Well . . . Unless You are Prepared to See Results
When Gud Lloyd received the Drain Me of Me prayer and published it on his blog site recently, I thought it was a profound prayer, and prayed it and then reposted it on mine, along with some of my own thoughts on two instances in the past (that I know of) where the essence of this prayer has had meaning for me.
But, the prayer would not let me go. So, I prayed it again. Then on Sunday, I felt that the prayer could not just languish in a blog post that falls down the list over time on my own site, so I put it near the top of the side bar, where I intend to leave it for some time. Since I visit my own blog site from time to time, (just about the only person who does), it is there to remind me to pray it again and AGAIN and AGAIN. I have taken to praying it daily.
This morning, I met my prayer partner Wayne Zimmer, in front of the tabernacle at the chapel at St. George Parish as we do every week day we are in town, to pray the Divine Office. Our brother and prayer partner Deacon George Sebok was unable to make it today, but the Lord had things He wanted to communicate to us, and I guess they were more for Wayne and me.
I had copied the Drain Me of Me prayer to my iPod, and so after we chatted for a bit about something that had happened to us yesterday during prayer, and the after effects, I suggested that I read the prayer from my iPod for us to share. So, I read the prayer, and once again it moved me, and it moved Wayne as well.
With this prayer, we are giving God permission to drain off of us, all the parts that are not of Him. But, God knew that we would pray this prayer, and so since time and space means nothing to Him, He took our permission, and used it in advance (in our time, not His) to start a process in us that is and will remain ongoing.
When I was disabled in a car accident 7 years ago, that was God draining me (or using others to assist Him) of things that separated me from Him. Who knew!! When my wife and I separated for a time 9 years ago, that was God draining me (or using others to assist Him), so that I would come to see Him in her, and love her as Christ loves the Church. That sure drained a lot of raw sewage out of me.
There are of course many instances and processes whereby God has been draining me of the me that refuses to submit to His Love and Authority in my life, as there have been for my brother in Him, Wayne. But, it is a long journey.
So, now I have new eyes to see this prayer, and to see what it has done in my life in the past, and to watch for what it does in the future.
Our God is a most awesome God, who can never be truly fathomed, but His Mercy and His Love are forever, and we can see some of his handiwork if we but look with our eyes of faith.
Yesterday, we prayed for a friend who was suddenly in hospital, and very ill. Her husband, who is a very spirit filled man, had had someone over to the house recently, and the friend and her daughter were unable to be in the presence of this other person. They reacted strongly to something. I have seen this before, and even in my own Dear Wife, who has a strong sense of good and evil. There seemed to be a connection between this visit a few days back and the illness of our friend's wife yesterday morning. In prayer, we concluded, as we saw things in the spirit world during prayer, that there had been some transference to the wife from this visit. We prayed against it.
Our friend called us later on to say that his wife, who had been so sick hours earlier, was released from the hospital with nothing wrong with her, including no pain where serious pain had been earlier. It all could have been nothing, and we might have passed it off as that. Except!!
Yesterday, as Wayne and I shared with each other this morning, we were both bombarded with temptation in areas of our weakness, which should have led us both to conclude that something was up in the spirit world.
Wayne was pretty certain about what was going on, and did what he needed to do to withstand the temptation. I was not so self aware, and only resisted the temptation that came to me partially. But, this morning as we gathered for prayer, we saw how God was using what happened yesterday to Drain Us of Us, to make us a little bit more like Him. As Wayne commented, it was a small step towards Him and the foot of the Cross.
Lord, Drain Me of Me. Don't ever stop.
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