The Jesus Prayer. This short, concise, and repetitive prayer first written as a journey of concentrated prayer is one of the most powerful and sometimes forgotten postures of our faith. This prayer came out of a 19th century Russian work entitled in English, "The Way of a Pilgrim." (Wikipedia must get credit for this research). HAHA!
Okay, so I am beginning to study and look around at different arenas of Christianity, their history, their differences and how we got here. What I am finding is that what we do as a church or as leaders of the church can sometimes take us in directions that lead us to JESUS or away from Him. It has gone on for centuries. Now, this work was written by an anonymous author who while traveling across the country studied the Philokalia and practiced the Jesus Prayer devoutly. The author struggles through his own faith, through his leadership and influence on others. It fables the life of Jesus and the struggle of Orthodox Christianity. Well then, most of us have come along way since these times. Probably not by our own accord, but through people who have written works and struggled spiritually and put to written form their own struggles and wrestlings with scripture and the church. And now today I struggle with the fact that I do not pray a Jesus Prayer enough!
As I grow as a leader and seek God and His word, all to often it is for nuggets to teach on. I feel that sometimes I scour scripture to learn more about teaching, to learn how to lead, to defend a way that I believe in. Are these wrong? Probably not. But I do think that I can and sometimes do forget the core for why any of it even matters.
It is the Jesus Prayer that matters. It is Jesus. It is only Jesus, and me on my knees crying out to Him, with a posture of desperation. I don't know how many times this week I have owned my sinner(ness) or how many times this week I have claimed Jesus as Lord or how many times I have remembered sincerely that He died for US! Not me, but US! All of us. I feel convicted that this should be my prayer to begin everyday. I prayer of confession and a prayer of thanksgiving as I remember why I even get to do what I do. As I remember that God gives amazing gifts and the greatest of all, Lord Jesus, the Son of the Living God.
Question: I know that for those of you in ministry, your job is PEOPLE! Have you taken a moment today to realize that you are PEOPLE?
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