Tears came to my eyes when Dr. Duewel spoke of his mother who he described as a "prayer warrior." If anything, one of my callings as a mother is to pray. While sharing the story of his mother he began rummaging through a file folder that had papers upon papers (in no particular order) of hundreds of poems he has written over the years. When he found what he was looking for he began to read a poem he had written on the day of his mother's funeral. He was in India at the time, unable to return to the states for her funeral.
THE PRAYERS OF SAINTS LIVE ON
The prayers of saints live on and on;
They still live when the saints are gone.
They live and work throughout the earth
And o'er and o'er they prove their worth.
The years and centuries pass by
But prayers of saints shall never die.
Each prayer prayed in God's holy will
Our God is oath-bound to fulfill.
The Holy Spirit guides such prayer
And in its praying has His share.
When He makes our requests His own
We know God's answer will be shown.
Whene'er man in the Spirit pleads
Then Jesus Christ, too, intercedes.
The prayers Christ prays can never fail;
His intercession will prevail.
His holy prayer will never end
Till God's full answer He can send.
The prayers of saints live on and on
Until God's perfect answers dawn.
The Son and Spirit join their prayer
And in the intercession share.
The saints may join their Lord on high,
But prayers of saints can never die.
(Written on the occasion of my mother's homegoing;
Allahabad, India - March 2, 1962)
The prayers of saints live on and on;
They still live when the saints are gone.
They live and work throughout the earth
And o'er and o'er they prove their worth.
The years and centuries pass by
But prayers of saints shall never die.
Each prayer prayed in God's holy will
Our God is oath-bound to fulfill.
The Holy Spirit guides such prayer
And in its praying has His share.
When He makes our requests His own
We know God's answer will be shown.
Whene'er man in the Spirit pleads
Then Jesus Christ, too, intercedes.
The prayers Christ prays can never fail;
His intercession will prevail.
His holy prayer will never end
Till God's full answer He can send.
The prayers of saints live on and on
Until God's perfect answers dawn.
The Son and Spirit join their prayer
And in the intercession share.
The saints may join their Lord on high,
But prayers of saints can never die.
(Written on the occasion of my mother's homegoing;
Allahabad, India - March 2, 1962)
Persevere - persistence, tirelessness, staying power, purposefulness, patience, endurance - "Till God's full answer He can send." (italics mine) This line caught my attention. Often I don't know what God's full answer is and so I get impatient because God is not answering according to my ways or in my time (which is when it's easy to give up), thus missing out on God's full and perfect answer. His thoughts are not always our thoughts and his ways not always our ways. I must be patient to let God work out things in his time and in his ways.
3 comments:
That's soooo good. Thanks for sharing his life with us! I got stuck on that "full answer" phrase as I read the poem, too, and it's something to ponder. Been thinking about the tension between asking tirelessly and resting in His love - it's a hard place to find, but worth trying, I think.
Jen - I think we can rest in His Sovereign love while we continue to ask, knowing we can trust in his plans and purposes. Tirelessness does not mean exhausted, but to keep on trusting day by day. To trust is to not worry or be consumed by an issue, rather it is to simply say "I trust You with ________."
Maybe the tension comes with waiting and trusting :).
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