Read: John 16:16-24

Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (v. 24)

The connection between prayer and “softness” may have been rather puzzling, but the link here, between prayer and joy, is made crystal clear. There is puzzlement, for sure, in the minds of Jesus’ friends, because up to this point the idea that he might leave them, if only (as it will turn out) for the three days between his death and his resurrection, has been totally mystifying. But knowing a crucified and risen Christ will open up for them a whole new way of praying.

Joe, whom you met yesterday, has been a “disciple” for some time, but the person and name of Jesus are not yet a reality to him. Sooner or later, in God’s good time, Jesus will confront him with the words that lead into today’s text: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name.” To spell it out, Jesus will be saying something like this: “Be sure of it, Joe, when you ask me to be your Savior from sin and the Lord of your life, you’ll find you are able to talk in a new way to ‘him up there,’ who has already helped you from time to time in the past, and he will begin to answer you as never before. Just tell him ‘Jesus said I could come,’ and you’ll be welcome at once. Ask, and you will receive; that missing element, joy, will begin to color your life in ways you never dreamed of.”

 

Here is the poem in its entirety:

Prayer (I)

BY GEORGE HERBERT

Prayer the Church’s banquet, Angels’ age,

God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days-world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood.

The land of spices; something understood.

Prayer:

Thank you, Father, that for Jesus’ sake you answer all your people’s prayers.

Author: Michael Wilcock

 

https://woh.org/