Some of us need to be DISTURBED! I know I do. Jesus did some of His greatest miracles as a result of being disturbed. Remember when Jesus was teaching in a house and some men were trying to take a paralytic man to Him? They couldn’t get into the house because of the crowd so they somehow managed to carry him up on the roof and dug a hole… and then lowered their friend before Jesus. Talk about a DISTURBANCE! Yet Jesus used that disturbance to not only heal the man, but teach about God’s forgiveness.
So I’m praying not necessarily for disturbances, but rather to be sensitive to the
disturbances God wants to put in my life.
Sir Francis Drake encompasses my prayer in his poem, “Disturb us, Lord.”
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternityAnd in our efforts to build a new earth,We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. (Sir Francis Drake c1540-1596)
My prayer for us all is that we may be SERIOUSLY DISTURBED!