Disturb Us, Lord!
I stumbled upon this prayer by Sir Francis Drake during the year of 1577, and it rocked my world! Though more than 4 centuries old, these words still ring truth and relevance today. May you and I be so disturbed that we are challenged to forsake ourselves for the sake of the Gospel.
In the words of Sir Francis Drake from 1577:
“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.”
August 5, 2008
J. Nathan Paige
Wow! Very thought provoking. I agree we have become comfortable and complacent with things within our reach. We need to be disturbed. I just got finished reading a book titled: Achieving your Divine Potention by Jim Lowe. It talks about how Divine potential is the untapped, God-given ability that is availabe to us through Christ in fulfilling His prupose here on eart. This potential is the power of Amighty God to alter the fundamental laws of the universe in order to accomplish His purposes through earthen Vessels.
This prayer runs alongside this because we have settled, and when we settle and have this untapped potential in us...we not only suffer, but our family suffers, our community suffers and our world suffers. So yes, Disturb us, Lord and not let us settle for mediocrity.
Just as God spoke to a nonexistent universe and it came into being, God has spoken words over you that have given you immense power - power to alter and control your environment, power to excel and not fail and power to do great exploits in the earth.
So welcome the Disturbance!
I said it! Bishop
August 5, 2008
Antwon Davis
Thanks for the comment.
I think mediocrity and mundaneness aren't attributes of God. He is quite the innovative, creative, and engaging type that's always on the cutting edge. And if we have settled and grown complacent, then we are behind.
It scares me that so many people today have settled for playing it safe and playing it short, and are letting life "live" them instead of them "living" life.
There just aren't enough dreamers, visionaries, and innovators today.
Where are the Martin Luther King Jr.'s, Socrates, Ghandi's, and great thinkers of today? It seems like too many people have settled for a life by "default". We think by mass quantity instead of distinct quality... we've become a Wal-Mart generation.
I pray that God would awaken the dreamers and the visionaries who will shape our tomorrow. Without them, this world is sure to crumble.
THINK | CHANGE
August 8, 2008
Daniel Gilland
Awesome!
September 23, 2008
Mari D. Hudson
that is a great prayer!