Psalms - The Park Forum

August 7, 2018August 4, 2018

Prayer as Relationship :: Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Kim in Vancouver, BC
When I grow tired (or heaven forbid, bored) of praying, I realize it’s because I see prayer as my Christian “duty” or “obligation” (usually involving a checklist of requests). I pause; take a moment to switch gears, and remember that Jesus views prayer as relationship. Then somehow, there is a magical transformation: praying is now a delight.

Originally posted on July 9, 2018 with readings from Jeremiah 5 and Matthew 19.

Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” — Matthew 19.13-14

Reflection: Prayer as Relationship :: Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Many have faithfully lived out Christ’s command to let the little children come to him. But perhaps no one in history has lived it out affecting as many children as Fred Rogers.

In her book, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, Amy Hollingsworth gives an up-close look at the foundational Christian faith that made Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood a sacrament carried on secular airwaves.

The show had an intangible quality that captivated children and defied expectations. In the recently released documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, one of the show’s producers, Margy Whitmire, said, “If you take all of the elements that make good television, and do the exact opposite, you have Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

One possible reason for the show’s intangible and unlikely success is the simple spiritual discipline of its founder. According to Amy Hollingsworth:

Everything Fred Rogers did was a prelude to—or an outcome of—prayer….the essence of prayer is relationship, and Fred understood that.

One of the greatest things Mister Rogers may have modeled for children about God, is that he listens to and accepts their concerns, their emotions, and them as their true selves. Hollingsworth relates his answer to a child about not getting what she prayed for.

“Now, you know prayer is asking for something, and sometimes you get a yes answer and sometimes you get a no answer,” he carefully explained. “And just like anything else you might get angry when you get a no answer. But God respects your feelings, and God can take your anger as well as your happiness. So whatever you have to offer God through prayer—it seems to me—is a great gift. Because the thing God wants most of all is a relationship with you, yeah, even as a child—especially as a child. Look how Jesus loved the children who came around Him,” he told her.

Prayer was the purpose of the children coming to Jesus. Jesus didn’t merely greet the children. When the Bible says he “placed his hands on them” it isn’t referring to casual pat on the back, but a purposeful, prayerful blessing. That kind of welcoming and blessing is something we can receive from God, and give to others.

As we pray, about personal problems or about weighty national issues, we would do well to keep in mind the simple teaching of Mister Rogers, that also is the teaching of Jesus—prayer is about relationship.

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Let me hear of your loving-kindness in the morning, for I put my trust in you; show me the road that I must walk, for I lift up my soul to you. — Psalm 143.8

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 35 (Listen – 3:43)
Psalm 7-8 (Listen – 2:58)

Additional Reading
Read More about Prayer as Vocation :: Readers’ Choice
Prayer that connects vocation, God’s presence, and his mission is how we live all of life in this world to the glory of God and in love for our neighbor. — Steve

Read More about Prayer Beyond Petitions
It is more important that we know God through prayer than petition him. God answers Hezekiah’s unasked prayer through relationship.

Readers’ Choice
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August 6, 2018November 2, 2019

Prayer as Vocation :: Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Steve Froehlich from Ithaca, NY, and Eleanor, in NC
Steve: Luther said that spirituality is “life in this world oriented to God.” Work is our everyday worship, and the world is holy ground. Prayer that connects vocation, God’s presence, and his mission is how we live all of life in this world to the glory of God and in love for our neighbor.

Eleanor: I thought it was particularly relevant in that it highlighted the value of the work that each of us does everyday and the importance of ministry to children.

Originally published, July 10, 2018, based on readings from Matthew 20 & Jeremiah 6.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” — Matthew 20.25-26

Reflection: Prayer as Vocation :: Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

In his book, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis complains that he finds it ironically unhelpful to turn into a church for midday prayers.

“There always seems to be someone practicing the organ or noisily going about cleaning and mopping. “Of course, blessings on her,” Lewis says. “‘Work is prayer,’ and her enacted oratio is probably worth ten times my spoken one.”

We have not held tightly to the concept of work as prayer. We see work as occupation—something that takes time we would spend elsewhere. Christians have the unique opportunity to see work as vocation—choosing to give to others on behalf of Christ.

To some, it might be a surprise that one of the primary definitions of the word “vocation” is a divine calling. One does not have to be a staff member of a church or an employee of a Christian ministry (or even a volunteer, noisily cleaning up the sanctuary and disturbing an Oxford don’s prayers) to turn grudging occupation into prayerful vocation.

