A 69th Year Christmas Prayer

 

 

I could have gone

Like so many others I know

But I am still topside

On this earth below.

 

Whether I will live to see the 70^th

I cannot say

 But what I can say is that I am His

Whether I go or stay.

 

On this my 69^th Christmas

I give God adoration and praise

And to my Shepherd-King

My voice in thanksgiving I raise!

 

Lord, you have been so good to me

In ways I find difficult to number:

Not only when I was awake

But during my time of slumber.

 

In situations seen and unseen

You have been my stay

Governing my mouth piece

Regarding what you’d have me say.

 

 

 

I give you thanks

 For family and for friends,

And for my Christian brethren

And their next of kin.

 

Thank you for all the people

You have brought into my life:

My biological and church family

And not least of all, my wife.

 

May they enjoy this Christmas

Fully aware of the gift of Love

That came to the whole world

From heaven above.

 

And give you thanks

Even as I am giving you thanks

Until we too make that inevitable crossing

From Jordan’s banks.

 

 

 

With adoration and praise

I lift my heart to you, Almighty God

For the 69^th Christmas of my earthly sojourn,

And with thanksgiving

I ask that you shape my life to your norm.

 

Amen!

 

Stewart Russell © December 25, 2022

 

And When You Pray, Say

 

 

 

Our Father:

Who has no illegitimate children,

That exists for real

And lives in the highest heavens.

 

Hallowed be Your name

Meaning to be praised and revered,

To be held in highest esteem

And with reverent fear.

 

Your kingdom come:

In the person of your Son,

Having lived on this earth

But existed before time had begun.

 

Your will be done:

Both in heaven and in the earth

And in every believer

That experienced the new birth.

 

Give us this day our daily bread:

As you provided manna in the wild

And teach us to be grateful

For all that you provide.

 

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive them that trespassed against us:

In recognition of your forgiveness

Which we have received in Jesus.

 

And lead us not into temptation:

For we are weakness, full of weakness,

But deliver us from the evil:

That comes in trials and tests.

 

For yours is the kingdom:

Always has been and always will be,

And the power and the glory:

The only Sovereign Majesty.

 

For ever and ever:

Meaning throughout eternity,

Amen:

It is so or so let it be.

 

Stewart Russell © July 2020

 

Trust

What is this thing called trust

A believer is told to adopt?

Is it really that important

Is the question I want to pop.

Little children are very hard ears

Adults would have us understand

But when it comes to trust

They beat adults on every hand.

They don’t worry about tomorrow

Like adults daily do,

They put their trust in these adults

Who worry like me and like you.

We pray and pray and pray again

About the same things o’er and o’er,

“Where is the trust?” I ask myself

When we feel we must pray some more.

“We put matters in God’s hands,” we say

And then take them out again

As though we do not trust Him all the way

To deal with whatever brings us pain.

A case in point is something we need

That we take to God in prayer,

We wrap it up in splendid words

Convinced that God will always hear.

We pray it in the morning when we wake

And at the end of day when we sleep,

All through the day we whisper it

And every chance we get we repeat.

Where is the trust in all of this?

Again where is the faith and trust?

If God be the God of miracles

Why do we continue to fuss?

Could it be He doesn’t hear?

Could it be we are too far away?

Could it be that He is not quite as near

As our detractors often say?

  

Could it be we’ve not been as good

As believers ought to be

Or, might it be God just wants to hear us

As some preach persuasively?

These are the myriads of questions

Which confront us when we pray,

Yet God merely requests of us

Our trust every step of the way.

“Except ye become as a little child,”

He repeatedly says to us,

Prayer no matter how long or oft repeated

Is of little value without trust.

Pray until something happens

Has become particularly puzzling to me

For if a child had done this to a parent

It would be reprimanded severely.

Yet we petition God over and over

On a matter that’s important to us

And then pretend to all the world

That ours is a demonstration of trust.

We must convince God we need it

Hence we must pray for it a lot,

What does trust really have to do with it?

Apparently not a single tittle or jot.

Trust is the confident expectation

That God will do what’s best by us,

His glory is foremost in the exchange

As often expressed by His Son, Jesus.

Our good is always on His heart

But it’s connected to a greater plan,

And this we often cannot see

Because of our selfish demand.

Our myopic view is as a result of self,

Self is the shortsightedness crave

But a view in the distant depends on trust

That orders the way we behave.

When the outcome is not what we prayed for

Trust will invigorate our walk

And thanksgiving to God our Saviour

Will continue to adorn our talk.

For God sees around each bend

And beyond the shadows of our thoughts

And if only we could see all that He sees

We would never be distraught.

For precisely what He does we would do

And what He allows we would allow

And trust for us would be the flavour

That affects the way we pray right now.

Our prayers would be loaded with thanksgiving

With adoration and with gratitude

And trust would be the principal ingredient

In our very prayerful attitude.

Stewart Russell © July 2017