Endings, beginnings, ongoings: “Amen”, “Come with me”, “Let’s go Lord”
Part 2: Come with me
“Amen” is my word to God. However, a vitally important part of prayer is listening to God in order to hear any response he may give us. Prayer is definitely not sticking our shopping list on God’s fridge and expecting him to get on with it. In recent years, I feel that God’s most common response to me is, “Come with me”. The essence of this is a sense of relationship and shared endeavour in the spiritual life. It represents a complete moving on from the image of prayer as a “dumping of responsibility” onto God. I need to try and explain this carefully, as I often point out that the essence of the spiritual life is a relying on the gift of God’s grace rather than on earning our own righteousness. What I mean is, that my prayer, in which I express my dependence on God’s grace, and my devotion in response to his love, which prompts me to ask for God’s active presence and working in the world – most fundamentally for “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” – is far more than a handing over to God of my best wishes for the world. My prayer is a desire to join in with God’s graceful presence and to be a channel of his grace. Therefore, when I make my prayer, God is responding to me, saying “Come with me. In your prayer you have attuned yourself to my will and so have – by my grace – entered into communion with me, and so become a partner with me in living out my presence in the world. Having “touched base” with me, it is now required for you to come with me as the way of expressing the reality that you are with me”. So, any attempt to say “Amen” and “leave my prayer with God”, becomes a calling from him to me, to accompany him. This is the greatest delight for those who love God, for there is nothing more that we can possibly do in life than to be with him. However, being with God is always likely to lead very quickly into serving him, for, the moment we begin to rejoice in God’s love, he inevitably points out an opportunity to share that love with others, for loving service is the very essence of God’s presence.
So, the call to “Come with me” is a gift in itself, for God, who delights whenever we open our hearts to him, responds to that with an invitation to accompany him, so that our lives become a shared journey with him. “Keeping in step with the Spirit” would be another way of expressing this. In this way, prayer is always a new beginning for, while God most certainly accepts the prayer that we give to him, it is not in the sense of an ending of that process of prayer – a prayer which, perhaps, we thought would end, or at least “round off” that little (or sometimes, large) period of our lives. God never allows a full stop at the end of our “Amen”, but immediately adds his calling, “Come with me”. This gives to us an invigorating, life-refreshing infusion of impetus to our spiritual life. There is always dynamic movement, a constant flow of new life; there is never simply a stopping or a finishing.
Spiritual Devotion 