Shut-the-Door

Advent Praycation 2012

Beloved,

Taking the time or making the time for shut-the-door prayer can be a challenge in any season of your life. It can elude you in the minutia of the day or with exhaustion at the end of it. Daily distractions can disrupt the time set aside for engaging in your spiritual disciplines. Even the most determined among us can get sidetracked.

No matter how busy you are today, take the time for shut-the-door prayer. The recent tragic events at the Sandy Hook School gripped all of us in its horror. It’s hard to imagine being a parent receiving the news that your first grader was shot and killed at school. It is equally hard to imagine being the one who has to inform that parent of the news or be the first responder who had to walk into that carnage to search for the perpetrator.

Beloved, it is time for shut-the-door-prayer! Only God can get us through a season of senseless acts in a school, a mall or a movie theater! Shut-the-door prayer will strengthen your grip on your shield of faith so you can hold it high again. The enemy of our souls has not stopped shooting fiery darts but the Lord has equipped us with what can quench them.

Prayer will also help you find the courage to do what you can to protect children everywhere from Detroit to Darfur or Calcutta to Connecticut.

Repeat your Advent Affirmation throughout the day: My hands are stronger to do the work before me, my heart can bare any burdens ahead and my mind is being renewed to make decisions that honor God.

"Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door."
Matthew 6: 6

Merciful God, we have shut the door against the intrusions of the day. We who are weary from the challenges and changes of this uncertain season seek rest in your eternal changelessness. Thank God that You are the same yesterday, today and forever more.

Speak now a word that dispels the clouds of doubt and fear. Speak a word that will sustain us in the mundane or monumental moments ahead. Speak a word that will strengthen our hands for the work before us, our hearts for any burdens to bare and renew our minds to make decisions that honor you.

In this shut door prayer, whisper your instructions so that we may emerge to do your will. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Vashti Muphy McKenzie

VMM