When we cannot reach you,
Are minds are paralyzed with our candy culture and cannot grasp your glory,
Therefore, grip us,
Grasp hold of us,

Don’t give up now my friend!
God isn’t giving up pursuing you!
How God uses you, you barely have a clue,
God wants to use you in your life and in your death,
Every ounce you give to God,
God will use to magnify Himself,
Every fiber that God grabs hold of,
He will see to it that His name is exalted,
And so I pray simply, God take hold of us!
Take and magnify!

I pray it with force,
I pray it with tears,
I pray it with a broken spirit,
And now, when I pray it again, I can no longer pray it with strength,
I now pray it in weakness,
It is where in your grace you would have me at this moment,

Oh the Jesus I love in the garden,
He prayed in weakness,
He prayed in exhaustion,
He persevered faithfully until he proclaimed, “It is finished!”

Our Suffering Servant broken for us,
Yom Kippur now in the flesh,
The Day of Atonement in the most vivid of all displays,
Not two animals, just one sinless spotless lamb,
Jesus, my propitiation for my sins,
You diverted the wrath due to me,
You appeased the wrath of God who’s anger burned against me,
Your sacrifice satisfies the bloodthirsty God who required payment,
You became my substitute,
Your blood is the blood smeared on the door,
The angel of death passes over my soul,
Jesus, my expiation for my sins,
Jesus, the scapegoat sent away into the wilderness,
You cleansed your bride,
You dress me now in white,

Isaac carried his timber,
But you had Abraham spare us son,
But your son carried his plank across his pulverized back,
And you Father did not spare your son,
Oh God how you have suffered for humanity!
Oh Holy Spirit how you continue to grieve!
Lord, teach us today…
Teach us today.

We also have the other side of the prayer,
This part of the prayer is more difficult,
Here we ask for our pain to increase,
Increase our pain for your hurting world,
Align our affections with your grieving heart,
Increase our pain, by showing us where we need to repent,
Grant us painful grace; make your people broken and humble,
Make us uncomfortable with continuing to think shallow thoughts about You,
May Your Word which is sharper than any two-edged sword be proclaimed here today,
Pierce our hearts, cut us to the core, and oh Masterful Surgeon, then heal.

Us
Our love for ourselves is deep.
We are faithful in being double-minded.
Our grace is invisible.

Our Struggles
We sing for You to give us clean hands, to give us pure hearts, and that we would not lift our souls to another.  However, we weekly struggle.  We daily struggle.  We struggle so badly.  This reminds us that our flesh is weak.  We learn by experience the agony this brings to our willing spirit.

Our Condition
So remember Holy Lord Your faithfulness to a wayward people.
Without Your daily manna we will starve to death.
We are depressed.
We are in despair.
We are in barren places.
We lose battles, because we lack humility and try to fight them ourselves.
You corner us with patience and teach us what it means to be poor in spirit.

Your Promises
Remember Your promises and remind them to us as well.
Let us hear Your voice reassure us that we our Your “children.”
Whisper this in our ear.
By Your loving-kindness let this sink in and heal.

But Us
But we fail to pick up the daily cross!
We can be tormented by this fact.
It is torturing, it is crushing… it is a broken record.
It can be so indicting.
It can be…

You who calm
Gently cut us short.

Break us off of our broken record.
Whisper the other half of the truth in our ear again.
“You are My child,” You remind us again.
“But this makes no sense!” We insist.
It doesn’t add up!
This cannot be!
We do not deserve to be called Your children.
But You calm us again and remind us that this is unexplainable mystery is part of Your story of redemption.
Most High whispers, “My child, I care about you.”

You
Remind us of You.
Remind us that You care about us regardless of our affections toward You.
Remind us what this is all about in the first place.
Remind us WHO this is all about in the first place.
It’s all about You.
This is Your story.

You With Us
Blessed You are Immanuel, “God with us.”
Dwell among the downcast.
Dwell among the burdened.
Dwell among those who can no longer lift their faces to heaven.
Dwell among the poor in spirit.

Be still and know the Lord, the God who came down from heaven to be with the human.

~Amen.

What sticks out in my mind is the affinity I had with the person.  What the person was experiencing is shockingly relatable.  It’s the painful “poor in spirit” from Matthew 5:3.  It’s the widening gap we experience as we continue on towards maturity.  It’s the gap between human sinfulness and God’s holiness.  The chasm grows as we grow in Christ.  We are made increasingly aware of our sinfulness as we learn more and more about God’s holiness.  It is actually a gracious act of God for us to be made actuely aware of this gap.  Awareness of our sin and this gap makes us more needy for God.  (And may I say as we learn this lesson many times over our need for God becomes more and more REAL.)  It is this growing realization of our neediness for God which will allow for further spiritual growth to take place.  May God give you grace and make you poor in spirit.  Be encouraged as you grow into realization of the self-made chasm of sin is also the same chasm that Jesus crossed to restore you.