Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Shauna: This is Shauna on *Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope*. Here is Joni, our friend who loves to sing. If you know this old hymn, sing along with her.

Joni Eareckson Tada: Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my Father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and oft escaped the tempter’s snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer.

I love those words. I treasure them. But sadly, I have romanticized them. I have poured so much nostalgia over those words that those lyrics do not reflect the facts in my life. An hour of prayer? Really, Joni? When do you actually pray for 60 minutes? Is it, in fact, a sweet hour of prayer when you do? Isn't it more like a battle to keep your focus and your concentration? We are talking about a whole hour of prayer.

The same thing hit me last Sunday during worship service when our church recited Psalm 40 together. I am sure you do the same at your church. You may read Scripture responsively where the pastor reads the bold print and you all read the light print. Churches do it all the time. There I was, sitting next to Ken and reading Psalm 40 out loud with everyone else. “I proclaim your saving acts. I do not seal my lips, O Lord. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart. I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help. I do not conceal your love from anyone.”

Even as I was repeating those verses, I had to stop and think. Do I daily speak of God's faithfulness and saving help? Do I always proclaim the saving acts of the Lord? There are plenty of times I have sealed my lips and plenty of times I have concealed God's love. Everybody else kept reading, but I had to stop. I was so convicted.

Isn't that often the point of Scripture? To reprove, convict, and correct us. Let's not just be hearers or reciters of the Word; let's be doers. God's Word is a mirror that reveals who we are, and we cannot just walk away and forget about it. Right there in church, I asked the Holy Spirit to keep me faithful and true. I asked Him to keep me from saying that I speak of God's faithfulness when I often do not.

Singing this hymn today, tonight when I lay my head on my pillow, I know what the Holy Spirit is going to be whispering. “Hey Joni, you got a free 60 minutes here?” I know the Holy Spirit, and I know that is what He is going to say. I better be ready to pray, to pray long, and to pray sweetly.

Today, when you pray or do your Bible reading, make sure you are doing what you are reciting from Scripture. Let's have our walk match our talk. In my case, may my walk match what I am singing. Tonight, I am going to give God a good 60 minutes of sweet hour of prayer—focused, concentrated, and sincere from the heart. I will be so bold as to ask if you would join me. Would you? Give God an hour of prayer and make it sweet.