{"id":195,"date":"2012-07-02T09:03:53","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T09:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meditations.kafkasworld.com\/dir\/?p=195"},"modified":"2012-07-02T09:03:53","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T09:03:53","slug":"a-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/02\/a-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
A Prayer
\nby Shea Oakley
\n2010<\/p>\n

Nothing we have seen, nothing we have known, nothing we have suffered, nothing we have lost, nothing we have done and nothing we have been is greater than God. God\u2019s ultimate reality, His ultimate Being is still capable of possessing our eternal future, and we who have truly put our ongoing trust in the Lord Jesus Christ need not be afraid of our past.<\/p>\n

This truth is not just a good thing about the authentic Christian life. It is one of the best things.<\/p>\n

But, as the Christian mystic A.W. Tozer said, \u201cThere is more\u201d. There is always more with our heavenly Father and this is also a \u201cbest thing\u0094. Yes, this world, this life, no matter how abundant it may sometimes be or seem to be, is not enough, not nearly enough. The finite and the fallen, the passing and the ending, all which remains trapped in time, is not nearly enough. These are truly aspects of our existence here, but not there, on earth, but not in Heaven.<\/p>\n

Yet we exist in this world for now, so I offer a prayer for all God\u2019s children for our earthly past, present and future.<\/p>\n

Oh, Lord of both time and eternity, take our past, what we have been and grant that what was always of You in those times will be ours again. Take that which was blessed of Heaven, from our earliest childhood memories to just yesterday, and restore them to our consciousness, our consciousness in you. Grant us to know both the happiness of common grace and the joy of saving grace to the extent we can in the here and now.<\/p>\n

Beyond this, help us to come to know a sublime blending of all that has been good in our past, all that has truly come from your merciful and loving hand, to put a realization within us that is greater than the sum of its parts up until this point in our lives. Grant us to know the healing and integration of all that we experienced and thought was for evil, but that you have somehow transformed into our good, to the glory of your Name. In this way give us an abundant future on earth until the day you return or take us home.<\/p>\n

All of us who believe on you, Jesus, somewhere deep within want to accept the sublime plan you have for our lives in You. We long to accept the love, mercy and care You have for us so that we will progressively come to consistently know the joy, peace and love You perfectly embody, to know You, even in sweet mystery.<\/p>\n

So if it pleases You to answer this prayer may we who, once apart from You, were ignoble, a embodiment of disgrace and darkness, in short people of no good account in and of ourselves, begin to see ourselves as we now truly are in salvation and sanctification. We are princes and princesses in the making, beings of dignity and meaning, nobility and light, in and through You and You alone.<\/p>\n

In Your Name, amen\u2026.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Prayer by Shea Oakley 2010 Nothing we have seen, nothing we have known, nothing we have suffered, nothing we have lost, nothing we have done and nothing we have been is greater than God. God\u2019s ultimate reality, His ultimate Being is still capable of possessing our eternal future, and we who have truly put… <\/p>\n

Read more A Prayer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-christian","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6GkOA-39","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":918,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/09\/different-and-better\/","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":0},"title":"Different…and Better","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved God sometimes gives us what we pray for at a different time and in a different way than we asked. 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This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":846,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/why-forgetting-the-past-isnt-an-option\/","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":3},"title":"Why Forgetting the Past Isn\u2019t an Option","date":"June 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2016 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved There are some Christians who will tell you to forget the past and whatever negative events you experienced during that past. An attempt to therapeutically work through what happened is, they say, a waste of time better spent living in the present\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/03\/a-lesson-from-proverbs\/","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":4},"title":"A Lesson From Proverbs","date":"May 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2016 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u201cThere is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.\u201d Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) There are sometimes voices and impulses within us that speak with such seeming truth that we are unable to see them for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/22\/heaven-eternal-worship-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":195,"position":5},"title":"Heaven and the \u201cEternal Worship Service\u201d","date":"June 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Heaven and the \u201cEternal Worship Service\u201d Copyright 2011 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved If you have been a believer for very long you have probably heard some people in your church talk about the desirability of Heaven with a certain degree of hesitation, a degree of doubt. 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