The Eden Wild Goose Pray Initiative
December 2022
A page to fuel prayer
1/ A Thought based on the Rhythm on Life Prayer book
2/ Response to The Thought
3/ A linked Bible passage
4/ Songs to inspire
5/ 'Just picture it', a linked photo to think about.
Eden Wild Goose Pray has free copies of the David Adam: Rhythm of Life prayer book for you to request if you live in our area.
Magnificat
He has visited and redeemed his people
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed;
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.
He has mercy on those that fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm
and has scattered the proud in their conceit,
Casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich empty away.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
to remember his promise of mercy,
The promise made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.
He has visited and redeemed his people
Theme: Magnificat
The Rhythm of Life book Page 58
Eden Wild Goose Pray has free copies for you to request if you live in our area
1/ A Thought based on the Rhythm on Life Prayer book
Peter Dixon
Advent is a time of renewal and new birth. A time to make a fresh start. But so often we get absorbed into the busyness of the season. There can be things in our lives that get in the way of the anticipation of the coming of the Lord - times when we feel dry and barren. Or, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come”.
There is a powerful image from one of CS Lewis’ poems about how the Lord takes and adapts our heart intentions rather than being limited by our words; I’m sure that we all get arid times in our walk with God. The poem, therefore, helpfully has its focus on continuing to seek God through those dry and arid times.
CS Lewis concluded that the prayers we pray during dry and arid times are of far greater worth in God’s sight than those that we so easily pray in times when all seems well with the world. Those spontaneous outpourings require virtually no effort, whereas to pray when it feels for all the world as though there is no benefit to be gained from doing so, takes a serious effort of our will to seek God.
If we are more aware of the Lord’s apparent absence than of His presence, and we may even be reeling that the next train departed half an hour ago, then this is the very time to remember that He may be doing far more than we realise at the time, and not to shrug our shoulders in defeat as the obstacles pile in.
It is even more important, during this busy Advent season for us to actively go to places that make it easy for us to seek Him. Many times, in the last few weeks I have been feeling a long way below par, but it has been helpful at these times to have deliberately chosen to go to a place (either a corner of the house or to one of my favourite trysting places) in order to seek Him. And very often, in consequence, things have started working out in ways that in all probability would not have come about even though there may have been little or no initial joy or pleasure when I set out to do this.
Lewis concludes his poem with the profound and delightful prayer entreaty that the Lord does not take all our prayers at their literal face value but rather that He ‘translates our limping metaphors’ into something that makes sense to Him, and which furthers His purposes.
I love that. The Lord can take our mixed and muddled thoughts and intentions and makes them into something fruitful.
It a bit like those GPO telephone operators in bygone days who used to connect people’s phone calls by manually plugging them into the right socket. Or taking an incoming call requesting a particular number, but then, realising that the person was asking for the wrong number, and then helpfully putting them through to the right person. I think if deep down we really do want to do what God wants, rather than insisting on our own way of seeing and doing things, the Lord can always find ways to answer our requests in the very best way.
During this Advent time may we look forward to something greater to come and Directory Enquiries locate God’s phone number for us: as Jeremiah bids us, “Call upon me and I will answer you, and tell you great and hidden things that you have not known”.
2/ Response to The Thought
Almighty God, who by the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
dispelled the darkness of the world
and gave light to all peoples,
protect us as the darkness descends,
and keep us ever in your light,
and continue to enlighten our lives by your great glory.
Through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen
3/ Linked Bible passages
Psalm 63:1
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Jeremiah 33v3
Call upon me
and I will answer you
and tell you great and hidden things
that you have not known”.
Luke 1v78-79
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Psalm 121v1,2
I lift my eyes to the hills;
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
4/ Songs to inspire
Hark the Herald angels sing
Closing prayer
Advent can for so many be an intensely busy, frantic time and season, so we ask Father, give us a dogged determination to keep seeking You in all times and places, and to persevere in prayer. Help us to celebrate your coming; that you would prepare our hearts for your Holy Spirit to come to us in new and fresh ways.