Oct. 25, 2010
 
DEVOTION: Humble Prayer
 
By Beth Bondurant
 
Look...Look...Look are words many of us WAY PAST 29 folks remember in our first school readers.
 
SEE me jump... SEE me play... SEE me pray!
 
A child focuses on what they see... hear... say... touch. Hopefully, we grow and mature ... able to focus beyond ourselves as we become more adult in our relationship to God and one another.
 
"Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income."
 
Yet it seems so easy to see sin in others and overlook our prejudice and exclusive attitude about goodness and mercy... kindness and love.
 
"God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
 
O God... you know my heart, mind, body and spirit. You know how hard it is for me to love myself with unconditional forgiveness. I harbor the pain of my inability to be like You. I cling to the barriers and burdens of the past so that your peace comes agonizingly slow. I don't want to see others in the light of your mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I expect instant gratification for things I want... for things I don't need. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I so long to live in love with my family... my friends... my neighbors ...those close and those far away... but I have no self control when it comes to doing the very things I want to do. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! O God... you know my heart, mind, body and spirit. You made me just as I am. Help me love myself as you love me so that I can love others like you do. Help me believe my humble prayer.