Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: DEFENSE (06/02/22)
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TITLE: There is No Condemnation! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jennifer Percell
06/09/22 -
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Father, my prayers are so pitiful. I am often desperate for help, usually rushed and without focus, so seldom is my demeanor humble. If I even stop to think that I am daring to speak to the Powerful Creator of everything ever made, I don't know how to take that in. My prayers are commonly afterthoughts, duties on a check list or a rote exercise. I have used the choicest hours of my day in countless unimportant ways and saved the priceless moment of grace, given me in prayer for the few minutes before I fall asleep.
Next week I am teaching at camp, I have had the lessons for a few weeks now. The rich, hours of pouring over the verses and discovering jewels of wisdom I never found before, I have reduced to two frantic days of last-minute hasty review. The classes will be mediocre, or I will miss lots of great fellowship stuck in my cabin trying to come up with enough material to fill the class time each day.
Twelve thank-you notes to write, it was such a lovely birthday, two months ago. I have addressed all the envelopes, even started the writing but I get too tired, I want to watch a show, I need to finish my library book before it's due. It's probably too late, is it even polite to send them now? My lack of real gratitude is selfish.
Another Saturday night at ten o'clock I look for my Sunday school material, maybe I left it at church,
I can always go early and skim the lesson. I cannot afford the guilt I should feel, it just gets me too far down. So, I tell myself I don't need to study stories I have taught a million times, but I know I am giving the kids a poor representation of the greatest stories ever heard. Will they even notice the wonder if I can't recall the details without blundering through the teacher's book?
Sitting in the pew, my mind wandering, angry with myself for having the same immature struggles week after week, year after year, I work hard to focus.
“...when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched (woman) I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:21-25
Father, my holy and merciful God, in the name of Jesus Christ I can come to You, received in love. All my failings are forgiven, and I will not be condemned! Your wisdom is wonderful. Each week I come here to join Your people and we hear the wonderful words of life. Each week I am reminded that You know more about me than I do, and Your love is constant and eternal. My sins and how I excuse them cause You pain, but You are faithful. It is in my weakness that Your perfect love is revealed.
You fill me with hope as I try again to serve You and please You this week. You are my Defender, You stand in the gap for me and create a safe way for me. I come before You Father with guilt and shame, yet I find repentance in my heart again, and I know that my perfect defense is the precious blood of my Jesus.
Hear my prayer my Father and Powerful Creator, in the merciful name of Jesus Christ, Amen
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In the first sentence, how pitiful you feel your prayers are bookends well with the last sentence. I feel a genuine pleading for the Lord to hear you.
Your essay is real and well communicated.
Thank you for your work.