A Prayer from Sirach

I plan to start writing on Christian discipleship again next week. In the meantime, I want to share a few prayers that have been helpful to me these last few months as I have wrestled with my own journey of Christian discipleship. The prayer that I will share today comes from Sirach 2:1-11. I often read this prayer on Saturday evenings in preparation for the Sabbath. However, I have been been reading this prayer a lot the last few days. Despite the fact that Lord has done some remarkable things for Jill and me since we came to Raleigh, including settling us at a wonderful new church, things have been pretty hard for us recently. I have never doubted the fact that the Lord called us to Raleigh, but lately I find myself longing for Chicago. Anyway, this prayer from Sirach has been a great comfort to me, and I wanted to share it with others.

(A few words about Sirach are in order. The author of the book was a Jewish sage named "Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sirach", and he wrote the book at the end of the second century B.C. The book can be found in Catholic Bibles, but Protestants regard it as deutero-canonical. At any rate, Protestants as well as Catholics can benefit from studying this remarkable book; it is an outstanding example of wisdom literature.)

          My son, when you come to serve the LORD,
               prepare yourself for trials.
          Be sincere of heart and steadfast,
               undisturbed in times of adversity.
          Cling to him, forsake him not;
               thus will your future be great.
          Accept whatever befalls you,
              in crushing misfortune be patient;
          For in fire gold is tested,
              and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.
          Trust God and he will help you;
               make straight your ways and hope in him.
          You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy,
               turn not away lest you fall.
          You who fear the LORD, trust in him,
               and your reward will not be lost.
          You who fear the LORD, hope for good things,
               for lasting joy and mercy.
          Study the generations long past and understand;
               has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed?
          Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken?
               has anyone called upon him and be rebuffed?
          Compassionate and merciful is the LORD;
               he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble.

If you are like me, then you may be tempted to despair when reading some of these lines. For example, take the fifth line - "Cling to him, forsake him not." If you are like me, then you will realize that you cannot cling to God, but that you forsake Him often, and this may lead you to despair that God will forsake you in turn. However, that is the wrong way to read Sirach. For, just like the books of Scripture (i.e., the canonical books of the Bible), Sirach recognizes that we do not cling to God through our own strength, and that we must come to God for the ability to cling to him. Trust and faith are gifts of the Lord, not the results of our own efforts. If we come to God in prayer and ask Him for faith, then faith will be given to us; and, in at least many cases of adversity, the gift of faith is sufficient by itself to remove all our troubles.

So, if you are troubled, then trust in God. And, if you are beginning to feel your trust in God to waver, come to Him in prayer, and He will hold you up and rescue you. Ask for faith, and faith will be given to you. Remember that Jesus has sent us the Spirit, and that He has pledged to care for us always. Finally, remember that Christ Himself has suffered far greater than any of us, and that He undertook this suffering voluntarily for our sakes.