One prominent example of prayerful, secular work is Fred Rogers. Despite the lack of overt religious expression on his show, Mister Rogers was an ordained minister whose specific assignment was to serve children and families through mass media. And serve them he did.

Paying tribute to Rogers’ on NBC Nightly News, reporter Bob Faw said, “The real Mister Rogers never preached…he never had to.” Following his spiritual calling in no way interfered with Rogers becoming one of the most successful and respected television professionals of all time.

For every believer, the gospel is our vocation. We learn to express it through our occupations.

Rogers’ spiritual discipline and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit made his show a vehicle for the gospel without explicit language of faith. Many of our readers work in faith-negative environments where faith is unwelcome, but that doesn’t mean each action can’t communicate a gospel-filled love to others.

In our careers we have a choice between the drudgery of meaningless tasks and the honor of serving others around us in Christ’s name. If we need a picture of what that looks like, it may be helpful to us to turn on an episode of the neighborhood.

May we make our work our prayer.
By every action may we pray for our co-workers, for our customers, for our city, and for our world.

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Let the Name of the Lord be blessed, form this time forth for evermore.
From the rising of the sun to its going down let the Name of the Lord be praised. — Psalm 113.2-3

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 34 (Listen – 4:15)
Psalm 5-6 (Listen – 2:45)

Additional Reading
Read More about Prayer as Relationship
Everything Fred Rogers did was a prelude to—or an outcome of—prayer….the essence of prayer is relationship, and Fred understood that.

Read More about Praying Through the Stress of Work
In his journals Jonathan Edwards reveals the way his spiritual life is burdened by stresses of his vocation.

Readers’ Choice
We still have room for you to suggest your favorite posts of the year. Submit a Readers Choice post.
Tell us about a post and what it meant to you.

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August 3, 2018August 4, 2018

Forward-Looking Remembering :: Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Lauren Nichols from Fort Wayne, IN
I have often read of the folly of living in the past, or looking back mournfully as if we could turn back time. This post is an excellent reminder of the value of remembering God’s past faithfulness as a way to be encouraged to trust Him for the future.

Originally published, February 1, 2018 based on readings from Esther 9 and Romans 4.

Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, to have them celebrate annually… the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and… when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor. — Esther 9:20-22

Reflection: Forward-Looking Remembering :: Readers’ Choice
By Jon Polk

A visit to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. is a testament to the significant power of memory. In the heart of the United States’ capital are numerous monuments dedicated to the memory of great historical figures – Lincoln, Washington, King and others – and significant human sorrows – World War II, the Vietnam War, the Holocaust. Standing in front of the impressive white marble statue of the great American president Abraham Lincoln, one cannot help but be overwhelmed with a sense of history that goes far beyond the memory of personal life experiences.

Many of us have our own memorials in a prominent place in our home: the refrigerator door. There on that sleek magnetic surface, the faces of family and friends stare back at us from treasured moments that have come and gone. There, kindergarten artwork is treated like a rare, priceless Van Gogh. There we find notes and cards that remind us of the ones we love.

At the conclusion of the story of Esther, her uncle Mordecai instructs the Jews to annually celebrate by remembering the attempted genocide and their escape from it. This inaugurates the Jewish Festival of Purim, a memorial of the time when sorrow turned to joy and mourning to celebration.

Remembering is not “living in the past” or “longing for the good ole days,” instead it informs our hope for a future that God has for us. At Purim, the Jews were to look back to the story of Esther and their deliverance in order to look forward to find a hope for their future. This remembering caused them to not only feast and celebrate, but also to give gifts to the poor. Memory of God’s favor on us should compel us to share that same grace with others.

It is often noted that Esther is the one book in the Bible where God is not specifically mentioned. Reading the story with the benefit of hindsight reveals that God was indeed present and working behind the scenes.

We would be wise to regularly recall God’s intervention and provision in our own lives, giving thanks and praise for how God has delivered us and cared for us, especially in those times when we may have not been able to immediately recognize his presence.

What spiritual memories are we hanging on the refrigerator doors of our hearts that we look to regularly for hope and to say, “Thanks be to God”?

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Our days are like the grass; we flourish like a flower of the field. — Psalm 116.14-4

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 30-31 (Listen – 11:21)
Mark 16 (Listen – 2:34)

This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 32 (Listen – 7:32) Psalm 1-2 (Listen – 2:05)
Jeremiah 33 (Listen – 4:46)Psalm 3-4 (Listen – 1:56)

Additional Reading
Read More about Finishing Well
For a faith focused on the ideals of selflessness and sacrifice, it seems odd that biblical writers draw parallels with sports events focused on individual winners.

