God Weighs our Words, and so should we.

Friends. Am I alone? As a more or less introverted person, I am also sensitive to words. Like some of you also like to call me, I am a Christian linguist by trade. Analyzing and replaying words I received day to day happens subconsciously and randomly before the night's fall. Yes. We do discourse analysis every day. More for me, and I couldn't turn it off. This world is so loud at times.

As some of you knew, I had experienced a dark depression at one stage of life when I lived life at a surviving level after my dear grandfather's passing. At those times, my prayers sometimes unlike a perfect ACTS model but more of an urgent cry for gospel help! I did not know how to pray.

One characteristic feature of laments isn't because they sound sad compared with praising psalms, but because it often begins with an imperative phrase, such as, "Give ear to my prayer, O God" (Ps.55:1), "Hear my voice" (Ps.64:1), "Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me" (Ps.86:1), and at last, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer" (Ps.19:14). Will God hear so many sound waves produced day in and day out?  What makes my prayers distinctive?  Have you prayed as if you wish your prayers will be more distinguishable than others? I have.

I need a pure faith that my prayers are received, not because my prayers made better points than anyone else, but because God recognizes the voice of his children, even in the amid different voices (Asterius the homilist). God weighs our words. He also measures our cry. He requires us to sing spiritual songs and hymns, and psalms to him. We possess God's attention all the time!

However, we still need God's help to pray because we are, by nature, people-pleasers, and deceivers (Rom.1:29). Psalm 5:9 "For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction." Sometimes, it costs to bare our souls to others in public. But it costs nothing for us to make that prayer to our father, who finds refuge and life from Him. Through the abundance of His steadfast love, let us make this private prayer! And rejoice!  Our Lord Jesus Christ rose early and find a desolate place to pray (Mark 1:35).  Let every little prayer be weighted worthy just like his. For God, He looks at us, praying just like He sees Jesus Christ. That’s the only way he looks at us.

Music credit: Psalm 4 & Psalm 5 by Tim Ophus 

All right reserved. 

YaPing Li 

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(Chinese transcript)

祷告的份量

朋友们，只有我是这样吗？作为一个或多或少 内向的人，我对于话语是很敏感的。就像你们当中有人按照行业划分，把我归为 基督徒语言学家的行列。 分析和重播我每天接收的话，在夜幕降临的时候 经常自然和突然地就发生了。是的，无法否认的是，我们每天都在做话语分析，我就更是了。这个世界有很多的声音，无论你是属于哪一种类型，你总是在寻求一个声音。有一个声音是每个人都需要的，那就是福音的声音。

如你们所知，我也曾经经历过一段抑郁沉重的人生阶段。在有些时候，我发现我的祷告并不是工整而不流畅的。我的祷告，不像清教徒祷告公式一样，赞美，认罪，赞美，祈求。我最最先发出的是我需要福音的帮助。150首诗篇中，哀歌占据诗篇的绝大多数部分。哀歌的显著特点不是听起来很悲伤，而是结构上哀歌的顺序望望是从祈求开始，赞美结束。比如，诗篇55:1，“神啊，求你留心听我的祷告”，诗篇64:1， “神啊，我哀叹的时候，求你听我的声音”， 诗篇 86:1， “耶和华啊，求你侧耳应允我，因我是困苦贫乏的”，诗篇19:14最后一节， “耶和华我的磐石，我的救赎主，愿我口中的言语，心里的意念，在你的面前蒙悦纳”。

耶和华可以单单听进我的祷告吗？这个世界有这么多的声音。是什么使我的声音凸显出来呢？你又这样祷告过吗？似乎特意地将自己的祷告和其他人区别开？我曾经傻傻地这样做了。我需要单纯完全的信心，知道我的祷告会被接受。 不是我的祷告有很不同，而是因为天父可以认出祂的孩童的声音。即使在千千万万的声音当中，祂也能特别的分辨出我们的每一句话。在祂那里我们的话语，大有份量。祂衡量我们的祷告。我们永远都有祂全部的注意力。

我们需要单纯的信心，相信耶稣基督使我完全的被接纳，因为我们的祷告也如同祂的祷告一样！虽然我们天生是 取悦人的，也是扯谎的人。正如诗篇5:9所讲，“因为他们口中没有诚实，他们的心里蛮有邪恶。”所以我们需要帮助才可以祷告。 有时候在公开场合袒露心迹是需要代价的。但是 我们在天父面前，总是可以毫无顾忌地借着我们的救赎主 耶稣基督，坦然无惧地 来到神的施恩宝座前，也凭着天父的丰盛慈爱进入祷告的圣所。马可福音1:35节，“次日凌晨，天还没有亮，耶稣起身出去，来到荒野的地方，在那里祷告。”让我们知道我们小小的祷告，也如耶稣的祷告一样被悦纳。当天父祂看我们时，如同看耶稣基督一样；当祂听我们祷告时，如同听耶稣祷告一样！这也是祂对待我们的唯一的方式。我们的祷告对祂如此的有份量。

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