10th of December, 2006
Praying with the Psalms
Posted by greglarson in Psalms at 9:25 am | 
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Psalm 141:3 — Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips.
Eugene Peterson says this: ‘Spontaneity in prayer develops intimacy with God. But gossip and rumor (saying whatever comes into our minds without considering the consquences) are also products of spontaneity. We are encouraged to cultivate open, uncensored speech with God — it does not follow that our speech with other people should be without restraint.
‘From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.’ James 3:10
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14
19th of December, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Hey Greg,
I was thinking about this recently. It seems our culture really values “spontenaity”…and yet “responsibility”. I was thinking about it…imagining back to times I’ve heard respected folks speak of something akin to “spontenaity”…and my thoughts lead me to “a loss of control”/”MY not being IN control”…but now that I think about it…I think this is more of an issue of righteousness than of “spontenaity”. Problem is we think of righteousness (rules) as tightening the reigns on spontenaity (”really livin’)…when the truth of the matter is that doing things God’s way (the difficult road of righteousness) IS “not being in control”. We’ve got it all backwards…and it’s REALLY difficult to get it turned back around. I personally have been quite slow in my turn around. God post.
Jason
19th of December, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Jason — nice hearing from you. I liked your Bertrand Russell quote on your blog.
I like your thoughts. I would agree with you — we do have it all backwards. Doing things God’s way is arduous at times — but it really does give us freedom in the long run.
blessings to you my friend.