Read More about Going Where the Gospel Goes
“Who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” — Apostle Peter

Readers’ Choice
We still have room for you to suggest your favorite posts of the year. Submit a Readers Choice post.
Tell us about a post and what it meant to you.

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August 17, 2017August 10, 2025

A Singular Plea In Prayer :: Throwback Thursday

Scripture: Psalm 41.4
As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”

Reflection: A Singular Plea In Prayer :: Throwback Thursday
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Here is a prayer: “Lord, be gracious to me.” It may mean,—and I daresay it did mean, at least in part—“Mitigate my pains.” I have sometimes found that, where medicine has failed, and sleep has been chased away, and pain has become unbearable, it has been good to appeal to God directly, and to say, “O Lord, I am thy child; wilt thou allow thy child to be thus tortured with pain?

But that is not all that David meant, I am quite sure, for, next, he must have meant, “Forgive my sins.” You can see, by his prayer, that his sins were the heaviest affliction from which he was suffering: “Be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.” And, believe me, there is no pain in the world that at all approximates to a sense of sin.

David, when he said, “Lord, be gracious to me,” also meant, “Fulfill thy promises.”

I think that David also meant by this prayer, “Heal me of my tendency to sin.” He seemed to say, “Lord, I shall sin again if I am not healed. I have an evil tendency in me, and an old nature which is inclined to sin; if thou dost not heal me of this disease, there will be another eruption upon the skin of my life, and I shall sin again.” When a man sins outwardly, it is because he has sin inwardly. If there were no sin in us, no sin would come out of us; but there it lies, sometimes, concealed.

The second part is a confession: “I have sinned against you.”

It is a confession without an excuse. David does not say, “I have sinned against you, but I could not help it,” or, “I was sorely tempted,” or, “I was in trying circumstances.” No; as long as a man can make an excuse for his sin, he will be a lost man; but when he dare not and cannot frame an excuse, there is hope for him.

It is a confession without any qualification. He does not say, “Lord, I have sinned to a certain extent; but, still, I have partly balanced my sins by my virtues, and I hope to wipe out my faults with my tears.”

A man who only pretends to be a sinner, and does not realize his guilt in the sight of God, will not have a Savior. Christ died for nobody but real sinners, those who feel that their sin is truly sin.

*Abridged from “A Singular Plea In Prayer,” delivered by Charles Haddon Spurgeon in 1884.

The Greeting
I will give thanks for what you have done and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly. — Psalm 52.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 9 (Listen – 4:42)
Romans 7 (Listen – 4:09)

July 13, 2017February 18, 2019

The Edge of Emptiness :: Readers’ Choice

So often we go to prayer with our shopping list and forget that God isn’t Walmart but Creator and Sovereign Lord. Trust is hard, but so worth the sacrifice. — Sam

Readers’ Choice (Originally published January 18, 2017)
The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.

― Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Scripture: Genesis 18.32

Then [Abraham] said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” [The Lord] answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

Reflection: The Edge of Emptiness
The Park Forum

Abraham was a Father of the faith whose prayer for Sodom was overruled. Zechariah a priest who was ignored by God for the overwhelming majority of his career (only when he was an old man did God invite him into his presence). Even Jesus—the Son of God himself—did not receive what he earnestly begged for in prayer.

To be holy, it would seem, is something significant, but it is not to live a life of uninterrupted answers to prayer.

Typically at this point, when writing about prayer, you switch gears and redefine the nature of how we are to understand prayer. Kierkegaard once explained:

The earthly minded person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God is asking for.

But changing the definition of prayer may let us off the hook too easily. There is a deeper step that we are afraid to speak of.

“Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness,” observes rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Perhaps this is really why it is so difficult for the modern mind to find itself captivated in prayer—the cost of entry is our greatest fear.

Emptiness in a relationship only comes through trust. Emptiness forfeits its perceived future in order to discover a new reality in relationship. Emptiness never results in greater status, in admiration or accolade. But, while emptiness is the first step, it is not the end goal.

Abraham, Zechariah, and Christ were all filled with something greater than what they had before. Their unanswered prayers were not the end, but the beginning.

The Small Verse
My soul thirsts for the strong, living God and all that is within me cries out to him.

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Joshua 18-19 (Listen – 9:59)
Psalms 149-150 (Listen – 1:26)