Treasuring and Pondering

  • Tim Challies
  • 12/13/09
  • 3

You know that every now and again I like to post a prayer here. Sometimes it is a prayer from long ago, sometimes it is a prayer that is much more recent. This week I was looking at pastor Scotty Smith’s blog and came across a great prayer—one I could fully identify with and one I so badly needed to pray, too. Smith based it on this passage: “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:16-19).

Here is his prayer:

*****

Dear Lord Jesus, I’m very much convicted by and drawn to Mary’s response, early in her journey of nursing you and knowing you—the very God who created all things, sustains all things and makes all things new. She “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

“Hurrying off” like a shepherd to tell others about you has always been easier for me than sitting still… and letting you tell me about yourself.

It’s always been easier for me to talk than to listen, to stay busy than to relax, to be “productive” than to be meditative… I confess this as sin, Lord Jesus. This isn’t okay. It can be explained, but not justified. For knowing about you is not the same thing as knowing you. An informed mind is not the same thing as an enflamed heart.

To know you IS eternal life, and I DO want to know you, Lord Jesus, so much better than I already do. Lead me in the way of treasuring you in my heart and pondering who you are… and pondering everything you’ve already accomplished through your life, death and resurrection… and everything you’re presently doing as the King of kings and Lord of lords… and everything you’ll be about forever in the new heaven and new earth, as the Bridegroom of your beloved Bride. There’s so much to treasure and so much to ponder…

It’s not as though I’m a stranger to treasuring and pondering, for I treasure and ponder a whole lot of things, Lord Jesus—things, however, that lead to a bankrupt spirit and an impoverished heart.

May the gospel slow me, settle me and center me that I might be able to say with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps 73:25-26).” So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ name.

Comments (3)

1
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Phoebe • 12/13 @ 9:38pm
› visit my web site.

Thank you for sharing this, Mr. Challies. I really appreciate it.

2
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Graham • 12/13 @ 9:54pm

Hey but wait a minute. This may well be true for Scotty Smith, but to make this descriptive passage of Mary and the Shepherds normative for everyone is going WAY beyond reasonable exegesis. Can we say that the shepherds did not “ponder” this too, even as they told others? Did they “sin” by not pondering enough? We cannot make such a distinction. Application may well be personal, but publishing a prayer like this [as opposed to privately praying it which may be OK for an individual], to my mind, opens one up to the accusation of seeking approbation for publicly desiring to be more pious. This prayer is surely the stuff of the closet, to be prayed in secret as Jesus said in Matt 6.

3
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Sandra McFerran • 12/14 @ 1:18pm

Thank You for posting this. I did not see an accusation of sin that others (shepherds) were not pondering, but did see the busy way we (certainly ME) often go about telling/sharing things and not taking the time to just listen instead. A good reminder that this is a special time of year when we should be giving over that time to meditate, and take our minds off shopping and decorationg and cooking and - for some - the dreadful weather!

Perhaps some readers have missed the ” It’s always been easier for me to talk than to listen, to stay busy than to relax, to be “productive” than to be meditative” …message.