Sunflower Seeds at the End of the Day Just Won’t Do for a Child of Prayer

I love sunflower seeds.  I learned to love them instantly and passionately as a young boy sitting in the dugout with summer friends waiting for my turn to bat.  At first, I could only crack them with my teeth then pry them apart with my fingers and enjoy.  By the time I was in high school I had graduated to stuffing half a bag in my mouth and, with professional precision, devouring the whole lot at a lightning pace.  It seems a rather futile practice though if sustenance is the goal.  I’m certain sunflower seeds don’t replenish the energy it takes to enjoy one.  But anyway….

In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning brings to light a myriad of life changing reflections on a Loving and Gracious Father.  It’s a great read, but my purpose today isn’t necessarily for you to pick up his book.  If anything, I want to echo some of his thoughts and encourage all of us as sons and daughters of God to set some things aside and refocus.

The Word we study has to be the Word we pray.  My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegetes, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the Living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and my heart His written Word.  Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace.  We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly.  When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never been.

In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us – that we be men and women of prayer, people who live close to God, for whom God is everything and for whom God is enough. That is the root of peace.

I read these words… and then just about as quickly as I fell in love with sunflower seeds I grabbed my guitar and penned the song we sang last week:

Lord   –   I want to be a child of prayer
Search Your Word, Your heart, and find peace there
Please kindle the flame   –   so the fire spreads
Lord   –   I want to be a child of prayer

And Lay my weary head in the bosom of Your Love
Til every word that flows from Your mouth is enough!

The last line refers to when Jesus throws Dueteronomy 8 in the devil’s face and says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

Ugh!  There is so much here!   And I hope as a family we can meditate on this before we come together and worship again on Sunday.  My heart yearns for an appetite that only craves Jesus… “personally and directly.”  And that for me He would be everything and He would be enough.  I want my life to communicate His peace with conviction because I’ve tasted and seen the fierce love of Jesus time and again.

At the end of a long day – and you know the days I’m talking about, the one’s where you were too busy to even stop and eat – we want steak, potatoes, the soup de’ jour, salad, breadsticks, the dessert tray and all the trimmings.  No one is going to mess with sunflower seeds to try and curb a crippling hunger.

When we sing this song… let’s say with our hearts, “Lord – the things we are told will satisfy can’t even replenish the energy it takes to enjoy them.  They are fleeting, and certainly no match for every word that flows from Your mouth.  That is what we crave… Jesus – everything and enough.”

I’ve attached the song so we can all be familiar with it… sing it out and live it out.  I love you guys – and I can’t wait to lay open our hearts and lavish praise on our King.

Tagged as: Prayer, Worship