My Place in This World

We talked about liturgical prayer at my Monday bible study. I would not say that I pray in a liturgical manner but I do see the beauty and thought contained in many of the prayer books. The reason that I tend to not pray in that manner is that I feel that they are not my prayers in the sense that they are not my prayers to God but an echo of someone else's prayers. I am afraid that if I used a prayer book or something similar then I will become complacent in my praying. One thing that someone said that night has been sticking with me all this week. She said that our prayers are always insufficient but God's grace is enough to make up for that. No matter how I pray, it will never be perfect. I have been trying to be perfect in my word choice and method looking for the right answer in prayer. God's grace is what makes my prayer perfect, not me.

This can also apply to our everyday life. I always tend to think about difficulties as God punishing me for some sin or another (I assure you there are many to choose from) and I forget that He also wants to bless His children. I always assume that my will is wrong and bad instead of considering that maybe it is in line with God's. I will never get it all right. I am not perfect but perhaps if God's grace is sufficient to cover my poor prayers then just maybe it is also sufficient to cover my trespasses. Why do we so often try to make a travesty of the cross? Why can't we just accept what Jesus did?