Scripted Comfort on the Stage of Prayer

As soon as I woke up, the Spirit directed me into expressing appreciation to Father for the encouraging time of prayer last night. I needed it. And God used it to lead me into the certainties of the necessity and delight of prayer. 

As I continued going through Ephesians 1 to consider the things Paul was referring to when he introduced his first prayer with, “For this reason…”[1] I stopped on the expression, “making known to us the mystery of his will”.[2] 

A divine mystery is something that is absolutely hidden, impossible to guess, even impossible to consider its existence. It is held in the mind of the Triune in the God’s-thoughts-are-higher-than-our-thoughts kind of way,[3] and no one (not even Hercule or Holmes) would ever deduce whodunit. 

With that in mind, that we cannot possibly discover the divine mystery on our own, isn’t it hugely significant to see how willing God is to make known to us the mystery of his will? 

Yes, to allow our minds to meditate on this wonder is a gift of delight that comes from our Father’s heart, and I was able to enjoy the genuine feeling of wonder and worship, in companionship with my tears, to simply enjoy BEING delighted with the Father who made me to genuinely feel that he was delighting in me as his child. 

And then it happened. 

I have come to realize that, even though my writing is of such limited value to anyone around me, it is something very special between me and Father. It is almost like he doesn’t care one little bit what it does for anyone else, but he knows it is part of me, part of what he himself has designed into me (okay, those nasty tears want to be noticed), and there is a smile on his face when he lets me feel the need to attach to him with writing. Oh, how my Father LOVES WORDS!!! 

For many years, I have been developing a story about a newly adopted orphan learning to experience the privileges of his adoption. It has taken many of the lessons I have learned in my orphan-mindedness and put them into word-pictures that might one day help others on the same journey. 

This morning, Father gave me a picture to add to the scrapbook of my orphan story where Paul takes his little brother Timothy to a place on Father’s Estate Timothy did not yet know about. It was a theater. And, in this theater, Timothy would discover that prayer is acted out on a stage. And there are props that must be in place to feel the faith, and hope, and love that drives prayer. And Paul is going to walk Timothy through a scene of props (Ephesians 1:1-14) that would inspire Paul’s kind of prayer (Ephesians 1:15-23). 

What I am delighting in is partly the wonder of relationship with God where he made me to feel that him and I were good. Our relationship is good. He is able to meet with me. Just the two of us. Uniting his word with my love of words. Giving me the stage on which he will teach me to pray. A stage on which I will learn my lines, so to speak, to one day share a performance that will bless others. 

Anyway, my love of words is getting wordy, so I will leave it at that. I am so thankful that God is comforting me after a season of grief and sorrow that he wanted me to go through with him. It is not over. More like the ER room part might be over and now the physio will be its own painful journey of getting used to walking with a limp, so to speak. Or maybe there is more relational healing around one of the next corners. 

Whatever the case, I praise God this morning that he has blessed me with a lesson on prayer that has truly overwhelmed me with wonder and worship that is real. How I love the REALNESS God is bringing into my life. The finish line of my race creeps steadily closer, and God will take me into the realness of eternity where I will be in eternal awe of what it feels like to be fully attached to the Triune God and his children with NO… ATTACHMENT-PAIN… EVER!!!!!!! 

And it just occurs to me that Ephesians 1 is Paul’s performance on the stage of prayer. Recorded in words in the word. For me. And now Paul is teaching me how to imitate him in his imitation of Christ. So my prayers can attach to God now, and bless others in due season.

 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

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[1] Ephesians 1:15 (context is the whole prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23)

[2] Ephesians 1:9

[3] Isaiah 55:9