Tuesday Prayer: 19

Today sees the nineteenth in my now reasonably-long-running 'Tuesday Prayer' post, and today I want to share with you a quote from a book that I first read several years ago, but have recently re-read. Written by the prolific Vaughan Roberts, 'True Worship' is an excellent overview of some of the issues and questions people have in/with worship. I believe that prayer and worship are inextricably combined, and so I share today a fascinating quote about involving our whole selves in worship.;

“I love the old story of the little boy who was very moved by a sermon on giving. The minister had stressed that God is the great giver and that what we give is to be in grateful response to his gift of us of his own son. When the plate was passed round for the collection, the boy looked in his pockets to see what he could contribute. He found a dirty handkerchief, a conker on a piece of string and a rusty old penknife. 

He did not feel that any of those items were adequate gifts in the light of all that God had given him. He hesitated for a moment while he held the plate in his hands, then he put it on the floor and stepped into it. 

That is worship: the offering of our whole selves, our bodies, to God” 

This, for me, is a helpful quote. There is, perhaps, an echo of what I shared from C. S. Lewis in the 11th Tuesday Prayer post. I think that Vaughan raises a good challenge - how can we involve our whole selves in prayer? Do we recognise that prayer is, in part, the giving of ourselves to God in response to who He is and what He has done?

I find this a helpful illustration - but I'd love to know what you think. Do let me know in the comments.

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Don't forget to check out the previous posts in the series, featuring quotes from Tom Wright, John Wimber, Richard Foster and Don Carson, the great J. C. Ryle and theologians Alister McGrath and James K. A. Smith. Since then, I've shared quotes from Justin Welby, E.M. Bounds, Vineyard Pastor Ken Wilson, C. S. Lewis,  O'Hallesby, Paul Miller, John Piper, Matthew Henry, Charles Finney, Andrew Murray and most recently from Tim Chester.