prayers, the Spirit does not. Though we feel exhausted and confused, the Spirit does not. Though we feel lacking in faith, the Spirit does not. God is not so far off that we need to raise our voices to be heard. We need only groan - and attend to a presence already there.
“In order to understand what followed, you must keep on remembering how little they could see. As they drew near the low hall, which separated them from the place where the lighted windows had appeared, they had no general view of it at all. It was a question of seeing the next few paces ahead, & even for that you had to screw up your eyes…”
And, also interestingly two books I read in the same week referred to the same passage. In Dark Woods,
> 'Meanwhile, “the spirit helps us in our weakness”, praying on our behalf in words we wouldn’t know how to find' ,
and in 'Partnership' from Prayer:
As God’s partners in God’s work on earth, we insist God’s will be done while at the same time committing ourselves to whatever that might require of us. “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” God has called out partners on earth to serve as heralds of a world on the way to healing and redemption.
We have different roles to play, we & God. As God made clear to Job, we humans lack the capacity to figure out providence and cosmic justice and answers to the “Why?” questions. It is our role, rather, to follow in Jesus’ steps by doing the work of the Kingdom both by our deeds and by our prayers…
Even when we do not know what we ought to pray for or how to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us. “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes.”
Christ’s Spirit is praying within us even when we lack both the wisdom and the words for prayer. Although we may not know God’s will on a given issue, the Spirit within us surely does. In other words, our most immature prayers have an inbuilt self-corrective. Though we feel ignorant in our prayers, the Spirit does not. Though we feel exhausted and confused, the Spirit does not. Though we feel lacking in faith, the Spirit does not. God is not so far off that we need to raise our voices to be heard. We need only groan - and attend to a presence already there.