The habit of an open heart

Daily writing promptWhat daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?View all responses

I pray the Jesus Prayer through out the day and wholeheartedly adore the risen Jesus. The Jesus Prayer is a prayer that ancient Eastern Orthodox monks used to repeat throughout the day as a way to obey the biblical exhortation to “pray without ceasing.” It goes: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.” I first learned about it decades ago and it has greatly improved the quality of my life. Here’s why:

“My sin, not in part but the whole” nailed Christ to the Cross. All we human beings (like sheep) have gone astray from God, each one to his own way, and the iniquity of us each one of us has taken away the life of Jesus. In a contest to determine “the chief of sinners,” we are all equally tied with Paul of Tarsus as: “O wretched man that I am,” and “I know that within me, that is within my flesh, dwells no good thing.”

When Peter calls for repentance, He’s calling for us to accept the full responsibility for our individual sins and for their consequences. If our personal sins were the only sins in the world, they would have still required Jesus to go to the Cross. This is actually good news. When I deeply realize the grave depth of my sins, I begin to recognize the amazing depth of God’s great love for me. Then because I am aware that I have been forgiven incredibly much (as much as anyone else in the world), I overflow with much grateful love and astonishing awe and adoration for the risen Jesus.

If I’ve never fully accepted the responsibility for all of my sins (known and unknown) and their role in the execution of Jesus, and humbly repented, I’ve probably never experienced wholehearted adoration of the present and living Jesus Christ. However, true and deep repentance, that no longer self-justifies, but humbly cries out for mercy in total brokenness, receives and lives in never ending floods of God’s mercy which produce ongoing and unrestrained adoration for the risen Jesus. “O come let us adore Him!”

Nowadays Jesus
Is mostly ignored.
Very rarely is He
Wholeheartedly adored
As the present
Living Lord.

Christian proclamation
Without passionate
Wholehearted adoration
Of the risen Jesus,
Seldom rises beyond
An empty narration.

If you really want to grow
In a relationship with God,
You need more than a weekly
Sunday morning placebo.

Faithful church attendance
If you’re just an audience,
Misses out on the purpose
Of embracing God’s ambience.

Instead of watching the time
Waiting for church to be done
Open up to God’s Spirit
And let your soul be undone.

Open up to awe
And adoration
Of the living Jesus
And you will lose
Your frustration.

Frequently repent untangle your human nature from the gifts of God’s Spirit. Then they will flow through your life supernaturally.

The Jesus Prayer & The Philokalia

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