Listener: Usually when Holy Spirit awakens me, especially when it is in the Fourth Watch, I go immediately to the Mountain of His Presence and await His words. This morning, after a day filled with blessings yesterday, I felt led to offer this brief prayer: “Lord, thank You for meeting our every need…for Your provision both in the natural and in the spiritual…for coming to us in the storm to quiet the waves of death. despair, doubt and desolation which threaten to overwhelm us…for quieting our fears, telling us to have peace, to be still…for coming to us when we rejoice and making our joy even greater by enabling us to realize that the blessings for which we rejoice come from You!” At that point I paused, thinking that my prayer was completed…but then the words continued to flow. I do not know whether they are my words or the words of Holy Spirit. I do know that if they are my words they were inspired by Holy Spirit. So I continued, “Lord, when we receive information or an experience that will impact our lives forever, whether incredibly good or devastatingly bad, or whether neither good nor bad but simply change, thank You that we can rest in the sure and certain knowledge that You hold us by the hand and will never let go. Thank You that when we are weary, You will hold us in Your arms and rock us to sleep to dream sweet dreams of peace, dreams which you desire us to walk in when we awaken. Then I asked, “Has my prayer of thanksgiving gone on too long, expressed by more words than were necessary?” And I answered my own question, “No! This prayer of thanksgiving has barely scratched the surface of the depths of gratitude which we need to voice. I have not even mentioned the greatest blessings…The Cross; our sins forgiven; Our beloved Savior; the fact, not the hope but the fact that we are the Bride of Christ; the fact that even here on earth we are allowed to experience the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Presence of God , and to hear His Voice!” And then my prayer of thanksgiving became a prayer of petition: “For those of you who are sleepless and struggling now in the Fourth Watch, I pray that you may be quieted and comforted; remember that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. Amen.”Holy Spirit speaks: When you read this in Daily Bread, know that I gave the Listener the prayers, both thanksgiving and petition, to pray for you…and that when I give a prayer, I always give the answer. Now I give you sweet dreams of peace. Shalom.
