Shade Tree Wisdom 2/10/15

          In Luther’s Small Catechism Dr. Luther offered both a morning and an evening prayer.  To begin the day, or to begin any task, he would start with prayer. A line from the morning prayer reads, ”. . .that Thou hast kept me this night from all Harm and danger. . .”   Then he asks for God’s help during the busy hours, and ends with “Let Thy Holy angel be with me that the wicked foe may have no power over me.”

          May I ask, “What is your prayer practice?”

“Oh. What peace we often forfeit,

Oh, what needless pain we bear”

LSB 770,1b

          You recognize those lines, of course.  They are part of that familiar hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus.”  And they point to a truth that often slips by, almost unnoticed.

          We are given a problem to solve and struggle to finish it in good time.  It turns out to be critical for that entire work, and we struggle, try this or that, but end up with nothing, “All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer”.

          Jesus urges us to pray.  James says we lack because we don’t ask.  So we must learn to be ‘prayers’; to seek the wisdom of our heavenly father, “nothing wavering”.

GPD 2/10/15