Amen

• God, please grant me . . . , in Jesus name, Amen.
• God, please care for . . . , Amen.
• Jesus, heal . . . , Amen.
• Jesus, I'm so tired . . . , Amen.

I was taught as a child that this word means, "So be it".

A guest speaker was introduced a while back when I was 'interviewing' churches. Beth Guckenberger lives in Cincinnati and is Co-Executive Director of Back2Back Ministries.  She is also an author and was speaking about this very familiar word.

Her newest book is called Start with Amen.  Although I've thought of buying this book many times, I have not.  Feeling a bit guilty about this, I will be going back to Amazon one of these days, hopefully soon.



For now, I just want to mention that after listening to her that day in church, I have tried to use her suggestion - Start with Amen.

• Amen.  God, please grant me . . .
• Amen.  God, please care for . . . 
• Amen.  Jesus, heal . . .
• Amen.  Jesus, I'm so tired . . . 

The traditional method to close prayer almost suggests (based on my childhood definition) that our prayer be answered as a way to say, "OK, God.  This is what I want to happen - So be it!"

But, something happens when you change it up.  It seems like it's a way to praise His guidance and grace before we even begin to verbalize our petition.  It's becomes easier to recognize that first and foremost, our petitions should always be,  "Your will be done".  It acknowledges that our pleas are heard but the results will be His way.  We indicate upfront that we accept this and that changes the mood, in a way.

Of late, when I hear or pray the word, I have immediately thought, "Your will be done".  I don't know why this started, but it did and I'm happy about that.

Perhaps it was a shift because of this simple re-arrangement of words.

Farm-Charm

Just something that occurs to me:  Remember that prayer is not supposed to be a 'one and done' kind of thing. Understanding that we are OK with His will doesn't mean that we give up on our petitions. Phlippians 4:6, Daniel 9 and 10, Hebrews 10:36.

(A cool way to keep prayers in front of us can be found at Farm-Charm)